Samsung has also greatly expanded the online connectivity of the UN55C7000. While previous Samsung HDTVs had basic news and stock ticker information available, Samsung's latest and greatest bring a deeper level of web functionality to LCD HDTVs.

Online functionality for Samsung's UN55C7000 is a lot like what you'd get on a modern smartphone. There's no browser to speak of so you won't be able to use the UN55C7000 to replace your PC for viewing web pages, but you do get a number of built-in applications and the capability to add more through Samsung's Internet@TV interface.

Internet@TV is the online application manager for the UN55C7000 HDTV. It comes with a number of pre-loaded applications including YouTube, Skype, Picasa Web Albums and a number of Yahoo! widgets that can be overlayed on top of normal TV viewing. However there's even more potential here thanks to the Samsung App store, which allows you to update existing applications and download completely new ones.

Right now the Samsung App store is a little spartan and consists mainly of games (not particularly fun or good games, think of what you'd play on a basic "dumb" cellphone), but with time and aggressive development of apps for Hulu and Netflix, and this could turn into a real powerhouse feature for Samsung's HDTVS. Currently all of the downloads on the Samsung App store are listed as "Free", but that does imply pay apps somewhere in the future.

Youtube connectivity through Internet@TV makes an especially good case for having HDTVs that can access the internet. Selecting the Youtube application drops you right into a browsing and search menu that lets you pick out online clips for streaming directly on your HDTV.

Making search queries and typing in the Youtube app is a lot like sending text messages from your standard mobile phone. You can enter text using T9 predictive typing or through multiple button presses using the Samsung remote, and the search function is smart enough to recommend certain words and give you the option to re-use search terms to keep typing to a minimum. It's about as good as you're going to get for a remote-control based interface, but it's no replacement for a computer keyboard, a more elegant input device for a more civilized age.

Pretty much all the content you would expect from Youtube is available for play through Internet@TV's interface, although there are a few limitations: only standard-definition Youtube clips are available, you can't view special features like Youtube annotations or comments (really this is a plus in my book), and you can only search/sort for clips by relevance, popularity, view count and rating.

It would have been nice to be able to view Youtube's HD content on a 55" 1080p-capable screen, and the interface isn't quite slick enough to be able to search by clip duration to make it easy to enjoy the handful of full-length movies and shows that are available on Youtube. However you do get the ability to queue up multiple Youtube clips together into a playlist so you're not always searching for the next part of a particular clip.

While the Youtube app is probably where you'll spend most of your time with Internet @ TV there are a few more applications on the Samsung UN55C7000 that are worth talking about. Yahoo! has created a number of widgets that can be overlayed on top of the UN55C7000 while you watch TV.

It's easy to load in stock tickers, localized weather, news and eBay listings on your screen while you channel surf, and these functions now load fast enough to be a pretty convenient addition if you don't feel like controlling your TV manually.

It's also possible to use the UN55C7000 for built in video confrencing using the embedded Skype application. You'll need a compatible webcam for this, along with a decent internet connection and a Skype account.