Samsung LN52A850 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color

Samsung LN52A850 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color

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BuZZ from Customer Shopping

DUMB, VERY DUMB, SAMSUNG!
First as a disclaimer, let me say that the picture of this TV is unimpeachable. It's stellar. Which is why it's so hard for me to gripe about this TV, but for chrissakes, for $2300, it should work like a cadillac SONY XBR6 in all respects, since the SONY sells for roughly the same price and has fantastic sound and everything works seamlessly ...

The Samsung TV's have down-firing speakers, and the LN52A850 has the worst speakers of the 5,6,7,8 series of TV's, because it's down-firing and it's so dang thin. So, the buyer is going to have to use a home theater, and Samsung knew this when they designed this TV. Did Samsung put in a variable-audio output, so that the buyer would not suffer when they wanted to change the volume ?? NO. Well these days even CHEAP tv's have variable audio outputs! What would it have cost them? NOTHING. So you'll ALWAYS be reaching for your stereo remote control whenever you want to change the volume. And the TV will ALWAYS say "NOT AVAILABLE" when you try to use up/down or mute on your satellite or cable-tv remote control. Isn't this dumb? DUMB, VERY DUMB, SAMSUNG !

This is quite possibly the best LCD monitor for ~$2300, but the downside is, it's just a friggin monitor - NOTHING ELSE! The sound system is poorly designed and when the user tries to avoid the problem, Samsung is not helping !! To mitigate the problem you might run a converter cable from the headphone jack to your stereo system, so the TV's headphone outputs become unusable. If you have an integrated home theater without headphone jacks (I do), well, you'll always be swapping cables in and out endlessly to use headphones !!!

Which brings me to the second issue. This TV is advertised as "super thin" and suitable for "low-profile mounting". Well, on the back of the TV the power cable goes RIGHT and it's in the center of the TV, while the HDMI inputs go STRAIGHT OUT of the TV, forcing you to KNOCK A HOLE in your wall or waste at least 1" of depth with a right-angle HDMI converters, as the jack pack is not recessed and is not angled to support low-profile mounting. And they STACKED THREE HDMI cable ports CLOSELY, which means that typical 90-degrees converters WILL FOUL EACH OTHER AND BECOME UNUSABLE. Why did they put the power cable in the middle of the TV, pointing the cable away from the jack pack, making me knock TWO holes in the wall for a low-profile mount? DUMB, VERY DUMB, SAMSUNG!

I think I'm being generous, taking away only one star for these preschool-class design mistakes on a $2300 TV.

Great TV
I have owned this TV for about 3 weeks now...and here is my experience with it so far.....
note: i am an average user - so some professionals might rightfully disagree with this assessment. my tv usage is placing it in the living area for day to day usage. not a home theater or advanced sound usage :)

Purchase:
- Bought it from Amazon. Was delivered in 3 days via Pilot freight at a price i am happy with.

The TV:
Look: Great! 52 inch, nice, looks beautiful. ToC is barely visible.
Its slim and it swivels.

TV Features:
Connections: many. 4 HDMI, VGA, S, Cable. as you read from the specs.
Picture: just great ... absolutely no complaints. watching HD on it, 1080i (dont have blue ray yet) its fabulous - and you will not want to watch anything that is not HD.

Non HD (SD and digital): if you use normal 4:3 ratio: is kinda ok, if you stretch is also kinda ok at 6 ft. if you zoom, its distorted, especially if you sit around 6-8 feets. plus watching HD makes non HD really boring. not a TV problem, but real life problem, not many channels yet in HD!! you will see yourself only viewing HD!
Do not but this TV if you dont plan to get HD pkg. SD and Digital are barely ok- but absolutely not worth this big investment.

Menu & setup: easy to follow - worth skimming the User Guide for few tips.

Calibration: did not calibrated it. Great as is. tried different calibration settings i found online, almost the same as the default with few variations... the pictures is great as is ...

Sound: good enough for me and i can hear it OK at 15 ft. Those who need home theater will still complain any way regardless if its good or not...

