 Best bang for the buck, great features of LED |
| Review Date: July 10, 2008 |
| Reviewer: mikepro, Ann Arbor, MI |
Very happy with this TV! Much improved over last years LED sets. Excellent picture, great performance, and nice, efficient LED engine. Does it have the best picture available? No, that's probably the 9G Pioneer Kuro plasma, but that costs about $3000 more. Even the new Mitsubishi bulb based DLP's have a slightly better picture, since they use the newer TI Darkchip4 DLP chip, and the Samsung uses the Darkchip3. But, I feel the advantages of the LED light engine outweigh any slight picture quality difference. In my opinion, this TV has the best bang for the buck, by far.
I wrote a FAQ on AVS forum, so I will include some of that here:
- Why should I get a 750 LED series over the 650 bulb series?
* The 750 comes in bigger sizes, 61" and 67".
* The 750 has an LED light source that should last the life of the set. No bulbs to replace.
* The 750 uses the CinemaPure Color Engine that creates brilliant, realistic images and displays color that's 40% brighter than traditional HDTVs. (Note that most sources don't take advantage of this extra color space. Some Camcorders do support it.)
* Nearly instant startup times, with instant brightness no need for the bulb or ballast to warm up.
* No spinning color wheel, so quieter TV (color wheels spin fast and can sometimes have a high pitch whine), and less moving parts
* Much, much less chance of seeing rainbows as the LED's cycle much faster than the color wheel.
* "Green" TV. The LED set uses much less power than bulb based sets and has one of the lowest energy consumption of TV's. Note that actual energy usage is less than the max rated watts listed on the TV.
- Why should I get the 750 series over a competitor, like the Mitsubishi
* The 750 has an LED light source that should last the life of the set. No bulbs to replace.
* Nearly instant startup times, with instant brightness no need for the bulb or ballast to warm up.
* No spinning color wheel, so quieter TV (color wheels spin fast and can sometimes have a high pitch whine), and less moving parts
* Much, much less chance of seeing rainbows as the LED's cycle much faster than the color wheel.
* "Green" TV. The LED set uses much less power than bulb based sets and has one of the lowest energy consumption of TV's. Note that actual energy usage is less than the max rated watts listed on the TV.
* The Samsung has 120Hz video processing for smooth, judder free playback of 24 fps film based material, such as Blu-Ray movies. Have to move to the expensive Diamond series to get this in the Mitsubishi.
* Extensive user menu settings for picture adjustments
* The Phlatlight LED engine is made in the USA.
This TV has A LOT of options for adjusting the picture. So many, that some may get confused, so I will post my suggested settings. First of all, when you get the set or see it in the store, it defaults to Dynamic mode, which in my opinion looks HORRIBLE!!! Don't judge this set too much by how it looks in the store, it looks waaay better in person.
Suggested Picture settings
Picture mode: Standard
Usage: What I like for normal Cable/HD viewing. Provides extra "pop", and 3D-ish look but clearly over saturated.
Contrast 97
Brightness 48
Sharp 0
Color 49
Tint 46/54
Detailed Settings
Black Adj off
Dyn Contrast Low (Adds the "pop" many people are looking for)
LED Control Auto (Sometimes turn down to medium at night)
Gamma 0
White Bal -4
Flesh Tone -3
Edge Ehancement off
xvYCC off
Picture Options
Color Tone Normal
Size Just Scan
Digital NR Auto
DNIe Off
HDMI Black Lvl Normal * See notes below
Film Mode Auto
Blue Only Mode off
Color Gamut sRGB
Picture mode Movie
Usage: Movies, Blu Ray playback. Generally, the most accurate mode
Contrast 100
Brightness 47
Sharp 0
Color 49
Tint 50/50
Detailed Settings
Black Adj off
Dyn Contrast off
LED Control Medium
Gamma -3
White Bal 0
Flesh Tone 0
Edge Ehancement off
xvYCC off
Picture Options
Color Tone Warm 2
Size Just Scan
Digital NR Auto
DNIe off
HDMI Black Lvl Normal * See notes below
Film Mode Auto
Blue Only Mode off
Color Gamut sRGB |
HL61A750 My Experience
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| Review Date: May 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Ed, Surprise, AZ United States |
Almost bought the HLT series from Samsung when I read that it was being replaced by this model. Several issues were addressed, one concerning a halo effect that effected some of the sets, which Samsung later had a fix for. When shopping, went to BB and CC to compare this set with larger screen lcd, plasmas and dlp models. Chose this over other brands of dlp because there is no bulb to replace in the Samsung (led light source). For the same quality picture I found that the plasmas and lcd sets were far more expensive in this screen size range.
Ordered from Amazon, was delivered, unboxed, and hooked up to make sure everything was fine, by the trucking co. Very satisfied with their white glove delivery. In fact, it was better than I expected.
