Customer Reviews

Samsung LN52B630 52-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color

5 star:		(96)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After spending way too much time researching and viewing these TVs at big box stores, I eventually bought this set from Amazon, and could not be happier.

I was in the plasma vs LCD debate for a while and decided that I needed/wanted the brightness of an LCD, didn't want to worry about any burn in issues (I know they are almost non-existent today anyway). I wanted 1080p and most plasma sets with 1080p are close to this price point as well. I debated for about a month between last years ln52a630 and the ln52a750, and which one to buy. The matte screen on the 630 was its highlight for me, but there was a sacrifice in the contrast ratio and other miscellaneous little "bells and whistles". The A750 being the more expensive model, the price point dropped so much, it was now pretty much an even swap. Hearing about the problems associated with the 750 including glare, halo and TOC flaking issues, I decided the 630 with its matte screen was the TV for me.

So, I price shopped the A630 for a few weeks until I stumbled across the new version of the set, the ln52b630. A little more money is WELL spent when upgrading to this TV. The contrast ratio is double 40,000:1 vs 80,000:1, and even dominates last years 50,000:1 A750's contrast ratio. Again, this TV also has the MATTE SCREEN! Almost no glare issues in my very bright viewing room, that has multiple windows and a sliding glass door.

The TV's picture quality is the best my friends and I have seen so far from an LCD. Deepest blacks and brightest brights are the comments I have been hearing when people see this TV in operation. The clarity in blu-ray 1080p with 120hz is breathtaking, you almost don't want to take your eyes off the screen. I have it connected to Dish Network's HD service and the PQ in 1080i is also superb, a slight loss in clarity and blur in fast moving sequences that is non-existent in 1080p. Standard def programing also looks great as well.

As far as audio, I have it setup through surround sound, so I cannot comment.

I have yet to connect an ethernet cable to use those features as well.
**UPDATE** I have attached the ethernet cable and the "infolink" features do work as advertised. It is a nice feature, news stories, temperature/weather, stocks all positioned in the corners of the screen. Will i ever use it, probably not. But, it works as advertised. I wish it was a way to update firmware for the TV rather than for these features.

The USB media port is another excellent feature. It allows you to play movies, music and pictures directly from the side of the TV with a USB flash drive or external hard drive. It will play almost any codec you throw at it, supposedly even x264(HD), have not been able to test this.

The remote is nicely designed and easy to use. Samsung eliminated the dreaded "click-wheel' on this years new models.

Delivery: Pilot was my shipping service, and I cannot say anything bad about the service. The delivered early and made the necessary phone calls to arrange delivery. The box was in great shape, as well as the TV inside.

Background:
I have been researching and holding out for a new TV upgrade over the past 2 years. Samsung was one of the very few manufacturers that offered the matte non-glare screens, which is necessary in our sunlight-filled living room. But I was always waiting for the right price. So when I was about to get the LN52A630, I heard about the new B series being released in 2009. So I had to wait for it with 120Hz of refresh and an upgrade from a dynamic contrast ratio of 40,000:1 to 80,000:1. Plus the look and shape of the B series seemed so much nicer to me than the A series. So Amazon had offered a free Sony blu-ray player with the purchase of certain Samsung models (including the LN52B630), and that was my cue to finally place my order on 7/4/09.

Delivery:
When I placed our order I originally set the delivery date for 7/15/09. Once I got the CEVA tracking number from Amazon's shipping notification email, I started to track our TV. It turns out one of their warehouses is located in PA and very close to NJ. Our TV was right in our vicinity on 7/7/09. So I gave CEVA a call about delivering early and they were more than happy to deliver the TV on 7/10/09. The delivery went well, and the communication I had with CEVA was great. The guys brought the TV up three flights of stairs, set up the TV on the stand, gently placed the TV on our console, plugged it in and then turned it on...

