Customer Reviews

Samsung LN40C650 40-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Got this, my first HDTV, for $749 total delivered. Seems like a great deal. Has the AA01 panel:

PROS: Very good HD picture, which becomes stunning with good source material (after calibrating the picture); excellent SD picture (better than the good CRT TV it replaced); tons of controls for picture calibration; streaming Netflix is great, the Pandora app has become my household's new source for music of all types, either through the TV speakers or piped to the stereo; ethernet makes upgrading firmware and internet apps very easy; lots of connectivity; easy to set up; light; swivel stand works well; power efficient; doesn't get hot; no noise or buzz; no dead or stuck pixels; has analog audio out jack (important for old A/V receivers); functions as an outstanding computer monitor (with DVI-to-HDMI cable); glossy screen helps picture and repels dust; can't even notice the red "Touch of Color" design.

CONS: Though black levels are generally very good, when the screen and room are both dark you can see some flashlighting around the corners and some bleedthrough of the backlight; very fast motion on screen will cause brief pixelization and loss of picture clarity (has to be very fast motion -- football and other sports look great); picture quality degrades quickly as you move off-center (though not as much as in some other LCD TVs); requires major picture calibration out of the box (I used settings found in reviews of this TV on the web, tweaked them a bit to preference, and the picture's much better, though it's hard to get it right); most of the current internet apps are useless; the factory preset modes are useless.

Overall it's a very good TV, with a picture that can sometimes be mesmerizing. And I'm glad I paid a bit extra for the C650's internet connectivity and glossy screen. But my main complaints - backlight bleedthrough, motion pixelization and off-center picture quality - lead me to believe that my next TV might be a plasma. Sound is adequate, neither a pro or con really. Four stars.

I'm not going to focus on picture quality, there are plenty of reviews for the other Samsung TV's in this class (LN**C6/5**)that will give you some idea. The short of it: Excellent picture quality, and superb build quality. Instead I'm going to focus on the extra "Internet@TV" features and it's media playback abilities. After all, that's the only reason to spend an extra hundred or two on this model right?

Some of the Internet@TV apps aren't as gimmicky as you might expect. Sure, there are some really awful games, some of which are trials. I certainly wouldn't expect to buy any games for this TV. Graphically, it isn't a capable machine. They sort of remind me of a set of mediocre 2D-only flash games with really poor framerates. So, game apps are out. That said, a small collection of the apps are actually very useful. Netflix works great, and did so right out of the box. Pandora is excellent, and unlike the online version, has no ads with a free account. The youtube app also works great, although searching for videos can be a pain using the remote since you have to use some sort of phone-like input method for typing. It does have T9 and a decent dictionary to speed things up. There are a couple of other video streaming apps that seem polished including Hulu Plus, Vudu, Blockbuster, and CinemaNow. Hulu Plus is still in beta, but after trying out a few of their samples, it seems well made. Vudu, Blockbuster, and CinemaNow are too expensive for my tastes, renting movies for 25%-30% of the price to own isn't worth it to me. And buying a digital copy from either place without also having a physical copy doesn't cut it. Especially if they are the same price.

There are twitter and facebook apps, but a lot of the use of those apps comes from communication. I haven't yet tried either of them, but I can't imagine trying to type out any sort of response using the remote. There's also a daily motion app, that works well and fits in the youtube category. Google maps is almost useful, but like the rest of the graphically intensive apps, there's a fluidity issue. Scrolling the map is a little choppy, and typing in addresses to get directions is slow using the remote. When you throw in the time it takes to load the app, type the addresses, and get your directions, you might as well have got up from the couch and used the computer. It's at least a cool toy to show friends.

The slideshow apps GettyImages, and Picasa Web Albums sort of fall in the same category. They both get a bunch of pics from the web, fine art, and photos, and display them as a slideshow on the TV. They work well enough, but could use a little polish; it would have been great if there was a smooth transition between pics, but both just lazily switch from one photo to the next.

There is a Napster app, but I don't have a subscription to try it out. I'd imagine it would work fairly well, and have a similar flow to the Pandora app, which is great. The AP news ticker app is pretty well done. Instead of interrupting TV, it puts a small ticker at the bottom of the screen and displays various news bytes. At any time, you can change the category or call up the news article being displayed to read it in it's entirety complete with pictures. All without any interruption.

The last app of sorts is the Yahoo! app, although what it amounts to is a gadget bar that runs across the bottom of the screen. You can call the gadget bar at any time by pressing the Yahoo button on the remote. There's a bunch of gadgets you can get for it, and a few redundancies with the apps. In a lot of ways it is more useful. For example, the Accuweather app is fairly lame and not really worth the time it takes to open it. But, the Accuweather gadget is quite a bit better - faster to open, doesn't interrupt what you are watching, has a five day forcast, radar, weather alarms, and a bunch of small bits of weather info. The news and finance gadgets aren't bad either.

