I’m not going to write a book – but the following are my initial impressions.

Given that my outgoing Sharp display had only 1 HDMI input, the LG’s 2 inputs are acceptable for my needs (HD cable/DVR & PS3) but for others with more peripherals (stand alone Blu-Ray, DVD, multiple gaming consoles, etc), 2 HDMI inputs may not be enough. The set also has a component input (probably acceptable for use w/ a non-upscaling DVD player).

Unboxing the TV in my living room, I cranked all my lights to check for blemishes / defects. While the TV was in good condition, both the screen and the glossy black bezel had hand/finger prints in multiple locations. I’m not sure if this happened at the factory (made in Mexico) or if I got a unit that had been previously unboxed (manuals, remote, stand were all still in sealed plastic – so I’m guessing factory), but it was a little unsettling, even at this price point. It took me a few extra minutes to wet a cloth and clean the TV before setting it up.

The glossy black bezel is unremarkable – it doesn’t look bad, but it does look (and feel) a little cheap. This is not a TV I would mount or place conspicuously – especially among high quality peripherals, audio equipment or as the anchor of an expensive entertainment center (of course it’s doubtful that a 32″ TV would typically form the center of an expensive piece of furniture like that).

After setting the TV up, I obviously turned it on. I was not immediately impressed. Like most new TV’s, this one is pre-programmed to default to wild backlight / brightness / color settings (with the aim of display sets not washing out under bright store lights, I presume). After spending some time tuning the picture, I was able to achieve settings that were to my liking. The tuned picture is fairly impressive at this price point – solid processing, even backlighting, good black levels for a CCFL-backlit TV, and fairly accurate color although off-angle viewing could be better. Speaking of tuning, the menu / interface is very simple and very easy to use – both because of good menu design and also because there are not a whole lot of features on this set to be configured.

Which brings me to features – this is not among the next generation of LCD TV’s; it has no LED backlight, it is not 120hz, it is not thinner than a strand of hair, it does not connect wirelessly or offer widgets or video streaming, and it is not 3D compatible (a feature I sincerely hope does not catch on for cinema or television – who wants to wear 3D glasses all evening?).

But if you don’t want to spend a lot, don’t need the TV to be a conversation piece while it is turned off, don’t need to the TV to perform functions that your other devices would likely make redundant, and are looking primarily for decent quality picture and good value – then I’d recommend this TV to you.

Full specs can be found at the following location: [...]
Rating: 4 / 5

Pros

Great picture on the right settings – I fooled around with the settings for 3 weeks before finding the right mix. This set has a lot of options on settings and you can end up with a totally different looking TV if the settings are poor. The best I could come up with was to switch to Standard, Color 45-50, Tint 45/55, Backlight 12-14, Brightness 45, Sharpness 0 (this is important) and switch almost all the other settings off except for Smart LED to med/high, Motion Plus to Custom with 10 blur/2 judder, Mode Auto2, and Natural.

Nice stand and titanium bezel. Good look.

Remote is very nice compared to the bluray remote, but I’m using a Harmony 900 for all my components so it isn’t used.

Bright screen compared to plasmas I’ve had. Blur settings above enable you to enjoy sports without the “soap opera” effect but there are some issues watching movies (see below).

Pinpoint dimming works. No flashlighting like the c7000 series I’ve witnessed.

Real 3D content (Monsters v. Aliens) looks great (even with a 1.3 highspeed HDMI cable — however, 2D to 3D conversion of regular programs gives only nice depth – not pop out 3d.

Super thin TV – fairly lightweight.

Netflix app works through both through the TV and the bluray and surprisingly has good pic quality – not bluray like, but close to DVD quality with no glitches (assuming you have a fast internet connection). Software upgrade worked well for bluray and TV to update netflix and the other internet apps (just not the firmware update to the TV itself) through wifi.

Cons

Lots of screen glare in a bright room (although offset by bright picture). This TV does not have a traditional matte screen like many LCD HDTVs. It is a VERY shiny screen, and the reflections look somewhat warped – like the screen is not uniform. It is not noticeable during normal watching, but with the TV off or in very dark scenes, the reflections are bowed.

Narrow viewing angle – if you’re off center by more than 5 feet you lose blacks. This is a major problem unless all of your seating is directly in front of the TV.

TV isn’t wifi – need a $80 adapter or have to hardwire it – TV firmware didn’t update through the adapter – had to update on Samsung site with USB.

The pinpoint dimming works – to a point. This TV does not have the flashlights in the corners of the screen like its sister TV, the c7000. However, it does have “clouding” in dark scenes where you see a glow of of light around bright words/objects where the rest of the screen is dark. This is very noticeable in credits in movies but not discernable in everyday watching of normal TV shows.

My biggest beef with this TV is that you pay for the 240hz auto motion plus to make this TV more “plasma-like” for purposes of motion blur. However, the auto motion plus makes most movies look too “soap opera-ee” while making live sports look incredible. So, you are constantly fooling around with the settings every time you change the channel.

