Electronics Gadget Reviews

Samsung PN42B450 42 Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

42.3″ screen (measured diagonally) * 1024 x 768 pixels * 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio * 600Hz Subfield Motion anti-blur technology * FilterBright anti-glare filter *

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Amazing TV–HORRIBLE service!
This tv is absolutely beautiful and I challenge anyone to find a bigger or better one in this price range. Plasma was the way for us to go because we generally watch tv at night and this minimizes glare amazingly. Simple setup and crystal clear picture out of the box. The bad news: the shipping company PILOT FREIGHT. I ordered this on may 17 (a Sunday). I was told guaranteed delivery the following Friday (the 22nd). Granted, Memorial Day was that Monday, but by Wednesday of the NEXT week I had heard nothing and the tracking info they gave me was bogus. After contacting them 5 TIMES I was told it was left on the dock unclaimed. I was never called to schedule a delivery time. I was then told had I NOT CALLED THEM my package would be considered unclaimed freight after 14 days and returned to shipper. In short it took 2 weeks and I had to do their job for them. The cables, though, showed up the day after my order. Amazon was great and I order quite frequently but their shipper is near useless.

5 Stars Keep up the great work AMAZON
This is the second 42″ inch Samsung plasma TV I have bought from Amazon. The first Nov. 2007 and the 2nd May 2009. Both sets were delivered with free white glove shipping,and both were just great out of the box. Now for the review. the Samsung PN42B450 got hooked up to my DirecTV and the picture and sound are just great out of the box,meaning the factory settings were just right and I didn’t have to change a thing. For a TV priced at around $700 you couldn’t ask for much more.

5 Stars Very good tv for the price
Excellent quality tv, and for the price is even better deal, good to watch sports and movies, this is our second samsung tv after having such a great experience before with a 52 inch LCD HDTV. Perfect size for a medium size room. Now for a big family room i recommend at least 50 inch ( and for a regular tv viewer you don’t really need a 1080p just check on thedynamic contrast ratio and that way you can compare one tv to another besides you can’t tell so much details anyway only if you are really paying attention to a very little details) . Thank you amazon, and enjoy

4 Stars I’m Good!
Great deal! Everything went smoothly from purchase to delivery. TV picture is clear. Everything is lovely! I’m really enjoying the TV!

Samsung TV’s are very impressive.

5 Stars The Best Plasma This Size and Price Point
I purchased this Samsung PN42B450B on May 20, 2009. Today is Thursday May 28, 2009. As promised it arrived shipped from 6AVE in exactly one week. I helped the U.P.S. man carry it in yesterday at about 9:30 a.m. All the way from the warehouse in New Jersey, it was easy to track the shipment to our house in Orlando, Florida. One week is pretty good for FREE SHIPPING.

Our old television was a standard 32″ Toshiba which we purchased from Sam’s Club in October of 1999 when we moved up here from Pinellas County. We shopped around quite a long time for that one too. It lasted up until now. The picture is just getting enough power to give an hour glass representation. Other than that, the Toshiba was fine. In fact, I looked around for a Toshiba to replace it. The closest I could come was a Toshiba 40″ at just around $740 almost everywhere. Honestly, it seemed like the price was price fixed!

We saw this Samsung in BJ’s club and realized that it stood out from all the others. I had been looking for a plasma set, but did not want to get out of the Samsung, Pioneer and Panasonic corridor. These are the three manufacturers extant which build plasma. Why plasma?

Honestly, 1080p is a lot crisper; of this there is no question. The screen ’seems’ brighter, and the longevity of screen is greater than some plasmas….BUT…There is no question that in the end, the plasma will give the best rendition of black. The colors are a lot warmer. All other things being equal, after my wife got home last night, we lifted it on to the stand (while I screwed it in place and connected cables from my antenna and the Dish Network SD box), and then I sat back to see if it would start up right away or if we had a D.O.A.

