Samsung Plasma HP-S5053 and HP-S4253 reviews - Page 2

also looking for reveiws on this unit as I am most interested in this tv. thx

I never got OTA HD going as was going to wait for my HD Digital Cable service next Saturday. It can be done, however I am not too famliar with how as I just moved here from the UK and was used to a Dish setup there. I believe you plug your coax cable into Antenna 1 and then in Antenna 2 buy a small aerial that can receive HD. I have seen them for under fifty dollars.

Being honest I bought this TV on its exceptional HD performance. SD does not look pretty when I tried (on a poor coax connection). It may improve next week through Digital Cable. I would recommend upgrading your service to digital cable and HDTV to get the most out of this tv.

I have no set up tips to pass on as I am breaking in the tv this week and awaiting delivery of Avia Guide To Home Theatre. Then I should be able to find optimum setup for my conditions. Bare in mind everyones living conditions and light levels vary from place to place so whats good for me may not work for others.

HPR's are the previous model yet they are also relatively new. The latest Samsungs in both LCD and PDP carry the "S" designation. Samsung showed a bunch of 1080P plasma's in Germany back in March and you wonder is a 63" 1080P on the horizon to match up with the Panny 65"? The HPR 63" has been dropping in price and usually that's pre-emptive to perhaps a "S" Series 1080P in that beautiful piano black housing with built in stand or it may be my own wishful thinking.

All I've seen are very impressive and better than the HPR series and most reports are you can now turn off DNie if one chooses. The prices have also dropped on the "s" series - Ecost has them for much nicer value than the B&M's.

Thanks Phil,
You validated what I'm doing too whew! This Wednesday is when they'll hook up digital/HD cable. I did go out and buy one of those HD antennas and connected up to OTA HD... ugh not good. Firstly, the picture wasn't in 16:9... it had side black sections. Secondly, picture and sound would cut out and thirdly the picture quality wasn't all that good.
What is the difference between the "R" series and "S" series?

ALso that AVia guide... wonder if I should get that as well.

thanks,
CH

I just finished buying this tv 2 days ago. i also have hd service running to the tv and a upscaling dvd player as i got the matching samsung ht-p1200 surround sound with it.
The picture on this thing is 1 of the best ive seen from any plasm.ven though i have it tuned down to low settings so i can break in the tv, it still gives off eye candy.DVD looks amazing, The only thing i havent checked is my xbox360 due to it being in repair shop at m$ and just cause im waiting to break in the tv before doing anything, as im still a little worried bout burn in. As to any features for burn in prevention it comes with "white wash", "Pixel shifter", and "signal pattern"....

The only thing is do not get mis-guided by the game mode. it is not a feature to prevent burn in. Its just there to enhance the viewing of your gaming experience, as i was misinformed at the time of my purchase.

all in all i give this tv a
4 out 5 -only reason i havent gave it a 5 is because its not calibrated yet.


The only thing i am wondering since i havent tried gaming on it yet is if theres any "ghosting" and if anyone knows the response time on this tv can they share it. =D

This years model is so much improved over last year. The color capabilities are amazing. If you're comparing to Panny, the Samsung has 13 bit compared to 10 (549 billion vs 12 billion), as well as higher resolution- 1366x768 compared to 1024x768. Plus, the cabinet is so much more appealing than the silver, plastic looking Panny.

Samsung is definitely stepping up to be a major competitor this time around.

I have not experienced any ghosting with my Xbox 360 and the Samsung HP-S4253. However I have only used my 360 in very short bursts as I am trying to break the tv in. Games I have played include Fifa World Cup, Oblivion and PGR. All OK although slightly dark as I have settings very low for initial tv period.

Am waiting for the SVCD to be formatted to DVD so I can run that loop for hours on end to help break this tv in. Other than that I let the signal test run for a few hours every day and since this everytime I go back to the TV I feel the picture is getting better!

The Avia Guide To Home Theatre can be found on Amazon. An alternative is Digital Video Essentials (DVE) and is almost half the price of Avia. DVE is very difficult to use and intepret according to experts on this forum. I went for Avia as just using a basic calibration test in Fifa World Cup amazed me how far off standard settings were. Avia is easier for a novice at tv tuning (me) and very informative. Basically from what I read it optimises your tv for your environment. I'll let you know what I actually think of it once I have it!

