Picture Brightness, Build Quality, Color Accuracy, Grayscale

DVD Input DOES NOT support 480p

Well I received this TV last Tuesday and wouldn't you know it good ol' Murphy Law PREVAILED!! 1st off... I love the design of the unit. It is an attractive TV to say the least. Any input you could imagine is here. BUT NO 480p on the DVD Input!!! So the option you have is to plug Progressive DVD into the DTV Input...therefore if you ever need to get a set-top box you will need to ALSO purchase a component video switch-box (an expensive item in itself). However my DTV input is malfunctioning...RAY TRACE LINES in the upper right hand corner. Samsung WAS notified that day and we're working on getting this fixed. So I'm stuck with my Sony 9000ES DVD player running in interlaced mode and depending on Samsungs Line Doubler..which I KNOW is not as good as the one in the 9000ES. Anywho... did you know that the lenses used in this product are the DELTA 37's.. same as my TW40X81 and that the CRT's are made by PANASONIC...hmmmm...but the internal wiring and construction of the unit is really good. Nice heat sinks and everything. I was more impressed with the build quality of this unit as compared to the TW40X81's. The only thing I'm confused about is how in the hell is Toshiba getting 1600 lines of horizontal res. and this unit only gets 800 lines of horizontal res. Why such the big difference?? I don't get it. But the pic quality on this unit is really nice. Convergence was not bad out of the box and the menu system is great. Line Doubler quality is good too. Going from a 40" to a 55" is a big leap and you begin to REALLY see which DVD's are mastered bad and which ones are master good. I'd really like to see HDTV on this unit but I have to wait a bit.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba TW40X81

Everything

Prologic (a dead std), No AntiGlare Screen, DTV mode can only be selected from remote. Only One DTV input.

The line doubler is far superior to Toshiba, Hitachi, and RCA. In HD mode this set Rocks! The line doubler tries to make up for lost content in SDTV mode, which I wish could be turned off/on... However, comparing the above sets side by side, the otehr sets produce either a grainy picture or pixilization... The Samsung line doubler smooths the picture for optimum viewing quality.

To the review below. Most sets except RCA provide a DTV and DVD component video input. DTV usually supports 480p & 1080i, while the DVD input only supports 480i. If you have a HD settop box and progressive scan DVD player you will have to acquire a component video switch box.You cannot "Y" the source or the Samsung will not lock on the HD format.

Also, as reported Sony PS DVD players do not work well with this set, but do work will with Sony HDTV sets. If you have a Sony DBS or Cable box it will not work with this set.. Some wort of bordline propritary Sony PS format.

The weaknesses mentioned above is a complaint to Samsung, reality is that most HD sets today do not have two DTV inputs or Anti Glare Screen in this price range. However, the lack of DD 5:1 or AC3 was stupid on Samsung's part. There is a minor hum from the center speaker in standard stereo mode, not audible from 3ft or beyond. Wish list would be to have a center channel input that could be driven from an external DD 5:1 audio source.

Bright Picture, Seperate DVD&DTV component in

No Dolby Digital, No Anti-Glare Screen

This is a set that Sony wish's they could put their name on. After the set has burned in 1 to 3 mo, you do need to have a professional adjust convergence... After that the set looks flawless in clarity, brightness, color, & picture.

A few items that are irriating is that the two Component Inputs must share one Audio In. I Agree with previous reviews that the marketing or engineering department goofed big time on that decission. Though very nice that Samsung included a VGA RGB input for PC or PC gaming, the PC picture was very soft and I found that a VGA RGB to component converter presented a superior picture. Samsung could have done a better job with the VGA RGB input. Also, it would have been nice for Samsung to support 720p, but the technology argument has been that 7" CRT's simply do not take advantage of 720p native... So why bother supporting it.

Lastly, I would have paid another $100 if Samsung and incorporated Digital Dolby & Anti-Glare Screen... In lieu of that Samsung should have at least provided a seperate center channel input. The Center channel only comes on in when a Dolby ProLogic signal is present.

In summary and in comparison to other comparable HDTV sets, you can't get anything better in this price point range. So I give a complete thumbs up...

Similar Products Used:

RCA, Hitachi

Dolby Pro w/c spk, Above Avg Line Doubler, RGB VGA 15-Pin

No 720p native, One Aud in for DTV/DV

I think the most important attribute here is us techies have been looking at this set closely, especially with VGA inputs. I too looked at the RCA and Sony and spent time in comparison. Not the best dinner conversation if your married.

