Samsung LN52B750 52-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LCD HDTV with Charcoal Grey Touch of Color

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
Manufacturer's Description (June 23, 2009)
One look at this SAMSUNG 52-inch LCD HDTV, and you'll be impressed by its beautiful Touch of Color design and sharp 1080p picture. The amazing 150,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio brings out the deepest blacks and most pristine whites. You can also access online content from Yahoo! and Flickr at the touch of a button and get smooth, fast-motion images with Auto Motion Plus 240 Hz. Get more from your HDTV with the SAMSUNG LN52B750.

150,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
Contrast and brightness levels achieve new heights in this LCD TV. Watch movies and shows come to life with enhanced details in very dark or bright scenes. Enjoy a more realistic, sharper picture that's sure to catch your eye.

Full HD 1080p resolution
Enjoy outstanding clarity and resolution with this SAMSUNG LCD HDTV. Images are crisper and sharper with superior details.

Medi@2.0
Medi@2.0 lets you enjoy more with Internet@TV that allows you to receive content via Yahoo!, Flickr, and other online TV widgets on screen. It also includes Content Library so you can enjoy pre-loaded cooking recipes, fitness exercises, and much more. Plus, DLNA CERTIFIED connectivity lets you remotely access your PC's personal media so that you can download music, video, and photos and enjoy them anywhere your TV is. Finally, USB 2.0 multi-media center lets you connect a thumb drive or a digital camera quickly and easily.

Wide Color Enhancer3
Optimizes a given color's hue, resulting in more natural rendering of colors.

Picture-in-Picture (PIP)
Enables convenient, simultaneous viewing of TV programs and video or PC content sources.

Game Mode
Enhances dark areas, sharpens the picture, speeds up the image processing response and enhances the sounds of your games. Picture and sound quality is optimized for the special needs of gaming systems at the touch of a button.

Auto Motion Plus 240 Hz
Your action-packed sports and movies have never looked this real. Auto Motion Plus 240 Hz virtually eliminates any motion blur, creates smooth transitions between frames and produces an unbelievably clear picture, no matter how fast the action.

Response Time
A fast 2ms response time minimizes blurring of fast motion in sports programs.

Ultra Clear Panel
Advanced LCD technology lets you enjoy crisp image details, natural skin tones, excellent shadow detail, and vibrant colors.

Touch of Color design
Make a statement with SAMSUNG's exclusive Touch of Color design. It features a hint of charcoal grey color naturally blended into the traditional piano black frame--transforming your already stylish TVs into a work of art for a look that complements any room.

ENERGY STAR compliant
ENERGY STAR compliance assures you that your SAMSUNG model is helping the environment by using less energy while saving you money. ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy promoting energy efficiency.

Warranty
1 year parts and 1 year labor warranty (90 days parts and labor for commercial use), with in home service, backed by Samsung toll-free support.

What's in the Box
Samsung LN52B750 52-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, Remote control, Program CD, Power cord, Cleaning cloth, Warranty card/safety guide, User manual, Stand/hardware

Sony Bravia KDL46Z5500

Boasting improved design and an upgraded picture engine, the Sony Bravia KDL46Z5500 is perfect for watching the World Cup on. But which Cup is up to you.

It's been 12 months since Sony first dipped its toes in the 200Hz waters with the KDL-46Z4500, a product which basically invented a new category. Now that more 200Hz televisions have appeared on the market Sony has upped the ante with its latest model: the 46Z5500.

Design

While the previous model was stylish in its own way, we suppose, Sony has outdone itself with the design of the Z5500. It's austere, yet also sleek and unobtrusive. Sony has been on the picture frame path of late with the EX1 and the universal remotes it seems almost redundant to review TV remotes, but we know that some of you out there still use the remote that comes with the TV! The Sony remote is relatively friendly at the bottom but starts to get cluttered at the top — small, inconsequential buttons are starting to creep into design again. If you're looking to buy a TV based simply on the remote control, then Pana and LG make some of our favourites.

