First, let me say, this is not my first big screen HDTV. In fact, this is replacing a 62 inch DLP. So I wasn't expecting to be WOW'd by this TV... but I was. I don't have a way to compare the DLP and LCD side by side -- the DLP is dead. But I don't recall the DLP's image being as clear and vivid as this image. The DLP was able to display 1080i/720p which is about as good as you're going to get from digital broadcasts. But even on DVD's with lower resolution, the image appears more life-like.
There were a number of other expectations I had. Some of them were met, some where not, some were exceeded. I will go into details of each.
1) Setup: I was expecting to have to assemble something. But the unit was shipped in a fairly large box fully assembled. I suppose if you intended to mount yours on the wall, you'd have to disassemble the stand. As for me, I intended to have it sitting on it's stand.
2) Swivel base: I didn't expect the base would allow it to swivel side to side. Because the TV is so thin and I've put it in a place that used to be occupied by a 17 inch thick DLP, there is plenty of room for the TV to swivel so you can sit on one side of the room or the other and still be in the sweet-spot. That's probably not a big deal for those who are buying the TV for it's 1.6inch depth.
3) Connections: I was disappointed in several ways. The information on Amazon indicated this TV has 2 RF inputs. It has only 1. My DLP had 2 RF inputs so I could connect my cable to one, and antenna to the other. In my area, with a moderate size antenna, I can pick up about 50 HD channels Out-of-the-Air. My cable company rebroadcasts only about 15 of those digital signals, and periodically changes what channel they're on.
In an attempt to make the TV very thin, it appears they've given very little room for high quality connectors. I had to remove the boot from my CAT6 (network) cable. I had to shave one side of the boot of my RG6 (RF) cable. Without these modifications, I couldn't use those cables.
In an era of HighSpeed internet, I would have expected the network connection to be a GigE, but it appears to only be 100BT. While 100BT is theoretically enough to stream even the highest resolution media to the TV, my media servers, media receivers, and PC all have GigE. When I switched to a GigE switch, I noticed considerable difference in viewing experience. A GigE chipset would have probably added only about $30 to the price of the TV -- not a big deal.
I was however very impressed with this TV's ability to be a monitor my my laptop. I plugged it into the VGA connection and was surprised to get full 1920x1080 resolution.
4) Yahoo Widgets: It's certainly a neat idea to be able to see certain information on the screen, but the widgets that are available are unimpressive. You can get most of that information on your Cell phone, without interfering with your TV watching experience.
For about 3 years, I've looked for a way to watch YouTube videos on my HDTV. The YouTube widget leaves a lot to be desired. As far as I can tell.... there is no way to associate the widget with your YouTube account so you can't subscribe to channels, mark favorites, set up play lists, or view your history. The image quality seems to be better than I expected and it appears that it selects the HQ feed when available. Even attempting to search is rather difficult because the on screen keyboard is the worst I've ever used. The keyboard doesn't wrap side-to-side or top-to-bottom. If you're on the key in the top right, and the next key is in the bottom left, you have to move across a million keys to get to the one you need. In it's current state, the YouTube widget is worthless.
5) DLNA: Very disappointing. I have 3 media servers that have different implementations of the DLNA (non)standard. The media receives I've used that interact with the DLNA servers have a variety of flaws, but this TV is probably the worst of them. It's slow bringing up the lists of available content, and tends to refuse to play simple content, or doesn't play them correctly. I was hoping to replace the media receiver attached to my DLP, but I'm not able to because it has faster, better support for the DLNA server, as well as supporting SMB. If the TV can't do DLNA well, maybe Samsung should think about supporting SMB instead (this TV doesn't).
6) AnyNet+: This works a lot better than I expected. I bought a Samsung BD player with this TV. There are a couple of things I can't do with the BD player except with it's remote, but for the most part, it's a seamless experience. It would be nice to have a BD button on the remote -- there's a TV button.
7) Image: Based on reviews I'd read elsewhere and here, I was expecting to have issues with various aspects of the picture. I haven't had any of the "spot light" or "dark corner" problems that people have reported. This TV has incredible darks, brights, and colors. If you get a chance to watch Survivor on this TV.... Do it! Some of the scenes are breathtaking.
I have noticed however, that the picture looks "too good." The high contrast, clear detail, and motion smoothing tend to make the picture too good. It's a little disturbing. I've had to adjust some of the picture settings to add a little imperfection.
8) Glare: I was expecting to see considerable reflection on the high gloss screen. With the DLP, during dark scenes, I could see my reflection staring back at me. With this screen, I don't see that reflection. In fact, I don't see any reflection. I haven't figured out why that would be -- it's a high gloss screen.
9) USB media player: I'm impressed that this TV is able to play so many formats. I have media in some odd formats that I've had difficulty playing -- even in Windows Media Player. This TV is able to play them. I'm dissapointed though that it's not able to play VOB files from the USB. It will play them with the DLNA player, so I would think it should pay them from a USB stick. But it doesn't.
I compared this TV with the 8000, and 8500 in the same size. When the TV's are sitting side-by-side, you're 5 feet away, and looking for specific differences, you can see those differences clear as day. When you look at each TV by them self, or if you're actually watching a move or show, it's hard to pick up those flaws/differences. Even watching the same feed with them side-by-side, I couldn't justify spending the hunderds of $$ more for the minor improvements of the 8000 or 8500.
Reading back, my review sounds very negative. But I'm very happy with this TV. It's much better than the DLP it's replacing both in picture quality and features.
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Expedited Available
"Stick to Plasma"
"Amazing! LED all the way!"