The previous summaries did well assessing this TV, and you should keep in mind that techies are always the most critical. Your assessment should be to go to your local store loaded with questions. My test narrowed it down to either the Samsung or RCA $1000+ price difference, but the RCA kept my attention with the addition of USB connections and built in HDTV decoder. Set top decoder's sell in the range of $800 to $1500.

Without repeating what has been said and now owning this set since Dec 2000, Thanks for the Xmas gift my darling... I choose the Samsung. Now that being said I will answer a few questions. First the color bleed issue for sat and digital TV can be solved with a bit of tweaking. Samsung did a poor job with default settings... Color, Contrast, Bright, and Tint levels out of the box. If you have this TV first drop the contrast to 50%, up the brightness to 70%, drop the color to at least 40%, and drop the tint to 30%. With a little tweaking, color bleading goes away and skin tones are accurate.You may have to up the Color when watching DVD's through the Component input.

The only thing I dislike about this set is the VGA input. The problem is that it upconverts any incoming signal to 1080i. Even with this drawback, the VGA in is capable of taking standard resolutions of 640x480, 800x600,1024x768, and 960x540 (the proper aspect ratio in the widescreen mode). The issue is line doubling. In VGA mode, the TV always line doubled VGA input signals, not great when connected to a PC. The work around for this was to install a VGA to Component converter and plug into the DTV component in. Walla, no line-doubling and a crisp sharp picture. This only leaves the one problem, only one audio in when DVD and Wide DTV component inputs are being used. The Engineer's at Samsung did not think these two issues out when designing the set.

That being said, a little understanding of HDTV. HDTV means that the set is capable of 480p or 1080i, then it gets it HDTV sticker from ATSC. As stated, interlaced is like your old PC monitor and work, it flickers, thus the purchase of LCD monitors by business and home users alike to irradicate this annoyance. The problem is that many TV manuf's support both or either or formats but not 720p native. Talking to your local clueless pimple faced sales person they will tell you that all their HDTV support 720p, not exactly. They are correct in the general statement,but incorrect in tech fact. Most sets upconvert the 720p signal to 1080i. The exception is Panasonic, which unfortunalty produces the "dimest over contrasted picture" of all rear screen TV's on the market. If you want to get into HDTV today your choices are then limited, but you will get wide screen 480p.

To buy a TV with or without an HDTV tuner. Considering that HDTV set top boxes are now down to $800, but TV's with built in decoders cost $1500 to $2000 more, the choice should be simple. Choose a decoder that supports all NTSC formats, and 480, 720, i/p and 1080i. Samsung's new SIRT150 which will ship shortly also supports VGA output. All being said the Samsung HCJ552W will probably give you the biggest bang for the buck, and as noted, viewable in a bright room.

Now for the RCA... Definitly comporable to to Samsung if you are looking for a larger TV with a bright display and willing to pay the extra $1000, with a few extra bells and noises. Optical Digital Dolby AC-3 outputs, USB, and HDTV DirecTV receiver and HDTV tuner. But only one year warranty on the tubes, Samsung comes with a two year tube warranty. What this tells me is that the RCA, though a fine set, may be driving the brighness and tube limits in order to compete and I too have heard reliability issues with RCA products.

Lastly I have to agree with the consensus of users that think Sony does not get it. DRC was vastly disappointing, and Sony was the last manuf to get into 16:9 HDTV. If you are a Sony all the way person, then you will be able to take advantage of their propritary formats and inputs.If you want to stay with industry open standards then select an alternative.

Overall you will be pleased with this TV and Samsung does make a sister model with integrated HDTV tuner and Digital Dolby, HCJ555W. $5999 MSRP. The Toshiba 55HX70 did not overwhelm me with input opt and for the price you would be better of with the Samsung. Now to send the Samsung engineers off to school...

Similar Products Used:

RCA P61310, Toshiba 55HX70, Sony KP-57XBR10W

Dolby Prologic, Center Speaker, Many A/V Inputs

One Audio in shared for two Component Video in. No Native 720p, No PIP when in Component Video mode

I compared this model to the Toshiba 55HX70, RCA P61310, Sony 57" HDTV with DRC, and Pansonic 551. Waiting for the brighter tube technology which all these sets share, except the Panasonic, and the fact my old set died after 12 years, I made the leap into HDTV. I compared these sets against each other for months before deciding on the Samsung. Each had its qwerks and issues.

