Customer Reviews

Samsung UN46C6300 46-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV (Black)

5 star:		(101)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

The Good:
*Vibrant colors--of which ancient, grunting, CRT-watching man could only dream.
*HD content is displayed so realistically I'll quit my job and live under a bridge to watch TV all day.
*Even standard-def shows look quite good on this set, like super models only five or ten years past their prime.
*Black levels are significantly deeper than I would have expected based on all the online whinging about edge-lit LED screens (e.g., "Give me local dimming, or give me death!").
*Supa-thin profile makes the compact fluorescent "flat" panels look McDonald's chubby.

The Tolerable:
*Crowded buttons on the remote, which I hardly use in favor of the cable company's universal (or maybe no more than planetary) remote. I'll only pick up the Samsung remote on occasion to adjust advanced settings, but when I do, I often push an unintended button.
*Very slight edge-lit brightness on black borders. Much of what's on TV will fill the screen, so you won't even have the opportunity to notice the effect. Really, it's not that bad--I've seen far worse light leakage while watching movies on my 2007 alum iMac.

The Tolerated:
*There's only one thing that bugs me a bit, and it's not a deal breaker. (Besides, I already bought the TV, so the deal has been, well. . . concluded, if you must.) When the screen is mostly black and only a small graphic is displayed somewhere, the LEDs go a bit dim--you can actually see, over a fraction of a second, the light levels drop. I'm assuming that the TV was set up this way so that the LEDs wouldn't be leaking ghostly light on a largely black screen. I've fussed with the settings, but I can't make this effect go away. I haven't yet fully explored all the setting menus, so I just might hit pay dirt soon, or maybe Samsung will nix that effect with a firmware update. At any rate, whatever text is dimmed is still very legible, and when the next screen-filling scene pops up, the LEDs power up without any detectable delay so that thereafter the screen's as bright as it should be. No biggie--it's not enough of a problem for me to scratch a star off the rating.

The Tweakable:
*Turning off motion smoothing is not difficult under most circumstances; indeed, some content begs to be smooved, e.g., sports and competitive cooking shows. But when I first plugged in a movie via the USB drive, I got motion smooving by default and wanted none of it. Whenever I pushed the remote's "Menu" button, I ended on a screen far, far away from the USB drive's content, and ended up adjusting the picture settings for the cable feed and not the target movie on the USB drive. I was bedeviled awhile, but a bit of snooping around the owner's manual led to this minor discovery: by pressing the "Tools" button on the Samsung remote, I could enter a submenu that let me turn off the smooving effect without leaving the movie. Cheap soap opera video effect, begone!

Conclusion:
The picture is what matters most, and this TV's output makes my jaw drop to the floor. Which is rather fortuitous, because I need something down there to catch my eyeballs.

I've purchased two of these TVs from Amazon.com, and I've had to return them both due to problems. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I will not be purchasing another Samsung TV. Thankfully, Amazon's service department was fantastic through the entire ordeal.

For the first TV, within the first few hours of use I noticed that the left side of the screen was darker than the right side, and that it was also flickering occasionally. I called Samsung tech support, and I was very unhappy with their service. First, when they asked for the model # of the TV, they asked me to confirm it several times because this particular model was not in their system. I realize this is a new model, but not having any record whatsoever of my particular TV model was not confidence inspiring. After walking through a series of troubleshooting steps, they tried to prematurely pin the source of the problem on my cable box. Samsung support said the dark left side of the screen was caused by my cable box, and this was before we tried the "test image" under the "diagnostic" section of the TV menu, which also showed the problem, clearly demonstrating that the problem was in the TV itself and not related to anything connected to it. After they finally acknowledged that there was a problem in the TV they arranged for a local repair shop to contact me. They said it would be 24-48 hours before I was contacted. No thanks. This brand new TV was going back. I'm not waiting for days for service contact and further days or weeks for a 'repair' of a brand new $1400 TV.

Amazon's service folks were great we worked it out so that a new TV would be delivered, and the old defective TV would be picked up, all in one go.

