Westinghouse TX-47F430S 47-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

I guess, if yours work it is 5 stars for the price!
Review by K. HUANG (Austin, TX United States)

I see that most of the 1 star reviews are from people that had problems, which is understandable. However, if it works likes mine, it is a 5 star tv for the price. (update, I have this for 1 month now, watch my bedtime shows about 2-4 hours every night with it without any problems. There was a power spike 2 weeks ago in the house that took me 5-8 tries to unplug and power back on, but eventually it worked. Oh well, still a 5 star rating until is stops working.)

I got mine from the local BB, and it works. I wanted a 120htz tv, but it costs 30-80+% more. For the price, I could not resist this one; plus, the convenience of getting it on the spot makes it more tempting.

I have bought a 32" westinghouse lcd tv for my mom several years ago, and it seems to be running. Also Westinghouse seems to have one of the higher quality picture in the low-cost tv range.

My next tv after this one may be for the 60" sony xbr 120hz, but only when the prices come down. This will be good to tie me over until then.

I have a 1080i hd-dvd player plugged into the hdmi (I think there is 4 possible) connection--works great, no skipped frames. My dvd player is plugged in with components (2 possible); my sat/directv is plugged in the video (only 1 possible).

Nice features:
auto shut off when there is no signal

automatic switch when there is a new signal (I can watch the TV, but when I turn on the DVD player, sat, or hd-dvd, it automatically switches over without fiddling with the tv. however, when I turn off the hd player, it goes through auto-off because there is no signal--it doesn't try to find another available signal.)

the internal hd tuner picks up my local channels with rabbit years. (I have an amplified antennae which works better, but I was able to use another non-amplified antenna to get all of my local channels. The rabbit years are pointed funny to get better reception than the amplified ones, but it works.)

I can still see that the samsung / sony's get a better picture from the color tricks that they do; however, if you do not have the higher quality tv sitting next to this one when you are watching it, it is hard to tell the difference when you are standing 6 feet away.

Pros:
47" big screen, cheap price, high quality picture in the low-cost class

Cons:
only 1 video input (I personally would rather have 2 video input and 3 hdmi instead of 1 vid and 4 hdmi).

the "energy off" produces a low freq hum. (this off mode is also set off when you use the sleep function). I simply turned off the energy feature--however, the hum after I used the sleep function still annoys me when I wake up in the morning. (maybe when I get older, I will become deaf to lower frequency noises--ha!)

Overall, I am currently giving this a 5 star. Rest assured, if this thing breaks on me within 2 years, I will definately take it down to 1 star (or less)!

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Samsung LN46A550 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

Fantastic TV With Fantastic Options
Review by Michael K. Zupan (Albany, NY USA)

I was replacing my old Sony 42A10 Grand Wega Rear Projection LCD. That's an older set and the black levels were notoriously bad. After some calibration, I was able to get a decent picture out of it. Apparantly this line had been lemons though, as optical engine after optical engine being replaced had failed. Time for a new TV.

I was honestly going to go for a Panasonic Plasma originally. Plasmas are known for great contrast levels. I've seen 30,000:1 for some plasma contrast levels, but LCD's are catching up and Samsung this year brings out an affordable set that's below the popular $2000 budget, and makes it a breeze to use.

Out of the box the color levels aren't bad at all. Grey scale is actually not too far off from being accurate with the 'movie mode' setting, which takes off most artificial effects to the picture which would really make colors pop un-naturally and crush darker shades of black so you lose some minor detail. Of course, I did a calibration for this set based on some calibrations done in the AVSForum online and this set at that point blew me away even more. Samsungs over months and months of figuring out what I should buy between plasma or LCD, or what brand even, have come out on top in picture quality and color reproduction.

So there's the praise on the picture, but we all know that if you're serious about an HDTV you need to consider everything else. The 5ms response time is nice and works just fine with time sensitive games... forget wasting your money on the more expensive sets that give you 4ms response time. Hundreds of dollars for this and a 50,000:1 contrast ratio alone aren't worth it. This TV doesn't have 120hz but there's really nothing to say negative about any kind of motion blur, this set holds up extremely well with very very little or no blur at all.

How about the ease of use? The menus are very easy to navigate. I mentioned I did some calibrating, which usually means you have to go into a service menu that has to be accessed by punching a secret code in a remote. Then, you're staring at menus that you have no idea what anything means, so if you change the wrong values, you could potentially turn your TV into a large paperweight. Don't like the new service menu settings, and forgot to write down what the old ones were? Well, you're screwed. Especially since service menu tinkering voids your warranty!

Not so with this set, and this is my favorite part of the TV's settings since I love to tweak my set:

All of the color and white balance options are accessible via the normal user menu. Change your color mode to custom, and you can change all of your gains and off-sets... and if you don't like what you've done or if you messed up... there's a option in each color menu that says 'Reset'. Tell me that's not convenient. If you never wanted to shell out $200-$400 for a professional calibration, and you've always been a little weary of tweaking your service menu... fear no more.

The only downside to this set, is that the speakers sound pretty bad. Most people like myself, already have a surround sound system so this may not be a deal breaker... but the options for the sound can be calibrated to sound decent enough as long as you're patient.

Last but not least, Samsung has given us a much larger viewing angle for this LCD than we'd get with normal LCD panels. Samsung is ahead of the game with LCD's and if you're thinking about LCD (which I did because I game a lot and didn't want to even risk image retention with plasma), Samsung is the way to go. When Sony is using Samsung parts now-a-days, you know that's gotta mean good things, right? Great contrast, good black levels, good viewing angle, lots of HDMI and component inputs, can't ask for much more than that.

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Samsung LN52A650 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

Excellent LCD HDTV - Great Amazon Price!
Review by Jigsaw (Arlington, TX)

I had been debating about purchasing a new flat panel TV for quite some time. Once I made the decision to go with LCD instead of plasma, I began reading tons of information and reviews online. It was clear that Samsung had something special here with this unit.

The 650 series had everything I was looking for. It had 4ms response time, 4 HDMI inputs, deep blacks, and 120Hz frame rate. It was the favored flat panel of reviewers everywhere, both professional and consumer. Samsung I believe, has caught and now passed Sony in the technology, features and most important, performance in their LCD HDTV's. And I might add, hundreds of dollars cheaper! Samsung clearly gives more value per dollar.

Amazon had the best price anywhere I'd seen, and in the days following my purchase, the price was lowered even further. Amazon customer service was always friendly and happy to refund the difference. CEVA was prompt to call me for scheduleing delivery, and allowed me to take delivery on a Saturday, so I wouldn't have to miss work.

Now that I've been viewing this unit for the past couple of weeks, I can promise you, I've never seen better picture quality. Its just fantastic!

I've read some people complain about the remote control, and it concerned me. Yeah, I don't really like the wheel, but its not as bad as I thought it would be.

Overall, I couldn't be more happy with this TV, and the entire buying experience with Amazon.

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Buy Samsung LN52A650 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV