When I finally decided to upgrade to a flatscreen TV, I did weeks of research, until my eyes were bleeding from reading about tech specs that made little to no sense to me. I finally decided on this 46" Samsung LCD, both because it was a recommended best buy on CR and because of multiple glowing testimonials from friends. Overall, I have to say that I am very, very pleased with this TV, with a few caveats, which I will describe below. The short answer, however, is that this is a high quality, versatile TV that just about anyone will be happy with.
Right now I am using an Xbox 360 for games, Netflix streaming, and DVDs while I await a Blu-Ray upgrade. Games could not be more sublime. Pictures are crisp, colorfol, and input response time is very good (only a few "twitch" games revealed any minor delays at all, and they were nominal). Street Fighter IV and Pac-Man CE DX, two timing-dependent games, play very well.
When streaming a movie or show in HD, the picture is phenomenal. Couldn't be more pleased. DVDs are pretty good too, though it depends greatly on the quality of the DVD itself. An educated guess would be that Blu-Rays would be as good or better than the HD streaming. This model has the auto-smooth 120hZ refresh rate, which doubles the normal framerate of shows and games, but honestly, I just leave it off. It makes movies and shows TOO smooth, everything appears to be shot using a camcorder, and the effect is distracting. I'm sure that for HD sports it is a worthwhile feature, though, to prevent any screen tear (though I never notice any in fast-moving films using the 60hZ setting).
The Standard Def image using my cable box is fine...but by no means great. Clarity is slightly worse than on my old CRT television. I haven't upgraded to the HD cable yet. Again, my educated guess is that it will be on par with the HD streaming from the Xbox, which is to say, quite good.
Many people on here have complained bitterly about the sound quality from the TV speakers, but this seems to be a gripe from audiophiles who now expect everything to be in 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. The speakers are, for built in speakers, very serviceable. Switching the EQ to the Movie Setting will give you a tremendous improvement over the default setting, increasing the bass and overall depth of the sound. They are still obviously not as good as a home theater system, which would improve the clarity of dialogue and overall richness, but as stated already for built-in speakers they are just fine. A note, however, if you plan to mount the TV on the wall: the speakers are on the back. This is probably to help bounce sound to create a faux surround sound, but if mounted to a flat surface it could adversely affect the sound output.
In the interest of full disclosure I should say that I am awaiting a replacement to the original LN46C630 that I ordered, due to an unfortunate amount of "light bleed" coming from the right hand side of the screen. For 90% of content this is not noticeable at all, but for extremely dark scenes (esp. when watching in the dark) there is a swath on the right that is noticeably brighter than the rest of the screen. This has to do with how the frame is bonded together (light is leaking from around the edges of the screen) and is just a fact of life with LCD screens. Hopefully the replacement will be better, because it is my only true gripe with this set, and only then because I am a stickler for image clarity (and let's face it, I watch a lot of movies set in space, which tend to be dark :) )
***EDIT - The replacement set has come in and the picture is significantly better, with much truer darks and no discernible light bleed whatsoever. Speakers do not sound quite as crisp but some testing leads me to believe this has more to do with the external device than the set, as using external speakers for the same content produces the same result - END EDIT***
The set itself is beautiful, with a very sturdy stand if you choose not to mount it, and the remote is well laid out and backlit, making it easy to use in the dark. Overall, if the replacement is free of the light bleed issue, I will have been tremendously pleased with this purchase. It was a significantly cheaper set than many of the others in its quality range, and issues like light bleed could hit any unfortunate LCD, it is not an issue with just this set. It should also be noted that the return policy Amazon has is phenomenal. They are bringing the replacement and picking up the old set within the space of one week, completely free of charge, and all it took was a 5 minute phone call to set it up. I will come back for my future electronic purchases.
Hopefully this review is helpful to anyone that, like me, was skittish about diving into such a large purchase. Overall I would have to say that LCD is the way to go over plasma (more reliable and uses far less energy) and that Samsung is a high quality brand at an affordable price. Happy viewing!
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Reviews with images
A lot of bang for the buck
Picture quality is great right out of the box. I like the control interface (has a joystick thing on the bottom that is the power switch, volume and lets you navigate the menus). Would be nice to have a few more inputs, but given the picture quality and everything else I guess I can forgive that. If you're not too picky about thinness, this is a lot of bang for the buck.
