Plasma-TV Reviews

Great picture and great sound. Especially when you hook up a subwoofer to the set. I also purchased the optional speakers which have good overall quality. I have read some other reviews regarding some buzzing with the set but I have found that when I have hooked up the speakers there are 3 screws on the side of the set. If these are overtightened this could cause some buzzing noise. By loosening the screws you can make the buzzing go completely away. It worked on my set. hope this wil help if you get some buzzing on you sets enjoy

I purchased this Plasma for a friend and have had it in my home for 2 weeks. I too have looked at many plasmas in the stores and compared. I have to say this one has a beautiful picture. Compared to true HDTV plasmas in the store, this EDTV has a great picture. It is hard to spend the extra money for subtle differences that are hard to see even side-by-side. Most of our viewing is cable or DVD movies so I can't rationalize the extra money. Even with a cable input, the picture is great. It is clear and has little "noise" or "graininess" considering it is a cable signal. Friends come over and remark what a great picture.

Internal amp for speakers is fine. The Virtual Dolby does give good impact to the 2 speaker sound. For DVD's I use my separate surround sound system. One thing Samsung forgot on this model are audio output jacks to connect internal tuner sound to your surround sound system. So many other inputs, I don't know why they forgot those outputs.

This is one of the few Plasmas that comes with a 2 year warrenty in home! The appearance of the TV is perfect in our home and looks great on or off. We are likeing it soo much, I will probably buy one for myself now that I have seen and used it my home.

I was considering (having narrowed it to) a couple of different well known brands in the six thousand dollar price range. Having started out leaning towards the bigger name brands the service tech did a fine job trying to keep me in the higher priced models. I'm not sure who wore who out. As I read more about the different models I found them to be very similar in their offerings, however, I kept leaning towards not what the descriptions said, but where I felt it mattered most, in the visual presentation of the picture I saw. I also found that visual presentation to be equally as personal. I asked others (in the showroom) their opinion and no surprise, I got as many differences as there were people. For example, I viewed some that looked to be naturally lighter and some darker and some with the hues more sedate than others that were more brilliant. We all saw them differently, yet the specs were all the same. My decision to buy this Samsung plasma screen wasn't scientific, I bought it because I've had great success with Samsung products in the past and I found the picture to be as pleasing as the more expensive models. With the money I saved, I upgraded to the Bose audio system and still had plenty of money left to buy DVDs and the popcorn to go with them. I would strongly recommend this plasma screen and feel confident that you made the right decision. PS, don't let those clerks up-sell you, let your eye decide, after all it's you that will be watching it!

The reason I bought this TV is that I was moving into my apartment and my 1989 TV was breaking down. I had to take it to six repair shops just to see the picture. I gave that away and I knew that I had to go pricy and get a Plasma TV. I like very big TV's and I knew 60" was the way to go. Sony was the best brand of the choice but their's were for $19,999.99 which is $10,000.00 more than this Zenith. But when I went to Target and got this TV I was suprised that it had good picture quality. Zenith is a horrible brand but this TV they did a good job on. I got BOSE Speakers with it to really pump up the sound too. This is a wonderful TV but if you want a terrifically wonderful TV you have to get the Sony!

I really wanted to be the first person to review this item, because face it, nobody actually owns this tv. This is that tv at sound advice that you see and drool over but nobody ever buys it.

After a year of shopping, my wife & I decided to experience this puppy. Granted that all plasma t.v.s look great, this one on the show floor looked a tad better, so we sprang for the extra bucks after first getting a sale price, then a 10% discount ontop of an additional 10% discount. It was merely a horribly expensive unit instead of obscenely expensive that way.

At home, we had an installer scheduled to come out and mount it on the wall, but we couldn't wait and went ahead and did the installation on the pedastle, which is a two person job and takes about 3 hours, with the constant fear of dropping something on the screen. We didn't break anything, but I don't recommend self installation unless you have nerves of steel.

After haggling with the cable company, we added HDTV service and after about 5 days managed to review the unit in the following modes:

