Samsung LN46A850

• Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 17 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 6 stars

  Great picture quality if you don't mind a few things...

  by fergville on March 31, 2009

  Pros: Colors
  Blacks
  Overall picture quality
  Picture options
  A lot slimmer than most
  Looks nice
  Samsung's customer service is timely and painless

  Cons: Flashlight/Clouding issues (aka uniformity)
  RF interferance with some remotes
  Samsung's firmware updates

  Summary: The picture on this thing really is quite spectacular as long as you can find a firmware update that suits you. The colors are great and the blacks are some ...

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  Summary: The picture on this thing really is quite spectacular as long as you can find a firmware update that suits you. The colors are great and the blacks are some of the best you can get in an LCD. I will say that as the firmware upgrades have progressed, the black levels have seemed to degrade slightly. It's not that big of a deal though.
  
  It's easy to set up and has plenty of connections for what ever you want to throw at it.
  
  My gaming experience hasn't been that bad on it. Some people say that it's laggy or doesn't do a good job, but in my experience it's done quite well.
  
  The panel is nice and thin and looks very elegant sitting on its glass pedistal. Even though it's got a glass coating over the panel for contrast enhancement, it doesn't seem to reflect too much light from windows etc. I have mine situated directly across from a large picture window, and have had no issues with light reflecting off of it and making it difficult to watch.
  
  There are some issues, however.
  
  There do seem to be some uniformity issues known as clouding. Clouds seem to appear in dark scenes and can be quite distracting. It can present itself anywhere on the screen but is stationary. In fairness, though, this can only be seen in dark scenes at night, with the lights off. For some this is no big deal because they won't typically be watching tv in these conditions. But for someone who likes movies and likes to watch with the lights off, it can be very annoying. I have a feeling that this is an issue with every a850 set. I'll be recieving my 3rd set in the next few days trying to find the golden ticket. But my hopes aren't up.
  
  There are known interferance issues with some remote controls. While ours (digital cable remote) isn't completely blocked out, there is noticable performance degridation. We will often have to press the button several times before the signal takes. Samsung does have a fix for this that requires a technician to come to the house and replace parts inside the TV.
  
  Firmware updates have not seemed to help much with the uniformity or RF interferance problems. Samsung's website (at the time of this writing) doesn't actually have one for download either. I assume that they're working on another one, but we shall see.
  
  On the upside though, if you have issues with your TV, Samsung's customer service is very easy to navigate and is very helpful. I've never spent longer than 10 minutes on the phone from dialing to hanging up. They have always been willing to send technicians to or replace the set.
  
  This TV would be getting 5 stars if I didn't watch a lot of movies at night. The clouding issue is just too annoying for me in those conditions. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably get an a750.

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  3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 4 stars

  Great picture if you don't mind the problems

  by Rich_PC on January 5, 2009

  Pros: Great picture. The screen is so slim it's really amazing.

  Cons: Big problem is the IR interference with every remote I have. http://forums.cnet.com/5208-13973_102-0.html?forumID=146&threadID=313706&messageID=2891486#2891486
  
  Just have to return the set as it makes flipping channels a chore.

  Summary: I love the look of the TV and I didn't want to write a negative review of this otherwise great TV but I wish I had seen something like ...

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  Summary: I love the look of the TV and I didn't want to write a negative review of this otherwise great TV but I wish I had seen something like this before. I'd think twice if you like using your remote.

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  3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  Purchase this tv set, you will be happy you did

  by esmelin pena on October 13, 2008

  Pros: I purchased tis tv on 09/15/08 and it delivers.I have a ps3 hooked up.Un freeking real how good blue ray looks on this tv,ps3 games are unreal,the fetures on this tv are great.Remember you get what you pay for,compared this set agaisnt everyhing.

  Cons: there are no cons on this tv,some people complain about the sound and beleive me they need their ears cleaned.

  Summary: this tv is expensive but if you know how to negotiate and the day and time of the week you can get a deal like i did.First of all ...

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  Summary: this tv is expensive but if you know how to negotiate and the day and time of the week you can get a deal like i did.First of all some blogers say you get the cloud effect,unless you have a plasma all LCD's give you some cloud effect,The 120 hz in this set works great on sports just remmember to turn it off for movies and regular tv.This set has great deep black when you are watching movies or gaming.I compared this tv to the 950 i only noticed a slight diffrence in picture quality.The 950 sells for about $1,000 more than this set.This set is thinner lighter and looks great,the 950 has LED back lighting,is heavier,thicker and a coupple of features over the 850 even though i am happy with my set.
  
  Updated on Dec 8, 2008

  this tv is as good as it gets,I have owned this set for more than 4 months and it amazing,I still have not found anything negative to say about this set.This is what i say(you get what you pay for)I paid $2,112 taxes included over 4 months ago,If you purchase the tv set know you get it for the price that i paid over 4 months ago.

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  2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  GREAT picture, styling is very sharp & lots of extras!!

  by pt1209 on April 9, 2009

  Pros: This one incredible LCD, picture is crystal clear, colors are vibrant and blacks are BLACK.. The extras such as internet tv is very cool plus it also accesses your pictures, videos and such through the same Ethernet cable.

  Cons: Nothing so far, haven't found a flow with this HDTV yet...

  Summary:
  
  Updated on Apr 9, 2009

  Sorry, meant to say I haven't found a "flaw" with this HDTV yet...

  Summary:
  
  Updated on Apr 9, 2009

  Sorry, meant to say I haven't found a "flaw" with this HDTV yet...

  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  Amazing Colors - No IR Problems.

  by PreciseI69-2145252214228684562 on March 23, 2009

  Pros: Amazing Image quality, No problemes whatsoever....

  Cons: Haven't had any problems with it except for what happen after the geeksquad came to calibrate tv. Also sound is not the best, but then again, if you're able to buy this TV I'm sure you can pony up for a nice surround sound sytem.

  Summary: I purchased this TV around February from BestBuy. Got it up and running with our local Comcast cable company. Never, and I mean never had any problems with the remote ...

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  Summary: I purchased this TV around February from BestBuy. Got it up and running with our local Comcast cable company. Never, and I mean never had any problems with the remote control. I then changed to Direct TV (more HD channels) and had no problems either. The colors on this TV are amazing. Blu_Ray Movies on PS3 look sick with the 120hz option turned on. Everything was perfect with this set until Geeksquad came and calibrate it the TV (or at least they tried). Geeksquad came over and the first thing they did was to upgrade the Firmware. Now I had read of different forums that upgrading the firmware would probably degrade the image quality and believe me it did. I don?t' know what the factory firmware was on the TV when I purchased it but Geeksquad upgraded it to FW1005. After this, the picture looked HORRIBLE!!!!!, there was a yellowish tone to it and the image look bland, not crisp and bright like before. Also dark scenes look whitish. I played around with the settings and nothing would help. I had to downgrade my Firmware to FW1003, which seem to fix the problem. I still don?t see the image quality as good as when I got the TV out of the box. Overall if you get a good working set for the LN46A850, with none of those IR bugs mentioned on the different forums, believe me you won?t? regret it. This TV is solid.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 4 stars

  Great TV but remote controls for other items dont work

  by surfpunk21 on January 12, 2009

  Pros: The picture and design are awesome

  Cons: When the tv is on, there is so much interference that other remote controls wont work. So, we cant control our cable, or DVR by remote. Samsung hasnt been able to fix it, or authorize an upgrade to the 950 or downgrade to the 750.

  Summary: We will probably have to take the tv back and get another brand. We have lost our confidence in Samsung now, especially because they wont work with us to get ...

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  Summary: We will probably have to take the tv back and get another brand. We have lost our confidence in Samsung now, especially because they wont work with us to get a different model instead of the 850. We would even pay to upgrade to the 950, or take the 750 and some cash back, but they havent authorized that yet.

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  1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 2 stars

  Disappointed

  by Julio_1 on March 3, 2010

  Pros: Great picture, when the TV works...

  Cons: Poor sound. Broke down twice within the first year since I bought it. It turns on and off constantly. Technical service is also very slow. In all, the worst TV I have ever had. I would have spend my money in other brand...

  Summary: I wonder how many times the TV will break down when I go beyond the warranty period. I really thought I was buying high quality, but obviously made a great ...

