Customer Reviews

Samsung PN50B450 50-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I Just picked up this TV at BB. I was just in the store walking around and went over to check out the PN50A450 but they had this next to the 1080p plasma from Samsung. This TV looked AMAZING. It was next to a couple of Samsung's LCDs which looked much brighter but the colors were horrible. But I knew the brightness of the Plasma is just fine at home and the colors are very accurate. Put it in the truck making sure it stayed completely vertical and set it up at home - wow! Have my ps3 hooked up watching Blu-Rays on it and we are amazed at how great the picture looks. I haven't tweaked any of the settings but it looks stunning out of the box.

It does have 2 component inputs even though they aren't listed on here or on any location on the net for some reason, one of the reasons I was gunning for the A450 until I saw this. It also has a very slight touch of red color that you can only really tell if a brighter light is on.

The remote is pretty cheap, it almost feels like a fisher price unit. The remote itself does not have discreet input switching but I am pretty sure it accepts discreet IR commands if you have a universal like a Harmony.

The TV has a welcome mode that helps you set it up when you plug it in which was pretty cool.

Oh and the stand swivels which is pretty nice.

Overall this TV is amazing, it is like watching it at the theater. I can't speak for the longevity or if any problems pop up, since I just got it, but I'll update if there are any problems!

______UPDATE AFTER A WEEK OF HEAVY USE________4/19/09____
A few things I can update after using this thing to play a ton of Call of Duty World at War, the NHL/NBA playoffs, and Blu Rays:

I have experienced no burn in or IR issues. I have the pixel shift enabled at 2 2 2 in case you were wondering. But we play a ton of video games on this and it has been fine. I also lowered the contrast from the default settings by about 15 which did not affect picture quality.

This TV also generates barely any heat. After hours of usage I check with my hand and there are two small locations near the vents on the top back that are warm at best, but the rest of the TV is mostly cool to the touch still. I find this phenomenal considering my Samsung LCD that is next to it (2006 Model) generates at least 3 times as much heat.

Another thing to mention is how much you will get used to having no motion blur. We had the Cleveland/Detroit game on both the plasma and lcd and when I was looking at the LCD, I couldn't believe I had been OK with all the motion blur you see in LCDs. There is none in the plasma. Also, the blacks and colors are so much better than an LCDS you will hate watching anything on an LCD after watching on this.

The only cons I have found so far is that the power and other buttons on the unit itself are touch sensitive, kind of like a PS3, but they are small and it is really difficult to see which one does which because the locations match the dark black of the frame so you have to kind of run your finger over the buttons and hope you are aiming your finger at the right one. Of course, most people use their remote for this. Another con is that the frame and stand collect dust very easily, however, it takes 2 seconds to wipe off with the towel. The screen, however, does not collect anything and has stayed crystal clean since it's installation.

I'd like to share my thought of process in buying this TV.
First, I wanted at least 46" for viewing at 10' under $1300. My first choice was LCD with 1080P of course since it seems like everyone is going toward the LCD. I primarily watch sport and movie, not really plan for gaming. From reading from many resources (Amazon's user review, [...].), watching at different stores (Fry's, Bestbuy, Sears) in more than 10 visits, I concluded that plasma is better way to go in many reasons. From my eyes, I think plasma produces a better picture quality than LCD. Image quality from plasma looks more natural and not flat (don't know how to explain). Comparing color, plasma generates better skin tone (in photography or flesh tone in (probably) videography???) and a lot cheaper.

I was worried about power consumption and dimmer picture comparing to LCD (when viewing in stores). Both of them are not really major issues at all at home. First I tried to find that how much it's gonna cost me for watching this big screen TV. I looked at the back of the screen and found that the maximum power consumption rated is 360W. That's one-quart of my portable oil radiation heater, not a big deal. For your information, 300W will cost you 3cent for an hour of usage. For the dimmed picture (like the picture is under-exposure in photography), I thought it should be ok in my apartment.

The next thing was 720P or 1080P. I went to stores and checked by myself that I can distinguish the difference (I consider my eyes are pretty good at this). From less than 5', I can see that the pixel for 720P is bigger than the pixel of 1080P. That means from less than 5' you will see the 720P has less detail. However, I will be watching at 8'-10' which is not a problem at all. The 720P set was located side-by-side to the $1700 Samsung LCD and I watched both of them from 8' away and there's no different in resolution. I thought that I'm not gonna pay extra $700 for that for sure.

Next thing you're gonna be worried was image retention (IR) and burn-in. If you understand how it works, you will know how to avoid that problems. From normal TV watching, there's no way that your TV will have a burn-in or IR plus the TV set provides the pixel shift function to avoid the problem in case you play a game and sleep while the screen shows still image. If you feel sleepy, just turn off your TV and go to bed. Don't waste your money of electric bill.

Only one pitfall I see is there's only 3 HDMI ports

One thing that I don't understand, the PN50B450's response time is 0.001ms (way way shorter than regular LCD (4-6ms) and refresh rate at 600Hz which 5-time better than higher level LCD (120Hz), but when I watch Giants, I can see that it's not fast enough when the comcast graphic is flashing (pixelette). There's not problem at all for normal game play. So I don't know how LCD or LED are going to handle this. Maybe it's from the source (I subscribe to Comcast HD).

[...].

