SAMSUNG UN55B7000 HDTV

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By John Resciniti “John”

I payed more for the LED vs a plasma, or traditional LCD, but I’m kinda looking for slim, and as much energy conservation as I can get for a flat panel display. I’m a front projector fan, and have one for my basement theater, but this is in a very bright living room and needs to be bright. This certainly is bright enough! It’s replacing an old 32″ Hitachi CRT. That was a great TV in the day, and is now in our bedroom. Now I just have to get some decent furniture to replace the old unit that held our TV and tons of nick-nacks. It’s mounted on an articulating wall mount, and there’s just a folding table under it for now just to hold the receiver and various set top boxes, etc. All the nick nacks are in boxes for now. We need some decent shelving!

Oh yeah, it’s about the TV, eh? Get into the expert settings and turn off the auto contrast thing. It dims the screen for dark stuff. It’s mostly noticed during movie credits, but it’s annoying. While power is off hit “Mute, 1, 8, 2, power” Scroll to “Advanced” then type “0000″ and scroll to the dimming thing. There are many other things to scroll thru and play with, but I didn’t have the guts to mess w/ that. I bet there are some cool features tho! I turned off the Motion Plus stuff after reading many tech reviews that say it’s just not worth it.

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By Dcall717

This tv is great. It is thin and bright and has a great viewing angle. It was shipped very well by a freight company that looks like they deliver a lot of TV’s for Amazon. They had 3 or 4 on the truck when they arrived, and opened the box to check for damage before having me sign the shipping order.

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By Sooner Techy

I purchased this product just before Thanksgiving and it was delivered in time to watch all of the football on turkey day. All I can say is that you have to see it to believe it. My wife and I are still amazed at the clarity and sharpness of the picture. We keep noticing our local news anchors facial imperfections, and can see details that I am sure we could not see on our previous television. The sound is good, but I also purchased a Samsung Blueray home theater in a box, and they work flawlessly together. I looked around and compared several televisions before purchasing this one, and I have not been disappointed. The delivery went very smoothly, the television was shipped and ready to be delivered within two days, I received a call the night before to set up a 2 hour delivery window. The delivery person and I carried it in, unboxed it and I made sure it worked before they left. It is a great television and a great purchasing experience. I was a little leary about purchasing something like this online, but Amazon made it very easy.

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By Freddy G

I bought this TV on January 29 with Amazon’s 24-month free financing promotion to replace my old Samsung 50″ DLP, which I’ve had for 4 years and is still working perfectly. Shipping was free and the TV was delivered right on time on Wednesday, February 3 by Pilot Delivery Services. I was told by the delivery men that they usually unpack the TV and turn it on to make sure the TV works, but because my TV had been in the cold delivery truck for almost 2 days (I live in Chicago), the delivery men recommended that I give the TV a couple hours to reach room temperature. I heeded their warning and about 2 hours later, I finally turned on the TV and WOW!

This TV definitely has a great picture and I am very pleased. I watch HDTV via an HD/DVR Comcast cable box and the picture is amazing. I have the TV connected to the cable box via HDMI 1, to a PS3 slim via HDMI 2, to my laptop via the PC input, and to my Samsung surround sound receiver via a digital optical cable. All connections produce vivid images and great sound. I have not really messed with any of the picture settings, as I think the picture looks great without tweaks. I do put the picture on Movie mode when I am watching a Blu Ray on the PS3, but I put the Dynamic Contrast back on (default setting is OFF on Movie mode). A lot of people complain or don’t like the 3D-ish look of the Dynamic Contrast + 120hz refresh rate, but we really like it and always leave it on.

Although this TV only has a single tuner, I was able to get the Picture in Picture to work with 2 different channels, by splitting the cable before reaching the cable box, then using an HDMI from the cable box to the TV and a coaxial cable wire from the cable box to the ANT IN of the TV. Be sure to do a channel search on the TV input to obtain the channels for the sub-PiP screen. Note the sub-PiP screen will only show the local/over the air channels available in your area (at least for me), but the good news is that you can get the HD feed of those local channels on the sub channels (channel 2-1, etc).

Probably the best evidence I can give is the constant positive comments my wife gives me about TV. She was against the pricey purchase from the beginning, but she has definitely been won over and that should give the TV enough credibility on its own. We had a Super Bowl party and everyone kept raving about the TV (picture and thinness were the biggest comments).

The only feature of the TV that I have not been able to utilize is the Internet connectivity. I tried to connect the TV to the Internet via my cable modem (wired through my wireless router), but I was not able to get past the Internet Gateway portion of the Internet Connection test. Therefore, I cannot currently access any of the widgets, though I am not too disappointed as I would not normally not utilize them – I just wanted to see how they looked. I am sure the problem is with my wireless router (firewall or something), so I do not blame the TV. I should try going directly from the TV to the cable modem, but I have not tried that yet.

Lastly, this TV looks great mounted on the wall. I was going to buy the Samsung Ultra Slim mount, but I decided to get a far less expensive Cheetah Mount (also from Amazon) for around $30 with shipping and it works perfectly. I used a slight tilt on the mount and the TV hangs perfectly from the wall. I was very happy to save the $100 or so with the cheaper mount. I used the savings to purchase the Samsung-backed 3 year extended warranty from Amazon as well.

Overall, perhaps I am not as technically picky as most people who buy TVs at this price range are, but I have absolutely no complaints about this TV and am very happy with my purchase. I would recommend this TV to anyone and one of my friends recently purchased the 46″ 6000 series model after viewing my TV. I will update my review if I come across anything I forgot to mention or any negatives I encounter.