Product:
Picture - We started to switch channels to see how it looked. The picture is truly amazing. The default settings really do make movies look like a soap opera, which is really weird and fascinating at the same time. It does take some time to find the right settings for your environment and input type. It's great that once the settings are adjusted for a certain input it keeps the settings. There are so many different settings as well, which allow for a lot of flexibility to adjust for a certain device input. For cable we have the TV set on natural and AMP on clear. HD cable is great and standard cable is pretty good on a huge LCD screen. XBOX is on game mode and looks wonderful. My husband was dying to try Call of Duty on it and was totally blown away by the colors and picture on the screen. When it was time to check out the blu-ray, we played Baraka (which I totally recommend to appreciate the 1080p experience). It was unreal! The picture was stunning and the detail was unbelievable. It was like we were there in person.

Sound - Even though we have our B630 hooked to our surround sound receiver, I tested the sound from the TV. It's not bad and the volume is pretty decent, actually pretty loud even at half way.

Other - The B630 is a really attractive TV. Everyone has commented on the touch of red and thinks it's really cool. The available inputs are quite sufficient. Swivel stand is terrific for when I'm in the kitchen cooking or to just swivel around dependent on my whereabouts. The swivel stand is also a plus when getting to the back of the TV to easily work on the cables and inputs. Viewing angles are pretty good. Matte non-glare screen is wonderful too; there is no need to shut the shades during the day any more. Tested out the USB input with an external hard drive on media play and found the response time pretty fast for a television. The media play mode is quite intuitive and easy to use. Photos look amazing as well. I did notice the auto dimming during credits of movies and black screens. This happens when the Energy Saving option is used. We set the option to off and now the dimming is non-existent. InfoLink via ethernet is a nice feature, but limiting. I hope that Samsung makes an update to allow more widgets and online viewing. BTW, the ethernet is great for getting available firmware updates from Samsung. Firmware v1009 was available for download and the update was quick and seamless. Since I didn't have the TV long enough, I don't know what the firmware update improved, but the TV is working just fine.

We love our Samsung LN52B630. I have to shamefully admit that I have fallen asleep in front of TV almost every night for the past 12 days. My husband would normally be jealous, but he also shares the same feelings I have for our new TV. We highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. The TV has surpassed all of our expectations. Amazon has allowed us to have it at a terrific price and offered free great white glove delivery service as well. It's a winning combination and we couldn't be happier.

We were looking for a 55" matte screen lcd tv, but there doesn't seem to be any. I came across this 52" & took a chance, I couldn't find it in our local stores. I am very pleased with it, the picture is great. I am not an expert, so I can't give a detailed review. I can say that my husband said it has a heck of a picture (the HD is great).
I also wanted to comment on the delivery. I have read reviews on other tvs that gave bad reviews to pilot service. When I first got the email saying it would be delivered by pilot, I expected the worst. There service was great, they set it up in the room I requested, attached the stand & checked for a blue screen & I verified no damage before I signed. They also took away the packaging.
Also, Kudos to Amazon. I ordered the TV on Wednesday & it was delivered Friday. I couldn't ask for more. I am happy with the tv & Amazon's service.

I was looking for the best matte finish 52" lcd I could find and I believe this is the one. We had to return a very expensive Panasonic plasma after experiencing glare problems in our bedroom. Our TV faces two windows and the matte finish completely washes out any problems that we were having with the plasma. I prefer lcd tvs anyway for the nice, bright colors and whites. It's funny how the salesmen at the stores always try and convince you that the darks are so great on the plasmas, but fail to mention that plasmas are darker tvs and have gray whites. This tv has great blacks compared to my two year old Sony Bravia lcd. Samsung increased the contrast ratio on this model from previous models giving you both great brights and darks.

