Stunning TV and good sound

About me: First HDTV but I am an Electrical/Software Engineer so I have a high level of technical ability with a low expectations. I have been micro analysing which TV to buy for far to long. I attended CES in 2009 and 2010 and have seen all of the new TV that are coming out (probably why I kept waiting so long). This is the perception from which this review was written.



I received this TV yesterday and watched it for most of the evening. Very good picture! I was considering the LG55lh40 but after viewing the Samsung LN55B650 side by side with the LG at Best Buy my wife and I realized there was little competition. We had the tech at best buy let us mess with the settings for around half an hour (starting with the auto-calibration from LG) but just couldn't get it to look right compared with the Samsung. I was rather upset as I have read numerous great reviews about the LG and it was a considerably cheaper price. Logging into Amazon I noticed the LN55C650 was on sale for $1620 (even cheaper than last years B series) but had no reviews so I was a little nervous to order it. Hindsight is 20/20 and I definitely made the right choice. The picture is very clear and has that crisp look that Samsung is famous for.



My surround sound system will not be delivered until today so I was stuck using the built in speakers last night. I was very impressed with the sound this thing could pump out. I varied the sound between 25 and 50 (out of 100) and it was more than loud enough and filled the room nicely. This is by no means comparable to a nice sound system but compared to any other TV I have heard it is definitely up there in sound capabilities.



Looks wise I think this is much better looking than last years B650. I didn't care for the red touch of color that surrounded the whole TV. This model only seems to have the red at the bottom center and it adds a really nice accent without being overpowering like I felt last years were. This is just a personal opinion.





Cons:

The 120HZ feature which was heavily complained about in the LN55B650 still has problems. The first thing I did when I got the TV was watch The Dark Knight BD (1080P) on my PS3 using a V1.3 Cat2 HDMI cable. I thought something was wrong with the TV as it was doing very strange things with background motion but after turning the 120HZ feature off the picture cleaned up perfectly and I no longer notice any problems while watching it. I tried all of the different 120HZ modes and they all had the same problem. That said I turned it back on while watching HDTV (720p obviously) and it seems very clean with the 120HZ.



It is 2010 and they still can't put a wireless radio built into the television? I find this to be ridiculous that you have to purchase a separate module in order to get wireless. My router is very far away from my TV and it will be expensive to have network cables added.



I will update this if I notice any other issues.More detail ...

AWESOME projector!!! I'M VERY PLEASED!!

This technically is my third projector so I am experienced in projectors. My InFocus Screenplay 4805 had reached 3000 hours and the lamp burned out. I was ready to upgrade. At first I bought the Sanyo PLV-1080HD as an open box buy. When I got it home to my dismay there was over 700 hours on it! BUMMER!! Since I had 30 days to return it the salesman told me new projectors were on the way and to hold tight. (I would never buy a demo projector again!)



Well two weeks later I saw the Epson in the store. Since I had the Sanyo for 2 weeks I had something to compare it to. The blacks are twice as good. It is super bright. The colors POP like an LCD TV. Basically it turned my white screen at home into the world largest flat panel. They had a gray screen at the store and the whites were still plenty bright. The screen at the store had glass particles that showed up and were distracting during the movie so I won't be purchasing a glass particled screen.



Both projectors were much better at my home. The demo room has too much light near the screen. At home I was a little alarmed by the Epson 8100's oversaturated color right out of the box. The Sanyo was pretty good right out of the box but the Epson demands adjustment. On HDTV (Cox) most of the people were overly reddish. One of the preset modes for HDTV removed too much color.



I found a review of the projector that included calibration configurations and that made a WORLD of difference. That's when it started to shine even on ECO mode! (I think it could beat Sanyo PLV-1080HD's brightest mode on ECO mode!) I am so excited to have purchased this brand new. I find it a definite upgrade to be able to go 4000 hours on a bulb and only pay $300 for a replacement versus Sanyo's approximate 2000 hours and $400 for a replacement.



Blu-rays were awesome on the Epson 8100. Razor sharp. Even up close to the screen you can hardly see the porch screen. The contrasts and shadow details were notable.



There are plenty of parameters to adjust this projector. With the warranty lamp life and awesome picture. I will definitely be pleased for a long time.



Some reviews went back and forth about organic versus inorganic panels and guess about what kind of panels this projector is made of. The two year warranty give me peace of mind that if the panels go bad I will get it fixed.



I have used a projector since 2005 and I have used it for TV movies and some computer use. I do cut it off if I'm not watching but I have fallen asleep a few times. It's on most of Saturday and Sunday. Still in 4 years I only used the In Focus for 3000 hours.



I had considered having a LCD TV in addition so I could save the bulb but I can buy a lot of bulbs for that cost and even a 52" TV seems tiny after being accustomed to a 92" screen. I was watching Larry King and the wall behind him was true black. The color was awesome. CNN shines! Sports look GREAT. (Sports were dim on the Sanyo PLV-1080HD.)