Features

The Sony 46Z5500 is a 46-inch panel and features a 1080p resolution with the company's own Bravia Engine 3 on board. The panel uses a Wide Colour Gamut Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (WCG-CCFL) backlight and boasts a 100,000 :1 contrast ratio. It also supports the 24p standard, as most TVs also now do.

Of course, the "star" here is MotionFlow 200Hz, which is the second generation of this technology. What it aims to do is make a "laggy" technology such as LCD run better — because unlike plasma and OLED, LCD images aren't instantaneous. Though the lag is down to 5ms or less there is still a noticeable difference between LCD and other screen types. Features like 100Hz and 200Hz aim to "trick" the screen into refreshing more often and thus reducing ghosting. It does this by "interpolating" or calculating three extra frames between each original one to create a "smoother" image.

Like many of Sony's other TVs this year, the Z5500 features DLNA networking which means you can stream content from another PC or other server inside the house. The number of files the screen supports is quite limited in comparison to the ones supported by the new Samsungs and LGs, but it’s easier to use because it’s accessible from the company's XMB (Xross Media Bar).

Connectivity supports this well, with an Ethernet and USB port bolstering the impressive four HDMI ports and two component inputs. You also get three composite inputs and a PC input.

Finally, the TV features a number of Eco features, including a hard power switch, and is also relatively economical to run with a 3.5 Energy Star rating. The "Eco" mode did a good job of gradually increasing backlight to suit light levels when we turned it on; not suddenly and coarsely like LG's.

Performance

While 100Hz systems are yet to come of age, they have certainly matured. Like its forebear, Sony has yet again advanced the technology forward. Though the effects it achieves are a matter of taste — ie, it can make some content material look like video or worse: "fake" — it can work wonders on free-to-air sport. Watching some AFL there was a lack of artefacting, and the action "solidifies" more quickly under 200Hz, which made it easier to follow what's going on. While it also gets rid of judder it does remove a small amount of crispness from the image.

Where the effect didn't work was on other material such as Blu-ray or DVD. There we experienced some strange artefacts in "Standard" mode on the Batman Begins Blu-ray — movement became jerky and insubstantial, and on "High" it was even worse. The moral to this: don't use 200Hz for movies.

Without it though, images were bright, detailed and incredibly deep. The Bravia Engine 3 processor is the company's best yet, and does a brilliant job of cleaning up video nasties like laggies and noise. However, one thing we did notice is that the default Sharpness was too high and some "fake" details did creep in. Turning Sharpness down to "Min" fixed this.

The old adage "watch LCD in a lit room" didn't really apply here, because even in a dark room the black levels were deep. While you wouldn't mistake it for midnight in a coal mine, they were nevertheless very good for non-LED backlit television.

Blu-ray looked best and everything from the moody Batman Begins to the frenetic Mission Impossible III looked great. MI3 itself has a tendency to look grainy and a bit garish — especially the bridge scene — but the Sony responded with a detailed image without the "poster colour palette" of other TVs.

DVD replay, on the other hand, was respectable but not as successful. While King Kong was given natural colours and that great "three dimensionality", it shared similar problems to the Z4500. For instance, the clouds in the Kong's Last Stand scene came out looking like a plasma with a lack of smooth colour gradations and a tendency to break up into "mosquito-like" noise.

Sony prides itself on its audio products, and the Z5500 was able to acquit itself well here. For small down-firing speakers, intelligibility was great and bass was relatively full. In short, the sound was very well-rounded. While we have heard better on-board speakers the Sony did a very good job given the design constraints.

Conclusion

There is little doubt that Sony currently makes the best 200Hz system out there, but there is still a ways to go. It's not great for movies, but for sport it's perfect. And when seen in conjunction with all of the other features on this TV, it turns out that the Sony 46Z5500 is a very good buy indeed. It may be the same price as last year's model, but we feel it's a better deal overall.

