Samsung LN37A550

I have had the TV for approximately 1-month. This TV was purchased with the intent of acquiring the "best" 37-inch LCD TV available with one exception. I was not interested in 120 hertz refresh rate. I am not interested in games or sports. The TV is connected to a Direct TV high definition satellite receiver. The picture looks great; however, when I looked at comparable models (e.g., Sharp and Toshiba) at a big box store, in a brand to brand comparison, I could not detect any significant difference in picture quality between the different brands in either high definition or standard definition program viewing. Of course there was a tremendous difference when viewing high definition versus standard definition programs. (Unfortunately, I did not listen to sound which probably would have been impossible due to background noise but more on this later.) I use the TV for satellite reception and DVD playback--no games. The TV has a matte screen and absolutely no glare. It is installed in a location where glare was a problem on a CRT screen. In my assessment, the picture quality deserves a 5-star rating.
All reviews indicate that the TV has "plenty" of inputs. My advice is to determine the amount and type of inputs needed. For instance, the TV has only one composite video input which is on the side panel. I know, why would you need a composite video input on a HDTV? In my case, some components, a couple of examples are my video camera and Pioneer receiver, require a composite input. In most cases, the number of inputs is more than adequate but don't assume that there are plenty of inputs.
Sound is a horrible disappointment. Again, this was something that I didn't tryout before purchase because I thought anything would meet my sound requirements. For movies, I use a surround sound system so the sound from the TV is irrelevant. However, the TV is frequently used to receive weather and news information. For this type of reception, I am not interested in "quality" sound but I do want to be able to hear and "understand" the audible portion of the broadcast without using a surround sound system. With this set, this is almost impossible. It has plenty of volume, no problem there, but the distortion, muting, echo, and tininess are unbelievable. Yes, it has different sound settings and an equalizer, but the best that you can get is unacceptable by anyone's standards. The sound from this set is far inferior to a single speaker 10-year old Philips CRT TV with a single BNC connector for sound and audio input. I also had an occasion to be in a hospital after the set was delivered and the sound from the pendant for the hospital TV was far superior. Let's put it this way, if I had paid $10.00 for a clock radio that sounded this bad I would return it. Sound rating: 0-star.
Overall, I am totally pleased with the picture quality, but if I had it to do over, I would purchase a different brand because of the absolutely horrible sound.
I bought the TV via Amazon which was a pleasant buying experience.
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