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Samsung LN40A550 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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10 Responses to “Samsung LN40A550 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV”
Rating
Very pleased with this TV so far. Setup was easy, plenty of inputs for my needs. No issue at all with the HDMI cables I got from Amazon for about $11. Picture is amazing with no issues with glare. HD pictures are tremendous off my Fios feed, plenty to choose from. Analog pictures are fine, varies from channel to channel-(supposed not really a strength of the Samsung’s anyway). TV sounds really good all by itself, haven’t hooked it up to the new home theater setup just yet-(waiting to run new wires). All in all a very nice TV worth waiting for. I haven’t changed any of the factory settings, I played with the alternate picture settings, but the default settings were fine. I bought it from a box store because they matched the price and it was easy to get home and setup by myself.
Rating
This television is truly something to be admired. I’d say it’s also a work of art.
I have a high definition cable box with an HDMI cable to the TV and the HD channels are superb. I mean, the picture is totally 100% crystal clear. I have windows behind me and somehow there is virtually no glare. Yes, the TV looks better when it is dark outside versus light outside but it’s perfectly great when it is light outside.
I’m writing this review on my couch. My laptop is connected to the TV via a VGA cable with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately my laptop does not have HDMI but I can see very well with the VGA cable. Needless to say, I am going to become much more lazy as a result of this TV.
The 40 inches is great for my viewing pleasure. I’m sure 46 is bigger but I am 100% content with 40 inches. It comes down to price. I did not want to pay more than $1,200 for a TV (that’s $100 a month for 12 months using the Amazon Store Card). So this was a no-brainer for me.
If you are in the market for a TV, I highly suggest this one. It is truly a wonderful TV.
The “only” thing that isn’t 100% perfect is the sound. The sound is good mind you, but it is not as perfect as the picture. But for the record, I have not played with the equalizer which people report helps the sound.
This is an amazing TV.
UPDATE 6/12/2008: This is still a remarkable television. I don’t have any complaints about it at all. Even the sound is perfectly fine. However, you MUST either have a Blu Ray player or an Upconvert player with an HDMI cable to get the full benefit. Everything looks and sounds perfect on this TV.
UPDATE 7/13/2008: The TV is still perfect so just buy it already! I actually bought a 26″ 3-series for my bedroom. I don’t notice too much of a difference; I am happy with this “worse” TV as I am with my living room TV (this one). Samsung makes an excellent LCD television!
FINAL UPDATE 3/19/2009: Well I’ve had this TV about a year and I can honestly say it still is great. The sound is great, too. But… in retrospect, when it comes to TVs, bigger is better. A year ago this TV was $1,200 and I just paid it off this month. But if I could have gotten a 42″ or a 46″, then that would be better. Don’t get me wrong, the 40″ is great, but what’s wrong with a few extra inches? Either way you can’t go wrong with the LCD 5 Series from Samsung.
Rating
I am a value oriented buyer, so a 1080P Samsung 40″ LCD HDTV for $1179 was a pretty good deal. Best Buy, Circuit City and Fry’s price was about $1599 to $1699. There was no tax to pay and Amazon offered free white glove delivery. What could be better than that. It took about a week for the TV to arrive. The freight company called to set up a delivery appointment. They showed up, carried the box inside, installed the TV, did the basic set up (connect the HD antenna, the DVD player, scan the HD channels), asked me to inspect the TV and then I signed to accept the delivery. Can’t get that kind of service with BB or CC.
Now to the HDTV. I use the default settings. HD channels are crystal clear, it’s a pleasure to watch the news and the Lakers games. With a dynamic contrast ratio of 30000:1, the picture is bright. I connect my up converting DVD player, pop in the movie CARS and my son couldn’t take his eyes of the screen. I am sure a blu-ray DVD player will give a perfect picture but at $400 I think it is still too expensive.
So far the Samsung LN40A550 is excellent.