**Sorry for my English, it's not my native language

I have owned it two months. Great picture. However after a few weeks I noticed a bright green dot that would appear. Not large but very bright and it flickers, sort of like saying, look at me, look at me! Extremely distracting because the rest of the picture is perfect. I thought, no problem, I have a one year warranty so maybe I should wait to see if it goes away. It did not, just got worse. So I called Samsung and worked my way through the menu system. After I explained the problem, the sympathetic person assured me that this would be repaired, but then transferred me to another person to whom I had to explain everything again. So these people told me that they would contact my local Samsung repair center and that I would get a call from the service center to set up a time for the repair. But the next day I received two calls, one from Samsung technical service, and one for AT&T technical services or something like that. After being on the phone with AT&T for 40 minutes they explained that a few bad pixels are considered normal and Samsung would not repair the TV. But they are VERY sorry. I waited a few weeks while the dot got brighter and then called Samsung again. Oh, they just didn't understand why this was not repaired and I made them repeat to me that I would NOT get a call from AT&T or some other third party. Oh no, they were going to contact the my local repair facility personally and get the TV fixed immediately. I could expect a call the next day. Well, do I need to tell you who really called? Yes AT&T and Samsung technical department. AT&T asked me to tell them what the problem was, and I told him he was looking at my information on his computer screen and I didn't feel like taking another 40 minutes to explain it again. So after a few minutes he transferred me to the ECR department. (EXECUTIVE Customer bla, bla, bla Dept.)The Executive part is suppose to be impressing you. Now he is sympathetic and assures me that it will be repaired, yes it will, absolutely! I made him say it ten different ways, yes it will be fixed, BUT then he said, Samsung does have a pixel policy. Really! I never agreed to any special policy regarding bad pixels. I only know that I have a defective TV and a one year warranty. Well for now that is where it stands. All I am saying is be very cautious when buying a flat screen and look for a zero defect warranty and a long return policy so you can do an exchange or refund. Good Luck

Just bought this today at Best Buy who had it on sale for $959 and 36 months same as cash! I used to build custom Home Theaters and have had the opportunity to see a lot of Video Displays. I have viewed cable delivered HD (mostly 1080i) and Blu-Ray DVD via a Sony PSP3....and I can tell you that anyone would be hard-pressed to discern the difference between this units 720P display and any other at 1080P. Superb Picture! As far as I am concerned, Samsung has set the standard. I just feel sorry for the poor fool who spends more than $990 on a 50" Plasma unit~ ...and please, do not spend $200 on a wall mount! the Cheetah APTMM2B is more than suitable.

The Samsung PN59b450 50 inch plasma HDTV is a very good buy. Extremely fast shipment. The picture on this set is very bright and clear. The B model runs much more cooler than the A model. This 50 inch plasma runs even runs cooler than my 37 inch LCD. All in all was a very good purchased and worth the price.

Well I finally replaced my 36" HDTV Sony it always got a great picture
but this Samsung 50" (pn50B450) puts it to shame. The black level is
great and there is no motion blur.I'm sitting about 8' from set watching a blueray and it looks fantastic. The only change I made was reduce color
intensity from 50 t0 40. that was it.....

All I can say is WoW ,compared to an older DLP samsung HDTV that I had this one is much smoother and clearer, colours are deep and vibrant,the difference is like night and day. Get this one Excellent purchase.

Pros: clear smooth video,no pixalation from fast moving scenes, no fuzz or white dots common with lcd or dlp tv's, all glass screen,standard dvd's look very good compared to same content on lcd or dlp tv's.

Cons: remote is not universal, tv stand should be a little more sturdy.

This TV is amazing. The picture is fabulous, The controls for Samsung are very intuitive and easy to use, connections are easy and have many options. And the delivery - top notch. I would not hesitate to recommend, this TV or Amazon delivery to anyone.
This is my second Plasma n 2 years, both from AMAZOn. I am a happy camper.

First off let me say Plasmas are much better picture than LCDs but yes they do consume more electricity than any 50" LCD. I compare the newest Viera 600hz and this side by side (actually two 600hz Vieras and this one). This one is clearly better picture. The Panasonic 720 and this 720P are actually higher than what is advertised. They are actually not 720p, 1280x720 but 768P or 1366 x 768.

"Brief Notes":
* Of what is not true anymore: At 600hz, this is faster than even the newer generation of LCDs so retail store use to push LCDs (esp. gamers) since the refresh rating.
* Burn in is not so much a factor any more. The screen saver kicks in early and Samsung has better technology to counterbalance the burn in effect that was in older generations.The 720p Viera X1 Series.
* TC-P50X1 clearly shows blacks better but not quality of picture. The X1 does not have that good of rating as you see from Amazon and other review sites.

If you have the money for a 1080p than go for it but I would go with a Plasma 768P, rather than spending about 40 percent more this is the greatest bang for the buck even though labeled as a 720p.
This generation of Samsung Plasmas rule. Samsung LCDs are professionally reviewed as the best but I have not seen a better looking TV than a Samsung whether it be a 768P or a 1080P.

I have recently got this TV delivered after my 56' DLP started turning itself off randomly every 3 hours. Since I got the service plan three years ago I got two tv's for the price of 1. I got this TV which is fantastic. The colors are vibrant and really pop off the screen. I play a lot of games on XBOX 360 and PS3 which I don't know why they list the TV as displaying only 720P. I can set all three resolutions 720P, 1080i, and 1080P and XBOX accepts all of them. Could not be happier....

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Update 9-5-2009
I still think this is one of the best deals out there on TV's. I recently compared again along price and features and this TV again won out. I have purchased this same model for my living room. The kicker was it was [...] cheaper than last time. If you need a large screen this is the best one available.