A lot has been covered in the reviews here, so i will try to focus on some other points.

Summary: Buy it now and from Amazon and save money.

Pros:

- Excellent picture quality…really superb. Beats LG & Sony for sure. There are several different modes for viewing.

- Great sound. There are modes like movie, normal, music etc which are really very impressive. I decided to buy a home theater system later, since the TV itself has made a good impact on my pocket.

- Amazon delivery. Very good and timely. Came on specified date and time by CEVA. Guy opened it up connected the cable and scanned the channels and let me check for working condition.

- Not very heavy, so easy to mount yourself.

- Tilt wheel remote..a bit tricky initially, but you will love it once you get used to it.

- Contrast is excellent due toits highest contrast ratio in all the TVs in market. Check my pictures for detail.

- Warranty : Samsung provides 1 year in-home care warranty for this TV. If you register it online, you get 3 months of extended warranty free.

You can buy 3 years extended warranty either through Amazon (in first 60 days of purchase) or directly from Samsung (in fist 11 months of purchase). There is a significant price difference.

- USB port is good and it is so easy to view pictures or movie files.

I connected my iPod (after enabling disc usage in iTunes) and it works

perfect with the TV.

I am using a Monster Power Center to feed the power to TV, DVD & cable box and also for the cable signal to my cable box. It is said that it improves the picture quality esp in HD.

I have mounted this TV on Bell’O FP-4850HG High Gloss Black Flat Panel Mounting System.(Read my review on the mounting system too)

So far, I have not been able to take it online either with wireless or Ethernet (LAN) connection. The Wireless Key from Samsung is on nation-wide back order and TV couldn’t detect my LAN settings. Need to figure this one out yet.

Some people have reported issues with RED Touch of Color and reflection. I don’t see these as an issue. My TV is facing a big window and I put blinds down, if reflection gives a viewing problem. However, its not that huge. You can strategically place your TV to avoid that. And I have not observed any reflection issues from floor lamps or ceiling lights.

Rating: 5 / 5

The price is at least a $1000 lower than the retail chain stores and the FREE “White Glove” delivery is an added bonus. Amazon’s white glove delivery means that the TV is brought into your home, carton removed and placed on your TV stand for no extra cost. At that point you can power it up and check for defects (dead pixels) before you sign the delivery receipt.

Now onto picture quality. This 1080P LCD TV’s picture quality is simply astounding!. The contrast levels rival that of Plasma televisions. Up until recently, Plasma televisions had far superior contrast levels. This TV has 50,000:1 contrast ratio. You can also customize color, sharpness, contrast, picture, gama and brightness settings manually if you want; just like a computer monitor.

The sound quality is decent for my needs, but if you want true surround sound, you’ll have to add an amplifier/receiver.

This is a great buy at $2140 and change, you can’t beat it with a stick!

Rating: 5 / 5

Just a note…under one of the settings on the TV, the energy saver setting might be set to AUTO, and if that is the case the contrast will fluctuate. Once that feature is turned off, the TV will no longer “flicker”.
Rating: 5 / 5

Picture quality is great – I have not run a calibration or tested various known sources for difficult to reproduce scenes or motion. The blacks are so good that the image color looks over saturated at the factory default setting when placed next to a panel with lower contrast ratio. (It should be kept in mind that the eye has a logarithmic response to light, and a 50,000:1 contrast ratio may not be that much more than a 30,000:1 ratio.) In the store I was comparing this panel to a 46a550 and 46a530 all at their factory default settings. The 550’s image was more natural looking at the factory default setting.

Watching SD analog content on digital TVs can be annoying with various artifacts visible in the conversion of the analog signal to the native digital of the TV. This TV does a very respectable job of this – with the SD images mostly just looking fuzzy and soft compared to digital content – pretty much what one might expect.

The TOC feature seems like a waste of time and may introduce some issues with light bleeding in from the environment. Not a problem for me in my home environment.

So, if I was happy with the image on the 550 why did I get a 750? Two reasons – Motion blur: the 650 and 750 panels have higher response times and higher refresh rates thus reducing LCD motion blur artifacts, and reason two: DLNA… DNLA is a very nice feature – super nice – I hope it takes off.