Rating
I first checked all the HDTVs at a local Best Buy store and I will admit they all looked nice to me. My decision to buy this TV from Amazon.com was influenced by these factors: Samsung brand, 2008 model, great price, no tax, and free white glove shipping.
I have connected my TV to Comcast HD set-top box using HDMI cables. The picture quality on HD channels is stunning and very good on non-HD channels too. Initially I had some apprehensions that perhaps 40″ wasn’t big enough, but after watching all those vivid, sharp images of people and things up close it doesn’t feel small at all! Earlier I had used “component” cables for video connection but HDMI is clearly better. DVDs also look nice. For audio I have a premium audio home theater system (Bose) so I have turned the TV volume to OFF.
My only complaint against this TV is with the extreme difficulty I had in taking off the stand that came with it. The screws at the back somehow got “stuck” and wouldn’t come off readily. Samsung customer service representative on the phone didn’t have any constructive advice to offer either. I had to tilt the TV, screw back and unscrew several times before the screws came off one by one. In such a high-tech TV they didn’t get this simple mechanical thing right. Now I have the TV mounted to a floor mount-stand (Bello) and am loving it.
Rating
One of my biggest purchases with Amazon and it went as smooth as possible. The picture on this TV is amazing. FiOS HD can be almost too much pretty on one screen with this TV, it’s a bit overwhelming at first. Standard def channels are of course a less clear but better than expected. The only issue I have with this TV is the length of time to power on and off. You also have to point the remote just right sometimes or the function won’t register. Small issue though, hardly worth docking points off this unit.
The menu is wonderful and gives complete control over settings. Each input saves your settings too! The AVS Forums have a great thread concerning settings for each input that should be checked out and tested. A little tweaking got the black levels and skin tone just right.
I haven’t tested the VGA input, but my Macbook Pro connected with a DVI-HDMI cable is amazing! My FiOS is connected via HDMI and as I mentioned, quite beautiful. I also have a Wii hooked up via component. The Wii maxes out at 480p but really shines on this TV despite the 1080p native res. Don’t be fooled though, the picture is a little fuzzy but through some tweaking you can get a great picture without springing for a separate upconverter.
Shipping was of course through Eagle/CEVA. Make sure to call and verify they’ve got your info. They didn’t have my phone number on record at first so I corrected that. My delivery man was Rick. He was great! He called to setup the appointment, was on time, very delicate with the unit, and very personable. I couldn’t be more pleased.
UPDATE: Just wanted to mention the finish of the screen. Originally, I was debating between this model and the older lnt4069fx due to the matte screen. I chose this model for several reasons. First, it was cheaper. Second, I decided 120Hz wasn’t worth the extra 400 bucks. Third, the screen isn’t glossy but it isn’t matte it’s more of an in-between, satin-like finish that works great in my TV watching room that has a glass front door to the outside and 2 windows. Glare isn’t a problem at all for me even with lamps behind me. It really is great. The ultra gloss on the 600 and 700 models are way to much for my multipurpose room. Hope that helps anyone on the fence that cares about gloss vs. matte finishes.
Rating
After owning this HDTV for a month now, I’m a very happy customer. Amazon offers the best price and was able to get $58 in refunds for the 30-day policy. Shipping took 4 days and CEVA did great although since I can’t wait, I’m the one who went to the local CEVA warehouse on a Sunday to pick it up.
Out of the box, picture is amazing and sharp. Tweaking it will give you more satisfaction. Joining avsforums is very helpful. Sound is not that great but I tweaked it as well to my liking. NO dead pixels, NO banding, NO flashlight effect, NO problems. After owning a 30″ Samsung Dynaflat HDTV, I am more than happy to upgrade. Like I said, this TV offers a sharp picture and image detail is outstanding. Comcast HD looks spectacular especially SciFi HD, Food Network HD and MHD. I love this HDTV and I will be enjoying it for years to come.
