update to my previous review. Congratulations to Samsung. They could not correct the component video problem so the replaced the tv. End of problem. They have instilled my faith in them once again however it took a lot of insistence on my part. Thanx again Samsung

Superb picture using S-video

Clolour banding on component video. Service sucks

Have had this tv for over a year.It was almost four months ago that I decided to spend $100.00 on quality component cable and discovered what others have observed ie:the colour banding. Samsung has been dragging their feet big time on correcting this problem. I am presently waiting for a new board to be installed to correct the problem. I have discovered that all Samsung parts are warehoused in the States and none in Canada. Knowing this I will not purchase a Samsung product in the future due to rediculous delays. When it comes time to buy hdtv in a 16x9 format I will seriously look at Toshiba and Pioneer Elite.

Big, cheap, cable and svideo look great.

Component looks horrible.

Ok, I have had this tv since dec 2000, and right out the door it needed a new screen. Which kinda sucked because it was backordered and took about a month to get it replaced. After that I thought I was good to go. Then I got around to getting some component cables for my dvd player. I hook it up and watch a movie and I am just totally disgusted by the results. Huge amounts of banding and noise. Svideo works fine but for some reason component just sux. I thought well maybe it is my cables or my dvd player. Tested it out on another tv and they worked fine, so it left it to my tv. Some movies look fine and are watchable but Gladiator for example just bands horribly. Also you can see noise in the signal that just isn't there with the svideo cable. I even bought a nice cable for this system ($70) compared to my $20 radio shack svideo cable and the svideo cable looks soo much better. Also i was messing around with video essentials and I paused on a black black screen, there is a huge amount of grey in the picture. It is there unless i turn on the black level expander on my dvd player. It looks like a glare almost that takes up about half the screen. Just plain pathetic. Having the service guys come look at this thing but who knows what they will say. Atleast it doesn't flicker anymore like it was doing for a month on and off. Maybe I just got a lemon, I dunno. For cable, svideo, and my dreamcast it works great. I guess i shouldn't expect the world for a tv that only cost me $1190 shipped from 800.com ($600 off and free shipping).

It's HUGE!

You can find it at YourInsider.com for $1739.95. When I got mine I first had to rearrange the entire living room. My wife loved it cause she had been bugging me to move everything around for a couple of weeks. She of course was not all that happy that I decided to do it after I had spent $1740 on a TV. But when she saw the difference that it made, she was happy. The picture is huge, and the resolution is also great. It is a floor standing TV, so this way you don't need any stands or supports for it, just the floor room. It has many audio/video inputs and outputs, which give it a lot of options. I have an N64, a Playstation, and a DVD player all hooked up to it, and there is still room for plenty more. The TV is not too small, and it isn't humungous as to where you have to sit 40 feet away to see it clearly. Overall, I would say it is a fairly good TV, and suits my needs. I would recommend it to anybody who wants a big screen, but not a lot of money.

Super sharp picture, line doubler, great value.

Black levels suffered with component video inputs.

I have owned this tv for almost a month now, and am very, very happy with it. I looked at HD ready sets, but the lack of programming lead me to get an analog set instead. Also, with a regular cable signal, a digital tv will pixalate the hell out of the signal, whereas with an analog set even regular cable is decent. I have noticed very few problems often associated with line doublers, and am very impressed with the image I am getting on regular cable. The picture with DVD (Toshiba) is outstanding. I looked at many tv's before I bought this one, and must say that it compares favorably to the HD sets, and the lack of scan lines puts it in a class by itself in terms of relatively low cost analog sets (the line doubler really works well). One downside, is the component video hookups. I noticed a major dropoff in black level quality when using the component inputs (as compared to S-video). A guy reviewing this set at E-town.com noticed the same thing (and he ripped this set pretty hard), so I suspect it could be a design flaw or lousy component video hardware. If you are set on component video, this could be a deal breaker. Also it will not accept input from a progressive scan DVD player (it needs to exclusively use it's own line doubler, which really isn't a problem since two line doublers will not complement each other anyway). Notwithstanding the problems I had with component video, I believe that this is the best valued big screen in this price range. The picture I am getting via the S-video (bettercables.com) is truly remarkable.

Vibrant Color, Superb picture with satellite source
Virtually free of hotspots, Best warranty 3 yr. in home

Requires frequent manual reconvergence
Cheap remote

I have had this TV for a little more than a year. It never fails to impress me. Whether watching a DVD or my satellite feed, the picture is always excellent. There is almost no discernable hot spot. I have tried it in full HDTV mode in 1080i and the picture was excellent, although I brought the HDTV set top box back because of the dirth of programming.
There is really nothing at this price point which comes close in terms of picture quality. One feature that I would like is automatic convergence as is seen in the higher level Hitachi models.
This TV will almost surely satisfy the pickiest videophile.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, Hitachi