Samsung TVs & HDTVs Best Reviews

Nice but could be better, April 14, 2007

I’m not an expert reviewer but a reasonably knowledgeable electronics consumer. Here are my observations from a week’s use of the LNT3253H. I won’t repeat the specifications and the like that you can find most anywhere. I suspect that some of what I say is applicable to other panel sizes in the 2007 53 series.

A successor to last year’s popular 51 series, the 53 is really more of an updated version of 2006’s highly rated LNS3296 with a little more contrast and one more HDMI port and a USB port. (I was told by Samsung customer service, 1-800-726-7864, that the successors to the latter line will be 1080p.)

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As Always - SONY, No Baloney, November 25, 2007

I’ve been buying Sony TVs for more than 30 years, and they rarely disappoint. The 40" Bravia is no exception. Last year I bought the 70" SXRD model for my living room, and the 40" is for the bedroom. Many televisions are high quality and prices are dropping, so why get the Sony?

Picture quality is excellent, especially in high def.

Sound quality is very good without a home theater setup. Not always the case with flat panel TVs with small bezels.

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So Far, So Good., March 30, 2008

I ordered the Samsung LN46A550, sight unseen, from Electronics Expo based upon the price/performance ratio and the fact that Samsung HDTV’s have always struck me as having the best image quality. So far, I’ve not been disappointed. For a price just under $1600, this is undoubtedly an awful lot of TV for the money. First and foremost, the picture quality is superb. I have spent much time at the Best Buy, Circuit City, and the Electronics Expo for the past 18 months and so I’m not easily impressed. But I’d have to say that the A550 image quality easily rivals the best Pioneer plasmas costing many thousands more. The 30,000:1 contrast ratio helps put the Samsung among the very best of the best. With the `Black Mode’ and `dynamic contrast’ turned up, there’s that sense of looking through a window. The image clarity literally blows away my previous HDTV… which was a Philips.

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Works well as a computer monitor!, July 25, 2007

 Am I the only one who thinks the pixel size on typical computer monitors is way too small? Fortunately, one can buy HDTVs and essentially choose their pixel size, which is what I did with this 26" Sony Bravia. With my PC, I can run it at 1360 x 768 pixels, and the Bravia is smart enough not to scale it ("1:1 pixel mapping" is what it’s called). In fact, no matter what resolution I send to the Bravia via my computer (600x800, 768x1024), the Bravia shows it unscaled, and this results in a smaller, centered image with black borders. This applies to both the VGA (PC) input and also the HDMI (via a DVI adapter) input.

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Excellent TV for the money, but with some shortcomings. , January 22, 2008

So, you are thinking about buying a new TV, but what to choose? If you are wanting a flat panel TV, you can get either a plasma or an LCD. Plasma can be cheaper, and can give a better picture (at the same price point), but plasma weighs more, uses more power, generates more heat, and can burn images into the screen and ruin the TV (which matters if you view things without distorting and/or cropping the image to fit your screen; if you are spending all this money on a HDTV, do you really want distorted or cropped images?). So, I decided for an LCD.

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