DLNA: Nice to have, but really useless so far. I hooked up the TV to a PC, the PC ran the DLNA server, The connection was OK (not super sonic fast), some movies failed to load with sound. looks like a bug (same movie loaded ok from a USB drive).
I also ran another DLNA server from my other computer. The TV detected both servers ok, but the transfer rate is sooooo slow that it made the view useless. (i have a 54g router that is common in most homes, maybe with the new N routers it will be a bit faster)
so in short, DLNA is OK (from my usage), but I dont run it as its useless. simply hookup a USB drive to the TV and all is good ~ Maybe others who have other devices like Camera's that are DLNA compatible will find such feature useful. but for me, it was not.

InfoLink: Absolutely Useless. link to Weather, News & stock. Really? who needs that with the weather channel and CNN? my point, its an attempt to connect TVs to the internet, it works as advertised, but found no value of it.
Also, it must be wired to a LAN. (or buy a wireless linkstick for $34). in my case, my lan in in the office, and i cannot move my modem .... so had to use a laptop - connected the tv to the laptop, which has wired and wireless adapters. bridged them together & connected to the LAN via the wireless..some strange hookup, but i just wanted to see what the feature is about... and if its worth for me to wire the LAN to the TV. useless. no need for it.

Content Lib: Again, nice, but useless. I guess if you hang the TV on the wall, you can use the pictures to make it like a frame.... i mean, really silly you can live without it.
The lib has pictures, games, cooking and fitness info. games are basic ones to play with a remote -- like press enter key all the time ... really basic.
i also downloaded the other content lib from Samsung website to try ... nice, but silly stuff. These are hipped up by the sales, but really should not be a decision factor for your purchase (IMHO).
WiseLink: Great feature. This allows you to hook a USB drive to the tv and watch pics, video, and MP3. Nice to have and works great. I think i will be using this feature the most.
the feature allow you to sort the pictures by timeline, folder, color .. nice ways to view - but difficult to follow.
120Hz: dont see the difference much. i kept the default with Medium. maybe i will see it with 1080p ? who knows.

Connections:
tested direct Cable - works great
tested PC Connection: works great but i think you will need a laptop that can produce correct resolutions - otherwise its difficult to see clear pictures. see the manual for resolutions.
one thing the sound for the pc connection must be be male-to-male input from your pc to the tv. the wires are cheap... if you need the sound.

tested Component: with cable box, 1080i - great.
tested HDMI1 with cable box 1080i - also great.

The remote:
- Bad. here is why: They have this wheel that you can spin to move b/w the menus ... nice if it responds! but it does not all the time.
- did not work well with my cable stb. i can produce some features of the cable, but the other ones did not... so it does not act as a universal remote.
- and worse is that you must almost point to the tv directly to get to change the channel. i hate that. my cable remote is the same,,,, so i cannot complain much, but i think i wish i had a better remote that replaced both!
- the mini remote: useless. only change channel and volume control. if you hook to a Dish or Cable, whats the value of that remote?

others reported cloudiness - i did not see any. the tv is in the family room - lit -- maybe those folks use special home theater rooms (dark) - but for my room, no complaints ~

the tv reflects the light of the room in some cases, but its not that much bothersome.

why 4 out of 5? b/c all these crazy useless features that samsung could have made it better. for example: the InfoLink must be wired to LAN or buy an $34 wireless adapter? why not have a wireless built in it.... why not allow a keyboard to connect and use it a web tv, rather than to just 3 things!
at least to download the new firmware directly from the net! even that cannot be done by info link!

also the remote is not very friendly.

why 4 and not less: b/c of its great picture, beautiful design, easy menu setup.

A Review for those of you who obsessivly research
So, if you're like me you research and research, obsess a bit, and then research some more before making a television purchase. So, I thought I would offer a few simple thoughts that might help. First this is an amazing television. The picture is simply amazing, the slim design is wonderful, and the remotes and features are very fun if not all that necessary. Here are some goodies to think about.

1. 120 LCD televisions (especially Samsung) are designed to give a 3D-ish effect. They do this through inserting extra film clips between the regular clips. This means that sports look AMAZING, but that movies look like you're watching stage theater. Truly, like it's live video. For some people this is amazing, for others it's truly horrible. I personally hate it. But don't worry. Simply switch the TV to "Game" setting and you'll have a traditional wonderful movie picture.