--- Comparison between HDTV 16:9 sets

First I will mention the biggest disappointment, Sony DRC (Digital Reality Creation). Sony's version of line doubling produced a blury picture on DVD sources and I did view the set at several retailers. My second disappointment was the Panasonic 551,which had the dimest over contrasted picture of all the sets I looked at, but did support 720p native.
The Toshiba did not support Dolby of any sort. The RCA had a compareable picture and had Optical Digital Dolby Out with built in HDTV tuner and DirectTV sat receiver.

Price wise the Sony and RCA came in about the same, $4499, though you are getting a larger screen with the RCA. The Toshiba, Samsung, and Panasonic where comparable in the $2799 to $3199 price range. Removing the Sony and Panasonic sets from eval, I narrowed my decission down to the Toshiba and Samsung. I truly wanted to keep the RCA in my pick, but owners have noted to many problems that have plagued varying RCA sets, notabily reliability. The lack of Dolby anything and no center speaker tarnished my assessment of the Toshiba a bit.

--- Samsung Weaknesses

My only complaint now owning the Samsung, is that colors tend to bleed on clothing, while human pigments appear faded when watching sat or digital cable sources using S-Video. This problem appears to go away when component video is used to connect a sat HDTV decoder or DVD source and the colors are true and accurate. This leads me to my only 2nd complaint about the Samsung, which is the engineering or marketing oversite providing only one audio in for two component video inputs. I guess I will have to use an external audio switch box to switch audio sources when a HDTV decoder and DVD player are connect via component video.

My other issues are mostly cosmetic, but may be important to you. 1) No PIP or screen scaling in Component mode. Scaling is only supported via a 15-pin RGB PC input source. 2) My DVD player supports Dolby Prologic and the Samsung does have a built in Prologic decoder. Using a DVD that supports Dolby 2.0 Prologic and talking to both manufs,I could only get the test mode on the Samsung to output Prologic white noise to each speaker when connecting an external amp to the Samsung's rear and sub outputs. It would have been nice for Samsung to provide seperate audio inputs for R/L/C. 3) No Native 720p. As you know the problem with interlaced sources is the flicker effect, which is not so present in progressive formats.

--- Samsungs Strengths

I will mention that the line doubler on the Samsung is above average for both S-Video and component video sources, the picture appeared smooth with minimal pixilation with Sharpness all the way up. With a Samsung HDTV set top box and a new progressive DVD player, which Samsung does not have a model at this time, I should be set. Samsung will be releasing their new HDTV set top decoder in April which appears to support all NTSC i and p formats, I will probably stick with 480p even if the inbound signal is 720p. Better to downground to a better format, than upgrade to a poor format.

--- Summary

I really don't think you can go wrong choosing either the Samsung or Toshiba, provided you can do without Dolby on the Toshiba. Both exibited similar performance and most enjoyably a picture that can be viewed in a sun lite room. I choose the Samsung because it did include Digital Dolby Prologic with a center speaker and a cute motorized door that exposes additional A/V inputs on the front of the TV at a touch of a button, but don't let cuteness be your overidding selection factor.

For you Sony die hards, so I am I... but Sony has dragged it's heals into HDTV at least with projection models and is pushing alot of propritary technology. If I where to purchase a 34" tube HDTV I would probably compare the Sony and Samsung, both excellent, but I really wanted a 36" tube screen, which is not available, so I finally gave into rear projection.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 55HX70, RCA P61310, Sony 57" HDTV with DRC, Pansonic 551

Best price around for a 55" 16x9 HDTV, VGA input and a fairly attractive build.

Poor reliability, NO ASPECT RATIO CONTROL, single HD input, grainy unnatural picture quality, and buzzing from center speaker in the TV with audio turned off.

Selling point was price, bottom line. Audio King was blowing last year's model (HCJ552) out the door and now I can see why. At first glance this TV is rather seductive. Bright, good off axis viewing and very VERY well priced. It reviewed well on here, so I was very excited at my good fortune to find such a deal.

However, after 10 minutes of viewing I noted a spot on my TV... A trip from the service department revealed I had a bad gun in my brand new TV. A replacement set was sent out, only to arrive DOA... A second replacement was sent out, but was terribly misconverged right out of the box. Manual convergence helped but ultimatley required ANOTHER service visit. Even after having a tech come out and reconverge the set, 2 weeks of viewing convinced me that no amount of tweaking was going to make me happy with the picture. Everything had a horizontal "grain" to it and I found the set had a lot of trouble holding black. It also liked to push red. I tried a different progressive scan DVD player and noted the same problems.

