-
"BRIGHT & CLEAR & EASY TO USE" on by Texdot
Pros: BRIGHT, CLEAN PICTURE
Cons: needs a more powerful internal speaker system
Summary: I puchased this TV at Conns and they actually found a lower price online and matched it at $2099.00. The brightness and clarity is supurb. I have Sony 42" in the bedroom from a year ago and there is no comparison.The clarity of this TV, brightens up the room and the sharpness with the HDMI cable is awsome.No need to spend an additional $1000 for the 1080 version unless you are using a Blueray Player.
-
"Incredible Picture, simple setup," on by hecarmen
Pros: HD Picture quality, internal tuner, speakers, price
Cons: Volume adjustment via remote, Anynet integration, 480P image display
Summary: This TV is the first flat screen I've purchased. When choosing this model, I compared this TV to Pioneer plasma TVs at BBY & CC and the HPT5054 picture was much better. None of the LCDs or projection TVs came close.
First, a 50-inch TV is huge! We call it the B.F.T.V. It looks great. The black frame helps prevent it from sticking out more, but a TV this big in my low-ceiling, military base house living room tends to say "All I do is watch TV."
Setting up the TV was easy. We've got an antiquated mom&pop cable system where I live, so I connected the cable direct to the TV and also ran the Gen Instruments cable box (which descrambles some digital channels into a 480P signal) into the TV's air antenna. Switching back and forth is as simple as hitting the antenna button on the remote. The TV tuner does a much better job of processing analog signals than the cable box.
HD signals are displayed BEAUTIFULLY, crisp, vivid.
All images are very clear and adjustable for the room lighting.
The TV tuner sends digital sound to my Denon receiver via optical digital cable or HDMI. Analog channels are transmitted in simple stereo and HD channels are direct Dolby Digital. So, watching a DVD or TV, all my sound comes digitally from the TV to the tuner which processes the analog into 5.1 sound. It's almost shameful to have such a capable home theater tuner sitting as a slave to the TV's audio signal, but it works great.
If I'm too lazy to use the Denon receiver, the speakers on the TV are quite capable and create a fairly decent simulated surround effect. Only gripe on sound is that adjusting sound levels on the remote require multiple presses and releases of the volume buttons.
I also purchased a Samsung DVD-R/VCR combo, which can be controlled through the TV via the HDMI cable using a proprietary system called Anynet. It requires a few extra button smashes to initiate (hitting an Anynet button), but it automatically powers up the DVD/VCR and controls menus. Securing from Anynet requires using the source button (not the Anynet button). My only complaint is the confusing button smashing required to start it up and then return to TV viewing. It trips me up each time, but once Anynet is running my 3-year old knows how to switch from her Little House DVD to her Matilda VHS tape.
Best things I've watched in HD with this TV so far:
- the NASCAR race in Richmond. Wow, the colors, the smooth transitions of the images and the Dolby Digital sound were great.
- KCET in HD. It's the Los Angeles area public tv station in HD. It's like having moving art display.
- KCAL News on Channel 9. The recent fire in the Hollywood Hills was shown in HD and the blacks were deep and I could see the flames turning and spinning and still break out the rotor blades on the helicopters as they dropped water on the flames.
- The NBA playoffs. It was great to see Phoenix beat the Lakers in HD. -
"A great plasma - you can't go wrong" on by jaylundgreen
Pros: Bright and sharp, deep blacks - no more burn in
Cons: ghosting during break in phase is never fun
Summary: This has to be the most overlooked TV in the HD market right now. The 5064 has a USB port and supposedly better glare reduction than the 5054, but did extensive comparisons and found them to be identical. I use an Xbox 360 to stream photos, so the USB slot was irrelevant to me. I got this TV on a well known website a-m-a-z-o-n for on twelve hundred sixty-eight bucks. It is an unbelieveable deal.
Burn-in. It is true, burn in is exaggerated. And now that I have owned this TV for a little while I am convinced that a lot of people are falsely reporting ghosting as burn-in. Ghosting is when you leave a static image on the screen, especially a brilliant color against a bright color (like blue against white) even for a short time (say 15-20 minutes) For a while afterwards you will see that ghost image against a bright screen. And yes, this will even happen with pixel shift active. This is okay though. It goes away after a while and if it is taking longer than you would like, just run the scrolling pattern for an hour or so, and voila, gone.
Also, and I mean no disrespect to Cnet or AVS forum gurus. Their settings are garbage. I adjusted my settings to Cnet's specs and to some on AVS forums and the TV looked absolutely HORRIBLE. Whites were non-existent and were totally yellowed out. Terrible. I prefer to put the TV in standard mode, put the contrast down to 45 and put the gamma down to -2. Then adjust the color temp to your liking. I like normal for movies and cool blue 1 for my xbox 360 and cool blue 2 for my Wii. And they also suggest that game mode always be off. Guess what? I played around with this setting with my 360 and my Wii and it looks better with game mode on for games. Too bad the Wii is not in high def though.
High def TV shows look really nice. I have DirecTV HD and some networks care a lot more about HD than others, and it shows. But to take full advantage of an HDTV, you really need am HD DVD or a Blu-ray player. These movies simply look phenomenal. I opted for an HD DVD player since they were around $180. I figured why justify the cost of an Oppo DVD player for $170 when I could get pretty good upscaling AND HD DVD support for only $10 more. I probably would have gotten blu-ray, if it was in the same price range (sub $200) So I guess for now I will enjoy my ten free movies and just rent from netflix. When blu-ray is cheap I will jump on.
This TV is absolute top notch quality and is going for great prices right now. I highly recommend it. -
"Best 50" plasma available" on by govtmule
Pros: Strong contrast, Great HDTV picture
Cons: None that I have seen so far
Summary: With a 15000 to 1 contrast ratio and a surperb HDTV picture this is my 50" of choice. I spent months comparing sets, both online and in store to replace my Panasonic LCD rear projection. I needed something that would do 1080p for my blu ray dvd player.
So one day I walked into my local Circuit City where you can see most of the wall mounted TV's from the front door. One set stood out like a sore thumb. The picture jumped out at me and made the rest of the look mediocre.
At the time they did not have the tag on the set so I assumed it was the 5084 model. I spent nearly an hour comparing sets, changing channels, etc. This set still stood out over my other choices; Aquos 52", Panny 50", Hitachi 50" and basically every other set there.
I did not buy as I went to 5 other stores over the next several weeks and ever store that had this set impressed me the same way. The picture just stood out.
Turns out the one in CC was the 5054 and with rebates and discounts only cost me $1500 (I know I could have gotten it cheaper online)
This set also makes the standard def channels look good with my Panny could not.
I am totally satisfied and pleased with this set. -
"Horrible it’s absolutely going to screen burn." on by quistoman
Pros: Sadly all negated by its largest Con.
Cons: We brought ours home and after three days it screen burned in DirecTV logo!
Summary: I read the reviews for this TV and figured Id give Samsung the benefit of the doubt but after three days the DirecTV logo is screen burned into the tv and we are taking it back to the store.
One other thing, if you watch any amount of standard def TV pass this one up, because it has horrible up conversion and its almost unbearable to watch anything other than HD on.
Write a Review
Compare to other s
Compare Selected
%20-%20Flat-panel%20TVs%20-%20CNET%20Reviews&srcUrl=http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-hp-t5054/4852-6482_7-32369006.html&x_breadcrumb=6449:6475:6482&x_arw_bkts=MAD:high_wireless_switcher){kind=small}