2. Is there a difference between the 650, 750, and 850? YES!! Your decision should really come between the 650 or the 850. The 650 and 750 have the same picture and the 750 has a bit more bass. However, the 850 has a higher grade of pixel and produces much deeper blacks and richer whites. You won't find this on the basic specs, but trust me...it's true. This adds greater depth and detail to your picture. I think it's fully worth 300 bucks.

3. The sound question: Consumer reports says that the 650 has "Excellent" sound and the 850 has "Very Good" sound. I think this hits it just right. The 650 has nice rich tones and you could easily get away with not having a big stereo system. THe 850 is nice too. Just lacking those rich tones. It sounds more like a regular television. Just fine, but you're not getting a "wowswer" effect. However, the 650 is not going to replace a nice surround sound system by any means. My advice, by the 850 and save up for a nice mid-range $500-600 dollar surround sound system from Costco. You'll be blown away.

4. Ohhhh, but maybe a plasma. Yep, plasmas are nice. They glare a bit, but so does the 650-850 series. Plasmas are not as sharp and crisp, but have higher contrast. They won't give you that "stage" look though. I looked at a lot of plasmas and went with the 850. I thought it had wonderful contrast and still maintained those crisp features that are all part of the LCD experience. You'll pay more, so if you want to save 600 or so I might jump down to a Plasma. Fully reasonable choice. Not as good a picture in my mind, but very rich (too rich for me) colors.

5. Ok...maybe a Plasma then: Sure, if you do you might consider panasonic. I haven't researched them as much, but they process at a higher level 480 hrtz vs. the 180 hrtz that a Samsung processes at. Doesn't make a big difference, but Panasonic has been making plasmas a long time and brags about how strong the glass panal is on the front. Supposedly more "wii" safe. Granted no one is playing wii next to the 850. ;)

6. Be ready to tweak: All high level televisions, including Samsung are built to really dial in. You're going to love your picture out of the box, but if you are bothered by something mess around with all the settings. Kick back and say "I'm going to take an hour to just play with the picture settings." Different combination gets different results. Some increase a "real" look. Others soften. It's going to take some time to dial in. Enjoy it. You can always "reset" the picture if you get too far off.

7. White Glove: Let me save you some time. Amazon has the best deal. Truly. They deliver within a week or two, the guys set up the television wherever you want it, and they are outta there. You sign the papers, and hit power on the remote. They'll even take the box...but you might want to save it. 2% of Samsungs have a problem with clouding (whiteness on the screen in uneven patches) or something else. Watch your tv for a while, if you're in doubt Amazon is awesome about sending a replacement and they will (if asked) take and deliver on the same day. You only have 30 days though so watch that calendar.


7.5: The Jutters: So, you'll see characters jutter across the screen at times. You'll think "I just spent two grand on 120 hrtz to avoid this." Don't stress it. It's not the televisions fault. First, all big screens jutter. Plasmas do it, DLPs do it, and yet, LCDs are famous for it. Flip on a NBC HD game and you'll see nothing but perfection. Here's the deal. Jutters come from a few places. First, it happens on normal televisions too, but often the picture is so small we miss it. Next, the input has everything to do with it. Some DVDs, Blu-Rays, and television stations produce a signal that has a jutter to it. Once you know this little fact you can stop blaming the TV, and realize that on ANY set you'd be seeing that jutter. Funny thing, once you start looking for it you'll see it everywhere. I was jogging and noticed the goal post juttering on my track. Our eyes can only track so fast. ;) The other thing to note is that you're jumping up to a 52 inch television. The people on the screen can be one to two feet high! You're just going to have to process a lot of motion. It takes some time. After a bit, it doesn't even matter. Again, sit back and enjoy.

8. Random things I learned that you might want to know:

1. Go to best buy or someplace and look at the televisions. You need to see your choices. Have them reset the pictures so they are all on the same settings and look. That needs to be your biggest selling point. Then buy from Amazon. They might match, but Amazon has AMAZING customer service.

