Friday, October 30, 2009
Samsung LN52A630 Best TV and best buying experience I've ever had
I did a lot of reading on LCD sets and the pros and cons. I also did a lot of reading on LCD vs Plasma. The 120mHz refresh rate and contrast ratio put all the arguments for Plasma to rest. The 630 has a matte screen finish and that settled the debate over the 650 vs the 630. The 650 model has a gloss screen with lots of glare (and yes, even when on). Unless you plan on watching TV in a dark room with no windows, the 630 is the way to go. Though the contrast ratio is only 40,000 to 1, the set renders blacks very well. The contrast ratio is as good as Plasma, and the screen is brighter than most Plasma sets I looked at. The 650 has a 50,000 to 1 contrast ratio, but that is only due to the gloss screen finish (an optical illusion in effect). I'm very happy with the 630 set. I'm also glad the TV uses less energy than Plasma (reviews tend to down play this but the difference is much greater if the TV is your primary set). I've seen the two types of sets being run with a current meter attached and the Plasma used about 30% more power in standard operation mode. The LCD screen is also rated to last longer than a Plasma.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Samsung LN52A630 Very Pleased
I purchased this TV instead of the Samsung 650 because I wanted the matted screen to reduce glare. I'm glad I did. Even in my family room with tons of light coming in from my windows, glare is not an issue. The picture is also absolutely amazing. I am very pleased. The sound is good, but I will eventually purchase a home theater sound system to compliment this TV. Setup was a breeze. I definitely would recommend this product.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Samsung LN52A630 Fantastic TV - Fantastic Purchase!!
I had decided on the 650 model based on excellent customer reviews, highest Consumer Reports rating, and very good CNET Editor's review. The room I am putting the TV in is quite bright and, like others, I had concerns about the 650 model's shiny screen. Then I read about the 630 model - - basically the same TV with a "semi-matte" screen that reduces glare and reflections. So, I went with the 630 model and am thrilled with the entire purchase through Amazon.
The 630 model was about $100 bucks cheaper than the 650 model ($1799 vs $1899), and it was delivered to my door by Pilot 4 DAYS after I ordered it on Amazon. Pilot did a great job, arrived within the designated time frame and brought this 52 inch beauty into the room where I am putting the TV.
The unpacking and set-up was a snap - - the box comes apart easily by removing the two clips at the bottom of the box. I plugged in the TV and hooked up the HDMI cable from my Hi-Def cable box. Simple set-up.
Then, the fun began. First, the TV itself looks great. The glass frame around the screen is sharp looking (though I didn't really notice the red TOC coloring on this model). The swivel stand looks sharp and works really well.
The picture on the A630 is simply incredible. I broke in the TV by watching a college bowl game on ESPN HD and the colors, brightness and clarity were very much like being at the game. I have an older Samsung DLP TV in the Family Room, and this picture is a notch better. And, I noticed zero reflection on the TV in the bright room (my original fear about the A650). The sound is solid if not spectacular. There are tons of adjustments that can be made to the picture and sound, but I went with the standard settings (will play with the adjustments later).
I am looking forward to trying a few Blu-ray's on the TV in the future (on my PS3), and expect them to be incredible. I will update this review once I take the television's 1080p resolution for a ride.
All I can say is this may be the best electronics purchase of my life in terms of price, the purchase experience, and the product itself. Amazon and Samsung really came through!
The 630 model was about $100 bucks cheaper than the 650 model ($1799 vs $1899), and it was delivered to my door by Pilot 4 DAYS after I ordered it on Amazon. Pilot did a great job, arrived within the designated time frame and brought this 52 inch beauty into the room where I am putting the TV.
The unpacking and set-up was a snap - - the box comes apart easily by removing the two clips at the bottom of the box. I plugged in the TV and hooked up the HDMI cable from my Hi-Def cable box. Simple set-up.
Then, the fun began. First, the TV itself looks great. The glass frame around the screen is sharp looking (though I didn't really notice the red TOC coloring on this model). The swivel stand looks sharp and works really well.