The other reason you might want this TV over the lesser models it it's media playing capabilities. The TV itself doesn't play a whole host of formats. It doesn't seem to directly support a lot of fairly common codecs like h264 or AC3; it's possible that the videos I had in those formats, the TV just didn't like for other reasons like resolution, though. Your best bet are the older mpeg4 codecs like xvid/divx with simple mp3 audio in an avi container. This only matters though for videos that are on a device directly connected to a TV, like a flash drive or external hard drive. If you are using the networking capabilities to stream video from another computer, it can support just about every format and resolution. It has never failed to play a video from my PC. And those videos are in just about every format around. It's played DVD VOB's directly from a folder, mkv and avi containers, h264, xvid/divx, AC3 audio, etc.

Here's the key: You have to install a proper DLNA media streamer on the computer. Only one free one exists that'll to the job. Pay attention now. You have to use Serviio if you have any chance of playing all those formats. Serviio.org has all the details and a great community of Samsung TV users that have had excellent experience using the program. Some gripes with streaming on the TV though is that you can't fast forward or rewind yet. I believe Samsung is working on a technique to do it properly, but it's tricky to do from a DLNA protocol standpoint. Serviio also does a great job of grabbing meta-data (video art, genre, director etc.) from the title of the file. With Serviio, media streaming is a pleasure.

Some other things to note, Samsung does seem to be supporting the platform - every week or so, some apps have updates, the TV itself has had an update or two since I bought it about a month ago. With it connected to the internet all of this is painless and fast.

All in all, it's a great purchase. For the price I paid, the extra features were worth it. But it may not be for some others. If you don't want/need network media streaming capabilities, there isn't any reason to get this TV over it's lower cost brothers. For me, it was great having exactly two cables connected to the TV: Power and Ethernet. That's all I need for all my media.

Looked at many LCD TV's and the picture quality on a Samsung is hard to beat. Controls are easy to use on this set and hooking it up to a standard DVD player with HDMI cable produces a Movie theater picture response. Also if you subscribe to Cable and have an HD Cable Box...hook up with an HDMI cable and the picture is outstanding...Amazon took over a week for delivery (from TX)...shipping company was great in keeping me informed on exact delivery date....when it arrived the delivery driver brought it in, unpacked it, and made sure it was working....The best part was the overall cost...buying it thru Amazon saved me over $200 from the regular store price, and also had free shipping and no tax...so it was a savings all around.

I've only had this TV about two weeks, but am totally blown away by the picture quality. I was originally planning on getting the 550 series or a similar LG, but when I found the LN40C650 on sale for less than what I had priced the LN40C550, I jumped on it.

I have the TV connected to an HD cable converter using the HDMI connection, and the picture is fantastic. I also have an upconverting 1080p DVD player connected to it and I've never seen images so sharp and crisp. I had thought I'd need to upgraded to BD, but I can't see how the picture would be that much better.

While the Samsung Apps are interesting, I'm not sure if they're really worth the extra money. I've been using the Amazon Video on Demand through the Yahoo app with no problems. It was very easy to setup and easy to use. It's nice to be able to order movies and TV shows directly through the TV without having to turn on the computer. However, other apps aren't as useful. The YouTube app only shows you top rated videos and doesn't allow you to search. Although if you link your YouTube account to the TV you can view your favorites. You can only use Hulu if you subscribe to Hulu Plus and setting up apps like Facebook are painful as you have to enter your login and password through the TV remote. (Like typing on a telephone) Although these issues aren't really Samsung's fault but the fault of the app developer. (Amazon displays a code that you enter into your computer to link the TV to your Amazon account making set up super easy.)

The TV is also able to play media over the network from your computer, however the playback controls for this type of media is more limited and required installing a sharing application from Samsung on the PC.

I did find the Auto-Motion Plus 120Hz setting a little annoying. While it made it easier to read scrolling text, it made action scenes in movies appear jumpy. Luckily this is easy to turn off.

One small feature I really like about this TV is that in addition to the two digital audio outputs it also has an analog audio output that allowed me to connect it to my existing analog stereo system. The LG that I was looking at only had digital output which would have required me to buy a new stereo.

The backlighting on the remote is also a nice feature, it's just too bad that it can't control my cable box.

Overall I have no regrets on purchasing this TV.

Got this baby a little cheaper about a month ago -- Amazon's 2 year interest free promo made me jump.

I find myself to be a tech geek and this TV filled my needs. WMP sharing on networked computers works well with the built-in media player the TV has. As long as it has an avi extension, it will show up (and play). I watched a 1080p MKV that just needed the mkv extension changed to avi. Quality was stunning. Have not encountered anything that the media player can't play.

I noticed an update for the TV yesterday, which finally fixed the Netflix and other Internet@TV stuff. Netflix streaming works well for anyone familiar with the way it works.

