Good TV?

[Ja Di ksw]

Does anyone know if the Samsung 46" C650 is a decent TV? I plan to hook up a Wii to it (yes, I know the Wii is not HD), so I'm hoping it can do that, but also just for general tv viewing (colors, sharpness of pic, good value for price, etc). Not sure this is the best forum for asking but I wasn't sure if there was a better one. Thanks for the help

 

[JackAxe]

I have a Samsung plasma and with a bit of adjustment it's been a great TV. I also have a couple of older Samsung LCDs and they've never failed me, so I trust their products.

I'm not a fan of LCDs for TV though, as they're slower, their fixed pixels don't interpolate lower-rez content nearly as well as a plasma, and their color gamut only touches a plasma at the cost of well, costing way more. Oh, and even the best LCD available still has viewing angle issues.

What really bothers me about LCDs at 1080p, is how they filter upscaled content, since most TV content is really only 720p, or if it's 1080p it's overly compressed -- missing detail --- so that they could fit it into a set bandwidth.

Anyways... Rambles!

 

[Surely]

I've enjoyed my Samsung 40" HDTV since I bought it in February of 2008....... until last week that is.

The TV still works, but if I don't have it repaired, it will stop working.

The problem occurs when powering on the TV: it clicks on and off 5-6 times until it finally turns on. Eventually, it won't turn on at all.

This is a known problem, and Samsung will fix it even if your TV is out of warranty. The issue lies with the capacitors they used in the TV. They are faulty, and need to be replaced. It tends to happen around 2 years or so after manufacture.

Would I buy Samsung again? That depends on how well this TV will work after it is repaired. I also wasn't very happy with Samsung's customer service.... I had to argue a little with them to ensure that there would be no charge to me (due to misinformation that was initially provided to me).

I would guess that Samsung has addressed this problem in newly manufactured TVs.

BTW I discovered the details of this issue by googling "Samsung clicks on and off". Here is one of the links I found: http://www.crovean.net/samsung-lcd-tv-power-up-problem

 

[JackAxe]

I had that same problem with my Sony Trinitron HD CRT widescreen, which died at about 3 years old. But with with my prior 32" Trinitron it started happening after about 8 years, but I really have no complaints about that set, as it was on 24/7 for the majority of its life before I gave it away.

I ended up putting my Samsung on a UPS like my comps, so hopefully that will prevent it from the same fate as my other TVs.

The guy I called about fixing my HD CRT Sony stated it was a problem with cheap parts.

One more ramble for now. My friend has an earlier(2007 or 2008) Samsung 50" that he bought refurbished. He got a good deal on on it, but it took a couple of visits from the warranty guys to get his set working properly.

 

[SevenInchScrew]

Does anyone know if the Samsung 46" C650 is a decent TV?

I have this very TV in the 40" version in my bedroom, and I'm fully happy with it. It has a very good picture, in my opinion. Granted, I'm no über videophile, but I know what to look for in a good picture, and for the price I paid for the TV, it fits the bill very nicely. It looks great, has a ton of nice features (Pandora, Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, etc), and can directly play a TON of different media types either from a flash drive, or a network storage (MKV, MP4, AVI, etc).

The built-in DLNA works excellent as well. I have a Samsung Captivate Android phone, and using the native "AllShare" app, I can send files (audio, video, pics, etc) right from my phone to the TV over the network. Think Apple's AirPlay, but without the need for an AppleTV in the middle. If the TV can play it, AllShare will send it. I don't use that often, but it has come in handy more often that I thought it would.

It works very well for gaming, as well. Just make sure you turn OFF all the image enhancement features first, otherwise it adds a bit too much delay and the games start to feel really laggy. And while I haven't had a Wii hooked up to it, I've seen what SD and HD cable, as well as SD Netflix, looks like on it. It will scale SD stuff up quite well. Obviously, with those types of signal, it can only do so much. But as long as you don't expect miracles, SD stuff is totally passable.

Overall, it is a very good TV. I've always had good experiences with Samsung TVs, and this one is no exception.

 

[goMac]

Pretty much any name brand TV these days is going to be good.

How good you want is generally the big question. For the best color quality, you want an LED. I myself have an LCD from a few years ago (Samsung) and it works just great. My parents have a 40" Panasonic 1080p plasma that also works just great (and was pretty cheap, around $700 when they bought it a few years ago!) They're all great tvs. It really just depends on how picky you want to be.

Always go see it in person. If the image on it looks good enough to you, than you're fine.

 

[Ja Di ksw]

Thanks to all for the advice! I think we're going to get a very similar, but dif Samsung. All the same stuff (except no Wi-Fi or Samsung apps, but the cable is right below it and we don't need Samsung apps), except Plasma and 50". It's the same price, 50" is nicer of course, and the plasma should give us better blacks and less motion blur.

Looking forward to playing some games on it, my current tv is so old it only does the Wii in black and white with grainy pics . Barely used it, still haven't finished New Super Mario Bros, haven't played Mario Galaxy 2 once, and have Kirby's Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Metroid: Other M sitting under the tree waiting for me!