The picture on the A630 is simply incredible. I broke in the TV by watching a college bowl game on ESPN HD and the colors, brightness and clarity were very much like being at the game. I have an older Samsung DLP TV in the Family Room, and this picture is a notch better. And, I noticed zero reflection on the TV in the bright room (my original fear about the A650). The sound is solid if not spectacular. There are tons of adjustments that can be made to the picture and sound, but I went with the standard settings (will play with the adjustments later).
I am looking forward to trying a few Blu-ray's on the TV in the future (on my PS3), and expect them to be incredible. I will update this review once I take the television's 1080p resolution for a ride.
All I can say is this may be the best electronics purchase of my life in terms of price, the purchase experience, and the product itself. Amazon and Samsung really came through!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Samsung LN52A630 Notes for Unpacking, Deciding and Set-Up
We have owned this TV for about two months now, and are delighted with the product.
A TIP BEFORE UNPACKING
I wanted to pass along one tip for a new purchaser. When I saw the size of this box in my kitchen, I thought it was going to be quite the challenge to unpack and get the set into the family room. Upon close inspection of the carton, I found small cartoon stencils depicting two plastic clips on the sides of the box at the bottom. After cutting the plastic banding, when you pull these two plastic tabs out, the entire box will lift off its base. With my wife steadying the TV, I was able to lift off the cardboard packaging and set it aside. This made the TV very easy for two people to lift out of the box bases and carry, with appropriate care. In my opinion, the TV came with very cleaver packaging. Maybe this tip wont help you decide to buy, but it should make the set up easier than attacking the box from the top with a box cutter.
PICTURE QUALITY
As for performance of the TV, we were upgrading from a 19-inch standard TV, so the results are (of course) amazing. When I was comparing TV's at the local Big Box, the picture quality looked virtually the same across all makes of TV's (when fed the same signal, High Def or Conventional). All looked excellent when fed a High Def signal, and pretty mediocre when fed a conventional signal. I know some people hold strong opinions about differences between brands, but my expereince was that they all looked pretty much the same, and way better than what I was used to.
SO, HOW DID WE PICK THIS ONE?
In the end, the matte finish, consumer rating and price were the deciders. The "touch of red" is very, very subtle; more marketing than material in my opinion. All of the Samsungs have a glass border around the perimeter of the TV. My wife liked that the width of the glass border around the TV is narrower on the A630 than the A650 Samsung LN52A650 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color. It is a point of personal preference, but the lines on the 630 looked cleaner than the on 650. The 750 model Samsung LN52A750 52-Inch 1080p DLNA LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color comes with "content": recipes, video clips and maybe other stuff. We decided that "content" was not what we needed when buying a television.
We have two windows in the room with the TV, plus ceiling lighting on dimmers. When the model A630 TV is on, there is no reflected light on the picture screen. To be honest, I can't say if the A650 would be any worse with reflected light, since I did not try it in the same room. I tend to doubt there would be much reflection on the glossy screen either because the brightness of the screen is so strong it would probably overcome the reflected light.
SYSTEM
As we were starting from nothing, we bought the Samsung blu-ray player and two HDMI cables and the TV in a package deal from Amazon. We also bought a Yamaha RX-V663BL receiver Yamaha RX-V663BL 665 Watt 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver and Harmon Kardon HKTS-15 5.1 speaker system Harman Kardon HKTS-15 5.1 Channel Speaker System from Amazon at the same time. I selected the speakers and receiver/amplifier unseen on the strength of the reviews I read here and elsewhere (Consumer Reports). We decided on a Dolby 5.1 speaker system and a 7.1 amplifier because we learned that while the best sound available over the HD broadcast channels is 5.1, the blu-ray dvd's could put out 7.1 sound on the HDMI cable. We wanted to have the amplifier/receiver decode the 7.1 signal and pass it directly to the speakers. With this configuration, we would only need the one HDMI cable up to the TV from the components, a cleaner look on the wall. Our room set-up allows for four satellites (plus the center channel and sub-woofer). Adding two more satellites in our room would be challenging the room layout. We use HDMI cables to connect from the cable company's dvr box to the amplifier, the blu-ray player to the receiver, and the receiver to the TV.
