Samsung PN50A550 / PN58A550 Owners Thread - Page 2

I know how you feel. I went shopping for either a sharp aquos 46 or 52 inch OR a samsung plasma 50 or 58 inch ( what ever the model before the 58a550 was). The salesman showed me the the550 and it was 200 bucks cheaper. 1 million:1 dynamic contrast ratio! I tried to find a review when i got home, found none. bought it anyways. the picture quality is absolutely phenominal. the whites are SO pure the blacks are SO crisp!! Ive wanted to uprgade for the past couple of years but just sat back and watch the prices fall and the quality and technology rise. Now was the time. I have friends with 42 inchers that paid $4000 plus for half the quality. If you have the room and money the 58 is sooo worth the money. As to the glare, I was a real skeptic b/c I have tons of sunlight in my living room. This tv is not affected by it. i give this tv a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10. buy it. u will be happy!

are you saying that the 550 ad 450 ' s may not be as good as the last year's model plasmas? i hope not . are you saying tht samsung is selling them as lower brand . no right.

I dunno, at my local best buy, they had the plasma 550 right next to the LCD 550, and the plasma definitely looked a lot better.

Green looks more greener, and the LCD BB had it too bright. The cute girl there told me it was calibrated already and woulddn't let me touch it, which is lame.

The whites on teh LCD looked more washed out too.

i am not sure what i will get its either the 550 plasma or the 550 lcd... i cant make up my mind

wait for the Pro. reviews.

there have been ZERO reviews so far.

as a mater of fact... there hasn't even been a good user review so far.

when are the pros review coming anyway. The 85z's been out for a while, and the samsung plasma and LCd been out for 2 weeks already

If they spent the time calibrating it why would they let the customers mess with the settings?

I just got back from my local Fry's and they had the 58" Sammy 550 and Panny 700 next to each other and the Sammy looked better in every aspect. I hadn't put this set on my list but now it is. Looks like these sets have only been out a few weeks? I'll be buying a new set within three weeks and it's between the two I mentioned and the Pioneer 6010FD. I still think the Pioneer might look better but have not compared the Sammy to the Pioneer side by side. Plus bigger is ALWAYS better in my book. How have other Sammy plasmas been holding up? Any issues with previous models?

I have a Samsung and have own 2 Pioneer Elites. As much as I like Samsung's crisp picture until they make a significant upgrade to their processor it will never perform as well as a Pioneer Kuro. The Kuro just handles SD better and the processor is just smoother. I was hoping this Samsung release would close the gap.

I'm not watching much SD anymore but that's good to know. How do the blacks on the Samsung compare to the Kuro's?

Are you hoping they closed the gap or do you say they did not close the gap from seeing the last models?

The 2007 models (5084) did not close the gap. I was hoping the 2008 model would. The 2007 models look good on their own or against a Panasonic, but put it next to a Kuro and the Samsung flaws are obvious. I'm watching a 5053 right now and the picture is terrific, but no match for the Kuro.

i dont understans whay is there no one talking about the 3D feature of the 550 hmm i meen that is a big deal for me, that is part of the reason im grabing it verry soon.

When exactly is AVSForum going to implement stupidfilter?

Lmao!!!!

From what I saw in a slightly dimmed BB area (lights were off in overhead) both the new Samsungs and Panasonics were not as good as the Kuros (or the Samsung LCDs for that matter). They were both a bit brighter than the Kuros though.

I have the PN50A550, and I agree with everything you have said. Picture quality is great. Right now I am using component because I couldn't match the picture quality using HDMI with my H20-100 Directv HD receiver. Waiting for others to post their settings using HDMI and Component.

Howabout some pics? The 50A550 is still on my list and I can get it for a little more than a 46PZ85U so if the PQ is close (or even better?!) than the Panny's I wouldn't hesitate going to 50".

I wish there was a 46" model though...

Is it true these sets have no S-video inputs? Why I wonder? Most of the LCDs have S-video ins.

How do you think this compares to the Panasonic 58PZ700U? Any issues with either of these sets?

Is the PN58A550 worth $600 more than the 5884. Most places are selling the 5884 at a discount now and can get it for below $3000. Also, I saw the PN50A550, at the local BB, and it was next to the Pioneer pdp5080. It seemed that the blues and greens were punched up too much on the a550. The lady said this was the setup at the factory, and am sure it can be adjusted, but the pioneers colors, although flatter seemed more natural. One demo they showed at the bb, had a man in a tuxedo playing the piano. On the PDP5080, you could see detalis in the tuxedo like the collar, lapel and buttons. However, on the PN50A550, the tuxedo was much blacker, but there was no detail. You could barely make out where the lapel was, and could not see any buttons. It was almost a mass of black on the screen. Very dark though. Can this be changed in the settings, or is this typical? comments on either would be appriciated.

T.C.

Sounds like the typical "Vivid" mode out-of-box settings. I don't judge any TVs in the store until I've had a chance to adjust the picture settings.

Did you check out sponsor Cleveland Plasma?

I didn't get to compare the 58A550 to the Pioneer but it looked better than the Panasonic 58PZ700U sitting right next to it. I checked settings on both sets and they were as dialed in as good as I could get them.

It seems that it has an S-Video input on the side but none on the back. Lame...

Why is that lame?

Well it has composite video on the back but no s-video, which is a higher-quality source. My laserdisc player doesn't have component, dammit!

According to best buy website the 50A550 has no s-video or composite input. I will require at least one s-video, but don't care about composite. I didn't check on the 58 as I can't afford it.

Check the manual, I'm sure Best Buy is just confused because it's a side input.