Samsung UN40F5500 40-Inch 1080p 60Hz Slim Smart LED HDTV

Excellent picture AND sound, software needs some improvement, April 11, 2013

By 

Goldengate “Goldengate” (San Francisco, where else?) –

  

  

This TV was released in February as Samsung’s “budget” 32-inch As of this writing it’s going for around $475, so about $200 more than the budget Smart TV’s from Vizio. First my review of the TV, then I’ll compare it to Vizio’s product VIZIO E320i-A0 32-inch 720p 60Hz LED Smart HDTV, which I have also purchased and decided to return in favor of this unit. As you would expect, the TV has a great picture. Smooth, no pixelation, even sports look great on here. It’s advertised as a 60hz — but then the box refers to “120 Tru Motion” so I’m not sure what to make of that, but suffice it to say that refresh rates are good. The remote control is decent – lights up at night and has good sized buttons, but I’d like dedicated buttons for Netflix and Amazon VOD. This TV begins to blur the line between TV and computer… the internet browser is competent, but pretty frustrating to use without a keyboard. You can hook up a USB keyboard through the TV’s slot. This TV does NOT accommodate bluetooth keyboards, so wireless is out of the picture. I believe the next model up of Samsung (the 6000 series) accommodates Bluetooth as that is referenced in the manual. The “Smart Apps” section reveals many apps (Pandora, Picasa, etc) that you would find on your Smartphone. Due to the dual core of the TV’s processor, apps load quickly and the TV starts immediately. As for the sound, it’s really decent to good. You’re not ever going to get good base etc without an external sound source on any HDTV… but this provides a good viewing experience. Figuring out the DLNA networking (to watch videos and pictures stored on my computer) was unnecessarily complex (very simple on the Vizio). The TV couldn’t “see” other devices on the home network until I clicked “Play to” on the computer in the right click context menu and selected the Samsung. The Samsung asked for permission to link to the computer and then I was able to browse. I’m sure this will be fixed in a future software update. By the way, Netflix, Amazon, every app I have tried works great.

I think the software on these “smart TV’s” is still overly complex to navigate… At some point a company like Apple is going to figure this out and make a truly seamless intuitive experience. For example, to get to my media on my computer, I have to click “smart apps” then scroll to video, click that, then select a source, then start scrolling through files on the computer. There has to be a better way. Having said that, it’s not terrible, and the dual core makes for gorgeous animated menus and really nice response time.

Comparing it to the Vizio… if you are thinking “Should I spend the $200 more for the Samsung?” here’s why I ended up returning the Vizio in comparison to this unit. First off the positives: The Vizio had a gorgeous picture also, comparable to the Samsung. So it’s a draw between the devices. But in every other aspect, Samsung wins. Setup on the Samsung was a breeze — it scanned all of my Comcast digital channels WITHOUT a converter box, and then automatically subtracted out the scrambled channels. Vizio couldn’t/didn’t do this. Samsung also has an interactive/nice guide much like the guide you’d see on digital TV/satellite… grid format that tells you what’s on all the channels. Vizio didn’t have that. The Vizio TV took 5-9 seconds to start. That’s a long time when you’re trying to catch the end of a show. Samsung starts up instantaneously. The Vizio had TERRIBLE sound — everyone sounded like they had a lisp when watching TV… the Samsung has a million sound options including even an equalizer. Great sound. There are many more apps on Samsung’s unit, and there’s also the Samsung version of video on demand where you can download and watch movies. Vizio has placed a button for this on their remote control but it is still a “coming attraction.”

If all you care about is a nice picture, get the Vizio. But if you care about sound and the internet apps, as well as platform stability, get the Samsung. They are both energy efficient – the Samsung is $6/year according to the Energy Wise label on the set and the Vizio is $8.

This TV actually begins to blue the line between TV, computer and tablet. You can attach a keyboard. You can also attach a webcam and have Skype video calls. There’s also a social app integration that I don’t plan to use where you can link everything to Facebook and other social sites, sharing comments on TV shows etc with your friends. Not my style but some might like that. As I use more of the functions on this TV I will update this review, but for now, hope this helps!

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 Comments (19)

So far everything is nearly perfect, July 3, 2013

By 

Charles S. Yordy III “Charlie” (Arlington, VA) –

  

Just got this last night at a big box store. So far I have no complaints. The picture looks even better in my home than it did at the store, where the contrast and vibrancy of colors “popped” far more than comparable models around it. This TV replaces a Samsung LN32A450 32-Inch, bought end of 2008, and is our main living room TV.

Pros: Seems like the the best 1080p LED Smart TV at its size for the money; love the picture; the speakers are completely satisfactory for our purposes (seem a good bit stronger than the old TV); the Smart features are very cool and so far work great, but we’ve only started messing with them; 3 HDMI ports make it easy to connect cable, game system, and any other device we may acquire in the future.

Cons: using the remote for web browsing or apps isn’t the best, but we may just get a wireless keyboard and mouse to go with this – already tested a Logitech wireless USB mouse with it and it works perfectly; watched 3 consecutive Youtube videos without incident, but it had trouble loading a 4th…I’ve read that the wireless card can struggle, so we’ll see how that is over the long term; accessing Game Mode requires three steps through the menus, but it doesn’t take too long using a wireless mouse, and I think it switched off Game Mode automatically when we deactivated the console and went back to cable.

Overall: After 1 day it easily gets an A+. If problems develop with anything I’ll update my review.

Also, I used the following website to set these calibration settings – really like the picture with these: http://reviews.lcdtvbuyingguide.com/samsung-lcd-tv/samsung-f5500-picture-settings.html

Post Calibration Settings

Picture Mode Movie
Backlight 16
Contrast 97
Brightness 48
Sharpness 0
Color 51
Tint G50/R50

ADVANCE SETTINGS
Dynamic Contrast Off
Black Tone Off
Flesh Tone 0
RGB Only Mode Off
Color Space Auto
Gamma +1
PICTURE OPTIONS
Color Tone Warm2
Size Screen Fit
Digital Noise Filter Off
MPEG Noise Filter Off
HDMI Black Level Low
Film Mode Off
LED Clear Motion Off

WHITE BALANCE
Setting Value
R-Offset 25
G-Offset 25
B-Offset 27
R-Gain 19
G-Gain 22
B-Gain 21

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