Customer Reviews

Samsung PN58A550 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Hi guys
I generally do not write reviews but this is such a new TV without many reviews in the public domain and so decided to put my two cents;
1. Why plasma not LCD...well, plasmas, are cheaper once you are in the post 50" realm. Past 50", plasmas rule when it comes to price. They are also not limited by 60/120 Hz. cycling issues like the LCDs (remember we never had a "triple ball" effect with our old CRT based TVs, that we have used for the past 50 years; well, plasmas are an extension of that technology, just way more sophisticated.
2. [...]
3. Amazon service: 5/5 Top class. Ordering on line was a breeze.
4. Free white glove delivery included delivery, unpacking, set up, and trash haul. Also, if you do not like what you see, Amazon will take the TV on the spot at their expense. On my TV, there was a free white glove delivery! CEVA tracking promised delivery on 7th May but delivered the TV on 1st May. How is that for under promise and over deliver. 5/5 to CEVA for white glove! It took 2 guys to haul this beast in. I had the cart ready and they spent half an hour unpacking and helping me screw the TV to the stand (M8 36 mm screw). The screws on the back from Samsung are not long enough (though M8 type). You will need to undo the swivel base (the CEVA guys did that and hauled my old 36" (read heavy) clunker into the basement also).
5. Return policy: 30 day no questions asked on Amazon as opposed to 15 days in bricks a mortar stores.
6. The TV picture quality itself blew me away. For the price, it is a no brainer. Sound quality does need enhancement with a home theater system for a full HD/HT experience. The picture out of the box is truly marvelous. I did not have to tinker with the settings much. Just make sure you have either an HDMI or a component cable that is able to display 1080p/i signal (the old coax does not display 1080p/i).
7. Blue ray player: For people with children, Sony PS3 is an obvious choice for a blue ray/game player combo.
8. This TV has higher contrast ratio than their earlier FTP5884 model, and therefore, whilst both were available, it was a no brainer to go with the newer PN58A550 model.
9. One last comment. If money was not an objective, I would have bought a bigger (65") panel. I had the hunch and it is now confirmed, no matter how large a panel you buy, you may end up feeling that it is not big enough.
Overall, Amazon saved me mucho dinaro, and delivered as promised. No fuss, no muss, no questions asked! Good luck guys/gals.

I've had the PN58A550 FOR about a month now and overall I am very pleased.

Positive:
The value is very good on this TV. The picture quality is great. Setup option are more extenisive than most TV's. You can really dial in everything about the picture using regular menus. The overall finish on the TV is really nice. It has a piano gloss finish on the frame and stand that look really sharp. Samsung TV's used to have some of the worst menus ever but the one on this TV is really very good and intuative.

Negatives:
1) There are no S-Video or Composite connections on the back of the TV. There are 1 of each on the left side of the TV.
2) The picture "zoom" feature is just stupid. Sometimes when movies are letterboxed I like to zoom in and not see so much of the top&bottom bars. On the Samsung zoom doesn't zoom, it stretches the picture vertically so everything looks a little too tall.
3) The screen is pretty reflective. Other plasmas do a better job of cutting the glare.

Overall I'm really pleased with my purchase and would certainly do it again.

After 6 months of looking and comparing I decided on either the Samsung 52" series 550 LCD or this 58" series 550 plasma. I finally decided that size DID matter. Boy am I happy! The pix is fantastic, color and blacks are superb, according to the instructions (and reviews) it takes up to 2 hours of static pixels to have a threat of burn in (which I never foresee) so I couldn't be happier. Some have written about the sound, but my family can't find anything to complain about. When we watch something really important we use the BOSE Lifestyle Dolby 5.1 anyway. I read that plasmas put out heat which is true. When watching an evening of TV we have to use the ceiling fan in the great room when it's unnecessary in the rest of the house. But it's just the nature of the beast and it is 110 degreees outside. It has nothing to do with this unit.

[...]

But what I really wanted to write about was the delivery service. I had read some real horror stories concerning Amazon & CEVA delivery. So when I was told that my [...] investment would be coming via 'Inept Shipping Inc.' (CEVA) I almost backed out. But, I can't tell you how beautifully the transaction went!!!!