My projector is at least 20 feet away and giving off plenty of light even with my lights on. According to one of the reviews the light is considerably cut when you have it too far away. I have it at the longest distance where you can have it 100" and using ECO lamp with the light off and it's plenty bright.



I have it on a shelf in the back of the room so I can still enjoy my ceiling fan in the summer. The exhaust vent on the front is a life saver on this unit. The Sanyo was blowing hot air and some bright light out the side of their projector. The Sanyo did have a door to hide the lens but Epson has a lens cover. Since I can easily reach the lens I'll just put the cover on when I'm finished. I may even purchase a full projector cover for when it's not in use to cut down on dust.



There were overwhelming positive reviews for the Sanyo but this Epson will blow it away. Even the exterior design in a little more sexy in pearl white and a little bit more stream lined and less boxy.



Finally don't pay full price as it's a buyer's market. I got an awesome price at a major retailer and for 0% financing so get yours today! Get this projector!More detail ...

Startling clarity detail and color

Had my Samsung UN55B8000 TV a couple of weeks now. It has more than lived up to the hype. Hooked it up and put on a blu-ray disk. Even the delivery guy's jaw dropped and he's delivered/set up hundreds of TVs.



TV is only inch and half thick and only weighs 60 pounds or so.



In fact it is sometimes almost too good. When viewing people on HD you can see every little mole scar wrinkle stray hair makeup five o'clock shadow makeup line etc. I'm sitting here watching the news and I can clearly see tiny pieces of lint on the guy's black suit. I'm guessing the talking heads of tomorrow are all going to have to have much better complexions.



If you like to tweak your TV this one provides a lot of different controls. There are already some websites that will give you what they consider good tweaks to maximize the pic. You can also look for the B7000 tweaks. Looks pretty darn fantastic right out of the box so if you aren't a techie don't worry about it.



Sounds..not particularly good or bad but I don't want TV speakers taking up space anyway. If you are going to spend this kind of money for a TV you should be using your stereo system.



Some reviewers were complaining about the number of inputs. Again how many is enough. I run my PS3 XBOX360 IPOD and the Dish box through my Denon and so I only use one HDMI.



You can plug it into the internet. No set-up just plug it in. First thing it did was download 12 updates to itself. Have no idea what they did but ...didn't cause any problems. It automatically loads up some of Yahoo's widgets. Fun to try but...not something I have really gone back and used much. Also has some built in content...recipes artwork etc. that I haven't bothered to look at.



You can plug in USB drives and view content directly off the drive.



I long ago got rid of my roof antenna. I bought a little Turk indoor antenna and plugged that in so I can pop over into over-the-air signals and watch TV. It will automatically search and find the on-air channels. It even downloads some kind of TV guide from the internet for the channels it finds.



I also wanted to see if there was any signal degradation from Dish. I haven't noticed the HD degradation with Dish that I had with Comcast. The way Comcast packed the HD signals you could see a real difference between OTA and the packed pics.



Samsung also provides software which allows you to use your PC as a server. Then you can display your pics music etc on the TV. Took a little playing around but was easy compared to some of the others I've tried to use.



I've played games with both my PS3 and the XBOX360. No problems. No pixelating. Did not bother to change TV over to game mode. I haven't fooled around with the 240Hz function. I just leave it on standard.



I'm sure there are other features I haven't tried. With the ability to update itself over the internet I have no doubt they will teach it even more amazing tricks.



I've set up my Harmony 880 Pro to control all my devices including the IPOD. IPOD menu/info will display (through my Denon) on the TV.



All of the above features are great but the main thing is... the picture is just absolutely mind-blowing wonderful.



So fantastic TV. I am VERY happy with it. Obviously I highly recommend it.



((Now I'm watching Wall-E in HD and it is pretty amazing.))





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Excellent TV!

Purchased from Amazon. White glove delivery was seamless. They unpacked the set attached the swivel stand placed it on the media console and hooked it up to the cablebox. All I had to do was supervise. Now let's talk about the 55LD650 itself.



Picture Quality. Considering there are no reviews out yet I considered it somewhat of a gamble to purchase this new LG model (which according to the sticker was built in February of this year). But after watching HD programing for a few hours my concerns evaporated. The picture quality is impressive. This is my first LCD. I've always been a plasma guy and have two Pannys so I had my concerns. Howver after watching Monsters vs Aliens I definitely have no complaints about the PQ. The images on the 55 inch screen popped beautifully. So much so that my kids even asked if it was in 3D!



Off-Angle Viewing. Viewing the TV from various angles (even extreme ones) I can confirm that this set did not have any noticeable degradation in picture quality from off-angle viewing(unlike some Sonys I looked at). Very impressive.



Glare. This was the main reason I sought out an LCD set since the TV resides in a very bright room with two sides of floor-to-ceiling windows. This eliminated the plasma option (though we first tried a Sammy plasma and aside from the mirror-like glare we couldn't handle the loud buzzing noise it made). While there's some glare on this TV when it's not on there was nothing noticeable on the matte sceen when watching programs.



All in all I'm very pleased with 55ld650 thus far.More detail ...