Recommended my brother to get the Samsung 52" 120hz 71 model. I am extremely happy with it, I compared it in store vs the Sony XBR. They seem as if they are the same manufactured screens, not difference in details at all, but different coloring and contrast. I am skeptical about these 120hz technology working at their best effect. The Samsung only look good after you turn off the Dynamic feature off, and another dynamic color feature hidden in the menus, they causes the color to be very saturated, and complete lost of midrange and bad details. Once you edit all the settings then it will look good. We are really enjoying this tv.
I don't have an hd player, but does have a digital antenna and got some 1080i channels. this is my amazon.com review:
pro:
-the 'edge enhencement' works like "unsharp mask" in photoshop, it really help sharpen 1080 images.
-25k:1 dynamic contrast ratio. its darker than all the other lcds.
-believe it not the look was one of the factor, the ugly speaker holes + glass frame around the sony makes it look like a buick. I prefer the samsung smooth gloss look.
cons:
-not as fast response rate compared to sony, but this is minimal. such as seeing a football spins in the air. there is a "game" mode you can turn on but it is not available all the time, not in movies i think.
-color: alot of people say the xbr color is more naturaly, and i actaully agree. but the samsung allows me to pinpoint things anywhere in the screen faster. the samsung color is a bit saturated. the sony on the other hand is very smooth, and it seem to be soft on the eyes so you can stare at it longer with less eye strains.
-10bit color processor, some other lcd goes up to 14bit like toshiba, but then again my brother's toshiba labtop screen died 3 times.
misc:
-gloss screen - bottom line is in my house no one come home before 6pm and we use 60watt energy saver. But the XBR screen do not reflect lights or very little, comparing to the samsung.
-I wonder if this monitor can take in 120hz signal. I havent test that on the hdmi and doesnt have any device to output that either. But via VGA cable I can only do 60hz.
-optional feature, auto motion plus: I don't know if this is supposed to increase response rate or improve anyhting, it seem to be a crock of crap to me. All it seem to do is speed up or slow down the video, base on how much info there at the time, causing unstable framerates and weird motion. It's better to actaully leave this thing off so the video play smoothly.
-i hate that there are no single universal audio input, but this holds true for all the tvs too think. if you use one input you have to use the exact audio connector paired for that input.
This apply for all 120hz tv I've wacthed: I don't feel a difference comparing to my computer screen 60hz. overally it doesn't really lessen my headache faster looking at a big screen tv longer than 10 minutes.
Tip for testing out the tv: find some extremely high quality jpg, also your best 320kbps mp3 song, put it in a usb flash drive, plug it in the back left of the Samsung, use the WiseLink feature on the remote. You can view the image and play the mp3 on the tv speakers, which I find are pretty good. One of the best way to see the potential of these lcd are with the lastest video games since they are very details and demand very fast response rate. Basically this lcd makes an amazing computer monitor.
