Samsung LN32B650 32-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color
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31.5" screen (measured diagonally) * widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio * Touch of Color high-gloss finish — black with red accents * built-in digital (ATSC) and analog (NTSC) tuners for over-the-air TV broadcasts (antenna required) * built-in QAM cable TV tuner receives unscrambled programs without a set-top box (cable service required) * Ultra Clear LCD panel (1920 x 1080 pixels) *
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Technical Details
- 32-inch LCD HDTV with full HD 1080p resolution for the sharpest picture possible and red Touch of Color design- Auto Motion Plus 120Hz for amazingly fluid motion, 100,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 4ms response time, Wide Color Enhancer 3 for more vivid colors
- InfoLink RSS feeds of news, weather and sports via Ethernet; side-mounted USB port for displaying JPEG/MPEG files and listening to MP3 audio
- Inputs: 4 HDMI, 2 component, 2 composite, 1 PC, 2 USB, 1 Ethernet, 1 optical digital audio output
- Includes removable stand; measures 31.6 x 23.7 x 9.4 inches with stand; 10-watt x 2 bottom mounted speakers
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By Ted (Pennsylvania, USA)
The box says this television has closed captioning but what they don't tell you on the box is that it doesn't work in component or HDMI modes, which essentially makes the closed captioning feature useless. I spent 20 minutes trying to get the closed captioning to work on a DVD that has closed captioning instead of subtitles, and just read in the manual that it only works in TV mode AND if you have a cable or satellite box, requires to set captioning on the box and not the TV.
Being that the TV is not returnable once opened, I've wasted $800. It will be a long time before I buy a Samsung product again, which is a shame because I've really liked the company until now
According to the Americans With Disabilities act, all televisions with a screen larger than 13 inches to have a built in closed captioning decoder.
On a better side of things the picture quality is great, but if you are hearing impaired, you might as well use this for watching silent films.
By EJ Honda (Slingerlands, NY USA)
Update: It turns out the HDMI 1 port is apparently bad, which is causing the poor picture problems we experienced. We lost the sound on HDTV broadcasts after trying out the game console, but noticed when the sound was lost, the picture was much improved. (?!?!) Swapping the cable to the other HDMI ports brought back the sound, and the picture remained much better than previously reported. The downside is this set now has to either be returned to Amazon or sent to Samsung. I'm going to ask Amazon to take it back and replace it. I'll update this review in the next few days...
Update 2 (1/3/10): I received the replacement HDTV, and it had major scuffs on the bottom bezel! Couldn't believe it. The protective plastic that this set ships with on the bezel was missing on the lower portion, and appeared to come from the factory like that. Unfortunately there were 3 major scuffs on the bezel due to this, and caused me to make yet another call to Amazon. Amazon shipped a 3rd HDTV to me, and this one arrived undamaged and is working as it should so far. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Original review:
I've had this set for about 10 days, and as a user who is mostly using it for broadcast television viewing, I'm mildly impressed. Picture quality is pretty good in most circumstances, but suffers from the same issues that affect HD broadcasts - motion is juttery in certain specific circumstances (fast motion with fine detail in the picture).
Using this TV with a Time Warner Cable HD box & HDMI cable (supposedly the best quality input for TV viewing), I've noticed the following:
- Standard TV output on this set, like other LCD TVs, is of slightly less quality than a good performing CRT TV. This will only be of concern to those who still need to rely on non-HD channels for some of their viewing.
- The speakers on this TV leave a lot to be desired. They are downward firing, and have no bass to them. The sound is very tinny, and really needs an add-on sound system to correct this, which bumps the cost of this TV up even further. Going into the audio menu and choosing "Movie" for the audio output alleviates this somewhat.
- Still pictures or portions of broadcasts without much action/motion are pretty crisp compared to a standard def TV, but when there is motion involved with a live sporting event broadcasting in 720p, it degrades quickly when fine detail is being displayed. 1080i sporting events look much cleaner, but still show some motion issues. Commercials with motion don't seem that bad - but who buys a TV for commercials? The 720p motion causes all sorts of unintended visual elements to appear, which is surprising considering this set supposedly has "blazing fast 4ms response time" and "Auto Motion Plus 120Hz" features. Perhaps as broadcasters continue to upgrade their systems, this will improve, but for now it still seems like the industry is immature and this TV won't magically overcome these issues.
- The included stand wobbles slightly when attached to the TV (play of about 1/8" side-to-side). This TV has some heft to it, and it is supported on a single post that simply snaps into the bottom of the set, and then has 4 screws you install to secure the post. The screws lined up fine for me unlike other reviewers report, but I found you really couldn't tell when they were fully tight - they went in with much effort from the start - so that I ended up stripping at least one of them, and then knew enough to be very careful with the other 3. The TV isn't exactly rock-solid on this skinny single shaft. If anyone walks in the room, the TV rocks ever so slightly, mostly side to side. This problem of course will be dependent on how stiff your floors are. What I found odd is the set comes with a shoestring on a small black plastic triangular attachment. If you don't mount the TV on the wall, then you are supposed to attach this triangle with the shoestring to the back of the TV, and then you are supposed to drill a screw (not included) into the piece of furniture you plan on setting the TV on top of, and then tie the loose end of the string on the screw to help prevent the TV from tipping over. So it's basically anchoring the TV from the top back of the set. That doesn't give me a lot of confidence, in that Samsung apparently lacks confidence in their own base to keep the TV upright and stable. It also seems to be a real contrast in design details for a company that took the time to put such a trivial styling touch as a thin line of injected red plastic on the face plate, but then tosses in an afterthought piece like an ugly piece of gray string as part of the stability of the set. Weird, and it definitely smells of cost containment.
