Best Buy Lcd HDTV Blog

Worth every penny - fantastic picture
After reading all the reviews and checking out Consumer Reports we decided on purchasing this set. We had heard that the picture at home wouldn't be as good as the one in the store. This was NOT the case. If anything the picture at home is better. The only adjustment we have made is to turn on the THX setting. We did not have it calibrated although the salesman has promised to do so. Frankly the picture is so good it may not be necessary. Our only complaint is that our cable provider has fewer than 60 HD channels so our viewing is limited to those and the BluRay disks. The Rose Parade was spectacular - every flower seemed to jump out at us and the colors were true. My husband has watched every football game possible and it's almost like being at the stadium. BluRay movies blow us away with the color and clarity. Even "regular" DVDs are clearer than we expected. We bought this with a Panasonic BluRay player. We recommend this set very highly!

A great tv at a great price
I was not interested in a panasonic plasma tv, as I have always opted for the elite line from pioneer and been quite pleased. Someone mentioned this line to me, and as a gift, I purchased one and was pleasantly surprised. The unit is quite sturdy, has all the requisite connections (and additional HDMIs for those who need or want) and is an all around good system. Set up is a snap and when coupled with surround sound system, BluRay,and a Wii, the tv performs flawlessly. A good system at a great price-Amazon delivered as expected.

I Love This TV, But THX Is Questionable
After much, much online research, I purchased this TV and received it yesterday (12.30). I love the TV -- it's fantastic. The picture is stunning, especially when playing a Blu-ray. The value -- I bought it for B00142JKSG,600 from pcrush.com -- can't be beat. However, I'm a little disappointed with the THX mode. I've read rave reviews of the THX certification and how it displays the perfect picture, but on my TV the THX mode is extremely dark, so dark that it's almost unwatchable. I've done no tweaking of the display variables because THX supposedly requires no calibration whatsoever. For me, the Custom mode -- using the default settings -- is a much better picture. Any thoughts, suggestions?

Fantastic TV
This was my first major online purchase, and I was nervous about it. I researched plasmas to the point that it was becoming a joke in my family. It was difficult to find my choices in one store for side-by-side comparisons. I had it narrowed down to the Panasonic th50pz85u, th50pz800u, Samsung pn50a550 and pn50a650.One store had 3 of them, so after I found the remotes, I stayed an hour and played with the picture and audio settings. The th50pz800u had a bias because of the cnet review, and several other professional reviews that were very good. Customer satisfaction was very high, also.
The picture on this set blew the other ones away, as did the audio. 2 stores had this TV hooked up to home theater setups, and the TV audio was disabled. I thought this was more than coincidence because the other TV's didn't come close to this models sound. It seems they were trying to sell an add-on that was not needed.
I finally decided the savings through Amazon was worth taking a chance for. A day after placing my order, the price dropped 9.00. I knew Amazon no longer had the 30 day price guarantee, but I called them anyway to complain. My unit wasn't even shipped yet, hadn't shown up on my credit bill, and it was already discounted. I talked to a young man named Pritish, who was very professional, understanding, and courteous enough to give me the discount. Bravo Amazon. I won't be shy about buying from you in the future.
Pilot delivery called the day before delivery, which was the original date of 8 days from purchase. I verified that the men would wait while I set up the TV to make sure everything was working correctly, and that they would remove the box and packing. The man told me only one person was assigned for the delivery, but yes, he would wait and remove. (One person wasn't what I wanted to hear having had rotator cuff surgery recently.) The man came in the middle of the 5 hour window, we unloaded the TV, and he was ready to get to his next delivery. Whem I informed him that I verified that he had to wait until I got the TV turned on, he said he couldn't. He was surprised about taking the packing material also. I was insistant, and he relented.
I downloaded a slide show on avs to help with the breakin period, and I ran it for 6 days, with the video settings turned down very low. I was anxious to get this over with and enjoy my TV. I'm still careful with the settings because some stations (shame on you,ESPNHD) have such a bright, stationary logo and I worry about image retention. I watch most programs in the THX mode, and everyone who views this TV marvel at the picture quality. SD isn't bad, but I, too, have become an HD snob. I ordered an additional package from my cable provider so I can watch HD 90% of the time. Makes me wonder why I waited so long to join the revolution! I did have to play with the audio settings, but I have them set to where it sounds great to me, and the others who hear it. I live in an apartment, and did't want a theater setup to anger the neighbors.
Bottom line, I love this TV. I'm glad I researched so carefully, probably 100 hours or more. I can save you some of that time, if you're considering this model. Buy it! You won't be disappointed.
TV:5 stars Amazon: 5 stars Pilot shipping: 3 stars

First Impressions
I received this Plasma from Amazon 2 weeks ago. Although we have a 26 inch Westinghouse LCD in the bedroom, we were replacing an old Sony CRT with this. So, this is essentially our first foray into HDTV. Here are my first impressions after having had the tv for a couple weeks:

SETUP: I have the screen measured at 8 feet from where we sit. For the TV signal, we have DISH with the 722 receiver (@1080i). We also have a new Panasonic BD-35K Blu Ray player. We don't have any receiver or sound set up yet. Also, the sticker on the back of the TV says that it was manufactured in November 2008, so I guess it was fresh off the assembly line. Maybe it has the latest firmware?

