Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Update May 14, 2015 This TV has had two major problems which have led me to knock it down to 2 stars. Most significant, it spontaneously power cycles (shuts off, then turns back on) while we are watching it. A quick search shows that a lot of people have had the same problem, and it can be traced to a faulty capacitor. The second problem is that the WiFi became non-functional. Updates to the latest firmware had no effect. Again, searching shows other people having this problem, and it appears to be do to a faulty WiFi adapter built into the TV. Given the TV only lasted 2 years (my last one lasted 20) , I cannot recommend it. ------------ The picture on this TV is great. Even non HD content looks nice, and HD content is outstanding. I give it three stars because, as of November 2012, the software requires some significant effort to get working completely, and that may not be for everyone. I bought this model not only for the great picture, but for its ability to connect to services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. They work well, though they are bit slow to launch. Finding content using the remote that comes with this TV is a bit tedious. I recommend using a computer to find what you want to watch on those services, and adding it to your queue. Then you can launch the app on the TV, bring up your queue, and start watching more easily. The only snag for me in setting up the TV was getting the latest version of the Samsung software. After connecting to internet (which was easy), the TV updated all the software, which took about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, all the required updates were not available to the TV through its online update mechanism, and that caused the Amazon Prime Video software to fail to run. It complained that the Samsung Smart Hub software needed to be updated, but the Smart Hub software reported that there were no updates to be found. Fortunately, a call to Amazon cleared up the problem. They informed me that Samsung had an update on their website that I could download, load on a USB thumb drive, and install on the TV. Doing that solved the problem. If you have this problem, you can get the latest version of the Samsung firmware from their support pages (sorry, Amazon doesn't allow links to external websites in reviews). Instructions on installing the update from a USB thumb drive are also available there. So bottom line, the TV is great. The software is fiddly, and requires some hubbub to get updated properly. If you are willing to work through that, however, the experience of using the TV is very good.