Archive for the ‘Television Reviews’ Category

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55″ LED Samsung TV review

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

For the most part I am quite satisfied with my new TV. The first one delivered did not work out of the box but Amazon was quick to ship me a second one with no questions or delays. 5 Stars for Amazon.

The TV picture is quite amazing in most ways; in a few situations when the screen is mostly dark it seems to have a problem with small areas that require being light brighter than the very dark surroundings. The glow of a candle lit dinner for example will not be as bright as it would on a normal TV. But other than that issue the picture is very good and all that I expected.

The widgets work well but so far I have not used them to any great extent, it is much faster to switch to the weather channel for quick up date on the weather than to activate the weather widget for example. The technology side of me finds the ability to be internet connected appealing but the reality is not too much usefulness so far.

The built in library is also a fun detail not sure how much use it will get but again a good start to an interesting feature that could add value.

I also purchased a Samsung Theatre and it is also connected to the internet I find the Netflix real time/streaming movies and the streaming music of Pandora to be a very useful feature and I also find that normal DVDs do look so much better on the blue ray player as it converts the image to almost blue ray quality. I purchased the wireless dongle and it works fine but I also would expect a TV with a list price of almost $4000 not to have to have a wireless adaptor purchased separately!

Over all I am quite satisfied with both the TV and Home Theatre, I have only had them a month or so, and time will tell if reliability will prove my purchase a good long time buy.

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Good item for the money; a few quirks

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Awesome tv/dvd combo. Perfect for the bedroom…sleek and unimposing. Menus are a little tricky to navigate at first, but you only need to get into them for fine tuning of what channels you would like displayed, adjusting the volume for certain channels, etc. Love it!

Pros:

*Good picture quality
*Good sound quality
*Very good value for the money
*Has a DVD player
*Compact, so it fits almost anywhere.
*Lightweight

Cons:

*As with all LCDs, you have to have this TV right in front of you at twelve o’clock and at eye level to see the picture properly. With the older TVs, of course, you could see it from pretty much anywhere in the room. So if you’re replacing one of those with an LCD and your cable wire is in an elevated or off-center position in respect to where you will be sitting to the LCD, and you’re replacing an older TV, this will dampen your viewing experience.

*(minor) Unusual remote. This remote is different from the many universal remotes I’ve used. Things are in unusual places and words you thought of as being the same from other universal remotes have separate keys. If you like intuitive equipment, this is a minor inconvenience.

*(minor) Tech-savvy issue: Don’t shut the TV off before setting up the wizard that appears when you first turn it on unless you know how to find the channel scan functions and what have you manually. (It’s under menu.) The wizard won’t reappear when you turn the TV on again, even if you never set it up.

* Some DVD player quirks. While watching a DVD I tried to turn up the volume but hit the channel button instead. I discovered I had turned off the DVD with that one little faux pas and when I went back to play, the DVD started all over again. Pain in the kiester to have to go to scene selection and try to sort out where we were. If you’re very, very careful about what you press, this might end up being a good thing if you want to switch from DVD to TV without having to hit a function button.

Nutshell: We got a very good value for a lightweight LCD with DVD; we can deal with the quirks.

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Awesome Package!

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The color on the TV is great comes with pretty everything you need. The kit completes it though. With headphones and a splitter my kids can watch it in the living room quietly. Perfect! Go Amazon :) I bought this TV to use in an emergency here in Florida since after a hurricane we lose power for an extended period of time. The picture is so great that I ran a cable line into my kitchen and am using it as a second TV in that room. It does work better on cable then the antenna however I like the TV very much. You have to keep your stores stocked up since I have many people asking me how to get one, but your stores are always out of them.

Manufacturer’s Description
The Haier HLT71 portable LCD TV gives you the ability to enjoy your favorite television programs anywhere, any time–in your home or away. Watch the morning news without having to get out of bed, or while sun bathing in the back yard. Does someone else have dibs on the TV room? Pull out your HLT71, and you’ve got your own TV room. This handy little portable TV has a 7-inch LCD screen that switches between a 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio. It has a built-in ATSC/NTSC tuner with detachable antenna enabling you to receive crisp reception of your favorite channels – even after the digital-to-analog switch in June 2009. The HLT71 connects to other devices with an audio/video jack and coaxial output. Watch with others using the built-in twin speaker system, or plug your headphones into the included jack to enjoy your favorite programs without disturbing those around you. The rechargeable Li-polymer battery offers up to 2.5-hours of life between charges — enough time to watch an entire movie or several episodes of your favorite show without a recharge. The HLT71 includes an AC power adapter, a car adapter and a Remote Control.

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Great price for a great TV

Monday, November 9th, 2009

My family has enjoyed this television for the past two months. My wife even enjoys watching the news programs now since they are in beautiful HD.

I made my selection after doing some careful side-by-side picture comparisons at a local warehouse store. I generally prefer a matte-like screen over the shiny ones that many of the models have these days since our television screen is opposite from some bright windows and I wanted to keep reflected glare on the screen down to a minimum.

I knew that there would be situations at home in which I would not be sitting directly in front of the screen so it was important that the screen image be clear even when viewed from off to the side and I tried to duplicate such a situation when viewing the various models on display in the store. To my eyes, the JVC had the best screen image when viewed from such an angle. In terms of overall picture quality, the only one out of the displayed models from Vizio, Sony, Sharp, etc. was the one from Samsung. I chose not to purchase the Samsung model since I had a bad experience with a computer monitor manufactured by that company and was never able to speak with a live customer service representative to discuss my problem. In addition, the Samsung model had the shiny screen that I felt would reflect too much window glare.

After removing the television from the box my son and I had it up and running in a manner of minutes and were soon enjoying our Blu-ray movies. Since that day I have experienced no problems with it and have no complaints so far. The expected window light glare has not been an issue and the screen is visible even when looking at it from another room. I really believe that this model was worth every penny of the reasonable price that I paid for it.

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JVC LT47P789 – Great picture

Monday, November 9th, 2009

I purchased the LT47P789 a couple days ago. I upgraded from the VP322- 32″ plasma. I thought the plasma had a good HD picture until I put them side by side. There really is a big difference in richness and quality between the 2 pictures. The plasma seems to have a dull film over the picture with colors not as true or vivid including blacks. There is also a difference in detail such as face imperfections that are clearly picked up on the 1080 versus the 720 plasma.

For comparison I used a Gefen tv splitter 1:4 that takes the HDMI cable from my Dish Network receiver and splits it to 4-HDMI displays. The Gefen splitters are a little pricey but they also split the audio correctly including lip sync pass through. 2 x 10 watt Speakers provide decent sound and are not tinny like on the plasma. A would recommend a surround sound system for true theater feel however.

I see little to no motion blur while watching sports in HD. Its comparable with the plasma. The tv also has the ipod docking station that I have yet to try.

The cons I see with the LT47P789 is it does a poor job with SD 480i signals. The plasma also did a poor job. The 480p progressive scan dvd player looks very good however. Hopefully we will have all HD channels in the near future.

Just a note the factory settings were actually not that good for my taste when I got the tv. After doing some adjusting I ended up with: video status-dynamic, tint-45, color-68, picture-54, bright- 52, detail-25, back light-100, color temp-cool.

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