I think I am about to pull the trigger on one of these two TVs. Which should I get? My situation: The distance from eye to screen is 13 or 14 feet. I also care a bit about screen brightness.

Is the panasonic better in terms of PQ? Is it as bright as the Sammy? Is the panasonic less prone to burn in and IR? Will the distance make it worth getting the bigger set, IYO? In other words, which one should I get? Let me know why you think what you think too, please.

Wait for some reviews on the B series Sammy You know what your getting.

The b-series isn't even out yet, I would wait for reviews too.

Haha, good point. My thinking was that the B650 was probably roughly equivalent to the A650. So what if the comparison were with the Pany and the A650?

From that distance I would get the PN63 A or B 650. The B will be a solid product, saw the unit at CES.

Saw the PN63B650 first hand at CES & was most impressed. Great slim design, bright vivid colors w/deep blacks and a modest suggested $3499 for this size plasma. The Samsung PN63B650 is slim at only about an inch thick and boasts Energy Star 3.0 compliance. This model offers 24p and 600Hz processing, color enhancer pro, USB media format support and native 1080p. Very similar to the 2009 Panny Lineup models. The Panny PZ800U on the other hand received the CNET Editor's Choice Award in October 2008, not bad for around $2499 in today's market. At 13 or 14 feet, you can't go wrong with either model but is 5 inches more of screen worth 1K?

Saw the PN63B650 first hand at CES & was most impressed. Great slim design, bright vivid colors w/deep blacks and a modest suggested $3499 for this size plasma. The Samsung PN63B650 is slim at only about an inch thick and boasts Energy Star 3.0 compliance. This model offers 24p and 600Hz processing, color enhancer pro, USB media format support and native 1080p. Very similar to the 2009 Panny Lineup models. The Panny PZ800U on the other hand received the CNET Editor's Choice Award in October 2008, not bad for around $2499 in today's market. At 13 or 14 feet, you can't go wrong with either model but is 5 inches more of screen worth 1K?

You have your tvs mixed up. Only the 8 series is 1" thick and they come in 50" and 58" only.

^^^ That is correct.....

Saw the PN63B650 first hand at CES & was most impressed. Great slim design, bright vivid colors w/deep blacks and a modest suggested $3499 for this size plasma. The Samsung PN63B650 is slim at only about an inch thick and boasts Energy Star 3.0 compliance. This model offers 24p and 600Hz processing, color enhancer pro, USB media format support and native 1080p. Very similar to the 2009 Panny Lineup models. The Panny PZ800U on the other hand received the CNET Editor's Choice Award in October 2008, not bad for around $2499 in today's market. At 13 or 14 feet, you can't go wrong with either model but is 5 inches more of screen worth 1K?

IDK if 5" is worth $1K but I'm thinking that 8" would have been!

I sit about 13' from my 50" (Sammy 5084) and when I watch movies I REALLY wish I would have spent the extra $1K at the time to get the 58" instead of the 50"!!!

So now I will have to upgrade to the 8 series 58" Woot!

The moral of the story, go big or go home! LOL

Get the bigger set!! If money is not an issue then the 5 inches is worth it. I own two Panasonics, a 65" plasma and 37" LCD, and the only Samsung set (a CRT) I owned died on me so I'm not biased towards the Samsung. But given the opportunity to purchase a larger set, I would definitely take advantage of the opportunity because you would definitely regret going with the smaller set after 6 months.

PN63A650 just took a big price hit.

From that distance I would get the PN63 A or B 650. The B will be a solid product, saw the unit at CES.
Since you've seen both the Pannys and the Sammies would you put them both as equals for overall PQ? Does one stir your soul more than the other?

When is the B650 supposed to be out? It isn't even listed on Samsungs website. In fact, even the B550 isn't on the website.

There will be no PN63B650, only a PN63B550 and they are out now.

That's odd because Amazon had the PN63B650 advertised for pre-order, but when the date arrived it was no longer available. I have a screenshot but can't post it because I'm a new user. Just search for PN63B650 and look at the Google Cache of any one of the many Amazon results. Bad on Amazon I guess.

Cleveland Plasma, please clarify... Earlier you said:
"From that distance I would get the PN63 A or B 650. The B will be a solid product, saw the unit at CES."

An now you're saying:
"There will be no PN63B650, only a PN63B550 and they are out now."

The links at Amazon are indeed screwed up - some sites have it as B650 but when you click it takes you to the B550. My 12-year old projection TV died on me and I've been waiting for the PN63B650... There's only one review of the B550 at Amazon and the dude was not impressed at all. The A650 has excellent reviews. Between the PN63B550 and PN63A650 which one would you recommend?

I have the same question. 2008 model PN63A650 or 2009 model PN64B550. I have seen the new 550 and PQ looks good but wasn't sure if it was supposed to have any PQ improvements over last years 650? Anyone seen both of these and compared? The 650A is $2700 online compared to $3500 for new 550B.

Cleveland Plasma, please clarify... Earlier you said:
"From that distance I would get the PN63 A or B 650. The B will be a solid product, saw the unit at CES."

An now you're saying:
"There will be no PN63B650, only a PN63B550 and they are out now."

The links at Amazon are indeed screwed up - some sites have it as B650 but when you click it takes you to the B550. My 12-year old projection TV died on me and I've been waiting for the PN63B650... There's only one review of the B550 at Amazon and the dude was not impressed at all. The A650 has excellent reviews. Between the PN63B550 and PN63A650 which one would you recommend?

I, like Amazon, thought it was going to be a B650, turnes out Samsung made it a B550. Not sure why :confused:

I have seen both the units you mentioned above and I stand firm feeling the new unit has a better piture right out of the box. The new unit has deeper blacks and a sharper picture. To me the new unit shows very good improvements over last years model.

The links at Amazon are indeed screwed up - some sites have it as B650 but when you click it takes you to the B550. My 12-year old projection TV died on me and I've been waiting for the PN63B650... There's only one review of the B550 at Amazon and the dude was not impressed at all. The A650 has excellent reviews. Between the PN63B550 and PN63A650 which one would you recommend?

I noticed this as well, kind of threw me for a loop. http://www.entertainment-place.info/smile/img/2464/*************************

I have an option to get either of these two for roughly same price. Is anyone familiar with both of these that could help me decide?

btw both are 63" models

thanks!
-m

It seems that Samsung managed to confuse the heck out of everybody... Perhaps on purpose, to keep selling the remaining "A"s... :)
This is like when you go buy a car and they have last year's model in a loaded trim for the same price of this year model in a more basic trim. Which one to buy? It's not clear to me if what people saw at CES (and liked so much) was the B550 or a B650 that never made the stores, so I'm not sure there is a good comparison available yet. I called Samsung a couple of weeks ago and the guy, although very friendly, knew less than I did about the B series. After several days in doubt and reading every site on the web I ended up buying the B550. I'll be happy to post my opinion in a few days (the unit hasn't arrived yet), but of course we still won't have a side-by-side comparison with the A650.