Samsung LA46A550 - brought it home today

[nitish]

Hi All,

Got the Samsung LA46A550 today. Purchase price was 79,000 with free wall installation. I think I could have probably talked down another 1000 or so, but my wife was getting impatient and he sensed it....

Got a factory sealed box straight from the warehouse. Very nice TV, but a bit too bright and vibrant out of the box for my taste. I used some calibration settings I found on avsforum.com and tested it with 1080p rip of "Fifth Element" from my PC and the picture was simply astounding. But every one else felt that the picture was dull and made me reset it back to factory default of "movie" mode. Anyway, I plan to do my own calibration using a Spyder and the DVE calibration disc soon.

a) 1080p HDMI input from Philips upscaling DVD player - very nice from 8ft and farther.
b) 1080i Component input from LiteOn upscaling DVD player - very very nice (to my eyes this seemed better than the 1080p above. Maybe the LiteOn does a better job of upscaling than the Philips).
c)1080i HDMI from Canon HD camcorder - simply amazing. Now all our home movies are theater grade
d) 1920 x 1080 PC input from laptop - excellent. Really superb. I am now seriously considering getting the Samsung 32" FHD to replace my 23" HP as the main monitor for my work PC.
e) 1920 x 1080 HDMI input via HDMI from my PC's DVI port..... lets just say that I am completely satisfied with the purchase. No buyer's remorse here.

A few negatives:
- de-interlacing is not good, I could see zaggies. Good thing I only plan to feed it true HD from a dedicated HTPC.
- No tilt in the stand, only swivel. I would have preferred tilt instead of swivel as horizontal viewing angle is quite wide, but vertical viewing angle is good downwards but not upwards.
- Remote is too glossy, will be a fingerprint and grime magnet.
- Sound sucks.... real bad. Not something you expect in a 1 lakh TV

So that is all for now. I have taken my first step towards building my home theater. Next up is building the HTPC, sound proofing the room and, the most agonizing of all, assembling a good sound system Needless to say I will be a frequent visitor here in the coming months.

Thanks for all your help & advice (past & future).

Cheers
Teja

Congrats Teja!
Very good choice. I bought the same TV in Diwali this year.
Just a suggestion, which I learnt from experience.
In case you decide to wall mount the TV, decide what connections you will be making from the rear connectors and make all connections beforehand, as you will not be able to connect after mounting, because there is not even 1cm of movement once mounted. And believe me unless the TV is mounted below shoulder level, it is very difficult to unmount and remount. I have mounted my TV at approx. 5ft height and it takes four people, a lot of sweat and missed heart beats to handle this expensive piece of technology.

Another thing, although it has PIP, this feature is useless if you are watching Tata sky etc through AV input, and it is very cumbersome to activate this. This will be of use only if you use the built in tuner.

I had very good experience with Samsung here in Mumbai. In fact they smsed me the name of the technician & phone no in advance. Their helpline is too excellent, and they keep you updated by sms and email.
Cheers and welcome to the club.
Nitish

PS what is HTPC?

 

[moserw]

PS what is HTPC?

Home Theater PC at Home theater PC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[realactivex]

Teja Congrats!
I am planning to come to vizag sometime soon.
Will send you a PM before i come. I would love to have a look at your new toy (especially all the HD content).
by the way, where did you manage the spyder?
I got the DVE Essentials in Blu ray when i was overseas.. but i forgot to buy the colorimeter.. I was more inclined towards the eye-one. I have heard that spyder is aboud 60% accurate and not more.
Regards
Murali

 

[nikhil_j]

Congrats Teja!
Very good choice. I bought the same TV in Diwali this year.
Just a suggestion, which I learnt from experience.
In case you decide to wall mount the TV, decide what connections you will be making from the rear connectors and make all connections beforehand, as you will not be able to connect after mounting, because there is not even 1cm of movement once mounted. And believe me unless the TV is mounted below shoulder level, it is very difficult to unmount and remount. I have mounted my TV at approx. 5ft height and it takes four people, a lot of sweat and missed heart beats to handle this expensive piece of technology.

Another thing, although it has PIP, this feature is useless if you are watching Tata sky etc through AV input, and it is very cumbersome to activate this. This will be of use only if you use the built in tuner.

I had very good experience with Samsung here in Mumbai. In fact they smsed me the name of the technician & phone no in advance. Their helpline is too excellent, and they keep you updated by sms and email.
Cheers and welcome to the club.
Nitish

PS what is HTPC?