The picture on this set is much better at home than what you see in well-lit stores. The contrast, color and resolution are amazing. Even up close the picture is excellent. Replaced a Toshiba 60" (HD) that was about six years old. Major improvement in HD. The screen on this has no reflective glare as the older one did. Always had a reflection of something in the screen, a light, window... Have directv, so was able to use the HDMI hook up, that replaced the 3 wire component, and two wire audio to the set--now just one. The sound from the set is ample,(it has SRS) however, I hooked it up to surround which gives the viewing experience a lot more kick!
I highly recommend this set on my personal satisfaction, and Amazon for their excellent customer service and the delivery.
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Great TV
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| Review Date: April 27, 2008 |
| Reviewer: D. Kuroyama, Manhattan Beach, CA |
| I ordered this last Sunday. It shipped out Monday from Reno and got to LAX by Tuesday. I called CEVA on Wednesday and had it delivered Friday morning. I was apprehensive of the bowing issues I've been reading about on avsforum.com, but I do not see any bowing on mine. Also, mine came with the updated firmware already installed (it was manufactured 3/31/08). The picture is fantastic -- it's replacing a 5 year old Samsung HLM507W. I have DirecTV and a PS3 feeding it. The SD picture is also much, much better than my old set. The price dropped 3 times since I ordered it, and I was able to get a refund for the price difference already because of Amazon's 30-day price guarantee. Couldn't be happier with it. |
Big Eye Candy at a Very Reasonable Price
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| Review Date: May 16, 2008 |
| Reviewer: M. J. Leonard, Philadelphia Area, PA |
I've been watching Samsung's LED DLP technology for about a year now, so when the next generation came out a few months ago, I got ready to buy. And I happily did so from Amazon.com.
LED's provide pure red, green, and blue light, and those in this set claim a life rating of 60,000 hours (that's 8 hours per day for 20 years). No lamp to replace, no spinning color wheel, no rainbow effects, no motor/fan noise. The whites are bright, and the darks are black. My unit shipped with the current firmware already installed.
I'm not hung up on having a TV that's wall mountable, so I wasn't limited to plasma and LCD sets. And at less than 16 inches deep, my options are still open for cabinets and stands. My only challenge with this form factor so far has been mounting the center speaker, but I just ordered a OmniMount CCH1B Center Channel Speaker Shelf from Amazon, so that should do the trick.
I've gone high-tech geek [almost] all the way for the sources and connections. I say "almost" because I haven't invested in Blue-Ray just yet. But, I do have a TiVo HD, HD cable box, and up-scaling DVDR all connected by HDMI, and our Wii is using the component cables. All pictures are pristine and crisp! The colors are amazing, but I may need to tone down the brightness just a tad: watching the Stanley Cup playoffs, the ice is almost blinding, but the set's 10,000:1 contrast ratio is very apparent with the darkness of the puck and players' uniforms. And, although the Wii is not breaking any graphics barriers compared to Xbox or PlayStation, the video is detailed and vibrant. Hooking up to my laptop with a RGB cable was sweet -- a 61" computer monitor!
In my opinion, reviews are most helpful when they aren't all positive or negative, so now I'll mention some drawbacks or less fortunate issues I've experienced. As noted in the manual, the optical output from the TV is only 5.1 channel for stations tuned by the TV itself. All of the other digital sources coming in only get 2-channel audio out the optical connection. This is a bit lame, but all that means is that I have to use my surround sound receiver to change inputs for digital audio. I guess I could go buy one that has HDMI switching capabilities. Also, since I've had the set, 3 times when I turned it on, I got a message, "Check Fan No. 3". Each time I turned the TV off and back on and the message didn't reappear. I'd want to place a service call, but the inconsistency would make it difficult to troubleshoot. I have a warranty -- I'll keep my eye on it. Lastly, although I have the TV's speakers turned off in its menu settings, occasionally, the TV speakers will turn on very loudly. I have to navigate the menu, turn the speakers on, turn down the volume, and then turn the speakers back off. This has only been happening since I started using a Harmony remote with my set up, so it's probably not the TV, just a stray or errant signal coming from my remote.
In summary, this is an excellent television that I highly recommend. The picture is awesome, the array of inputs is excellent, and the price is affordable (and dropping) -- I've already been refunded [...] with Amazon's Post-Order Price Guarantee. |
Phenomenal set
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| Review Date: May 16, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Jon, Washington DC |
On my fourth week of owning this set now. The settings out of the box are (as most HDTVs) set exaggeratedly high for brightness, contrast and sharpness, but turning off the edge enhancement, and cranking down the settings provides a phenomenal picture for both HD and SD sources. Brightness and viewable angles are excellent, and the form factor is great.
Black levels are excellent as well.
I was trying to decide between this set and the 60" Kuro Plasma from Pioneer....and for 1/3 the cost, this is probably still 90% of the picture of the Kuro (except for those amazing blacks).
There was an early issue with the set randomly resetting, but Samsung has published a firmware update that addresses it completely.
The ability to show photos via USB is also pretty cool though not something I'll use a ton. |
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