Samsung LN52A650 Review : Best Price

Samsung LN52A650 Holy crispy images Batman!

2009-10-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

Pros: Very crisp! In the limited time I've owned it, it has far surpassed my Bravia V in almost every way image quality wise! If you're a big fan of CG movies, this is THE set to have! With AMP off, I experience zero controller lag on my ps3. I much prefer not to use the gaming setting, as some games require a bit of tweaking so as not to be too dark (Resistance 2 anyone?). Even with Gaming mode off, this set seriously puts the everloving trounce on the Bravia. Bu-rays that aren't meant to play at 24p, such as Planet Earth and CG movies, are completely breathtaking with AMP on. Smooth as silk, like you're looking through a window! The buttons on the tv are heat activated, how freakin' cool is that! Just gently touch the bezel on the icons. That kind of thing appeals to the geek in me. Extremely wide viewing angle makes for a fulfilling experience, even if you aren't dead center of the screen.

Cons: Remote response is laggy. If your main purchasing criteria is based on how quickly the tv responds to remote input, you will not be happy with how slowly the menu scrolls respond to your inputs. Coming from the Sony XMB, I was quite disappointed that Samsung's menu system is so slow. But once everything is dialed in, I consider that a small gripe compared to the advantages this system has to offer. Oh, and I hope you're handy with a microfiber cloth, cause the bezel is a dust magnet with no equal! Glossy Screen won't be a bonus to everyone. I'm nocturnal, so most of my watching is done at night. However, during daytime watching in a loft with no curtains, the glare was not distracting in any way to me. During gaming it might be more of an issue than casual tv time.

Other Notes: Pilot shipping wasn't given all the necessary paperwork to make the shipment to my home on the estimated delivery date. Delivery was delayed by 2 business days, which doesn't sound like much until you're waiting for a $2000 HDTV over a weekend to arrive in 1 piece. However, the agent in my area was sincerely apologetic about the delay and Amazon did their best to keep me appraised of the situation, including putting me directly in touch with the delivery company. I would say, if you order from here, add at least 3 days to the estimated delivery date to avoid disappointment and stress.

Samsung LN52A650 Best LCD you want to own

2009-10-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

This LCD is awesome. The picture quality is everything as expected. You will be amazed on how the picture looks. Even the digital (non-hd) channels look great on the screen. I was a little skeptical about the hint of red in the frame, but after I got in the room it actually was barely noticeable and it blended well with my entertainment stand.

The only negative thing I had on this transaction was with the shipping of the LCD. Amazon advertised "White Glove" shipping. CEVA (the delivery service) shipping bill lists "delivery inside only" which meant one guy whose task was to leave the LCD in the box inside the house. I've contacted Amazon and I only got was an email saying they sent my message to their shipping department. I don't know what this means and what will come of this.

Other than this technicality this LCD will not let you down.

Samsung LN52A650 Great TV, but 2 things could be improved.

2009-10-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

The picture is great, the style and look of the unit is clean and classy and I really like the "Touch of Color" accent
around the bezel. If I had any issue with it at all, it would be 1: the volume of the unit is relatively low compared to my unit I replaced and 2: The Remote could be a little touchy when you are switching inputs. Otherwise I have no complaints. OK maybe one. I wish it were bigger, but that is my problem.
FYI, I do TV commercials and wouldn't you know it, but I just did a Samsung commercial and of course they are coming out with a new version and of course it's half the thickness of mine, but I didn't like the new "Touch of Color" version. It looks like a cars stop light. I think you would be very happy if you decided to purchase this unit.

Samsung LN52A650 Excellent TV, great options, mediocre speaker sound.

2009-10-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

After months of shopping around, I bought this TV from Amazon. I did look online at other e-tailers. I was horrified to learn that they sold a TV w/o a stand (just the panel). You also have to PAY for upgrade shipping at other e-tailers. With Amazon, not only did I get the LOWEST price, but I also got a price adjustment TWICE as Amazon dropped $150. The delivery is great, white glove AND it arrived ahead of schedule. Overall a great TV. Connectivity was a bit problematic on the HDMI Port 1. After switching to another port, it worked fine. The picture quality is as promised, if not better. The audio quality is short of weak. If you have a large, vaulted ceiling living room, then it will be difficult to hear the TV, so adding a sound system is a MUST. Also, the remote with the turn-dial is difficult. It is not immediately intuitive, esp if you are used to using buttons for navigation. Overall a great product at the right price. Do read the Cnet review on this to get the optimal settings. I think it's worth the 15 minutes to become familiar w/ it.

