Just got the 37" LCD c650
Mine got delivered from amazon.co.uk within 2 days, via Reliant Direct, there were 2 left in stock.
Paid £644 including express delivery, very reasonable price, in fact I was expecting it be closer to £750 given how much some of the b650t2's were going for last year.
This is my first true full HDTV, previously owned a small 22" HD ready samsung, so I can only offer some feedback of what I have found with this, not compared it to other sets. I use it for everything, DTV, HDTV, PS3, blueRay.
Sorry in advance if my terminology isn't accurate, I work in film VFX and am aware of colour space and gamma, but not too clued up on some of the fancy functions that come with modern sets!
Has a semi matte screen, not glossy, really easy setup. I use the optical out from the set into my altec lansing THX speakers ( computer speakers and processor) so all audio can optionally be via them, as the tv speakers aren't incredible, mainly lack of bass. The PS3 is my blu ray player and games console,
Free DTV looks as expected, pretty good but crunchy, watchable. Free HD channels (BBC,ITV, channel 4) are a mixed bag as always, some ads are obviously filmed digitial at 1080p and look incredible, some shows aren't and you can see the difference. BBC HD looks worse than the others.
Has no wireless built in, I was hoping I could put it on the wireless netowrk at home and test some streaming from PC, and also the samsung internet functions, but not yet. You need to buy a separate wireless samsung adapter. I am gonna use a LAN cable tonight
My settings, based on film experience, I tun off all 'gimmicks' and set this, this made my PS3 games look incredible, very deep blacks. Blu rays looked good, but I kpet getting tempted to tun on the black level to dark or darker. :
Mode : Movie
Contrast : 92
Brightness :44
Digitial NR: off
Colourspace :Auto
WB: normal
Colour : 50
HDMI level : Low (if available ) , blu rays had it disabled only on normal
Backlight : 0-5 depending on time of day
Gamma -1 (very important for the black levels I found)
Sharpness : 0
Edge enchancement : ON
Tone : Warm 2
Motion Plus : Need to know more about this
Auto contrast : OFF
Black Level : OFF (although I felt I had to out this on for bluRays)
White 10p : I need to know more about this before using it
Film Mode : Need to know more about this before using it , seemed to be on by default with blu rays
I would love some help with understanding these topics if anyone has a b650 or c650 and can help me?
- HDMI level, film mode etc get disabled with some inputs and on with others, is this expected? So when I watched Iron Man, the HDMI was greyed out on 'normal', yet when on ps3 games the HDMI can be set to other options.
- Is motion plus worth using ?
- I found with bluRays (Iron Man, Wall E) that I needed to turn on the Black level function to dark, or darker to get more punch in the blacks, it was too ambient otherwise, yet with ps3 games, they didn't need it on- can anyone offer advice ?
So far very impressed, but you would assume I am as its my first TV, blacks look good, yet not crunched, no bleed.
hope its useful if anyone wants me to play with some settings and test let me know
Ben