Customer Reviews

Samsung LN46B530 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have owned this TV for about 5 months and I am very impressed with this TV and have many good things to say about it. I currently have this TV hanging on my wall and usually watch it at around a 12-foot distance which I believe is a good distance for a 46-inch TV. I am also using this TV as a monitor for a home theater PC which looks just as good as my other computer monitor, if not better. The only reason i didn't give this TV 5 stars is because of the built in speakers


PROS

Matte screen finish (Reduces glare significantly which is a big plus when viewing in a room with lots of windows)

Built-in video up-scalar is awesome (I am always impressed when watching VHS and DVD movies.)

Power Consumption (Only 230 Watts powered)

Weight (Weight without the stand is less than 50 lbs which is light enough for me to lift it onto the wall by myself)

HDMI connections (3 HDMI connections seems plenty enough for the devices I have currently)

60,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio (twice as good as previous model)

CONS

Built in speakers (Speakers started to rattle and buzz after the volume was turned up to around 50. I would defiantly recommend a home audio system if you want to get the full movie experience)

Component video connections (I had to buy a component switch that could handle my component connections from my Wii, Playstation, and DVD player)

This will be my 3rd HDTV purchase as somehow I have been unofficially designated the HDTV guru of my friends and family. I have done ALOT of research (about 3 years worth). I have become quite familiar with the HDTV market and various HDTV brands and what they offer, pros and cons of each etc.

FYI:
Right now is probably the best I have ever seen the HDTV market for purchasing a HDTV set.

Amazon is by far the best source to make your HDTV purchase decision for several reasons.
1. Reliable Customer Service
2. No Sales Tax
3. Extended premium warranties are by far better and cheaper than at the brick and mortar stores.
4. Customer Reviews are extrememly helpful as people that have already purchased the TV may point something out you may not have thought about.
5. Free Shipping

My Previous Purchases (All Purchased from Amazon):
1. Sony KDL-40V2500 (For myself)
2. Sony KDL-40S5100 (For a friend)(contacted sony and had them send be a USB flash drive (for free) with the firmware update preloaded and have not had any problems since)
3. Samsung LN46B530 (For my grandpa)(Does NOT have Red touch of color as I think that feature is ugly)
4. I have setup and installed countless other HDTV's for friends and family members that I did not purchase.

But enough about that, lets take a look at the Samsung LN46B530 shall we?
PRICE WAS AWESOME, Under $850 for a 46" 1080p Samsung?? Where do I sign?!
Out of the box impression is quite normal, packaging is plentiful and the TV is well protected for shipping. The panel itself is NON-REFLECTIVE which is great. For those of you who may not have thought about it, most HDTV's are insanely polished and look great in the store, however when you get home what happens is that window or lamp is making a glare in the middle or half the screen. Beleive me, it may not be that big of a deal at first, but after a while day after day after day it really becomes annoying.

One thing I did notice is the power cord that comes with the TV is NOT very long, maybe 5.5 - 6ft tops. No worries, all you have to do if you need a longer power cord is go here:
Belkin 12ft AC Replacement Power Cord (AC Male to AC Female) And it will work just fine.

The TV stand that comes with it is nice and sturdy and swivels from side to side. There are no side inputs on the TV, however the TV controls are on the lower right hand side of the TV which is nice if you either wall mount or use the provide stand. Comes in handy if you can't find the remote. Conversely, on some TV's the buttons are on top of the TV which could create headaches if the TV is wall mounted.

Keep in mind that this TV is shiny everywhere except the screen so dusting will be a weekly chore to keep it looking nice. Remember, DO NOT use windex or alcohol or soap and water to clean off the viewing screen. A soft cotton cloth LIGHTLY dampened with just a little water cleans the screen just fine. There are HDTV cleaner solutions but I would recommend against it. The TV does come with a small microfiber dusting cloth, this is also ideal to use, however, keep it dry. The shiny surfaces surrounding the TV are fingerprint magnets.

Contrary to other reviews, I found the TV's internal speakers to be satisfactory and without buzzing even at maximum volume. Granted the TV doesn't have much bass but I didn't really mess with the volume settings much. Of course a surround sound system is the best option, but if you don't have surround sound it really isn't that big of a deal.

