Samsung LN46B750 46-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LCD HDTV with Charcoal Grey Touch of Color

Review by Peter Ly for Samsung LN46B750 46-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LCD HDTV with Charcoal Grey Touch of Color
Rating:
This is the first TV I’ve ever purchased and it’s a great buy. I was hoping to read some professional reviews before I bought this, but with the Amazon $300 coupon being a limited time offer and my 6x points (basically a 6% cash back) on my Amazon card ending at the end of this month, I had to take advantage of this opportunity now. I think I made a good choice. Up until I got this TV, I’ve been using a Dell 24″ 2405FPW LCD monitor (really a Samsung screen that still gets more positive reviews than new cheaper 24″ Dell LCD monitors).

I don’t want/need to repeat most of the positive comments other reviewers have already mentioned, so I’ll talk about topics not well covered.

240 Hz Auto Motion Plus: The default setting is “standard.” I don’t have regular TV, so I connected my PS3 and popped in my Iron Man Blu-Ray disc. I quickly noticed the high quality resolution of my HDTV, but after some moments, I realize how the movie had a TV soap opera look and how some things just didn’t seem right. The lighting was more sterile and bright instead of dramatic and when there was a scene where the camera moved, it felt like I was watching a 4:3 formatted pan & scan movie instead of a modern wide-screen movie. After checking out the TV settings (not having a paper manual was a little annoying, but quite a bit of paper was saved, since the PDF version is about 290 pages due to the multi-language versions), I realize that it’s the 240Hz AMP that was making my movie experience more TV-like. I tried all the different preset AMP settings (i.e., Off; Clear; Standard; Smooth; Demo, which shows AMP off next to AMP on at the same time), I came to find that I like the “Clear” setting, which is the minimum setting with 240Hz on, the most. The lighting then looked like what I remember from the theater and the scenes still seem smooth and clear. AMP not only gives the appearance of more frames/second, but also more clarity. You’ll notice a big difference when you take the time to watch the same scene over and over again with different settings. My guess is that it will probably work best with TV shows that have fast moving scenes and bright lighting like sports programs.

Computer Files: This feature is so cool. Video files which were originally computer-only can now be watched on my TV without any additional hardware. I think this TV can play more versions of MPEG and DIVX than my PS3 can (it says it in the Samsung manual, but I didn’t do a side-by-side comparison). I can take an AVI file from my computer, copy it to a USB compact flash disk, then plug it into my HDTV and watch it in the full 46″ glory. The remote offers some simple fast forward and rewind capability (the longer you hold down the buttons, the greater it moves forward and backward, respectively) and rewinding doesn’t jump as smoothly as forwarding, but it’s bearable.

Ethernet Connection: My FiOS modem/router is in my bedroom and my HDTV is in the living room. I couldn’t test it, but considering that the wireless module for the Samsung TV is $80, I think I’m going to relocate my router. I wonder if there’s a cheaper workaround or if the Samsung USB WiFi module is proprietary.

Remote Control: It is a long controller which makes it a little uncomfortable to use without sliding your hand to reach some buttons and it has an unconventional wing at the bottom of the controller that’s there for weight balance. It also feels fragile because it looks shiny and lightweight. More negatives is that the buttons require me to either push them down at a different angle or just with more force. I hope that once I use the controller a little more, the buttons will be more sensitive. Right now, some of the buttons take me two or three times before they register because I am apparently not doing it right.

Delivery Service: I got the usual call about setting up my delivery date and time. They gave me a 4 hour delivery window and the 2 guys came around the end of the first hour, so it wasn’t a long wait. There was something on the form I signed about a blue screen test, but they didn’t test that for me (maybe it works only with TV reception?) and I didn’t see it when I skimmed through the manual either. Basically, they physically set it up, turned it on, and tested some menu options. Not a very scientific test, but I guess they completed their tasks. They didn’t stick around to get tipped either. I did stop them to hand them one though.

Ultra Clear Panel: I don’t know why the Samsung.com website says that it doesn’t have an UCP when it obviously does. The reflection is quite strong and I have very good daylighting in my living room from the windows, so the reflection can be annoying. However, the good viewing angle comes in handy, so I just sit at an angle from the screen (probably 20 degrees), and the reflection from my window goes away. I don’t notice any drop in contrast or color quality, so it’s not that big of a deal. Also, if you compare this to some of the reflection problems from older CRTs, it seems about the same. The big difference is that there may appear to be more reflection problems b/c this screen is just a lot bigger than most CRTs.

Overall, I am happy with my HDTV. I was very tempted to buy the 52″ version, but with the 30% premium over the 46″ (currently, the 52″ costs 21% more with the most recent limited-time coupon), I rather save the money for when I get a bigger apartment and when 60+” screens are in the best value range.

