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OK, so what do you think about the TV? - mikebw - 05-09-2008
Previous thread: http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/490861
Since I am now comfortable ordering from this online shop OneCall, I thought I would gather any opinions on the TV I think I want:
http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=90858
It's the new Samsung LN40a650 with the "touch of color" bezel. 40" LCD with 120Hz refresh rate. 4 HDMI inputs, 2 component, optical audio out (to send 5.1 OTA TV audio to a receiver), stereo outputs, even has a Ethernet Jack to connect to your home network so it can fetch RSS news feeds kinda like the Wii News Channel, but the TV does it by itself.
Also has a USB 2.0 port so you can plug in a stick drive and play music and watch pictures off it.
I am pretty much sold on the 120Hz tech already, and the 40" should be big enough for the living room.
Any reservations about this model? I doubt anyone here has this exact one, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - jdc - 05-09-2008
wow, i wish i had $1700 for a TV, or, umm or i wish i just had $1700 extra bucks
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - jardster - 05-09-2008
120 Hz sounds good... any reason to go for an LCD vs a plasma. You could get a slightly bigger plasma for the same or less.
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - deckeda - 05-09-2008
RSS feeds? I don't use them much it makes a ton of sense on a TV. Does it also have some sort of web browser to let you read more, or just show the text snippets of the RSS?
Ethernet in a TV sounds cool too ... are we in the age already of the hackable TV ??
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - deckeda - 05-09-2008
Forgot to ask, Mike --- did you wind up seeing this TV in person?
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - Stavs - 05-09-2008
I was lookign at that and the sony xbr4. I actually have now shifted to the panny z85 series plasma. More tv for the money and a better picture. FOr $k I will be getting a 50".
You may want to have a look. Burn in is a non issue, and there is no motion blur. Take some time and look real hard.
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - mikebw - 05-09-2008
[quote deckeda]Forgot to ask, Mike --- did you wind up seeing this TV in person?
I am going this evening to check it out. I have seen the previous model (LN-T4071) and was very impressed. This new one is supposed to be better still. I would be just as happy with the older one, but it seems the price on that is actually about $30 more right now.
I haven't seen any plasma that has similar 120Hz tech. I have read that the contrast ratio on these is so high that the black levels are almost the same as plasma. Don't LCD's use less power than plasma too?
I don't think there is any web browser built-in. No word yet on if there are any hackable features, but that would be sweet. As it stands I will have a Wii and an older Mac connected to it so I will essentially have everything I need in place to go online or whatever I want.
Only downside I am realizing is the lack of composite inputs, you know- those yellow video jacks. Seems they have been replaced with HDMI which I suppose is a good thing if all your other toys are brand new, but I still have a VCR (rarely use) and a Nintendo 64, not to mention an even older Sega genesis. My Wii and DVD player are component out, and there are only 2 of those on the TV, so that leaves just the side AV inputs for the rest of my non-HDMI stuff.
So it's pretty future proof, but maybe a bit too far in the future for me. I had a nice DVD player with DVI output, but it sorta stopped reading discs, so that sucks since it would have worked with just an HDMI-DVI adapter.
The $1,700 is a great deal. Yes it's a lot of money, but I just got $1,200 today from Mr. Bush.
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - mikebw - 05-09-2008
If they have those at Best Buy I will take a look.
My actual test will be to look at the wall from a distance first to see which ones look best to me before looking at the brands / model names. This is how I found out about the Samsung last year, it just stood out from the rest which I figure is because of the 120Hz tech. Maybe the settings were just tweaked, but it sure was nice.
[quote Stavs]I was lookign at that and the sony xbr4. I actually have now shifted to the panny z85 series plasma. More tv for the money and a better picture. FOr $k I will be getting a 50".
You may want to have a look. Burn in is a non issue, and there is no motion blur. Take some time and look real hard.
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - deckeda - 05-09-2008
Mike --- you might also budget for a new DVD player. Get a better up-converting picture and solve one of the input problems in one move. Take a good look at Oppo: http://www.oppodigital.com/ The latest are HDMI 1.3 compliant.
Re: OK, so what do you think about the TV? - OWC Jamie - 05-09-2008
Are you going to live long enough to utilize all those capabilities ?
:-)