First I want to start off by saying that I am not as technical as some of the folks here but I am not the “Average Joe” when it comes PQ (I am fairly picky).
I had the Samsung 5054 since last April. I noticed that it has some pink issue when displaying white. Basically when watching something like Ice hockey or snow boarding or a movie with white/off white skies, I would notice that about 5 inches in from both sides of the TV (all the way to the center has some slight pink when it should have been displaying white/offwhite). I had a BB extended warranty and had them come out to look at it. Long story short, after dealing with Bestbuy customer service, Samsung techs and a very helpful manager at my local BB, I was able to get them to do a “Junk Out”. I originally paid 2015.00 for the Samsung back in April so I was able to use those funds now to upgrade to the Pioneer 5080, since it was on sale that week. I paid another 270.00 for another extended warranty for the Pioneer 5080.
I picked up the 5080 this past Saturday and now have about ~20 hours on it. I did not do the break in procedure but I did use D-Nice’s reference settings and tweaked it a tad (by eye) to my own preference. I also refrained from watching any letter box movies for the first 15hours and stretch all of my standard cable to fill the screen. I have Not noticed any Buzzing, Streaks, dead/stuck pixels and blotchiness at all and I am fairly picky. Also wanted to note that I sit 8ft away from my display.
Ok…Lets get down to the comparison.
OUT OF THE BOX COMPARISON:
First thing I noticed after taking down the Samsung 5054 from my Z-Line Phantom 50 stand and mounting the Pioneer was that the 5080 seemed lighter. Other than that, they both (5054 and 5080) was pleasing to look at.
SOUND:
I know most people including myself utilize a Home Theater for movie watching. I do to but I only use it when watching movies or playing games. I do not use my HT for normal cable watching. I noticed the Pioneer speaker sounds much better and clearer than the Samsung. By comparison, it made the Samsung sound as if some wrapped a blanket over the speaker (it was muddely compared to the Pioneer).
ANTI-GLARE:
I am not sure if the 5054 had an Anti-Glare screen but if it did, it did not do anything in terms of reducing glare/reflections. The 5080 is better in terms Anti-Glare. Even though, glare is less distracting on the Pioneer, it’s still not the level of a good LCD.
SHORT TERM IR:
I noticed that the Samsung would have some short term Image Retention when watching movies. For example if I watched a wide screen movie with black bars (2.40:1) I would notice that the Samsung would retain those bars for about 2 minutes or so after the movie was over. The Pioneer does not do this at all. This was something that I expected with the Samsung and was not a big deal to me because I read that most plasma do this but it did bug the wife.
PICTURE QUALITY:
I always read have seen at my local BB that Pioneer Kuros have way better black levels. I have to say that this much more apparent when you bring it home and view movies in a dark room. Before I had the Pioneer in my house, I thought the Sammy 5054 was good at black levels but after the Pioneer, I now think that Sammy is only decent in black levels. To me the Pioneer is definitely in another class in terms of black levels and this does really REALLY make a difference when it comes to movies, games and etc. It seems that colors pop more and have a more realistic look.
Sharpness:
I feel that both sets are pretty good in terms of sharpness. I felt that the Samsung seems slightly better on sharpness at times but at other times, it made the picture seem unnatural. The Pioneer seemed to be a tad bit softer but it does look more natural all the time.
Artifacting, Macro Blocking and False Contouring:
Here’s where the Pioneer really shines again. For months, I have noticed that the Samsung was somewhat distracting with certain movies and cable. There were at times a lot of artifacting, sometimes macro blocking and false contouring. I tried different settings (like Zippy’s settings) and it did help minimize some of this but it was still (at times) very apparent to me. These 3 issues are some of my biggest pet peeves. I noticed on certain scenes of particular movies that there was some false contouring going on. This is not limited to SD DVDS only. I use the Ps3 as my Blu Ray player and have the A2 as my HD DVD player. I would notice false contouring, at times some minor macro blocking, and other artifacting when using the 5054. Now that I have the Pioneer 5080, I played some of these same movies in HD DVD and SD DVD and noticed the majority of the False Contouring is gone. Some Standard DVDs do have a little bit of this on the 5080 but I have to really REALLY look hard for it but its no where near as bad or apparent as it was on the Samsung. Macro blocking is pretty much gone too. For me this was as important (if not more important) as having deeper black levels.
SD-DVD and Standard Cable:
Both Standard DVD and Standard Cable now look much better because of the better black levels and lack or less False Contouring and Marco Blocking. I have noticed that some CG Animated DVDs such as Shark Tales and Madagascar look like its High Def quality on the Pioneer. On the Samsung, you could tell you were watching a SD-DVD.
High Def and Blu Ray:
Again, both look better to me now because better black levels and the lack of false contouring, macro blocking and etc.
FEATURES
Both of these sets have a lot of features and input. One thing about the Samsung that I miss is that if you are only using 2 inputs, say inputs 2 and input 6, I can toggle back and forth by using universal remote. Basically all inputs that are not being utilized are not displayed. I liked that you did not have to go through all the inputs to get to the one you need. Unless you use the Pioneer remote, you have to go through all of the inputs to get to your desired input. This is not a big deal but just a feature that me and the wife both miss. Maybe I will just use an extra button on the universal remote to learn the inputs I need.
MY OVERALL RATING
If I had to rate the both sets from a scale from 1-10 (10 being best). I rate the Samsung 5054 a 6.75 and I would rate the Pioneer 5080 a 9.25. I would probably add another .25 to the Sammy if I did not have that pink issue. And I did not give the Pioneer a perfect 10 because other sets may be coming out in the future that may be better in some ways. Plus this is not a 1080P set. Having owned some Sony 36inch CRTS both Standard and a High Def Model along with a other Rear Projection Pioneer CRT and some other TVs, I have to say the Pioneer 5080 is the best TV I have ever had.
I did not choose a 1080P set because I feel better PQ comes more from black levels, colors and processing. In addition, I feel that the extra cost of the Pioneer 1080P set is not worth it for my needs and budget.
I wanted to close this by thanking D-Nice for his settings and a BIG THANK YOU to both BRENTSG and E-A-G-L-E-S. Brent and Eagles were the two folks that really gave me the feedback I needed to make the Pioneer plunge and I am very happy I did.
Thx,
Claude
I had the Samsung 5054 since last April. I noticed that it has some pink issue when displaying white. Basically when watching something like Ice hockey or snow boarding or a movie with white/off white skies, I would notice that about 5 inches in from both sides of the TV (all the way to the center has some slight pink when it should have been displaying white/offwhite). I had a BB extended warranty and had them come out to look at it. Long story short, after dealing with Bestbuy customer service, Samsung techs and a very helpful manager at my local BB, I was able to get them to do a “Junk Out”. I originally paid 2015.00 for the Samsung back in April so I was able to use those funds now to upgrade to the Pioneer 5080, since it was on sale that week. I paid another 270.00 for another extended warranty for the Pioneer 5080.
I picked up the 5080 this past Saturday and now have about ~20 hours on it. I did not do the break in procedure but I did use D-Nice’s reference settings and tweaked it a tad (by eye) to my own preference. I also refrained from watching any letter box movies for the first 15hours and stretch all of my standard cable to fill the screen. I have Not noticed any Buzzing, Streaks, dead/stuck pixels and blotchiness at all and I am fairly picky. Also wanted to note that I sit 8ft away from my display.
Ok…Lets get down to the comparison.
OUT OF THE BOX COMPARISON:
First thing I noticed after taking down the Samsung 5054 from my Z-Line Phantom 50 stand and mounting the Pioneer was that the 5080 seemed lighter. Other than that, they both (5054 and 5080) was pleasing to look at.
SOUND:
I know most people including myself utilize a Home Theater for movie watching. I do to but I only use it when watching movies or playing games. I do not use my HT for normal cable watching. I noticed the Pioneer speaker sounds much better and clearer than the Samsung. By comparison, it made the Samsung sound as if some wrapped a blanket over the speaker (it was muddely compared to the Pioneer).
ANTI-GLARE:
I am not sure if the 5054 had an Anti-Glare screen but if it did, it did not do anything in terms of reducing glare/reflections. The 5080 is better in terms Anti-Glare. Even though, glare is less distracting on the Pioneer, it’s still not the level of a good LCD.
SHORT TERM IR:
I noticed that the Samsung would have some short term Image Retention when watching movies. For example if I watched a wide screen movie with black bars (2.40:1) I would notice that the Samsung would retain those bars for about 2 minutes or so after the movie was over. The Pioneer does not do this at all. This was something that I expected with the Samsung and was not a big deal to me because I read that most plasma do this but it did bug the wife.
PICTURE QUALITY:
I always read have seen at my local BB that Pioneer Kuros have way better black levels. I have to say that this much more apparent when you bring it home and view movies in a dark room. Before I had the Pioneer in my house, I thought the Sammy 5054 was good at black levels but after the Pioneer, I now think that Sammy is only decent in black levels. To me the Pioneer is definitely in another class in terms of black levels and this does really REALLY make a difference when it comes to movies, games and etc. It seems that colors pop more and have a more realistic look.
Sharpness:
I feel that both sets are pretty good in terms of sharpness. I felt that the Samsung seems slightly better on sharpness at times but at other times, it made the picture seem unnatural. The Pioneer seemed to be a tad bit softer but it does look more natural all the time.
Artifacting, Macro Blocking and False Contouring:
Here’s where the Pioneer really shines again. For months, I have noticed that the Samsung was somewhat distracting with certain movies and cable. There were at times a lot of artifacting, sometimes macro blocking and false contouring. I tried different settings (like Zippy’s settings) and it did help minimize some of this but it was still (at times) very apparent to me. These 3 issues are some of my biggest pet peeves. I noticed on certain scenes of particular movies that there was some false contouring going on. This is not limited to SD DVDS only. I use the Ps3 as my Blu Ray player and have the A2 as my HD DVD player. I would notice false contouring, at times some minor macro blocking, and other artifacting when using the 5054. Now that I have the Pioneer 5080, I played some of these same movies in HD DVD and SD DVD and noticed the majority of the False Contouring is gone. Some Standard DVDs do have a little bit of this on the 5080 but I have to really REALLY look hard for it but its no where near as bad or apparent as it was on the Samsung. Macro blocking is pretty much gone too. For me this was as important (if not more important) as having deeper black levels.
SD-DVD and Standard Cable:
Both Standard DVD and Standard Cable now look much better because of the better black levels and lack or less False Contouring and Marco Blocking. I have noticed that some CG Animated DVDs such as Shark Tales and Madagascar look like its High Def quality on the Pioneer. On the Samsung, you could tell you were watching a SD-DVD.
High Def and Blu Ray:
Again, both look better to me now because better black levels and the lack of false contouring, macro blocking and etc.
FEATURES
Both of these sets have a lot of features and input. One thing about the Samsung that I miss is that if you are only using 2 inputs, say inputs 2 and input 6, I can toggle back and forth by using universal remote. Basically all inputs that are not being utilized are not displayed. I liked that you did not have to go through all the inputs to get to the one you need. Unless you use the Pioneer remote, you have to go through all of the inputs to get to your desired input. This is not a big deal but just a feature that me and the wife both miss. Maybe I will just use an extra button on the universal remote to learn the inputs I need.
MY OVERALL RATING
If I had to rate the both sets from a scale from 1-10 (10 being best). I rate the Samsung 5054 a 6.75 and I would rate the Pioneer 5080 a 9.25. I would probably add another .25 to the Sammy if I did not have that pink issue. And I did not give the Pioneer a perfect 10 because other sets may be coming out in the future that may be better in some ways. Plus this is not a 1080P set. Having owned some Sony 36inch CRTS both Standard and a High Def Model along with a other Rear Projection Pioneer CRT and some other TVs, I have to say the Pioneer 5080 is the best TV I have ever had.
I did not choose a 1080P set because I feel better PQ comes more from black levels, colors and processing. In addition, I feel that the extra cost of the Pioneer 1080P set is not worth it for my needs and budget.
I wanted to close this by thanking D-Nice for his settings and a BIG THANK YOU to both BRENTSG and E-A-G-L-E-S. Brent and Eagles were the two folks that really gave me the feedback I needed to make the Pioneer plunge and I am very happy I did.
Thx,
Claude
