Samsung B7020WW (UE55B7020WW) user reviews

Simon deeBee 29 October 2009

Good: The picture when the screen isn't dark, simply outstanding

Bad: the picture when the screen IS dark, simply unwatchable because of the pools

Comment: To be fair the offical CNET review sums it up perfectly. Amazing engineering, brilliant HD pictures either via Blu-Ray, Sky+ or networked content, some SD content is very poor, yes ITV footy broadcasts I'm looking at you pal. 2 major niggles that made me send my set back to my etailer:
1) A major purchase point was being able to stream content through the LAN connection including the blessed .mkv format. Unfortunately you can only play .mkv material through the USB...NOT THROUGH THE LAN CONNECTION. I emailed Samsung about this and they said that this is because the mkv decoder is built into the USB port and they have no plans to intriduce this into the LAN conneciton which may well be a deal-breaker once this is widely known as the manual makes NO mention of this factoid. Because of this you then have to use a separate non-networked USB drive to play your mkv files and this is simply idiotic. Maybe the enterntainment industries had something to do with this decision, maybe not but I cannot think of a sound logical technical reason why they have restricted this to the USB port only.
2) The aforementioned light pools....What a pain in the bum and an absolute deal-breaker if the mkv restriction alone isn't enough to put you off. There was some light bleeding in from the corners on my model but I also suffered from these pools of light, in the top left hand quarter of my screen, and once noticed they cannot be un-noticed when things go dark on screen. The best way I can describe it is like having diffuse moonlit clouds in the corner of the screen. Very prominent in a lot of The Dark Knight and also I saw it on the rooftop scenes towards the very end of Clint's oldie 'Escape From Alcatraz' (I thought it was the moon diffusing through the clouds in the sky hence my original description).

I can only echo the summation of the official review by saying it would have been a sublime purchase for the long term with respect to to its size/weight/picture quality and importantly its relatively small energy consumption (about 120W I think, compared to a 50" Kuro that sucks down about 400W) but these 2 faults have really exposed the Achilles Heels of this TV.

To poorly paraphrase Marlon Brando's "On the Waterfront".....It coulda had class. It coulda been a contender. It coulda been something, instead of a bum, which is what it is.