I need to get a new 50" plasma by Saturday! I sold my 42" Loewe plasma today. My HT installer is a dealer for the following brands and models:

Hitachi 55HDx99
Toshiba 50HP66
Fujitsu P50THA58EB
Samsung HP-S50 73

I am also interest in the Pioneer PRO-1140HD and any other 50" sets that might be worth while.

Thanks in advance for the advice and opinions.
Mike

What type of setup are you planning on having?

I was recently in the same proverbial boat as you.

I chose the Panasonic TH-50PH9UK from their commercial line. It can be had from a reputable form sponsor or Costco for well under 2k.

It really depends on what setup you are planning on running. The commercial Panasonics are great for the right application. If you have a A/V receiver (running external speakers), are planning on wall mounting your plasma (if you are not I would go DLP), and have an external tuner such as a cable box, satellite tuner, DVR, or HTPC then I would give the commercial Panasonic serious consideration. It does not come with speakers (but it does have a build in amp *cheap computer speakers* or just run an AVR), a stand, or a build in NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner.

These PDPs come with VGA and RS-232 built in. On removable *blade* cards, the 50 inch model comes with a composite/s-video blade, component blade, and a empty blade slot. Blades are removable and upgradeable. Panasonic offers DVI w/ HDCP blades (with 1:1 pixel mapping), HDMI blades, VGA blades, component blades, composite/s-video blades, HD-SDI blades and many others.

There are several threads on this plasma and I would suggest checking out the owners thread (sticky):
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=706697

9UK setting thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=779168

and most importantly
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=733641

The 3rd one will give you some of the best hands on results out-there.

If you are considering the Pioneer PRO-1140HD then look at the TH-50PF9UK (1080p) which is about the same street price as the Pioneer.

I need to get a new 50" plasma by Saturday! I sold my 42" Loewe plasma today. My HT installer is a dealer for the following brands and models:

Hitachi 55HDx99
Toshiba 50HP66
Fujitsu P50THA58EB
Samsung HP-S50 73

I am also interest in the Pioneer PRO-1140HD and any other 50" sets that might be worth while.

Thanks in advance for the advice and opinions.
Mike
It looks like your price range is from $2k - $3k. Are you going to have HD setup with these flat panels? The reason I ask is because if you are only going to watch non-HD channels it makes more sense to spend less on a plasma. If you are going to watch HD then I would go with the Pioneer Pro. Although from the list above my choice would be the Samsung. I believe the Samsung is fairly close to the Panasonic 50PX60U/50PX600U in terms of picture quality. Although the black levels aren't as deep. However, I thought that the color rendition is just as good.

Chris
MountAVision.com

Add the NEC 50XR6A as it is a direct competitor to the Pioneer Elite and cost s less.

Fujitsu all the way if you can afford it.

mdrums,
have you seen these sets? did visual comparisons? check length of warranties.

Panasonic 9uk

Just curious as to why the 55" Hitachi is getting no love. Every review that I've read has been very positive and 5" larger screen size is a pretty big deal. Actually, going from 50" to 55" is a huge difference.

I had the 55HDT51 a couple years ago, and I liked it. A lot of people are having flicker problems that aren't being resolved by Hitachi though. I think that's why it's got less fans.

Fuji is not in the same league or price range as the others you listed. If you can get the Fuji and want to spend the $$ go for it.

Otherwise, look into the Panny and the Pio 1140 and 5070 too.

Ok thanks for all the responce I really appreciate it! Sorry I did not go into further detail on my set up and plans.

This is to replace a 42" HD plasma in the bedroom. Now, my bedroom system is a full 7.1 system with Denon 3806 receiver, D* hd-dvr, sony dvd and Klipsch Ref7 speakers and 2-15" subs. I can really rock the bedroom! The system and bed are situation so that everything sounds and looks the best. The wife and I watch HD TV, DVD movies and lots of HD sports while lounging in the bed. I also plan to put in some sort of HD-DVD or Blue-Ray in the near future.

I spent a good part of the day visiting 3 stores looking at HD Plasma 50" set's. I went to Sound Advice, Circut City and Best Buy. I asked for the remotes and played with the menu's trying to make each set look it's best under the circumstances I was in. Each store was very cool about letting me play.

I checked out the following equipment:
Toshiba 50HP66
Samsung HPR 5072
Samsung HPS 5053
Hitachi 55HDx99
Pioneer prfohd1
Pioneer pro1140hd
Pioneer 5026hd

After spending 6 hours checking these out I came away feeling that the Pioneer's overall looked the best. The Hitachi on some signals, the color matched the Pioneer and then on others the Hitachi seemed to have a slight green/yellow/gray cast and the blacks were not as deep. The Samsung's tended to have deep black and better contast than the Hitachi but sometimes on skin tones and whites there was a bluish/pink cast to the picture. The Toshiba seemed to not be as deep looking, sharp and detailed as any of the TV's I looked at above so I wrote that one off.

Again I played the all the menu controls trying to make each set look it's best especially at Best Buy because all the tv's were in a more light controlled room and I had the most free reign there to do whatever I wanted. The loop at Best Buy was a HD Discovery Channel 15mon loop and I can;t begin to tell you how many time I saw the whole thing. I got to where I new what I was looking for.

Now, the Pioneer PROFHD1 (1080p 50" plasma) looked really good. It had the best black and the smooth picture. I watched a satellite HD basketball game on it right next to a Samsung and Toshiba and it BLEW them away with smoothness and color accuracy. Of course the Pioneer is much more money too...but...these stores are giving away a free 720P 50" Pioneer when you buy the 1080P 50" Pioneer. My wife said buy it....so I might be spending more money than I planned on but will be able to add a 50" plasma in the shadow box area behind my drop down screen in my main HT room.

H E L P!!!!

I had the 55HDT51 a couple years ago, and I liked it. A lot of people are having flicker problems that aren't being resolved by Hitachi though. I think that's why it's got less fans.
I spent hours looking at the 55" Directors Series Hitachi and was aware of the flicker problem but I did not notice any of this.

I really liked mine. It was my first plasma, and I was blown away by it. I especially liked the motorized stand. It was cool.

Now, the Pioneer PROFHD1 (1080p 50" plasma) looked really good. It had the best black and the smooth picture. I watched a satellite HD basketball game on it right next to a Samsung and Toshiba and it BLEW them away with smoothness and color accuracy. Of course the Pioneer is much more money too...but...these stores are giving away a free 720P 50" Pioneer when you buy the 1080P 50" Pioneer. My wife said buy it....so I might be spending more money than I planned on but will be able to add a 50" plasma in the shadow box area behind my drop down screen in my main HT room.

Well I have Hitachi 55HDS69 and even though it's the "low end" of the series, I love it from PQ to no flicker problems to the definite increase in size from a 50". That being said, if your wife is telling you to get the Pio 1080p, I think that's your answer right there. I don't think I'd ever get that kind of suggestion from my wife. :o

.... if your wife is telling you to get the Pio 1080p, I think that's your answer right there. I don't think I'd ever get that kind of suggestion from my wife. :o

Wife watches football and racing too! :D