Rating
I have had this tv for about 2 weeks, i purchased the tv April 30 and got a call that they could deliver on the 7th of May which is a lot sooner than what amazon suggested which was the 13th but i would not be able to since i was going to be at work so i said how about next Wednesday the 14th and they said fine. The delivery service was amazing. The delivery period was between 8am and noon and it was here right before 10. They came inside took off their shoes and took it out of the box and brought it up stairs for me and set it up to make sure it worked and offered to take the box for me.
Now to the actual tv, one word….AMAZING, i upgraded from a off brand 26 inch tube tv that sucked and had no inputs at all i could not even plug in a vcr or dvd player. I did quite a bit of research when i was ready to get a new tv, i went to Walmart, best buy, circuit city, Sam’s club and ABT Electronics in Chicago Illinois. I did not want to spend much more then a 1000 on a tv and i wanted a 32 or 37 inch tv i was looking at a Vizio and a Toshiba and was pretty sure i was going to get a Toshiba from ABT since if i ever did have any problems they would just come out themselves and fix it. The tv would have been a little more then 1300 but my cousin told me he just bought a 52 inch Sony xb4 which is over 3000 dollars off of amazon and i decided i would check it out myself. I just typed in lcd tv and went through the tvs and finally came upon the Samsung ln37a550 and was pretty sure i was going to get it but then i saw the Samsung ln40a550 was only a hundred or so more i was like i have to get it. It has double the contrast ratio which you really can not focus on to much if your looking at different brands since there is no exact science to measuring the exact contrast ratio but it has a very quick response time of 5 seconds and when i saw the free shipping i busted out my credit card and purchased it. I could not be more pleased with my purchase. I bought a ps3 and hooked it up with a hdmi cable i got from monoprice.com for 10 bucks and that is another site and item i would really recommend to anyone DO NOT BUY EXPENSIVE CABLES. there is no visual difference between the 100 dollar and 5 dollar hdmi cable unless it is over 25 feet so don’t waste your money. Call of Duty 4 is amazing on this 40 inch tv and so is blu ray movies.
Some people have said the speakers on this tv suck but they really don’t they are better than any other tv out there of course they aren’t surround speakers so don’t say the speakers suck because they aren’t suppose to be same quality, but they are really good for just being the tv speakers. I am about to get a Denon receiver so i can hook up my 3.1 Boston acoustic surround sound system.
I also hooked my tv to my computer through a dvi to a hdmi cable which i also bought on monoprice.com for 5 bucks for a 10 foot cable. The quality on the tv is so much better then on the lcd monitor i was using, but it stretches the screen, i think it is just my video card but i thought i would let you know.
Overall i rate this tv the best i have seen. I researched for a tv for 3 full months and this tv is by far the best i have seen. If you do get this tv keep looking at Amazon because they do a 30 day price match if you find it cheaper or if their price lowers within the first 30 days they will give you back the difference i have already received over 50 dollars which is what i used to get my video game. Well i think i wrote enough so i will let you get back to buying this item because it is so worth it, trust me. BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 18, 2008
Alright so i have had this tv for about 6 months and still to this day i love this tv, I have everything for this tv because this tv is amazing. I got a 3.1 Boston acoustics surround sound with a Denon receiver, i have playstation 3 hooked up through hdmi which is flawless when playing blu-ray. I have a mac mini hooked up to the tv and it is amazing to do stuff like photoshop and all that on this large tv. I also hood up a view sat satellite HD box with a dish and now i have over a 1000 channels and it is crystal clear. All this is mounted on a tv stand that i got at Wal-Mart and it looks perfect i will take a picture of everything and put it up soon as soon as i can find my digital camera.
Well let me tell you about the performance of the tv, the tv is perfect in every way, i wish i got this tv a long time ago but oh well i have it now. About 2 months into getting the tv i heard crackling noises when i would turn off the tv after using it for awhile, i got scared because i spend all this money and i didn’t want anything bad to happen to it but it went away after a week or so and i haven’t heard it since. I wish the tv had more hdmi ports but luckily i have my receiver that has plenty that compensates for the lack on the tv. Dont hook up your tv to your computer through hdmi unless you have a good video card because it stretches it out so you cant see the edges of the screen but when i switched it to dvi it was perfect. If you haven’t listened to me yet and are still debating on buying this tv STOP IT AND JUST BUY IT!!!! you will not regret it.