Another issue with the TV is something that another reviewer spent a great deal of time on, and that is the jerkiness/judder of movies. While most movies on bluray, directv and dvd look phenomenal most of the time, about every 10 min or so, you will see a jerky scene – lasts about 2-3 seconds, that appears unnatural. Then the movie just continues looking great. 10 minutes later you see it again. I’ve read that if you turn off the judder and auto motion plus, this may fix the problem, but again, then you have to switch all your settings every time you switch between sports and movies. A bit high maintenance . . .

In all, the picture quality with the right settings on this TV is great. The problem is that it is too much work to constantly change your settings depending on what you’re watching. Also, the off angle viewing issue, clouding and bowed screen are a turnoff. If these issues were fixed, this TV would be unbeatable. Unfortunately, I ended up frustrated by the potential of the TV that isn’t quite there yet.
Rating: 4 / 5

My TV is in a pretty bright room. Looks almost perfect for how I watch it, night or day, though admittedly at night I can detect a tiny amount of non-uniformity in very isolated dark scenes and a small amount of flashlighting with letterbox scenes. At the end of the day, this is the best TV picture quality I have personally seen to date, regardless of technology or price.

The settings I changed from the default:

Mode: Standard

Backlight: 12

Contrast: 90

AMP: Clear

Eco Mode: On (Great feature, otherwise TV is too bright at night)

-Lowest Backlight: 7

My Personal Ratings:

Picture Quality during day: 9/10 – glossy screen, perfect otherwise

Picture Quality at night: 9/10 – minor lighting uniformity issues or ‘clouding’

Picture Quality compared to Plasma – Sharper, Brighter (way more awesome) in direct view, but move more than 20 degrees off center and Plasma wins, except in a bright room

Remote control: 3/10 – Its back-lit and looks cool, but usability is horrible. Get a Harmony.

Bezel/Stand/Form: 5/10 – Don’t like plastic trim and silver bezel, but still looks better than most of the competition. Don’t like the panel buttons. Stand is ugly. Hate proprietary dongles (for network, cable connections, etc) would prefer .2″ thicker to get real connectors on the back (Doesn’t the C6500 have real connectors?). Do appreciate the fact that the connectors run along the TV instead of straight out the back (very nice!). Do not like the permanently affixed power cord. TV should have a physical power button accessible on the back.

Quality Control: 5/10 – I’m just waiting for the capacitors to fail now. I’m not feeling good about the amount of people receiving possessed TVs. See below.

Average my ratings except quality control (and the easily replaced remote) and I would give this set 4 out of 5 stars. It’s good, but significant room for improvement on a high end consumer TV.

Unfortunately, the Samsung UN55C8000 looses another precious star since the original TV Amazon replaced for me had a serious problem:

Each morning watching satellite, within about 15 minutes of powering on (and remotes hidden away), TV changes input to PC/Cable, static appears in the back, lower right red indicator is flashing quickly (as if remote is sending commands) and TV is unresponsive to front panel buttons and most remote buttons. I was able to get the input back to HDMI by pressing Menu on the remote, but took repeated tries. To bring the TV back to normal, I had to physically disconnect power cable from the wall (very annoying) as the regular power button doesn’t work.

Mine became possessed with CEC (Anynet) turned on or off. With Anynet control connection enabled on the receiver, it switched my receiver to another input and turned it off. As a test when TV was possessed I disconnected the only cable (HDMI) connected to the TV to see if that helped it recover. The TV remained unresponsive to the remote/front panel and continued to flash the red indicator as if it was receiving commands. Based on this and that the replacement under the same setup does not go crazy, the errant commands were not coming off of HDMI-CEC.

Once I was able to get the TV out of the unresponsive flashy mode by pressing buttons on the front panel. Another time, the TV rebooted on its own, but cleared ALL of my settings and came up in demo mode (which I exited through the normal plug and play menu setting). Having seen demo mode, I can determine that what the TV was doing before the reboot was certainly not demo mode.

I believe the control board in the Samsung is likely faulty, and since only a few others see this maybe be a yield issue in the Tijuana factory. Maybe it is temperature related, my house is a few degrees cooler in the morning. As the TV warms up an improperly soldered chip makes complete contact and confuses the remote sensor. Maybe its a grounding issue (loose connection).

Technical details:

Tested with firmware 1006, 1016, 1017.

Yamaha RX-V765 AVR connected by HDMI to TV. Tried with HDMI control on and off, no difference.

PS3 (HDMI), Dish Network PIV 722 (HDMI), and PS2 (component) connected to AVR

Other than the single HDMI connection from AVR and power cable through basic surge protector, no other connections to TV.

I called Samsung and they say something is definitely wrong with my TV, that its not something previously reported to them, even though you can search the forums online and you will find others with the same issue. They offered to schedule service but I decided to just exchange with Amazon. Frustrating because its not easily reproducible. The rep said if possible a video of the TV “doing its thing” might be useful for a service tech. I have caught it going crazy on video several times.

Since I worry some other defect like this might be exposed down the road, I purchased the 4 year warranty. I haven’t purchased one before, but this issue is not a good indication of the acceptable failure rates from Samsung (or possibly any consumer goods, expensive or not). It is ironic because LED technology is more reliable/robust than CCFL, but I suppose a product is only as reliable as your weakest link, in this case, Samsung manufacturing quality.

