Samsung LN40E550 Clouding issues?

Hi everyone, Last night I came home from Best Buy with the Samsung LN40E550. Overall my impression is a fairly positive one. colors are vibrant and pop without blooming, blacks are solid, not blackest but solid. Off angle , meh, could be better but I've seen worst, it's not it's strong point but not a deal breaker either.

The biggest concern was this unit suffers from horrible clouding, well actually only one cloud but it's a good sized one and located in the worst place possible. Dead center. it's unnotiicable during normal scenes etc and does very little to affect the picture. But any dark scenes it sticks out like a sore thumb. Trying to watch something Harry Potter would be unwatchable. when viewing dead center it's not all that noticalbe, but any slight off angle and it's clearly seen. I'm not talking way off to the side, but just the slightest off center viewing.

This unfortunatly is a deal breaker.

lowering the backlight to just 1 or 0 did get rid of it, but the picture is just way too dim at that point and not enjoyable.

So on Saturday I'm heading back to replace it. I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with this unit. I would like to just do an even swap out, because I do like the picture alot and it's a great deal. I'm just hoping it's only a lemon. so has anyone else have any experience with this model and have you had any clouding issues? or Any advice on handling clouding would be great as well.

Thanks in advance.

****Update**** For anyone who is interested in this TV I did take it back over the weekend. And swapped it out for the same model. Happy to report, not the slighest hint of any sort of clouding whatsoever.

Just had a lemon. This is a great value, it is Samsung's budget line but an insane price for it. It's a bit of a beast to calibrate though. the "Standard" picture mode leans heavy on the cool, side. Primary colors and whites just POP and look gorgous but skin tons and secondary colors and flesh tone's look slightly washed out, with a slight tinge of ice blue, not horrible but just enough where you think somethig is just a miss. .

Using Movie mode and color temp of WarmII (warm I does nothing) takes care of the secondary colors and flesh tones and definitly adds to color depth and blacks are deeper. but like all Warm settings it does hurt the whites but not too horrible but I do like my whites to POP and they do under the "standard" picture mode, so it's a slight trade off.

Primary colors still look great. HDMI Black level should be left on normal. "Low " crushes the blacks.

Overall very happy especially with the size to price For most people the above won't even be a problem.

hope this helps anyone interested in it.

*** also mods can you please change the title to just Samsung LE550 since there is no clouding issues, I just got a bad one. thanks in advance. ******