Standard Definition channels look the best I have ever seen in a HDTV. I wasn't really expecting much since this is a 46" HDTV so I figured SD viewing would be slightly painful, of course I was pleasantly surprised. I did read a review that said that the TV has an internal upscaler but I was unable to produce any evidence of this via amazon or samsungs official site specifications. The TV DOES have an internal ASTC tuner that allows the TV to receive and decode DTV transmissions from your local TV stations via the air waves via "rabbit ear antenna".

HD of course is phenominal, I was never really able to tell much difference between 60HZ and 120HZ, certainly not a justifyable cost to be sure IMO.

One gripe I have on this TV is the lack of inputs. Sony seems to be king in this department in my experience. It has plenty of HDMI inputs (3) however there is only 1 component and 1 composite. Certainly you can buy component and composite switches to expand input capacity but of course that is just one/two more things you have to deal with. Nowadays just about everything is HDMI anyways so it is probably a non-issue in your case.

Overall considering the cost and the fact super-saver shipping only took 2 days to deliver, I give this TV 4.8 stars. Minus .2 for lack of plentiful component and composite inputs.

We recently replaced an old tube style TV with this Samsung 46" HDTV and are very satisfied with our purchase. The picture is incredibly clear and the colors are well balanced. Reflections from nearly windows are virtually non-existant and off-axis viewing provides no noticable deterioration in picture quality which are a big plus. The only marginal aspect of this HDTV is its internal speakers which offer fairly limited voice and music quality. Using separate stereo or home theater sound components is highly recommended. All in all a great TV!

I bought this TV after a very long period of research, based on the generally positive reviews of Samsung LCDs. I was aware that Samsung uses a variety of sources for the LCD panels for their TVs and had heard that some of them were not so good; even so, I thought I'd end up with a pretty good TV. I was wrong. I received a unit with one of the "bad" panels and it looked absolutely horrible to my eyes - ghosting and trailing everywhere, terrible off-angle colors even for a LCD, also a fair bit of backlight clouding (which I'm aware is an issue with many LCDs out there, but still disappointing to see). Now, a friend of mine has an older Panasonic with an IPS type panel that I think looks terrific aside from fairly poor black levels. I thought that a new Samsung surely could best this, but I didn't realize how much poorer the PVA/MVA panels they use are, especially when you get one out of the bottom of the bucket like me.

I'd like to think of some good pros to put here as well, but I don't have much to say. It was bright, almost unnaturally so. I guess this could be good or bad. I wasn't able to find a setting that I was quite comfortable with though. TV commercials (VIA Comcast HD cable) were blinding while the actual programs (Lost and 24 especially) were dark, muddy and hard to see. The picture was very sharp and displayed details nicely, at least when things weren't moving around too much. Video games (Xbox 360 with HDMI) performed a fair bit better than TV programming, with no perceivable input lag with the set in Game Mode. I didn't get around to testing any DVDs because the ghosting/trailing effect was bothering me too much to enjoy anything. I will say that the physical appearance of the TV was very sleek and stylish - that's one part they got right.

Now as for the customer service end of things: I didn't care for the company Amazon used to ship, called "Pilot". They didn't call me until the late evening of Amazon's "guaranteed" delivery date, setting up a time several days later, on a Friday between 10am-2pm with no option to schedule anything more convenient (oh, and they finally arrived at 3pm). The guys I spoke to and who delivered the set were polite enough but offered no assistance for even lifting the TV out of the box.

I am extremely happy with Amazon's return service however. I simply set up a return through the website and Pilot gave me a call the next business day to setup a pickup appointment. The original packaging was destroyed when I had unpackaged the TV but they had no problem with that and merrily took it away. Amazon has issued me a full refund (I payed only $4 return shipping) and aside from the initial delivery hassle I had a very good buying and returning experience. If I need to order another item like this online I'll definitely have Amazon near the top of my list again.

IN CONCLUSION: I personally will never consider a Samsung TV again. The B530 is not the only model that is part of the panel lottery. My advice would be to stay away, unless you're buying from a local store where you can easily make exchanges. Frankly this along with the other issues typical of LCDs (backlight clouding, bad black levels, icky off-angle viewing, etc.) has steered me in the direction of plasma. I'm probably going to be going with something from Panasonic's 2010 lineup.

