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"Great picture quality if you don't mind a few things..."
on by fergvillePros Colors
Blacks
Overall picture quality
Picture options
A lot slimmer than most
Looks nice
Samsung's customer service is timely and painlessCons Flashlight/Clouding issues (aka uniformity)
RF interferance with some remotes
Samsung's firmware updatesSummary The picture on this thing really is quite spectacular as long as you can find a firmware update that suits you. The colors are great and the blacks are some of the best you can get in an LCD. I will say that as the firmware upgrades have progressed, the black levels have seemed to degrade slightly. It's not that big of a deal though.
It's easy to set up and has plenty of connections for what ever you want to throw at it.
My gaming experience hasn't been that bad on it. Some people say that it's laggy or doesn't do a good job, but in my experience it's done quite well.
The panel is nice and thin and looks very elegant sitting on its glass pedistal. Even though it's got a glass coating over the panel for contrast enhancement, it doesn't seem to reflect too much light from windows etc. I have mine situated directly across from a large picture window, and have had no issues with light reflecting off of it and making it difficult to watch.
There are some issues, however.
There do seem to be some uniformity issues known as clouding. Clouds seem to appear in dark scenes and can be quite distracting. It can present itself anywhere on the screen but is stationary. In fairness, though, this can only be seen in dark scenes at night, with the lights off. For some this is no big deal because they won't typically be watching tv in these conditions. But for someone who likes movies and likes to watch with the lights off, it can be very annoying. I have a feeling that this is an issue with every a850 set. I'll be recieving my 3rd set in the next few days trying to find the golden ticket. But my hopes aren't up.
There are known interferance issues with some remote controls. While ours (digital cable remote) isn't completely blocked out, there is noticable performance degridation. We will often have to press the button several times before the signal takes. Samsung does have a fix for this that requires a technician to come to the house and replace parts inside the TV.
Firmware updates have not seemed to help much with the uniformity or RF interferance problems. Samsung's website (at the time of this writing) doesn't actually have one for download either. I assume that they're working on another one, but we shall see.
On the upside though, if you have issues with your TV, Samsung's customer service is very easy to navigate and is very helpful. I've never spent longer than 10 minutes on the phone from dialing to hanging up. They have always been willing to send technicians to or replace the set.
This TV would be getting 5 stars if I didn't watch a lot of movies at night. The clouding issue is just too annoying for me in those conditions. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably get an a750. -
"Great picture if you don't mind the problems"
on by Rich_PCPros Great picture. The screen is so slim it's really amazing.
Cons Big problem is the IR interference with every remote I have. http://forums.cnet.com/5208-13973_102-0.html?forumID=146&threadID=313706&messageID=2891486#2891486
Just have to return the set as it makes flipping channels a chore.Summary I love the look of the TV and I didn't want to write a negative review of this otherwise great TV but I wish I had seen something like this before. I'd think twice if you like using your remote.
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"Purchase this tv set, you will be happy you did"
on by esmelin penaPros I purchased tis tv on 09/15/08 and it delivers.I have a ps3 hooked up.Un freeking real how good blue ray looks on this tv,ps3 games are unreal,the fetures on this tv are great.Remember you get what you pay for,compared this set agaisnt everyhing.
Cons there are no cons on this tv,some people complain about the sound and beleive me they need their ears cleaned.
Summary this tv is expensive but if you know how to negotiate and the day and time of the week you can get a deal like i did.First of all some blogers say you get the cloud effect,unless you have a plasma all LCD's give you some cloud effect,The 120 hz in this set works great on sports just remmember to turn it off for movies and regular tv.This set has great deep black when you are watching movies or gaming.I compared this tv to the 950 i only noticed a slight diffrence in picture quality.The 950 sells for about $1,000 more than this set.This set is thinner lighter and looks great,the 950 has LED back lighting,is heavier,thicker and a coupple of features over the 850 even though i am happy with my set.
this tv is as good as it gets,I have owned this set for more than 4 months and it amazing,I still have not found anything negative to say about this set.This is what i say(you get what you pay for)I paid $2,112 taxes included over 4 months ago,If you purchase the tv set know you get it for the price that i paid over 4 months ago.
Updated on Dec 8, 2008 -
"GREAT picture, styling is very sharp & lots of extras!!"
on by pt1209Pros This one incredible LCD, picture is crystal clear, colors are vibrant and blacks are BLACK.. The extras such as internet tv is very cool plus it also accesses your pictures, videos and such through the same Ethernet cable.
Cons Nothing so far, haven't found a flow with this HDTV yet...
Summary
Sorry, meant to say I haven't found a "flaw" with this HDTV yet...
Updated on Apr 9, 2009 -
"Amazing Colors - No IR Problems."
Pros Amazing Image quality, No problemes whatsoever....
Cons Haven't had any problems with it except for what happen after the geeksquad came to calibrate tv. Also sound is not the best, but then again, if you're able to buy this TV I'm sure you can pony up for a nice surround sound sytem.
Summary I purchased this TV around February from BestBuy. Got it up and running with our local Comcast cable company. Never, and I mean never had any problems with the remote control. I then changed to Direct TV (more HD channels) and had no problems either. The colors on this TV are amazing. Blu_Ray Movies on PS3 look sick with the 120hz option turned on. Everything was perfect with this set until Geeksquad came and calibrate it the TV (or at least they tried). Geeksquad came over and the first thing they did was to upgrade the Firmware. Now I had read of different forums that upgrading the firmware would probably degrade the image quality and believe me it did. I don?t' know what the factory firmware was on the TV when I purchased it but Geeksquad upgraded it to FW1005. After this, the picture looked HORRIBLE!!!!!, there was a yellowish tone to it and the image look bland, not crisp and bright like before. Also dark scenes look whitish. I played around with the settings and nothing would help. I had to downgrade my Firmware to FW1003, which seem to fix the problem. I still don?t see the image quality as good as when I got the TV out of the box. Overall if you get a good working set for the LN46A850, with none of those IR bugs mentioned on the different forums, believe me you won?t? regret it. This TV is solid.
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