Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater TV war almost over

I've narrowed down to the Samsung's. Plasma PN=50A550 or LCD LN52A650. Haven't seen the plasma in action, but I seen the LCD, last night and thought the detail was exceptional. I don't know how critical the black level is, even on this tv. Viewing angle was close but not as good as plasma. Also know that the colors were probably not dialed like they should. Any comments on these two tv's would be appreciated. Also know that consumer reports have both of these tv's ranked #1 in there class.

I bought the Sammy LCD LN52A650 about three months ago based on overwhelmingly positive reviews. HD is incredibly detailed depending on what station I have on...some HD stations are far superior to others. I haven't got my HT all set up yet,(waiting on speakers) so I've only seen HD cable so far, but the picture on some of these programs make you feel like you are "there". I can't imagine what my blue ray will look like when I get it set up w. my Axioms. Some of the poorer HD stations, I can still see a little bit of "ghosting" even at 120hz though. This is an excellent TV.

I've had a PN50A450, the 720p version, for a month and a half now. I'm very pleased with it. It's strong points are color accuracy and color adjustability. I don't see what the point of 1080p resolution would be, given that I watch from more than 5 feet.

How do you feel about the detail quality, and also do uou get reflections of light coming from other rooms? I am sure daylight is obvious unless in a totally dark room.

i have the lcd samsung 52"750 and its amazing i looked at almost every tv out there before i bought and it definitly was the best . once i ran a setup disk to adjust everything it really came to life . The plasma version is equally as good but didnot work for me cause my room is very bright and i did not want to have to close the blinds to watch . Buy samsung you wont be dissapointed like my other friends that didnt , and come to my house and get their feeling's hurt lol .

Detail quality is great. Reflections aren't much of a problem for me -- my room is pretty dark, but the A450's anti-reflective coating does some good.

The long A450 owner's thread at AVSForum has many evaluative comments, sample images, and setup suggestions.

I have the 460 which is essentially the same machine. I've had it a month or so and have been quite pleased with it.

Just a quick note. I was in best buy,on my lunch break today. I noticed for the first time that both plasma and lcd (samsung) had reflections. This was because of the glass panel over the screen. They both looked equal to me. I realize this is in a store, and not my home where the lighting is different, but I can't help but wonder will I get these same reflections in my living room? I lied not a quick note.

So do tube TVs. You will never entirely get rid of reflections. I seem to remember that plasma used to have worse problems because they could not use the same anti-glare coatings because the brightness/contrast on plasmas was so much lower.

I just got Samsung's 550 plasma and I don't have any glare issues whatsoever, with exception to a couple spots on the TVs glossy frame but I have three lights hanging from the ceiling with their covers off and very bright, blinding 100 W gu10 bulbs in them causing this. The only thing that I've experience is image retention. I had a movie on, paused it and waited for the screensaver to come on, then went upstairs and a visitor came in, so the screensaver was on for about an hour. I went back downstairs and didn't notice anything on the screen (but didn't take a good look), then a phone call so I paused and turned the TV off after 10 minutes or so, upon turning it back on there was a burnt in image of the Samsung DVD logo, then I went into the TVs menu for literally 1-2 minutes and upon closing the menu there was a burnt in image of the menu. This scared the living daylights out of me so I ran theimage retention removal tool, and now it's clear. Now I'm running the anti-burn in DVD.

Long story short, despite what many people say, burn in does still happen and it can only take a couple minutes.

I'm also wondering if the Samsung DVD players screen saver doesn't work so well. Immediately after you push stop, a blue screen comes up with the Samsung logo and then a couple seconds later the screen goes black with a moving Samsung logo screen saver, but I think that the Samsung logo that's showing immediately after stopping a DVD may still be playing in the background therefore causing the burnt in image.

Audiodreamer, I missed your post above about impressions of the 550. I can't say enough about this TV, it has an exceptional picture and I'm just using a crappy Samsung upconverting DVD player. Like Adrian said, the picture quality on HD is exceptional depending on the channel (the Super Bowl was fantastic). Also, AVS has a thread exclusively for the 550 that you may want to check out before purchasing but for sure after as its extremely detailed and even has quite a few recommended settings.

Overall, it's a beautiful set and highly recommended!!

any samsung with the anti glare coating will be fine i have mine(lcd) in a very bright room and have no problems .

my grandfather just bought the 630 and its very close in quality to the 750 so if u wanna save some money i would suggest that one

I'm sure this has been brought up hundreds of times over the years, but, why do these stations continue to put their station/network id icons on the screens? We don't need to see them and this has been a point of contention re. burn-in issues for years, has it not?

The new Samsung 550 utilizes the same screen as last years model. Unlike the models above it, it doesn't have any antiglare advancements implemented.

I went with the plas 550. Has a little glare but not near as bad as all of the horror stories made it sound. I am curious though about the break in. Is it just the brightness and contrast that I dial down, or the color also. I have read so many things about calibrating. I would like to know if the absolute best way is to have it professional done?

Dreamer, it's possible to spend too much time tweaking and not enough just enjoying the programs, but yes, a little more than just lowering the brightness and contrast would be reasonable. The suggested settings HomeTheater Magazine gave when they tested the 550 might be useful.

I used the settings on Tweak my TV to set my 460 plasma after I did about a month of break in on it.

I just went through almost every station on my satellite and I couldn't find one channel that doesn't have their logo in the bottom corner of the screen. I agree Adrian that this could be problematic with burn in. I noticed that probably 75% of these logos are somewhat transparent, would this type of logo cause burn in as opposed to a solid colored logo?

I guess it's back to the burn in DVD for me.

I run stations with the logos with no ill effect as of yet. I really don't worry much about it.

We've owned a couple of different plasmas for the last 7 or 8 years and have not had any 'burn-in' problems whatsoever. If station logos were burning into the screens of these TVs you would have heard well about it long before now, these things have been around quite a number of years.

I did a search and apparently there are many complaints about channel logos causing burn-in. Believe it or not, I actually found a television station that only broadcasts pictures from around the world with different themes that is actually quite pleasant to watch. The perfect burn-in channel .