Samsung - 51" Class (50-3/4" Diag.) - Plasma - 1080p - Smart - 3D - HDTV

The picture and color quality are excellent. Specially for movies.

I have very high standards for audio and video equipment, so when it was time to replace my old Sony WEGA Trinitron I spent months researching to find the best TV I could afford. Since the new OLED's are several thousand more than I want to pay, the obvious choice for the best picture quality is plasma. Yes, plasma! It is well known in the audiophile/videophile community that nearly all the TV reviewers and editors have plasma sets in their own homes. And with this TV Samsung has overcome plasma's shortcomings (it's as bright as many LED TVs!) It is so hard to judge picture quality in the store. Calibration is everything, and TV's on display in the store are set for the brightest picture rather than a good picture. Once I got my Samsung Plasma home and calibrated the picture settings (which can be found online) I was amazed at the picture! Incredible bright room performance, unlimited viewing angle, and absolutely no motion blur. The picture quality is as good or better than any of the new 4K "Ultra HD" sets I've looked at. (Unless you sit less than 3 feet from the TV - the pixels are much smaller on the 4K sets.) Oh, and 51 inches may not seem big in the store, but it will be HUGE in your home. If you are not a hard core gamer and picture quality is important to you, and you don't have $9,000 to spend on OLED, the 51f8500 is without a doubt the next best choice. It's not exactly cheap, but it is packed with the latest features - pop-up camera, voice and gesture control,quad-core processor, Skype, wi-fi, loads of apps, I could go on...

I purchased this set to future-proof myself for a few years due to the death of plasma televisions. Believe the hype, awesome Plasma picture, contrast and blacks that you don't get from LED. Until you get one home, you don't realize the 3D-like DEPTH (in 2d mode) and realistic colors that you get with Plasma. This TV, just looks so much better at home than in the showroom. Watch a late-night show and the characters almost pop of the screen. The colors and skin tones are also lifelike and realistic with great details and contrast that you don't get with LED. While I do love this Samsung, it does seem to fall a bit short to my old Panasonic in the skintones. The Samsung is very good, but the 7 year old Panasonic was more lifelike in the fleshtones, a bit crisper with the contrast (mostly noticeable on faces), and seemed to display less 'noise'. The difference isn't great, but these are the mior differences between Samsung and Panasonic that had me choose the Panny on my last purchase. The black levels are incredible on this set, superior to the old Panny, and an area where there has definately been progress. Also, while off-axis viewing has no picture degradation(like you get with LED and LCD), if you get close and off vertical axis, the picture does distort. An odd phenomenon for plasma, although this really isn't an issue since no one every watches TV from that angle. The sound is good, but the Panny was so good it (almost) negated the need for a sound system. The Smart features are awesome and responsive, no need to use the BluRay for Amazon or Netflix anymore. Haven't used the 3D yet, but its there, along with 4 pairs of Active glasses. If you need BRIGHT, this TV will also deliver. One issue with the old Panasonic was the brightness was beginning to fade a bit and needed to be cranked up for daytime viewing, absolutely no issues here. The TV is stylish and sleek, incredibly slim and lightweight. 30 pounds lighter and 1/3 as deep as the old Panasonic. Definitely an upgrade in those areas. There are a ton of settings to tweak so I'm certain I can get closer to Nirvana with this set. If you can still find one of these sets, BUY IT! I got mine for $1,000, there is nothing close to this picture out there in this price range.

So far this tv is pretty good. My only complaint was this whole "judder" reduction setting. I thought that I noticed some weirdness with movements on the screen, fast action/people moving their hands quickly, and with this being a Plasma that simply just does not happen... not on any of my other Plasmas anyway. So I go thru all the settings & find the judder reduction or whatever its called (I have NEVER seen that option on any other plasma btw). It was set to standard, which clearly was not going to work for me so I changed it to smooth. Uh yeah, that was even worse. People's hands were blurring when they moved along with other things blurring & having short trailing affects. All I could think was WTF this is a Plasma not a LED. Long story short I called BB & geek squad said to turn the judder thing off all together, which it oringinally came set on "standard". After I did that the movements were what I'm used to with my other tvs. Just thought I would give a heads up to anyone who might be considering or about to purchase this particular tv. Its also extremely bright in comparison to my other plasmas!

I've been a fan and consumer of plasma displays for nearly a decade. Love the crisp picture and deep blacks. Unfortunately, economics has all-but-obsoleted plasma technology for cheaper LCD sets. Times change but this is one I'll be sad to see go. Beautiful fit and finish. Love the picture quality and available adjustments for fine tuning. Can appear a little washed out in very bright rooms with standard settings, but easily correctable. Dark room 2D and 3D performance is outstanding. As with all SMART devices, the benefit of included features is highly dependent on how you consume content. This set is middle of the pack in terms of SMART features. Neat, new style of remote. Love it. Unfortunately, I can't get it to run my (Arris) Verizon FIOS set top box which makes it more of a paperweight more than anything. I highly recommend this TV if you value picture quality, but it's the last consumer plasma produced (until late 2013). If you still want one you might not have long.

We have had this TV for about a month and it far exceeds our expectations. The picture quality is incredible. We were back and forth between plasma and LED, but watching a lot of fast action sports (primarily Hockey) we went with the plasma due to the 600mHz. The picture is bright and sharp like that of a LED. The 2D to 3D feature is nice as well, We actually use it more than we expected. This is our first smart TV and using those features is not disappointing as well. We plan to buy the compatible full keyboard to make web browsing easier. Overall very satisfied and well worth the little extra money.

Love the picture quality of the 8500 series and it's ability to adjust to changes in room light levels. Picture has such depth it seems like 3d without glasses. Set up was easy and although it does connect to the internet through app's for Netflix, Hulu, etc we can't connect to and surf through normal search engines for some reason. I believe for the price of this TV the remote should easily recognize my cable box and control the DVR functions at a minimum. The TV does load the cable channels into a Samsung channels program listing but the search and change channel functions are so bad we had to use two remotes to control all functions. Not acceptable! I ended up having to purchase a Harmony programable universal to run everything with one remote.

Overall, I love the TV. I originally purchased the Vizio M series. I have been a long time Vizio fan and have had 2 different Vizio's so far. I was ready to upgrade my 120hz to the 240hz for that "life like" picture and depth. Vizio simply did not have it. My main issue is with the IR control for the Samsung. If you have a sound bar and a set-top box, which nearly everyone does, you have to strategically place the IR between the two to get the remote to work correctly. Even with the digital optical cable, the sound bar still needs the IR to control the sound. Also, I would have liked to be able to customize the naming of each HDMI outlet on the screen (Mainily for the girlfriend to differentiate between Cable, PS3, and Apple TV). The picture quality is outstanding, though! My biggest challenge is "tweaking" the picture settings to the perfect picture.