I returned the unit and picked up a brand new Mitsubishi 55" 55809 to replace it. After the same calibration with Avia, I found none of the grain or other picture anomolies and noted a HUGE improvement in the quality of the picture.

Some other serious issues with this model:

__The center speaker BUZZES... and it's not quiet or even remotely acceptable in a $2000 TV... disabling onboard audio and turning down/muting sound has no effect on this. Both working sets had the same problem, so I know it's not just a problem with a bad unit.

__Single HD/progressive component input. Second component input accepts 480i ONLY.

__The "VGA" input upscales everything to 1080i for some stupid reason and makes it unacceptable as a video display. I played around with my PC and some custom resolutions and sync timings.. pointless. Good idea, bad execution.

Samsung did a better job with features in the new model (2 HD component inputs, aspect ratio control, no more buzzing, removed the worthless VGA input). Still, at the current list price of $2600 you will find better quality and value in other brands. I auditioned the new model next to the Mitsubishi I ended up buying and there was no contest.

The price for this particular set on closeout is attractive, but you get what you pay for. After the great reviews on here I was shocked at how poorly this set was equipped and performed.

Similar Products Used:

Mitsubishi 46809, 55809, Toshiba PT 47-WX49.

Superb line doubler... Bright Picture... Color Purity & Accuracy... Excellent Gray Scale Contrast... Picture Sharpness

Dolby Prologic

This Samsung set is awesome... I would recommend it to anyone looking to buy a new 16:9 HDTV. I looked at the Sony, Hitachi, and Samsung side by side... I immediatly narrowed my selection between the Samsung & Hitachi. The Sony for those interested was half as bright and produced a dull somewhat unfocused looking picture when playing DVD action movies... looked fine playing cartoons... so make sure you get your salesman to play a DVD with people not cartoons. The price of the Sony was similar to the Hitachi and Samsung... so that was not a factor. I was curious what Sony owners said that bought the 57XBR10W because it was initially my 1st choice before I saw all side by side... Find that Sony fans will buy it as long as it says Sony. I think that is too bad because they are missing out on picture quality that does not have to be buried in the basement to justify the means.

Though the Hitachi has Digital Dolby, something I wanted very bad. I felt the picture quality of the Samsung overtook the Hitachi by a minor margin, but I would say both sets are an excellent choice. Though I am looking at others comments here after the fact... I have not read anything here that would have changed my mind if I had read these reviews before I purchased the set.

Times have changed and it is evident that the non designer jean labels are by far producing a superior product to the tride and true that appear now to be riding a legacy... I would not just take my word, but do what I did,simply line the sets of interest up at your retailer... and let your eyes be the judge... This sets also comes with a 2 year tube warranty... while the designers are still only offering 1... what does this imply to you?

Enjoy!!

Similar Products Used:

Sony KP-57XBR10W, Hitachi 53SWX01W

Very nice HDTV. No problems. Convergence performed by tech at delivery.

DTV cannot be selected from Video select menu, only remote

This was a close out deal. I have no complaints. HDTV on DishNetwork is awesome. Perfect picture on CBS HD NFL Sports games. Very bright picture for rear screen. The replacement set 5525W, I think looks the same, less Dolby Prologic, but does allow select of DTV video via video select menu, i.e. universal remote compatible.

The new model is HCL552W, the HCJ552W has been discontinued. Samsung fixed the DTV select problem and it is now selectable off the Video Source Menu, so Universal remote will now work. Additionally, the DVD input now supports 480i&p. However, the 1080i input only supports 1080i. The set still does not support native or upconversion of 720p.

This sets looks excellent in DVD & HDTV mode, though the lack of 720p up/down conversion as noted is a drawback. In SDTV mode the sets defintly attempts to make up for lost content, pro or con. In DVD or HDTV mode, you would think you are watching Plasma or LCD which currenly is 4 times the price.

Lack of DTV select via the menu prevents use of univeral remotes. Other than that the unit stays well converged after initial setup, though you should have the tech set the defaults before calibration to prevent convergence overscan. i.e. convergence performed off center results in digital focus problems.

For the price, this set performs above my expectations. The lack of SDTV content available is disappointing, and Samsung did a very good job to compensate for low res SDTV sources, and the price today is the best. DD and two DTV inputs would be a nice touch in the next incarnation of this set. But I must point out that the AV in/outs are comparable to other offerings today.