Now you've got to understand, I ordered this set about midnite on Friday of Memorial Day weekend so nothing was going to happen until Monday or Tuesday. The set arrived in the nearby 'big city' (we live 90 miles from Oklahoma City in a small town of 36,000) on WEDNESDAY!! I took the initiative and called the local CEVA office to setup a time for delivery. (Most complaints seemed to deal with waiting for them to call you and dealing with the 800 number rather than the local office. The local office is available via their website by simply clicking on a map of the U.S!) They were willing to deliver it the very next day on Thursday but I was unavailable. So we set it up for between noon and 2:30 on Friday. The guy called when he was 20 minutes away, 1pm, unloaded the TV, helped me unbox it, lift it up on the new credenza, set up the channels and gave me some tips on usage, LIKE DON'T EVER USE THE POWER BUTTON ON THE FACE OF THE TV. ALWAYS USE THE REMOTE. THE PRESSURE PAD SYSTEM ON THE SET ITSELF IS SENSITVE TO MOISTURE SO IF YOU HAVE DAMP HANDS YOU CAN BURN OUT THE PAD TO THE TUNE OF AN ALMOST $400 REPAIR. I have since checked this out with Samsung and they say yes, it is possible. That sure isn't in the book! Thanks Mike the delivery guy at CEVA for ALL the great service and help! I got my 58" plasma TV delivered to my home with true service and set up in under a week at a [...]! Can't beat the price or the service!

Though not "cheap", I am amazed that a TV of this quality can be purchased for the price it's being offered at.

I'm lucky: my experience was near flawless with the delivery of this television.

It arrived when they said it would, and it was carefully unboxed, plugged in to make sure that it was working and then away the delivery men went. At first I asked that they take the box with them, but one of them wisely (or lazily... I think the former) suggested that I keep the box for a week in case something went wrong and the TV should have to be removed. In hindsight, though nothing has gone wrong with the TV, I think this sound advice. Storing a box of that size, however, presents problems of its own living in an apartment in an urban environment where space is harder to come by than in the suburbs.

If not mounting the TV right away (as I did - had to put the 3rd party stand together when it was delivered) make sure to completely unbox the TV so that it can stand true.

It's a monster: it's a giant sheet of fragile glass sitting in your room, not unlike the monolith in Arthur C Clark's books. It's not terribly heavy (158lbs with stand, 135lbs without), but it's awkward when lifted and a big slab to navigate should you have to go up stairs or around corners (neither of which I had to do).

Once it's in place, it really is a thing of beauty with stunning picture quality and amazing detail at its native 1080p resolution. SD pictures on it, as many have said, are not great, but I belong to the school of thought that reasons you should be watching HD if you're buying this television, or any 1080p television of this size.

I have a PS3 to accompany this behemoth and games and Blu-ray movies are mind blowing. I use a separate receiver, and speaker set-up for sound so can't honestly assess the aural qualities of the TV's speakers.

The only problem you might have is that your living room will become your friend's new favorite movie theater... "Time to go fellas. Seriously. Fellas?"

This TV is sold through Amazon, but WHO actually sells you the TV can revolve between any number of providers. I (wisely, or so I believe) waited until the TV was for sale by Amazon itself and not a 3rd party vendor. This made me feel more secure about the purchase and my recourses should something go wrong.

Glare could also be an issue for those with a viewing set-up that has natural light behind the viewer, but in my case that hasn't been a problem.

On the downside, and why I didn't give it 5 stars, is that it generates a lot of heat, and uses a LOT of electricity. I recognize that these drawbacks are inherent in the plasma technology, but it doesn't mean I have to like them.

Overall, I am very, very happy with this purchase, and would recommend it to any and all of my friends.

UPDATE: I've had the set for a little over 7 months now and it has performed like a champion. As I mentioned before, the picture quality continues to impress (Dark Knight in Blu-ray will blow... your... mind! The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]). I would still highly recommend the set, and though the price is only $69.78 less than I paid 7 months ago I still think it a great bargain for what you're getting.

First, buying from Amazon is the BEST! Delivery came a week early and with NO problems or hitches.

On to the TV, I was going to get the Viera 2008 model but realized that its specs were the same as this Samsung [...]. Slightly deeper blacks are not worth that...

[...]

The TV is large, but surprising not as bad as I thought. It is thick on side width. Swivel stand is very functional.

The picture, is superb. You can opt for a High Black setting that really pops the picture. I use an upscaled DVD (OPPIO) and TW HD DVR. Digital Cable (SD) looks great. HD is superb.

I recommend against the DYNAMIC picture setting, sadly this setting is only one that allows DNIE to be used, since it causes severe color bleeding with SD TV.

The audio is good not great. The surround effect is spotty.

The glare issue for me, since our condo is fairly dark, is not an issue.

Remote is MUCH improved from my last Samsung PMDP

Best VFM (value for money) deal!

(UPDATE 2/5)
Sadly I found a major problem - BURN IN! After a few months, the Time Warner 4x3 window outer borders are burned into the set. All the burn in prevention tools did not work. I can reduce it with the grayscale sweep, but the problem lines are there.