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By Dave T

The future of TV is LED, sharper colors, deeper blacks and almost a 3d looking picture in some cases and 40% less energy usage. Now is this the best LED tv, no. Most people will say it will be the Samsung 9000 series tv 55 inch coming soon at $7000.00. The new Samsung UN55C7000 might be a tiny bit better but again you will pay a lot more at $3000.00. Right now this TV at $1800.00 is a steal with free shipping and no sales tax and even 3% less if you have an amazon credit card. This TV was $3000.00 a year ago like the new UN55C7000 today, and if you wait another year I’m sure the UN55C7000 will be $1800.00 too. But the wait never ends, next year will always be a better tv at a better price. The only problem I came across with this tv was the auto dimming as others have said. It doesn’t happen often, and most of the time the auto dimming works, making night scenes darker and more realistic, so I would not recommend turning it off. But you may see the picutre go a little darker all of a sudden in dark scenes. Like I said it doesn’t happen often and watching Star Trek the other night with dark scenes I didn’t notice it. I would recommend watching this tv at a store with dark scenes before you buy it just to make sure you are happy with it. Overall this is a great TV and I would buy it again.

Update: Firmware update from 1013 to 1017 solved most of the auto dimming problems.

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By Michael C. Rossbach “Bigtymer”

I waited long enough for a T.V like this to come out. I have holding out on buying a T.V as they are always coming out with newer technology. I am very please with my purchase. I have not played around with the settings but this picture is truly amazing. My dad had an older Samsung and he was amazed how the picture has changed since he purchased his about 2 year ago. The slim depth is just plain mind blowing. I also got this t.v for a great price after the huge promotional discount Amazon offered. A little part of my wishes that I would have splurged for the 8000 series but I am very happier with the picture.

The one concern I had after reading everyone’s review is the overpowered LED bleeding through the edges of the T.V during the dark scenes. I have not really noticed this at all. I think some people are just overly critical on things. If you really pay attention to it you might notice it but if you are just watching the picture itself you can’t notice it. So don’t base your decision on this issue.

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By W. Hernandez

Let me first say this is the fourth LCD TV I’ved owned,second Samsung.I can understand all the gripping about the uneven picture in dark scenes,however after proper calibration which includes going into expert mode and shutting off CE Dimming I must say the picture is outstanding,color,contrast,black levels are spot on.I used Video Essentials to calibrate the brightness,contrast,color,tint and sharpness.This tv is well worth the money.My only grip is the internet wigets thingy which is too slow for me.

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By E. Ronald Mills “Who Cares Man”

Others have written better reviews than I could so I’ll just concur. Picture is great, sound is not as bad as others find (much better than my old 27″ Samsung) and it is a pain to set up. Just consider it a 42 pound picture & frame and hang it on the wall – spectacular.

What I want to rave about is Amazon’s delivery. I ordered this on Black Friday for $2200, free shipping. It was in town the following monday and delivered to me on tuesday. Three days for order to delivery – WOW – now that’s service.

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By Kevin C. Hadacek

1. Pilot delivery was excellent, help remove from the box and gave a quick inservice of the tv and remotes.
2. Right out of the box TV was beautiful. WOW factor is there.
3. I have not experienced any of the negatives discussed in the reviews.
4. Connected to the internet with no problem, updated software immediately.
5. Love this TV, best that I have. I have 3 other Samsungs and have never had an issue.
6. If you are undecided, go to Best Buy and look at this TV!

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By Amazon frequent shopper

We’re usually Sony TV buyers but got sold on the LED idea when we saw how great the screen picture is when viewing from the side – not distorted. Sony does have LED but it is still new which means still expensive. The Samsung 7000 came out a year ago so is now half of what it cost last year! (Now that there is already an 8000.) The 7000 is the same as the 7100 sold in Best Buy except for the frame or something minor. Through Amazon, as of last week, we got this for 300 dollars less than buying local, no tax and no delivery charges – super deal, couldn’t resist, though this is the most expensive thing we’ve ever bought on Amazon.

Delivery was very good. Amazon advertises that the TV can be at your place in 3 days. For us, that meant it was in our city in 2 days. The delivery company didn’t call us on checkout but did call us the day after it got to our city (4 days). They gave a 3 hour window for the next day which is pretty good and were here as they said (Got TV in 5 days from ordering.) Brought the TV just where we wanted it. Didn’t unpack it because it was cold? They said to wait 2 hours. I’m no expert so I don’t know if that was the truth or an excuse. But they were really nice. They gave instructions on unpacking and keeping the packing in case of a return or exchange.

Quick start is quick! Out of the box, plug, find channels and go! Already mounted on a stand out of the box. Love the picture as is without fine tuning. The back is designed maybe a little too slim, though. Not much space to get the connection for an ordinary cable in – had to squeeze it in its slot – couldn’t use the screw type with no space to screw it in. There’s much more space for HD connections which we don’t have. Maybe when we add a blu-ray, etc.

Viewing distance with LED truly doesn’t matter as the local sales guys say. We were afraid 55 would be too big for a 6-8 feet distance but it isn’t.

Wii – if you don’t already have one, you may need an HD-Wii cable (35 at gamestop, maybe cheaper elsewhere, plus there are 3rd party types). The original Wii cable has only 3 connections; you need the 5. Without it, we had sound, no color and fuzzy images. With it, and with Wii settings – Screen – TV resolution set to 480p, great!

This is Day 1 and we’re loving it!