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Amazon tracking indicated it would take 2 weeks to arrive. CEVA tracking listed it at two days earlier. I received the call for delivery in less than a week - and this included the holiday period!
CEVA showed up with it yesterday. The heavy cardboard box had an 18" gash/tear in it and my heart sank. They removed the box and I noticed the screen was supported about 8" from the cardboard and there were no signs that whatever caused the gash had touched anything. We quickly plugged it into the wall and ran it thru some of the built-in menus. Relief - everything worked fine. With the 30-day return guarantee there was nothing more to worry about.
The previous day Amazon had delivered a new Onkyo receiver to replace my older Yamaha. I had already disconnected the Yamaha and wired all the components and speakers to this new receiver (to take advantage of its HDMI capabilities). It now only took a couple hours to make the final connections with the receiver, cable sysem, over-the-air antenna, HTPC and network.
Every single system worked perfectly, even though it sometimes took a few minutes to discover the correct input settings on each device to get everything communicating. The biggest surprise was the quality of the picture. After reading everything I could find on various forums I expected to have some tweaking to do before obtaining the best images. While critically inspecting the imagery for each type of input I could not see a need to adjust anything! Just for experimentation I did make a few selections of alternate settings, but always wound up returning to the original. I'll likely use an Avia program to verify adjustments later, but can't imagine any improvement.
The "halo effect" feature on the upper and lower bezel was obvious (albeit faint) to see, but it was not distracting. In fact, if there were a switch available to turn it on and off, I'd still leave it on - it's neat! The red bezel highlighting (the TOC) is so subtle that it is nearly invisible. If I didn't know it was there I'd likely not have even noticed it. Perhaps it would be more visible in a room with bright daylighting?
Another neat feature is the touch sensitive controls on the lower right bezel. They are invisible until you touch the area, causing them to temporarily sequentially illuminate. I haven't fully explored this feature yet.
Another nice feature was discovering that I could hook up the computer to HDMI connection #2 and play computer games without any special adjustments. There was no lag or any problem except that I'll need to upgrade the computer's video card in order to take the display all the way up to its full resolution. Nevertheless, the Samsung must have been upscaling the image since it was extremely sharp. (Same thing with the 480i DVDs we played on it - very sharp). When not in use we intend to leave the computer hooked up so the Samsung will continuously display it's screensaver which cross-fades family photos like a huge digital picture frame.
The Samsung has a TOSLINK out connection which I connected to the receiver. This vastly simplifies audio connections since all audio sent to the TV can be amplified from a single connection to the receiver. If you can connect everything via HDMI there will be significantly fewer wires and a much more simplified operation.
The only thing I would have preferred is if the base would swivel. I understand the 650 models swivel, can't imagine why Samsung wouldn't include that feature here.
We're very happy with this purchase.
EDIT- 6-18-08
After nearly 3 weeks of use we are even more impressed with this TV.
I have upgraded the video card on the attached computer so that it can now attain full 1080p resolution, only to find the text too small to be readable at a normal viewing distance of about 12 feet with my 60-yr-old eyes. Backing off the resolution makes the text large enough to read while retaining its razor-sharpness.
The attached computer is connected with a wireless hub to my home network, allowing it to stream pictures, music, or movies from any of the computers. The TV must be upconverting the movies to 1080p because they are displayed more clearly than when sent to a regular computer monitor.
The hub also provides a patch cable to the TVs' network port, which allows it to run all the InfoLink connection functions (weather, news, stocks) without the need to even configure that connection.
We added a PS3 a week ago to view blu-ray movies. What an incredible picture! Even though we are using inexpensive $3 HDMI cables, there was no flickering or other problem as reported on another Amazon review. My son tested out his new Metal Gear PS3 game and was impressed with the image and game play. We used the default settings and did not even switch to "game" mode.
We've now had time to run THX and TVBlink video calibration tests and were not surprised to find that all the default settings were already set to the optimum values for our personal tastes.
The set is now mounted on one of those entertainment center "stalks" which allows it to be easily rotated (for easier access to the rear connections). This mounting has taken care of the only complaint we had about this set - its' lack of a swivel base.
Edit - 7-16-08
After 6 weeks of use I must say that this has proven to be one awesome piece of electronics. I simply cannot believe how great this set has performed. The color and details have greatly exceeded my highest expectations. We have begun replaying our old DVD library because the upscaling capabilities built into this set appears to make them very comparable to the Blu-Ray movies we've viewed. It's like seeing a new movie!
It is quite a kick to be using the computer while watching the nightly news in HD via the PIP function.
A lot of people have calibrated their sets using the published settings on AVSforum.com. We tested all of those settings and found that they each resulted in a darker picture that has lost details in shadowy areas and the colors are dull, without the "pop" of the factory settings. Keep in mind that our entertainment area is in a dark, windowless room which should make viewing dimmer features easier. We tried compensating the calibration with various picture adjustments but were unable to attain comparable performance. After a week of trying to perceive any improvements we reverted our settings back to the original, tweaked, factory settings.
Several people have made similar observations, leading us to a conclusion that either there is a wide discrepancy between personal preferences and/or each of these sets have varying image displays. We have no doubt that many people do see improved performance after calibrating their sets - but before you spend a lot of money on professional calibration try the AVSforum settings first to verify if you see any improvement.The only complaint we have is that we've now been spoiled by what this set can do. We picked up a new Samsung T260HD computer monitor (which also includes an HDTV tuner). This is a 26" monitor that has a similar TOC bezel to match the LN52A750. You can read our review here on Amazon - in a nutshell, we are disappointed with it's performance.
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Samsung LN52A750 52-Inch 1080p DLNA LCD HDTV with Red Touch of ColorEnjoy pre-loaded HD content, including cooking, fitness, children's entertainment, and a photo gallery on the LN52A750 52" Full High Definition TV with 1080p Resolution. Full 1080p HD resolution and 50,000:1 dynamic-contrast ratio offer stunning image detail and vivid colors. Auto Motion Plus 120Hz and Ultra Clear Panel technology work together to offer the smoothest motion and boldest bright and dark tones. Stay connected to your home network via the DLNA networking feature. The InfoLink feature provides RSS web content from USA Today. The WiseLink USB 2.0 input and user-friendly interface gives you access to pictures and playlists from a specially designed Wheel Remote. Ultra clear panel allows you to enjoy crisp image details, natural skin tones, excellent shadow detail and vibrant colors. SRS TruSurround XT is a patented SRS technology that solves the problem of playing 5.1 multichannel content over two speakers. TruSurround delivers a compelling, virtual surround sound experience through any two-speaker playback system, including internal television speakers and headphones. It is fully compatible with all multichannel formats up to 5.1 channels. High-resolution HD-Grade 1920x1080 pixel resolution has built-in image scaler to handle inputs from a variety of digital and analog audio/video sources. Wide Color Enhancer optimizes a color's hue resulting in more natural colors. Fast 4ms response time minimizes blurring of moving video. Entertainment Mode allows customized picture settings, optimized for different content. SRS TruSurround XT Down firing speakers CATV/VHF/UFH 75-ohm, F-type Antenna Connections - 4 HDMI High Definition Multimedia Interface, 2 Component video inputs (rear), 1 S-video input (side), side and rear composite inputs, PC input (rear), Wiselink Pro (USB 2.0), RF antenna inputs, and Headphone Dimensions -52.0 x 33.9 x 13.3 / 52.0 x 31.7 x 4.2 without stand Weight -66.4 pounds.
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