It is beautiful. It worked like a charm right out of the box. I have not had to fiddle with the colors or brightness as it came out of the box. I am a sound person. I made some adjustments with the equalizer. We watched three hours of Law and Order HD on NBC using my Phillips indoor antenna (I have it situated in a corner … everything comes in including the independents in HD). I could not discern the difference between an 720P or a 1080P picture. For our use it is more than ideal. I haven’t tried it on sports as yet; other reviews think that the argument for 1080p is there. This television is more than adequate at the price.

Price is very important to me. If we could not get this set, my wife started querying me about a 50″ Samsung plasma which was coming up for sale at BJ’s. After I quoted her the sale price of $850, it was right back to Amazon!

The set is excellent. I recommend highly that you purchase the extended warranty. Anything can happen to these sets. We are living in the lightning captal of the world. I have it running through a very expensive box for protection, but one can never tell. I never buy these warranties, and if you look at it closely, it covers the set from DAY ONE. You may think that this is ingenuous of them; on the other hand it also includes damage from SPIKES in the line which the REGULAR warranty does not. Get the warranty. It is already at $710. That brings it up close to $800. You pay for it now or you pay later. Read the reviews of the service calls regarding the warranty. They are MUCH better than average.

Over the years I have populated my home with MANY purchases from Amazon. Even when returning a D.O.A. DSL router/modem we received nothing but the highest level of service. My living room is replete with sound equipment purchased through and from Amazon. Their service is great.

Buy this Samsung 42″ Plasma and enjoy. The setup is simple. Turn it on and follow the screen instructions. You will NOT be disappointed.

Tony Genco

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Samsung PN63B550 63 Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

62.9″ screen (measured diagonally) * 1920 x 1080 pixels * 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio * 600Hz Subfield Motion anti-blur technology * FilterBright anti-glare filter *

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Wow amazing picture and superior quality!
I ordered my Samsung PN63B550 a week ago and it arrived 5 days later. Amazon ordering was easy and tracking my order online was very accurate on their delivery time. My tv was delivered two days before the actual delivery date from Amazon. It was ship by Pilot delivery service and they only sent one person to carry my tv from the delivery truck to inside my home. I had to help assist the delivery guy to take it out of it’s packing material and place it on top of the stand. That was only thing i was dissappointed with I would suggest you call Amazon first before ordering and ask for a white glove deliver service instead. This was my first Samsung plasma Tv and I am thorougly satisfied with my order picture is wonderfull and movies on HD never looked so good on this 63″ mammoth. If your looking for the best Tv for watching sports and movies look no further. I also saved $700 dollars when ordering through Amazon compared to Best Buy and Frys Electronics. Hands down the best Plasma Samsung has ever made. To many features to list like mega dynamic contrast and 600hz motion picture and 24fps for more relistic movie experience and uses 50% less energery compared to last year models.

5 Stars Great TV
I have had my 63B550 for about two weeks now. The picture is amazing. The colors are great, and it’s a bright set. No signs of IR at all. I’d recommend it.

1 Star Not like other Samsung products
I received this TV with great expectations, but within 10 minutes of viewing, I decided to go through the pain of returning this large item.

I have 2 other Samsung TV’s, and I was particularly impressed with their A650 series LCD TV (LN46A650). I expected same type of vividness out of this B550, but unfortunately, this one doesn’t even come close.

The brightness level is all off, and the color bleeds all over the screen. After some tweaking, I concluded that the trouble is something more fundamental. Basically we are dealing with something that cannot be adjusted via user interface. Flesh color looks dead on the screen, and HD signal doesn’t help either.

Maybe they cut the cost too much this year. Maybe 550 series was never meant to complete with A650 series. I’m willing to give one more try with A650 plasma series from 2008, as B550 is the only item for 2009 so far.

I just hope I don’t have to go through too much trouble returning this TV. I also hope that Samsung gets their act together and put out better product in the large category.

