Samsung Pushes the LCD Envelope with New 65" LCD TV

Samsung showcased their new 65" LCD HDTV at Atlanta's CEDIA Expo, convention and trade show for the home theater industry. While a 65" TV is nothing new, sizes over 50" have belonged to plasma. Samsung believes there's room for LCD TVs in this niche and is aggressively pursuing the bigger is better crowd. Samsung is winning with expensive LED TVs, a tricky proposition in this year's tight economy, and apparently its betting on another win. Will consumers pay a premium for LCD technology? We shall see.

The new LN65B650 has the standard 120 Hz refresh rate, 4 ms response time, and four HDMI connections. Note the LN65B650 is NOT an LED TV, rather it relies on fluorescent backlighting just like other LCD TVs. Good thing because the price is already a steep $6000, and as we've seen, Samsung LED TVs can cost twice as much as their regular, same sized LCD counterparts.

This 65" giant supports full HD 1080p resolution. Along with the HDMI inputs, Samsung advertises two component inputs, two composite inputs (good only if you're hooking up older equipment, stick with HDMI if possible), two USB 2.0 inputs (on the side) along with Ethernet, optical audio (excellent), a PC input, and an RS232 port for hooking up to home automation systems. Though it comes with two 15 watt built-in speakers, home theater enthusiasts will want to add a good soundbar or a surround sound speaker system.

The system will also feature Samsung's Medi@ 2.0 suite of connectivity options, including a built-in content library, DLNA compatibility, and Samsung's Internet@TV service running on the Yahoo Widget Engine for accessing content from Flickr, YouTube, and Yahoo. Look for Blockbuster On Demand as well, but no promises. Surprisingly, this Samsung meets Energy Star 3.0 requirements.

A same sized plasma from Panasonic is about $3000 from Amazon and comes with a free Blu-ray player. Will consumers cough up the extra $3000? Samsung thinks so, but I disagree. Plasma is a solid technology and represents the best value at this size. However, if you want to hang it on the wall, it's going to be this one. Plasmas are simply too heavy. Wall huggers: Samsung wants you. Look for the LN65B65 in stores later this month.