UPDATE 20090731: It’s been a little over two months and the remote is still not very responsive. I don’t log that many hours into the remote, but I don’t remember having this problem with any remote in the past. Fortunately, it’s the only real negative about this TV. Oh, since I wrote the earlier review near the end of May, I have hooked up my old computer to it via the TV’s VGA and RCA mini-plug. It’s nice to be able to watch computer video files from my PC, but that’s about all I recommend it for. I had to change the Windows XP interface to a mostly black background with green text look so that it wouldn’t strain my eyes. Also, the 240Hz AMP doesn’t work with the VGA connection, which isn’t a huge loss since very few computer video files and internet streaming videos are greater than 720p (most of them are 480p and less). One final thing is that I have toyed around with the custom AMP settings. I have 10 for blur reduction and 3 for judder reduction most of the time. The blur setting doesn’t seem to affect my viewing experience, so I use the max setting. The judder reduction is really noticeable to me at 4 or greater b/c of the inconsistent frame rate and brighter and more sterile lighting. For darkly lit TV shows like 24 (on DVD) and movies like Dark City (also DVD), I have to turn off the judder reduction or set it to at most one for it to be unnoticeable.

Review by Douglas Fitzpatrick for Samsung LN46B750 46-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LCD HDTV with Charcoal Grey Touch of Color
Rating:
I am simply “speechless” regarding the Picture Quality with just a few adjustments out of the box!! This Samsung set is simply gorgeous with it’s glossy wet black piano like finish, not to mention how good it looks even when turned off! This set has many real world usable features in store for you, plus a ton of options for customizing the picture to suit your preferences.

You can also tailor the way your set handles the AMP or Auto Motion Plus 240Hz, from ultra smooth while watching sports with 0 motion blurr to a more realistic film like smoothness. This is the first LCD HDTV that I have seen to actually have whiter whites and blacker blacks, until now only plasmas were capable of dark jet blacks and whiter whites!

This Samsung LCD HDTV is more like a computer, instead of a paper manual it comes with a USB 2.0 flash drive (E-Manual) where you just plug it in and you can just scan the manual on your beautiful 46″ inch screen. You can also update the firmware version at anytime in the future for added features, bug fixes and maybe even hardware compatibility issues.

The sound I thought was pretty good for a flat panel, the remote is the icing on the cake. The remote is 100% backlit and has a nice glossy finish that fits well in hand. I did a lot of research on just about every HDTV on the market for a whole month and this set has the better picture quality of all the others out there, if you buy this set you won’t be disapointed one bit!

Samsung has come a long way in just a short amount of time, there products a hard to beat cost and performance wise! I bought this set from Amazon on Friday and was delivered the following Wednesday, I don’t know how Amazon managed that one quick shipment! A big thanks to the shipping company Pilot for their excellent friendly and help for getting it all set-up for me, the whole experience was joyful!

Review by Gamer for Samsung LN46B750 46-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LCD HDTV with Charcoal Grey Touch of Color
Rating:
Pros:

Crisp, clear, and smooth images. Bright colors and deep blacks. Light weight, low power consumption, low heat generation. PC and internet connectivity.

Cons:

Remote is not universal. Judder reduction can cause motion artifacts.

I knew I wanted a Samsung because their sets were clearer and brighter than the other brands. I even met a Sony employee that bought a Samsung so apparently he thinks so, too. I chose the B750 model because of the true 240 Hz, 2 ms response, limited internet, and ultra clear display. This model has some grey on the black frame which is less distracting than the red-trim on the other models. It also has a nice remote (BN59-00851A) as opposed to the wheel-lagging remote found on the other models.

The set is extremely light. I was able to pickup and setup the TV myself. The shipping box is not tamper-proof though, so anyone can open the tabs and replace the TV with bricks. The glass rectangular-base swivel stand is very stable as opposed to the oval-base stand found on the other models. I was at the epicenter of a 4.7 earth quake 1 week after buying the set. It happened while I was watching TV, which barely even wobbled. Everything worked out of the box with no quality control issues. This model even included a 500Mb thumb drive for the e-manual. You can upload music, pics and vids to the TV’s built-in 2Gb memory.

Blu-rays and video games are really crisp. You’ll have to adjust the display settings, but once adjusted the whites are extremely bright and the blacks are really dark. The 150,000:1 contrast ratio allows me to see images in dark scenes I couldn’t see on the DLP set I used to have. I’ve read from other reviews about flash-lighting or pixilation. I believe these artifacts are broadcasted from the source station (i.e. the CBS symbol looks funny b/c CBS uses lossy-compression or low-rez graphics). None of these artifacts show up with games or Blu-rays.

The channel listing feature is pretty good. It lists programming for each station up to 6 hrs ahead, but you sometimes have to tune to that channel in order to update the information (channel surfing works, too).

The speakers are good, too. There’s an adjustable 5-band equalizer. I can actually hear the simulated surround sound effect in my small living room.

AutoMotionPlus is super smooth and gives my old DVD library a fresh new look. The feature can be turned off or adjusted on 10 levels. This feature consists of Blur Reduction which eliminates motion blur to create crisp moving text/images, and Judder Reduction which interpolates images between frames to give super-smooth video. If Judder is set too high, the movie can look like a soap opera. It can also create motion artifacts such as ghosting or gasoline haze.

Feature for feature, the LN46B750 is the best 46″ TV you can get at under $2000.