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Samsung PN58B550 58 Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

58″ screen (measured diagonally) * 1920 x 1080 pixels * 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio * 600Hz Subfield Motion anti-blur technology * FilterBright anti-glare filter *

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Love it!
Hands down, this is the best for your money. I spent several months and many trips to Best Buy and other electronics stores to preview different selections. I’ve had a lot of luck with my previous Samsung purchases (42″ LCD, washer and dryer). I read the Consumer Reports review, which gave it the top review for it’s category. After putting on The Dark Knight and was blown away. For the price, there is nothing better.

3 Stars Awesome picture, but very loud buzz: will return
Previously, I had purchased a 52″ Samsung LCD (the 650 model), but ended up returning that because – even though everything else rocked – fast motion on the set was unacceptably bad and SD programming looked *really* bad, so much so that I was able to make a good case for the TV being defective.

After a bit of research, I found out that I’d made a mistake purchasing an LCD at all: for a given picture size and a normally-illuminated room, a plasma TV will deliver a better picture for a lower price than an LCD even after the cost of calibration of the plasma is reckoned. Live and learn.

So, I bought this model as a replacement, and although (even without professional calibration) I am completely happy with its picture – the colors, blacks, contrast, motion, and edges are fantastic for HD and acceptable-to-good for SD – there is an extremely loud buzz that comes from the center of the set at all times.

To make sure that the buzz was entirely due to picture generation and not dirty power or unshielded cable signals or a defect with the sound system, I bought a Monster Power Center surge protector to clean up the power, unplugged all devices in the vicinity from the wall, unplugged all plugs into the TV, wrapped a couple ferrite cores around the power cable, turned on the TV (obviously with no signal coming in), and hit the mute button. The buzz remained the same.

To mask the buzz while programming is playing, I would have to turn up the volume very loud, which is unacceptable for neighbors in my complex late at night, precisely when I like to watch TV.

I did find a solution though: if I angle the TV around 15 degrees on its swivel stand relative to my seat, the buzz becomes sufficiently inaudible (because the back panel concentrates the buzz in a straight column perpendicular to the center of the set) … but it seems silly to me to drop $2000 on a set and then have to view it off-center, even though I stop noticing that the TV is at an angle after a couple minutes of watching.

To find out if the buzzing was common to plasma sets, I went into a Best Buy superstore and – despite strange looks from the staff – I put my ear directly in front of the middle of every plasma set in the store, around 7 of them in all. Not a single one of them of any size had a detectable buzz!

So, since I made a point of buying this set direct from Amazon for their white-glove delivery service and 1-month return policy, I’m going to return it and get another model plasma set, probably the Samsung A550 … though to be sure, I’ll want to scan all those reviews for reports of a loud buzzing noise first, before purchasing.

5 Stars Great TV, great value.
I purchased the television after pricing the same model, as well as other similar brands, in local stores. I ended up saving about $400.00 dollars or so by buying online, and paid no taxes or shipping. The TV was delivered several days early to my doorstep by the contracted delivery agents.

The TV looks very sleek and classy, and you can use the attached base or mount it flush onto a wall using a bracket system (sold seperately).

The picture quality is wonderful and the menu is very easy to navigate. There are PLENTY of HDMI inputs, as well as every other type of input you might want to use (Component, Composite, DVI, PC, and Coaxial Cable). Most of the inputs are conveniently located on the rear of the TV, but a few inputs are located on the left side for quickly connecting and disconnecting temporary devices. There is even a USB port to display photos and the like. Outputs are also plentiful, and come in various formats as well.

I did have minor problems with the sound quality at first, but I have managed to tweak the audio output using the built-in equalizer. This is because the speakers on the TV are projected downward from underneath the lower border of the screen. There is a very slight electrical buzzing sound audible only when the television is muted or otherwise putting out low-volume audio, but I believe this is probably normal for TVs of similar size (regardless of make or model).

Currently, I use the system to watch satellite TV and play Playstation 3 video games with no problems at all. Overall, I believe this product is a great purchase for anyone looking to upgrade to a large widescreen television.

