At the store today I looked at Pirates of the Caribbean on Blu-Ray on a Samsung 5884, and while the credits were rolling, the screen was extremely bright. Normally I hear that when the screen is pitch black, the screen should be as black as the frame. In this case, it wasn't pitch black and had like a silver light with the black.

The set wasn't calibrated but I still want to know if companies that aren't Pioneer usually have this with their plasmas. Even if they do, it won't change my decision because the 5884 is an excellent TV for its value and size/picture quality.

No plasma, including any Pioneer, is going to give you a black as dark as a piano black bezel.

That being said, the Pio's will get alot closer than the 5884.

Well, that's up for debate. Pio will certainly get closer, but I wouldn't peg it at a lot closer.

Its not even close how much better the blacks are on the Pioneer.

Its not even close how much better the blacks are on the Pioneer.
Even if the Pioneer is better, the Samsung is not horrible, and I don't see myself complaining about the 5884's blacks because I've never had anything better than my CRT like a Kuro so I have nothing to compare it to really. If I go 50"(lot cheaper with where I'm going with my budget), I'm getting the 5080, but I'll be most likely getting the 5884 because a bigger screen will be more of a wow factor than better blacks.

At the store today I looked at Pirates of the Caribbean on Blu-Ray on a Samsung 5884, and while the credits were rolling, the screen was extremely bright. Normally I hear that when the screen is pitch black, the screen should be as black as the frame. In this case, it wasn't pitch black and had like a silver light with the black.

The set wasn't calibrated but I still want to know if companies that aren't Pioneer usually have this with their plasmas. Even if they do, it won't change my decision because the 5884 is an excellent TV for its value and size/picture quality.

At stores it's too hard to tell what it will really look like in a darkened room. All of those lights reflect off of the screen and make seeing black level impossible. LCDs are better than plasma in stores because of their great ambient light rejection. There are no digital displays that exist right now that can completely stop all light and have true blacks, but the current Panasonics and Samsungs are close enough imo to be very satisfying in all but the darkest scenes in movies, and then the Pioneers of course. I would never characterize them as being "extremely bright" like you say, so I believe what you were seeing was ambient light reflection or a poorly calibrated set.