Samsung LN55A950

We were surprised, though, that the LN55A950's image quality stumbled when playing chapter 7 of Mission Impossible III on Blu-ray. The TV handled architectural details very poorly, garbling much of the detail of the Vatican's brick wall; the distortion made this 1080p video clip look like what we've come to expect from 1080i. Samsung says its default Auto Motion Plus setting, a feature helps remove motion blur, likely caused this; adjusting the setting could change this effect.

The LN55A950's built-in audio is about as good as you can get with internal speakers (to get top-notch movie sound you need a separate amplifier and speakers). Even with the volume turned up to an uncomfortable 100 percent, I detected only slight distortion (audio was very clean at the more comfortable but still loud 60 percent). And when the sound was supposed to jump from quiet to loud, it managed the change with real oomph. The pseudo-surround was also very good.

The LN55A950 has some great features, but they're not always well implemented. The ethernet port lets you enjoy media from other sources on your home network, but its Internet capabilities are currently limited to news and weather. The picture-in-picture feature is accessible only through the main menu (there are no PIP buttons on the remote), and works only with an external source (such as a DVD player) in the big picture, and with the TV's own tuner in the little one.

On the other hand, the USB-based multimedia works fine. Plug in a flash drive, and you can view your JPEG photos, listen to MP3 music, or view MPEG-4 videos. There's also a headphone jack.

The big, long, and well-balanced remote control is truly exceptional, despite the absence of a PIP button. The main buttons are well placed, the device is programmable, and best of all it's properly backlit. Press the backlight button, and all of the buttons light up. And since the labels are on the buttons themselves, you can easily see what you're pressing.

The menus are attractive and readable, though they do take up a lot of screen real estate. The main menu includes useful explanations. Navigation is normally easy but occasionally confusing. A smaller Quick Menu offers immediate access to commonly changed settings, such as sound modes, picture modes, and aspect ratio.

The Samsung LN55A950 is a fantastic TV. But its image quality isn't quite good enough to justify its exceedingly high price. Lower-cost alternatives with higher ratings overall include the Samsung PN50A760, the LG Electronics 50PG30, and the LG Electronics 52LG70.