Totally happy
After months or research and model comparison, I went with the PN50B650, and ordered from Amazon because they had the best price and free shipping.
I'm basically totally happy with the TV. You can see all of the features above, so I won't go into listing them. One thing I was pleasantly surprised about is how light the TV is. I was able to unpack and set up the TV by myself, lifting it onto the stand with almost no difficulty. It is much lighter than I expected. The only difficulty I had with setting it up was with the unwieldy size, not the weight.
I can only think of two things a potential buyer should be aware of before buying, and I don't think either issue is important enough to reduce my 5-star rating.
1. The screen is quite reflective. Even with the Ultra FilterBright feature, sunny windows and lamps reflect on the screen enough to be a distraction. However, the glare compared to my last plasma screen TV is very much reduced. So I just close the blinds and turn off any lamps behind me, and it's not an issue.
2. The Internet widgets are very slow. The Youtube and Amazon widgets are really great, especially the Amazon Video on Demand widget, I use it several times a week. But it still takes a good 3-5 minutes from the time I hit the "Internet" button on the remote until I'm actually in the Amazon video screen picking what I want to watch. I also hope they continue to add to the Internet widget selection, as I've found most of them (Showtime, CBS, etc) to be basically glorified advertisements rather than viable sources of entertainment. However, if the TV had only the Amazon widget, I would still give it 5 stars.
2010-03-19
Wow, wonderful picture quality at an amazing price!
OK, I'll admit to being a bit too cautious when buying big-ticket electronics. I read the Consumer Reports reviews and look at their ratings, then it's over to CNET for a sanity check and to see what their readers have said, then I check all of the online vendors to compare prices and narrow the field to one or two items at one or two vendors. Then I usually buy at Amazon because their prices are great and shipping is always spot-on! No, they didn't pay me to say that :-)
The 50" Samsung plasma wasn't even a thought in my head when I first started looking for a large-format 1080P HD, I was actually looking for another LCD. I've read all the reviews about plasma vs. LCD (see above) but this Samsung is just an amazingly good TV for relatively good value. I needed multiple HDMI inputs, wifi capability (w/optional adapter), an optical audio out, and the ability to display low-res local programing as well as higher resolutions. The Samsung hits the mark on all of these.
A few reviewers have correctly knocked this Samsung for its less than amazing audio, fair enough. But these big sets are nearly always paired with a 5.1 or 7.1 surround system (mine is...) and this wasn't a big deal for me, that said I usually use the integral audio for most news programs anyway. A few others complained of "buzzing", either my hearing is fading with age or the buzzing is at dog-whistle decibels because I don't hear any buzzing at all - absolutely nothing.
To sum up, this is a great HD TV, most buyers will love it.
2010-03-17
Great for the money but not perfect.
I'll get the drawbacks over quickly. There is a slight buzz with this set, I have had one set replaced due to some damage during shipping and both made an identical noise. The good news is that the sound diminishes over time, and is mostly present when the contrast is high. For the first 200 hours you shouldn't be blasting the contrast anyway, so it's a good reminder. The second drawback would be that this plasma is definitely very susceptible to image retention especially when gaming. It does have a screen wipe feature that will get rid of residual images rather quickly, regardless, after a month of solid viewing the retention is just as significant a problem as it was when we first received the television. As a gamer, this worries me a bit and I've been going a bit lite on my gaming sessions and will probably continue to do so for a few months.
On to the positives, the picture quality is fantastic. I've switched from an LCD and the difference is simply... wow. Great black levels, colors pop, just beautiful. DNLA is great as well as I run a server on my pc and am able to stream music and video right to my tv. The whole menu is just a breeze, though I wish it were easier to switch from game mode to movie mode (there are shortcuts to switch from normal to movie mode, but game mode is in a sub-menu... a very minor issue). I game on a PS3 and the games are simply beautiful... great response time, I had no idea how much input lag I was getting on my sony bravia until I made the switch.
The set itself looks fantastic as well. The touch of red suits it perfectly, the glass stand looks great too. I have a somewhat well lit living room with a large window to the north and the television on the south wall... the anti-glare works great and reflection isn't a problem in my house. If I really look I do see a reflection in bright light but I don't notice it at all.
I don't use the yahoo widgets, I plan on trying the amazon video rental service it offers, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Other then that we just have the weather widget but we see that every morning on our computer desktop so it's not really necessary. I will say though that the auto update of the firmware makes updating everything a breeze. The usb port is also handy, I downloaded some break in images once I noticed the image retention, put them on a usb stick and ran it continuously when I wasn't watching movies for a couple of days and it played them very easily (this did nothing to lessen the image retention by the way, so I would not waste the time again).
Plenty of ports on the television, quick delivery from amazon... replacement was a breeze as well for the damaged unit, with very friendly amazon customer service. For the money, I'd recommend this buy over any other TV in it's price range.
2010-03-11
