-
"Great 58in. HDTV for the money!" on by BMWguy206
Pros: 1080P, great picture quality, great black levels, great price for value, hardly any buzz, decent glare filtering.
Cons: Screen does give off some heat.
Summary: I had my eyes set on the Pioneer 6010 or the 6020 but never pulled the trigger because it was over $4200.00. Then came the Samsung PN58A550. Had some good features and was very affordable. So much affordable that I ended up buying it from Amazon and had so much money left over that I bought a PS3 for Blu-Ray, a 5 year extended warranty, and a new sound system.
This TV is huge! I mounted it on a Salamander Triple Mount Stand and have it tilted down 7 degrees. The TV faces a large window across the room but due to the TV at a angle there is barely any glare/reflection at all.
Black levels and picture quality looked great to me. Now some people say that plasma TVs produce too much buzz or too much heat. There is some heat coming off the screen but it's not HOT. Just a bit warm. Sitting about 10ft away there is no audible buzz from the TV. When I was behind it though doing the wiring there is some humming but it's nothing to complaint about.
I am very happy with the Samsung 58A550 and I highly recommend it. -
"Great picture but will be returning the set" on by NYCelectronicuser
Pros: Best fleshtones and most movie like of any set out there
Cons: Screen is not pure white and has blotches of pink read my opinion below
Summary: I own a PN63a650 not a PN58A650 but want buyers to be ware. What I am seeing is the same for any size Samsung Plasma and any of the 450, 550 and 650 series.
My set exhibits a pink background in three areas on the screen. I went to my local Circuit City and Sound Advise and looked at ALL their Samsung Plasmas. All the Samsung plasmas exhibited the same problem though on different areas of the screen. There was one Samsung 50A450 that was perfect or the way plasmas are supposed to be.
At Sound Advise their 58A650 had a pink band from left to right about 4 inches wide about 10" from the top of the screen.
If you ask the salesman to put on the WHITE screen, which can be found under the Screen Burn In Protection menu, it is instantly visible. What you see on this screen is in the background of anything you watch.
White snow looks slightly pink and sky scenes look like sunset scenes.
Now for the good.
Picture is the best of any large plasma I have seen or own. I own 4 other plasmas. This was supposed to replace a 5 year old 50" Pioneer. I also own a 65" & 50" Panasonic and a 42" Hitachi.
I used the calibration that Plasma Buyers Guide posted and the only alteration I made was changing the temperature setting from Warm 2 to normal.
The picture is incredible. Flesh tones are real with all the color popping you would expect from a HD set without exaggeration.
Truth be known, I don't know what else to buy since I've seen what an accurate large screen can do. The Panasonic 65" and 60 Pioneer 6020 don’t come close. Yeah blacks are better on the Panasonic and Pioneer but they don't have the movie realism or depth that the Samsung has.
If there was no problem with the "pink cast" I would have rated this set a 10 or higher if possible. I love the set but can't live with the problem.
Minor complaints. No finger or handles to hold while lifting a 140 pounder. No presets for each input nor a way to lock your setting so nobody changes them on you.
Samsung also has a horrible call back policy from a supervisor. 3-5 days. Still waiting -
"Awesome plasma, incredible colors, very elegant design." on by satandog2
Pros: Intuitive set-up, lit remote, swivel base, very sharp picture even with digital cable feed.
Cons: Heavy and according to specs, will suck up lots of juice.
Summary: Just got this set delivered yesterday and was eager to plug it in. I had never purchased a plasma of this size before and at 58", it'll make an incredible impression in any room. The set is huge. After carefully placing it on a new A/V TV console we had purchased earlier, I began making the connections to the back, which was easy and effortless thanks to the included ties to bundle cables and clear color coded inputs. The TV automatically sensed the inputs, which greyed out the unused ones in setup to make it easy to know which were active. Unfortunately I don't have an HD feed to that location yet (Dish TV) coming soon to place a new HD DVR) so I fired up the digital feed (SD) and at first impressions, the most striking thing was the color depth. Very good color richness in the picture, sharp contrast, and all this without touching a setting. Still need to calibrate. After popping in a DVD (not Blue Ray), the picture was even better of course (connection to a Humax Tivo with DVD via Composite connection). Great resolution. The sound is pretty good, although not quite as good as an Aquos 32" LCD we had prior in another room. Still, after tweaking the EQ (multi band, not just lows and highs) it sounded great and filled the room. Still haven't figured out how to change inputs easily without exiting from the menu, will have to read the manual in depth
Overall very satisfied with the purchase and at $2,717.00 including delivery and no tax, it's a bargain for the picture you get. highly recommend this set. -
"Centerpiece of my dream home theater" on by genghiskhen
Pros: standard definition picture; screen pivots
Cons: price; poor picture mode design; scary burn-in disclaimer
Summary: I bought this TV from Video Only after trying the 52” LCD 550 model for a week. They have a 30 exchange policy. The 52” was big, but I wanted huge. Standard definition pictures on the 52” LCD were also a little lacking so I upgraded to the huge plasma. The $1000 price difference was worth it.
I posted a response to the “I got burn in review” here lamenting Samsung’s exaggerated disavowal of responsibility for burn-in. While I still feel the repeated and prominent statements of non-responsibility for burn-in are scary, I have not had any problems. I have been watching a lot of TV, movies, and playing PS3 for the last couple weeks and the screen looks like new. As long as I don’t forget to turn it off when I leave or something stupid like that, burn-in is probably not an issue. I occasionally run the burn-in protection screen savers just in case.
I was happy with the HD picture on the 52” LCD and I am equally happy with the HD picture on the 58” plasma. It is the difference in standard definition pictures that has me raving. I have an Onkyo TX-SR805 and the user manual says it does not upsample HDMI inputs to the HDMI monitor. Still, my standard definition Verizon FIOS channels look very good. I bought a picture tuning DVD to adjust the picture settings and I think I changed the brightness from 50 to 48. All other factory settings were perfect, and honestly, the 2 integer change (scale of 100) in brightness was probably not necessary. The size and beauty of this television are very impressive and I feel like more of a man owning it.
The remote is comfortable and well laid out and I like the backlight. I changed the setting for the small light below the screen to only be lit when the TV is off. It is a convenient way to quickly see if the TV is on and serves as a small nightlight. The ability to pivot the screen is a nice feature but is not necessary in my setup. There isn’t a place in my family room or adjoining kitchen where the picture is obscured. I have an L shaped couch with the primary seating positions 12 ft. from the screen. The L side of the couch puts viewers as close as 9 ft. While this is closer than ideal, the picture is not in any way obscured. In fact, the picture still looks nice standing at a 60 degree angle from the screen.
I am extremely happy with this television and the reason I gave it 8 instead of 10 is because of one thing. CNET commented on the strange picture mode selection in their review of the smaller model. In the main menu you can select Sports, Movies, and Dynamic picture modes. These are the modes you can edit the settings on. If you select the picture toggle on the remote it changes another set of picture modes in a different menu. You cannot use your personally defined picture modes unless you go turn off the other modes in the Settings menu. This is a very poor design on a prominent feature and thus warranted a 2 point deduction. Also, the burn-in screen savers are buried in a menu that requires 6 clicks to view and additional clicks to navigate to and select. They feel more like a “cover your ass” feature than a feature truly intended for use. -
"weird spark sound" on by simontsao
Pros: picture is good, it also works as a popcorn machine.
Cons: weird spark sound
Summary: The new one is good, but after a few months, weird spark sound come from inside the TV set. Samsung Service Center failed to fix it. They tell me "it's nothing serious."
Write a Review