SETUP NOTES
I encountered two problems on installation: First, the amplifier kept shutting down at moderate volume. I traced the problem to my attachment of speaker wire strands at one of the satellite speakers. Then the amplifier would complete its calibration normally. We now have "shake the walls" quality sound. The second installation challenge was with the Samsung blu-ray player which could not recognize or play a blu-ray disc until I upgraded the firmware following the directions from Samsung's web site. The only DV we have tried is the Planet Earth DVD (blu-ray). It is completely awesome on this setup, really sensational.
I know that some reviewers recommend calibration of the TV to maximize the picture quality (even using third-party professionals who come to your house). We have not done this, nor have we tried to follow the directions in the user manual to improve the picture. We have not found reason to try to improve on the quality we saw right out of the box. The colors seem natural and bright, and the sharpness of the picture seems better than we could see with our eyes!
Thank you to everyone who wrote reviews before me. We are delighted with our purchase and appreciate your assistance.
A TIP BEFORE UNPACKING
I wanted to pass along one tip for a new purchaser. When I saw the size of this box in my kitchen, I thought it was going to be quite the challenge to unpack and get the set into the family room. Upon close inspection of the carton, I found small cartoon stencils depicting two plastic clips on the sides of the box at the bottom. After cutting the plastic banding, when you pull these two plastic tabs out, the entire box will lift off its base. With my wife steadying the TV, I was able to lift off the cardboard packaging and set it aside. This made the TV very easy for two people to lift out of the box bases and carry, with appropriate care. In my opinion, the TV came with very cleaver packaging. Maybe this tip wont help you decide to buy, but it should make the set up easier than attacking the box from the top with a box cutter.
PICTURE QUALITY
As for performance of the TV, we were upgrading from a 19-inch standard TV, so the results are (of course) amazing. When I was comparing TV's at the local Big Box, the picture quality looked virtually the same across all makes of TV's (when fed the same signal, High Def or Conventional). All looked excellent when fed a High Def signal, and pretty mediocre when fed a conventional signal. I know some people hold strong opinions about differences between brands, but my expereince was that they all looked pretty much the same, and way better than what I was used to.
SO, HOW DID WE PICK THIS ONE?
In the end, the matte finish, consumer rating and price were the deciders. The "touch of red" is very, very subtle; more marketing than material in my opinion. All of the Samsungs have a glass border around the perimeter of the TV. My wife liked that the width of the glass border around the TV is narrower on the A630 than the A650 Samsung LN52A650 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color. It is a point of personal preference, but the lines on the 630 looked cleaner than the on 650. The 750 model Samsung LN52A750 52-Inch 1080p DLNA LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color comes with "content": recipes, video clips and maybe other stuff. We decided that "content" was not what we needed when buying a television.
We have two windows in the room with the TV, plus ceiling lighting on dimmers. When the model A630 TV is on, there is no reflected light on the picture screen. To be honest, I can't say if the A650 would be any worse with reflected light, since I did not try it in the same room. I tend to doubt there would be much reflection on the glossy screen either because the brightness of the screen is so strong it would probably overcome the reflected light.
SYSTEM
As we were starting from nothing, we bought the Samsung blu-ray player and two HDMI cables and the TV in a package deal from Amazon. We also bought a Yamaha RX-V663BL receiver Yamaha RX-V663BL 665 Watt 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver and Harmon Kardon HKTS-15 5.1 speaker system Harman Kardon HKTS-15 5.1 Channel Speaker System from Amazon at the same time. I selected the speakers and receiver/amplifier unseen on the strength of the reviews I read here and elsewhere (Consumer Reports). We decided on a Dolby 5.1 speaker system and a 7.1 amplifier because we learned that while the best sound available over the HD broadcast channels is 5.1, the blu-ray dvd's could put out 7.1 sound on the HDMI cable. We wanted to have the amplifier/receiver decode the 7.1 signal and pass it directly to the speakers. With this configuration, we would only need the one HDMI cable up to the TV from the components, a cleaner look on the wall. Our room set-up allows for four satellites (plus the center channel and sub-woofer). Adding two more satellites in our room would be challenging the room layout. We use HDMI cables to connect from the cable company's dvr box to the amplifier, the blu-ray player to the receiver, and the receiver to the TV.
