More with less, May 5, 2009
My requirement for a television is quite simple: plug it in to the cable box and have it work the first time; then turn on the sports event of the day, e.g. Mets or Yankees, Jets or Giants, etc. The Samsung 46 inch LED TV does that very well. You plug it in, it works.
This TV does more with less. It weighs only about 40 pounds plus...read full review
My requirement for a television is quite simple: plug it in to the cable box and have it work the first time; then turn on the sports event of the day, e.g. Mets or Yankees, Jets or Giants, etc. The Samsung 46 inch LED TV does that very well. You plug it in, it works.
This TV does more with less. It weighs only about 40 pounds plus another 10 pounds for the stand. Compare that with the older Samsung 950 model of the same size which weighs 70 pounds. The elegant stand allows for easy rotation. The TV is only a little over one inch thick! Power consumption has been measured by reviewers at about 105 watts. The 950 model comes in at 180 watts.
The picture is great. The contrast ratio, rated at 3,000,000 to 1, exceeds that of older LCD TVs. The black areas are dark and the picture has an almost 3D quality. There are four preset picture options. I chose the "normal" setting. The next higher setting, "standard", makes infield grass look almost dayglow. I do not think that there is a need to have any further adjustment done on the picture. However, there is an automatic dimming of the overall brightness for dark scenes. For instance, when the credits of a movie run against a black background the lettering becomes dimmer. This has no effect on sports, but does effect dark movie scenes.
The screen surface does reduce reflections but does not eliminate them entirely. The black frame is shiny and does also reflect some light. Rotating the screen to the best angle helps.
The remote provides choices for four picture size variations. I use "16:9" for the HD format or "wide" to make the non-HD, 4:3, video fill the screen. That loses some of the 4:3 picture at the top and bottom edges, but the picture quality is still good.
The sound also has four preset choices. Although, the internal speakers are not bad, I decided to use my sound system for the audio. The TV has an audio output connection, but the TV remote volume control only allows variation in the sound level for the internal speakers. The audio output stays at a constant level. I got around this by taking the audio from my cable box directly to my sound system and controlling the level with the cable remote. This works.
Although Samsung provides a version of the instruction manual on a USB drive with the TV, I found it easy to download and print a pdf of the manual from the Samsung support center. Having the printed manual is helpful. See my comment for the web address of the support center.
After one month, I still really like this TV. It is great for sports. An added bonus is that my electric bill has actually gone down.
Note: This review was written for the 6000 model. The 7000 model differs from the 6000 model only in its I/O capabilities. If you do not need the extras, go with the 6000 and save a few dollars.
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Great Set, July 5, 2009
This TV has produced a lot of controversy. After having spent a lot of time wading through it, passively and actively (debating it in threads), I came to the conclusion that I would get this set for a number of reasons:
1. I was not convinced by the people who were claiming that there were serious issues with this TV. One reviewer...read full review
This TV has produced a lot of controversy. After having spent a lot of time wading through it, passively and actively (debating it in threads), I came to the conclusion that I would get this set for a number of reasons:
1. I was not convinced by the people who were claiming that there were serious issues with this TV. One reviewer claimed to have seen trails in large dark objects. I went to the store and found NO ability to see it, and it was right next to the 750 (and a lot of other sets). As to the LED being edge and thus the lighting being inconsistent, ditto. I am not saying that it's all lies and local dimming is useless. I am saying that it's not something I can see right now (and that's really all I care about).
2. This set is INSANELY thin. I have a space for mine where this actually makes a big difference.
3. I like to vote with my dollars. This is the lowest consuming television ever made. The CNET list of sets showed that the range was 8:1, which is pretty phenomenal if you think about it; in cars, mileage is not even that spread out. This is a REMARKABLE achievement and it's a drag to hear people whining about dumb little imperfections that 99% of people would never see while they are buying from the other end of the spectrum. Of course, the amount of energy less you are going to use is not going to make a revolution, but a tiny percentage of all TVs using this amount would make a huge difference (game theory 101).
