Samsung PN50A450 User Reviews September 29th, 2008 | by Nick Mokey
Video Review
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Average user rating from 9 users |
Very Good Set - I Disagree with Review
by Steven on Jan 26th, 2009 at 9:55 PM:
This is a superb set by any standard (with the exception of the built-in speakers). It's $1,000 price makes it a strong choice. I bought mine for $899 at a Black Friday sale after researching the competition quite a bit. I also bought the Sony BDP-350 Blu-Ray player.
I knew what I wanted after:
1. Comparing this TV with the 1080P version from Samsung side-by side playing the same slo-mo, macro "blossoming flower in the sunlight shot" Blu-Ray signal at the local Circuit City. From four feet away, I COULD NOT SEE THE DIFFERENCE. And I have very good eyes and I know what to look for.
2. Comparing it to the Panasonic 720P plasma model and not being able to pick one over the other. Though the Samsung's piano-glossy black bezel put it on top.
So, I knew what I wanted and got the price I thought I could get.
THIS BEING SAID: I am a very technically proficient person but understanding how to properly set the "input" handling on this TV was not intuitive. It was only after several days of fussing that I got it completely figured out. At times I thought the set was no good.
My conclusion is that this is a very good set and will perform as good as anything else at 50" for more than double the price, regardless of resolution. It just takes some trial and error. Maybe the reviewers here did not have it set right.
Say What
by Aaron on Jan 14th, 2009 at 1:21 PM:
This review has to be weirdest thing I've read in a while. Although it's expected that a website more devoted to computers won't have quite the expertise as say a home theater website, you wouldn't think they would be this bad. Grainy? 'Poor' picture quality because it's 720p? Give me a break, the only content out there that's 1080p is a few PS3 games and blu-ray, and anyone who says they can tell the difference between 720p and 1080i tv is probably lying. From any reasonable distance, 720p is all your eyes can resolve anyways. I sit 12 ft away from my Samsung and can't tell any difference whatsoever between 720p and 1080p, even on blu-ray. Just about every manufacturer still makes a 720p set at 50", it's for more budget minded people and there's nothing wrong with it at a certain seating distance.
Come on people, we don't sit in front of our tv's like you do with your computer monitors, the difference is not THAT big.
And black levels being horrible? OK they may not be as good as the Pioneer (two to 3 times as much money) and the Panasonic 1080p sets (800, 850, 85 series) which cost twice as much, but it's not THAT bad. The color and shadow detail is enough to make up for the complete black you get with a Pio or Panny. Though if I had to do it all over again I'd probably get a Panny, the Samsung isn't so bad to call it a V6.
Fantastic Set for Under $1k
by StevenInGCA on Dec 5th, 2008 at 11:43 PM:
I TOTALLY disagree with the review here on DT. Maybe they got a bad unit because my review would be completely opposite. The VIDEO is VERY GOOD- even EXCELLENT considering the price (I paid $899 at Fry's plus free ship). But the AUDIO is HORRIBLE. The factory speakers are tiny and warble at anything louder than normal level rendering them useless in my book. But as far as the picture, razor sharp and bright. I compared this unit with the 550 (1080P) at a Circuit City side by side running the same Blu-Ray signal and could not tell the difference from three feet away. It also has twice the contrast of the 720P Panasonic. I have been nothing but pleased with this unit. I think you will be too. I will not reduce my rating for audio since in my application I do not use the TV speakers ever.
Excellent Value on Price & Performance
by Ryan on Dec 1st, 2008 at 10:07 AM:
I thought the review was a bit harsh. I've had this set only a short time, but I absolutely love it and don't miss the 1080p. Perhaps that's because I don't use Blu-Ray and I don't play video games on it. I'm certainly not the most discrimating user out there, but I do know what I like & don't like. I use it only to view free over the air digital broadcasts and up-converted DVD movies. This set was able to find twice as many OTA channels as my old set, even though I'm using the same antenna and it also keeps the channels locked in more consistently. It rarely ever pixelates when the signal does go week. Instead it just goes black momentarily and then immediately back to the picture. I definitely prefer that. Overall I am very pleased with the overall functionality of this set.
Before buying it, I viewed this set in multple stores with different input signals, and I have to say I think my in-home performance on the set even exceeds what I saw in the store (which I also compared to 1080p sets, and still didn't notice enough difference to justify the extra cost). The colors/contrast are good in my opinion, but I suppose it's possible to get deeper blacks or even better contrast -- simply not an issue for me though. I think the sound is just fine, but I do use a Sony surround-sound system for dvd movies. I've even watched the 3-D verision of "Journey to Center of the Earth" on this set and was quite impressed with the 3-D (and that's not using the 3-D capabilities of the set, which requires extra hardware). In case it makes a difference, I typically view the screen from approx 8-10 feet away on average.
Things I like most: Realistic colors (especially skin tones); Tuner picks up a LOT of Over-The-Air digital broadcasts; Smooth & well-defined images on OTA broadcasts & upconverted DVD; Excellent anti-glare treatment; Easy-swivel base; Price ($950).
Things that could be better: Backlit remote control would be nice and better design of remote overall could be done; SD card or USB input would also be a good feature to have (almost bought the Panasonic for that reason alone, but preferred the Samsung's display in the end).
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Poor Review
by D H on Feb 24th, 2009 at 10:09 AM:
Performance with blu ray discs is outstanding. No noise here, except in very low light scenes, which is attributable to the source content. Black levels are excellent...no milky black like the review suggests. Perhaps he had brightness turned up too high....who knows.
The speakers, which the reviewer thought were great, are actually pretty poor. Unless you are hooking this up to a sound system, I recommend spending $30 on a computer speaker system for 2.1 sound (connect it to the headphone jack) that is 5x better than the computer speakers.