Fantastic set!

Just received the TV today! It arrived a day early which was a pleasant surprise. Once I fired it up I was ecstatic with this set. The quality is amazing for the price the picture blows away a top of the line 42" 1080p LCD display that I've seen. Deep rich colors high contrast fluid motion...there is nothing not to like! Streamed Spartacus off Netflix and compared to my old little 22" LCD it really came to life.(Even if the writing is really bad)



It was able to find some basic cable channels in HD which is awesome and Modern Warfare 2 looks simply astounding (again much better than on aforementioned 42" and 22" LCDs.)



The sound is decent it's actually better than I was expecting. It's obviously no Home Theatre but I was impressed. It's got a few connections which aren't listed on Amazon...the 3 HDMI 1 PC 1 USB 1 Component 1 Dual Component/Composite Audio In 1/8" Audio Out 1/8" Optical out and cable. The menu is very easy to navigate and adjust and in it you can turn off it's startup/shut down sound if you find it irritating. It's kinda soothing though.



One negative I've found is that the audio running out isn't controlled by the televisions volume I guess that's pretty standard but it means my cheap computer speakers aren't much good. (No remote) Also when installing the base stand it felt like I was about to destroy the thread on the screws that are used...They aren't easy to get in there!



It's very elegant and looks great in my living room. It's not super bright which I love (LCD panels hurt my eyes after a while) All in all for the money it's a fantastic TV. I was looking for quality affordability and style.More detail ...

Not Only Excellent For The Money But Excellent Period.

I had tried to buy the previous "B" model at close-out prices but I missed the boat. Thought I might be outta luck until the "C" version started showing up a day or so afterward and it turned out to be basically the same TV just about 25lbs lighter - only 2 people needed to wall mount - I was down with that and $[...] bucks still didn't seem too bad. I had already researched for some time and Plasma was it for me. The Panny G-10 had a similarly good picture too and although it offers much to consider I liked the Sammy's picture just a bit more but you may want to check it out as well. I received the set with zero problems or issues: no dead pixels or any buzzing whines or anything amiss at all. Outta the box the picture was quite good and showed me good resolution performance even with SD cable with no video noise issues (although initially I did find it necessary to use the 3 supplied ferrite choke magnets that snap onto the power cord. These not only eliminated the several horizontal noise bands in the picture but cleaned up the resolution on the overall picture with no downside - an easy fix that totally nixed the problem for me).



But tweaking the picture a bit is where this set shines the most. When researching I came across a site that offered a list of picture control settings for the "B" version. Since this is really the same panel I factored it into my buying decision accordingly. Especially since the settings were said to be obtained with a Sencore color analyzer (about a $10000 pro device for calibrating video displays and is the sort of thing used by the Imaging Science Foundation - ISF. They at least did pioneer and continue to legitimize the video calibration practice but more to the point it WASN'T done by any of the more lame imitators that have since cropped up (like Geek Squad Spyder and others) whom I feel exist to separate you from your money (at about $300 a calibration) while hardly giving you a better picture adjustment than you can get on your own with a $25 calibration DVD).



What this means to us is that the results of what I'm taking to be the equivalent of a $300 (legit) picture calibration for this particular set anyway have already been posted on the web for free - not an inconsequential consideration for anyone interested. I'm posting those numbers here for those who are:



White Balance Settings:

Red-Offset: 22

Green-Offset: 25

Blue-Offset: 12



Red-Gain: 33

Green-Gain: 25

Blue-Gain: 33



Picture Settings:

Picture Mode: Movie

Color Temp: Warm 2

Brightness: 56

Contrast: 90

Cell Light 8

Color: 53

Tint: G35/R65

Sharpness: 10

Black Tone: Off

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Gamma: 0

Colorspace: Auto

Flesh Tone: Off

Edge Enhancement: Off

Digital NR: Auto

HDMI Black Level: Low

Film Mode: Auto



When I tried these settings I noticed a very organic natural-looking picture one that offered me a few surprizes. This set happens to be inherently capable of showing a more-than-generous amount of color saturation without problem. I personally prefer a picture that's just slightly undersaturated if anything (but I expect this set will accomodate anyone's taste on that score if yours are different than mine). With all this what I found was that even when slightly undersaturated and I felt the picture was indeed realistic-looking whenever an unusually colorful object was displayed (like a particularly vivid piece of clothing or a brightly flourescent color - like some NASCAR colors for example) this TV displayed BOTH the less intense colors of the more mundane objects and the most decidedly vivid ones equally well in the same scene AT THE SAME TIME - never subduing the most vivid colors even when the overall color level looked 'properly' undersaturated to me on the more everyday objects. Nor was it unnaturally emphasizing them for that matter. The result was a TV that on any good HiDef cable feed regularly showed me a surprisingly wide (yet natural-looking) "dynamic range" of color intensity in the images. I could just about feel as if the TV itself were getting out of the way and showing me clearly (and more truthfully than I've seen in my home before) just what the camera saw. Very nice and as I say surprizingly convincing (and this with simply 1080i and 720p cable feeds - a Blu-ray player is definitely next!). This set after my preferred adjustments didn't make all the colors look too subdued like some plasmas I've seen have ended up doing nor all the colors too vivid like some LCD's. I felt like it walked the line beautifully - not merely a good compromise but it seemed truly the best of both in this regard. Black levels were great and with excellent detail - no complaints.