ToC is barely noticeable (but who cares really).

my setup:

Samsung 7.1 (interacts with TV)

XBOX 360
UVERSE HD
HTPC

using HDMI/Optical only

Happy buyer!

This is my first HD TV and I have to say its pretty awesome. The picture is crazy good, sometimes it almost seems too good. Like you're no longer watching a movie, but rather actors on a set. It was a little trippy at first but it was easy to get used to.

The first time you turn on the tv it will walk you through a set up routine. I liked this because it got me familiar with the tv and everything got set up right. Using all of the features is really easy. Like navigating through all the menus and features or switching between different components. Speaking of components I just found out that when the tv is off and you turn on your blue ray, the tv will turn itself on all by itself and automatically switch to the blueray input - pretty cool in my book.

The reason I picked this TV was because of the great Samsung reviews on CNET and for the ability to play Netflix. I've got to say that Netflix on the TV is awesome. It's way better than watching movies on your computer, way better.

The only issue I have right now isn't really the TV's fault. My streaming from Netflix gets spotty sometimes and the shows I'm watching will stop and re-buffer multiple times. I blame my internet connection and not the TV.

One unexpected benefit I've gotten is pulling up the weather on Yahoo!. In the past I would have to turn on my computer to check the weather and this could take a couple of minutes. Now I just turn on the TV and click the Yahoo! button, click on the weather and there it is. I can be in and out in 30 seconds. I'm pretty happy with my new TV.

I got my TV in August 2010 - setup was simple and easy. The TV looks great, and it has scored very well in most picture quality reviews. I paid the extra money for this model with the internet capabilities but probably shouldn't have. I've found really no use for most of the Samsung Apps - nobody really is going to check facebook or twitter on their TV anyway. Netflix is probably the big draw, but I currently am not using Netflix. I've tried some of the movie renting apps and they work fine. The DLNA works, and is cool for a few days, but I never really have a need for it. I got the wireless adapter for the TV and it seems to work just fine also. So I'll focus my review on my experience with what happened when something went wrong with my TV.

After three months, the TV stopped working. The whole screen went dead, I could smell a faint electrical burning smell, and no lights on the TV would work at all. I called Samsung, gave them the information for the TV and they contacted the local repair shop that would come out and fix it. This part all went smooth.

I talked to the local repair shop and described what had happened with the TV, and over the phone he diagnosed it as a power supply issue. In the past, Samsung has had ongoing problems with their power supplies, specifically the 2008 and 2009 models. Now, because the power supply went out in my 2010 model it could just mean that I was unlucky, but it could also mean that Samsung hasn't really resolved their power supply issues. It remains to be seen which of these is true. The main problem that I had was that it took weeks for the necessary part to come in. I talked with the repair guy about it. If Samsung has power supply issues why don't they keep samsung power supplies in stock? He also told me that Panasonic ships parts overnight while samsung does not. This is a real issue. We know that a certain amount of LCD TVs will fail within the warranty time frame - it's just the way it is. Getting these TVs fixed as fast as possible should be a top priority for any company, and I feel that Samsung is lagging behind. Once the part did come in, it was a 15 min. fix and all is back to normal with the TV. The repair shop and Samsung handled all the other details of the warranty claim, no hassel for me. But how long before the new power supply fails?

So I guess my recommendation to you is if you're trying to decide between samsung and another TV company the stats say they each have a similar chance of failing within 3 years. If that happens, which company will try to get your TV fixed the fastest? Probably not Samsung. It's a "what if", but if everything else is equal I would avoid Samsung just for this reason.

This is a great TV. The picture is very clear, the color is great. Set up was very easy and when I did get confused I called the Samsung support line and they were very helpful and very knowledgeable I have not used all the internet features yet but I can't wait to try them. I recommend this TV and I am very pleased with my purchase.

The TV itself is great: picture quality, sound, design.

BUT: If you are thinking about buying this particular model because of its internet features: Think twice. Until today (06/01/2010) I have not been able to play a single movie from Netflix. Also the most recent update did not resolve this issue. I can connect to Netflix and even see my Instant Queue, but the TV freezes when I select a movie to watch. I have to unplug the power to make the TV usable again. Yes, just like a Windows computer.

Since I wanted to buy a Blu-Ray player anyway, I now bought an LG-BD550 which is actually able to stream Netflix properly. With the combination of TV and Blu-Ray player I am happy now - except that I have to use 2 remote controls to watch a streamed movie from Netflix.

So my advice is... if you want to stream Netflix from this TV, save the extra bucks on the internet feature from Samsung and buy the model without it.

I really like this television. The picture isn't quite as nice as my LED Samsung TV (UN55B7000) but its very close and still looks great. The design is very appealing and its relatively thin for a non-LED backlit television(which I think makes it look nicer when mounted on the wall). Overall I would definitely recommend the television and will continue buying Samsung. Also just thought I would add, this is the second TV I bought from Amazon and I have to say I have no complaints there either. The prices were great and the TV's arrived very quickly.