I have had my replacement C8000 for a month now, and it hasn’t become possessed once. Since I was seeing the issue on my old one almost every day, I am pretty sure there is some issue these TVs are prone to right out of the factory. So for the few of you having this issue (maybe less than 0.1% of all C8000/C7000 owners?), I suggest you get your TV replaced. I suppose if you have an absolutely perfect panel (no dead red subpixels or massive clouding), you might opt for the motherboard swap.

Both sets I received have a red subpixel stuck black, in different locations. Since its hard to find without a solid red screen, I’m guessing its pretty normal to have this on these displays (though never had one in all the other LCD computer displays I have personally owned). I am curious how many have tried with the solid red image, and not found a dead subpixel. Disappointing, but not a deal breaker.

Yes, Samsung and Amazon ensured I would get a working TV, but overall this 5 star TV loses a star for typical design/value issues and another star for being defective – 3 stars! Picture quality really is so fantastic it is a shame to give it 3 stars, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t say my overall experience wasn’t disappointing.
Rating: 3 / 5

After a week or so I went in to see the Panasonic that was now also on display only to see the same issues with crosstalk in 3D. The 2D experience on the Panasonic was quite good but at the time the only size available was 50″, and I was replacing a 62″ set and really didn’t want to make that drastic of a change. So on bright pictures the Samsung was absolutely stunning! In a dark room while watching a dark movie the picture was just unacceptable for a TV in this price range. At this point I figured that I would return the TV, and wait for one of the larger Panasonic’s to hit the stores.

Then I saw that the C8000 was being released earlier than expected, and had new technology called Pinpoint Dimming. After doing quite a bit of reading reviews, and others’ experience with the Samsung locally dimmed set’s I decided to give Samsung another chance before going to Plasma. Amazon had the TV for sale before my local retailer so I placed the order and crossed my fingers that I would not be returning two new TV’s instead of one. Well let me wrap this up by saying that I am sooooo glad that I made this choice! The C8000 is absolutely stunning in aesthetic quality, and is the best picture quality I have probably ever seen! Dare I say it is even better than the 8500 from last year that gets such great reviews. There is no flashlighting, the black levels are completely pitch black, and as another reviewer already stated, once you get the picture dialed in the way you like it there really is no comparison. Everyone that sees the TV in my house has to stop and watch for a while, in fact, the downside to owning it is that I can’t get people to go home!

Now with that being said, there are some minor observations that would be different in a perfect world. If you put this set in a large room and watch it from a large angle you will lose some of the black levels, and for the price it really should have wifi built in. Also, in the menu’s it seems that some settings should be grouped together under the headings, so you have to jump around in the menu’s a bit to get your set dialed in, but this is typically not something you will be doing all the time. Other than that I really can’t see a problem with it. When considering the C7000 or C8000 do yourself a favor and choose the latter. Even if this set was hundreds of dollars more it would be worth it. This one will be hard to beat.

UPDATE: After having the TV for about a week it started having some technical issues like switching sources randomly, and changing the picture settings for no reason. Samsung tech support was very good and we thought initially the problems were being caused by the Logitech remote I use, however after increased tech issues the TV had to be returned. Being that the picture quality is so exceptional on this set I have already replaced it with another one of the same model purchased at retail (for much less money actually) and am keeping my fingers crossed that this one does not have any technical issues. I am leaving my review at five stars simply because every so often you can get a bum product, or something could have happened during shipping, but have to say that Samsung, and Amazon have been really great about taking care of me on this, and the picture quality really is very good. Reading the other reviews I am surprised that anyone would not give this a five star rating. When replacing my C8000 I checked out one of the last B8500’s still available, and side by side I have to say that not only me, but most people in the store were more impressed with the C8000. By the way, I have owned several products that C-net gave very high ratings that I had no success with, and vice versa, so I really think it comes down to your own expectations on a purchase like this.
Rating: 5 / 5

Drawbacks:

* High price

* Problems handling 24 frame/second material (movies)

* Mixed results with upconversion of standard def material to HD

* Some crosstalk on native and upconverted 3D content

* Some lighting uniformity issues (compared to best plasma and local-dimming sets)

Pros:

* Nice black levels and shadow detail for a super-thin (under 1-inch) edge-lit LED set

* Bright, accurate colors

* Energy efficient

* Excellent 3D effect with native 3D content

* Decent 3D upconversion of 2D content (varies based on content)

* Extremely robust selection of IPTV content (web-based widgets, audio and video streaming)

As for price, yes this is one of the first full HD 3D TVs on the market, so you can expect to pay a premium, but $3500 (list) is a lot to pay for a 55-inch TV. Panasonic’s comparably sized and featured 54-inch 3D VT25 plasma lists for $500 less. Even Samsung’s own 3D-capable 46-inch LCD set (standard CCFL backlighting), the LN46C750 sells for about half the price of this LED-lit model. At $1799 list, the 46-inch 3D LCD is only slightly more expensive than comparably sized, comparably featured 2D models.

