Shop For Samsung LN40A650 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color

Updated on April 17, 2009. Many people have already written about the pros and cons of this TV. So, while I will list them briefly, I will concentrate on other items including reliability, power consumption and delivery process.

I did research for about 4 months (comparing them with Sony XBR4 and XBR5) before I bought this TV in late Aug 2008. I know this is outdated now with the advent of 850, 950 and XBR6-8, but this TV is still great at prices lower than $1200.

Pros:
+ Power consumption can be adjusted through the Settings menu. I found Medium to be good for my setup (it defaulted to off for my room). CNET lists this as one of the power efficient TV with as low as <$40/year if you adjust the power setting.
+ Low price for the video quality and performance
+ Decent SD reception - for SD channels (I do have a few of them)
+ Good upcoversion for SD - I have tried a standard non upconverting DVD player, and PS2 (non HD) game on Sony PS3
+ Great HD reception - I have a DishHD, had also tested with Blu-ray Game and video on Sony PS3.
+ Very easy navigation screens, easy to customize settings.

Cons:
- You may get a bad panel (I have a SQ01 LN40A650A1F made April 2008). It is quite possible that this is common in all LCD TVs and it can happen to any brand. My first TV panel had inverted V-shaped lighted pixels (2 inches, increasing in size every day) at 2 places in the bottom of the screen, 6 months after I bought it. I sent an email to Samsung and got a ticket number. The next morning I got a call from a service center in Sunnyvale, CA and they decided to order a panel just based on what I said rather than coming to my house and verifying it. At that time, I wondered how one could decide that without coming and having a look at the TV, so I am suspecting that they may have had a few cases like these. However, they told me that they have been fortunate with 650 series and have not gotten too may repairs on this series, but you be the judge if they order new panels without even looking at the TV. Anyway, the service guys came within 4 days of my filing the ticket at the expected time window of 3 hours (they came 10 minutes before scheduled time ended, but changed the panel in 10 minutes), I have had the new panel for the past 2+ weeks, and it looks good again.
- Remote while backlit, needs to be pointed at the bottom right of the TV, otherwise does not work well. Also, you have to cycle through the SOURCE button to go back.
- Red Bezel collects lots of dust and there is some reflection on the bevelled edges, particularly if there is window at the side, thanks to the glossy finish.
- Sound - now, this is not really fair - if you want good sound, connect to a receiver. I have it connected to Onkyo HT-SR800 with my DishHD connected through HDMI directly to TV and a TosLink digital optical out to my home theater (you may wonder why, my receiver has only HDMI video pass through, but sound needs digital optical / coax in)
- 120Hz probably applies only to blu-ray games (which I do not play), because I do not see any difference in movies/games that you see on TV. I have seen various reports confirming the same, so this is probably a lot of advertising gimmick.

Delivery process: CEVA delivery is from San Francisco and hence they give a 6 hour window instead of the usual 3 hours. It took a few phone calls to confirm they indeed are arriving (after seeing multiple complaints about CEVA on this forum I decided to be proactive and was rewarded for it), but the 2 folks that came were courteous, set up the TV on the stand, and showed me that it worked before they left.

A note on the price: I purchased at the end of Aug 2008 for $1350 just before Amazon removed the 1 month price guarantee. Found a temporary price drop to $1264, called Amazon and they refunded $86 back with a note that Amazon stopped the guarantee from September 1, 2008.Get more detail about Samsung LN40A650 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color.