[supermatt]

Spent about a week doing as much research as I could before I ended up settling on a Samsung LN40A550. I'm upgrading from a Sony 32" CRT HDTV, which looked great, but won't power up anymore.


Here's the issues I ran into tonight:


1.

I hooked up my cable box via HDMI and got really annoying picture shake. When I hook up through component, the picture does not shake, which is fine, I suppose, but a tad disappointing for the price of the TV. [EDIT - Cable works fine with the PS3. Maybe it's the cable box?]


2.

I have a Logitech 5.1 system that's built for computer use, that I've had connected to my old Sony CRT through red/white cables on the TV's audio out. I was able to control the audio out volume through the TV volume controls, and not have the sound play through the TV speakers. The Samsung has an option to turn the TV speakers off, but then it doesn't let me adjust the volume with the remote. Is this a setting I'm missing, or is it just not set up to control the volume of the output


3.

Standard Definition picture is terrible. The basketball game on ESPN was UNwatchable. It was fine in HD, but not everything I watch is broadcast in HD. Are all LCDs like this?


I got a great deal on this TV, Open Box, but I'm seriously considering trading it in for something else.


Any suggestions or feedback?


Thanks,


Matt

 

[fabbas01]

1- try a different hdmi cable, maybe its the cable or maybe its on t.v, or perhaps the cable box.

2- dont know. My sony xbr doesnt offer that option either.

3- standard def is terrible for most part on lcd's and plasma's. Remember you went from a 32'' to a 40'', which makes a difference.

 

[scubie02]

yeah, several issues here I think.


first, I started out a ways back with a 550 as well since it looked great on paper, but ended up returning it for reasons other than yours, mostly just the PQ, which could

be great in some ways, but had some issues as well imo. As mentioned you have to remember that a) you have gone to an lcd, which because of the way it displays is going to show you the flaws in a picture much more than a standard crt will, and b) you also went to a larger screen which, again, is going to show the flaws more because the flaws become "bigger" along with the display size, if you see what I mean. The first time I got an lcd tv and then the next time when I bumped up to a larger size I was somewhat disappointed initially with the PQ with SD tv too, but if you give yourself some time to get used to it you may decide you still prefer the sharpness of lcd, PLUS remember that you will et more and more hd channels as time goes on, and in only a month or so we go all digital which should also increase sd quality, so more and more over time the benefits of an hdtv capable of displaying the best image will come into play. Not all sd channels are created equal in quality you may have noticed, and in theory the quality should go up over time. I'm assuming you get 30 days to return it, maybe give yourself at least a week or two to get used to it.

 

[clicq]

For your speakers, you can hook them up to the headphone jack and control the volume through the remote -- true it looks kind of lame to have the wire sticking out of the side, but that's the way it goes

.


As for SD, it's never going to look as good on an LCD as a good HD CRT, which is what you were coming from, not to mention all the other reasons scubie02 pointed out.