Rating
After researching several other brands, we decided to go in for a 40″ Samsung LCD. It had superior picture quality over others and was at a much better price point ($$/inch) than Sony Bravia, which was the only other TV that came close in terms of quality.
Some of the reviews at Amazon are really great, please read them before you buy. Without going in to much details, THIS IS SIMPLY ONE OF THE BEST HDTVs out there!!
One thing we had a hard time deciding was between this model, the LN40A550 (60 Hz frame rate), and LN-T4069F (120 Hz frame rate). While at the store, we saw noticeable difference between them. The LN-T4069F had smoother image transitions due to its higher frame rate and a nicer picture rendering. But we decided to go in for LN40A550 (about ~$400 cheaper, a better contrast ratio, and moreover we hadn’t seen any user reviews for this newer model). But it’s something to consider if you are in the market, especially if they drop the prices.
Rating
Had this HDTV for a month now and can say it was good purchase. Thank you Amazon for your prompt and courteous delivery! It was my second HDTV purchase from Samsung and I am very happy with the brand. This HDTV I put in the Bedroom. We watch the HDTV approx. 8-10 ft away and a 40″ is just about right. Great picture, just hooked-up HD Dish Network and WOW what a picture, and right out of the box! The internal speakers are good if you tweak them a little, but I would plan on connecting the TV to a receiver. Only problem I have noticed (which it isn’t after programming the satillite remote to control the TV), that you have to point the TV remote exactly at the TV IR port. But that’s a minor annoyance. I highly recommend this HDTV
Rating
I used a variety of sources to determine which 40″ LCD Television would best meet our needs and our budget. Prior to the research, I was focused on an adequately satisfying viewing experience in a very reliable television. A previous purchase had not satisfied both goals. I had bought a “no-name” product for which no local service was available. When it failed (two years), I packaged and shipped the product to a repair facility where it was repaired well and with a reasonably short turnaround. Still, I didn’t want that grief again.
Nor did I wish to gamble again on the offerings of the local Sam’s Club shelves that appeared to be “earlier versions” in every case. I was going to indulge myself in a current model of a name brand television.
Consumer Reports gave its highest 40″ LCD rating to the Samsung LN40A550, and the purchasers’ ratings at Amazon.com and other Internet vendors were entirely positive. My son-in-law’s experience with high dollar electronics buys from Amazon.com was the clencher in my decision to spend a thousand plus dollars over the Net. I’m glad I did. My cost savings over any local source (Best Buy, Sears, etc.) exceeded $250. My total cost with an HDMI cable was around $1140.
Just as promised in all the reviews, the LN40A550 was quick and simple to set up. The picture is razor sharp, and the colors are true to life. There is little or no need to make color or contrast corrections from channel to channel. Some of the reviewers had bashed the A550′s sound system. I find it to be okay, but, if sound quality had been a very high priority, I heard sweeter sounds from a comparable (and pricier) Sony unit.
I can’t find enough superlatives to describe my satisfaction with Amazon.com on this purchase. I paid no shipping or handling costs, and the TV was delivered to my living room in three days after my on-line order. The delivery was made by a well-groomed, articulate employee of a respected shipping firm. That employee unboxed and unwrapped the TV and even offered to haul away the box and shipping materials. I should have availed myself of that offer because Samsung currently is offering one year of in-home service on this model.
My wife and I have satisfactorily dealt with Amazon.com many times on little items. We have never been disappointed with their service. We are extremely pleased with this recent major purchase. I vouch that anyone who buys the Samsung LN40A550 from Amazon.com can look forward to an experience that is “all good.”
Larry Epstein – Memphis,TN