Samsung 30" SlimFit TV

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsung-30-SlimFit-HDTV-TX-R3079WH-/sem/rpsm/oid/120404/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

I've seen some people here ask about this TV and there seem to be very few (if any) reviews on the internet. I purchased this tv this past Saturday and had it delivered yesterday.

Time Warner came and installed the Scientific Atlanda 8300HD and I then set it to widescreen and to stretch the 4:3 picture. SDTV looks surprisingly good on this tv! I looked at the SDTV signal vs the Sony Wega 30" widescreen and the Samsung was better, hands down (in my opinion). The HD looks absolutely amazing. No fuzziness like the HD feeds in Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. I paid $899 and got the 3 year warranty and haggled them to waive the $40 delivery fee since I was spending $1k on this thing. The total price came to $1140. Pricey, but worth it for me. I couldn't find this thing for any cheaper onthe internet. Some places had then for $550 + $400 shipping, lol.

I played my PS2 with component outs in 480p mode with compatible games (Ratchet and Clank 3, Burnout 3) and the games looked smooth. I don't really think I'd notice the difference if I hadn't been aware that the thing was in progressive scan mode, but oh well. I played the Gamecube on it too (Resident Evil 4) and it looked decent at best since I don't have component cables for the GC. No XBox, sorry :) The original NES, Genesis, SNES, and Atari looked good as well. I HAD to set that to 4:3 with gray bars since the sides of the screen looked way too distorted when playing a sidescrolling game.

My Time Warner cable is connected via component cables as well, but I'm thinking of getting an inexpensive hdmi cable on ebay. I have the cable box set to always output in 1080i. I do, however, have one question. Does hdmi also give the SDTV signals, or will I have to be switching between component for SDTV and hdmi for HDTV? That seems like a pain :-/

Overall I'm extremely pleased with this tv :D . Discovery HD last night looked so good :eek: . I even watched the basketball game just cause it looked so nice (I don't like any sports). Hell, I watched Jay Leno in hd and I HATE him, lol. I can't wait 'til they add some new channels.

Hope this helped anyone who was interested in buying this model.

:confused: I might buy this tv.But what I have read about it here on these forums was ..on the SD mode it has gray bars on each side of the tv picture screen.Are those bars there all the time in SD or do they go away and can I make them go away?
This is the main deciding factor on whether I'll buy this tv..since it will be for my mom..and she hates those gray bars.
I have a Sony and I occasionally get those gray bars in SD..but it depends on what show I'm watching in SD.

Also I heard that this tv pushes red a bit too much..in other words its color is off a bit.Is that true?

It has "panoramic view" or "zoom" to eliminate the gray bars. If you have time warner or another company that will provide a cable box, the cable box may have the "stretch" option as well (that's what I'm using). Also, you get gray bars when an HD channel is broadcasting non-HD.

My standard digital channels don't show a gray bar on my Sony 34 inch tv.Its only on the network channels of CBS that show a gray bar.I have satelite tv with Dish Network.
You're right,I could stretch the screen and eliminate the gray bar look...but what I read about this particular tv-Samsung 30 inch SlimFit was ..when you stretch the screen on this tv in movie mode..the picture is blurry.
What's YOUR experience?

My personaly opinion is that the movie mode stretch looks great. I recommend you go to your local Best Buy/whatever store and see for yourself though. I'm very satisfied with the tv. The stretch mode is perfectly fine, imo.

:( I read 10 reviews on this tv from people who bought it....this tv SUCKS! Only has 800 lines of resulution and lousy looking SD chan nels....whoever says this is a good or great tv probably works for a store that sells it or works for Samsung.
DON'T BUY THIS TV !

rickbbb, you always seem to make comments based on what the other people say, but how about your opinion? Have you actually seen the TV? Do you know why it has gray bars on each side of the tv picture screen on the SD mode? Also Do you know what 800 "lines" of horizontal resolution means? From my experience, 800 "lines" of horizontal resolution are pretty average for a consumer CRT based HDTV. I don't think many of consumer CRT based HDTV have true 1920 horizontal "pixels", probably Sony 34XS955 and 34XBR960 are the only ones that have close to 1920 horizontal "pixels" (and of course the price of those TVs are much more expensive). It's okey to judge someting from what peoole say, but you should check it yourself before saying something.

I should'nt believe other people..I should see for myself how good a tv is...BUT....if more than adozen people are going to warn me not to buy something....then I should listen to them.
I don't drive a car..so it's hard for me to go to a Circuit City or Best Buy.
usually I'll listen to what the people here tell me.Especially the ones who already own this tv set !