I had my eyes set on the Pioneer 6010 or the 6020 but never pulled the trigger because it was over $4200.00. Then came the Samsung PN58A550. Had some good features and was very affordable. So much affordable that I ended up buying it from Amazon with their 12 months no monthly payment/no interest offer and had so much money left over that I bought a PS3 for Blu-Ray, a 5 year extended warranty, and a new sound system.

The carrier was Eagle and two guys unpacked the Samsung and they were in and in and out about 15 minutes. They did stay while I hooked up a HD-A35 player to the TV to check if it works. This TV is huge! I mounted it on a Salamander Triple Mount Stand and have it tilted down 7 degrees. It took 4 guys including me to mount the heavy thing. The TV faces a large window across the room but due to the TV at an angle there is barely any glare/reflection at all. Now if the TV was not tilted I would experience some glare/reflection. A550 doesn't have the best glare filter vs their top end models like the A650 which has Ultra Filter Bright.

Black levels and picture quality looked great to me. Now some people say that plasma TVs produce too much buzz or too much heat. There is some heat coming off the screen but it's not HOT. Just a bit warm. Sitting about 10ft away there is no audible buzz from the TV. When I was behind it though doing the wiring there is some humming but it's nothing to complain about.

Please check out the pictures that I added on the product image.

The TV speakers are nothing special but I have mine hooked up to an Onkyo TX-SR705 receiver with BIC Acoustech Home Theater system. Other devices that I have for entertainment are Toshiba HD-A35, PS3 for Blu-Ray, and a Xbox 360 for games.

I am very happy with the Samsung 58A550 and I highly recommend it for medium to large living rooms. I don't recommend this TV for a small or medium size bed rooms.

PROS:
1080P. Great picture quality. Great black levels. Great value for a 58 inch plasma. No buzzing noise that some plasmas are plagued with. Decent glare filtering. 3 HDMI inputs. Supplied TV stand swivels and is very strong.

CONS:
Screen does give off noticeable heat and will increase room temperature a bit. May not be friendly to your electric bill depending on your Energy Savings setting.

I did a lot of research before purchasing this TV in September, and now that I've had a few months with it, it's changed my life. This isn't just about how making that upgrade to flat-panel makes a difference, it's about how nicely this Samsung Plasma TV is put together.

When comparing LCD and Plasma side by side, there was no question as to which had the better color depth--it was definitely plasma. When examining pros and cons, Plasma technology has come a long way. For example, Samsung has a technology called "Pixel Shifting" that will prevent image burn-in by subtly shifting tiny areas of the picture at random. I have yet to be able to see this happen--it seems invisible (but you can also configure how it runs if for some reason you can actually see it). Even if I start to see after-images, Samsung offers me 3 ways to clean it up, all of which are simple: you access the menu, run the cleanup routine for an hour or more, then hit a button and it stops. We also run in a power-saving mode and haven't seen any drop in picture quality.

Meanwhile, we have a plethora of inputs: S-Video, Component, Composite A/V, and HDMI. Some of these inputs are even handily located on the side of the TV, which makes it easy to connect my PSP or a laptop and have my eyes cross and my jaw drop. The TV comes in-the-box mounted to the stand, so no assembly is required: just open the crate, lift onto a stand, and plug in.

The viewing angle of this TV is as close to 180 degrees as I can imagine: I can easily watch the picture from another room when I peek around the edge of the doorway. Glare was a big consideration for us, and thus far the only time we have a problem with it is when a light is on that's directly reflected from the TV. In other words, if you have a lamp on behind you, you'll see it reflected, but if you have a lamp off to the side, the light won't wash across the surface and make it hard to see. I'm also familiar enough with flat-panel technology to watch closely for color bleed, motion blur or other refresh rate problems, and I haven't seen any that were the fault of the TV (watching a home video, for example, will do these things on any screen).

There are only a couple of drawbacks to the Samsung PN58A550:

- The menus can get pretty complex
- The menus take a while to disappear if you don't have the TV remote handy and use it to tap "Return" when you're done
- I haven't actually used anywhere near all of the features of this television. I don't even know what all of them do.
- flipping from one input or size of screen to another can take several seconds

One thing that seems to be important, in general: if you're buying a TV like this, you really need to have it professionally calibrated. That's the system where a technician comes in with gadgets they stick to the screen, they read the signal into a device like a laptop, and manually tune every last way the TV projects its picture. It takes about an hour, but it evens out the color balance and makes the circuitry run more efficiently. We had ours professionally calibrated and it seems to run cooler.

I had a friend help me evaluate plasma tv's and price points. That friend calibrates hdtv's and recommended the Sammie highly due to it's color accuracy and decent black depth.