SETUP NOTES
I encountered two problems on installation: First, the amplifier kept shutting down at moderate volume. I traced the problem to my attachment of speaker wire strands at one of the satellite speakers. Then the amplifier would complete its calibration normally. We now have "shake the walls" quality sound. The second installation challenge was with the Samsung blu-ray player which could not recognize or play a blu-ray disc until I upgraded the firmware following the directions from Samsung's web site. The only DV we have tried is the Planet Earth DVD (blu-ray). It is completely awesome on this setup, really sensational.
I know that some reviewers recommend calibration of the TV to maximize the picture quality (even using third-party professionals who come to your house). We have not done this, nor have we tried to follow the directions in the user manual to improve the picture. We have not found reason to try to improve on the quality we saw right out of the box. The colors seem natural and bright, and the sharpness of the picture seems better than we could see with our eyes!
Thank you to everyone who wrote reviews before me. We are delighted with our purchase and appreciate your assistance.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Samsung LN52A630 superb
LN52A630
In searching for an LCD or plasma TV my main focus was an accurate and excellent picture at a somewhat reasonable price, and for LCD, a 120 hz refresh rate. I checked Consumer Reports and CNet for highly rated LCD's and plasmas and narrowed it down to 5 models from Samsung and Panasonic. The LN52A650 was very highly rated by both CR and CNet and one of my considerations, while the LN52A630 was not rated by either but it is a very similar model. I went to a store and saw all of the models I was interested in. All displayed excellent pictures and the plasmas were a pinch better but their screens were like mirrors and in a normally lit room reflective glare was very distracting. Some of the LCD models were almost as bad. The 630 and 650 were side by side making it easy to compare video on the 2 models and it was hard to notice any picture quality difference as both were excellent, except that when the screen went white, grey, or black the difference in glare was very noticeable. Since all of the models I was interested in displayed an excellent picture, screen glare became more of an important factor for me and the A630 was clearly a winner in that category. At home, I noticed it had noticeably less glare than with my old tube TV, and the picture was superb for both cable standard and HD broadcasts.
It came out of the box very easy, set up was very easy, and picture out of the box was excellent. For me, some minor tweaking such as contrast 94, brightness 55, sharpness 0, color 54, tint G46/R54, and backlight depending on how dim or bright your viewing room is, slightly improved the picture as well in my opinion. Sound quality is good. I have had this for 2 weeks and am very happy with it.
This TV is supposed to have TOC - the slightly red edge around the TV frame, which is pretty subtle when seen in person. On mine however, it is not red. Possibly a defect but one that I don't mind.
In searching for an LCD or plasma TV my main focus was an accurate and excellent picture at a somewhat reasonable price, and for LCD, a 120 hz refresh rate. I checked Consumer Reports and CNet for highly rated LCD's and plasmas and narrowed it down to 5 models from Samsung and Panasonic. The LN52A650 was very highly rated by both CR and CNet and one of my considerations, while the LN52A630 was not rated by either but it is a very similar model. I went to a store and saw all of the models I was interested in. All displayed excellent pictures and the plasmas were a pinch better but their screens were like mirrors and in a normally lit room reflective glare was very distracting. Some of the LCD models were almost as bad. The 630 and 650 were side by side making it easy to compare video on the 2 models and it was hard to notice any picture quality difference as both were excellent, except that when the screen went white, grey, or black the difference in glare was very noticeable. Since all of the models I was interested in displayed an excellent picture, screen glare became more of an important factor for me and the A630 was clearly a winner in that category. At home, I noticed it had noticeably less glare than with my old tube TV, and the picture was superb for both cable standard and HD broadcasts.
It came out of the box very easy, set up was very easy, and picture out of the box was excellent. For me, some minor tweaking such as contrast 94, brightness 55, sharpness 0, color 54, tint G46/R54, and backlight depending on how dim or bright your viewing room is, slightly improved the picture as well in my opinion. Sound quality is good. I have had this for 2 weeks and am very happy with it.