Well... the good news is that you WERE getting a digital OTA signal.

Could be that you needed to move the antenna to the compass heading of the transmission site(which you can find easily by doing a google search for OTA HD). That is the nature of the beast with any digital signal. There isn't such a thing as "snow" like there is with analog. With digital, either you have a picture or you don't, with the first sign of a degrading signal being the sound dropping or the picture getting "blocky" and freezing up.

The black bars on the sides only mean that the program you were watching wasn't recorded in HD. It was still being transmitted digitally. Most local stations don't pull a TNT-HD and upconvert everything, they just broadcast in all digital(on the digital channel) and that allows them to shows that are recorded or live broadcast in HD(for example... your local ABC news will most likely not be in HD and will have the black bars on the sides, however Lost will be in HD and take up the entire screen. I'm sure you have seen the TV shows that say "Broadcast in HD where available")

I guess the jist of this post is that you are there... just need a HD show to watch and reposition the antenna.

BTW, you don't really need one of the "fancy" HD amplifying antennas that are going for $30-100... you can get the digital signal with a standard set of "rabbit ears" as long a you have a digital tuner on your TV...

Thanks Kev,
I kinda picked up on the "you don't need an HD antenna" idea from an OTA HD site but didn't take heed and still thought it was necessary (I can still take it back). I know it all depends on how far I am from towers etc... for OTA transmission but you suppose I should now try a standard outdoor antenna now? Or just wait for my digital/HD set-top cable box to come Wednesday?
CH

If you want to see what the TV will do you can certainly try the outdoor antenna. If it isn't wired or installed yet, I'd personally wait, but if it has been there for a while it certainly wouldn't hurt anything.

I'm hearing really good things about this 42" model... :-)

Looking forward to hearing about or seeing one in action...

I watched Law and Order last night OTA and it looked amazing. The broadcast was 1080i 16:9. I temporarily turned up the brightness and contrast and was VERY pleased. It really did look like it was coming from a cable box.

720p also looked good with Nascar on fox OTA. Not as good as Law and Order 1080i.

Mod7

Edit: This is on the 5053.

Today I began browsing the OTA HD channels and came across channel 7's HD NBA playoffs. Finally got to see a good picture on this and I am happy . Now it seems its being transmitted in 780p, what is that? Other DTV channels come in 1080i and look horrible and don't fill the screen. Can you guys expand on this a lil? Thankyou,
CH

The 1080i feeds you saw are most likely not 16:9. It will expand the picture once it recieves true 16:9.

I need to get this up on the wall, does this take a universal mounting pattern? I'd sure like to be able to pull it out and angle it, can you suggest a wall mount for this? Tomorrow is when my cable company comes out to hook up digital cable... I'll let you know how it all works out.
CH

Hey, how are the samsung ht-p1200, how would u rate them. I saw them yesterday in nyc from the looks, very classy.

i love em i wouldnt change em for nothin only thing that kinda caught me awkward was u plug all the speaker wires into the sub, as the sub is the amp or something around that line.but that kinda makes it look classy in my own weird way of liking it. sound quality is great,people have jumped out there seat due to the sound.(gotta love random gun shots in movies) and it all matches which makes it even more sexier. and u cant beat the fact it runs divx and all other types of burnable media.

through HDMI the upscaling dvd player it comes with makes it worth it all.
I heard retail is like $1000.If you got a local brandsmart they got em in stock and i tucked them down to $700(very persuasive speaker).
so you can check there.


If anyone can put 2 cents on if i wanted to expand my surround system later on how would i go around doing it, if everything connects thru the sub?

Has anybody seen or heard anything about the 5073? I believe its 1080P.

It's 720P
I had a URL for you, but as a new member, it won't let me post a url until I have 5 posts.

Here's the URL:
[EDIT]ww.tvauthority.com/Coming-Soon/Samsung-HP-S5073
I'm trying to figure out what's the difference between the S5053 and the S5073.

I'm waiting for your "glare" test .. please report back!

Is the resolution of the S4253 1366x768 or 1024x768? I like the 42" plasma panels but I don't know qualitatively how much I'm losing with 1024x768 resolution vs. an LCD that's 1366x768 resolution.

