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10 out of 10 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Great picture, sync problems with Dolby 5.1"
Pros: Picture quality
Cons: Dolby sync problem, self reboots mid picture
Summary: I bought this at Circuit City for $149.97, and am pleased with the video performance. However it's not a high quality item. I use an excellent outdoor antenna that brings in very decent OTA reception on a Dish 811 receiver, but the Samsung unit often loses the signal of the channel being watched or being switched to and reboots. Also, even with its transmitter within line of site one channel often ghosts in odd colors. My main gripe though is that Dolby 5.1 audio almost invariably loses sync with the image after a minute or two. This hasn't happened with with PCM audio, nor has it occurred with plug-into-the-TV audio.Updated
I returned the Samsung 451 to Circuit City which provided a no-hassle refund, and bought the Humax HFA100 from Frys for $206.99. The Humax unit works a lot better. More channels come in. The program guide works well (Samsung's didn't). Dolby hook-up sounds great. The Samsung unit has a slight edge on picture quality. The Humax zips through the channels like a conventional TV would through cable channels where Samsung was frustratingly slow. Samsung had plenty of codes for Panasonic TVs but none worked, while Humax had four codes listed under mispelled "Ranasonic" and the remote works (though Humax's remote batteries were dead). What steered me away from Humax originally was that they spelled "Resolution" wrong on the labelling in the front of the unit itself. I figured that if they do that on the outside they'd probably do worse on the inside. Doesn't seem so though.