For SD upconversion, the C8000 does well with the standard “jaggies” tests and 2:3 cadence detection in its “Auto 1″ mode, but it falls apart with mixed content (video titles on a film background), creating combing/tearing artifacts on the screen unless you go out of your way to change the mode setting to “Auto 2″ mode. A good video processor should be able to accomodate both types of content without the user having to go deep into the set-up menus.

The C8000’s 3D feature is both a pro and a con. On native 3D content, such as the “Monster Vs. Aliens” on Blu-ray 3D as well as some test patterns we had on a USB stick, the set’s illusion of depth and dimensionality is impressive — as good if not better than the 3D effect seen in most theaters. And we found that it maintained the 3D effect even from 25 feet away and from well off-axis (watching TV from the side of the room, instead of directly in front of it). Yes, there are times when you can get some crosstalk (left eye image visible by the right eye, which leads to ghosting), but this is fairly sporadic and generally isn’t so obtrusive as to minimize one’s enjoyment of the movie. Samsung added a setting in the 1016.0 firmware that allows you to adjust the 3D mode to minimize crosstalk and this does help, though even with the feature enabled, there can still be some crosstalk at times. Also, Samsung offers a real-time 2D to 3D conversion feature which is more effective than we expected and can give you some additional depth and 3D qualities on existing content. It’s particularly effective on vector-based animation and games, but even on theatrical titles such as “Star Trek” and “Avatar” on 2D Blu-ray Disc, certain scenes do take on a pleasant (though mild) sense of depth.

Back in 2D mode, we did notice one unexpected issue with the C8000’s handling of 24p content (24 frames/second) from standard Blu-ray Discs. Previous Samsung models had the ability to apply motion interpolation (Samsung’s “Auto Motion Plus” feature) for video-based content independently from film content. The separate settings for “Judder Reduction” (film) and “Blur Reduction” (video) worked independently. This allows the user to apply motion interpolation to video sources, like live sports and concert videos, minimizing screen blur and smooting out the motion, while still presenting movies in a native 24p mode that preserves that “filmic feel” that many movie-lovers prefer. In the C8000 model, even with Judder Reduction OFF (set to 0) in “Custom” mode, there is still some motion interpolation going on, which causes movies to look a little more like video (called by some the “soap opera effect”). Hopefully this is a problem that can be fixed via firmware but as of the time of this review, that is not yet available. [update: this issue has been confirmed by Samsung QA and engineering]

As an edge-lit set, there are also some issues with picture uniformity. When you’re lighting up an entire set with just a string of LED lights along the edges, there’s only so far that a diffusor panel can go to get a nice uniform backlight. Samsung has improved this over last year’s edge-lit models, through the use of a technique called “Precision Dimming.” With Precision Dimming, areas of the lighting assembly can be turned off or dimmed independently of other areas. So instead of having one big bright backlight, with only the LCD shutters to provide darkness, the TV can selectively dim parts of the screen (like the top and bottom letterbox areas of 2.35:1 and 2.4:1 movies). This leads to less hot-spotting around the edges, and better overall black levels. It’s not quite as effective as full local dimming with a “full array” LED backlight, but it’s better than having no local dimming technology. Combined with the 2010 improvements in the LCD panel itself, the uniformity and black level performance of the new sets is getting closer to a plasma or full array LED/LCD set with local dimming. Next year, they’ll probably get even better.

Color reproduction of the C8000 is excellent, with saturation near the performance of the best plasmas (and this color and grey scale accuracy holds up even in the dimmer 3D mode), so no real complaints there, but the colors don’t quite “pop” as much as they do on local dimming LED and plasma sets as the level of the blacks is not quite as deep as those other technologies.

In terms of the internet streaming and IPTV content, again, no complaints here: with VUDU, Blockbuster VOD, Netflix streaming, Pandora internet radio, and Yahoo widgets, etc., as well as DLNA compatibility, the C8000 TV brings a wealth of content to your TV from your home network and from the internet at large. One might imagine that over time these services will also be helpful in providing native 3D content which for now is extremely hard to come by.

Overall, there is a lot to like about the C8000, but it does suffer from a few first generation issues. If the high price and relatively minor issues with 2D upconversion and occasional 3D crosstalk don’t worry you too much, then it’s definitely worth a look. But there’s also something to be said for waiting to see what they come up with next year when more content is available and some of these early issues have been worked out. It’s also possible that some of these issues may be improved with firmware updates, so early adopters may still benefit from enhancements as time goes on.

Our complete review of the UN55C8000 is available on Big Picture big Sound (dot com).
Rating: 3 / 5

CORNER LIGHT: After reading many reviews on last years B8000 and this year’s C7000, I was worried about the light that emits from the corners. I’ve seen displays of last year’s B8000 and this year’s C7000 and have VERY easily seen what people are talking about. I took a big gamble in purchasing this TV before I read if people were having issues with this C8000. So let me say… After watching this TV for about 5 hours per day for 3 days… I have NOT seen the light coming from the edges as seen on other sets. And believe me I’ve been looking. I tried to find it watching the HD feed on Time Warner Cable, Blu-ray’s from the PS3, Blu-Ray’s from the Samsung 3D Blu-Ray player, watching at night, during the day… Nothing. I just do not see it!

