Samsung - 51" Class (50-3/4" Diag.) - Plasma - 720p - HDTV

I gave this T.V. five stars because it is exactly what it states that it is. A 720p plasma T.V., and that is exactly what it is. So if you do any research on 720p resolution, and plasma technology, this tv gives you exactly that. The positives and negatives. The positives being that it handles motion very well. The blacks are really really deep, giving the full dynamic range of colors. Colors pop really nicely in contrast with the inky blacks. Also, for a flat panel the sound coming from this T.V. is considerably good compared to others I have heard. Although I am looking into a sound bar with a subwoofer because I want a more immersive sound. Now the negatives, it is 720p so if your setup has you sitting closer than 6 feet to the screen the picture will start to look grainer and grainer as you get closer. It's like staring at sand. Up close you can see each individual grain but as you move back it is impossible to pinpoint a grain of sand. So keep that in mind. The next and only other negative which comes with all plasma technology is glare from a direct light source. The actual screens on plasmas are made of glass. The more expensive models have a matte coating over them, but not this entry level plasma. If there is any light directly hitting it there is a glare. The strength and amount of glare depends on how bright the light source is and how bright the image on the screen is. So if your have a normal bedroom ceiling light (like myself) the glare isn't noticeable on bright images. For instance, you won't notice it while watching Family Guy but you will notice it when watching The Dark Knight. Blacks become very grayish when light hits it directly. My solution, I moved my small lamp behind my T.V. All in all I recommend this T.V. To someone who meets these specific criteria. On a budget, watches T.V. mostly in the dark, and at about 6 or more feet away. In this exact setting this T.V. makes you feel like you saved yourself $300-$400. Of course you must use HD source material with an HDMI cable and calibrate the T.V. settings to your liking (brightness, contrast, etc.) but this is all elementary when buying an HD T.V. Please do your research and I guarantee that you will be happy with the T.V. that you end up buying, but that goes for most decisions in life.

I've been wanting a large, flat-screen TV for years and did lots of research. Over the last few months I zeroed in on this Samsung's predecessor, the PN51F450, I believe, based upon its many (hundreds) strong reviews here and reviews with another retailer. Just before I purchased that TV this one came out and there had only been one review by the time I wanted to make my purchase. So based upon the reviews of the previous version I bought this TV, and I couldn't be happier. For starters, when I made my final visit to the store I almost didn't purchase it because the display model's picture seemed dimmer/darker than the others around it. After getting the TV home I saw that they must have had the display unit on the "Eco" mode. I have it turned on "Dynamic," and it is just as bright and vivid as anything I've seen in any store. It only took me a few minutes to hook up this TV and start watching DirecTV in HD. Sure there are TVs with higher specs and stuff out there, but I'm glad I focused on reviews, research, my simple needs and my own eyes. I love what I see. Also, many reviewers of TVs like these complain about sound and recommend a sound bar, but this TV sounds just as good as my old 36" tube-type Sharp TV. So hold off on the sound bar purchase. The Samsung only comes with two HDMI inputs (this why I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on features), but right now I'm only using one (and with the cheapest Dynex HDMI cable, by the way) to watch DirecTV. The rest of my components (DVD, Wii and PS2) go into my A/V receiver and connect video to the TV via a single coax cable. I may or may not use the second HDMI input for a Blu-Ray player down the road, but so far I'm not seeing any need to upgrade from DVD to Blu-Ray. After initial setup I went through all the menus and adjusting things like fitting the signal to the screen, telling my DirecTV receiver to supply a HD, wide-screen signal and telling my DVD player to supply a wide-screen picture. And every adjustment made the TV better and better. We are two weeks into life with this Samsung now, but I have zero complaints and I couldn't ask for anything more.

I traded in a new LED we purchased because it had "backlight bleeding"; basically bright clouds LED televisions sometimes get that give you a headache trying to ignore while you watch your TV. After a little research online, I was pleased to discover Plasma TVs, though considerably more fragile than LED/LCDs, do not have backlight issues. I didn't want to exchange our new LED for another LED or LCD that could potentially have the same issue, so I went for this Plasma. It's very heavy and cannot lie down while transporting out of the store and into your home so you will have to take that into consideration if you buy this TV and bring a vehicle with abundant space for this TV - we took our SuperCrew Cab Ford Truck because the backseats have the ability to fold up, making a nice little nook for this TV to sit safely on the ride home. Set-up was a breeze, you're going to need a long Philips head screwdriver to screw on the table stand because the screw holes are kind of tucked under the stand's mount. This TV is beautiful but HEAVY. Make sure you don't set it up alone, you might damage the screen. And make sure to read all of the included paper inserts because I accidentally skipped a step setting it up because the directions are scattered across a couple different inserts. I've only had this TV a day and I already love it. I hope it has some shelf life to it. We purchased this TV as an upgrade for our bedroom set, which was 42". But we might move this 51" one into the living room, it's a little excessive for a bedroom but looks better with the lights off, even with a lamp on this thing picks up a little glare.