The second TV also had a problem. The TV 'creaked' or 'popped' or 'clicked' about every 3-5 minutes when the TV was on, and would continue this for several hours after turned off. I'm not sure if it was the plastic body making noise due to heat, or something electronic inside the TV, but it was far too loud and happened far too often to be acceptable. At best, it was distracting when watching TV, and at worst it was indicative that something was wrong inside the TV (try googling: "samsung TV clicking"). I did confirm that this was definitely the TV, by removing and unplugging all other components, and noting that the behavior still did continue.

So again, I contacted Amazon's service folks to arrange a return. This time I did not order a replacement. There was no charge to me on any of the shipping in either direction since the TV was considered defective.

For the short while I had this TV, here are some of the things I noticed about it:

1.The 120MHz Auto Motion Plus option defaults to "standard". This makes the picture look real, "too real" almost (I've seen people describe this as the "soap opera effect"). This might be OK for sports but I preferred this option to be off for normal movie / TV show watching. Try disabling this feature first if you think the picture looks "strange".

2.The TV has an ambient light sensor which lowers the brightness of the picture automatically when the ambient light is low (e.g. in a living room with lights off). I found that the TV picture got way too dark when the lights were turned off in the room. After some investigation, I discovered that you can set the amount of dimming that occurs when this option kicks in. This is under the "Eco Sensor" option. It defaulted to maximum dimming, which made the picture totally unsuitable for viewing (shadows and darker parts of the image were completely blacked out). I adjusted this so that it did dim, just not as much, and then it was OK. So if you find that your TV is too dark when the room is dark, but OK when the room is well lit, then check this option.

3.The TV appeared to be inconsistent in holding it's settings after losing power. For example, every time the power went out, or the TV was unplugged, I had to manually re-set the options I've described above (Auto Motion Plus and Eco Option dimming level). Oddly, sometimes, the TV would retain it's settings. Not sure if I got a lemon or what but this was very frustrating as it would take a few minutes to reset these things manually with the remote.

[*** This was user-error, not a problem with the TV - see "UPDATE (Jun 2 2010)" at the bottom of this review ***]

4.I was not particularly pleased with the quality of the stand. It looked nice, but for the two TVs I had I found that neither was level when sitting on the stand. The first one tilted to the left and the second one tilted to the right (just to be clear - both were on the exact same level surface, so I'm sure the problem was the TV stand itself). The TV stand is not adjustable, so there's no real way to deal with this.

5.Otherwise, this is a good looking TV, it is ultra-thin, and very sleek. Unfortunately, for me, the quality was not up to par.

UPDATE (May 1 2010): Against my better judgment I decided to give Samsung one more chance, because I definitely like the look of their TVs over the other brands. So I did purchase a third Samsung TV (again from Amazon.com), but I got the "traditional" LCD model that is not LED backlit (Samsung LN46C630) rather than this same LED model (Samsung UN46C6300). So far here is what I think about the traditional LCD model replacing the LED version that I initially purchased:

- I've had no problem with the display, or with the TV clicking/creaking/popping.

- I'd be hard pressed to see any noticeable degradation in picture quality in going from the LED backlit LCD, to the regular LCD model. The only think I can notice is that black screens are "light", as is common for traditional LCD screens. Unless you are a videophile this makes no practical difference when watching everyday TV, movies, etc. This is still a 1080p HDTV and let me assure you the image quality still looks fantastic.

- The only real, noticeable disadvantage I can find to the traditional LCD vs the LED model is that it is thicker (the LED model was ultra-thin). Having said that, the thicker body of the traditional LCD model feels much sturdier and more solid than the LED model. The LED model creaked and popped when moving it around and this one does not. Obviously the thinner LED would look better on the way (with a low-profile mount), but this LCD version still looks nice.

- I know the traditional LCD consumes more power than the LED, but given the significantly cheaper price I can live with that, and I doubt the difference is significant enough to make any real dent in the energy bill.

- The menu system / firmware appears to be identical between the two models.

- I had to adjust the Auto Motion Plus and Eco Sensor options for this TV just like I did for the LED model (see above).

