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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent (with 1 Caveat), November 27, 2009
This review is from: Samsung PN42B400 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV (Electronics)
I purchased this TV to replace a 26" Samsung LCD. This TV hasn't failed to impress yet. I've put it through it's paces on several inputs, including multiple genres of video games through a Playstation 3, both Blu-ray and DVD movies, and digital cable programming through a hi-def box. In each instance, connections were made with an HDMI cable.
Honestly, I didn't have to alter anything. I toyed with tweaking the various display options, but in the end (for the vast majority of the settings) I ended up going back to factory defaults. The picture is consistently sharp, clear, and vibrant. As far as picture quality goes, I can only come up with one negative. It lacks full 1080p. Personally, I would rather put the cash towards a larger 1080i/780p set than a smaller 1080p.
The lack of a fifth star is a combination of three things. One, lack of 1080p. Two, the remote feels slightly cheap. It's not horrible, but i feel like with the build quality of the TV, and the coolness of the touch screen buttons used on the TV itself, the remote could have been better. No problems if you have a good universal though. The last of the three, is that I cannot vouch for the sound quality. My audio is routed through a separate receiver, so it would've been exceedingly impractical to re-rig everything to test out speakers (especially since I'll never use them personally)
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Buy At An Affordable Price!!!, December 5, 2009
This review is from: Samsung PN42B400 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV (Electronics)
I got this TV during the Black Friday sale and I must say, I am overwhelmingly impressed with what Samsung has to offer. Free shipping by Amazon via Pilot was icing on the cake and the shipping was quick and efficient (they even delivered it all the way to my living room of my condo apartment!).
Size:
As a first time HDTV owner, I wanted to buy a HDTV that is larger than my current one (Sony WEGA 22") but smaller than a 46 inch. After testing out several units at Best Buy and Walmart stores, my final TV size was 42" - not too large, but not too small. It was just the right size for an HDTV. It was also the right size for a 720p resolution, as I soon found out firsthand.
Resolution (720p vs. 1080p):
After going through many reviews from several electronic websites, I have come to the conclusion that at 42 inch, the human eye cannot really tell the difference between 720p and 1080p unless you sit within 1 foot away from the TV. 720p simply means a resolution of 1024x768 pixels, whereas 1080p has 1920x1080 pixels. The 'p' stands for progressive scan, which means all pixel rows are lit each time, displaying smoother moving images. Nowadays, cable companies offer HD channels that only broadcast at 720p, so there's really no need to spend the extra money on a 1080p TV.
Plasma vs. LCD (Contrast and Brightness):
The popular demand nowadays is LCD since prices have gone down, but nevertheless the argument still rages on as to which type of display dominates. From what I saw, plasma TVs have a really quick response time (.001ms) as opposed to LCDs, have richer colors, deep blacks and great contrast for movies and sports viewing, whereas LCDs are brighter, but are relatively weaker in terms of displaying a rich, warm color.
This Samsung plasma looks absolutely gorgeous when viewed with an HDMI cable. The images are very rich in contrast, especially with the 2,000,000 to 1 mega contrast ratio. PS3 graphics are also rich in color when used with a HDMI cable.
Anti-burn in Technology:
While it is true that plasmas do suffer from burn-ins, keep in mind that LCDs have their woes as well - suffering from dead pixels. Samsung has did a great job from previous plasma models of reducing burn-ins with 2 features that include pixel shift and pixel scrolling, which moves the pixels at a designated interval (recommended for this TV is 2 horizontal, 2 vertical, every 2 min).
Value:
At $550, this is a really good price for a quality Samsung plasma. If you need more HDMi ports and connections, capability to use Anynet technology for universal remotes, and a headphone jack, you can get all that with a Samsung PN42B450 model for $74 more (currently $624 at Amazon as of this review).
Differences between PN42B400 and PN42B450:
The only difference I've noticed with my Samsung plasma is that there's no PC D-sub port but instead has a HDMI/DVI port for computer connections (where you use a mini-DVI/DVI to HDMI adapter), so that's a plus. Another thing is that PN42B400 does not have a headphone jack, no anti-glare filterbright technology, has no silver decor at the bottom of the SAMSUNG logo, and the volume (+/-) and power buttons are touch sensitive and are in the front of the unit, similar to that of the PN42B450. Compared to the PN42B450 model, this model only has 2 HDMI ports.
Overall, this is a great buy at an affordable price.
UPDATE: 7/17/10
It's been nearly 8 months since I've bought this TV and so far I can't find any flaws/complaints for it. No burn-in is detected even though I use the TV on avg of 3+ hours a day. The picture quality and contrast are still crisp and vivid. On a side note, there has been 2 times since I bought this TV where it just turned on automatically in the middle of the night for a few min before shutting off by itself. I've read that the TV is trying to auto-update and check for software updates, even though this Samsung TV version has no released updates (the PN42B450 model does have updates, though). So far, I have not found a solution, but that's alright since the TV hasn't turned on by itself lately.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great deal for good features, December 4, 2009
This review is from: Samsung PN42B400 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV (Electronics)
We've had this TV for about a week and have no complaints so far. The image is very bright and vibrant along with deep blacks. The sound is great as far as built in speakers go.
We chose plasma because it has a great contrast ratio as well as fast refresh rate for a very affordable price. This is a quality plasma set. It has basically the same picture and sound as the more expensive PN42B450, which has gotten a ton of great reviews on Amazon. On the PN42B450's page check out the discussion "PN42B400 vs PN42B450" for some more info about the differences between these TV's.
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