2. If you register your Samsung within a few weeks of delivery they will give you 3 extra months of warranty for free.

3. Prices jump around all the time. Haggle. Usually a television at this level should come with some sort of promo (150 off a blu-ray) or something of that nature. However, once you purchase from Amazon the largest fluctuation I've seen is 50.00. They are pretty steady. Best Buy and Circuit City will jump 500.00 to 800.00 in price. Crazy eh.

4. HDMI cords. You want a Version 1.3. Those are the highest grade available that what this TV supports. You have four inputs. I find the best configuration is xbox, blu-ray, ROKU (check it out at Netflix), and Cable into the TV, with a digital optical out from the tv to my sound system. VERY simple set up. Of course, choose the four devices that work best for you.

5. Cables: Amazon will offer you some HDMI cables at 10 bucks a pop when you purchase your television. I might consider it. I purchased mine from Costco at 20 dollars a piece because they were gas filled and all super cool...did it make a difference. I don't know. But They were a nice tan color that doesn't stand out too much. I like that. DO NOT BUY ANY 70.00 HDMI cables. That's just a rip off. Save your $.

6. I'm crazy about reading the manual. The biggest thing that popped out was the fact that the 850 screen must only be cleaned with water. There are all sorts of other products out there that say they are safe...but why risk it right. So, keep that in mind.

7. The sand vs. the wall. Both are equally safe. The stand is very wide and strong on this TV. A wall mount MUST hit both studs. You will then have 4-6 of play to center your TV on sliders that are build into the stand. A plus is that the stand swivels and you don't see cords. A wall mount could get you...3-4 inches closer to the wall. It's a personal call, but make sure you've really found studs when mounting. Many older homes have lath and plaster or 1/4 layer of wood behind the drywall. This can give you a misreading on a stud finder and "could" cause a bad mount. You might be fine, you might not. IF you're worried higher someone that guarantees their work or just use the stand.

8. The FAN question: You'll read some reviews about fan noise and this TV. I haven't heard it yet, I'll keep you posted. It has a lot of venting so I would be surprised. If it does have a cooling fan I would be amazed to have it be louder than the television itself. I'll keep you posted.

9. Remote Control Block: You'll read that this television blocks a cable remote from working. This is no longer the case. New TV's aren't a problem and if it is, there is a firmware update that will fix the problem. Firmware is a file that you download from the Samsung website onto a little thumbdrive. This then pops into the back of your television. You then select "Software Update" in the settings menu on the TV and it updates itself. So no biggie.

Bottom Line: For LCD televisions this one is the best. No doubt. You have to pay some bank for it, but it's a great experience. If money is a big issue I would recommend checking out plasmas. You won't get the same level of sharpness or that 3D look in sports, but the contrast at a lower-quality LCD is just not worth it. Most of all when your television arrives, just sit back and enjoy it. Promise yourself you'll stop researching and checking deals. Pop some popcorn, grab a drink, and have fun. You made a great choice.

About Samsung LN52A850 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #232 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: black/red
• Brand: Samsung
• Model: LN52A850
• Dimensions: 30.70" h x 49.70" w x 1.90" l, 59.10 pounds
• Display size: 52

Features

• Touch of Color (TOC): Samsung's unique manufacturing process accents the surrounding bezel with a stylish red tone
• HD-Grade pixel resolution: High-resolution pixel density is combined with a builtin image scaler to handle inputs from a variety of digital and analog audio/video sources
• Auto Motion Plus 120 Hz Advanced
• 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
• WiseLink Pro: For playing MP3, mpeg, and displaying JPEG files through the USB 2.0 connection on selected Samsung TVs

Product Description

Beautiful. Thin. Packed with HDTV technology. The SAMSUNG LN52A850 includes revolutionary Touch of Color and Infolink which transfers customized content from the web right to your screen. Access it anytime you want, even while watching your favorite TV programs or movies. And Auto Motion Plus 120Hz technology practically eliminates any motion blur so your action-packed movies are more realistic, more thrilling, more exciting to watch. The SAMSUNG LN52A850 redefines your home entertainment experience.

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Source From LCD-HDTV USA Store
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