- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 74 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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11 out of 12 people found this review helpful
5.0 stars
"The best 42 inch. on the market!"
Pros: Best picture of any hd set.
Cons: power cord length
Summary: After a year researching, and two returns later I finally found the Best 42 inch HDTV on the market at any price range. The picture is unbelievable, better then the Panny or the Sony (I tried them both first)And Samsung addressed the issue with Plasma's and screen burn, and are so confident that it works that they even added PC inputs. Also if you're a gamer like me the Samsung has game mode which made my XBOX360 look just sick. My advice is go with the new Samsung. Oh ya and a tip, make sure you have your DVD player set on the 16:9 setting or you lose some of the great picture detail. I also own the Sony 50" HDTV (KDF-E50A10)
Which is a great set, but the Samsung is much sharper.
- 2 replies to this review
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After owning 3, yes 3 plasma tv's, this is the best 42" HDTV plasma under $1500.
Got mine, one day sale for $1300, but I'd of bought it anyways if it wasn't on sale.
This is my 2nd Samsung plasma. After spending the last 24 hours with it, I can definitely say that for the money, no other 42" plasma in it's price range beats it for black levels, geometry, connectivity, picture quality, & color correctness.
cnet's review mentions video noise in dark scenes, however using Joe Kanes ISF Video Essentials dvd to calibrate the set, these minute blemishes were easily erased.
If you don't have access to a video calibration disc, please try the following if you also own Sammy's HPS4253. (your set may vary, but these #'s worked for my set)
Turn off all enhancements, ie. DNIe, NR, film mode, ect. Next, set power save to auto, adjust color tone to normal (where white is white) & make changes as follows: Contrast 100, Brightness 64, Color 57, Sharpness 50, Tint 61.
I ran 2 Sony reference imaging dvd's in both 4x3 and 16x9 over composite 480i to see how sammy's 3:2 pull down and upconversion would do. It performed much better than any other non-1080p flat panel I've seen yet. After running the advanced video essentials test patterns, the only flaws I could find in this Sammy was the upper right hand corner was ever-so-slightly off in blue hue (only noticeable viewing the SMPTE color bars through a blue filter, and only over composite (plain video RCA) did I find any significant overscan (5% on the top, 3% on the bottom, 2% on the right, and 1% on the left. No big deal, as VGA and HDMI connections courtesy of a Sammy progressive player resolved both color correctness and scan. Upscaled DVD's look absolutely stunning on the 4253.
In conclusion, I find cnet's 6.2 rating much too low for such an outstanding performer. I believe the settings out of the box is what hurts the sammy's performance #'s. The movie mode is aweful (green tinges everything), the normal mode is far from nuetral, and the Dynamic has too much sharpness(75), added to DNIe's boost causing artificial edges and blooming. Unless you're watching this set on analog television, leave all those "enhancement" features off, and turn the sharpness down to 50. With the settings adjusted properly, the display is very film-like, even from 4 feet.
A 10 rating is subjective since that represents absolute perfection, however, for the price this HD set goes for, I happily give this sammy a perfect 10/10. -
I wholeheartedly second the positive spin from user on the samsung hp-s4253. I'm new to the HD/plasma market. the picture quality and style blew me away. there other features are pretty much standard in all other models. And I bought the samsung before I read cnet's review. otherwise I may have been temped not to.
