Samsung LN52A550 Worth the money

I had the TV for about one month now. It fits the family's needs.

Although I found other Internet vendors with lower price, I chose Amazon for its return policy.

The 4/5 star is due to service quality, not on the product.

The delivery arrived two days before the scheduled date. However, I had to track down the delivery company via the web search to arrange the delivery. Their initial attempt to arrange a date/time with my wife wasn't clear. She thought the call was from a telemarketer so she hung up and the caller never made an attempt to leave a return call number! Furthermore, the "white glove" service didn't mean much. The delivery man just put the box in the house and waited for me to sign off. I had to sign off before I could unpack. The driver wasn't willing to help unpack and I wasn't ready to unpack by myself. It's a two man job unless you're willing to lay the box down and possibly risk a potential damage to the screen. So I signed off before checking for damages inside... All was well though.

Likes:
- Great picture quality
- 52 inch fits nicely in the family room
- Reduced glare compared to 650 model
- Clear picture even from a 1080p up scaling cheapy DVD player via HDMI
- Can act as a terrific 1980x1080 computer monitor! Though you need a VGA cable and a PC sound cable
- Swirling base allows me to enjoy the full dynamic picture range from various positions
- easy and quick way to change the common settings



Dislikes:
- Sometimes while watching a football game in HD, fast movement comes out as a bit jagged. This is the only time I wish I had a 120Hz model like A650.

- Like any other LCD TV's, when watching the TV from an angle, the dynamic contrast is lessened.

- TV sound is acceptable, but I think you may need at least a subwoofer speaker connected to audio out to enjoy a movie, if the movie includes explosive sounds.

- watching non-HD cable channels. Of course this would be the same with any other HDTV

- only 3 HDMI.( Not enough for HD Cable box, Game Console, DVD player, HardDisk based HD media player)


Recommended extras:
HDMI cable (about 11 dollars via Amazon with shipping) - Mediabridge Ultra-High Speed HDMI Cable - 6ft - Version 1.3b

1080p upscaling DVD player. ( *hilips models do a great job for the price: forty to sixty)

Black TV stand - I bought a cheapy (again) from B*st B*uy for about 98 bucks. 48 inch stand works well