Samsung LN52A650 So far so good

2009-10-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

I purchased this product on Amazon a little over a month ago. The shippers arrived at 7 am on a Sat morning without warning and I was not home. Fortunately, my son was house sitting. The outside of the box was damaged and I was pretty nervous unpacking it, but the TV was/is fine.

Everything seems to work as advertised and the picture is spectacular. If you are a do-it-yourself installer, take the time to make sure all your inputs are set correctly. I thought the picture was great, then I figured out that my cable box and Xbox 360 were only outputting at 480i. The difference between 480i and 1080i is amazing.

Minor complaints: there is no difference between 60hz and 120hz operation. I've really tried to see the difference, but now believe it's pure marketing BS. Also, as others have noted, the remote is somewhat difficult to use and it takes too long to switch between inputs. But, those are minor complaints.

Samsung LN52A650 Absolutely stunning.

2009-10-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

The picture, sound, everything about this TV is absolutely stunning. Well worth the price. Amazon's shipping and service were excellent (I live near their Kentucky hub, so had the set in 2 days). My only issue is with the Picture-in-Picture (PIP). Amazon/Samsung (which probably wrote the copy) need to make it clearer on the website that the PIP only works if one of the signals is analog. Unless you have analog cable or getting analog OTA signals, it's useless. I'd really give this 4 7/8 stars, but can't give it 5 because it's not perfect. Unfortunately, there's nothing between 4 and 5 stars.

Samsung LN52A650 Great Picture, not so great sound

2009-10-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

After much research I chose the Samsung LN52A650 over the Sony Bravia XBR4
because of the great reviews by other customers and the Touch of Color cabinet. The picture is as good as others reported. But inquirers should
know the sound comes out the bottom. Maybe if mounted on a wall it would
project forward but in my set up it has as much sound in the room behind as
in the room in front. After more research I opted for a Samsung 2.1 home theater system. I chose the HT-X200 because I wanted something simple and
the "anynet" feature. It has good sound, not the full 5.1 affect but does a good job and I am happy with the whole set up now.

Samsung LN52A650 Gorgeous display, but gamers need to be aware of input lag

2009-10-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

Echoing many of the reviews here, this TV is absolutely gorgeous for watching TV and movies, and if that's all I did I would give it a five-star review.

That said, I want to mention something that can be important to gamers - something I wish was pointed out to me before I made my purchase. This TV has fairly major "input lag", the delay between the time it receives a video signal and when it displays that signal on the screen. In standard video modes, there is a bit less than 1/10th of a second delay, which may not seem like much but is enough to make console gaming extremely frustrating for some people, especially for games that require "lightning reflexes" (rhythm games, first person shooters). While some games (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, etc.) can be calibrated to compensate for this lag, many cannot be.

The "Game Mode" on the TV is designed to help reduce this lag, and it does reduce it significantly. But this mode comes at a huge cost... the picture quality cannot be adjusted *at all* while in Game Mode, and it defaults to extreme levels of brightness, contrast, and sharpness, making the picture look, in my opinion, absolutely awful. I could not stand gaming with these picture settings as everything appeared pixelated and oversaturated.

A Google search for "a650" and "input lag" will bring up additional information about this problem, but I haven't seen it discussed often enough in these comments, and as a gamer, I wish it had been. I'll be returning this TV likely in favor of a Sony, since by all accounts they have the least input lag of the major LCD brands. The Samsung likely has a better picture, but as a gamer, I need a TV that can handle gaming as well as movies and TV viewing.

I hope this helps some fellow gamers not to fall into a similar "trap". For non-gamers, this TV is about as good as it gets and is an amazing value.

Samsung LN52A650 Great T.V

2009-10-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

I Just got the Samsung LN52A650 52 inch television. I was astounded by the burst of sharp colors and sound. Layman instructions and picture guides made the set up a pleasure and easy. Though, the three weeks wait for the set was frustating and cruel ( basketball playoffs)and tracking the purchase was no help, it was worth the wait. Make certain that manufacture and merchent warrenties are also shiped with the set.

Samsung LN52A650 Fantastic TV...

