**Have only had the set for 4 days, still tweaking settings**
TheSamsung PN51E550 51-Inch 1080p 600 Hz 3D Slim Plasma HDTV (Black)
I purchased this set after returning an LG LED 47 inch Cinema 3D set, the problem I had with the LG set was the sports and HD in general looked really washed out and messy; after several days of tweaking the settings nothing seemed to help. I then stopped researching LED's and jumped to researching new model Plasma's. I'm an owner of an older Panasonic 720P 50 inch plasma that I purchased from Fry's for less than $600 like 4-5 years ago and I felt it was time to upgrade. After researching the options within my budget the Samsung appealed to me because of the 600hz motion drive (sports in mind) and the Cinema Smooth features for Blu-Ray movies - the 3D and 2 free glasses was a bonus and so I pulled the trigger and went for it.
Shipping:
I had to schedule an appointment with Pilot shipping services and I had to wait about 6-7 days until my set arrived. I was able to get the set 1 day early, called them early morning to see if they had my item and they were able to reschedule to a earlier date. Packaged arrived prefect with no issues whatsoever.
Now for an actual review of some content I have tried on this set so far. My first post was more of a calling out for some help with an issue I noticed when watching Hockey (I will get into it in my review) with the intentions of coming back and updating my review which is what I'm doing now.
HD Sports:
The first thing I tried on this set was the HD Sports - Mainly Basketball and Hockey. I'm currently a TW cable subscriber and using a Motorola cable box that supports 1080i using a "Premium" HDMI cable utilizing the first HDMI slot on the set. The basketball game looked decent but the picture could use tweaking but out of the box it was decent. I noticed some motion blur and some artifacting when the players moved up and down the court. The colors stood out, and they looked very good, not some washed out mess like the previous set I had purchased and returned. The next day, I tested my set with Hockey and here is where I noticed the odd issues with the brightness. The television set has tons of features and options available for the end user to tweak and adjust which I truly love. I made sure that all eco settings, energy saving settings and auto brightness settings were turned off and they were. While watching the hockey game, I noticed that the brightness or the cell lighting of the actual screen would auto brighten and darken when the camera moved up and down the ice following the players. This is something I was not able to fix, I tried everything I could think of and finally contacted Samsung for some help. After talking with Samsung they're fix was to Factory Reset The Settings....I LOL'd at this and moved on the research and attempt to fix this problem my self (which I have not yet, still researching). One thing I did notice is the preset I'm currently using "Standard" has the energy star logo next it which is leading me to believe that the preset might force energy saving features even though I have set them to off. Overall the Sports look great, the set may require some tweaking depending on your setup but out of the box, the picture quality for HD programming is very nice.
Blu-Ray viewing PS3 using HDMI:
As soon as I got my TV, the setup was a breeze, since all of my components are using HDMI, it was really easy to get everything connected but I ran into some problems with my PS3 picture to actually show up on the screen. At first I was using the third HDMI slot on the set, while my Xbox 360 was using the second. The set would recognize my PS3 and it would show up in the source list but the picture was not coming on. After resetting my PS3 video setting by simply holding down the power button for 5-7 seconds - it still would not come on. I started to get nervous, I went online but did not find many answers, maybe a few posts about it but it all went back to resetting your PS3 video settings which didn't work for me. I refreshed the source list using the tools button and the UI and still nothing. I shut the television off and the PS3, unplugged the HDMI from the set and replaced it to the second slot and move my Xbox to the third slot, turned the PS3 on and my TV and bang it recognized it. Not sure what the problem was but moving it to the second + resetting the ps3 worked like a charm.
Now came the time to test movies, mainly blu-rays. I tested a range of movies that I have in my collection - Star Wars, Scott Pilgrim and Batman (to name a few). Out of the box, with zero tweaking, I was not really impressed but I knew that I can really get the picture quality and a higher level with all the nice features and tweaking options available on this set. After some minor tweaking and turning Cinema Smooth on, I started to notice a slight difference. The action scenes were a bit smoother, the blacks were looking really nice but the whites could have used some more help. I stopped tweaking for a while and just sat down and watched the flick and I must say I was Impressed but I kind of wanted to have what people call "The soap opera effect". I feel the cinema smooth feature doesn't add too much to picture quality but just enough to make it pop. Overall, I'm enjoying the set for watching movies, with some minor tweaking you can get the set to look good but with some advanced tweaking you can really make the picture quality look very nice.
I went ahead and purchased the Disney WoW calibration disc and it arrived just in time for me to tweak the settings even more - if you want an easy tweaking guide, get this Blu-Ray on Amazon. It's a nice disc to have handy so you can attempt to get the best possible picture out of your new baby :).
Gaming:
I am a gamer at heart, I own a ton of video games and have from old school to new school gaming console's in my collection. I'm a big fan of run and gun games, FPS, Action and Adventure games with the occasional RPG. I have not really gotten into gaming that much on this set but have tried two games so far - Battlefield 3 on my Ps3 and Modern Warfare 3 on my Xbox 360. Modern Warfare 3 played really well, the details and backgrounds were okay and the picture could use tweaking and sharpness tuning but overall the smoothness was noticeable and I was very satisfied. Battlefield 3 on my Ps3 on the other hand did not look so good. I was just done tweaking my ps3 settings and my set for movies so the gaming did not look good because it was set up for movies and not games. After playing a few rounds with my current settings, I then went into the menus and turned on the gaming mode which turns up the contrast to full blast and the cell lighting as well. While playing a few rounds in "Gaming mode" the only difference I noticed is that the menus responded much quicker in-game and the menu on the television set as well. I'm pretty satisfied with the smoothness in games but my intentions are to tweak it because gaming is a whole other monster and will require some love. Overall - the blacks, smoothness look really good on this set when gaming and with some adjustments you can really get your games to look fantastic.
I will definitely come back in a few more days to update my post with some more gaming and of course the 3D and the apps which I have not touched yet.
Lastly I want to say that I'm pretty satisfied with my purchase but for now will have to give it 4 stars and here's why. Only 3 HDMI slots are available and I'm using all 3 which leaves little room to add components like a receiver or soundbar; I would love to have had at least 1 more HDMI slot for this reason being able to add. Another reason why is the picture quality for sports and gaming. With the weirdness of the auto brightness and the BF3 not looking all that great this also factored into the 4 star rating.
If you're looking for a set under $1000 with tons of features, 600hz and 3D, this is the way to go. I love the options that are available, Cinema Smooth is a very good feature and the UI is pretty easy to use.
Update 5/26:
I was watching Super 8 on blu-ray last night and I noticed some odd issues when the television set transitioned to credits at the end of the movie. Basically, when the screen when black then to text then back again to black; the television began to flicker like if the television wanted to shut off. I did that for quite some time and I quit out of the movie because I thought It was going to burn out. Contacted Samsung and they're blaming my PS3 Slim or Monster HDMI cable.
Update 6/5:
As much as I loved how HD Cable looked on this set, I have returned it back to amazon due to problems that came up after a few weeks of use. These can be small, picky issues but they bothered me so much that I had to return the set.
1. This I already mentioned in an update here or the original review - Brightness pops when watching hockey. I could not take it anymore, the screen was starting to quickly flash every time there was action. I noticed this a little for Basketball but very noticeable in Hockey. The brightness would automatically dim or return to bright levels randomly.
2. Fade to black problems when watching Blu Ray movies, the screen on the set will start to flash on and off. I ran into this problem when watching Thor and Super8.
3. Buzzing sound started at a certain level and distance, close up you can't hear a thing but at a distance, the noise is noticeable.
4. Read more ›
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