In the end I did opt to deviate from the settings above but only with respect to overall contrast/brightness and color level settings everything else was the same. This gave me an appreciable gain in contrast that suits me and my family's tastes in our well lighted daytime living room. Plasma is usually not as vivid in the contrast department as most LCD's or LED's but in the mid-price range ($1000-$1500 retail) it's a small price for me to pay for a picture that I feel (with adjustment) is otherwise decidedly sharper clearer more life-like and dimensional than anything else for the money. I haven't felt that any comparative lack of overall contrast has resulted in any buyer's remorse for me at all as no such notion has yet remotely entered my head anytime I've watched it.



I'll add that in my experience with LCD's vs. Plasmas Plasmas kill LCD's and LED's when it comes to motion - at least in the sets in this price range. Up over about $2000 and differences between the panel types start to get quite a bit smaller to me. But just before I settled on this Sammy I went to Wally World and dragged home a Vierra LCD mainly to see if 'taming down' an LCD picture to suit my tastes could possibly be better than trying to 'pump up' a Plasma. In this case a huge waste of time! What I saw was a 120-Hz LCD on sale at just under a 1000 bucks that just couldn't do motion very well at ALL. I popped in a SD DVD of Lawrence of Arabia and it looked like it was shot "live-to-video" perfectly goofy. I also found out just how bad a 5-ms response time can look on a 47" set. The 120Hz feature DID work as advertised and made fast motion MUCH better than without but any slow-speed pan or movement caused a nearly instantaneous defocusing of the area of motion until the motion stopped and the blurred area was able to snap back into focus. When watching a head shot of someone speaking for example their face would perceptably blur in the areas of facial movement while the face of another person in the scene next to them (not talking) remained in sharp focus - too disconcerting. And too much of a disconnect to the experience to NOT want to look at a person while they were talking(!). Plasma (600Hz or no) inherently has no such motion problems that require the consumer to spend money on to overcome. If that wasn't enough (and believe me for me it was) the somewhat artificial vividness to the picture proved at least on this LCD to be something I could never quite tame no matter what the settings.



For me to pass muster a flat panel must make no major blunders in the 4 most important performance areas of color contrast resolution and motion. To me this Sammy does all of that and at a very nice price - I don't know how I can do much better than that especially without another free video calibration. In fact the only Plasma that I'm confident could beat it hands down is the discontinued-but-still-available Pioneer Kuro 50" plasma. But then it should it retailed for a mere $4500 when new. But a few months ago it could be had on the web for only 1600 bucks. It's just that at the time I didn't have the scratch. Now the remaining ones if you can find 'em were the last time I looked hovering around $3000. Oh well I'll tell you one thing though; this machine at this price has certainly eased my pain...;) I know this isn't 3D or more colors than RGB or anything but I'm more than content now to wait all that out. Til the next round this will do me just fine!More detail ...

Panasonic TC-P50S2 Review by Plasma TV Buying Guide

1080p HD Picture Quality: The picture presentation of the from the 50S2 is still very bright and with the improved black levels much improved. Black levels are deep and strong with an HD signal input through HDMI. While not the best we've seen lately they lose the dark gray haziness that the S2 can display with a 480i signal. Color is plenty saturated and dark shadow detail remains excellent.



Picture Presentation from 480i signals: We always test every TV with a 480i resolution. It is a great test of a TVs upconversion and processing chip sets. The signal may be likened to what you would see with your normal digital cable or satellite signal.The TC-P50S2 series plasma contains the new an updated version of the NEO PDP (i.e. plasma screen) from Panasonic. This is the same screen used in some of the higher end Panasonic series which should make this model a good value if picture quality is your primary objective. We find the picture quality overall improved from the prior S1 series. The drives do a little better job of eliminating motion artifacts than the S1 series did. Color rendition is still with black levels being the primary progress area of the S2 series delivering more depth and solidity. As was the case on the S1 series brightness is a strength of the these newer Panasonic plasma models.



