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My ‘old’ TV was a Samsung 40 inch I got 1 year ago.  I should have remembered how many problems I had last year when I set it up.  This new Samsung 46 inch is just as bad, if not worse.

I do not want to setup the TV by having it search for all the available channels.  There are many more than a hundred in So. California – one single foreign language station by itself has 12 programs, each one has to be deleted. 
If I let it search for all the available channels, then I have to go back and manually delete hundreds of them except the dozen that I want to keep.  So I tried to add the channels and it’s as difficult as manually deleting all the ones I don’t want.  What a headache!

I opened up the pamphlet that came with the TV but there was nothing in there about how to add a channel. It turned out that it was in the e-manual stored in the TV’s memory. Every time I wanted to go back to read the e-manual I had to quit whatever I was doing and then go back through the menus to get back to where I was.

So I started from scratch. I tried to add a channel. It insisted I had cable, even after I had selected air earlier. I finally got past that stumbling block.

I tried to add a channel but the stubborn TV decided that it wouldn’t let me; I could only let it add all available channels. After several tries, I gave up in disgust and started the add all channels, but a few seconds later, I turned off the power. When I turned it back on, only three channels were added. Oddly, two of these didn’t seem to have any stations.

I fought with the process of going to the e-manual then back through the menus to get back to where I was. I managed to add a few channels. One major problem is that when the U.S. switched over to digital TV, all of the low VHF channels from 2 to 6 were moved up to the UHF band. So if you add channel 2, there’s nothing there. You have to know where the actual channel is. It might actually be channel 41 or whatever. I’m still working on this.

The user interface was very poorly thought out and felt clunky. All of this added up to a very frustrating experience. It was horrible. I’m just thankful that I don’t have to go through this more than once!

Now that I have used it for several hours I find it sluggish and less responsive than last year’s TV. I’m guessing that the processor has to handle all the other new stuff that has been added such as WiFi, Smart TV, and all the pay stuff like Netflix, etc., etc. It seems as if it’s a product that was rushed to get to the stores, with rough edges that annoy the user but aren’t critical to its operation. The only thing better than the 40″ is I don’t have to hear the four note startup chime waste time when I turn it on!

More Complaints
It’s the 15th, Xmas 10 days away. I’d like to make a few things clear. I have not yet connected the TV up to the network yet, so it has not had an opportunity to download any updates. But I didn’t have the old TV connected to the network, and it worked okay, with none of the complaints that this one has.

That said, I found another annoying thing. On the two older Samsung TVs I had, pressing the info button gave the current program, and also gave the next, upcoming program. This TV does not give the upcoming program. What?! Why not? Cheap junk software!

As I add, delete or change the channels, I found that all I have to do is punch in the channel number, like 28-4, and it adds the channel. But when I want to delete that channel, I have to go through several menus just to get to the point where it will let me check the box, then go to the delete button. What a turkey. I’ve seriously considered putting it back in the box and taking it back. Yes, I think it is that bad!

A friend advised me to plug it into the internet and let it update its software. Yeah, I think that’s a good idea but I think that it’s so bad to begin with that even if it’s updated, the new updated software would suffer from the same problems.