Hi nitish,
I am planning to buy the same tv, can u please comment on the picture quality? Especially since this is not a true 100Hz display, how do the movies fare? and can you tell me with what have you paired it with. thank you.

 

[nitish]

Hi nitish,
I am planning to buy the same tv, can u please comment on the picture quality? Especially since this is not a true 100Hz display, how do the movies fare? and can you tell me with what have you paired it with. thank you.

Hi Nikhil,

Don't know whether 100Hz makes a difference, as before buying I compared the series 6 (which is 100Hz) and series 5 side to side and I honestly couldn't perceive any difference.

I watch movies through my normal DVD player Pioneer DV-383 (though I plan to buy Pioneer 610 soon). This component video signal is sent to my Denon 2309, which upscales video to 1080p, and via HDMI to the TV.

Picture quality is very good and I am more than happy with this buy.

 

[marsilians]

Hi nitish,
I am planning to buy the same tv, can u please comment on the picture quality? Especially since this is not a true 100Hz display, how do the movies fare? and can you tell me with what have you paired it with. thank you.

you wont perceive noticeable differences between a 100hz and 60hz tv for all sources except only a few high res ones like couple blu-ray titles. So dont sweat on this data point.

 

[nikhil_j]

Hi Nikhil,

Don't know whether 100Hz makes a difference, as before buying I compared the series 6 (which is 100Hz) and series 5 side to side and I honestly couldn't perceive any difference.

I watch movies through my normal DVD player Pioneer DV-383 (though I plan to buy Pioneer 610 soon). This component video signal is sent to my Denon 2309, which upscales video to 1080p, and via HDMI to the TV.

Picture quality is very good and I am more than happy with this buy.

hey thanks for the info nitish, b.t.w there is no noticeable motion blur right? And i wanted to know how it handled standard def. Can u also inform me about your ht setup please...

 

[nitish]

hey thanks for the info nitish, b.t.w there is no noticeable motion blur right? And i wanted to know how it handled standard def. Can u also inform me about your ht setup please...

Nikhil,

My home theatre setup consists of a DVD player Pioneer DV-383. By component video signal is sent to my Denon 2309, (which upscales video to 1080p), and via HDMI to the TV. My spk are Telome bookshelf for front, a Telome center and Telome cubes for rear. I have a JBL PB-12 as my sub.
I intend to buy a bluray player soon (once prices settle down)

 

[rx2389]

Samsung 40B550K - Pathetic After Sales Service!!!

Hi folks,

This is only to seek an information. Nothing related to tech stuff.
Mod - If its irrelevant do remove this post.

I just got a Samsung LA22A450.

Looking to write a complaint to the customer care head. Its apprx 15 days, no one turned up for installation/demo of the product. Samsung professionals did call couple of times, but never turned up.

Neverthless, i had myself done the installation. But i want to point the dereliction of duty on the part of samsung professionals.
(A "World Class Company" is what they advt, but even does not turn up
for the first step of installation/demo)!!!

Can anyone give me the email address for the customer care head? Calling customer care is only the first step. I want it to take it to the higher level.
Not worth-while to keep calling customer care professionals!!

(NOTE: Earlier i had problems with one of the banking institutions, and i mailed directly to the VP of the bank, and the next 5 minutes i got a call from bombay and issue was resolved in 2 days).

thanks

I too purchased one Samsung LCD TV (Model LA40B550K1) from Navang Audio & Video, Vikas Marg, Delhi 110092 on 1st January 2010. I had paid vide a cheque hence the TV was delivered by the dealer on 5th Jan 2010 once my cheque got cleared. I was told that installation shall be done by the company executive on the next day. However, it has been a week now but no one from Samsung has come for doing the needful. Numerous calls to Navrang and Samsung Centre at Tele# 0120-30308228 have fallen on deaf ears. Each time either Navrang or Samsung Centre promises that someone from the company shall visit me but then no one turns up.

I am apalled at such kind of customer service from Samsung. Infact now I regret my decision to have chosen a product from company like Samsung which pays such scant disregard to its customers. I believe a consumer who spends more than Rs.55000/- on a TV expects better treatment than this.

Could any of you guys let me have email id for someone responsible at Samsung so that I could escalate it.

I would urge people to be vary of purchasing any Samsung product, atleast in NCR after seeing so many horror stories about Samsung After Sales Service!

Regards
rx2389

 

[Mahesh babu]

46" LA46A550 @78K
at USK ELectronics Hyderabad I've Bought it,ITs Working GUD.