This TV is supposed to have TOC - the slightly red edge around the TV frame, which is pretty subtle when seen in person. On mine however, it is not red. Possibly a defect but one that I don't mind.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Samsung LN52A630 Product description error
I have purchased this TV and it is splendid. Unfortunately, the Amazon product description is wrong: the TV does not have an ethernet port and will not connect to the Internet. Photos of the connectors that have been posted to this page by consumers show no ethernet port. There is no mention in the product manual about an ethernet port and Samsung customer service tells me that it has none. This is a minor loss and doesn't detract from the worthiness of the product. (I spent 20 minutes on hold with Amazon after writing the foregoing. They agree that the product description is wrong and should be corrected. So, if you read this review but find no mention in the description of an ethernet port you will understand why.)
Update: Four days after Amazon agreed that the description is wrong it is still not corrected. Let's see how long it takes them to put it right.
Update: Four days after Amazon agreed that the description is wrong it is still not corrected. Let's see how long it takes them to put it right.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Samsung LN52A630 Thrilled with my selection
Bought the A630 just before Christmas, and unveiled it for the family on Christmas Day -- fantastic TV! Main reason for writing this review is to validate the comments on glare vs. the A650. We have a huge wall of east-facing windows directly behind the open TV-viewing area (den), and with the sun coming in the windows dark scenes will still have a bit of reflection (though I would not characterize it as a harsh "glare" -- it's still a matte effect). I never had the A650 in my house, but I did do a side-by-side comparison at Best Buy. There, the TVs are sequestered in a dark end of the store, with screens tilted slightly downward. But if you squat down and look up at the TVs, you can see the reflection of the gymnasium-style overhead lights elsewhere in the store, and the difference between the A630 and the A650 was striking: I knew I would forever be bugged by the A650's reflections, despite its slightly higher contrast ratio. If I had a home theater with controllable external light, I'd probably do the A650, but we don't have that option in our house.
The A630's amazing. Tons of menu options for the compulsive tweakers among us, but the default settings have worked well for us so far (and I don't think the default settings are the blast-you-into-buying big-box-store bright ones; for example the brightness defaults to 45%).
Zero-hassle setup: Christmas day, I pulled the old TV, put up the A630, hooked HDMI direct from the new (Panasonic) Blu-Ray player, ran the audio to my receiver, and dropped in the Polar Express Blu-Ray. Absolutely stunning out of the box with no problems, and we sat captivated by this near-theatre experience. Almost ran out of popcorn -- we were ON that train, holding onto the couch arms during the roller-coaster ride!
I need to give a thanks to all who have provided reviews of like models in Amazon -- the A630, A650, and the competitive models to those. These reviews were a significant source of research in my decision-making, and a huge help in addition to some others (like CNET). I'm grateful for those who took the time to provide thoughts on HDTVs; my research was made much shorter than my normal obsessive traits, and I'm extremely happy with the results.
If you're on the fence about the Samsung models, and you have any concern about the glare, grab the A630 and be done with it!
The A630's amazing. Tons of menu options for the compulsive tweakers among us, but the default settings have worked well for us so far (and I don't think the default settings are the blast-you-into-buying big-box-store bright ones; for example the brightness defaults to 45%).
Zero-hassle setup: Christmas day, I pulled the old TV, put up the A630, hooked HDMI direct from the new (Panasonic) Blu-Ray player, ran the audio to my receiver, and dropped in the Polar Express Blu-Ray. Absolutely stunning out of the box with no problems, and we sat captivated by this near-theatre experience. Almost ran out of popcorn -- we were ON that train, holding onto the couch arms during the roller-coaster ride!
I need to give a thanks to all who have provided reviews of like models in Amazon -- the A630, A650, and the competitive models to those. These reviews were a significant source of research in my decision-making, and a huge help in addition to some others (like CNET). I'm grateful for those who took the time to provide thoughts on HDTVs; my research was made much shorter than my normal obsessive traits, and I'm extremely happy with the results.
If you're on the fence about the Samsung models, and you have any concern about the glare, grab the A630 and be done with it!
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