2009-10-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon and always look at the personal reviews so I thought it was time I did a review myself. I love this TV! I've only had a week now but so far it's been fantastic. I was really on the fence about this TV and was thinking of waiting for the new Sony XBR6 thru 8 to come out and compare before buying. My biggest issue with the Samsung was the big glossy screen and I have several large windows behind the couch that I was afraid would cause a terrible reflection. I'm very pleased to tell everyone that is worried about this as well that it really isn't a problem The screen is so bright itself that you hardly see any reflections. If you watching a very dark movie during the day you might have some small problems with it because if the screen is showing black that is the one time when you get some reflection. Either way it's definitely not something that should cause you problems or concern. The reason I didn't wait for the new Sony is because whenever Sony comes out brand new their TV's tend to be very expensive. I would of loved to get the 55" XBR8 when it comes out but it mostly likely will be about $5,000.00 to $6,000.00. I was able to get this Samsung for $2,199.00 from Circuit City! It's actually a pretty wild story on how this came about , I'll tell it only because I think other people might benefit from it.
I went to Best Buy to get this TV because it was on sale for $2,399.00 but it turned out that it wasn't in stock and they wouldn't get it in for about 5 days. I didn't want to wait so I called Circuit City while there and they had it in stock. The B.B. salesman didn't want to lose the sale so he took $150.00 off the price for me to wait. I bought it but then went to Circuit City and asked them if they would match the price. At first they said they would only do it if it was an advertised price (company policy) but I pushed it a little and asked for a manager. It didn't make any sense to me that they would match an ad price but not an actual sales receipt from their competition. Finally the manager said he would beat the price by $50.00. I got the TV there and drove it home myself- plus I got 3 free Blue Ray movies because of a promotion they were running. The crazy part of this story is when I went back to B.B. to cancel the order and get a refund the salesman asked if there was anything they can do to keep the sale- I said no but then he offered me another $200.00 off! Now I didn't really want to deal with having to take a TV back to C.C. so I said no- but man, it was very tempting. Both these stores offer free returns at no cost within 30 days which is the only reason why I purchased there vs. Amazon. Well, that's my price story- hopefully it benefits someone else out there.
Either way you'll love this TV. The picture is incredible. My only complaint about the TV is the sound. I used to have a Sony LCD rear projector which had very good sound out of speakers on the sides of the TV. I'm assuming most LCD's and Plasma flat panels have the sound coming out the back to keep the size down. The problem is I didn't even think about this and I have the TV sitting in a built in wood cabinet. Because the sounds is going into the cabinet the sound echos. I know that most people will be using a home theatre set up for this TV but I sometimes actually prefer to just listen to normal TV with the TV speakers. I can't do this anymore and we'll need to run all sound through the audio receiver. Not a big deal but wanted to point it out in case anybody else had the same issue.

Samsung LN52A650 Great picture - minor audio bug - Updated at bottom

2009-09-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

I won't say anything about the picture because I agree with the consensus. There is a minor audio problem at least with my setup. I'm using the TV's optical out with a receiver and my TV speakers are set to OFF. I have a PS3 connected to HDMI-3. However, if my PS3 hasn't finished the power up sequence before the TV switches to HDMI-3, the TV speakers turn ON. When I look at the TV settings, it shows the TV speakers are OFF. I have to change the TV speaker setting to ON and then back to OFF for the TV speakers to turn OFF. The work around is to make sure the PS3 is completely turned on before the TV switches to HDMI-3, but it's a bit of an inconvenience if you own a Harmony 890 or similar remote. The default sequence and a delay needs to be programmed into the remote to prevent the issue I've mentioned. Anyway, I give the TV 4 stars for this issue. It makes no sense the TV speakers would come on for any reason when set to OFF, much less the TV speakers turn ON and the setting still shows OFF.

After writing this review a few minutes ago, I noticed this issue happens with my Tivo unit too which is connected to HDMI-1. If I select the Tivo menu option to "restart system", the TV speakers turn ON and stay ON following the brief time that no HDMI signal is being sent to HDMI-1. I again have to go to the TV menu and change speaker OFF to speaker ON and then back to OFF again.

Can someone else try what I've mentioned and see if it happens to them too please? I called Samsung and they said they haven't heard of this issue before. They setup a service appointment for me, but I'll return the TV to Amazon if it cannot be fixed here in my house (and yes, I'll get a replacement, if this is just an isolated issue since I do like the picture quality a lot).

UPDATE: According to avsforum dot com, other TVs were having this issue. Samsung tech support didn't even know that the audio issue was resolved in Firmware version 2001.3 which was just released on May 13th, 2008. The firmware resolved my issue.

Samsung LN52A650 Great HDTV, average for non-HD content, white glove service overrated

2009-09-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

After 3 weeks of gruelling research, I shortlisted Samsung LN52A650, Panasonic Th-50PZ800U and the Sony XBR series. After watching them all side by side, I dropped Sony off the list as it is simply not worth the price & it wasn't as bright as the other two. And since I had owned a Panasonic EDTV for last 4 years, I was ready to test waters with an LCD TV. After watching the picture quality of the Samsung 6 series, I was blown away. I can confirm to you that this unit offers the best picture quality in LCD, bar none. Also, it comes really close to the Pioneer Kuro in black levels.