PICTURE SETTINGS: Also, during the break-in period, the picture settings are: Picture Mode: THX; Picture: +55; Brightness:+52; Color: +50; Tint: 0; Sharpness +50; Color Temp: Warm; Black Level: Light (although I've used Dark extensively also).

24P/FLICKER ISSUE: Regarding the 24fps input/Flicker issue: I set up the TV to accept 24fps (actually the tv setting is 48). I've looked very hard to try to discern flicker on a number of different disks, but so far I have not seen any.

1080P (BLU-RAY) vs. 1080i (DISH): First off, the 1080p on the Blu-Ray looks amazing. I don't see any flicker, and the resolution is tack sharp. But the real eye-opener is the 1080i from the DISH 722: At 8 feet, I can discern the difference between different HD stations. HDNet/HD Theatre/National Geographic/The Travel Channel all look tack sharp also, just like with the Blu-Ray player. The TV is good enough that I can tell when the HD stations on DISH either have a lower resolution, or more commonly, are overly compressed (you see more artifacts and noise which is especially apparent in parts of the picture which are out of focus like backgrounds). So the weak link is stations which choose to overly compress their signal.

PROCESSING OF STANDARD (NON-HD) TV SIGNAL: Compared to the LCD we have (which must be first or second generation, because it suffers from each and every one of those flaws they say LCD has...), the Panasonic 50PZ800U processes standard TV very well. That being said, you would never actually want to watch non-HD programming on this TV, because, after watching any HD signal, watching non-HD becomes very disturbing. Nevertheless, compared to our LCD, the processing of the standard signal is as noise-free as I could reasonably expect. The only thing we watch in standard now are the History Channel International (no-HD version available yet), and the road Lakers games, as DISH doesn't carry the HD version of their local channel. As an aside, having this TV did make the experience of watching road Lakers games miserable, as non-HD is not a pleasant experience once you've gotten excited by the HD games.

MOTION: Motion is fine, as I expected with Plasma. (The LCD we have upstairs is horrendous).

BLACK LEVELS: they are very dark (but I haven't calibrated-- I simply put the thing on THX/Warm/and Black levels on Dark). Black levels on light might work better for shadow detail. We lose a little bit of shadow detail on the Dark setting, and the Light setting has a little less punch (less contrast, I guess). We'll have to revisit this and try to play with the calibration settings once I reach 150 or 200 hours.

REFLECTIONS: Having had a CRT, I can say that the reflections are probably exactly what we used to get on the Sony CRT (funny how we never used to complain about that sort of thing back then...)

All in all, I love this TV. The one weakness I can see is the black level/shadow detail tradeoff (the black levels are fine on the Dark setting, but you lose something on the Light setting.) I am confident that this can be tweaked or calibrated to improve it. Buyer Beware though: If you are trying to cut down on your TV watching, this is definitely the wrong TV.

Beautiful picture, beautiful price
This Sony television, in my opinion, has all of the highest qualities that I was looking for in an LCD TV. I have noticed the greatness of the 120 Mhz motionflow in comparison to the 60 Mhz televisions, especially when playing an action movie or an action game on PS 3.

This thing has 4 HDMI inputs as well. LCD backlighting was not really a big selling point for me and frankly I don't think it justifies the price increase.

Overall, I'm very happy with this beautiful picture.

Sony 52" LCD - Excellent
After waiting two years to save, and then researching all the options, I chose the Sony 52" LCD W4100, which was an excellent choice. I read many reviews on Amazon and Consumer Reports, plus many trips to different stores to look and test. I just purchased this TV (Nov 2008), and have had no problems. The picture and sound is awesome. I looked at the other options: Samsung, etc, and they were good too, but in the end, I chose the Sony. I will add one note about the Samsung touch of class model. I was very close to purchasing it b/c it was 0 cheaper. However, when I compared the volume, I discovered the speakers on the samsung pointed down, and it did not sound very loud at the maximum level. When I checked the volume on the this Sony, WOW, awesome, excellent!!! That was the only difference and main reason I went with the Sony, plus the normal quality of Sony. I recommend a Blu Ray player (which I purchased with my TV) if your a movie buff, like me, it is amazing picture, and well worth the investment.

