Customer Reviews

Samsung LN46A550 46-inch 1080p LCD HDTV
Samsung LN46A550 46-inch 1080p LCD HDTV–The Color is amazing, it does need a little adjusting per the viewer. The audio seems to be fine for me, however when I throw in a DVD or watch a premium channel the picture is amazing, but for the audio I turn on and up my Sony 5.1 surround sound amp and it is just like I have my own personal theater in home. For those that are unhappy with the audio, get a surround sound system, that will improve the audio greatly. The Picture is best watching in Tru-HD broadcast. I do stretch the picture when those channels come in 4:3, to prevent Burn in, they say LCD’s are not likely to have that happen, but I have read for the first few hundred hours to do this can’t hurt. LCD screens do take a little getting use to, my old HD-TV was awesome too, Thanks to Comcast lack of listening to me, when I called to say my cable kept freezing up, it created Burn in on my Panasonic HD TV, it damaged the tube, they did correct by buying me this Samsung, I miss my old TV. Overall, The Samsung has a ok audio,recommend using 5.1 surround sound with Samsung TV, the picture is Great once you get use to looking at it, the screen has anti glare which is great and is viewable from sides too. I must give this TV a 5 Star rating and is recommended for the money.

Great on all counts but sound.
This is a generally great TV. Like many others, I researched untill I was convinced more research would do no more good, then I committed. I was convinced of two things from reading customer and professional reviews; 1) the picture was great and 2) the sound was lacking.

Boy were those two things right on the money. First, the bad news. The sound really is bad. Remember those tinny speakers that came with your 8-bit sound card in 1992? That is what these reminded me of. Someone else in these reviews said they were like speaking into a coffee can. I thought the reviewers were just overly sensitive. However, they were about as accurate as they could be. In fact, these were my only dissappointment and I still had to decide if I could actually spend the next few years listing to these horrible speakers (sometimes I like to just plop down and turn on the TV, not crank on the surround sound).

Finally, I decided to play with the built-in equalizer. I turned down all bands as far as I could, then individually turned up one at a time. I found that by only turning up the longer wavelength (lowest bass) all the way and leaving the others completely down, I could find peace. This requires you to push the volume control a bit further up but viola - bass is now mixed in with the tinny sound. I wouldn’t call it great sound (my 13 year olde 27″ CRT still kicks this TV’s speaker’s hiney), but it is sound I can live with when I’m lazy. Try this and don’t give up on the sound automatically.

Now the good news. The other reviews that raved about the great picture were right. I used the factory setting for movies and watched ‘Cars’ (Pixar) with my 7-year-old son. We cranked the surround and sat in front of the TV. We don’t have a Blu-Ray, but did buy a cheap upconverter until we do ( RCA at Wal-Mart). After the movie came into force, I actually got chills and said, “Awesome.” Now… I’m a 39 year old professional and haven’t said ‘Awesome’ (and meant it) in about 20 years. My son replied, “Yeah… awesome.” Nuff said bout that.

The TV handles standard def signals from cable just fine. It’s a big Tv and SD is really about 240 (480 if you’re lucky), so don’t expect HD levels of clarity. SD digital channels looked better than analog, though. Making aspect ratio adjustments is very easy on the remote and there are customs settings if you choose. The remote is very well organized. In one day, I learned to feel where all the controls are - you know ‘middle row on the bottom and three buttons up = aspect”. I think we all do this and the remote makes it easy. However, there is a backlight on the remote if you need it.

The entire system has many setting that are easy to use and understand. The effects happen on the picture while you are in the menu, so you can see what you are doing to the picture and easily undo - very helpful. The contrast settings are difficult because they react differently to different channels, but there are decent automatic options. Nevertheless, don’t expect your setting to be equally great on every channel. I find that DTV and analog seem to react differently.

One small gripe. I have a great old SVHS that I keep because we have some cassettes my kids like. It would have been nice to have one SVHS input on the back, not just on the side - just for aesthetics.

In summary; great picture, easy and functional controls, VERY weak sound (no joke). WIth my old 5.1 and big-xxx floor speakers (and the tweaks to the sound equalizer) sound is not really a problem.

I fully recommend this TV, but suggest you try out the sound at the store to understand for yourself - it may be a deal killer for you - I can live with it. I removed one star only because I feel that Samsung could have done something (anything) to improve the speakers. I’ver heard dollar computer speakers that sound better and this is a 00 TV.

Finally found the right TV
Alright, I’ve been looking for a TV for a long time, but have been plagued with TVs that have weaknesses that I just can’t live without. I consider myself a “Guru” of sorts when it comes to TV’s and electronics I spend a lot of time researching and studying this stuff. And I will say that the one real weakness this TV does have I can live with seeing how it is not tied to the quality of the picture. Here is what I like & dislike about the TV:

Pros:

+ Great viewing angle (I was very concerned about this, I sit below the TV and off angle)
+ Very even back lighting, no signs of banding or clouding
+ Lot’s of inputs
+ Price, Price, Price (I don’t believe you will beat the price to Picture anywhere else. Yes there are better TV’s than this just not at this price range.
+ Nice deep blacks with good shadow detail in dark scenes.
+ Very little light reflection from matte screen.
+ No pops, crackles, lines or unusual actions by the TV

Cons:

- Honestly horrible speakers, don’t buy this TV if you want it to provide good sound too. You can tweak it so it sounds O.K. but really I would just by some separate speakers

I would recommend this TV to anyone, hands down with out any reservations, if you buy this TV you will not be sorry.

AMAZING TV!
This T.V. has unsurpassed quality compared to any other T.V. I have seen with the same specs. The 1080p on this T.V. looks so amazing, you won’t ever want to leave the room! I’m not trying to sound like a salesman, but it really is great. I play my Xbox 360 on it with the VGA cables, have a HD DVR cable box, and soon to get a blu-ray player. The 360 and cable HD channels look amazing on it. Normal channels aren’t the greatest if you are sitting right next to it, but from 5 feet back or so, it’s really not that bad. But you have to figure the big difference between normal T.V. output and HD channels, so you can expect it to be a bit boxy from up close. I would recommend this T.V. to anyone who wants a big screen because it out performs any of the T.V.’s I have seen that have around the same specs, and some that even have better specs!

Returned due to motion blur
This is a great looking TV with a very good picture in most situations, but I experienced a higher than expected amount of motion blur, especially when watching sports. I may have had a defective set because I have not read about others having similar issues. Regardless, I am returning this set (for a Panasonic Plasma) because the blur problem is too big for a purchase of this size.

I compared the picture many times to my 34 inch Toshiba tube based HDTV, and the motion blur was definitely an issue on the Samsung. I also noticed some picture noise on some solid dark images, but it could have been because I was sitting closer to the TV than normal.