A few basics. I have used all HDMI 1.3 connections. I have an Onkyo TX-SR705 A/V receiver which is great.

HD Content from DirecTV with DVR - Watching HD content from DirecTV is pure pleasure to eyes. Eventhough I am sitting just 7-8 feet from this huge TV, I see breathtaking picture quality that I did not notice in any other HDTVs.

Blu-Ray on PS3 - I downloaded a few HD trailers from Sonystoreonline using my PS3 and also watched Spider-Man3 on Blu-Ray. This was simply spectacular.

Non-HD content - I am quite disappointed with the quality of picture with non-HD content on this TV. My old Panasonic plasma did a much better job at this. My only hope is that most channels would make the switch to HD in the coming years.

120 Hz experience - May be its me but I couldn't see a visible difference between keeping this feature on versus off.

6 series versus 7 series - The extra pre-loaded content and a better integrated speaker weren't worth $400 premium for the 7 series. I would suggest you stick to the 6 series. But watch out the amazon price fluctuations, you shouldn't be paying more than $2270 for the 6 series.

White Glove Delivery - The CEVA shipping took about 7 business days and I had to be proactively calling them to schedule the delivery and track shipments. A lone fellow showed up at my doorstep struggling to lift the TV up my front porch. I had to help him bring the TV inside. Onbce he got in, after a little effort in helping me place the TV on the stand, I could see his desperation to leave. Hence, I had to sign him off and call a pal in to help me with the rest. I am satisfied with this service but not super-excited like some others.

Samsung LN52A650 Review

2009-09-22T00:57:00.005-07:00

Manufacturer's Description
Samsung adds a Touch of Color to a blazing-fast 4ms response time and rich connectivity features to redefine the role HDTVs play in the home with its forward-looking Series 6 (A650) and Series 7 (A750) LCD HDTVs. Utilizing the award-winning technologies found in all Samsung HDTVs, Series 6 and 7 HDTVs deliver unparalleled picture quality and enhanced connectivity and networking capabilities that create a true entertainment hub for any home. Series 7 takes networking and multimedia management to a whole new level. Consumers can easily enjoy MPEG and JPEG files stored on external devices by connecting through a side-mounted USB 2.0, turning their LCD into a full-scale home viewing gallery, or connect their MP3 players for a dynamic audio experience.

Samsung LN52A650 Features

2009-09-22T00:57:00.003-07:00

Features

Touch of Color Bezel
Full HD 1080p Resolution
120Hz Auto Motion Plus
4 HDMI Inputs
Super Clear Panel

Samsung LN52A650 Product Details

2009-09-22T00:57:00.001-07:00

Product Details

Amazon Sales Rank: #3893 in Consumer Electronics
Color: Black
Brand: Samsung
Model: LN-52A650
Dimensions: 31.70" h x 4.10" w x 50.20" l, 66.40 pounds
Display size: 52

Samsung LN52A650 52-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color

2009-09-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

Product Description

Get innovative HD design and performance on a brilliant 52-inch LCD screen. The Samsung 52" LCD HDTV has superior picture quality with a unique bezel design. The Touch of Color accents the top and bottom edges of the bezel with a unique amber tone. Full 1080p HD resolution and 50,000:1 dynamic-contrast ratio offer stunning image detail and vivid colors. Auto Motion Plus 120Hz and Ultra Clear Panel technology work together to offer the smoothest motion and boldest bright and dark tones. Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp - Provides colors in your picture that were not available before Fast 4ms response time minimizes blurring of moving video Widescreen NTSC/ATSC Tuners with Clear QAM Ultra clear panel enhances contrast and reduces reflection Viewing Angle - 178 x 178 Degrees DNIe (Digital Natural Image Engine) delivers a crisp, lifelike picture that is closer to film Auto volume leveler Audio amplifier - Watts per channel - 10 Watts x 2 channels to bottom downfiring speakers SRS TruSurround XT sound delivers virtual surround using built-in speakers 4 HDMI, 2 Component video, RF antenna inputs S-video, A/V, PC inputs Hook up your MP3 player or digital camera via the Wiselink USB 2.0 connection Headphone output HDMI-CEC allows peripherals to be controlled by remote control Stereo broadcast reception (MTS & SAP) with 181 channels Picture-in-Picture V-Chip Auto wall mount compatible - 3-dimensional operation via TV's control Swivel stand Wheel key remote control English, Spanish & French on-screen displays Variable sleep timer Dimensions - without stand - 50.2 x 31.7 x 4.1; with stand - 50.2 x 34.1 x 12.8 Weight - without stand - 64.6 lbs.; with stand - 76.7lbs.