:( I read 10 reviews on this tv from people who bought it....this tv SUCKS! Only has 800 lines of resulution and lousy looking SD chan nels....whoever says this is a good or great tv probably works for a store that sells it or works for Samsung.
DON'T BUY THIS TV !



*sigh* Make up your own mind, for fuck's sake. You haven't even seen the tv.... And no, I don't work for Samsung. I'm tellin' ya the thing looks good. I compared it to the Sony at the store, and SDTV looked better on the Samsung. Whether you choose to believe me or not isn't my issue.

*sigh* Make up your own mind, for fuck's sake. You haven't even seen the tv.... And no, I don't work for Samsung. I'm tellin' ya the thing looks good. I compared it to the Sony at the store, and SDTV looked better on the Samsung. Whether you choose to believe me or not isn't my issue.
Whoa easy man dont let someone else get you riled up. :)
You'll always have people like that. You like it and thats what counts.
Im in the market for a new set around the holidays and samsung is one of my choices. They have some good sets.

I bought the same TV at Circuit City as well. Got free delivery. BTW, you may want to take them-up on 30-day price-match, since J&R has it for $850 now (just dont mention $70 delivery :)
Few quick questions - just to see if we had same experiences:
1) do you find that reds are pushed real hard on this tv - with skin textures. The settings that are preprogrammed are retarded - too bright and colorful. I set my pic-settings to use 39 for color and 45 for RG and it looks great. What are your picture settings?
2) I also have some slight curvature on the right side - pincushion. Do you have that as well, any idea what settings can be used to manage that?
3) with xbox games, some fill the whole screen beatifully, but others leave some black space on the sides. Very weird - GTA Vice City fills entire screen but GTA San Andreas leaves 1/4" on each side - slightly jagged blak bars.

I got a 30" Samsung Slimfit this week and am very pleased with it. It does not seem to have the various kinds of bowing distortions that others have complained about, and that I have seen in stores. I wasn't worried about them anyway, because about 45 different picture, etc., adjustments, most of which I don't understand, are available through the remote to correct problems. And for the price - $765 + tax from Circuit City, with delivery - I was willing to spend the adjustment time. (Note: Web special plus 10%-off coupon received in the mail). I had been pleased with the quality and reliability of my old Samsung 27" STV, also, so was confident in buying a new Samsung. (My 25" Phillips' power supply failed right after the warranty failed, on the other hand).

I have DishTV (SD), a progressive-scan DVD player, and off the air reception using a modest Terk indoor antenna with preamp on the ground floor. I am about 15 miles from the farthest HD tower I'm interested in and the preamp makes an important difference. Of course, with DTV it's in whether you get the signal at all, not whether it looks bad or not.

In fact, with my modest OTA antenna setup, most of the local STV (analogue) channels look pretty bad, with a lot of multipath. (That was true of my old TV also and why I got Dish). However, generally their DTV counterparts are terrific. Full-screen football on Monday night was beautiful. But I don't watch football. The fact that not all stations fill the whole 16:9 screen with HD at all times is frustrating. The local CBS and PBS stations do; the rest don't. Sometimes even HD 16:9 doesn't fill the screen, and I use the zoom control on STV. The progressive-scan DVD player looked perceptibly better on progressive than on interlaced scan, but the 30" screen, while great for a source that fills the screen, is really too small for appreciation of wide aspect ratio films, like CinemaScope.

Occasionally the farthest channel (PBS) breaks up because of the weak signal, so I'm thinking of getting a more substantial (and outdoor) antenna--but maybe I'll just raise my Terk to the 2d floor.

I might have preferred a 37" 1080p LCD, but didn't see any with a built-in ATSC tuner and the new Westinghouse (no tuner) was more than twice as expensive. At that rate, I'll wait, and I'm satisfied now.

I read some where that there is a 1 in 20 chance of getting a bad one, is the true, i just bought the tv (havent picked it up yet) and are a little worried please help

I have this TV...but i dont have HD directv, i just have the normal one, and my normal SDTV shows the picture better than this tv....why? I pluged in directv into the normal air antena slot and the picture is horrible, any one have any help? thanks in advance

It's not the set it's the signal. I bought the highly regarded Sony 30XS955 set and the picture is great on HD signals and lousy on non HD stations. Unfortunately, even if you get the HD package from Directv you'll only get a handful of stations for the $10.99/month. With hindsight being 20-20, I would wait until there are more stations available before buying an HD TV. It just ain't worth it for the few stations you get. It has been a huge disappointment :(

You need an HD signal to see what any HDTV can do... if you've got a built in tuner, all you need is an antenna for free HDTV... most of your locals are digital now.