Samsung Plasma HP-S5053 and HP-S4253 reviews

I just saw one at the local Sears. The finish is great. One of the best I seen. But the 50 inch was sitting next to a new Panasonic and the Pany looked much better. Also, the 42 inch was nex to a new Toshiba and I would give the Toshiba the edge. With similiar specs, the Toshiba was cheaper.

Has anyone seen this side by side with the new sharp 37 or 45 d40u. What do you think and which one would you rather have? Also is the frame on the sammy 4253 the same as the new ED sammy sp-s4243, pictures on the net look the same but i hear the 4253 has a piano black finish?

What's improved over the 2005 4250? (I just bit circuit city special).

I was reading the manual for the HP-S5053 and it looks pretty nice. I was excited to see that the RGB port actually accepts 1280x720 and 1360x768 resolutions.

The one thing I didn't like was the zoom/stretch modes. According to the manual it has:

16:9 - Sets the picture to 16:9 wide mode
Zoom1 - Magnifies the size of the picture on the screen
Zoom2 - Expands the Zoom1 format picture
4:3 - Sets the picture to 4:3 normal mode

Anyone with a Samsung set that is familiar with the zoom/stretch modes? I'd love to have a non-linear horizontal stretch that many sets have where the middle isn't stretched much but the sides are stretched more. Makes viewing stretched 4:3 content a bit better looking.

Hopefully that's the only flaw the TV has. I still haven't seen it, but hopefully my local BestBuy/Sears/CircuitCity will have it soon.

I saw the 42 inch models in Best Buy today side by side with several other 42" plasmas including the new Panasonics, Pioneers, Hitachis, LG's and others. Bottom line to me was that is compared extremely well. I have to say that over all the Samsung presented the best balance of detail, color, contrast and feature set. I liked it far better than everything else including the Panasonic. (including models priced $1500 more, e.g. Pioneers) Admittedly the Panny was very good but unfortunately the 42 and 37 " models wash out facial feature details (skin marks, freckles, dimples and the like) as well as fine detail on bright surfaces such as snow, ice etc. To the contrary the Samsung did remarkably well in maintaining clarity and fine detail in almost all circumstances. Also sunsets and the like were more stunning on the Samsung than on any other panel I was comparing it to due to it's ability to present subtle differences in hue and intensity. If you can't tell I am sold and will be picking one of these bad boys up!

I'm interested in the HP-Sxx53 models as well
500+ billion colors compared to the 100 billion max every other Plasma has.

PLUS this seems to be the only Samsung panel that lets you turn off the DlNe, unless that was a typo.
Can anyone confirm this??

BTW if your seeing it at the store are you sure it's the new model?
CC & Best Buy have this as the latest model: Samsung 42" Plasma HDTV (HP-R4252)

NOT the "S" model:
http://www.samsung.com/Products/TV/P...?page=Features

I seen the set as well/The Samsung compared to others has nice saturated colors that dont bleed over and a sharp picture.The Sammy does have a nice picture except in the shadow detal and depth.Panasonic gradually fades into other colors instead of dropping off and looks more natural..Skin tones are awful on the Panasonic.If your looking that price range i would go with the Samsung..Even over Toshiba HP and LG..All 3 of the manufactures just names use LG glass.Toshibas were the bomb last year and i would say edged out the Panasonics but this year from whayt i seen in the 42 they just fell off.Im going to check the settings tomorrow to see if they been moved.

WTFER:I think you maybe able to.Im going to check tomorrow on seeing if you can and i will let everyone know.You can turn it off on the new rear projections but you cant turn it off on the LNSxx52D flat panels(LCD).

Just exchanged the sharp 37d40u for the the sammy 4253 and yes you can turn off dnie in the menu and yes this tv smokes the new sharp lcd's.

How does it look with SD? I've always read the Panny's handle it well. Does the Sammy do a good job with SD?

I can confirm that DNie can be turned off. I was at Best Buy in nyc and it was the first setting I headed for. TV has seriously KICK ass quality both PQ and design.

I am def going to buy this. Samsung may have dropped the ball last year, but this year this hit this out the park.

My sister in law who has the new panny 5060U saw this Samsung on display in the store, turns around and asked me...why did i get the panasonic. this samsung looks So much better.

I could not find a flaw with the Pq I saw, awesome blacks, deep rich colors.

I purchased the Samsung HP-S4253 5 days ago. [EDIT]I am hoping to get a lot of bang for buck with this tv.

I can confirm that the DNIe can be turned off completely, as can almost every other annoying feature. I am still trying to find the right settings for the picture and am considering AVIA Home Theatre to assist me.

The finish is exceptional and can be easily kept clean by the wife with the superb cloth provided! The two HDMI slots is a real bonus, although this seems to be the standard for 2006 models.

My concerns with the tv are the extreme heat that coming from the top/rear. Although I am told this is normal for Plasmas this Sammy runs extremely hot. To ease my concerns I visited Sears and luckily a Hitachi was sitting next to the HP-S4253. I can confirm that both produced very similar heat. The silence of the tv from liquid cooling has the comprimise of a higher temperature. However, I doubt this will be a huge issue.

My other concern is the detail of dark colours during night time scenes of movies etc. The black shadows or dark areas of the screen are missing detail that other sets seem to show. For example, the Panny 60X during Cinderalla Man showed almost twice as many faces in the crowd over the Samsung HP-S4253. Once again though, I must state this is probably due to mis calibration and hopefully AVIA will solve this. If anyone has an opinion on the optimum settings for this tv please share.

