Sony 52" XBR-6 vs Samsung 52" Series 8

[Bassman]

I am looking at buying a Sony 52" XBR-6 or Samsung 52" Series 8 (LN52A850) LCD. I also plan on getting a Sony Blue Ray player, either the 350 or 550 and I have a Sony 820 receiver. Both the Sony and Samsung have comparable specs but the Samsung has the Glossy screen. I think the glossy screen give the impression that the Samsung has a clearer and brighter picture, is that the case. Is one better them the other? The system is going to be used in a basement home theater without any ambient light. While watching movies there will be some wall lights on that will be dimmed down. Overhead lights will be off. Will the Samsung glossy screen have glare from the wall lighting? Does the Sony Sync work well enough to stick with all Sony components?

There are a number of cable channels that we watch that are not HD will one of the TV's have a better non- HD picture?

Sony Blue Ray player question. Does the Sony 350 player have 7.1 audio outputs other than the HDMI line out? If not will I have to run the HDMI cable to my receiver them from my receiver to the TV to have the 7.1channel audio?

Thanks

[callas01]

With SAMSUNG's Ultra Clear Panel™ colors are more vibrant than ever before. The brighter, clearer picture will definitely amaze you. Tired of annoying glare getting in the way of your movie-watching? Our ultra clear panel technology enhances contrast and reduces reflection so you can enjoy an overall outstanding viewing experience

^ that is from samsungs website. the sony 350 will need an HDMI cable for 7.1 audio, analog outs are only 2 channel. HDMI out of BDP to AVR out of AVR to TV, yes. My buddies Sony looked great on SD channels and I think my Samsung does too, much better then my vizios do.

[lettucenpico]

it's hard to say, you are comparing two of the best TVs out there, Sony and Samsung, either one will satisfy you. If i had $ I would get a Sony XBR tv. Oh and for the Blu Ray, I would get a PS3 or if you just want a stand alone player, get the 550 instead. I own the Panasonic Plasma 42 inch 80u. And well, it's ok. I might go a Samsung LCD.

[PanasonicPlasmaMan]

I love the XBR but I have to say the Smasung LCD series is just great. The colors I think beat Sony and I believe you get a bit of a better picture. You can also look at the 950 if its in your price range.

[lettucenpico]

Save your money and get the xbr7. 240hz

[989547]

I just ordered the Samsung LN46A860, IMO its a great looking TV

[AlexG]

Well i was lucky enough to get a Sony 52" XBR6 Series last weekend at $2299 (Best Buy) and i couldn't be happier. Watched Hancock on Wed night and the picture looked great which made up for a below average flick.

[SonyXBRtv]

I have a Sony XBR 2...so I would go for the XBR man. You wont be disappointed man trust me!

[Pondosinatra]

Sony. No further discussion needed

[TheFaze]

I picked up my 52" XBR6 today from CC!!! With a free 350 BD player to boot!

[lettucenpico]

Depends on the way the picture is being tweaked. You can't really compare them both and say one is better than the other. As long as you have a Sony or Samsung, you will not be dissapointed.

[gman102081]

Go with the XBR. The 10 bit panel used is freaking insane.

[yourstupidgame]

Originally Posted by gman102081

Go with the XBR. The 10 bit panel used is freaking insane.

Does Samsung not use a 10 bit panel? Always wondered that. How important is the 10 bit panel? I know Sony really pushes that spec and my Toshiba also has it.

[HD 335]

The 650 and 750 uses a 10-bit panel, I would assume the 850 does also. The 650 has a single core 12 bit processor while the 750/850 have a dual core 16 bit processor.

[vektar]

I hear sony and samsung use a lot of the same parts in the tvs so your better off getting which one you think looks cooler thats what i did i was in the same situation. I ended up getting the XBR4 because i liked the floating glass around the tv and the top samsung at the time had a really bad glare.

[HD 335]

I believe you're right about the 650/750 vs XBR4, they both use the same panels. I also like the floating glass bezel around the XBR4, that's what initially drew me to it when we bought it during the beginning of this year. Now, I'm happy to have both in our home. You really can't go wrong with either one unless there is something particular you like about one or the other. The Samsung with the glossy screen will at times give you that over-saturated "wet paint" look while the Sony with it's matte screen will look a bit more "natural".

[brianbags]

I have a Samsung '52 butim not sure if it's the same one you're talking about. It probably is, and even if isn't, I would always go for a Samsung.