- This model, like my LED model, came with the "Contrast" setting maxed out to '100' by default. I needed to tone this down.

- The stand is different, and mounts to the TV in a different way than the LED model. My new traditional LCD model is perfectly level, unlike the two LED models I had.

- Oh yeah, the traditional LCD model is about $400-500 cheaper than the LED model.

I'd strongly suggest that anyone looking at the Samsung UN46C6300 LED model strongly consider the less expensive Samsung LN46C630 traditional LCD model. For roughly $500 less, I've got a better built TV, and I can live without the ultra-slim frame.

UPDATE (Jun 2 2010): I'd like to clarify that the #3 issue I reported above about the TV not holding it's settings after losing power is incorrect. I have just discovered that each source input (i.e. each HDMI input) has it's own unique settings. I was not aware of this originally. I think what originally happened is that I set HDMI input #1 (Cable box) to put the contrast down to 50, and then was still seeing a contrast setting of 100, but on the HDMI input #2 (BD player). The only explanation I had for this was loss of power, and I think I was wrong. So, in summary, there was probably no problem with this particular aspect of the TV, and it's up to the user to town down the contrast / auto motion plus / etc features for *every* source input that they use. As mentioned above I now have the LN46C630 model with a similar menu/firmware system, and it holds its settings just fine through power-outages. I hope this is helpful to other users.

Amazing picture. Sound not so great as tiny speakers aim down from the bottom ridge of tv. I cant believe how thin the television is and how bright the picture is. It plays most everything I've thrown at it in perfect color and very little pixelation. No warm up time like Standard LCD TVs and much easier to watch. I highly recommend this TV. If you're going to buy an LCD television...make sure it is backlit with LEDs. Samsungs out-perform all the other brands.

I first bought this TV from Amazon after seeing it at a local electronic store (B&M).
Once the tv arrived I set it up and tweaked the settings that I found online from a reputable forum.
The picture quality was OK, not great.

I decided to do a little bit more research as to why my TV set looked different than the local store's TV.
I later discovered this was a "CN01" type panel I had vs. a SQ01 panel from the local store. What did this all mean?
Well, it explained why the TV picture quality of my TV was terrible and the picture quality in the local store was vastly better.
The "auto-motion" was jerky on my tv and even had shadowing and images that would stay on the screen.
For example, if someone was walking on TV that had black hair, the head would bouncing up and down while they were walking would stay at the top of the "bounce" while the were coming down.

After further research on he type of panels, I found out that the panel I had, "CN01" was manufactured by Chi Mei Optoelectronics which is not samsung but a third party, hence the bad quality.
This is a chart that may be useful for some people (thank you AVS forums!)

* A = AU Optronics (AUO) A-MVA
* B = Chi Lin Technology (CLT)
* C = Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO)
* I = LG Display IPS (LGD)
* P = Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT)
* S = Samsung S-PVA (S-LCD)
* H = Samsung S-PVA (3D)
* Q = IPS Alpha Technology LTD (Hitachi & Panasonic) IPS Alpha/IPS Pro

AMAZON was great in dealing with the return and refunded my money very quickly. Amazon's customer service is top-notch.
It looks like Samsung is using a "panel lottery." So it's up in the air on what you get.

I've owned my Samsung UN46C6300 for about 3 months now, and this is the 2nd Samsung I've ever purchased (My first is a 52" LCD). Picture quality is superb and brightness is more than adequate. LOVE the glossy look and thinner bezel than my LCD.

Unfortunately, I've noticed that this set has uneven backlighting, almost looking like splotches where more light bleeds in during predominantly black scenes. Apparently this is characteristic of lower-quality edge-lit LED TVs (I'm finding out the hard way). My 52" Samsung LCD has perfectly-even back-lighting compared to this set.

Fortunately, it is imperceptible at any other time except when the TV is trying to display black. So as long as I am viewing a TV program or movie that fills my entire screen, and the show is engaging enough, I don't notice it. Ultimately, this is why I ended up keeping it, rather than returning it, because my wife helped me realize that if the show isn't engaging enough for you to not notice the uneven back-lighting, you shouldn't be watching it.

