I am helping a friend with a home theatre setup and we have it narrowed down between two sets, the panny TH-50pz800u and the samsung pn50a550. Both sets can be had for between 1400-1700 and that is the price range we are trying to stay in. I myself have the panasonic th42pz80u and love it, which is why i first recommended he get a panasonic, only in the 50 inch size. He then found this samsung which has favorable reviews and can be found for less money than the panasonic.
My question is, which TV is the better buy? Spec wise they are similar, i've just never had experience with samsung plasmas so im looking for some 3rd party input on the two sets. If the panasonic is a better by is the 800U worth the extra price over either the 80u or 85u? The main reason we were looking at the 800 is because it has 3 hdmi ports on back instead of 2 and since this is all going to be wall mounted we wanted the extra port on back in case of a future HDMI addition.
I always come to these forums for AV help and I'm hoping i can get some good insight on to which of these TV's is the better set. On a different note, if you feel there is a better option than either of these that is under 1800, please feel free to recommend it.
Thanks!
Edit: If a mod reads this please fix my error in the spelling of panasonic in the title
My question is, which TV is the better buy? Spec wise they are similar, i've just never had experience with samsung plasmas so im looking for some 3rd party input on the two sets. If the panasonic is a better by is the 800U worth the extra price over either the 80u or 85u? The main reason we were looking at the 800 is because it has 3 hdmi ports on back instead of 2 and since this is all going to be wall mounted we wanted the extra port on back in case of a future HDMI addition.
I always come to these forums for AV help and I'm hoping i can get some good insight on to which of these TV's is the better set. On a different note, if you feel there is a better option than either of these that is under 1800, please feel free to recommend it.
Thanks!
Edit: If a mod reads this please fix my error in the spelling of panasonic in the title