The only reason I didn't give this tv five stars is that we have had some issues with blur. My wife and I decided that the "soap opera" (strange affect of picture that eliminates the movie feel of watching tv) was not for us. We preferred watching at 60 hertz (automotion off)at all times except for sports (which 120 hertz is awesome!). My old Sony Bravia handled 60 hertz much better than this tv. When the camera would pan from side to side during a movie or show, the Sony only caused motion blur a few times over the two years we owned it. This Samsung shows motion blur VERY REGULARLY at 60 and 120 hertz. It can be very distracting. This is my only criticism, but it is a real problem. If you plan on watching in 120 hertz and prefer super real affect it gives, this tv will blow you away. It does produce an absolutely beautiful picture with bright vivid colors. The HD picture is stunning. I just wish it would do at least as well as my two year old Sony did on 60 hertz since this is how we almost always watch it. I just don't know why this feature would regress on a tv that is two years newer than my old one. Every other feature has been upgraded and is much better except for this one.

Still, overall I am a satisfied customer. I just with that one thing was different. I just thought I would make people aware of this one issue in case you are primarily a 60 hertz tv watcher like we are.

UPDATE 10-11-09: After doing some research, the blur problem I am having with this tv is better. I've found that you can experience 120 hertz without the soap opera effect, but I'm still getting minor blur issues. I don't know if I'll ever get it to go away completely, but I changed the automotion to "custom" and set the blur reduction all the way to 10. I am still experimenting with the judder reduction, but it works best in the range of 0-4. The lower the judder reduction setting, the lesser the soap opera effect. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to further eliminate blur on television shows and blu-ray movies without turning up the judder reduction setting, please leave a comment. Any help would be much appreciated!

This television makes everything look fantastic regardless of whether my room is pitch black or streaming sun through the many windows and sliding glass doors! I get so many compliments on this picture! Even my cable guys say WOW that is a beautiful picture not because of our feed but because of what your tv is doing to it!
Also, the swivel stand is perfect and will be a must have for me in all my future purchases.

Now for the bad news! I purchased this new HDTV to take advantage of being newly able to access AT&T Uverse Fiberoptics which is supposed to give you the best picture. However connecting Samsung LN52B630 to Uverse receiver via HDMI is problematic! It causes audio and video disturbances such as juttering in and out. It causes the DVR to become non-responsive to remote or to do something crazy like fast forward when you press pause.

On page 19 of the Series 6 (630, 640, and 650) Samsung LCD TV User Manual it says: HDMI Black Level - This function is active only when an external device is connected to the TV via HDMI. The HDMI Black Level function MAY NOT BE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL EXTERNAL DEVICES"

If you have this tv with AT&T Fiber-optic Uverse DVR and find that you are having all sort of issues with your ATT Uverse DVR remote, the problem is the HDMI cable between certain Samsung models (including this one) and the Uverse receiver. The best solution is to connect with component cables.

It is a known issue for several years. You can google Uverse Samsung HDMI to read more about it. I haven't had any problems connecting LN52B630 with HDMI to any DVD player or any other component. I have not tried connecting LN52B630 to HD from Cox or DirecTV or Dish which are my other options. AT&T replied: Sorry for the delay in response, had to do some additional research. Without getting too technical, it looks like your TV model uses "enhanced HDMI algorithms". Basically, this is mfg's own idea of how HD & digital pictures should look on their TV. In this particular case, trying to get Darker blacks, and then bring out brighter more vibrant colors. This requires the HDMI components sending the feed to send simultaneous multiple feeds which the TV can then overlay. The TV is attempting to, and expecting this, but only getting the 1 feed (note this is standard HDMI functionality). So your TV is then darkening down, to bring out the black, but then has nothing to overlay and bring out the brighter & more sharp color. There *SHOULD* be an option to disable this "enhancement", though chances are, you will never find it easily. This is actually very much illegal as well, to be "HDMI Complaint", yet have your own custom HDMI firmware standard. This is very much a problem right now in the industry. A few providers do honor these "enhancement modifications", though you will find most have will have issues, since modifying the HDMI firmware is against the usage policy of the HDMI standard. and The issue with HDMI is not technically with the STBs, though with most of the HD Tv manufactures, using custom HDMI setups not conforming to standards. The ATT STBs conform directly with HDMI standards, no extra fancy or custom features. This causes problems with $1k-$2k plasma/lcd makers which try to make their HDMI "better" by not conforming to standards. It is unfortunate that ATT generally gets the blame for this.

