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Samsung LN55C630 55-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)

User Reviews about Samsung LN55C630 55-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)

Pros: Excellent Picture quality. Very nice looking bezel and frame. Large number of features and settings. Lightweight and energy-efficient for it's size.

Cons: Semi-Gloss screen; not as bad as some Plasma screens, but close. My Major Gripe - Not true Picture and Picture... PIP only displays whatever comes-in through CoAx connection. Really Samsung.. coax? With a 55" HD LCD, who would use any input on Coax anymore? Why would you limit PIP to use coax, when you have all those inputs?
Even my technologically inept mother uses component connections from her Cable box. Not to mention most cable providers these days offer HD boxes for free.
This is the one major "Duh" moment by Samsung. I was really hoping to make good use of the PIP feature. Dissapointing. Hopefully a future firmware update will correct this flaw. -- Samsung LN55C630 Picture in Picture ???

We love our new Samsung LCD TV. I researched a lot on tvs. We came down to Samsung and LG. We found that LG had some better ratings consumer reports. The picture however on the Samsung sold us. Also, we heard on the Samsung the sound is not that good without a sound bar.... we have not the bar and let me tell you the sound is plenty good. In fact it can blare pretty darn loud. We already own a sound system so we will hook it in but if you cannot afford a bar right away don't sweat it you can take your time. The picture is wonderful! The TV is very well made. -- Love This TV

Whenever I am going to spend a lot of money on something (and sometimes, even when I will be spending very little on something), I like to do as much research as possible. I look at Consumer Reports, read as many reviews as possible, and ask around. While doing that, I found this television here.

I initially came across this TV because my husband and I wanted a big screen, and this one was on sale at Best Buy at the time. It came highly recommended by the gentleman at the store, and by most reviews I found online agreed. In the store, there seemed to be some skipping in the picture - parts where the movie or show seemed to speed up for a second and then slow to regular speed - that made me nervous. I was so annoyed by it in the store, that I almost went with a smaller TV by Samsung until I learned that the "skipping" can sometimes be caused by your connection speed. I was HUGELY relieved to get our TV, hook it up, and find that everything was fine, no skipping at all.

The picture quality is extremely good. Even compared with an LED LCD (the latest HD craze), there wasn't that much of a difference, at least not enough to pay the hundreds more for an LED LCD. Compared with others, I liked Samsung the best, and if you're going to go for a bigger TV, I think the 55" is perfect. I would have been happy with the 46", but my husband wanted bigger, and we compromised on this one. In the end, it turned out to be just right. Had we gone bigger, say to a 57" or 60", that would have been too big, but I think a little bit smaller would have been fine, if needed.

The only problem we have had is when my husband plays video games that are really dark. HD's in general have a harder time rendering black colors, but we found an easy fix is to adjust the brightness in the game, and then the picture is perfect again.

Overall, you can't beat the price on Amazon. Even with this exact same TV being on sale at Best Buy, it was still at least $400 cheaper on Amazon. Adding sales tax, delivery charges and all that, it was almost $650 cheaper than Best Buy.

If you are looking for a really good, somewhat larger, high-quality HD at an extremely good price, I would definitely recommend that you buy this one. -- Great television, great price

I've had the TV for a little over a month. The screen is extremely glossy, reflective and has rainbows. (See pics). Black levels are decent, but a little muddy when in a darkened room. I've messed around with most of the settings and just can't get the blacks to show good detail. There is a very tiny flashlight effect in the two lower corners, but barely noticeable. Colors are good, but inconsistent when watching cable so it's probably not the TV's fault. I see occasional lip sync issues, but again I've only seen this watching cable and it's not all the time, so I don't think it's the TV. Off angle picture definitely degrades.

