Incredible picture quality but with very clunky extra features.
PICTURE
In terms of video quality this TV is awesome. I can't imagine how the picture could be much better.
There are some minor picture quality issues with off-angle viewing (as the CNET review states) but I think CNET exaggerates the severity -- it's only noticeable to me if I'm far off center.
I haven't yet noticed any blooming effects.
Setting the "judder reduction" to 10 introduces some distortion at times but a setting of 6 smoothes out motion well without noticeable distortion. However this varies a bit with different source material. When viewing video files via DLNA that have a lower frame rate the judder reduction setting can sometimes make things worse. But this is easy to turn off/on by source.
The color level seemed slightly off initially even with CNET's recommended settings. For example sometimes a blue sky would look slightly purple (i.e. too much red). But this was easily adjusted in the picture settings.
AUDIO
I don't use the TV's audio since I have an external speaker setup. However the TV's audio seemed a bit bland when I tried it.
Unfortunately digital audio output from the TV does not pass through multi-channel audio from HDMI inputs. You need to run extra digital audio cables from your DVD player and other components to your AV receiver if you'd like Dolby Digital or DTS sound.
ENERGY
I measured the electricity usage at 110-115 watts (energy saving mode at "auto" volume off picture adjusted per CNET recommendation). Setting energy saving mode to auto doesn't seem to hurt the picture quality at all.
This is very energy efficient -- it uses less power than my old 32" CRT TV. I'm amazed at how little heat I can feel coming from the back of the set.
REMOTE
If you have a universal learning remote it will not be able to learn from the RF remote that comes with this TV (i.e. since standard remotes are IR rather than RF). However I called Samsung and they sent me a compatible IR remote free of charge. With that remote I was able to program my universal learning remote. Ask for remote BN59-00851A.
BUILD QUALITY
One small build quality issue that I encountered: the plastic at the base of my TV extended a bit too far making it impossible to fit it into the stand. I had to carve away some of the plastic in the slots of the stand just to get it to fit which made me a bit uneasy. But other than that the build quality is fine.
MEDIA FEATURES
Viewing video files via DLNA works well for the file types that are supported. Although I've encountered many files that the TV doesn't play for one reason or another the ones that it does play work well. I regularly stream 1080p video files from my PC and the picture looks perfect (with wired Ethernet).
The TV has a variety of Internet and media features. But unfortunately there are lots of quality issues such as:
1. When playing video files through USB DLNA or Internet features most TV controls are disabled. While you can adjust basic picture settings you can't choose 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios. In playing NTSC video (i.e. any video that came from standard def TV home movies etc) from USB or DLNA the aspect ratio is *always wrong*: 16:9 video is always squeezed too thin and 4:3 video is always stretched too fat.
2. There is no fast forward rewind or chapter advance when playing video clips or movies. This is true of playing YouTube videos as well. Although there is a "skip" feature where you can jump in increments (e.g. 10 seconds) this is only available for some video files (most don't support this in my experience).
3. As the CNET review stated the Yahoo widgets are extremely slow to start. Note that this has nothing to do with your Internet speed since I have a 25 Mbit Internet service with wired Ethernet to the TV and it's still painfully slow. I have an HD TiVo with a lot of the same features as the Yahoo widgets and that is far more enjoyable to use. But the one area where the Yahoo widgets outperformed TiVo was YouTube -- the Yahoo YouTube widget can play HD video clips as HD but TiVo plays them as SD.
4. If a media file played through DLNA (and I assume USB) has multiple audio channels there is no way to choose which audio to play along with the video.
5. Does not support DTS audio.
I assume that these problems exist with all Samsung TVs with the Media 2.0 feature. Perhaps these problems will be fixed in a future software update. If so I'll post an update (*** still no fixes to these issues as of 5/9/10 ***).More detail ...
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