I currently own both the Samsung UN50EH6000 50" tv and the Winegard FL-5000 FlatWave Indoor Digital Flat Antenna. TLDR: They are both great products.
My TV setup:
HDMI 1 = Cable Box
HDMI 2 = Sand Bridge I3 HTPC
Component = Xbox 360
TOSLINK Audio Out -> Pioneer 5.1 Receiver
I have the TV mounted on the wall in my living room. With some minor setting tweaking the picture is great. One friend has commented that my TV can have a minor “Soap Opera” effect when watching some Blueray quality movies off of the HTPC. I don’t see it. My only gripe with the panel is glare from a window during the day. The sound on the tv is definitely loud and good for watching cable, but I use the Pioneer 5.1 surround for watching movies.
Before I gave into my SO and got cable, I had the Winegard hooked up and mounted in my attic. It ran into a splitter which then went to the cable outlets in the house. Picture quality was great, but you do have to aim it correctly to get all of the channels. I live in the suburbs, but not too far from the OTA towers in the city. Use this website Antennas Direct | TV Transmitter Locator and Mapping Tool (this is my zip code so you can see how far I am)
You should be able to disable the “soap opera” effect your friend speaks of. I a sure I would see it too. I can’t stand watching movies like that, with the exception of the occasional animated movie (especially stop-motion films like Nightmare Before Christmas). I wish there were a handy button to toggle it on and off on my television, but I’m running a Panasonic, not a Samsung.
Does the BD-FM59 player work w Amazon Instant? I see a Netflix button on the remote, so I assume that works. Is there a way to get a list of compatible apps?
If you’d like to cut the cable (I don’t understand how folks can justify $175-300/month cable TV bills - we don’t have the time to watch it that much!)…
Clearly the many Internet streaming services are great, but if you live anywhere near a cosmopolitan (that would be most of us) area, don’t forget over the air antenna TV.
In many cases you don’t even need a roof top antenna and the wall mounted Woot antennas here might do the job.
If you’re in an antenna area you’ll be impressed by the improved picture quality vs. Cable. Over the air HD signals tend to be less compressed than cable.
Also, with the advent of Digital over the air TV, in our area most broadcasters have added up to 3 ‘sub-channels’ of programming. So channel 7 actually now includes channels 7.1, 7.2, & 7.3.
A site was mentioned above by @teamjeep to see what over the air broadcasters are in your area - my favorite:
I really want to buy, but I’ve never purchased a refurbished TV before. What happens if it breaks? Am I screwed? Assuming these are refurbished by Samsung (and that is a big assumption), do I have any warranty with them to get support?