Samsung 50" 1080p LED HDTV

This review is about how this tv works as a computer monitor. If your not going to use it as a computer monitor, then this review will not be relevant to you. This review is about what the other reviews don't tell you as far as a monitor goes. So I will not repeat what the other reviews do say. The other reviews do tell you the part I'm not going to tell you. So to learn more about this tv, be sure to read the other reviews also. I wanted a new super large computer monitor and since tv's were now up to 1920x1080, I thought a good one might work ok as a large monitor. So I researched long and hard and settled on this one because of its high resolution and reputation for great clarity and fantastic picture quality. I went ahead and bought this tv for use as a computer monitor nearly exclusively. It works fantastic. Its much much better than my two Dell monitors that came with my computers. Be sure you understand what HDMI is and that your computer can output to HDMI. This tv does NOT have the old standard VGA or SVGA. So I had to buy a adapter Plugable UGA-165 USB 2.0 to VGA/DVI/HDMI Adapter for Windows, Multiple Monitors up to 1920x1080 / 1600x1200 Each (DisplayLink DL-165 Chipset). It worked very well for me. The tv does NOT come set up to work as a monitor right out of the box. But it is so adjustable it can be tweaked to work perfectly as a monitor. It took me a hour of non stop fiddling and adjusting to find the sweet spot that worked oh so well for me. But once you finally find the sweet spot, it works fantastic. Until you find the sweet spot, you wont be impressed but nor disappointed. I use it sometimes up to 12 hours a day as a monitor and it does not tire out my eyes or bother me. Its actually better than the real computer monitors. Well, at least compared to my Dells. Its much brighter if you want it to be, or as dim as you want to set it at. The colors are more vivid and realistic. The lines and text are crystal clear if you sit more than 30" from it. If your closer than 24" the text has a very minor blur that can be noticed but does not annoy you too much. For the best picture be sure to set your computer at 1920x1080 and nothing lower. Everything else you adjust from the tv side with the remote control. The two biggest improvements this tv has over a normal monitor (not counting the huge size at a bargain price) is black and white. I dont mean looking at things in black and white, I mean the specific colors of being white and the color of black. What was black on my old dell monitor, now sometimes shows up as very dark grays with tons more detail visible. If it was super dark gray, my old monitor just showed it as black as it smudged out the real available detail. Now I can see what I used to miss. And white. What I used to call white on my old monitor, was a yellow type of white. Not true white. This tv shows true white if you turn its brightness up high enough. I actually cant use all the brightness this tv has available. For two reasons. 100% bright makes the fine delicate lines and text begin to fade away until they are hard to see or nearly invisible if they are real fine. And the biggest reason. When I look at this tv in the dark with no other lights on, the tv is just too bright at 100% and bothers my eyes and blinds me. Its like looking into a flashlight. So for me 85% brightness gives me true white without blinding me nor making the fine delicate lines begin to fade. On all of my previous computer monitors I always had the brightness turned all the way up and it still was not enough. Its so good that this tv actually has brightness left over that I don't need. That is really saying something. Once you buy this tv, your likely to still own your original computer monitor. Now you can use two monitors at the same time on your computer since you will now have two. One VGA and one HDMI. I was so surprised to see them both perform side by side simultaneously. OMG, I had no idea how lacking my old monitor was until it was compared with this tv. This tv is so superior as a monitor that I feel samsung is missing their branding call. They should be selling and advertising this thing as a computer monitor. There is so much market they are missing. 1 not only is the size fantastic and incredible for the price when compared to real monitor prices, but 2, its performance surpasses normal monitors and maybe the best super high dollar monitors can equal it that cost over a grand, but its just so much value as a monitor for such a bargain price. But its not a monitor out of the box. Its only a fantastic monitor when you tweak it to perform just so and find the sweet spot, which fortunately is available to be found if you look, search, fiddle and experiment enough. Sissy's wont find it because they quit too easily. Maybe thats why samsung doesn't advertise this as a monitor because lots of idiots wont figure out how to tweak it to perfection. That I do believe. Here is why I wont tell you what numbers and settings to tweak it to. Because I tweaked it to perfection with my 1st computer. Later I bought a newer computer and then the monitor sucked. I had to re-tweak it to perfection again with the different computer. And again I found the perfection or sweet spot. So now I have NO reason to believe what settings are perfect for one computer, are even good for another computer. On my 1st computer I had to have the sharpness setting turned way down. But on my next computer I had to turn my sharpness up to 65. That surprised me much. And other settings where quite similar in their dissimilarity between the two computers. That is one thing samsung did fantastically on this tv, they made it so broadly adjustable in every area. I dont use this as a tv at all. However I do watch tons of video from my computer. I discovered I had to discover the sweet spot of compromise. I can tweak this to perfection for watching computer video, but then using it as a desktop or browser suffers much. I can tweak this to perfection as a desktop or browser, but then it suffers much in the video category. So I discovered I have to tweak it to 85% of perfection in the video category so my desktop and browser can be 90% up to their best. I had to find that little spot of compromise so they both look fantastically good, but neither one is at its best. And then they both work fantastically for me and I'm delighted with my level of minor compromise as neither end is suffering much. The compromise is actually very very little. But without it one end or the other suffers quite much while the other end is just a little bit better than if there was no compromise. So be very ready to play with it tons as you learn how to tweak it and then discover the other variables. If your not a quick learner then maybe this tv is not going to work fantastically as a monitor for you. Whereas I didn't tell you what numbers to set to, I believe I have steered you in the right direction so you now know what to go looking for and pay attention to. When I pulled mine out of the box and plugged it in, for an hour I was scared I just threw away a bunch of money as its performance was sub par. But desperation drove me to continue searching for the right settings to rescue me and I found them with perseverance and due diligence. There are a lot of tv's nowadays that have 1920x1080. HOWEVER nearly none of them except this samsung have the adjustably to tweak it to perfection as a monitor. If you buy anything cheaper than this one for monitor use, be ready to be disappointed as you cant adjust it to your liking. BEWARE, I WARNED YOU. This tv is everything I wished and hoped for in a computer monitor. But it wasn't the lowest priced tv out there. HOWEVER I believe it works better as a monitor than any other tv out there. If you have questions post a comment and I will get back to you shortly. Good luck and let me know if this review helped you. I want to know how many other people are considering this tv for mainly monitor purposes so let me know. Chris