LOOKS: This TV looks just amazing. It has a VERY dark black screen. It looks as beautiful turned off as it does on. I was nervous about the brush metal look, but it actually looks very nice and compliments the new chromed four-legged stand.

PICTURE: The picture clarity looks incredible. It’s as if I’m discovering HD for the first time. This set replaces a Samsung DLP set, so of course this is a vast improvement. Having said that, I have a newer plasma in the bedroom and this set looks much better than that. As with all new LED sets with 240 Hz, there is a bit of the Spanish Soap Opera/Home Video look to it. Some people really like this, some people don’t. I really like it. For those of you that don’t, you can always turn this feature down or off. To me this makes the picture look very clear and it makes it stand out from the other sets.

3D: Along with this TV I purchased the Samsung 3D Bluray player so I can get the 3D startup kit for free. Turning the 3D feature on and connecting the glasses was easy. The intro to Monsters v. Aliens was very cool. The opening scene in outer space looked incredible. The ball tied to a paddle part was funny and kinda made me jump a little. I haven’t spent too much time with 3D but I did notice that there were some scenes in the movie that had a double image while wearing the glasses. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it is noticeable. You can see this right away during the church scene at the beginning of the movie. It was a little annoying. I’m hoping that this is the kind of stuff that gets ironed out with a firmwear update, or as more content is released, they learn to fix it.

OnlineTV: This is also a very new area for me. I never understood the need for me to want apps on my TV… But its actually kina cool. I’ve tried a few apps but my favorite by far is the Pandora app. I’m a big fan of Pandora and this app I actually like better on my TV than online or the iPhone. The only thing I hate is that Samsung did not have Wifi built in. I think pricing this set at the $3000+ mark should be enough to include it with the set and not require me to drop another $80 for the USB adapter. I just hardwired it, but that’s another wire I don’t like dealing with.

USB: I wanted to mention that this set allows you to connect a USB external hard drive and play music, photo’s and movies directly from the HDD. I have a Western Digital 320GB Passport filled with movies and music, and I was able to navigate the files structure in the drive using the remote quite easily. And it played all the files formats I threw at it.

Pros:

No corner light!!!

Very dark screen.

Very clear picture

Pandora Samsung App

3D was surprisingly fun

USB external HDD capable

and… NO CORNER LIGHT!

Cons:

Slight double images on 3D.

Wifi requires an $80 USB adaptor.

Overall I am very satisfied with the UN55C8000. Even with the few CONS, this set to this average Joe is a definite 5 star! As I spend more time with the set, I’ll be sure to update this review if I find something worth mentioning.

Please feel free to ask me questions and I’ll try my best to answer them. I know how nerve wrecking buying a big ticket item such as this is… So I would be glad to help as much as I can.

Rating: 5 / 5

every single Apple device you buy only has 90 days of support from the apple store after that is $49.99 to fix ONE problem and its $49.99 for every problem after that.

The TV itself is very easy to put together, all you do is screw a few screws in for the base. Next just plug the TV into the wall for power and you’re set. If you do use cable television, be sure to plug that in. Put the two batteries in the remote and press the red power button on the remote. One thing, the remote really does suck, it’s very ugly and sometimes you do have to press a button twice in order to get it to work. I have no idea if you can set up another remote with it or not. When you first turn on the TV it will bring up a setup guide to search for channels. I had previously connected a coaxial cable to the RF Input, the TV scanned for channels and found the same amount as my older Sony did. However, when I began to skim the channels, they all looked disgusting. Even the HD channels it picked up (720p and 1080i) looks like crap. The Sony displayed these channels brilliantly. It crossed my mind that maybe I set my standards too high because of the Sony, after all, this is only a $350 dollar TV. As another reviewer said, it does take a couple seconds to change channels. Also, channel names will not be displayed as you switch.

I hooked up my PS3 to the TV via HDMI, and this is where the TV actually shines. I popped in Uncharted Drake’s Fortune, and it actually looks pretty darn good. In the areas where there was sunlight the grass looked kinda iffy, but I was okay with that. In the really dark areas, it was pretty darn hard to see. Now this doesn’t mean that the TV has excellent blacks, because it made almost everything black, I could barely see Drake’s head. I must mention that there is a Dynamic Contrast setting which should be turned on in order to get blacker blacks, it seemed to help a lot. Playing HD movies through the PS3 looked pretty good too. Again though, the blacks were not very black. Also, you need to look directly at the TV to get the maximum viewing angle, any change in seating will diminish the all the colors to nothing. I do have one major gripe though that made me decide to return the TV, when using the PS3 and switching to a movie, or game, the TV will lose the signal from the PS3. It will say that it is searching, and after a minute, it will give up. Sometimes, this wouldn’t happen, and sometimes it will happen, and the image will pick up after a few seconds. When the TV gives up on searching, I found that the only way to fix it would be to turn the TV off and on a couple times. When I popped in the Star Trek (2009) Blu-Ray, it did this in between the trailers. Star Trek looked good, but not great on the TV. I believe that a television viewing experience should be seamless. I am hoping that this was only my TV set, and if not, that Westinghouse should issue an update quickly.

About the sound, if you care anything at all about sound, please buy decent speakers to go with it. The TV has no bass, and will squeal if any high pitched noises come from it. There is an optical out which is nice.

