Plasma TV Reviews: Plasma TV for Less

Reviews

Just received the TV today! It arrived a day early, which was a pleasant surprise. Once I fired it up, I was ecstatic with this set. The quality is amazing for the price, the picture blows away a top of the line 42" 1080p LCD display that I've seen. Deep rich colors, high contrast, fluid motion...there is nothing not to like! Streamed Spartacus off Netflix, and compared to my old little 22" LCD it really came to life.(Even if the writing is really bad) It was able to find some basic cable channels in HD, which is awesome, and Modern Warfare 2 looks simply astounding (again, much better than on aforementioned 42" and 22" LCDs.) The sound is decent, it's actually better than I was expecting. It's obviously no Home Theatre, but I was impressed. It's got a few connections which aren't listed on Amazon...the 3 HDMI, 1 PC, 1 USB, 1 Component, 1 Dual Component/Composite, Audio In 1/8", Audio Out 1/8", Optical out, and cable. The menu is very easy to navigate and adjust, and in it you can turn off it's startup/shut down sound if you find it irritating. It's kinda soothing though. One negative I've found is that the audio running out isn't controlled by the televisions volume, I guess that's pretty standard, but it means my cheap computer speakers aren't much good. (No remote) Also when installing the base stand it felt like I was about to destroy the thread on the screws that are used...They aren't easy to get in there! It's very elegant, and looks great in my living room. It's not super bright, which I love (LCD panels hurt my eyes after a while) All in all, for the money it's a fantastic TV. I was looking for quality, affordability, and style.

Reviews

Okay I've been doing some research and reading all the reviews. Firstly, I've owned Samsung HTV's before and have always been happy with their equipment. During my review of a bedroom replacement HDTV I came across the Samsung PN42B450. Since I recently removed all my cable boxes in the house except for the HDTV/DVR (Comcast Georgia) I needed a HDTV with a built-in tuner to scan Comcast signals using IRC. Thankfully this HDTV rocks and found everything I originally had and even though some channels aren't HD picture quality is still amazing. If you need a HDTV and have Cable feel confident in knowing this HDTV will indeed pickup all your Cable (unscrambled) channels... not just 12 but I'm talking about 130!! I don't have anything else added to it yet but looking into a DVD/R and will update accordingly. FYI Audio Output is indeed optical only so beware for your bedroom home theater people... you might need to upgrade.

This has been a great TV. Vibrant colors, no problems with action or fast motion artifacts. Deep blacks. I highly recommend this unit as a great value for price TV.

The TV set is very good, the shipping company Pilot is no good, they are a bunch of lazy men, at least in my town. Amazon is a weird place for shopping, if they knew some items are hot, they,then jack up the price, so look out for the dishonest Amazonians, they are not as nice as they may seem.

I was saving the dvd "Star Trek" that I received for Xmas for when I upgraded from my Sony Wega CRT. The Samsung performed beautifully; nice contrast during the many explosions. I watched it mostly in Zoom 1 mode and really didn't notice any stretching and it almost filled the screen which was really nice. I don't know when you'd use Zoom 2 as everybody is elastic in that mode. I used the following settings that I found somebody posted during my exhaustive research period, claiming his TV was setup by a TV station engineer friend: CELL 10, CONTRAST 55, BRIGHTNESS 50, SHARPNESS 0, COLOR 40, TINT G50/R50 After the movie it was on to Simpsons(tv) & Futurama(dvd)...wow, the colors just popped! I was happy to find extra channels now accessible (I'm using regular expanded basic cable); most major networks have an HD channel alongside with the SD channel. It's like night & day - compared to the HD the SD is for me to poop on! Others have mentioned how the SD picture takes a hit from CRT and it does a little, but it's not bad and certainly watchable. I think it's more when you switch from an HD to SD channel that the quality differences are so easily noticeable. This was one of my main concerns as I don't want to shell out more $ for digital cable. Of course I'm comparing a 27" CRT with a 42" Plasma, so it's not exactly apples to apples here. I was originally leaning towards the 50" due to it having the USB and internet connections, but figured I'd wait and get those on a Blu-ray player and save me quite a bit of money since the 50" was twice as much. Only CON that I can come up with is that the remote is oddly shaped; the back curves and makes it a little awkward to hold; somebody else described it well as "bottom-heavy." Not sure who came up with that idea, must have been submitted as a joke by an employee. Certainly not a deal breaker. The button layout is fine. I've now had the tv a couple weeks and have watched a few dvd movies and plenty of cable and am 100% happy with the set. I am sitting 9-10 feet away and this TV is PLENTY big enough! The image is so crisp I can't imagine 1080p being much of a difference. The internal speakers are adequate at best; I use them for regular tv and my stereo for movies. The SRS surround really doesn't do anything surround-wise, just sounds different. The TV has now shed light on how inadequate my cheap 20-year old tower speakers are. Time to start researching sound systems...

I am very pleased with the product. However I'm a little disappointed in the fact that the same 42"TV now sells for $100.-- less