There are other TV's with better black depth, but they cost a good 50% more than this tv and when you add the price of a decent 5 yr warranty and wallmount, I wanted to keep my costs reasonable.

I have this tv in my great room opposite of my fireplace -- I disliked the idea of subjecting my TV to nightly heat baths in the winter. The room has 11 windows and at times there is glare. But that's what you get in a room with that many windows -- no tv is going to be able to remove glare completely.

To deal with glare we have blinds and window coverings that can be used to strategically block light. Additionally we've mounted this plasma on an Omnimount UCL-XB cantilever mouont. It's easy to change the angle of the tv to reduce glare on a movable mount. Get a mount that supports 150-200 lbs.

Sound is ok/functional. I have a 7.1 speaker system in the room that I've installed this in, and there's no reason to use the internal speakers. But they work, and they aren't horrible. Best feature is that they are down firing and invisible. So since I'm not suing them its as if they are not even there.

The TV is heavy -- make sure someone is home that can help the driver get it into the house. If my wife was home, there would have been no way that the tv would have made it inside with out neighborhood help. It seems to me that amazon should mandate that the delivery company sends enough ppl to deliver inside, but maybe they do and the shipping company is at fault.

So yes.. you can feel comfy buying this TV from amazon. It's beautiful. My wife has even warmed up to its size and quality... the 58" was "too big" before.. and "just right" now.

Get this set calibrated by a professional after a few hundred hours of use. Keep brightness and contrast down initially. Let the professional set it to your taste. You won't be dissapointed.

This is a gorgeous TV. I would have rated this 5 stars except for one thing. My entertainment wall faces a bank of windows to the west, in a sunny climate. As much research as I did, I would have thought I could purchase the right TV the first time. Not so. If I were to say one thing about plazma (from my experience) buy it only if there is 'not' much light in the room. This would include lamps placed on the wall you view from. I believe that the way these TVs reflect/glare is way understated in reviews. I imagine this TV is not much different than most other plazmas when it comes to reflections. I can not stress the reflection/glare enough. These TVs are mirror like.

As this TV arrived last Monday I was very happy with the cosmetics, connections etc. I hooked it up and everything worked pefectly in HD and SD. My wife walked in and confirmed my opinion. Too much reflection. With low light the TV is magnificent. I saw things I have not seen with my two year old Sony HD.

The TV came in on Monday and I called Tuesday to have it picked up and replaced by a Sony LCD. We have watched the plazma for a week while waiting. It truly does have an excellent picture, 'in low light'.

Update: May 8, 2008
Yesterday we received our Sony KDL-52XBR. We unpacked it, plugged it in and away we went. It is absolutely beautiful, cosmetically and performance wise. And, no glare or reflections from lights or west side bank of windows facing this TV. I'd love to see more people weigh in on the plasma reflections and lcd non-reflective screens. We were not imagining things when we talk about the plama reflections, even though the plamza was wonderful at night in low light. We love this LCD and the difference is immediately noticable. But, that is a story for the Sony review, which I will do. I also want to acknowledge that the Samsung plazma at $2700 was a super deal on a television of it's size and quality. We have paid $500 more for a smaller 52" lcd screen (not real noticable in size). But, we consider the reflection issue a big concern and worth the difference, when there is a lot of light in the room.

Update: May 21, 2008
I absolutely agree that the Samsung picture is better than the Sony. It was simply glare and reflection from the plazma 'glass' that could not be 'set' to accomodate the light (I can't control) in the room! If you have a room with normal light, I feel quite sure the Samsung would be a better choice. If you don't have the possibility of "drapes, blinds" etc the Sony simply has less glare.

Also, not that this matters, if you are 'not' using surround, the Sony has better sound. The Samsung actually 'rattled' when I increased the sound. The sound from the Sony (set flat) was much better. But, here again, sound is not a problem since we have a great surround system.

I bought this TV back in May and wanted to wait a while before making a review. I had an orginal Panasonic HDTV and loved it. It went out in January and I decided to buy a Panasonic but wanted this years 58" model. While waiting for the Panasonic to come out I saw the Samsung in Circuit City. I was very impressed but wanted the Panasonic. After waiting months with no release date, I decided to buy the Samsung. What a deal. This television is outstanding. I have this TV in my living room that has a large window. The glare is less than my original projection Panasonic. If I close the curtain there is no glare.

I have nothing bad to say about this set. Regular cable is what I expected but HD is awesome. Blu Ray is even better. If you want a Panasonic don't overlook this television. It saved me at least three hundred dollars over the Panasonic and I didn't have to wait forever.

Also Amazon is great. I got this TV 2 days after the order was processed. Hope this helps the people looking at Panasonics and Pioneer. They are all great but for less money you wont notice any difference.