Great Pic Quaility - almost a SONY but much cheaper

Got the Sammy 46 1080p in Nov. Didn’t need a new TV as I already have 6 other sets including a Sony 43” HD projection, 32” LCD, a couple of 27” Sony Tubes etc….

There was a deal I could not refuse and it was on this highly rated set. A pricing error let me have the TV for $1450 (suppose to be the price for the 40”). This was an amazing deal already as it was going for around $2000 in both US & Cda. To make things even better, I managed to get a Samsung 1400 blue ray thrown in. Took lots of bickering but I finally got it. Also sent away for the 5 freebie movies. Consumer report tagged this model the best a few months ago – best picture & value. Of course as technology changes it has dropped now (higher contrast ratios & 120 hz & more gamut & more video bits)and will continue to do so. Never ending.

So at the end, I did well. Don’t think any X mas/black friday/boxing day sales can beat that.

Now for the TV.

Hooked it up to HD box via component. Very nice HD picture. Esp on live shows such as sport/news/Jay Leno. Just very clear for regular prime time HD show. There was a definite diff from my projection on HD programming. One time I saw huge pixel bluriing on a football program on HD on the Sammy. I guess LCDs are not perfect yet. Didn’t care about the 120 hz feature as per many articles they say it doesn’t really make a difference. Plus you would be paying at least another $200-400 for the upgraded model.

At first the Std definition channels were very bad. Very pixelly. My Sony projection had better SD reception as no artifacts. Don’t know, but it looks ok now. Maybe a break in period or you get use to it. Still not use to the skishy pictures on standard definition. Everyone is fat & short.

DVD looked fine via upconversions (but very little diff from my prev projection). More jaggedy if you look close up but for this tv you really have to sit at least 8-10 ft away to see the best picture. If you watch animation it was very clear but very little diff from projection.

Blue rays looked impressive. Planet Earth was very good but to the DVDs transfer fault, some parts were not that great.

At the store when comparing this set to Sharp & Sonys (similar models). I did find the Sony a tad better in clarity and less artifacts in the picture. Not sure if it’s due to diff factory settings or just a more accurate technology. But this still does not justify for the premium in price for Sony. The factory settings out of the box are way too bright. They are meant for a showroom display where it is bright in the store. You must change them to get the most of the TV. Brightness is cranked up to 100 (tone it down to about 85-90). The other biggy is sharpness which is at 75 (tone this down to about 25-30). The finally crutial setting is backlight. It’s cranked up at 10. Make this 5-6 and you will see the deep blacks come into play. The picture is richer & deeper with these few adjustments. You can play around a bit more with others such as warm vs cool and colour but previous ones are the major changes.

Mounted the tv on a Tech Craft 50BK stand. Looks great and the TV mount on the stand without the pedistal and appears to be floating. Better safety also if you have kids that could knock the tv off a pedestal stand

Remote is fine but can’t turn on Satelitte box and TV in one shot. Must press TV / Power then Satelite / Power. My Satellite remote doesn’t recognize the “source” function on the Samsung so a bit of a pain as always need another remote when wanting to change source on TV when watching a DVD.

Tons of inputs which is great. Even has a USB but it doesn’t recognize Ipod easily. It freezes so I gave up with it. Slow processing for slide shows too. Meant more for USB sticks.

Overall very happy esp given the price, with the TV until the next major technological breakthru. Even over the last 2 yrs, LCD has drastically changed compared to my old 32” LCD. Previously best contrast ratio was 800:1, this one has 10,000:1 and newer ones have 25,000:1. Can’t believe I paid more than double for the Sony projection tv 6 yrs ago and the same for the 32 LCD a few yrs ago. Price can only go down.