By Steve Holdgren

The Samsung UN55H6400 certainly won’t disappoint the family looking for a quality 55-inch LED screen to fill the living room, especially since this model has some extra features that set it a cut above the H6350 series. These features include the improved Active 3D functionality and a redesigned Smart Touch Remote, which has added voice control. We were pleased with the 3D playback because its picture offers a satisfactory amount of depth and detail. As for regular picture quality, we can’t complain about the 10pt white balance, which provided natural color reproduction that wasn’t oversaturated. We would have preferred a clear coat instead of the semi-matte screen, which tends to reflect lights in the room and keeps the colors from being as bright as they could be. But the bright edge LED lighting provides some balance to counteract this effect.

Steve Holdgren is an engineer by trade and has worked for some of the largest energy related engineering firms in the world with his latest stint in Switzerland. He holds a degree is mechanical engineering… See more about Steve

Prices

By Steve Holdgren

We rated Vizio E500i-B1 as the LED TV with the best price (around $650). Besides its attractive price point, this Vizio model has some appealing upgrades this year, including full-array LED backlighting—an improvement over the edge-light variety. The screen has sixteen zones of active dimming, which enhances the contrast more so than smaller-size screens. Having more zones is an advantage because their divisions are less visible. The colors are also improved from the backlighting, with less washout and uniformity problems. We also noticed reduced judder and motion blur, thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate and a 180 Clear Action Rate feature. The E series also offers Vizio Internet Apps Plus for the first time.

Steve Holdgren is an engineer by trade and has worked for some of the largest energy related engineering firms in the world with his latest stint in Switzerland. He holds a degree is mechanical engineering… See more about Steve

Prices

By Steve Holdgren

The LG 65LB7100 is sure to satisfy consumers looking for a really large TV with excellent picture quality—this one measures 65 inches diagonally and is a major improvement over last year’s LA7400 series, especially when it comes to color. The colors on this model come out vibrant and natural-looking. Local dimming also helps improve picture quality features by boosting the overall contrast. We were also excited about the High Dynamic Range and the ISP panel, which has been used to great effect in Panasonic LED TVs before. Other improvements are seen in the side viewing angles and the light flow through. You’ll definitely be impressed with the overall brilliancy of the picture. Another perk is the Magic Remote, which finally has an input button to make life easier.

Steve Holdgren is an engineer by trade and has worked for some of the largest energy related engineering firms in the world with his latest stint in Switzerland. He holds a degree is mechanical engineering… See more about Steve

Prices

By Steve Holdgren

Stepping up the 55 inches and a bit more feature-wise, the 55F6400 is similar to the F6300 listed above but has active 3D playback as well as a few other upgraded features. Swipe browsing on the included touch remote is definitely faster than a 5-way controller. We found it to be about 2x faster than pressing arrow buttons. It’s the only remote included with the UN55F6400. Be aware that there are no numbers and not too many buttons.

Steve Holdgren is an engineer by trade and has worked for some of the largest energy related engineering firms in the world with his latest stint in Switzerland. He holds a degree is mechanical engineering… See more about Steve

Prices

By Steve Holdgren

Samsung has lots of mid-level LED TVs to choose from. In this smaller size 46 inch LED TV, you forgo some features to better your price since this may not be your main viewing TV. For those gamers out there, the Game mode on this TV is also very good at reducing motion input lag time. This TV does not have 3D but does contain Smart TV features.

Steve Holdgren is an engineer by trade and has worked for some of the largest energy related engineering firms in the world with his latest stint in Switzerland. He holds a degree is mechanical engineering… See more about Steve

Prices

By Steve Holdgren

This 60” LED from Sharp is firmly in the running for value per square inch. It includes a dual core processor this year and it a 120Hz panel – better for sports action than the lowly 60Hz we are accustomed to. A mouth watering “just over $1000 price tag” accompanies this model. It’s amazing that you can get 60 inches of quality viewing for this price.

Steve Holdgren is an engineer by trade and has worked for some of the largest energy related engineering firms in the world with his latest stint in Switzerland. He holds a degree is mechanical engineering… See more about Steve

Prices

By Steve Holdgren

This TV is very similar to the LA6200 listed above, but it has a Google Chrome interface and operation for the browser portion. The 50GA6400 has a dual core processor to power everything from menu navigation to surfing the internet. Another difference is the addition of the two side QWERTY keyboard Magic Remote. You get the crazy good functionality of the voice recognition on the Magic remote with the QWERTY keyboard on the other. From our experience you will likely choose for the former.

Steve Holdgren is an engineer by trade and has worked for some of the largest energy related engineering firms in the world with his latest stint in Switzerland. He holds a degree is mechanical engineering… See more about Steve

Prices

LG UDTV 4K

LG has introduced a new macdaddy, spanking hot $22,000 84 inch UDTV (ultra high definition TV) that will be shipped fall of 2012. It will not only be one of the larges TVs on the market but is also the highest definition at 3,820 X 2,160. The abreviation for this resolution is 4K to differentiate it from 1080 or let you know that it is 4 times the…[more]

Upconversion Processing

What was and is interesting is how the signal is being up-converted to 4K from that measly full HD 1080p signal. The Sharp handled this up-conversion but we are not sure yet about the LG. There are some Blu-Ray players on the market that will up-convert the signal, namely the Sony BDP-S790.

But really there is no reason the TV cannot contain the up-conversion technology within. At $22,000 they should be able to afford the best in this processing. Consider that the aforementioned Sony Blu-Ray only costs $250 and has this technology.

The up-conversion technique used by Sharp worked well and produced a great picture, however the images on screen were barely moving.