A quick list of things I like and didn’t like:

+Thin (1.5 inches maximum)

+LED Edge-lit

+Exceeds Energy Star 5.0 requirements

+Great for console gaming

+Very light

+Inexpensive

-Television channel quality

-Not the most vivid colors

-Blacks aren’t very black

-Signal loss

-Very limited viewing area

I purchased this TV despite all the negative reviews I have read about the Westinghouse brand. Other people have liked this TV, I am hoping that I will be only a handful of unhappy customers. I recommend this TV if you are looking an inexpensive set for the kids, but not for a living room experience.
Rating: 3 / 5

Cons: stand does not swivel, tv seems to be angled downward slightly, unimpressive speakers, only 2 hdmi inputs.

Other thoughts: no component inputs, but it does come with a vga adapter kit so you can hook up a single device using component connections. Also might want to make sure your hdmi cables are 1/2″ thick or less (most I have seen are), my hdmi cables barely fit into the slots because of their thickness (this is understandable, as the tv itself is only 1.5″). The TV does slant downwards slightly. Not a terribly big deal, but modestly annoying since the stand cannot be adjusted. speakers are on the bottom/back of the tv, so sound is below average. Overall, you will have a tough time finding a better 32″ 720p LED tv for the same price.
Rating: 4 / 5

But when we were getting ready to pick up the boxes of Phillips TV’s and put them in the cart to take home, we started reading the box thatthe Westinghouse was in. Did my eyes deceive me? Did it really say LED on it! No way. We walked over the the high end and expensive LCD TV’s. and the 32″ ones that said LED were $700.00 plus! Samsungs, Vizio, Panasonics, etc.

First of all, an explanation for the “electronically challenged among us..like me! A regular LCD TV uses fluorescent edge lighting to shine thru the LCDs to make the picture viewable. Good enough!

Then there are newer technology LCD TV’s with LED edge lighting…LED’s all the way around the screen shine thru and illuminate the TV screen. Saves energy because LEDs use a small fraction of the energy as the fluorescent lights. Better but the black and darker colors are not as “black”, and colors a bit washed out.

BUT…the Westinghouse LED back lit LCD’s have black blacks! Deeper color, brighter, vibrant colors (wait till you see the yellows!). And way less energy, about the same as a 40 watt light bulb. And the TV is slim..I mean slim!

1″ thick and 14 1/2 lbs!

Terrific featurers, nice price, outstanding technology for way less than others, all the featurers..great value over all! And I can’t even begin to tout the picture quality except to say you have got to see it yourself!
Rating: 5 / 5

I highly recommend this TV for bedrooms and home offices because of the size. I think 32″ is too small for a living room. I have a surround sound speaker system in my office and using that combined with the TV, I feel like I am in my own private movie theater. Now how do get my wife to stuff bugging me and I will live a peaceful and happy life.
Rating: 5 / 5

I compared this TV to the Sony 55 Inch, and the new Samsung LED 55 3D. What I saw was that the Samsung LED and the LCD were exactly the same…except the price tag. The SONY TV picture was great…but the TV itself looked terrible. This TV is simple yet elegant.

If you are planning to spend between $1200 to $1700, this is the TV for you. For the money you get a product that has great value, appealing when even when it is off, and absolutely mindblowing when it is on.

This TV has taken our movie experience to another level. Coupled with a great sound system, you could feel like you are in the movie. The picture clarity will remind you of a sunny spring morning. You will finally experience the movie environement in a whole different way. You will see the breeze flowing through the leaves, the charred skin of the bbq chicken, or even the pimples on their faces. It is so clear that you will be blinking 2x just to make sure you are not seeing things.

buy it..

Rating: 5 / 5

Calibration: The 55C650 was very calibration friendly without going into the service menu. In fact, from the movie mode setting, there were only minor tweaks needed here and there to close in on D6500K. There is an ample array of calibration controls including white balance and noise reduction. The standard setting continues to have a major blue push. The Movie setting allows adjustment of all picture setting options and brings the picture to life.

White Balance Settings

Red – Offset 28

Green – Offset 25

Blue – Offset 16

Red – Gain 17

Green – Gain 25

Blue – Gain 21

Picture Settings

Picture Mode: Movie

Color Temp: Warm 2

Brightness: 47

Contrast: 95

Color: 49

Tint: G49/R51

Sharpness: 0

Backlight: 7

Picture Settings

Black Tone: Off

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Gamma: -1

Flesh Tone: 0

Edge Enhancement: Off

Digital NR: Auto

HDMI Black Level: Low

Film Mode: Off

Auto Motion: Standard

Blue Only Mode: Off

This LCD TV has a tremendous CFL backlight. We needed only set the backlight at 7 from the 1 – 20 scale to achieve a desirable picture in a darkly lit room. The backlight strength could come in handy. Use it to control viewing in bright to dark rooms rather than change the contrast or brightness controls.

Processor Testing: The internal processing chip sets for the C650 series LCDs are stout. Edges from test material are clear and crisp with both 480i and 1080i material. Transitions are extremely smooth, even from side to side panning or fast moving objects.

