Product Review (LN37A550)

[TheSpecialist]

Background: After 2 years of spoiling them with Packer games on my 40 inch Samsung 1080p, my parents finally gave me the task of replacing their 27 inch Zenith (bought in 1996) with a HD display.  I determined 37 inches to be ideal size based on the dimensions of their living room.  They gave me a budget of $1000 for this mission.  Being a satisfied owner of a Samsung product, I picked up a Samsung LN37A550 when it went on sale for $999 last week.  

Investigation: Existing reviews (as well as my own in-store observations) cited this TV as having an excellent picture.  The reviews also said the sound quality is horrible and some shades of black have a greenish tint to them.  My own investigation found a limited number of inputs as well, probably explaining this units $300.00 lower MSRP than the 37 inch Sony XBR (with the TVs side-by-side at Best Buy, the Sammy has a slightly better looking picture).  I installed a home theater system for my parents 2 years ago so the audio complaints didn't bother me.  My parents aren't exactly loaded with peripherals (hell, they still don't know how their DVD player works), so this TV has enough inputs for their needs.  What I found very intriguing was the 5ms response time.

Performance: The factory settings for both audio and picture are awful.  I don't know what the engineers were thinking.  The supposed audio problems can be eliminated by adjusting the equalizer to emphasize the lower frequencies.  Seriously, the sound then became as good as you should expect from internal TV speakers.  The picture was all screwed up as well.  This TV rocks with a modified version of the "dynamic" setting.  Put the backlight and contrast to the max, the brightness to about 35, and the sharpness to whatever you prefer and you've got a great picture.  The only time I noticed the "green tint" was with standard def content with only a certain shade of black.  I've watched a ton of HD content and never noticed this problem.  
Static contrast is excellent (for an LCD) providing you're in about a 60 degree viewing field.  All LCDs loose contrast when you view them at an angle, but the effect seems a little more pronounced on this one.
The digital OTA tuner performs as expected.  As is usually the case with Samsung, the strength of signal meter doesn't give you a number, just a bunch of bars that don't indicate much.  The EPG tells you only what you're watching, and not what's on in the future.  There is no picture-in-picture.
As I stated earlier, this display has limited input capabilities.  It has only one S-Video input which is located on the side.  The two composite video/audio inputs on the back are combined with the two component inputs, so you can't use all four.  The three HDMI inputs (1 side, 2 rear) and optical audio output are standard for TVs of this size.  My parents have only a receiver, satellite box, and DVD player, so this TV is more than adequate.
My jury is still out on whether the 5ms response time makes a difference compared to the 8ms that my 40 inch has.

The Good:    
HD picture quality is as good as any 37 inch LCD
Price is good

The Bad:                   
Factory settings are awful - need adjustment
Limited inputs
Limited software
      
Overall Impression:  This TV provides a great HD picture and had a good price tag.  Unless you have a ton of stuff to hook up and/or you really like extra software capabilities, I recommend it to anyone looking for a 37 inch.