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  Summary: I wonder how many times the TV will break down when I go beyond the warranty period. I really thought I was buying high quality, but obviously made a great mistake. I live in Panama City, Panama, where humidity is an issue. If humidity is the problem, Samsung should advertise their clients their LCD TV's are not intended to be used in the tropics.

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• 8 stars

  Quality in your living room

  by gareon54 on November 24, 2009

  Pros: Great color saturation
  Lots of extra features
  Connectivity galore

  Cons: Blurry movements when not viewing HD content

  Summary: If you're looking for a medium priced solution to a nice home theater system this one will work.

  Summary: If you're looking for a medium priced solution to a nice home theater system this one will work.

• 9 stars

  This television is a stellar performer.

  by scowart on July 16, 2009

  Pros: Image fidelity; ease of use; good user guide; great technical support.

  Cons: Plug & Play Channel Scanning; Compatibility with non-Samsung Remote

  Summary: I already had experience with these sets before my purchase, having calibrated a 6 series and a 7 series set. This set was every bit as good as those I ...

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  Summary: I already had experience with these sets before my purchase, having calibrated a 6 series and a 7 series set. This set was every bit as good as those I calibrated, plus it's so thin. This is the best image fidelity I've seen on an LCD set. Having extensive experience calibrating televisions, I will admit frustration with all the picture enhancements offered in the menus. I never make use of such things and turned all of mine off immediately. Set-up in a room with average ambient light, I found a wonderful image with the Standard picture mode, Backlight at 5, Contrast at 60, Brightness at 45, Color at 51, Hue at 48/52 and Sharpness at 15. These settings were achieved using Avia's calibration dvd. Do yourself a favor and turn off the contrast and brightness enhancements, edge enhancement, etc. With those off and the settings mentioned above I found the picture to be much more "alive" and sharp than with any artificial settings turned on.
  
  Updated on Jul 16, 2009

  I forgot a few items. My set-up includes Comcast Digital Cable. I had no IR issues with the remotes, but I could not get the tv to sync with the Comcast Remote. There was one sync code provided and if that didn't work I had to manually enter every code from 001 to 045, one at a time. It never synced. This is unacceptable. As soon as I turned on the tv it began a "plug&play channel search" which found nothing. I was unable to stop the process, so I waited. On my second try all was fine. This tv has exceptional user friendliness except this issue. Finally, I have been unable to get a memory stick to work with this tv. I tried two of them and the tv indicated no connection with either.
  
  Lastly, I used this set as a monitor for my Apple laptop. Fantastic! I couldn't be more pleased. This is one of the main reasons I purchased this set and it did not disappoint. Overall, wonderful image fidelity as a tv and as a computer monitor. My rating remains 4.5 out of 5.

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• 10 stars

  best of the best

  by romankoro on July 9, 2009

  Pros: amazing picture, amazing sound, beautiful design, advanced features!

  Cons: price is the issue however after you see the performance you will gladly pay it!

  Summary: it took me a very long time to realize that i need a lcd screen! serious!!!! for everyone in the market for a hdtv... plz listen! if youre buying a ...

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  Summary: it took me a very long time to realize that i need a lcd screen! serious!!!! for everyone in the market for a hdtv... plz listen! if youre buying a plasma for 2500K and up its a very goof choice!! however for morst of us in the reasonable price range the plasma screen dont offer the performance we need / pay for in a plasma screen. the samsung plasma/ lg/ toshiba plasma/sony in the 1500-2000k range are garbage. serious!~ dont waste youre time! they burn in in the first 30 min! it doesnt matter what options youre considering... for plasma unless (the burn in goes away after 30-60min however if youre paying 2k for a screen! come on get serious! thats bull! NOT GOOD AT ALL. If its in the plasma 2500K and up range, in this range you have a very very good screen and quality is usually amazing from my indepth view. the pioneer brand is the best of the best for plasma screen tvs. so if youre considering a plasma... and some people are... i highly suggest you buy a pioneer/ samsung/sony/panasonic brand (all are in order for a reason). However if youre in a reasonalble price range like most people are... I would highly suggest to buy samsung. im not saying that this tv is cheap by pooping on the cheaper ones... however i can say one thing.... You really trully do get what you pay for!!!!!

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