Samsung 3D TV Review

Here is a review that many people would like. I purchased the Samsung UN55C7000 55" 3D TV over 6 months ago and I want to share my thoughts. The TV is an LED edge-lit LCD TV.

Basics

The first thing you'll notice about the TV is the design. Because the TV is LED edge-lit, it does not require lighting behind the screen. This allows them to design the TV to be extremely thin and relatively lightweight. The TV itself is about 1" thick so it does not weigh much. I have an entertainment stand that says it can only handle a 46" screen, but because my TV is so light it handles it without a problem. It is light enough that I can pick it up by myself without any help. One drawback to being so thin is that there is a lack of full-sized connectors and requires adapters to connect up common devices. That being said, it does have all of the connectors that I need for a TV.

Features

The TV comes with a normal Samsung interface with all of the normal options, but I believe they are trying too hard to push the envelope. There are some features that sound good in theory, but in practice it doesn't work so well. First is the TV is connected to the internet. This may sound good, but it is just another device to keep online and updated. Not only that, but there is a potential that someone can hack into your TV. Crazy, huh? It is essentially a stripped down computer. Computers are vulnerable to hacking. A second feature that sounds good is the App store. The TV has the capability to have apps installed on it. In theory it sounds good, but in proactice, you have to exit the TV mode so you can access the Apps. While the remote control is excellent, it isn't ideal for what is being asked of it with all of these apps. I tried a few and I was less than impressed.

Quality

The best part of the TV is the quality of the screen. Because 3D is very demanding on a screen, the specs of the screen are excellent. The screen is bright, crisp, and responsive. Many people believe (including me) the best 2D TV is a 3D TV. Another feature of this TV is it has a 240 Hz refresh rate. Basically what it does is takes the video feed and upconverts it to 240 frames per second. An HD feed may contain up to 60 frames per second so what the TV does is it looks at the current frame and the next frame and adds 3 more frames by filling in what it thinks the frames should look like. The problem I have with it is that it is not how the content was created nor intended to be viewed. Some people say it creates a fake-looking video stream, and I agree. Some people call it the "soap opera effect" while I refer to it as a "hyper realistic effect." It just seems fake and I do not like it. I turn it off so I am watching the content as it was created. Movies look ugly when you do this because they are filmed at 24 frames per second so it ends up adding 9 additional frames and makes everything look too realistic.

3D

Now for the most anticipated part. In order to take advantage of the 3D portion, there are a few other requirements to take care of first. The first requirement is that you need the active 3D glasses produced by the TV's manufacturer. In my case, I had to purchase a 3D starter kit for about $350 for 2 pairs of battery-powered glasses and it also included Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. If I want to have more than 1 ither person over, I would have to purchase more glasses at $150 each. I wear glasses and do not have problems fitting the 3D glasses over top. When using the glasses, I have to close the blinds because if I look outside, the glasses flicker and it gets annoying. As for 3D content, there is very little available at this time. I have Dish Network and they do not currently have any 3D channels. So this limits me to my 3D Blu-Ray player for 3D content. This is yet another requirement; in order to watch 3D Blu-Ray movies you need a 3D-compatible player. Previous-gen blu-ray players do not support 3D so you have to check for the compatibility. Watching a 3D blu-ray movie is pretty good, but at this point I believe it is a gimmick. Until 3D becomes a common standard it is just an expensive toy that won't get much usage. I only have 1 3D movie and I haven't watched it since I watched it the first time. My glasses have just sat around collecting dust. Now there is a feature of the TV that allows for 2D-to-3D conversion that is not too bad, but it is definately not as good as true 3D content. True 3D content allows objects to appear as if they are popping out of the screen and also allows depth behind the screen. 2D-converted content only allows for the depth and it is generated by the TV.

Conclusion

Overall the TV is great, but the lack of 3D content turns many people off it. I believe the focus should be on what is called 4K instead of 3D. 4K is 4 times the resolution of the current HD standard of 1080p. 3D does sound like a good idea, but the lack of content and the requirement to wear expensive glasses turns many people off. Once we drop the requirement for glasses and the alternative of sitting in a specific location, then I will be completely satisfied. This is still way, way down the line. I would guess at least no less than 5-10 years down the line. As of now, I am happy with my purchase but I could have saved money by just going with a 2D TV instead. I would like to see much more content so I can say I got my money's worth out of it.