Customer Rating: 
Summary: Critical review
Comment: Welcome to my critical review of the Samsung A650.
After reading all the positive reviews about this TV, and reading about the other Samsung model (A750) I decided the A650 would be my new living room set. The A750 had some bad reviews about the glare on edges of the screen border. The A650 did not!
This was my first big ticket item I bought from Amazon. The delivery went well. I called CEVA and setup a time with them to bring it out. Two guys from CEVA carried the set in, unpacked it and pluged it in. They were in a hurry but gave me a chance to check it out before I signed off the delivery release.
Overall I'm very pleased with this set but I wanted to post the negitives I've had with it. This is nit picking somewhat but I feel others can gain something from this - read below.
Problems encountered: - The firmware needs some work. I did NOT have the problem of the set turing off as some owners did, but I decided to update the firmware anyway. The latest is always best, right? Wrong! After downloading firmware from Samsung, copying to my USB drive and plugging it into the TV the upgrade began. Easy enough. I was watching digital over the air TV as I had not yet got my Sat receiver yet. When watching over the air the TV would suddenly make a LOUD full volume screaming sound out the speekers, then turn off, then back on for about 30 seconds, and crash again, turn off, turn on, crash... You get the idea. Oh great I thought!! Just killed my new tv! I could not back out of the upgrade because Samsung does not post older versions of the firmware. I had to search the internet to find it. When I downgraded the firmware version the problem went away. Pretty scary thinking I killed a $2200 TV set! Samsung needs to get their act together on this. Now that I have my Sat TV receiver hooked up via HDMI I'm able to use the latest firmware without problems. If I were to guess, the firmware has an issue if the over the air TV signal is weak - causing the TV to crash. (note to techies - the TV runs a custom version of Linux!!)
Other negitives:
* When switching inputs from one HDMI source to another, the set will not switch until about 4 seconds have gone by and it has 'locked' on the signal AND you've pressed enter. A little annoying. Could be fixed in software - (Hint hint Samsung!)
* The remote is just OK, could be better for a set like this.
* When watching the TV and the program suddenly goes from white to black for more then a few seconds, you will see the screen fade from a light white color to black. Its almost like the LCD screen is un-charging. I'm being very critial here and its not that noticeable.
So.... Would I tell my friends to buy this TV. YES! Its well worth the money! I read in the paper that Samsung is losing money for each set sold because they are trying to compete with the bargin brands. Bad for Samsung, good for us customers! Plus Amazon was $400+ cheaper then the retail big box stores in town. Hats off to Amazon and Samsung!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very satisfied
Comment: I haven't been able to view this TV in the full beauty of HD just yet (getting Dish Network very soon). I will say that on a nice TV like this, standard def. looks like junk. I guess I'm an HD junkie without even having had it yet.
I can't really say too much that hasn't already been said in the numerous reviews already (trust me I read a lot of them). You can't go wrong with this set. Definitely happy I ordered on Amazon rather than buying at a big box store. No sales tax and they bring it in your house and unpack it and make sure it works for you.
The one thing I did not read that kind of surprised me is that after you hit the power button on the remote, the TV takes about 3 seconds before it comes on. I'm guessing to warm up or something. Also the remote signal receiver is on the right side of the TV, so sometimes if you're pointing to the middle-left it doesn't react.
I like the RSS feed feature from USA Today. You can check the weekly weather, stock market, and the day's news stories in all the different categories. Pretty cool.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!!!!
Comment: We purchased this television about a month ago and connected it to high def. about two weeks ago. Our old TV is a 48" projection. The new TV has a sharp brilliant picture even in bright daylight. HD TV, all I can say is that any actor on HD TV needs to have everything in order, because the picture is so sharp and clear. Hook-up and operation has been seamless. This is a great TV.
JTB
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unmatched tv
Comment: its the best tv i have seen so far. it beats sony XBR hands down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb
Comment: Beyond my expectations. I had it narrowed down after months of review to the Sony and the Samsung. I was a bit concerned about the reflection matter during my deciding process, but I purchased the Samsung and the reflection issue is NOT a problem at all for us. Great picture and sound, even though I mostly go thru my Onkyo receiver and my surround speaker system. I like the remote features but they could have made the small wheel on the remote not so touchy and cheap. The red around the screen is not that noticable, but to us with two burgundy leather lazy boy recliners, it would not have been a factor anyway. I got it at Amazon.com when it was $2188 and I figured that the $$$ I would save over the Sony paid for my Onkyo, my Sony PS3 (Blueray player), my cabinet which is all black and costs $400, and my HDMI cables, which I bought on line for less than $10 each. The deals are out there, you just gotta be patient and search, search, search. If I had to do it all over again, I would not have changed a thing.
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