Samsung UN46B8000 46 in. HDTV TV

This is my first HDTV so I'm still somewhat starry eyed. Overall, my Samsung 46" LED set has lived up to the expectations I had going into this purchase. I did a lot of research up front and found the industry and customer reviews on this set along with "tire kicking" visits to local retail outlets convincing enough to take the plunge.

The warnings I read about the backlighting around the edges on this set were valid especially in the darker portions of a movie or TV show. Also, the factory setting for brightness came in way too low. Once the brightness was adjusted upwards, the edge backlighting wasn't quite as annoying though still visible in the darker segments of any program and especially with subdued or no lighting in the living room.

The auto back lighting on the TV remote (at night) is handy and cool but super sensitive to the slightest jarring. That can be annoying too. I'm not sure how that can be remedied other than to set the remote on a very stable surface away from the arm of the chair, couch, recliner or ottoman. Otherwise, the slightest jarring flicks the backlighting on. This is only an issue when the room is dark enough to kick this feature on.

Finally, the onboard sound isn't very satisfying but if you are spending $2K plus for a monitor there is a good chance you will be willing to spend proportionate bucks for a decent receiver and speakers as well. Otherwise, you will be settling for somewhat hollow, sometimes tinny onboard sound.

Again, this is my first big screen set so I don't really have anything to compare against other than the research and tire kicking I've done in retail outlets. However, if I had the chance to do it all over again this is still the set I would buy.

By the way, purchasing the set thru Ebay along with the $200 Bing cash discount (rebate was 10% at the time) certainly eased the pain in the dollar outlay for this purchase. Also, I was a little apprehensive with the shipping aspect rather than picking up the set locally but eliminating the sales tax carried the day and the interstate shipping worked out fine though it took over 3 weeks to get the whole deal done.

Hope this helps.