720p/1080i/1080p Picture Quality: Black levels are awesome as is contrast and brightness. Images are crisp and the detail is amazing with HD sources. Here’s the big dilemna with HD content; whether to use the 120Hz AutoMotion feature or turn it off. It is not really needed. HD Blu Rays and Broadcast material are already very clear – and the feature can introduce some unwanted kitchy side effects with the background material – even though much improved from last year. I recommend turning it off for most HD content, though there will be some occasional judder effects. I would use it for animated HD content, sports programming HD content, or other HD content that has lots of fast motion. Other than that I would turn it off (see how below in features section).

After turning off the 120Hz feature, high definition content appears vibrant, realistic and extremely crisp. Blacks are rich for an LCD and contrast is a strength. One of the highlight features of the LN55C650 is its picture depth perception. Samsung has been unparalled in this area lately. I believe this is due to the companies Ultra Clear Panel technology which does allow for some glare on the screen but the tradeoff with great depth and rich colors is a winner.

Black Level/Contrast/Contrast Ratio: Black Levels on the C650 series LCD HDTV is super saturated, as black as the glossy black bezel surrounding the screen. We measured post calibration ANSI contrast at an unbelievable 5408:1 with the backlight at 7. We believe contrast is enhanced by the Ultra Clear Panel that Samsung uses for this LCD TV. The TV can get extremely bright and has exceptional range. Contrast appears superb on this TV, and we don’t say that about many – especially not LCD TVs.

Internet Options: There is an array of Internet options, some proprietary. Samsung has increased the options. The Youtube option was pretty good. We found the Yahoo! Widgets in finance and weather pretty weak and non-worthy. Some other options are Panadora, Vudu, Blockbuster, Netflix, USA today AP new ticker.

Aesthetic Considerations: The C650 has lots of looks. The 55C650 is 3.4″ deep while the smaller units are 3.2″ deep. A nice wall mount or table top depth (without having to pay up for the super thin TVs). The framing bezel is a nice width about 2″. It’s black with a plexiglass overlay that goes just past the edges to give the appearance of glass. I like the effect. Under the center bottom frame there is a unique wide V shape and subtle silver gray and red Touch of Color. A nice little accent to a design that might be slightly boring with it. The sturdy swiveling table top stand must weight 12 pounds. It has an attractive glass surface with a clear neck. The stands allow for about 20 degrees of swivel.

See LCD TV Buying Guide for the complete review
Rating: 4 / 5

I owned a Sharp 37″ and Sony 52″ HDTV and I’d say this TV has the best picture I have seen in LCD HDTV line. Picture is very sharp, bright and rich color. I read a review mentioned about narrow view angle and rainbow effect. But I haven’t seen any rainbow effect yet. I have tried to see the TV from different angles but haven’t found any problem. 120 Hz refresh rate wasn’t improved. I just turn it off.

Samsung applications feature is great. I have tried YouTube, Picasa, Netflix. It took time to create main account and sign in all other application’s accounts due to using remote control for typing. But it worked very well. It required an firmware upgrade to play Netflix. One thing I was noticed while streaming movie via Netflix that it was dropped several times. I’m using Sony blue-ray player BDP-N460 to watch online movies in Netflix and haven’t had any problems. My internet connection is AT&T DSL Pro, 3 MB/512 KB and both TV and blue-ray player are connected to the same router (D-Link DIR-655). I tried to play the same movie in the blue-ray player and have no problem. I’m not sure what is going on but I’ll update when I figure it out.

DNLA feature worked great. I just plugged in a network cable and it automatically connected to my laptops. Content shared folders are organized in a better way and more detail compare to last year models. I haven’t tried sound quality since I’m using a home theater system. The remote control feels more sensitive than previous models.

I had purchased Samsung LN55B650 and returned it due to firmware update problem with streaming movies. For some reasons, this model is cheaper than last year model LN55B650. I don’t get it. It is way better than LN55B650 in many aspects. I was hesitate to purchase this TV since I had bad experience with Samsung TV LN55B650 and a blue-ray player BD-P1590 (completely fail within a week of use). But I’m very pleased with this model.

In addition, I’d like to mention about a great experience with Amazon customer service. It was very trustful and responsive. I’m very confident in shopping at Amazon. Only one thing bothered me is CEVA shipping service. I have read many reviews complain about this company and I wonder why Amazon is still using them. If you ever see an over thousand dollars, sensitive electronic item was beaten up, you will feel how painful I was. If I don’t call them a day prior to delivery schedule, I’ll need to wait for another day. They are always behind schedule. It’s very costly to wait during working hours.

I’ll update my review if I find something else.

Update:

Netflix has worked fine in this TV. I guest the issue was internet traffic. I’ve tried to play Ninja Assassin via VUDU. It was able to play HD mode (1080p) but not HDX (?)due to low internet speed. I don’t know the difference but picture and sound in HD mode is just the same as blue-ray disk. It was included subtitle feature.
Rating: 5 / 5

First, the picture is phenomenal. It really stands up against almost anything out there at the moment. I chose the LCD tech over LED largely over price, I just couldn’t justify the extra 1000 for what I felt was a marginal increases in performance. The options and interface are intuitive, and tweeking the picture and sound settings was easy. After I “tuned” the picture I watched some basketball and was very impressed by the 120hz engine and software. The picture is smooth, rich, and a delight to watch.