I turned off all the algorythms (not just the blacker black one) and still had the crazy uverse receiver response to remote commands using the HDMI cable. I removed the HDMI cable and replaced with component cables and the problem disappears and the picture actually improves so something is really screwy with the HDMI connection between Samsung LN52B630 and AT&T Uverse receiver.

Solid LCD HDTV with a great set of features. Sound is decent, picture is amazing, and the menus are intuitive and accessible. Remote is well-designed and lights up in the dark. Got it 5 weeks ago, and with very few tweaks have enjoyed DVDs, HD programming, and Blu-ray. I plugged my cable feed directly into the TV, and with no cable box I get about 10 HD channels in addition to my normal channel lineup.

The swivel stand is sturdy and adjustable, and the 120Hz refresh rate is all you need for watching sports without blurring. Screen does not reflect much and picture is vivid even in bright sunlit rooms.

The Infolink feature is useless--if I want to check the weather or stock prices, I'll change the channel or jump on the web.

Pilot delivery service was extremely fast, coming the day after I placed my order, and the two guys were in and out in ten minutes.

I got this when Amazon was offering a free Blu-ray player with it. All told, a fantastic TV and flawless purchase experience from order to delivery. Buy this baby, you won't regret it!

Got a $[...] windfall of cash in Oct. 2009 and my wife had green-lighted a bigger TV purchase so w/ money in hand, I began my quest for the ideal TV.... I am an admitted research freak so of course I created my multi-columned spreadsheet and began scouring the internet for information. We had been using a 2005 Samsung 32" LCD as our main family room TV (due to financial constraints when we bought our new house)... of course, I had done my research on that TV and it had proven to be a good purchase, so Samsung was already on the top of my short list.

I could have gone w/ a cheaper Sharp or the 55-inch LG, but ultimately decided to spend a couple-few hundred more for the LN52B630 and not second guess myself later. BTW, my wife had seen her friend's LN52A650 and loved the red touch of color bezel, so the extra cost was easy to sell.

Anyway, in case you haven't fallen asleep, the LN52B630 is awesome. Blacks and contrast blow away our old TV (after setting adjustments..more later). At first, I was a little thrown off with the 120hz (I'm not a big fan of the 'hyper-real soap-opera' effect that some 120hz TV's display)... However, on this TV, you can manually adjust the 2 sub-settings on the 120Hz 'AMP' (Auto Motion Plus) feature... I read a review from some canadian guy and he suggested setting the AMP to 'CUSTOM' and then separately turning the 'blur reduction' up to a fairly high setting (7 thru 10) and turning the 'anti-judder' effect down to '0'.... bingo! Smooth 120hz refreshed picture without the weirdness.

You will also need to tinker with the settings (TV is on Showroom bright out of the box).. you'll want to turn the brightness and backlight down by a lot and consider turning off some of the other misc. processing modes.... I'd recommend getting a calibration DVD or having a tech tune it to get optimal picture.

One thing I've found is that the bigger and better the TV, the more you can tell the quality of the source material.
HiDef content looks fantastic (the higher the better) as do video games. SD looks eh... well... kinda like crap. Can't wait till it goes away. I can now see the diff. between 1080i and 720p. Anything 1080i looks brilliant and Blu-Ray... wow! To be honest, when I first got my PS3, I really couldn't tell the difference between Blu-Ray and upconverted DVD on my old 32" Sammy. Both looked great... but on this 52"... you can really see the difference. Blu-Ray - wow! it's mind-blowing. and it handles it at the orig. 24p.

I could go on and on... it's a great set. The only minor gripe I have is the inability to save your picture tuning preferences as a 'CUSTOM' saved setting and naming it something, which means that if I want to change the settings to watch football vs. watch a Blu-Ray movie, I have to manually calibrate everything (I used a cheatsheet).