Calibration Notes: Overall calibration to D6500K was very easy with this TV. Though there are no white balance adjustments available on the menu without entering the service menu the 50S2 calibrated so close to D65 from the start that it would have improved the TV inappreciably. We started our calibration from the custom setting in the Warm 2 color temperature position. The S2 series TV does not contain the THX picture setting option. Follow the following settings to calibrate to a nearly perfect D65. These picture settings are best viewed in a controlled light environment fairly dark room:



Picture Mode: Custom

Color Temp: Warm2

Brightness: +74

Contrast: +75

Color: +45

Tint: -2

Sharpness: +15

Color Mgmt: OFF

x.v.Color: OFF

C.A.T.S.: OFF

Video NR: Weak

Block NR: Off

Misquito NR: Off

Black Level: Light

3:2 Pulldown: Off

HD Size: 2



Black Level/Contrast: Black levels were an area that the S1 series needed a makeover on. They got it with this S2 series. These are not going to be the best black levels we see this year and we dont anticipate them coming close to some of the Samsung plasma black levels. However Panasonic has brought black levels back into welcomed focus. Final ANSI contrast measurement was 1261:1 which is a nice improvement over last year but far from what we want. One of the TVs greatest strengths lies in its white brightness which measured an average luminance of 31.50. This result nears LCD TVs in brightness and points to Panasonic's desire to compete with LCD TVs in this area.



Dark Shadow Detail: Partly due to the high brightness of this plasma dark shadow detail is excellent. Panasonic plasma TVs have long been a favorite of ours in this important area.



Color Rendition/Color Accuracy: Color rendition is much more saturated with HD content. The TV excels with HD content and is much more subdued in presentation with lower signals. Colors can seem a little weak and hazy at times with lower end signals. I will give them the thumbs up on reality however.



Features: One of the key feature differences of the S2 series with the G20 series of plasma by Panasonic is the absense of The Viera Cast feature set which enables online content via a web interface. As a result there is also no Ethernet port. The included Viera Link feature allows the user to control other Viera link capable outboard equipment. Viera Image viewer is the Panasonic compatible technology which enables use of SD memory card viewing via the SD card slot.The S2 has discrete picture settings for each input as well as Panasonic's new "600 Hz" specification for blur reduction.



This TV is Energy Star compliant due to an energy saver feature option. Power consumption for the S2 has been reduced from the S1. This is one of the main feature differences aside from improved black levels. Panasonic started improving efficiency in their plasma TVs in 2007 and have improved it 400% with this S2 model. They are now close enough to LCDs in energy efficiency that is should not matter.



To see the overall ratings and full review of this TV head over to Plasma TV Buying Guide

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Great value

This was my first flat screen purchase so I did a lot of research. It paid off because this is a really nice looking set with a beautiful crisp picture. Haven't gotten a blu- ray player yet but I'm still stunned by the crispness of the picture at 720p. Previous reviewers claimed I would not be able to tell the difference on a 50" set between 720 and 1080 and I have to agree. So the roughly $600 savings i gained on purchasing this set gives me a cushion for the next generation 3d set I'll probably buy in 3 yrs or so. By the way the sound is very good as well. If you don't need the full surround sound theater effect with a booming sub woofer this electronically sophisticated sound system should make you happy.More detail ...

So far so good!

After researching HD plasmas for about a month I was all set on an LG model from a different website because it was the least expensive 42 incher with the best reviews I could find but then I came across this model on Amazon for a hundred and fifty dollars cheaper (This was onsale for under $500 then..I dont think it is anymore). This is the least expensive 42 incher I've been come across and I'm very satisfied with the quality. After watching a lot of movies with dark scenes I was concerned because if I increased the brightness the colors seemed to wash out - well after selecting the 'dynamic' picture setting instead of 'standard' that has been resolved - the colors are crisp and dark scenes are sharp and more visible.



I was concerned that this tv might have the ugly red stripe on the base of the tv like some pictures of other samsungs I've seen but thankfully it does not. The tv frame and base are a sexy piano black. My opinion on why it's inexpensive is because it has the fewwest inputs on it. It only has 2 hdmi inputs. Perfect for an hd cable box and a ps3. This tv also has 2 sets of component inputs which are ideal for a vcr or other video game system that isnt in hd (like a wii).



I don't have digital cable just a plain old basic cable service and the QAM tuner picked up all the digital channels but they're not in hd so I'm still thinking of getting a comcast hd box even though I despise the significant compression comcast utilizes with its signal. Compare comcast hdtv to a blu ray and you'll notice how compressed the comcast video signal is (tiling and pixelating and motion blur is evident from the comcast signal).



All in all at this price point this can't be beat.



Anyway feel free to ask any questions on this new model via the comments section and I'll be happy to respond.More detail ...