During the day, or with any lights on, the TV is barely watchable due to reflections. I get rainbows if a light is on and faces the TV. The only time I get good viewing is at night with almost all the lights off. If you have any lights on they have to be very low and not face the TV. It's not just the screen that's glossy, its also the frame. It seems like Samsung designs TVs that look better when they are turned off than when viewing. Samsung used to claim on its website for 2010 models that the TV had a special coating that "virtually eliminates glare and reflections". This is a total lie and false advertising. I wonder if they were afraid of getting sued because it seems they have removed it.

I turned the Auto motion plus off because some shows would "jerk" like it was skipping frames. This feature is also false advertising. I haven't seen any advantage to having this turned on and I have viewed sports, movies, concerts, blu-rays, etc. There is no headphone jack at all. If you want to use headphones there is a 3.5mm line out, but you will not be able to adjust the volume. I had to hook up a stereo receiver to the TV just to be able to use headphones. The one area this TV excels in my opinion in that there is almost zero motion blur which I am sensitive to.

I compared all the 55 inch models over the past 3 years (expect Vizio TruLED. Couldn't find one anywhere) and was never happy with any of them. Plasmas are too hot, burn in, etc. LED inconsistent backlight, expensive. Strange bezels (TOC red?). The picture on this TV is 99% as good as the Samsung LEDs. Who cares about thinness? I don't look at it from the side.

So why didn't I return it? I just can't find anything I like. All Samsung 55 inchers are glossy now. I looked at non glossy Sony and LG. I don't like the Sony bezel and I see more grain/motion blur on Sony's than Samsung. LGs look nice, but the picture doesn't seem to pop, black levels look worse and I see a little more motion blur than Samsungs. The LG 8500 model has the glossy screen as does the new high end Sonys. Maybe LG 55LD650, 55LE5400/5500 would have been a better way to go but the prices fluctuate and I didn't feel like going through the hassle of returning, getting a new TV and risking not being happy with that one and starting all over again. I am just tired of looking. My solution is to get a 40 or 46 inch version of this TV for my bedroom to watch during the day, because those models are non glossy and watch the big one only at night. If anyone knows of any type of large black screen I can place behind my couch to block reflections it would be greatly appreciated.


Here are my current settings. If anyone has calibration suggestions, let me know:

Mode: Standard
Backlight: 14
Contrast ratio: 100
Brightness: 45
Sharpness: 50
Color: 52
Tint: G50/R50

Advanced settings:

Black tone: Off
Dynamic contrast: Low
Shadow: 0
Gamma: 0
RBG only mode: Off
Color space: Native
White balance: Factory setting
Flesh tone: 0
Edge enhancement: On

Picture options:

Color tone: Normal
Size: 16x 9
Noise Filter: Auto
MPEG noise filter: Auto
HDMI back level: Low
Film mode: Auto 2
Auto motion Plus 120 Hz: Off

The following is not directly related to the TV, but to those just jumping into HDTV:

I've had several HDTVs over the years and always returned them. At first there was a lack of HD content. Now that's fixed, except cable TV still hasn't gotten their act together. You'll be watching a show in HD, then the commercials in SD. Sometimes they just stretch SD and distort the picture. Sometimes the HD channels have terrible HD quality.

It drives me nuts that movies are in all different aspect ratios that create bars on the top, bottom and sides that transform your TV into a much smaller set. You will have bars on the top and bottom with 1:85, 2:20, 2:35 and 2:40. You will have bars on the side watching remastered classics like Gone with the Wind in 1:33. Also bars on the sides with IMAX content. Can you tell I hate widescreen? Panavision is a gimmick that movie theaters came up with when people started getting TVs in their homes to attract them to the movies again. Does not translate well in the home. Especially 2:40. James Cameron is the only director that will admit this and is why he insisted that Avatar blu-rays be in 16:9 to fit the whole screen. A much more satisfying and immersive viewing experience than watching an "anamorphic" 2:40 widescreen "sliver". I wish they would include two versions on the disk. Original widescreen format and 16x9 full screen version.

Also, blu-rays having 4 and 5 disks just to watch one movie, like Blade Runner? Director cut, extended cut, etc. Just drives the price of the DVD up. -- Glossy and reflections