In time for the digital tv switch, and way to go Amazon!
My parents have been looking to replace their 20 year old big screen television for awhile now and took advantage of my being around for the holidays to purchase the Sony Bravia W-series 52 inch lcd tv so that, lucky me, I could set it up for them. I will mention that this TV is being used solely for free, over the air digital broadcasting and not for cable or satellite TV, so I will review it as such.

First, Amazon was, well, amazing. We purchased the TV on the Friday afternoon after Christmas, told it would arrive between Jan 6 - 15, but actually received it on New Year's eve, less than 3 full business days after ordering it! Amazon's delivery contractor was excellent, their tracking system was on top of the order from beginning to end, and they had two guys bring in the television and help set it up on our tv stand. Score. After getting a good look at the size of this TV (it's like the size of 2.5 of me!), it is not the sort of thing you would want to load into your car and try to bring home on your own. This is not even to mention that Amazon's price was at least 0 below the local big electronics retailer (that's not even including the tax I would have had to pay).

Set up was brilliantly simple (which is good, b/c I'm a moron when it comes to electronics). My parents don't speak English, so I was pleased to see that once setup was complete, the TV pretty much worked itself. I set the TV up with the new Sony bluray player we got using an HDMI cable (Amazon's prices, again, the best for those cables); hooked up our very old vcr with the old analog (3 pronged, red, yellow, and white) cable; hooked up the old rabbit-ear antenna (relieved I didn't need to buy a new one); plugged all these pieces into a surge protector and ta-da! It worked! I also love love love how the TV instantly detects the external components, so you can put in a videotape, DVD, or bluray disc and push play, and the TV will automatically go to your external device. (This is good, again, for the electronically challenged among us.) I should add that there are 4 HDMI outlets on this TV, a PC outlet, and room for at least 4 analog components.

Lots of features on this guy: auto-sensor for ambient light; excellent speakers; Bravia sync which synchronized the TV to our bluray player so they turned on/off in unison; free TV guide programming; power saving options; etc. etc. etc. Unlike another reviewer, I actually really like the remote control. It's incredibly user-friendly. The only thing I would change is that the home button and circular trackpad be moved to the bottom and the channel & volume buttons be moved to the middle.

The picture is good. I think, though, that I was expecting a lot better. There is still some evidence (or more evidence than I'd prefer) of pixelation despite all the fanfare regarding the 120Hz and digital signal. Potential buyers should take care in picking the appropriate sized TV for their room, as this will only emphasize the pixelation if you get a TV too large for your space.

I don't know if this is something that will get ironed out in the future, but the letterboxing (i.e. the black bars on the sides or on top & bottom of the program being viewed) is kinda annoying. You can switch from channel to channel or even (when on the same channel) from program to program and you'll see different variations on the letter boxing. I was watching the local news which had no letter-boxing, then they'd run a commercial that had letterboxing on the sides of the screen, then the next commercial would have letterboxing on both sides AND on the top and bottom of the screen, etc. etc. Sony made it easier to deal with this with the simple touch of the "Wide" button on the remote, but you have to adjust it with every single program and/or channel. It would be nice if there were some way that this was fixed universally or if Sony could have automatically adjusted the picture to the perfect zoom. (Sigh, maybe I ask too much.) As I said, perhaps this will be ironed out once the networks adjust to only digital signals.

Very happy with the purchase and I think you definitely get your money's value with this tv.

My first big screen tv, second LCD: I love it!
I love it! Do I have any complaints or regrets? Nope. The price was better than anywhere else on Amazon. The picture quality is awesome, the sound quality/loudness impressive (where does all that sound come from?!), and I dig the Sony quality/functionality/features (partly why I chose it). Now I just need to get that blu-ray player!

So far, so very good
I was apprehensive about ordering such a large ticket item from Amazon (or any online company)but this has proven to be a very smooth and money-saving transaction. I ordered this tv (along with a blu ray player in a promotional deal) on Christmas night from Amazon. The shipping date I received was to be December 30 with an expected delivery of January 6. I received the Blu Ray on the 28th and the tv today about 4:00 PM, much sooner than expected.

The Amazon site when I placed the order didn't show White Glove delivery but the shipper's site did. The one delivery guy and I moved the TV off the truck, carried it across my yard and brought it into my living room; together we hooked it up - one HDMI cable from the cable box so that part was not too tough! It would have been, however, very difficult for one person (either the delivery guy or me) to have moved this tv into my house alone.

It would be handy if Amazon's site had showed a rear view of the set. I didn't think about this issue until almost the last minute; the tv's input and output panel are on the left side of the tv as you look at it from the front - the "s" side if you're looking at "Sony". If your cable box, etc are on the right side of the TV, as mine are, you may need a longer HDMI cable than you originally thought. (The inexpensive 6 footer I ordered through Amazon, which works great by the way, barely reaches.) I have ordered two of the ten footers to eliminate worries when I hook up the Blu Ray and other components.