I have not got HDTV going on this yet. Sadly I tried analogue cable and it looked poor but that is the source over the tv. My Xbox 360 works very well in either 720P or 1080i; the games are a little dark but once again probably have the set mis calibrated.

I am considering the new Samsung HD-DVD860 (?) upconverting DVD player which matches this set to watch DVD's at a level this tv deserves.

Overall I am satisfied due to the price I paid. Somehow I feel I expected more but have not put the correct source into the TV to justify this yet. Furthermore, my previous set in the UK was a Bang & Olufson TV which for some reason produced a picture equal to or better than USA HD tv on every channel I watched. Hopefully once Comcast hooks up my HDTV this will become, and I quote from the box 'the centrepiece of the living room'!

Nice Tv PhilH, can you please check for noise in the picture. ie does DNIe really remove or does it make the picture worst by adding " snow" like dust in the images.

thx

In my opinion the DNIe is very subjective. I can see the difference between having it on or off. I have not seen any snow like dust in the images with it turned on for either DVD or analogue cable.

However, I feel the best picture comes with DNIe turned off so I leave it that way. I only wish I could plug the tv into my HD comcast source to give better feedback to your question.

nice thanks, so overall esp. for the money this is a great buy. I will keep an eye out for the 50" version. cant wait to pick it up later on.

thanks phil

Just put a down payment on this badboy (the 5053). I will be getting it on Friday. I will share details with everyone. I chose this set over the Panny 5060u. Lets hope that was a wise decision as the price is exactly the same.

One word: VGA Port!

Mod7

Without using Avia yet I am starting to get better levels of detail during dark scenes. Luckily Fifa 2006 World Cup on my Xbox 360 has a calibrator included in the options. Now I can see all the levels of black to white the tv is showing much greater detail. My only concern is that both contrast and brightness are around 75% to achieve this.

Phil- Good to know. I noticed this issue on a 4272 model. We need to find out what an acceptable level is for these features. Especially during the break in period. Anyone out there calibrated the new Samsung Plasma's?


EDIT: Phil - Have you tried game mode yet?

was the DlNe on when you saw the lack of detail in dark scenes?
DlNe number one problem is just that, it screws up details in dark scenes.



are you sure you didn't get any HD channels? If you have basic/analog Cable you should get all your local channels in HD, try inputting either channel 07.1 or 11.1 or try looking in the 100.1+ channels to see if your local channels are there.

this Plasma does have a built in tuner right?

btw did you notice any dot crawl on the panel?
Plamsa panels suppoably lack the full color scale to reproduce smooth colors like a CRT can

This is what a CRT without dot crawl would look like:


This is what a Plasma with (extreme case of) dot crawl would look like:


did you notice that on the 360 or any of your DVDs?

I now have DNIe turned off and have noticed an improvement in dark scenes during dvd playback. However I did also increase contrast to about 65% and brightness to 75% which gave me the full range of black to white in a calibration test on Xbox360.

I have not received any HD analogue tv yet through the set. From what I gather this has a tuner built in; however to receive HD signals in analogue I am under the impression it must be by 'air' and not 'cable' analogue. I was using only cable analogue and do not have the required aerial to receive 'air' HD local channels.

The only time dot crawl seems at all evident would be on the analogue cable SD broadcast. However I think this is more a low resolution image being stretched to fit the 42" and that is why it is low quality. On the intended input of DVD or HD through my Xbox 360 I have not noticed any dot crawl. I am now using the game mode with my Xbox 360 which has further enhanced the gaming feel.

Please note my opinions are subjective and this tv has not yet been calibrated with Avia or similar and has not had a HD broadcast from comcast yet. But I have seen enough so far to be pleased with the purchase.

At the end of the day on SD this tv looks no better if not slightly worse than tube tvs in this house. However the tube tvs are 15" so they will make SD analogue look better than a 42" tv. BUt, I did not buy this tv for SD. When HD feeds into this tv it comes into its own.

hmm you should be getting OTA HD channels (not cable HD channels though) with your cable.
select "cable" & not "air" & do a automatic channel search or whatever it is called on the Samsung.
Then search your normal channels, with a regular antenna to view say ch.4 NBC HD, you would need to have it on ch. 4.1 instead of ch.4

With basic cable though they usually have the OTA HD channels on a different higher up channels.
like ABC will be on 85.1 or 104.1 instead of just ch. 4.1

I went through a lot of info when I first tried getting OTA HD channels with my HD w/ Built in tuner

I will run that test tomorrow and try to receive HD analogue cable tv and will let you know the results.

Thanks for keeping us posted Phil. I look forward to some pix and your master tweaks.

If possible post some xbox 360 shots

did anyone else purchase this set... 42 or 50 if so what are your reviews

Screen glare has always been an issue for me. This set is supposed to have what they call "Filter Brite anti glare screen" Can anyone tell me if if it does the job?

The screen on this TV (mine is the HP-S4253) reminds me very much of the screen on my old Bang and Olufson 6000 set in the UK. However I do not have it set up in a normal environment at the moment as I don;t move into my apartment until May 5th. My apartment has a large window in the living room which will be the acid test for the screen on this tv.

Personally from apearence I am confident this will handle it as it really does remind me of the Bang & Olufson set as mentioned above.

Hey Phil any luck with figuring out the OTA HD channels? I just bought this t.v. last night and hooked it up to my basic cable and of course it doesn't look that good. So I'm wondering what my next step is... do I now upgrade my cable service to digital/HD cable or go out and buy a regular VH/UHF antenna and try experimenting with OTA HD? Also if you can pass onto me any setup tips it would be highly appreciated. Thanks,
CH