Samsung LN40B550 40-Inch, An excellent set!

Overall Rating44444

An excellent set!

I was undecided between this 2009 model and last year’s LN40A550.
The features are substantially identical, but after figuring that the difference between best prices for the two, which I could find after extensive shopping around, was only $50, I went for newer one for its updated look and lighter weight.
In the reviews, one of the principal complaints for 2008 was the sound quality. I can’t directly compare 2009 and 2008, but found 2009’s LN40B550 to have perfectly adequate, if not excellent speakers, as far as TVs go.
Picture quality, menus, setup are excellent as expected.
One aspect that I did find puzzling is Wiselink not being able to recognize my old trustworthy USB Flash Drive. I even tried formatting the drive in various ways, unfortunately none of the tricks worked.
Perhaps, it’s the ancient drive not being comparable in some way, but it had never let me down before. Anyhow, I ordered a few different flash drives, and will try again, and then post an update.
====================================

Tried four various flash drives, all of them work just fine in computers, all four freshly formatted same way (FAT32). Two of the drives are read by the TV with no problems, the two others are not recognized at all… Go figure… The slideshow functionality is nice, quite limited, but does the job.

Just for the reference, one of the drives that does work in this TV is Kingston Data Traveler 4GB.

Update (5/19/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen. I also found some auctions for this item here.

The featured review for this product, Samsung LN40B550 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color Electronics Mar 10, 2009, was written by pelagikos.

The average rating for this item is 4 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.

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Reviews (3)

chinee

February 23rd, 2010 at 1:41 pm    


Overall Rating44444

Very, Very Pleased!
Only the second night with this set and I can’t unglue myself from it. This is a great sub-$1,000 set that will please all but the most hardcore videophiles. This set is also very light, I tucked it under my arm to move it up and down the stairs. ToC is subtle, almost invisible, so those who don’t care for last year’s ToC, don’t worry, you can barely see it the color on this TV. The swivel stand makes it easy so access the rear of the TV to hook up the cables that it makes you wonder why other manufacturers make stands without the swivel feature.

I had originally purchased an LG, but the off-angle viewing was awful, but from the same seating position, the Sammy shines. As with all LCDs, some color is lost when viewing from off-angle, but this set always displayed a picture that was acceptable.

If there’s a weakness, it’s displaying standard definition, as in regular cable, but that’s a challenge shared by most LCD screens. SD does not look as good as I’ve seen on some other LCDs, but the picture is more than acceptable.

DVD’s showed great… Upconverted DVD even better, I was impressed… Blu ray blew my mind. The color depth, the dark blacks, the crisp picture… I was VERY pleased. I am sure you will be too!
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Update 07/13/09… Almost 3 months and I’m still happy. Had it hooked up to a Samsung BDP2550 bluray player and it’s awesome. Currently using the upconverting Samsung 1080P9 DVD player and it’s still awesome. I have to sit closer than 7 feet to see any difference between DVD and bluray. Also connected to my PC via an 18ft HDMI cable, streaming Netflix and using Windows Media Center to view the NCIS and Star Trek episodes I have on my hard drive.
Still a GREAT purchase and I recommend this set to anyone interested in a 1080p LCD.
===================================================
Update 10/31/09… Hooked up a PS3 Slim last month and started viewing movies on Bluray… it’s like I got a new TV! I’ve never been able to see a substantial difference between DVD and BD, but after a few months of just DVD, Bluray on my 40B550 is blowing me away once more! I think I just picked up another habit… no more DVD purchases, only Bluray. And with prices going down on flat screens, this set is a bargain at $849.


pelagikos

March 1st, 2010 at 4:54 pm    


Overall Rating55555

An excellent set!
Rated 5 stars.


Jay from SoCal

March 9th, 2010 at 6:43 am    


Overall Rating33333

Disappointing at best
Well, had the LN40B550 foracouple of days, and must say was very diappointed with the picture quality. I did some more research outside of Amazon, and found this thread on AVSForum (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1126988&page=6), where many other users are experiencing the same picture quality issues, mostly blurring and ghosting (using digital cox cable with component connection). HD content looks good, but still grainy for some reason. Also, many other users has had requested technicians to come out and see if they can make any repairs, with most of them replacing the screen itself. But does not quite the fix the problem. My Vizio 32″ LCD seems more crisper than this TV. I even upgraded the firmware, and adjusted the pitcure settings, but I’m just not satisfied with this TV. I will be returning it, and shop for another TV. Hope this helps.


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