So much for deeper blacks though; I expected more from a Samsung, but I think the technology still needs to mature. My advice: There is no compelling reason to go with LED at this price range, unless you absolutely have to have a 1" thick TV. You don't really get any deeper black levels, and in fact, you get the unpleasant artifact of uneven back-lighting. Stick with LCD unless you get the high-end models that may not exhibit this behavior.

This was the first large purchase I made from Amazon. Originally I was interested in purchasing the sister model UN46C6400 from my local warehouse club store on a "coupon sale". However they had raised the price $80. the day of sale to then take off $230. I checked Amazon and was able to buy the TV for $218 less plus free delivery and set up. The delivery and set up was on time and completed in less than 15 minutes. I was pleased with this service.

The standard picture setting was different than what I saw in the store, with movies having more of a video quality than film. Once adjusted the picture was excellent and when viewing Blu-Ray movies it looked beautiful. The sound is average like most flat panel TV's, however I was able to coax better bass and treble by using the equalizer. I have the TV hooked to the surround system when I want to view a Blu-Ray movie anyway.

These are the picture and sound settings I use.
Mode Standard
Backlight 12
Contrast 70
Brightness 50
Sharpness 75
Color 45
Tint G50/R50
Eco Off

Equalizer Settings
100Hz 100%
300Hz 75%
1KHz 50%
3KHz 75%
10KHz 85%

The power usage is very low (92 watts at #12 backlight setting), which is why I opted for the LED backlight. I have not had any problems with light leakage from the edge lit array. Overall I am satisfied with this TV and would recommend it to a friend.

PS Don't forget to purchase a HDMI cord like I did, I bought the Amazon cord separately and had to pay the extra $5. for shipping and handling.

We did weeks of research to inform our jump to a 21st-century TV (we were still on a boxy CRT before!), and Amazon reviews were key for us - so we wanted to provide one of our own now that we're a couple of weeks into our purchase.

This TV is amazing. First of all, the Amazon process could not have been better - the TV was shipped in flawless condition, the delivery company showed up within 20 minutes of the beginning of our selected window, and they put the TV on its stand and placed it for us. No muss, no fuss. Amazon's price gave us about $600 in savings compared with the local Best Buys and Belmont TV stores. We were initially nervous about buying such an important (and large) item online, but kudos to Amazon on this one.

Now, the TV itself - the picture quality is jaw-dropping unbelievable. And the color, contrast, and brightness balances were spectacular right out of the box - we have yet to make a single adjustment to those settings, and yet we find that golf, football, TV dramas, and movies are all amazingly lifelike (perfect skin tones, natural colors, etc.). It feels exactly like having a "magic window" that can produce any view as if it's really right there in front of you. We watched "Witness" - a 1985 classic that takes place in Amish country - and the severe black wardrobe of the Amish made me feel satisfied that this TV can reproduce pleasing blacks that help the other colors displayed to "pop" appropriately.

Speaking of black, I was initially worried after reading about light-leaking at the corners (common to virtually all side-lit LED models), and I'm relieved to see that it's not an issue for us. It is detectable if you really hunt for it, but I watched "Contact" (where Jodi Foster zooms off through space in her little capsule) and did not even notice any light-leak in the stunning space vistas that movie offers. Again, if I decided to watch only the extreme bottom-left or bottom-right corner of the screen for the entire film, I might have gone "ooh - there it is!" but come on, who does that?

People may not think of what a TV looks like when it's not on, but TVs are important focal points (especially as they get to today's sizes), and this model is a beauty. Rather than be boxy in shiny plastic, the edges are translucent glass which give the TV a very refined feel. We saw other Samsung models that were more expensive and supposedly offer greater features, but their chrome spider-leg stands are hideous - this model, thankfully, offers a pleasingly simple and stable flat foot with a very useful cylindrical swivel that moves efficiently but stays firmly put when you have the TV at the proper angle.

