Samsung 52A650 LCD review

Posted on October 27, 2008. Filed under: Uncategorized |

I recently finished a project that had 4 Samsung 46A650 LCD panels and 1 Samsung58A650 plasma panel. after wall mounting them and setting up the components I was stunned by good the picture quality was on these TV’s have installed a broad range of TV’s and have to say I believe the Samsungs are among the best I have seen, particularly at the price point.

I liked it so much that I decided to get one for personal use and also as a demo. a couple weeks ago I purchased a 52A650 LCD and so far everyone who has seen it is blown away. Before you turn it on the first you notice is the gloss black bezel that has a hint of red, which gives it a very expensive appearance.

It has all the features you would expect at this price point and then some:

4HDMI inputs V1.3

1080P resolution

50,000 to 1 dynamic contrast ratio

USB port (for firmware upgrades, picture slideshows, and MP3 music playback too!)

120hz refresh rate (including low, medium, and high settings to fine tune)

lots of color adjustments which make it flexible to adjust

ethernet/LAN connection with ‘info link’ gadget that uses the internet to display news.

I currently have a Samsung BDP 1500 Blu-ray player, a HD cable box/DVR, and a Wii attached to it. The picture is outstanding when watching a Blu-ray disc, with the picture being very sharp and full of detail. Even though I am not a big fan of animated movies, my family is blown away with how they look on this TV. For those of you who have not yet experienced a Blu-ray movie; you hav no idea what your missing!

When watching HD cable the picture is great as well and I love watching National Geographic, Discovery and the like. It is sort of like putting on glasses for the first time and realising the world is much more clear and crisp than you ever imagined. I am dissappointed in Standard Def content because it is grainy and just plain bad looking, though this is true of almost every HDTV out there. Perhaps I will upgrade to a receiver with video scaling built in or even a stand alone video scaler to improve this in the future.

One feature I have mixed opinions about is the 120hz refresh rate. Most TV’s refresh the frames at 60hz a second but as you can guess 120hz is twice as fast which eliminates most blurring. Now most people think this feature is great and love the clarity it gives to fast moving action scenes, and I would agree. However it can make certain scenes/content look artificial or even jerky. I think this has something to do with how the content is filmed, but I havent nailed down exactly why this is so. ( I also dont want to bore everyone with the details of that) What I do like is that it can be be turned off easily if needed, though currently I have it on to see if I simply get used to it.

I would have to say this is probably the brightest flat panel I have seen yet, which can be good or bad. I have turned it down some now, but this really helps when watching during the day when the picture could be washed out on most other TV’s I still plan on spending more time adjusting the picture, but with a few tweaks I am already pretty happy with it.

In my opinion on a scale of 1-10 I would rate this TV as 9. There might be TV’s with even better pictures, but few look as sleek and even fewer are as affordable. Samsung has brought their game with these models and Sony had better quit relying on brand recognition alone to keep them at the top; are you listening Sony?

As an electronic systems contractor I can sell Samsung TV’s at competive prices with full factory warranties. I am always happy to give advice and suggestions, and if you want I can install/wall mount them for you.

In the near future I will post some articles about Blu-ray players, in wall ipod docks among other things, so stay tuned and book mark this page!

Below are some pictures of the project mentioned at the beginning: