Customer Reviews

Samsung HP-S5053 50-Inch Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

After shopping for several months I finally took the plunge and purchased this TV from a national chain. I finally decided plasma over DLP because of the vertical fading effect I saw with all the DLP sets. I took two of my own DVDs in to the store with me and made the staff there hook up a player so I could see both the fast action of The Matrix and the beautiful scenery of Spring, Summmer, Fall, Winter, Spring. The picture on the Samsung HP-S5053 was the second best of the many plasmas that I examined. The Pioneer had a better picture but was significantly more expensive. I do not use the built in speakers because I had an existing 5.1 speaker system. I really like the minimal black casing since the silver finishes are distracting-at least to my eye.

The menus are extremely intuitive. I didn't have to read the instructions at all to get anything working within an hour of unpacking my system. I purchased an upconverting DVD player and an HDMI cable at the same time I purchased this TV. My old DVDs look great on this TV. The 10-15 HD channels I get with Cox cable also look incredible. The one fault I've found is that if I use the HDMI cable from my cable box or DVD player and connect to the TV and then connect the digital audio out of the TV to my receiver I only receive stereo sound even when the original broadcast is 5.1. I get around this by using composite video cables from the cable box and DVD player to the HPS5053 and also run a digital audio line from each source to the receiver. The HPS5053 has plenty of inputs to support almost any type of user.

I sent a month reading reviews and in circuit city and best buy looking at plasmas. The samsung had the best picture and best setup. Amazon had the best price--shipping included and no sales tax--beat CC by $800. Ordered on a Wend and had it in one week. Shipping service was phenomenal. Not one problem. Had the set set-up and on in an hour and haven't left the couch since. Samsung and Amazon both get 5 stars!

After spending much time reading reviews and spending hours at the local Magnolia home theater center seeing the displays for myself and playing with the different picture settings and functions, I finally decided on the Samsung HP-S5053 over the Pioneer PDP-5070HD and Panasonic TH-50PX600u. My decision was based primarily on Picture Quality and overall value of the display.

Picture quality on the s5030 is simply amazing and in my opinion better than the Panasonic 50px600u and the Pioneer 5070. Panasonic's black level clarity is superior, but the s5030 comes very close, especially with the ability to turn off the DNIe function, and has superior image clarity overall. The Pioneer has great clarity, but a much softer picture overall than the s5030 which provides very sharp and detailed images. Overall, the picture quality is truly stunning and deserves recognition as one of the top plasma displays in this respect. With HD service the detail is unbelievable, whether it be watching sports on ESPNHD or Discovery Theater. I've had the s5053 for 2 months now and the picture just seems to get better and better. I'm 110% satisfied in this respect.

In addition to the amazing picture quality, the display it self looks very nice. The piano black finish makes the s5053 look great even when it's not turned on. A huge advantage over the Panasonic's ugly silver cabinet on the 50px600u.

The s5053 also had a lot of other features that made the decision easy. The built in tuner, pip, built-in hidden truSurround speakers, pc imput, 2 hdmi input, DNIe, advanced 13-bit processing (549 billion colors compared to a max 29 billion for Panasonic and just over 1 billion for Pioneer), anti-glare filter, and especially the pixel-shift feature (to prevent screen burn-in) were all superior features that made the s5053 an exceptional value.

You may read negative reviews based on buzzing and shipping issues, but don't let this discourage you from purchasing this tv. The buzzing issue has been isolated to a limited run of s5053 with an August 06 Mexico manufacture date/location. The good thing is that most of these have already been distributed and replaced, and my unit was buzz free. The shipping issues with screen damage should also not discourage you from buying this display, because lets face it, sometimes things get damaged during shipment due to mishandling or various accidents. My display arrived ahead of schedule and in perfect condition.

Overall the Samsung HP-S5053 is a terrific all-around package. You get superior picture quality, a great set of features, and most importantly a great value compared to the other plasma displays in the same top tier. I would highly recommend this unit based on my own extremely positive experience thus far.

I have never purchased anything that big from the internet before. But when I saw the price for this TV I decided it will be now or never.

I placed my order Nov 19, and TV was shipped in two days as planned. Inspite of Thanksgiving Day Holidays my TV arrived on the earliest possible date of schedule Nov 27 (Nov 27-Dec 13). The value of shipping Standart Ground was $78, but Amazon discounted it for me down to $0. On the moment of purchase the price of my TV was $2069, and after a three days it went down to $2019, when I called Amazon they immediatelly returned $50 bucks on my credit card. Little unexpected bonus. Customer servise in general is very helpfull. Ordering this TV from Amazon, I literally saved $800 compared to BestBuy and CircuitCity. No tax and free shipping you have got nothing to lose.

Delivery "Eagle" guys always made calls prior to delivery, initially it was scheduled for delivery at 10 am, but since they were running late waiting for some customers, they called me again and said about it. When delivered, they connected and installed TV without even asking.

TV looks fantastic, the image is great. I wanted to buy this TV for a long time. Two reviews made me worry by talking about buzzing noise coming from the back of the screen, well in my case, nothing was standing out. Just like every other plasma TV. May be one guy was unlucky, but the other guy's review history showed there was not a single good review there. If you are thinking of purchasing this TV, go for it. It will go nice and smooth with the Amazon.

TV had loud buzzing, right out of the box. Called Amazon, while delivery guy was there, and returned it. Requested refund and bought Samsung 46" LCD. Buzzing is a well known issue with this model.

I turned it on right after the delivery guy unpacked it. Loud buzzing noise comes from the back when I switch the power on. Amazon directed me to call Samsung first. I called them and they proceeded to tell me that the noise was normal but i would not take any of that. I had them send out a repair person who dismantled the television and told me that I will be getting a replacement unit. He said that the unit is irrepairable because defect is in the way the plasma panel is bound to the aluminum backframe trapping tiny air pockets that cause the noise. He told me that Samsung will contact me to arrange for a replacement. The replacement unit came and it was buzzing even louder. I am contacting Amazon to take it back. Not worth all the time I took off work to deal with this problem.

Too bad. I was really looking forward to owning this TV. It looks sleek and the picture is very crisp.

Have read all the reviews on avs forum and amazon about the buzz problem on this set, I still decided that I was gonna take the odds. It has been 3 months since the problem was first reported and I thought Samsung should have come aware of it and fixed the problem.

Well, SO I THOUGHT. There is NO luck on my part! The set buzzes out of the box. You can hear the buzz sound over 10 ft away when there is no dialog or you put the TV on mute. The set was manufatured Nov in Mexico so even the latest ones have this problem! Mine is on its way back.

I rolled a dice and ordered one few weeks ago. I was hoping I won't get a defective unit reported here and at avsforum. Well, I had no such luck. I immediatelly noticed a buzzing sound coming from the back of the unit last week when it was delivered. I called Samsung right away and was put on hold for second level support. The second level tech (Chris) asked to put the phone over it so he could hear it himself. Then he proceed to tell me he could not hear anything therefore there is nothing he could do about it. Of course he also mentioned noise is common for plasma screen. Today I found out that regular phone only carry frequency up to 4 Khz. That buzzing sound is for sure way above that therefore he won't be able to hear anything. I will call them again to see if they will stand behind their product.
Other than buzzing sound, it's a great tv. I agreed with another posting that you should wait until next batch arrived. Mine is manufactured in September 06.

UPDATE : They finally agreed to replace it. What a different !!
I am a happy camper now.

Received HP-S5053 TV yesterday, turned on last night. A very loud buzzing noise came out from the back of TV, I can hear from every corner in the house. The character on the screen seems vibrate with the noise. I called Amazon, "No return or exchange, call Samsung". I guess Amazon lower its price to attract buyer and at the same time getting a lower cost from Samsung by shipping a defect TV to buyer. What a business practice from Amazon. *&#*

I purchased my Plasma on 11/06...But waited a while to give my review... I researched plasma tv set's for a while,before making my decision...priced them at major store's like...Bestbuy,Circuit City,PC Richard......Was kind of leaning to the Panasonic-50" Plasma...But when I compared the Samsung-HP-S5053..and the Panasonic-TH-50PX60U...side by side..the Samsung...won out...It had better feature's like glare proof finish...549 billion lifelike colors as opposed to Panasonic's 29 billion colors....head phone jack...I decided on Samsung....Then the price..came into play....of course Amazon.com had the best price...free shipping..no Tax...So I did order and purchased from Amazon..then I started reading some of the reviews...which made me very nervous...especially the one's about the "Buzzzzzing".....I asked myself what have I done..nervously waited for delivery......when delivered I asked the delivery guy's to wait till I plugged it in........to my surprise...worked terrific..no "Buzzing"....the delivery guy's were amazed at how I had researched the TV..even the date's when TV's were built...It seemed that TV's that were built on 8/06-10/06....had the Buzzzzing problem...mine was built in 11/06...I wondered why Samsung or Amazon kept shipping this problematic TV ....to the public...I'm just glad I recieved a good one...Which I enjoy wathcing very much........I love shopping at Amazon...When I am asked what kind of gift I want...."I SAY...AN AMAZON.COM...GIFT CERTIFICATE....