So happy I bought another Sammy (BTW - got mine on 10/24/09 at Fry's Electronics for $1399+tax)

The TV:
Setup is a breeze. The user interface is much improved over my old Samsung CRT. The picture quality from our digital cable box over HDMI is stunning. Everyone on TV is ugly and wrinkled....if you don't know this, you will after a day with this TV. The 120Hz Automotion Plus almost makes things look "too real." At first, we had to turn it off, but we're getting used to the clarity it provides. When watching standard definition channels, the black sidebars just fade into the bezel. They're pure black, not an annoying gray. I have nothing bad to say about the picture or sound quality from this television.

Only con to this TV thus far: It's a small point, but the front console buttons are labeled in a paint that does not contrast well with the touch of color bezel. I have to get my nose to within three inches to read the labels. Also, they're not pushbuttons, but contact pads. There's no physical separation between the button regions, so I can't even memorize the position and grope for them in the dark. Honestly, I've probably wasted too much breath on such a small problem. This complaint should in no way prevent you from buying this awesome TV!

The delivery service:
I was a bit apprehensive about ordering from Amazon because of all of the terrible TV delivery reviews. However, I decided that a bit of hassle and heartache was worth the considerable cash I was going to save. I'm glad I took the chance. CEVA/Eagle USA Airfreight was the carrier. The truck showed up on-time with the TV in pristine condition. The delivery man was pleasant, efficient, and performed excellently. I even tipped him for a job well-done.

We purchased the LN52B630 as it is the highest model with a matte screen - it has outstanding picture quality, even better than any of last year's "A" models.

The matte screen makes a HUGE difference in areas with lots of windows or other light sources. Our previous TV had a relflective screen guard, and the change is SO nice.

The speakers are adequate for daily TV viewing, but use an external sound system for movies and music if you can.

Very easy to set up and use! Great remote control.

It does have touch controls in the center of the lower bezel for basic operation , but the are very hard to see - they do not light up or anything, at least on my set. The On/Off control is easy to find if you forget where the remote is or it walks off after watching for a while :)

The user manual comes on a USB stick or you can download it from Samsung (ahead of your purchase if you want to). There might be a couple of pages you would want to print out from your PC - you don't need the whole thing. And there is onscreen help for the different setup selections, so we rarely need the manual.

We would have liked DLNA capabilty (not available with matte screen) to stream our family music/ photos/ videos to the set, but with the USB port we just hooked up an external hard drive to get access to all of this. Might be less hassle in the long run??

It does have an ethernet connection though - I hope Samsung adds more web capability or even some DLNA features in future firmware releases.

(The prices on these change almost weekly - watch the Samsung blogs on Amazon for specials, or use a price watching service on the web like dealnews)

I absolutely love this TV! I was actually looking to get a LED TV but the 46' was too small for my room and the 55' was just too much money for me. I decided the go with this Samsung 52' LCD and I could not be happier I did. The picture is fantastic and I love the matte finish. I always had a issue with the sun coming into the room with my old TV and with this TV it's no longer an issue. My wife fought me a little about getting a new TV, stating that our old TV was fine and did the job. She has since changed her mind after seeing the picture on this TV. We now fight over who's going to get to watch TV. It has more than enough HDMI inputs for my needs. As far as gaming goes, the XBOX 360 look awesome! However, there was a little lag between me hitting the buttons on the controller and the action on the screen, BUT once I switched to `game' mode it was a lot better almost no lag at all.

The TV looks great mounted on my wall and I even like the TOC red. I was unsure if I would but it's very subtle.

I had never ordered a TV online before so I was a little leery, BUT CEVA delivered my TV 3 days before my estimated delivery date and was top notch. They unpack the TV and tested to make sure it was not damaged and in working order. Very smooth, in and out in minutes. I would never hesitate to order another TV from Amazon.

Overall I am extremely pleased with my purchase and my service from Amazon!