Finally, the Samsung menu design is surprisingly intuitive and benefits from extraordinarily helpful descriptions if each selection that display on the bottom of the TV as you scroll through the menu options. The menus are organized in columns that build out from the left with very attractive icons; it overlays the image in a very tasteful way instead of displaying some ugly blue background or anything like that. One issue that may cause you to work these menus immediately is that the TV defaults to using MotionPlus in an attempt to combat motion-blur and provide crisp movement. Somewhat annoyingly, it defaults to MotionPlus separately for every connection you'll make to the TV (such as DVD player, Wii, etc.) - but at least you can turn it off. Like other reviewers, we did not like the "soap opera" quality - and furthermore, once we turned it off, we were impressed that the LED technology handles HD motion extremely well. We do not see any blur even in fast-moving sports scenes. We had some standard-def content on our Tivo that did, in truth, look worse on this new TV than it used to on the CRT - but the MotionPlus feature gave us an unacceptable trade-off by turning the motion-blur into really artificial "pan-and-scan" or soap opera video-camera movements. We simply accepted that standard-def content on new HD TVs will never look as good as either HD content or the way standard-def displays on old CRT technology - it's simply a trade-off the entire industry and consumer base must make. By the way, that doesn't mean your DVD library is in trouble - I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and my DVDs look spectacular on this new television (even when they were coming over 480i a/v from our older DVD player - we just upgraded to a new Panasonic blu-ray player which is upscanning and sending the DVD content over HDMI, and HOLY GOOD GANDALF it's amazing).

Also important - you can easily deactivate the ambient light sensor that automatically changes TV brightness, another feature we did not find a good use for.

Short version of this review: this TV is a huge winner, offers amazing quality for this price, and we hope you'll be as happy with it as we are!

I bought this TV because it was about 200 dollars cheaper on here that it was at Sams Club. I bought this with the free shipping from Amazon and it came actually just as fast as regular shipping. Sharp image, and it seems to make my plain DVD player(not blu-ray or up-converting DVD, just the old ones) seem better. Its got some engine that smooths out the picture. The TV is super thin too. Its definitely worth the price in my opinion.

But the built-in-speaker kinda sucks in default mode. So you gonna have to go into sound options and adjust the equalizer and the sound mode to get a really good sound from the TV without a home theater.After that man its pretty good. Gots alot of HDMI ports.You can plug up almost anything to it to. Its got a lot of different connections.

After comparing specs between LCD and Edge-Lit LED, and reading many favorable reviews I decided to purchase the Samsung 6300 series LED. After first setting up the tv and viewing Avatar I was very impressed with the clarity and depth. I then watched a dark film in a dimly light room and noticed the screen was plagued with clouding and light leaking from the corners. I figured my t.v. was defective so I contacted Samsung who sent out a technician to repair the tv. The technician advised me that this issue is common with Samsung LED TVs and is the nature of the tv, but proceeded the replace the panel anyways. As this did not solve the issue, I contacted Samsung and spoke to a CSR who had not heard of this issue. I found that rather hard to believe as there are many cases of this document on the internet and even the Samsung Tech told the repair technician there is nothing that can be done to repair the tv. After the samsung CSR followed up with the technician she told me that there is nothing they can do and that the tv is 'operating normally'. They refused to offer a replacement of another style of TV they produce. If you plan on watching any dark movies in a dim environment avoid LED at all costs. If customer service has any factor in your purchase of a tv, AVOID SAMSUNG AT ALL COSTS!

We purchased the TV from Amazon. A few years ago I would never have ordered something this expensive and fragile from a mail order but after years of buying from Amazon I've come to believe there is nothing they can't sell online well. The first of our TVs did come damaged, but guess what- not only didn't Amazon wait to receive the return before shipping out a replacement, there had been a price drop since I ordered the TV and they gave me a refund for the difference! Now that is good service.
The second time the TV arrived pristine and the only assembly required is the stand and inserting the cables. The stand is very nice too. We have been very happy with the bright crisp picture, we play alot of XBox 360 first person shooters which require a fast refresh rate and this TV does very well especially in game mode. We watch SD TV, DVDs through the XBox360 and instantly stream movies from netflix all of which look good on the TV. The menu and programming is very intuitive.