Second, the connectivity is a fun addition. I have an instant uplink to netflix, blockbuster on demand, amazon on demand, and Vudu. I gave Vudu a try last night with a free trail rental of “Zombieland”. I have a 12mb/s broadband connection, and it was enough to enjoy full HD without any hiccups. Really a cool feature.

Third, I am less than impressed with the DNLA connectivity of Samsung. I have been struggling to set up a media server that is compatible with my new TV. I was looking forward to having a new way to show all of the internet content I have come to love, without the computer. However, I am just getting started with it, so I may be making a mistake. I guess the interface is a generation behind where it integrates without a problem. I thought about taking a star off for this, but I chose not to because the functionality of the TV as a TV is really what this review should be about.

Lastly, the delivery was prompt, easy, and professional. I was concerned with having a high dollar item shipped, but after this experience I don’t think I’ll have it any other way. The freight company (Pilot) called to schedule a drop off on a given day in a three hour window. I got a call one half hour before they would arrive to prepare. The delivery personnel were professional, respectful, thorough, and all together great. I preferred this over buying at a retail store because I had the opportunity to have Pilot unpack the TV, place it where I chose, turn it on and inspect it, then accept shipment. If there had been a problem I could have refused shipment and another TV would have come a few days later. If I had bought this SAME TV at a BIG RETAIL STORE for SEVERAL HUNDRED DOLLARS more, I would have had to bring home a box and hope I didn’t have to repack and take it back. All together a great experience.

Note: I had to unplug and replug my Comcast box to get a picture on the TV when I first connected. Not sure why but it has been working great since.

If something changes in the future I will update this review, but as it stands today, 5 Stars.

Update: This doesn’t have to do with the TV -

I noticed some good products getting a low star rating as a result of uneducated people giving products they don’t own bad reviews because “Amazon won’t show the price”. Get educated people, it is called Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP) and it is beyond the control of Amazon. A manufacturer (Samsung) can place restrictions on the retailer (Amazon) dictating that they cannot advertise a product below a certain price, but they legally cannot stop the retailer from selling below that MAP price. So if Amazon wants to pass along a fantastic price on an item that is below MAP, they legally cannot show the price until the buyer makes some action that is not driven by a low advertised price (aka put it in your cart). Lil learning goes a long way.
Rating: 5 / 5

I received this TV yesterday and watched it for most of the evening. Very good picture! I was considering the LG55lh40 but after viewing the Samsung LN55B650 side by side with the LG at Best Buy my wife and I realized there was little competition. We had the tech at best buy let us mess with the settings for around half an hour (starting with the auto-calibration from LG) but just couldn’t get it to look right compared with the Samsung. I was rather upset, as I have read numerous great reviews about the LG and it was a considerably cheaper price. Logging into Amazon I noticed the LN55C650 was on sale for $1620 (even cheaper than last years B series) but had no reviews, so I was a little nervous to order it. Hindsight is 20/20 and I definitely made the right choice. The picture is very clear and has that crisp look that Samsung is famous for.

My surround sound system will not be delivered until today, so I was stuck using the built in speakers last night. I was very impressed with the sound this thing could pump out. I varied the sound between 25 and 50 (out of 100) and it was more than loud enough and filled the room nicely. This is by no means comparable to a nice sound system, but compared to any other TV I have heard, it is definitely up there in sound capabilities.

Looks wise, I think this is much better looking than last years B650. I didn’t care for the red touch of color that surrounded the whole TV. This model only seems to have the red at the bottom center, and it adds a really nice accent without being overpowering like I felt last years were. This is just a personal opinion.

Cons:

The 120HZ feature, which was heavily complained about in the LN55B650 still has problems. The first thing I did when I got the TV was watch The Dark Knight BD (1080P) on my PS3 using a V1.3 Cat2 HDMI cable. I thought something was wrong with the TV as it was doing very strange things with background motion, but after turning the 120HZ feature off the picture cleaned up perfectly and I no longer notice any problems while watching it. I tried all of the different 120HZ modes, and they all had the same problem. That said, I turned it back on while watching HDTV (720p obviously) and it seems very clean with the 120HZ.

It is 2010 and they still can’t put a wireless radio built into the television? I find this to be ridiculous that you have to purchase a separate module in order to get wireless. My router is very far away from my TV and it will be expensive to have network cables added.

I will update this if I notice any other issues.
Rating: 5 / 5

If you’re running old consoles, I’d suggest getting AV cables too. Ditch those old RF switches.

As for the games looking bad on the TV, it is true. The games look okay, and are playable, but if you play them on a emulator or through the Virtual Console (Wii) or through any other system that digitally sells old games, they will look better. If it’s coming directly from the console, it only looks decent. With AV cables, it’s as good as it gets!

Also, if you are looking for HDMI cables, AmazonBasics HDMI cable (from Amazon. com) work great and are really cheap. I have to move around the cheap HDMI cable I got sometimes to get it to work. I got it on ebay for like five bucks.

btw thx for answering.