LG 42LC2D LCD TV

LG has already bagged Germany's Red Dot design award for its stylish and elegant 42LC2D TV, and it's easy to see why. Its reflective piano black gloss surrounds and matching stand would not look out of place in a trendy art gallery and our praises don't end there. The 42LC2D is possibly one of the best digital TV's we've ever tested, and what becomes almost immediately clear whilst using the set is the number of different functions that are available and just how easy it is to use them all.

Design
The 42LC2D comes with an integrated stand, speakers and tuner. If you're planning to wall mount the screen there are a few quibbles that you should consider. First, all the inputs face backwards instead of downwards. This means that the screen requires a significant gap between it and the wall for the input cables. Second, removing the foot stand is not intuitive and is much harder than it should be. We would also have liked to have seen a second HDMI input for multiple devices.

Despite being a fairly heavy TV, the matching piano black stand allows you to adjust the viewing angle as you wish with just a slight push. It's got a quality feel to it, something you'd expect after spending so much on a new TV.

The universal remote control doesn't follow the screen's lead in terms of style. However, it has a lot of useful functionality. One nicety is the ability to control the brightness level directly with the remote instead of going through the menu.

When you start the TV, you're welcomed with a installation system that automatically scans the TV channels and binds them to the right settings.

Features
The 42LC2D is very well equipped. Featuring both a HD digital tuner as well as analogue built-in, LG has already saved you about $500. Thanks to the dual tuners, the TV is capable of picture-in-picture and using this feature is almost seamless. The screen utilises LG's XD Engine, which takes a low-resolution signal and converts it to near high-definition levels for improved image quality. Although the screen's resolution of 1366 x 768 does not support the full 1080i standard, the screen is very bright and presents images with a life-like feel. The brightness level of 500cd/m² is on par with most competitor screens but the 42LC2D looks superior to them. We didn't receive any complaints from our test audience thanks also to the large 178 degree viewing angle. At the back you'll find most of the connections, including an S-Video port, one HDMI port, and AV and PC Audio inputs. We would have liked to see two HDMI ports on this TV, but the integration of the digital tuner makes up for its absence.

Performance
The quality of HD viewing using the inbuilt tuner is very impressive. We were amazed at how life-like the images appeared and the depth of colour that was available. However, we did notice some noise around the edges of people viewed on-screen. There was no wash out of colours detected. This is helped somewhat by the fact that the 42LC2D is one of the brightest screens we've tested. SD viewing was somewhat of a letdown -- imperfections inherent with SD TV were made worse while using LG's XD image enhancer. For SD viewing, we actually preferred to turn off the image processing, giving a more pleasing image to the eye at the cost of sharpness.

Also, when adjusting settings to improve image quality it's important to manage control of the brightness, contrast and sharpness. The settings that the TV comes with out of the box demands adjusting -- so don't be afraid to do so. The 8 ms LCD response time is comparable with most competitors and we were unable to detect any blurring of images during fast action scenes and sporting events. While watching the lobby scene from The Matrix over a HD PC connection we could clearly make out all the finer details, such as the smoke from an individual bullet during the action sequence. Audio is excellent from the four built-in speakers. SRS surround sound effects worked brilliantly and quality was good even at high volume levels.

Samsung PN50B860

The good:Striking design with 1.2 inch-thick panel; reproduces deep black levels; accurate color with superb saturation, properly handles 1080p/24 sources; extensive feature set with Yahoo widgets, network streaming and built-in content; solid connectivity with four HDMI and one PC input.

The bad:More expensive than thicker plasma HDTVs; no S-Video inputs.

The bottom line:With picture quality that matches its less expensive brother but not the best of the stiff competition, the main appeal of the Samsung PNB850/860 series is based on its sleek, ultrathin panel.

Specifications:Product type: Plasma TV ; Diagonal size: 50 in ; Resolution: 1920 x 1080