5 Stars Samsung PN58B540
I orginally went to Sams and purchased the A610, 52″ LCD, brought is home and it was just to small after I had a 55″ Sony for the last 4 years. Went back and traded up for this one. The price was terrific at 1,898.00 for 58″ of pure plasma joy. The is my first plasma, I just upgraded from a 55″ Sony LCD that had an optical block go bad. Anyway back to the review. brought it home and plugged it in to my directtv (no HD package), and the picture is good. I went out and bought an HDTV antenna for the local channels, and the picture is awesome. I am sold on plasma, and will never buy and LCD tv again. The sound is good, this is a small buzzing sound from the rear of the TV, but nothing that the sound doesn’t drown out. Awesome picture in HD and on blu-ray. Totally stastfied. I did have a small problem with the tv leaning to the left ever so slightly. I called Samsung customer service, and they sent a tech out the house to repair the problem. Great TV for a great price.

3 Stars Just not as good as expected BUT
Hi well I do have some good things to say, but I don’t have a lot of good things to say…..yet First let me say this is my third big screen purchase, and my second Samsung (none this big, 50 inch lcd for my father was tops). I am certainly no expert as seen on cnet, but I do consider myself somewhat knowledgable, and pretty much a self taught guy.

Delivery was terrific, I cannot say enough. I bought this from Onecall(2099) on a Monday Morning and was told 7-10 days (free delivery)then Tuesday night a guy called and said they could deliver it Wednesday … I said wow, after all, it was shipped for California and I live in NY …. I couldn’t believe it. Anyway when the guy who was dropping it off (curbside only), asked me if I had anyone to help me get it into the house, and I told him no … he then offered to help me get it inside of my garage for me ….. since it was raining …. I said sweet and tipped him 15.00 dollars for his troubles ! And I did need his help …it’s just to bulky for 1 person

Ok as for the TV, well with blue ray …it’s simply fantasitic, awesome. All anyone could ever ask for !!!! With direct TVHD, it really is only ok at best, true be told, I am really kind of disappointed ( I even went to best buy, and bought monster cables to see if they would help …no they didn;t if your wondering …and yes I took them back as they made zero difference to my off brand hdmi cables). The other channels (regular ones), well they seem to be a hit and a miss, some good, some bad, and some just normal. The TV has some great colors, in fact I don’t think I have seen better colors on any other TV I have ever seen, but with that being said, it definitely needs proffessional calibration .. in my opinion! I have tried a lot of different settings and continueously played with the settings, only to never get it as it should be… huh …. well maybe cnet or someone else will review it and give me some ideas. I like to watch a lot of sports, and direct TVHD on this tv does not come in nearly as well as anticipated, nor does the HDNFL network that plays replays of last seasons games come in as well as expected. Again, color’s are fantastic, clarity of the picture, not so much. It seems like I can’t get both.

Well anyways my 58 incher looks awesome in blue ray, so it looks as though I have my own mini movie theater at the very least (complete seperate high end surround sound system), but I will update this after a month or two. I hope this helped, I know a reading others reviews sure help me decide ….. but I went for the b550 instead of the a550 …we shall see

UPDATE:

HI guys, thanks for you thoughts on my review! Well you are right, as I have come to the conclusions, that my HD signals from Direct TV are just not good at ALL. In fact the direct TV guys came over and moved the dish it was so bad, and THEN had the nerve to tell me oh well it looks like you may not be able to get HD here after all ( and oh by the way sorry about all the holes on your roof ..but thats another issue …man do I hate direct tv) Anyways we have decided to try hd cable tv again, so they are coming in a couple of weeks

So over-all I am really very happy with my TV, and when you get a great signal, it’s simply remarkable how well this plasma performs. Standard tv is acceptable at best, but the size of the picture more than makes up for the average quality of ther pictures those rare times I use but hey who knows it may change soon!!

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