DLNA takes advantage of networking and media stored on a PC to provide viewable content through the TV. What’s really going on here is that the TV designers are taking advantage of the computer they have inside the TV to enable them to do more digital media things with the TV. The TV has an Ethernet network interface – wireless or wired. We’re computer geeks, we have a fairly robust network and my family has a strong interest in Internet downloads of various media content – in particular video. I have various foreign video content that I cannot get on a DVD. Netflix and others (Amazon, Apple, etc) have downloadable video content, although the DRM on much of this content is a problem. The rub is you have to watch this downloaded content on a PC, or a PC hooked directly up to a TV display or some other media PC kludge. DLNA helps get around some of these issues. The DLNA capability of this model is remarkable, not perfect, but still great. You have to install a piece of software on the computer that provides a way for the PC to share content on the PC through the network interface for the TV to “see”. On the TV, you use the W.link feature to access the shared content on the PC. Music, Images and Videos stored on the PC are all accessible through the TV. Remarkably easy to access and view on the TV. Fantastic. There are a few glitches – The software on the PC was not able to handle all the media I threw at it in the first go around – I backed off (why would I play music through a TV?) and the software was able to complete it’s build of it’s database of content on the PC. I hope this problem will get cured in future versions of the DLNA server software that runs on the PC. Another small glitch was that when I decided to end my watching of these shows stored on the PC and I exited the w.link feature it appeared to crash the TV’s OS. I had older firmware (1004), so I updated to 1007 and I hope this might cure the problem, although I have no evidence of this yet.

So DLNA looks very promising but it is not perfect. I have not tried viewing content that is locked with DRM of some kind, but I strongly suspect this is not going to work. Further proof that DRM is seriously flawed. Legitimate users (paying customers) should not be restricted in their reasonable use of the content.

The remote seems sufficiently user friendly – some lettering is large enough for older eyes to read easily and the back lighting feature works the way it should making it easier to _read_ the keys in the dark.

The manual’s content seems complete and readable but the manual has a major and very annoying flaw. The manual is large with many many pages so being able to refer to page numbers is crucial. It does have page numbers but I defy you to read them in anything other than bright sunlight! They are black numbers printed on a gray field. Strangest printing setup I’ve ever seen. In the grand scheme of things this is only a minor detail but it is strange – the company knows about the importance of contrast. If I can download the manual as a searchable and linked pdf I won’t care.

I have not yet discovered a way to edit the channel description in the channel list. A few digital channels have the information on what their station ID is, but many do not. I have not found a way to add or edit a description that tells me that, for instance, cable channel 117-25 is actually broadcast 33-1 or WBFS or some other more identifiable name.

I also am not yet aware if one can apply individual optimizations to each input. If one can this would be ideal.

Another minor point – I’m not too sure how “green” this TV is in it’s energy use. I was quite surprised to discover it was noticeably warm when standing next to it while on.

Finally, my two major disappointments with this TV are:

1) PIP feature – which is quite limited, more like a cheesy cheap faux PIP. First, access to the PIP feature is not at all easy – one has to navigate various menus and sub menus to get at it. But the real problem is that the TV does not have a second tuner of any sort – you cannot watch two channels and swap between them without a second tuner connected through one of the external sources. In fact the PIP limits you to only being able to watch the built in Tuner content in the sub window of the main display which must be using an external source of a specific variety. Strange…. for a high end flagship product to have this kind of limited functionality… A little disturbing and makes you wonder what other cost cutting decisions one might discover with this product in the future.

2) The fixed base – the base does not swivel despite what the specifications at various sites say. I’ll have to get a turntable.

Overall – where it matters most – the picture is spectacular. LCDs have come a long way. The picture makes me smile – it’s just fun to watch.
Rating: 4 / 5

Regardless, it is annoying to have what otherwise is a splendid product apparently needing replacement in less than a year.

****

I promised a follow-up. Panasonic was *very* responsive. I filed a request for service at their online site. Within 24 hours, they contacted me to arrange a service appointment. The service person arrived when arranged, replaced one of the video boards quickly and without charge. It is possible that the problem was not with the board at all, but simply a cable connector that had not been seated properly at the factory. So, in all, a very good experience with Panasonic — prompt response, no hassles or arguments for this repair service under the one-year warranty.
Rating: 3 / 5

Delivery on the TV was fast (about 5 days early). They called a day ahead and delivered it within 1/2 hour of their estimated arrival. They made sure that the TV worked, and offered to take away all the packaging material. A+.

