Wednesday 31 March 2010

Samsung - 120hz, hdtv


So far, this TV ROCKS! I bought from Amazon because the price was fantastic, shipping was free, no tax, and I used gift certificates from a certain grocery store, which gave me $ off at the gas pump. All of this was, of course, after selecting Samsung and this specific model, and then shopping around for price. I knew I wanted a 46" LCD for my living room, so I started looking. At 1st, I was gonna get the Toshiba 46G300U for $650 during Black Friday at Shmears, but after visiting many stores, I was drawn to Samsung's picture clarity. Just amazing! A store I liked a lot was HHShmeggs because they had so many to choose from and the store lighting in the TV section was closest to my actual living room.



So, I ordered from Amazon and a few days later, there were 2 delivery guys at my front door. The TV got to me before some things that I ordered days earlier! They brought Bessie in and were somewhat conscious of my carpet by asking if I had something to set the box on (never mind that they were wearing their shoes, but I digress). I grabbed an old blanket and they set her down. They asked if they can open it to check the screen and I said yes. They slid it out carefully and set it down. We all looked over the screen with a flashlight. Everything looked good. I had them place it back in the box to allow it to get to room temp before setting it up. They had me sign that it was in good physical shape, but they listed that I didn't power up the TV because it was cold. They left and I smiled at my new television.



While waiting for Bessie to get to room temp, I assembled the stand with 4 provided screws and read over the manual. Turns out this TV has a LAN port, which I did not see in any spec listing for this TV. This is nice because you can check for firmware/software upgrades over the Internet. My new U-Verse cable receiver has a LAN jack, so I have an ethernet cable between it and the TV. I checked for upgrades, but did not find any. The TV has software from October, so I wasn't surprised that no upgrades were available.



The TV's Menu system is pretty good. I haven't had much trouble finding any settings I was looking for. There's also a button labeled Tools, which gives you quick access to a few settings you may use more frequently. The remote itself is nice. It has a backlight button to see better in low light, which is always a plus. I would like if I could label my inputs with custom labels. For instance, I have a media player and the closest label they have is PVR STB. If I could just label it Media Player, the Mrs and the kids would have an easier time selecting the correct input. I would also like to hide inputs that are not used. That would make flipping through them much quicker.



Some have said that they do not like Samsung's Motion Plus feature because it makes movies look like fake soap operas. This is true for some of the Motion Plus modes, like Standard, but there's one called Clear, which looked just fine. As far as the Standard mode, it does have it's place. I found that it makes animated movies like Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Kung Fu Panda, etc look almost 3D. My toddler absolutely loves the effect! I set his animated movies to Dynamic color and Standard motion plus for an awesome looking picture. Samsung's color is just amazing! Dynamic color mode is very bright, but for movies like The Matrix, I use Movie Mode to see more detail in darker scenes.



One catch is keeping the TV clean. This thing is a dust magnet in my house. They do provide a special cleaning cloth where you just use water, but I think I will be using it very often. I think I may pick up a swiffer duster for dusting the set and just use the cloth when there is more build up.



The TV did not come with a safety strap to tether it to my wooden stand, but since it sits so far back on my stand, I don't think my toddler will try to reach it. I'll have a close eye on him just in case. He knows that touching Bessie is off limits, but you know how toddlers can be...



Well, that's it for now. I'll update if I think of anything else... Samsung LN46C600 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)

Well I was a little hesitant at first purchasing a product in this day and age when reviews can make or break a product. Having read only one review being that it was fairly new to market made me feel un-easy about making this purchase. But then again its a Samsung LCD and not just some run of the mill product. What was I looking for in an LCD? Nothing special, just the best features and quality that I can get for the money. So not being an expert (who is?) I just compared must have features on top of the line LCD units and made sure they were included in this Samsung LN46C600 flat panel set. To my surprise just about every feature was included and some. Same top of the line features as the much higher priced units. The picture quality was amazing and I'm glad that I stuck to my guns with my wife and got the unit that had 120 Hz verses 60 Hz. You really do see a difference in the picture (motion blur) when seeing action shots on an LCD. This unit has a feature called auto motion plus which kicks in and smooths out the action. I have no idea how it works but it does and having a very critical eye for picture quality I was impressed. One thing you might want to consider is the kind of wall mount that you choose. I always went for a tilt wall mount. Stuck in a fixed position. Not this time. I wanted to make sure that I could see this unit from almost any angle in my living room. So I opted for an articulating full motion wall mount. I checked into these types of mounts and could not believe how expensive they were, $300 plus. I was ready to throw up my hands on this idea when I ran accross a mount made by a company called Cheetah on Amazon. They have mounts that hold up to 165 lbs. and cost only $79 bucs. So now I'm a happy camper. Listen we can sit here and rave about this LCD and at the end of the day your going to have to decide what works for you. But you will be very satisfied with this purchase. The price is right and like I said the feature set and picture quality just can't be beat. Enjoy!!! - 120hz - Samsung - 46 Inch - Hdtv'


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