- The "buttons" on the front of the set leave me scratching my head. Looking at the set out of the box, I had no idea there were "buttons" on the front - the bezel is completely smooth and solid. Then I saw references to them in the manual, but looked for them and couldn't see them. It was only when I angled my view to create a glare on the front trim that I could see the outlines of control labels. They are touch activated, so they aren't raised in anyway, and to keep the front looking "clean" (with the exception of the large "SAMSUNG" logo printed on the front), apparently Samsung has chosen to not put legible lettering on them, nor to light them when the TV is plugged in. Granted, most people will be using the remote, but it doesn't seem like a well thought out detail. You'll also end up touching them unintentionally if you attempt to move the set by grabbing the bezel.
- This is probably more a personal preference, but the volume indicator on screen doesn't really appeal to me. Rather than the normal bars that would appear to grow or shrink across the bottom of the screen, Samsung has a circular indicator, which starts at the 12 noon position, then goes clockwise around, accompanied by numbers from 0 to 100 (25 at the 3 o'clock position, 50 at the 6 o'clock position, etc). This plays mind games with me as I'm clicking the volume button up while the indicator on the screen goes down for the first half of the range - it seems to be counter-intuitive, and I find myself questioning whether I'm pressing the button in the right direction each time I'm going to adjust the volume. I didn't see anyone else mention this, so it might be just a personal quirk.
- Out of curiosity I hooked up this TV to the Internet via an ethernet cable. I tried a firmware update over the Internet, but it error'd out with a code of "connection failed (102)". I did run the network connection diagnostics available on the set, and they came back as successful. Googling on this error message provides many hits of people having the same issue, and even some complaints of Samsung's firmware versions not being well managed by Samsung. I found this to be the case, as Samsung lists on their website an earlier version as the latest for this set, but when I query the version using the TV's menu, it reports it is a newer version, one revision higher than what is listed as the newest on the web.
-DVD playback has been fine. I don't have a Blu-Ray player, but DVDs don't seem to suffer from this issue with motion like live TV does. I've only played some Adult Swim cartoon DVD collections, so I'm not sure I've really tested it well.
-The PS2 I have works fine on the set. The images aren't that great - similar to standard TV - but it's OK for game play.
-I do like the set from the perspective of the connection types available on the back. There are plenty of options and it allows for many different setup options. The connections are all biased to the right side of the TV (as you watch it). That's a bit inconvenient for me as my cables all need to run from the left. You just need an additional foot or 2 of cable length to overcome it. Power cable attaches to the left hand side of the TV (as you watch it), and is angled 90 degrees to the right, so if you need to run the power cable back to the left, you'll have to twist it back 180 degrees.
Just keeping my fingers crossed I'm not one of the unlucky few who experience the dreaded "dead set" problem eventually...
By Fillmoe (California)
I bought this set from Amazon in July and am still playing with the features, many of which I'll probably never use. This replaces a 20-year-old Sony XBR, and is my first flatscreen, so maybe my small problems are caused by inexperience. The delivery was first class; two people brought it into my house and set it up for me and made sure it worked.
I use it to watch satellite tv, dvd's, and for streaming with a Roku box. The Roku movies are much better looking on this tv than on the old Sony. I like being able to use different sound options for different purposes and being able to adjust the picture according to use.
There is a very annoying chime that automatically plays when one turns the set on and off, and I can't figure out how to shut that sound off. It's much louder than the volume that I play the tv, and I'm afraid it will wake someone sleeping in the next room.
It would be very nice to be able to use headsets to help me hear all the dialog without turning up the volume too loud, but I don't see a place to plug in headsets, and I've read that wireless headsets don't work well with digital sound.
Forget trying to contact Samsung's mis-named customer service. I asked my questions on line to them and all they did was sign me up to receive email advertisements.
By C. A. Bayko (Kingsport, TN)
I have been observing and evaluating this TV for the last 2 months. Like another reviewer; I was interested in the LED, but think the quality and reliability you supposedly are paying for is not there yet! I was hesitant on this one becasue of the stand issues. But all the other criteria seemed to be A+++. I bought the 22 inch version of this last year for our kitchen and we have loved it. It arrived from UPS about 2PM today; and the first thing I checked was the stand; and like another reviewer said look at the part number and I did, and it was absolutely correct. Becasue I was fmailar with the set-up; I had it running in one hour; but unlike last year; there was way more automatic set-up and plug and play then last year! I am on the road all week; but I will look forward to some spell binding time in front of the TV like the old days! Buy it no question.....
By B. Lindsay
I looked at a number of reviews on HD TVs before purchasing this one. We are not disappointed with the quality of the TV! I like it that there are so many HDMI ports. We were grateful that the freight service that delivered the TV assembled it and set it up, making sure it was in working order before leaving.
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