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My first HDTV, | By | David Courtney "blixel" (Deltona, FL United States) - See all my reviews |
I bought this TV Friday, May 8th, 2009.
The main thing about this Samsung TV is that the picture is unbelievably rich and vibrant! (So much so that it takes a little getting use to.) The clarity is so good that it is actually distracting to me. (Though I'm sure I'll get use to it.) But as an example, I was re-watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and I couldn't stop noticing the lines on the actors' faces, individual blades of grass, creases in fabric, and all sorts of other subtle details long enough to pay attention to the actual movie! OK - so maybe that is more of a general HDTV thing and has less to do with the Samsung TV? I don't know. Again - this is my first HDTV ever.
The Samsung TV is incredibly thin. This was one of the things that really drew my attention to this TV when I was doing my comparative shopping. Flat panel TV's are an order of magnitude thinner than their larger CRT cousins, but this Samsung TV takes the thinness to a whole new level.
I've read that this particular TV uses less power than standard flat panel TV's. While I'm not a tree-hugging hippie, I do prefer to be a good steward of the planet whenever possible. But more practical is the fact that less power consumption = less heat generated. I live in Florida so I prefer electronics that don't radiate lots of heat.
The integrated speakers are functional, but I can't imagine anyone would spend this much money on a TV and be satisfied with the integrated speakers. I'm not taking points off the review for the relatively lousy speakers because I believe lousy speakers are par for the course with flat panel TV's. (Or TV's in general really. Even CRT TV's have pretty lousy built-in speakers.) If you really want a high quality audio experience, you know you're going to have to use external speakers.
I can't say much about the input options. I bought a Samsung Blu-ray player at the same time I got the TV and I got an HDMI cable to hook up between the two devices. It "just worked." The Samsung TV / Blu-ray player seem to be a good match. When I put in a DVD or Blu-ray disc, the TV turns on automatically and switches to the correct HDMI input. But otherwise I don't have any devices plugged into this TV yet. I don't have cable or satellite or a video game system.
I would suggest that anyone who buys this TV should try to put the TV in a room without any windows or bright lights facing it. I bought this TV for my bedroom and it sits about 12 feet directly in front of my bedroom window. Fortunately the window is on the backside of the house and has a thick blind over it, otherwise I think the reflection from the window would be overwhelming during the day.
The TV is certainly bright and vibrant enough to watch in daylight conditions, that's not the issue. The issue is the amount of reflection on the TV screen. During the day, I can see the reflection from the edge of my window. It's fairly subtle and I can easily address this by buying a decorative curtain to place over my window, but it is something that I think is worth pointing out. If you know you're going to have your TV in front of a big window, it could be a major distraction if you can't cover the window properly.
Pros:
* Contrast almost makes the image look 3D (3,000,000:1 contrast ratio)
* Vibrant colors
* Ultra-Green -- uses almost no power (40% less than an LCD) and uses no mercury in production.
* Very easy setup
* Clean design
* Great remote
Cons:
* Can only take 1 component video connection
* Although I use my receiver for sound, the built-in speaker does not sound great.
* Not really a con but they have an RJ-45 port for a network cable, but don't have wifi -- if it is going to be networkable, wifi is so much easier to set up.
Summary:
Last week my wife and I finally upgraded our Dish Network to HD. We had an 8-year old HD-ready rear projection TV -- and I was crushed to find that the HD didn't look very good at all.
My very-low maintenance wife didn't understand why we needed a new TV, but was nice enough to humor me.
I did some research and we went to Best Buy to check out a TV that Consumer Reports ranked as #2 for LCDs. But right next to this TV was the Samsung UN-46B6000 and there was absolutely no comparison. My wife who was hesitant about even getting a new TV looked at them both and said, "Damn - we have to get this one. I didn't want to get a new TV but if we are going to get one - we have to get this one."
So there you have it - a TV even a reluctant wife realizes is the best one in the store. She now sees the error of her ways and LOVES the new TV.
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