[the Bass Mechanic]

Originally Posted by Bassman

I am looking at buying a Sony 52" XBR-6 or Samsung 52" Series 8 (LN52A850) LCD. I also plan on getting a Sony Blue Ray player, either the 350 or 550 and I have a Sony 820 receiver. Both the Sony and Samsung have comparable specs but the Samsung has the Glossy screen. I think the glossy screen give the impression that the Samsung has a clearer and brighter picture, is that the case. Is one better them the other? The system is going to be used in a basement home theater without any ambient light. While watching movies there will be some wall lights on that will be dimmed down. Overhead lights will be off. Will the Samsung glossy screen have glare from the wall lighting? Does the Sony Sync work well enough to stick with all Sony components?

There are a number of cable channels that we watch that are not HD will one of the TV's have a better non- HD picture?

Sony Blue Ray player question. Does the Sony 350 player have 7.1 audio outputs other than the HDMI line out? If not will I have to run the HDMI cable to my receiver them from my receiver to the TV to have the 7.1channel audio?

Thanks

Konichi wa (hello) fellow bass-person! As for the TV, that is a tough decision; while I have a Sony KDL-46W3000 myself, I did look at the samsungs too (along with a number of other brands, but had narrrowed it down to Sony vs. Samsung too) and had a hard time choosing. While I'm no Sony fanboy, I have liked their products, and was very close to going with the Samsung 46" with the LED backlighting (and the 1,000,000:1 'dynamic' contrast ratio, now known as the 950 series) but went with the Sony as I was able to get it for $1000 cheaper than the Samsung (and while the darker blacks of the Samsung were great, I just didn't have the money for it last year). Since you are talking about the Sony XBR-6 vs. the Samsung 850 series, there is little difference in price or performance, about the only thing that clearly favors the Sony; is that you can use the HDMI-link control feature (as your AVR and BD player will be Sony too) to have a power on of any of the three automaticaly power on the other two. That, and being able to control basic functions of your HDTV (power, vol, ch. change, input change, etc.) with the BD player remote, or vice-versa, and possibly have your AVR (your Sony 820 reciever) remote setup to control most functions of the HDTV and BD player.

As for a BD (Blu-ray Disc) player, only the 550 has 7.1ch. analog outputs, but HDMI is the prefered conection for digital video and audio signals, and either Sony player (or the PS3) will output decoded lossless audio (in up to 7.1ch) via HDMI to your Sony 820 (and is prefered over analog connections). The Sony BDP-S550 is the only one that will output the bitstream for ALL audio codec format, if you prefer to have the Sony 820 AVR do the audio decoding, but it should sound the same whether you have the BD player decode the audio to multi-channel PCM (which the 820 will then convert to analog for the internal amps) or you get the 550 and send the raw bitstream to the 820 for decoding. As for the video, it's all digital over HDMI so the reciever will just pass it to the HDTV with no signal degradation at all.

Hope that helps,

[PNF]

holy shxt~

I just realized... CC is having 52 XBR6 + free BD player S350 for $2299!!!!!

WOW.........


considering I only just got mine in April for "at the time" sick deal for $3K.......

#*@$

Oh well. $2299... damn. sick deal.. S350 still go for about $200... a $2000 XBR6 52"... I'd jump on it if only I can fit a 52" in my bed room...

[maygit]

Originally Posted by callas01

With SAMSUNG's Ultra Clear Panel™ colors are more vibrant than ever before. The brighter, clearer picture will definitely amaze you. Tired of annoying glare getting in the way of your movie-watching? Our ultra clear panel technology enhances contrast and reduces reflection so you can enjoy an overall outstanding viewing experience

^ that is from samsungs website. the sony 350 will need an HDMI cable for 7.1 audio, analog outs are only 2 channel. HDMI out of BDP to AVR out of AVR to TV, yes. My buddies Sony looked great on SD channels and I think my Samsung does too, much better then my vizios do.

I love my 40A650, best lcd for the price(IMO). However, the Ultra Clear Panel creates the most glare of any t.v. i've ever seen. Overall i think it really makes the picture pop, contrast amazing, and just seems sharper but it's practically a black mirror. Now, i've never had a side by side comparison but from reading reviews vs the XBR6, i would still take the 650. The XBR6 apparently has better blacks but i'm a huge fan of Auto-Motion Plus(AMP) and Sony's MotionFlow does not come close to the enhancement of AMP.