For the price 1,099 and quality is unbelievable 60,000:1 crystal clear picture even use antenna for HDTV the sound with build in speaker was good, don't let the price fool you. It's just awesome..I've this TV about a month now no problem so far.and don't worry about 120 MHz thing you don't even notice if there is any difference.

I had been saving for my intro to the HDTV world for a good 18 months. I originally was going with a 40" TV and was eyeing a Sony, the KDL 40S4100 (then replaced by 40S5100). I later decided I would put the TV in a different room and was looking at 46" TV's. Once settling on the 46" size, and with my budget, I wanted an inexpensive one that still looked crisp but maybe didn't have all the features I wasn't using before anyway with standard TV. I expected to automatically go with the 46" version of the Sony model I was set on. After looking at the TV's in stores though, the Samsung LN46B530 stuck out as the best color and crispest picture of the TV's in its price range/feature range. The Sony appeared somewhat dull colored next to this Samsung in stores, though it seemed to depend what store I was in and how they were hooked up. My brother has the LN46B650 which has the 120hz, but I didn't want to spend the extra $400. I took my chances with the LN46B530 and 60hz.

I have had this TV for about a month now and have no complaints. I had it for about a week before getting the HD receiver and was worried I would be disappointed even once HD was hooked up, but it really is night and day.
I mostly watch sports on it, and mostly hockey for sports. I haven't seen hockey on a 120hz vs. 60hz next to each other so I don't have anything to compare to, but I don't feel like I am missing anything with watching sports on this 60hz. I read some reviews on this TV where they had some issues with some inputs, etc., but I have not experienced any problems whatsoever (yet, only had it 1 month).

One feature I like about it is the swivel feature since my room is setup where some seats don't have a real direct angle to the TV. It was easy to setup very quickly. If I were to wall mount this, I suppose the lack of any side inputs would be a negative, but I was not wall mounting it.

I just have to bow down when it comes to the service Amazon provides! Their customer service, product and benifets are second to none! I purchased this t.v. for my girlfriend after going to every store in town. I don't live in a large city but you know, walmart/sams club/best buy/sears. As always, Amazon crushed them. They beat the price of the tv by $60.00 alone. Then you factor no tax and free shipping... Its a no brainer! The only hold up I had with the whole transaction was with Polit. I missed their phone call the first time so it took an extra week for delivery to my area. Amazon refunded an extra $40 for the delay! Wow! I just can't thank them enough! Who else would do that? As for the tv... Its a Samsung! I feel they make one of the best LCD's on the market. Have no worries this 530 series is gorgous!!! We hooked it up last night to HD cable via HDMI and (BAM) flawless picture! I have a Panasonic Plasma 50" S1 series. I love it also. Its a hard choice really between the two. I think the black levels and contrast are nicer via plasma, but the Samsung LCD has more pop! Brigher colors! Anyways, have no worries about this tv, there is no gamble here... As for Amazon, they are THE BEST. Sign up for prime, sit back, and enjoy making the best decision you possibly could have!

Enjoy!

This is my 4th HDTV in the house. First was a Syntax Olevia LCD, next was a Pioneer Elite Plasma, next was a Vizio LCD, and finally this. The picture quality is simply amazing, a very close second to the Elite (a top-tier professional level plasma TV). I'm amazed with the quality I get on this through HDMI for my Xbox 360, as well as the HDMI/VGA ports for my pc. A wonderful picture. Poor quality speakers, but it's not really a big issue. Overall, a great TV for the money. I'm amazed I paid only $100 more than I did for my old Syntax Olevia four years ago, which was 20 inches smaller.

EDIT: also wanted to comment that the free, scheduled delivery was top notch and very on time.

We just got the tv yesterday and so far I like it a lot, the picture is a little bit blurred in some channels but that is because we do not have cable so we do not have hdtv.As far as the speakers go, I think they are great, at least by my standards. The sound can get pretty loud and still clear at half of its volume, so to me they sound very good. Initially, after reading the reviews I thought I would need to buy a surround sound system, but I am not going to now. When connected to my laptop, the tv has a great picture and I use it to watch music videos through youtube. It sounds and looks great. I think it is a great buy all in all.

I am a single mom of two tech savy teenagers. At first I was overwhelmed by the numerous makes and models of all the LCD HDTV's. I'm so glad that my research paid off. My kids and I love the picture quality and the superb sound that this tv has. An educated consumer is a smart consumer and also makes for a very happy family!