The tv looks good in my living room (and will be much nicer when I get it mounted next week) and has been a pleasure to watch this afternoon and evening. The matte screen is great. Virtually no reflections and I have a bright living room. I have read other reviewers who have commented that this tv's screen is not as bright as the Samsung's - I found this to be true when comparing them side by side in Best Buy; however in my living room this tv is plenty bright without the reflection issue. The instruction booklet is thorough to say the least.

Best deal on the market
This is my 4th Samsung and i love the quality, sound and picture. We have this in the family room above the fireplace and everyone can see it at most angles. We ahd to put the LCD in the basement-it has a great picture but limited veiwing angles.

Great TV
When in the market for a plasma TV, do not overlook this one...6th generation Plasma with 100k hours...cannot be beat for the money. The picture is as good as it gets and you're getting the fabulous Samsung reputation to go along with that.

The remote is quite functional and there are enough HDMI 1.3s to connect all that you would ever need to...

The speakers are good enough for the TV but of course it's better to get a surround sound exterior speaker system attached!

I can't say anything but good things...this is my second Samsung big screen TV...my other is the LCD DLP...both are great...

Buy a Samsung, you won't be disappointed...

best Plasma for the price
The tv is great and for the price you cant get anything better. Dont get me wrong there are better plasma TV's like pioneer KURO but for the price and performance you cant go wrong. The only thing i recommend is having best buy calibrate the tv. It will run you about 0 or more depending on what you have them do but it is worth every penny. if you plan on getting a TV this is the one for you. Amazon is the best.

Awesome picture! Awesome price!
I have to say, I was a little hesitant buying a TV from Samsung. I used to work in retail electronics, and they weren't known for high quality products. However, I studied the reviews on this Plasma TV from numerous web sites and finally took the plunge. I am glad I did. I definitely got more than I expected.

I just hope I don't have any problems in the future with it. I have had bad experiences with Samsung customer service. Hopefully it has gotten better, as their products, based on what I see from this TV, certainly have.

Really Great Purchase !!!
This Plasma TV is really great. It has converted my rarely visited basement to the most popular area of the home. Some of the movies & Discovery channel programs, in HD, are really out of this world. I did a lot of research before deciding on this one. For the basement a Plasma was preferred because there is less light and I heard LCDs would be too bright for here. This TV had the best picture quality for the price. Delivery & installation were as promised. I have been shopping with Amazon for quite some time, but this is by far my biggest pruchase from them. Not disappointed though .. would definitely recommend this purchase.

ULTIMATE HD/BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE!!!
Okay, I will make this short and sweet - This Plasma TV is absolutely the best big-screen experience I have ever witnessed - I have used several large format/hd monitors, Mitsubishi, Proscan, Sony, etc., and this one outperforms them all -

To those who complained about the problems with attaching their computer or video game machines - it's very simple DON'T!!! This TV and it's Wireless Components are designed for one thing - ABSOLUTE VIDEO - from high definition programming or Blu Ray DVD ------It is not an add-on for a Playstation or Xbox!!!

It is really a shame that SamSung is being criticized for designing and producing this TV - I can only state that if you want an unbelievable High Definition and Blu Ray picture, you owe it to yourself to check this instrument out.........THANK YOU SAMSUNG!!!

Shame on Samsung!
Shame on them for not plastering across the box of this unit in big red letters "CANNOT BE USED FOR ANYTHING BUT TV AND DVD!!!!!" The delay between the wireless box and the screen makes playing video games impossible and using the set with a computer in a business environment for things like powerpoint presentations a major annoyance. Why even release the thing until you have sufficient technology to fix this problem? We aren't THAT desperate for a wireless plasma! These days, even an elderly couple who would never in a million years consider playing a video game on their TV needs to take this into consideration because their grandkids will likely be coming over for the weekenend with their Nintendo Wii. What if they don't find out until a year or so after they purchase it? What a bummer! Like I said, shame on Samsung. This set will really be a letdown to a lot of people at some point during their ownership.

Not good for anything but watch TV delay is 180 ms
The Wireless causes the picture to delay for at least 180ms, your surround reciever needs to be able to delay or it will look like a bad synch'ed movie. Not any good for Wii or PS3, the wireless does break up once i a while, but there is no cable mess at all. I will return this TV and get another with long HDMI cables.

DO NOT USE FOR VIDEO GAMES!
The wireless system creates a delay that makes this TV unsuitable for use with video games. I have both a Nintendo Wii and a computer hooked up to the TV. With both, there is a noticeable and significant onscreen delay. If you simply want to watch television, this product is fine. However, if you want to use it for games, select another TV, you will be disappointed with this one.