The TV was a snap to set up–10 minutes. The first thing that I noticed was that the color contrast is excellent, even on SD- much better then our 6-year-old Toshiba 27″ tube TV. The clarity varies by station- a function of the channels, not the TV. SD = A-

The picture quality really excels while playing DVDs through component video. Deep rich blacks, vivid colors. The “Planet Earth” series looks incredible. We have not hooked it up to HD yet, but I’m sure it will be even better. A+.

A nice feature is that the TV remembers your settings for each video input. I.e.–we programmed a different color contrast for broadcast TV and DVDs and it stores each separately. There are more than enough ways to adjust picture quality to really fine tune it.

The audio is better than other sets, but not great. We don’t use it though, since the TV is hooked up through a 5.1 receiver.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, both the TV and Amazon’s delivery service. Definitely would buy it again.

FOLLOW UP: I just got HD, and it is even better than I could have imagined. I don’t even like NBA basketball, but I found myself glued to the playoff game just to see the clarity. UFC was almost TOO clear for comfort. The only problem– I can’t go back to SD now…
Rating: 5 / 5

Unlike Panasonic’s earlier model, the 77U, this TV has an excellent picture right out of the box. There’s no need for an expensive calibration or messing with service menu’s. I’ve found my favorite settings, thanks to someone on AVSForum, is:

Picture Mode: Cinema

Picture: 84

Brightness: 40

Tint: -2

Sharpness: 50

Color Temp: Warm

Color mgmt: off

x.v.Color: off

Video NR: off

MPEG NR: off

Black Level: light

You’ll find a ton of other settings there too so just do a google search.

This TV also seems very reliable. Out of over 3000+ posts I only saw maybe three that were returned due to a serious failure. (All of which were promptly replaced/repaired) Panasonic also has a really cool warranty service called “Panasonic Concierge”. You can schedule service calls online and you’ll be contacted within 24 hours. You can also call or chat online with a rep if you’ve got any questions. Another great thing about them is that if your TV fails and they have to take it away for repair they give you a loaner TV! I sure wish I had that option with my old Philips.

I was first considering purchasing a Samsung LCD but decided to see both first hand in the store. After adjusting the settings on both TV’s the Samsung had a very unnatural and bright image while the Panasonic looked as if you were looking out the window. While this sort of thing boils down to what type of picture you prefer I personally was sold on the Panasonic.

Off topic, Amazon rocks too. After buying the TV their price dropped by a lot. I requested a refund for the difference and they did it no questions asked. I got the money back within 3 days! I couldn’t be happier with not only the TV, but also Amazon.
Rating: 5 / 5

I also like the anti-glare screen. At first I was a little concerned that the anti-glare picture would look “dull” compared to your average plasma, but that is no longer a concern – it looks great.

Another big plus for me was the appearance of the TV. Like other Panasonic models, this TV is sleek. Vizio and other manufacturers seem to incorporate larger speakers that look clunky in comparison. The size of the tv relative to the picture size is great – looks nice on the wall, and doesn’t take up any more room than it needs to.

In fact, the reason why I am writing this review is because I am going to buy another one for a different room in the house. Panasonic has definitely won my repeat business with this one – I think that says it all.
Rating: 5 / 5

I set the TV up and the size works perfectly in my living room which my viewing space between the couch and the TV is just about right for the TV (It’s not a large living room). Over the air HDTV channels are accessible with the internal digital tuner.

The picture is great. It isn’t the perfection I wanted and it isn’t very crisp and doesn’t bring awe. That is what the fairly expensive TV’s bring. For the deal price and the price the TV is selling now, it is a great purchase to make in order to view broadcast and satellite. I was pleased and glad I bought it. I purchased a ps3 as well to view netflix streaming, blue-ray, dvd up-convert, and gaming. The picture that the ps3 brings to the table is very sharp, crisp, and detailed. HDMI connections seems to bring out the best in the TV as always should. Played a couple demos and they looked great as well as testing a Blue-Ray movie. I simply was impressed.

In a Nutshell: This TV isn’t top-of the line as that is obvious and it wasn’t intended to be. Instead this is a “low-end” TV that wasn’t intended to be low-end and is very much a “under high-end and above low-end” product. If you do have a large living room, consider getting this TV for the bedroom. If you have a dorm or small apartment, the TV will satisfy your current needs in your living room for the price. (take “for the price” lightly as it isn’t a bad statement in this instance)
Rating: 4 / 5