In my personal use I could only view 3D video on the Samsung UN55C7000 for about 30 minutes to an hour even in ideal conditions (with the shutter glasses properly calibrated, in a darkened room and sitting about 9 feet away, with the display at eye level), before feeling my eyes beginning to strain and lose focus.

Other viewers who tried out the UN55C7000 in the PCSTATS labs reported being able to watch the UN55C7000 for only a few minutes all the way up to being able to watch it indefinitely without any ill effects.

After longer viewing sessions with the UN55C7000 in 3D mode, it was difficult to immediately switch to staring at conventional LCD and CRT screens for several minutes afterwards. Samsung posts multiple warnings in the manual and in the on-screen displays of the UN55C7000 to be careful not to enable the 3D effects on the UN55C7000 for too long. Your mother always told you that watching too much TV would make you cross eyed, and in this case it might be true.

From the Samsung manual:"When watching 3D pictures, ensure you do not place any object that is harmful or can easily be broken near you. Being startled or deluding yourself into thinking that the 3D images are real may cause you to crush a nearby object or get injured trying to move your body."

How is non-3D viewing on the Samsung UN55C7000?

Samsung hasn't sacrificed the traditional 2D viewing experience when adding 3D to the UN55C7000. While it doesn't quite have the same amazing contrast that Samsung's dynamic matrixed LED back lighting is capable of, everything else about the display quality is comparable to Samsung's previous LCD HDTVs.

When paired up with high-definition 1080p content the picture is clear, crisp and well saturated. Black levels show a little bit of light bleeding around the edges and corners of the display, due to the edge-lit LED nature of the screen, but this is only noticeable in very dark scenes in dim rooms.

The built-in 15W speakers on the UN55C7000 leave a lot to be desired, and frankly don't do justice to the awesome viewing experience. You'll really want to plug this into your home stereo setup to get maximum oomph to match up with the visuals. Remember to tack on a couple hundred dollars for a decent home theatre sound system at the check out...