Let me first start off by saying I am a plasma fanatic especially from Samsung. My first experience seeing a plasma was a 60" 9g kuro watching a steelers game from about 5 feet away and fell in love. Unfortunately I never had the chance to own one. I have been through many plasmas since 2009 and always chose samsung. My first was a pn50b430 I sold while in Hawaii (cheap I know). Next was a pn58c500 and that one got the dreaded pink banding covered under warranty and I bought a pn60e7000, the best one i have but my daughter killed the screen with a remote and now its gone less than 5 months old and under a thousand hours on the clock. Fortunately I bought a pn43f4500 for the bedroom a few months ago and moved it downstairs. I hated the small size of it in the living room and decided to go with the 51" 1080p f5300. I compared the two in my living room the day I bought it to the 43" and there's not much difference between 720p and 1080p at 8 feet away so I returned it the next day and got this one. I miss the size and awesome picture quality of my 60e7000 but can say that I can live with this 51" without much gripe. My point is that the lower end models of plasmas look all about even no matter the price or resolution until you move into the $2000+ range then image quality is superior. For 2013 Samsung has loaded all their plasmas with settings only found in higher end models like 2pt and 10pt white balance controls and the cinema smooth setting. It uses the real black filter found in the high end 2010-11 models just without a louvered filter for rejecting ambient light. Samsung give you the best features and picture quality for price ratio than others.

I am the type of person who enjoys research. Whenever I am in a situation to spend money, I generally devote several hours to researching various products or services and trying to solve the puzzle about which will best satisfy my needs and expectations. In this case, I was looking for a new television. I had never personally purchased a television, as I had been using large box units that were given to me for years. I decided that the time had come to find a unit that would be more enjoyable for me and my family. I did my research for several days looking into technological components, pros, cons, and average prices. I was looking for a good price on a family-sized television that would be good for movies and gaming. Because of my concerns with the confusing aspects of refresh rate, durability, picture quality, black levels, energy usage, and price, I narrowed my choices carefully and ended up picking this Samsung. Since having this TV, I have enjoyed my entertainment much more. For the first time, I can read the words on some of my games, even in split screen mode. Movies are much more enthralling and captivating. The standard speakers are surprisingly good, and I rarely even bother to turn on my external audio equipment unless I am settling in for a long movie. The only complaint that I have about this television was one that I knew to expect before buying it. Because of the dynamics of a plasma screen, if a game or a movie gets extremely dark the lamp by our couch causes a terrible glare. This is easily remedied by turning off the lamp and adding a small desklamp that hides behind the television on the stand. This ambient light helps lessen eye-strain that is caused by watching tv in a dark room, but eliminates the glare. Overall, an excellent product for a worthy price. (~$400).

Went with this instead of LCD/LED. Had 2 bad 55" LED with bad screens at a low price & didn't want to try a 3rd. Figured it was a bad batch. So we looked at this. It was in the same price range. They tried to get us another brand and reduce the price but couldn't quite get there. We wanted to stay in same price range. After talking with associate, decided to take this because the refresh rate and picture are better suited for sports. Have to say we're glad we went with this! The picture is beautiful! Very smooth and the colors are a little softer (compared to our LCD in the bedroom). Plasma pictures are a little darker but this TV has multiple settings and I turned it on a brighter setting and everything is nice and bright. Even though it is 720p instead of 1080p, you can't tell any difference. Our LCD is 1080p and this picture is just as sharp. Also, I turned on the surround sound option and get great sound. Unlike the LCDs the speakers on this are bigger and you barely have to turn it up to get plenty of sound. This is loaded with features for picture and sound and plenty more. Sports look fantastic as well as everything else. We don't have Blue Ray, but standard DVDs look great on this. So glad we went with this. If you like a little smoother look and don't want action getting that tiny blur, then this will be a great set for you! Also, we don't feel we miss that much by going down a few inches.

I had the 43-inch version of this TV for almost 2 years...before my 22-mo old decided to whack the 43-in TV with a spray nozzle. Cracked scream meant game over! But it was a really solid TV for us. So with prices dropping, we were able to get this 51-inch for only $100 more than we paid for the 43-inch. All and all, very happy with this TV. The 'Menu' display had been updated, but it basically works the same way. Most of the items are very intuitive. Only thing I've found cumbersome with the 51-inch is removing unwanted 'air' channels after the auto-scan does its duty. I can't remember exactly what changed from the 43-inch, but it was definitely easier to get rid of all those unwanted stations on the former one. I don't find the 720p all that restricting. Maybe I haven't watched a 1080p TV enough to visibly see the difference. But I do love the Plasma over the LED screens....just personal preference, I guess. Since I don't have cable but use the air reception, I find that just about all of the channel pumping out HD look great. Yeah, I'd like it more if it had the built-in WI-Fi features for piping in things like YouTube and NetFlix. Too bad it's not an option...but it's not a huge problem if you have good media devices. All and all, it's a great TV for the price. Never had a problem with Samsung TV's either....so a big thumbs up for this bad boy!

I just got this tv this weekend after the ps4 release because i couldnt stand my previous 32 in dynex lcd(which by the way lasted me 3 years and still going on strong!) , so i decided to go with this samsung, cant go wrong right? reputable brand name, high reviews, best price 429.99 in the market for the size, what can go wrong? so far nothing! and i honestly dont expect anything to go wrong. I got home installed it quick and started watching my blu rays and the color is so good! the dark colors come out the screen and stand out, the fact that it is a darker type of color overall, makes the screen look so good, other than a bright lcd/led (same thing). i hooked up my ps4 to it and OMG. AMAZING! i cannot describe how amazing the picture looks while playing battlefield. this tv is awesome. buy it before it jumps back up to regular price(even though regular price isnt that bad either for a 51in). OVERALL, i am satisfied! i own a galaxy s4, previous galaxy s3, so i decided to go with a samsung tv, and boy, it is a great buy! get one yourself and see what i am talking about!