The biggest difference from my prior set (Westinghouse LCD) is this one actually has blacks.
The controls, menus, remote, etc., are all fine (I use a universal remote). Having a bunch of HDMI ports is great. I plugged in the connection to the web and looked at the Yahoo Widgets. Calling them useless at this point is an understatement. Should be interesting to see what is coming from that direction.
The argument that if the 750 looks just as good, save the money and get that is a compelling one. In terms of value overall, I paid ~$1500 for my 42" Westinghouse 3 years ago. I just replaced it because it had developed background noise (patterns you could see). If this set lasts 2 more years, it will have exceeded the prior value in size and savings of energy.
Again, this is a remarkable achievement in an industry that had told us we'd all be using power sipping OLED by now, this is a hybrid strategy, here today. minimize
Best LCD HDTV........., September 1, 2009
I had the Samsung UN40B7000 for about 3 weeks and loved the picture quality and the features it has. Coming from a 27 to a 32 and now a 40" I love the large screen size. I would have thought the large the screen the more defects I would notice on the screen but that did not affect me at all. Now I can't see my shelf viewing a smaller screen at all ...read full review
I had the Samsung UN40B7000 for about 3 weeks and loved the picture quality and the features it has. Coming from a 27 to a 32 and now a 40" I love the large screen size. I would have thought the large the screen the more defects I would notice on the screen but that did not affect me at all. Now I can't see my shelf viewing a smaller screen at all anymore. This past week I noticed that the prices on the UN40B7000 and UN467000 dropped dramatically at my local Fry's $1499 for the 40" and $1699 for the 46" and both included the Samsung BD P1600 Blue Ray Player worth $225 for FREE. I had no choice but return my 40" and replaced it with the 46" for the same price I paid for the 40" and received the Free Blue-Ray player. Now that I have hooked up the UN467000 I love the bigger screen and happy I upgraded to the 46" for the same price.
Picture:
I didn't notice any flashing or black corners on both of my Samsung 7000, only clear high resolution picture with vivid colors. Compared to the Sony XBR9 the Samsung LED picture quality is bright and the color pops out. HD picture is awesome and the SD is okay for an LCD much better than my old 32" and my brothers XBR4. With 3,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and 120hz Auto Motion that you can be turn off or adjusted this TV has an it all.
Blue Ray movies is outstanding, best picture I've ever seen in any TV set and the standard DVD plays great as well not Blue Ray quality but it's a step up from my old TV. But I don't know if it's because of my new 46" 7000 or the new Samsung BD P1600 that Fry's throw in that make the picture much better or both.
Gaming:
I have the TV set up with the PS3 and it's great. The picture quality is amazing no blur affects at all in fast movement.
Sound:
Speakers could be better but what do we expect for a TV that is 1.2" thin. I've purchased the Sony HTC T100 sound bar to get better sound. I must say the HTC T100 has a great sound and meets my expectation and needs (See my review).
Features:
I haven't yet connected the TV to the internet to see how the widget or DNLA works but I have used the USB connection to plug in my flash drive to view movies, picutres and listen to music. I've even connected my I-pod to it and it plays my music, video and even charges the battery.
Overall this TV is the best LCD TV I've seen and I've been looking for months. The prices are steadily going down and it's much more affordable to go larger now than it was a month ago and according to what I've read the prices might go even lower when it gets closer to the Super Bowl and of course Black Friday. I highly recommend this TV to any one who is looking for a thin set that doesn't compromises picture quality, features or price.
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Love this TV, September 15, 2009
I won't go into as much detail as some others, but I do want to say that I've had this TV for 3 weeks and I absolutely love it. One thing I noticed on all TV's my friends have is when the scene goes dark, you can see the entire screen glow and most LCDs will only go so dark. Due to LED technology, which does not disappoint, this TV will go pitch ...read full review
I won't go into as much detail as some others, but I do want to say that I've had this TV for 3 weeks and I absolutely love it. One thing I noticed on all TV's my friends have is when the scene goes dark, you can see the entire screen glow and most LCDs will only go so dark. Due to LED technology, which does not disappoint, this TV will go pitch black on dark scenes and very bright on light scenes.
