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

As is the case with numerous other reviewers, I spent several months reading popular reviews and discussions on different types of LCDs and Plasmas. (Thanks to all the reviewers for the time you spent providing these reviews, by the way. And, boy, they can really shape your expectations.) I was about to get a mid-end plasma along with a PS3, but the spouse didn't want to see the family wasting our time on video games, so I settled on this "high-end" model.

The first shipment arrived, and the delivery guy kindly noted the damages to the box. So, I decided to refuse the delivery. When the second delivery appointment call came in about 10 days later on a Friday, I decided that I couldn't wait until Monday, and asked if I could pick it up myself instead. When I got to the deliverer's, I was surprised to see how large the box was, but it fit in nicely in my SUV, with the 2nd and 3rd row seats flat, of course. (To set it up, though, I had to ask my neighbor for some help. There is definitely a good reason why they deliver and set up these TVs for you at your home.)

Since I do not own a Blueray DVD player yet, I decided to connect the TV to my computer and use it as a second monitor as well. (My first one is a 24" Samsung 244T.) Using an HDMI to DVI connector purchased from Amazon at around five bucks, the screen transferred pretty well from my ATI All-in-Wonder 1800XL to my new LN52B750. I could adjust the screen resolution to 1920 x 1080 at 60Hz (optimal as suggested in the manual--oh, the manual was a physical book, BTW; build date--June 2009--confirmed while registering), and I couldn't sense any flickering at pretty much any resolution it gave me. I've seen plenty of plasma screens that exhibited flickering on computer hookups, and so I was very satisfied with this. The fonts beneath the icons seem a tiny bit fuzzy at a close distance but readable. The fonts when web-browsing or reading word documents are fine, though. The picture quality is excellent for still pictures and videos. I watched several standard definition DVDs with the ATI DVD player (software), and the picture quality is fabulous. I have the audio hooked up from the optical out (from an Intel motherboard) to a Logitech Z5500, which has a decoder embedded. Set up this way, the audio does seem to lag just a little bit, but not enough to ruin the movie. I'm hoping that the audio through a Blueray DVD player will get rid of this issue. (Or perhaps if I connect the audio from the computer to the TV and then connect an optical cable from the TV to the speakers... but I haven't tested this yet.) Watching YouTube through the computer is fine, depending on the picture quality. The HQ or HD videos are very nice.

I also wanted to see how computer games looked like (sorry I only have old ones). Playing Need for Speed Most Wanted really gives you a realistic experience. I also tried Star Wars Battlefront II, and the screen was cool, but I did feel a slight input lag, as one reviewer noted. So unless you play games that require extreme reflex (e.g., Combat Arms), I think it should be fine.

Since I have my TV hooked up to my router with a CAT-5 networking cable, I also tried out the Internet TV features. As other reviewers noted, the load time is dead slow. It's like having to wait for an old OS9 machine or an old Windows machine with only 128mb of RAM to boot up. It's nice that all the information will show up right on top of whatever you're viewing and won't change any channel or input settings. I only tried the weather and the YouTube widgets or whatever you call them. The interface looks really nice, but I agree with the other reviewers that those features are just too slow to actually use them for practical purposes. Perhaps, if you had these widgets on all day, it would be fine. The YouTube videos are fine as well. You can search for videos or choose to watch the featured/popular ones. Again there is a bit of a delay in the search results.

There's also some multimedia content embedded on a USB drive, I guess. They do have some relaxing pictures with music to enjoy. Some content such as art gallery, pictures (various categories), recipes, children's stories, and etc., are downloadable, but the existing memory had just enough space to download one extra category. I think if I attach a USB drive, there should be enough space to get all the free content that I'd want.

The latest accessory I added was a Phillips rabbit ear HD antenna that's about nine dollars. The HD-supported channels look excellent while others are not that nice. Mileage will vary on the aired channels for sure.

By the way, since I'm using the TV at such a close distance, I have the screen mode set to Movie and also have the energy saving set to low. I have not messed around with any other setting, and I find this to be comfortable for me. When I do watch movies at a distance, I sometimes turn the energy saving settings to off.

I think I'll end my review here and provide updates at a later time. Thank you to all the previous reviewers and thanks for taking the time to read mine. If you're reading this, Samsung, please consider providing a firmware update to speed up the Internet TV feature. Thank you!Get more detail about Samsung LN52B750 52-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV with Charcoal Grey Touch of Color.