- M

So was last year's model no good? The HPR5052 i think it is.....the 50" plasma. The set looks pretty good to me at a local store.......should i not buy it?

Folks,

I'm looking to buy a 42" Plasma and would REALLY APPRECAITE your feedback.
So, far the list is:

1. Samsung HP-S4253 (was initially lokking at HP-R4272)
2. Philips 50PF7320A/37
3. Philips 42PF7220A/37

Basically, I'm comparing Philips with Sammy, because:
- Philips got all the features Sammy has + more!!
- PRICE!! (I can get 50" with 300 more as compared to 42" Sammy)

Questions:

1. The only diff b/w HP-R4272 & HP-S4253 is TWO HDMI ports in HP-S model?
3. Any experince with Philips 42PF7220A/37 or 50PF7320A/37 ?
4. Between Philips and Samsung - which one ??

thanks (in advance)

/Ikram.

Saw the HP-S5053 and HP-S4253 today at Circuit city, and wow, I"m impressed. It was on par if not better than the Panny, with better anti-glare. On the Panny 60u, you could clearly see the full reflection of the fluroscent store lighting, whereas on the Samsung's it was WAY more diffused. Reminds me of the great anti-glare coating on my current Sony GWIII 50" RPLCD.

I loved the piano black shiny bezel at first, but it got a bit annoying with the reflections flashign back at me. I much prefer a matte black.

I LIke how it has speakers but you can't even see them "invisispeaker" i think they call it. I hate the dumbo ear speakers that many other models have that aren't detachable (eg. The Philips models).

Now my dilemna is:

1. New Samsung or HP which is about $700 less
2. Where to buy it from? Local is good for return policy (Eg. costco) but i want to avoid sales tax! (~$300 sales tax for me in WA)

can someone with either the HP-S5053 and or 42" version post any reviews on xbox 360 quality. ie what resolution is your xbox at or if any of you have managed to plug in the vga port.

pix would be nice of some pc or 360 action.

since I would most likely use this set for HTPC as well.

thanks in advance.

ikram I would def pick the Samsung HP-S4253 or HP-S5053 over the philips plasma.

samsung has great design, top notch quality.

Hi folks,
Just chiming in here. I work part time at Circuit City and we got the new HP-S5053 in last night while I was working. I was so impressed with this set after we hooked it up that I bought it on the spot. I have to wait until Saturday to pick it up though since we were already out of stock on the unit. We sold the two units we had in the warehouse before we even put the display out!

I bought the LN-S3251D about 3 weeks ago because my old Sony 32" Trinitron died on me and I needed a TV to tie me over. I regret that I am going to return the LN-S3251D because I also like this set too but I can't afford two HDTV's right now. My original plan was to hold out for a 1080p set but after thinking this through, 1080p plasma's and LCD TV's are going to be pricey this year and probably next year as well and Sony's SXRD sets are also going to break the bank for a 60" or bigger. I got a great employee discount on the 5053 last night and could not pass it up. Once I get this TV all set up in my room this weekend and calibrated using my Digital Video Essentials and Circuit City calibration DVD's, I will share my setting with you all.

This is the biggest TV I have ever owned so I am pretty excited about the coming weekend! I will post more after I get everything set up.

Peace

Well, I guess I'd call that a good review! Can't wait to check it out.

Keep in mind, I view and get to play with all of these TV's about 3 or 4 nights a week on the job and I can tell you the picture quality just stands out on its own with this set compared to the other plasmas around it. Only the new panny's are on par with this set. I think the Samsung has the edge however due to design (the piano black cabinet really makes this set look elegant) and the pixel shift technology that prevents the set from experiencing burn in problems. I don't think the panny's have this feature but I could be mistaken.

One "oh by the way,
Our store manager and a fellow employee I work with in the store also purchased the 4253 model same time as I got my 5053.

I'm almost set on buying this set.. I just need to find a way to:

1. Avoid sales tax
2. Get at least 10% off on some deal
3. Buy it from a store with good warranty

I figure because of #3, i'm goign to have to buy local. I can only hope that Costco or Sears gets the Sammy 5053 in stock.

[EDIT]