Let me first open by saying that I spent an incredible amount of time researching and testing television sets in-store before finally settling on this one. Coming from a 50" Sony rear-projection behemoth, this was my first foray into the world of flat panel televisions and I'm thoroughly impressed with this set. I was initially looking for a TV without 3D because, let's face it, it's more of a gimmick than anything and thus far the only really well done 3D movies are either animated films (Pixar, Dreamworks, etc) or Avatar. Regardless, I kept coming back to this TV because of the extensive feature list, deep picture customization options, and fairly large app ecosystem.
-- Picture --
I am very pleased with the picture of this television and the ability to tweak it to my heart's content. I used a calibration disc Spears & Munsil High-Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Disc Edition [Blu-ray] to get the picture just right, but the same information could just as easily be found through Google. Each of the three HDMI ports have their own unique picture profile as well, so you can get really specific about what each source looks like. The 600Hz + Cinema Smooth has a more subtle effect on the picture, as opposed to the "soap opera effect" you get on a majority of 120/240Hz LCD panels out there; rather than create a clearer distinction between the foreground and background, I believe this television strives for a faithful reproduction of what the director wanted you to see. It works remarkably well when given HD content either through your cable provider or a Blu-Ray player like PS3 and even does it's best to make SD shine. The only downside I've found with this TV, as other reviewers have noted, is that in a bright room you will experience some glare as it's not a matte screen. It doesn't really bother me since the television is capable of getting extremely bright to offset it, but it is worth noting.
--Sound--
There are trade offs to having our televisions this light and this thin and the first thing to go is audio quality. There's only so much you can get out of the two 10W speakers here, but a plethora of customization options allows you get things sounding pretty good by making some bass/treble adjustments and volume hasn't been an issue as the set can get really loud. Ideally, you'll want to look into hooking up a sound bar like VIZIO VHT215 Home Theater Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer or a full surround sound setup of your own machination. Again, let me reiterate that the audio here is fine, but probably the weakest point of this package.
--3D--
I figured I would give this a shot since I had it, but was incredibly skeptical of it. The good news is that Samsung throws in two pairs of 3D glasses, so no additional purchase is required. As fate would have it, the 3D version of Avatar was released on Blu-Ray the day before I received this set so I picked it up for testing purposes. I will honestly say that I was very impressed with the depth this television is able to reproduce. After testing Avatar I decided to try some of the 3D content that Comcast provides in their OnDemand service. I played Rio 3D for my daughter and it looked positively stunning. I also fired up my PS3 to test out a few 3D-enabled games like Arkham City, Uncharted 3, Super Stardust, and more. All of it was really well done, though for gaming I'll admit it feels more like a distraction. I went in with very low expectations and was blown out of the water by how well this television performed in the 3D arena.
--Gaming--
I'll touch briefly on this, but I'm be remiss if I didn't at least mention this TV's Game Mode. I'm a pretty big gamer and thought the picture looked pretty amazing with my calibrated settings, but I wasn't expecting such a shock when I turned Game Mode on. It basically removes almost all of the processing the TV has and sets a custom contrast, sharpness, and gamma. The result is an incredibly crisp picture that improves visibility as well as response time, which people who play twitch shooters like Call of Duty will certainly appreciate. The only thing that struck me as odd is that this setting is tucked away on the second page of General settings, which makes it a little tough to find. The good news, however, is that since all HDMI channels have a unique profile, you can enable it once for your console input and then not have to worry about it again.
--Nerdy Stuff--
The Amazon description and reviews don't do justice to the media center capabilities of this television as well as some of the more technical features. The first really neat feature are the Smart Apps, which are actually quite numerous and cover the gamut in terms of functionality. I first installed all of the video-related ones like YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, etc. The interfaces for each are pretty similar to others you may have used on Xbox, PS3, Apple TV, and more and all work wonderfully. There are additional apps for fitness, yoga, and many other things which all work great and are simple to install. It's also worth noting that this television has just shy of 1GB of available storage for installing apps, which was a pleasant surprise. The built-in WiFi works great and was able to connect to my network in a snap. In fact, the first thing that happened after connecting to the network was a software update for the TV, so it's good to know that Samsung continues to update and support their numerous product lines.
As far as I'm concerned, this television is the best media center I've ever owned. I have a good deal of digital media that I've ripped from physical discs and keep on a single USB hard drive to bypass things like unskippable ads, FBI warnings, etc. If I plug this hard drive directly into one of the two available USB ports it's instantly readable by the TV and I can play them right from the disk. File support is insane, too, including: MKV, MP4, AVI, and MOV files in my testing. I've literally started playing almost all of my media off of the hard drive as the television gladly accepts and plays back every major file format flawlessly. It even supports multiple audio streams and, in the case of MKV files, subtitles too.
There's a pretty neat feature you can enable here that also allows device control over HDMI, and I honestly wasn't sure what that meant, but after enabling it allowed me to navigate my PS3 dashboard using the TV remote, which is a really nice added bonus (even though I now use the TV for all of my media consumption). I'm not sure what other devices this might work with, but it's a little extra icing on an otherwise delicious cake.
--Summary--
This is one of the best purchases I've made in terms of home theater. It's the perfect size for my viewing distance and makes organizing and playing back my media better and easier than before. I'll reiterate what I said earlier: at this price point, you likely won't find a better looking television.
| Brand Name | SAMSUNG |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 91.1 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 13.2 x 58.6 x 37.8 inches |
| Item model number | PN64E550 |
| Color Name | Black |
| Number of Component Outputs | Optical |
| Specification Met | Energy Star |
| Item Weight | 91.1 Pounds |
| Standing screen display size | 64 Inches |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 |