One thing I do want to mention is that Samsung's Auto Motion Plus (AMP) is something that takes time to get used to, if you choose to use it. The funnies thing I've read about this TV is a person who paid over $2k and then sent the TV back because they said TV made everything they watched "look cheap, like a soap opera", so they rated TV one star, shipped it back to the store and bought a different brand. As soon as I got the TV hooked up, I popped in Matrix II into the DVD player and I did notice what that person was talking about. Entire movie didn't feel quite like a movie, but more like someone was holding a video camera and was following all the car chases and everything else. It did remind me of those "cheap" TV programs, but is also looked kind of like you are actually there. I read more about it and realized that if I turn off AMP, the TV will show everything "normally" and there is absolutely no reason to send it back if AMP is not your thing.
However, I read more about AMP and from what I can tell, it is the imperfections in normal movies and motion blur that we are all used to. What AMP does is figure out where all moving objects are, "unblurs" them and actually plays back the scene at 120fps instead of 24fps. Extra frames are extrapolated based on object motion in the scene. The result is that everything is extremely sharp and clear and motion blur is almost entirely gone. I've seen Matrix II about 8 times and when I watched it with AMP turned on, I noticed extra cool, little details which I've never even noticed before when watching it on a regular TV. minimize
Winner~!!, September 11, 2009
Great TV... fantastic picture, plethora of inputs (no s-video though, but who cares, you have plenty of HDMI's), ok sound, super slim, energy efficient, oh yeah...did i mention fantistic picture!?! =)
Yes i know, you see on AV forums that people say there's spotting, and the side scratches easily...blah blah blah...
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Great TV... fantastic picture, plethora of inputs (no s-video though, but who cares, you have plenty of HDMI's), ok sound, super slim, energy efficient, oh yeah...did i mention fantistic picture!?! =)
Yes i know, you see on AV forums that people say there's spotting, and the side scratches easily...blah blah blah...
Invest in a calibration DVD and take an hour out of your day to calibrate your new toy!! Makes a world of difference. Or if you're lazy just go on CNET and copy their settings. BTW this TV is rated on CNET as one of Top 5 best HD TV's of 2009, it was #3, beaten out by two plasmas...so i guess that makes it the #1 LCD then
This TV has a bunch of features, enough inputs to satisfy everyone (I have my cable box, PS3, Laptop all plugged in).. with inputs to spare!
As with all Samsungs, it seems that the sound is lacking "Oomph", but the form factor (ULTRA THIN) and great picture more than make up for it.. awaiting my HTCT-500 soundbar to arrive. should solve the minor problem!
I watched Planet Earth BR on this and can say FOR SURE i can notice a clarity difference over the LNxxB650 series... TOC red styling is a bit more noticeable than the LN series but not too bad.. you can turn off the little LED on the bottom via settings... and aside from admiring how thing it is, when are you every checking out the edges anyways?
The 120 hz was more than enough to WOW me (considering your normal HD inputs from cable box is only in 60hz anyways)..I think the widgets are useless on this TV, but then I have my laptop docked to it so i dont really need it...
Some people say that you save some coin by getting the 6000 over this 7000 one, but I agree with the CNET review that you CAN see some difference in the picture quality by picking the 7000.... though i couldnt justify going to the 240 hz 8000 series....
Previously I had a LN40B650 and I returned feeling that I had "settled" (seeing that amazon dropped the price by $100 just 1 week week after I got it annoyed me as well)... I picked up this baby for about $1600 including a free samsung 1600 series BluRay Player at frys.. and now waiting for the tons of BluRays and PS3 games i ordered on amazon...
All in all i think this TV is a great mid-level choice with tons of features, enough to be a decent spec-wise for at least a few years... minimize
(11 total reviews)