1. analog cable t.v.
The image quality is good, probably superior to regular NTSC quality. Key advantage is you can toggle the 5 or so image scale modes to make it fit just right. There is a progressive distortion mode that while stretching the image to fit the 16:9 from the NTSC standard, does it so well that there is no obvious distortion except for the rare case where you see what should be a circle in one of the corners. The image size is such that you really can't take in the whole screen at once so it's a rarely if ever noticed distortion and visually quite good considering the low quality of analog broadcast
2. digital cable t.v.
Probably not a great idea. You have two modes on the Hitachi and 3 modes on the cable box to scale the image, and they seem to fight eachother resulting in a less than stellar picture. I actually prefer analog for quality when all settings are done. I would suspect the same issues with Satellite, but I'm not ready to add that to my gadget list to be sure.
Special note for folks who have "movie on demand" fantasies. NONE of the "movies on demand" are HDTV format. Maybe next year. I'm disappointed, but with my cable company, not Hitachi.
3. digital 1080i cable t.v.
Granted, this device is not a 1080i display, it's 1,280 by 780, but however it down-converts the signal, it's an amazingly clear picture. The only concern you might have is looking at the imperfections on people's faces that are normally invisible. I mean, how many of you will find your attention distracted by looking at the details of the hairs growing from a mole on the interviewer's face. Sometimes, detail it too much of a good thing, but by all that's holy, it's remarkable detail and quality. My suspicion is that satellite folks will love this mode too. HOWEVER, there are very few HDTV channels right now, and I'd say, like all t.v. wasteland material, maybe 1 or 2 has something interesting.
4. svideo DVD
A high quality display that looks fine, but you'll discover that frame sizes vary depending upon DVD producer's whim and you may find yourself toggling among 6 different display modes trying to find one that won't burn-in and that looks good too. I don't have the HDTV composite version of a DVD player so I can't comment on that and I blew my toy budget for the next 3 years so it'll be a while before I know how wonderful that feature is.
5. RCA jack vhs video
This is the worst image quality mode, due to the source. however the analog variable image scaling works well, and the picture is better than when displayed on the baby 30 inch sony 3:4 that this replaced.
6. RGB output from a PC
Jury is out here. I've hooked 3 different PCs into this and know for sure that your milage will vary. Depending on which version of Windows you have, whose display driver you have, etc, etc, you will either get a stunning image of your desktop, or a stunning distorted image of your desktop. Be warned a 1280 X 780 display is obviously not the top display mode debugged by video card driver makers. It's not that you won't get it to work, but you may find that your actual display size is, well, funny. Hitachi has a nice "auto size" mode that at least gets the desktop to fill the screen, irrespective of what the video card driver wants to do. You can browse easily, clearly, and start shopping at once for a wireless keyboard and mouse. We did.
7. Universal remote vs. Universal remote
There were actually three settups done for us. The one my wife & I did, the one the official installer did, and the one the cable boy did. Each of us knows how a system should be wired, and how the universal remote should be programmed. At the end of the day, I had THREE universal remotes, sony, cable company, and hitachi. Each programmed by the mad mind of the perfect configurator. At the end of the day, the universal remote that works best is the Hitachi, which surprised me. The cable guy insisted that it would never work with the cable box. I discovered that it works better with the cable box than the universal remote that came with the cable box. That doesn't mean you will have ONE universal remote. Mixed vendors = mixed results. I can now get by with TWO universal remotes, provided I keep a third nearby. Driving 5 different vendor's devices with 2.5 remotes ain't bad.
8. Burn in
Hitachi says, never keep the side bars (normal HTDV display) on for more than 15% of the time, lest thou shalt melt the phosphor and destroy your display. I looked at the persistance image after turning the device off (in the dark), and my guess is that 15% is the maximum. I plan on keeping it down to as close to zero as possible. If you plan on using this with a PC, make sure your screen saver is really on, and really doing a dynamic or BLACK display unless you want to see START on the bottom of your display for eternity. (apologies to MAC users)

If you don't feel like making mounting modifications to your home, and you want a cool, unobtrusive way to keep your plasma supported, this is the perfect solution. It looks good, it is exceedingly sturdy, easy to put together, has good vertical range of motion and around 20 degrees of horizontat tilt. All in all I am very, very happy with this stand.

As a sidenote, I can't believe how many people buy a plasma and then decide to keep all their AV equipment mounted on a deep stand either below or to the side of the plasma ! Do yourself a favour and pick up a relatively cheap IR repeater setup, and put all that ugly equipment behind cabinet doors or in the next room!

6 Stars...

I don't own a VPW500 but I can tell you that if it's in your price range, one look might be all it takes to get you to bite. I'm amazed by what TV designers have accomplished over the last few years. Based on what I've seen while shopping recently, the VPW500 would be one of my top choices if price were no object. But it's way out of my price range, unfortunately. The size, coupled with the brightness, contrast and color density add up to a very convincing watching experience. It gives the illusion of depth that you just don't come close to achieving out of a conventional TV and in the process, tends to pull you into the program. It's almost like information overload. Sitting 8' away, it still is plenty large enough to occupy nearly all of your visual attention. I think I'm in love.

I purchased this model on low-price guarantee from Best Buy for $1,999 vs. competitor's advertised price, so well-below BB's going rate for the screen. I shopped for about 4 months & compared this model to comparably-priced (MSRP:$3K-$4K) Samsung, Sampo, ViewSonic, Panasonic & Sony(smaller screen size in price range). The Daewoo picture quality in all aspects was superior to the $3.5K & other competitors & equal to many models that were far more expensive. I waited hoping to get it for under $2.5K & was shocked to find it advertised for $2K in 1/04, so took the step with Best Buy due to their service & lower extended warranty price. I installed & completed set-up myself with no problems with a system that includes Direct TV, VCR & DVD recorder. Daewoo instructions for proper satellite & component set-up were precise, easy to follow &, most importantly, accurate. I have not been disappointed in the unit in any way for the dollar spent. It operates quietly & provides wonderful color & picture clarity. The only downside to the unit is that it does not have picture-in-picture, but then very little is available in the entry-level price range that has PIP. I also purchased the companion DP-SP21 speakers, which can be very hard to locate, but I got them from Target at $120 for the pair(well below other advertised prices). They are not high output, but deliver surround-sound quality & no distortion at upper-end volume. All-in-all, a superior unit for the buyer that doesn't want to spend a lot of money on a plasma set-up.

I just bought this Daewoo DP42SM and am amazed at the quality of the picture. Not something I was expecting to find in the Daewoo brand in plasmas. I was lucky enough to see this plasma right next to a Sony and the highly rated Panasonic. I couldn't see much of a difference. It has very good black levels and a wide choice of input options. Also comes with a several sets of cables for connecting components. Has a very nice metal and glass stand, also a futuristc looking remote. Overall, I am in awe of this thing. I did not buy it online, I bought it at my local Fry's. I won't tell you for how much, but I got it for much less than the $2999 list shown here and elsewhere. I can recommend this plamsa very highly. Haven't had it that long (a week), but I hope it will prove to be a good purchase in the long run. Right now, just really loving this thing, what a pleasure to watch TV (I have digital cable from Cox and the picture is excellent) and DVDs (they look great as well).

I looked for about a month trying to decide. Saw some brands I definitely would not be comfortable with, they just had an inferior picture quality in the stores which took them out of the running right off the bat.

What I was looking for was good color reproduction, good black levels, a sharp picture, a silver enclosure and a stand included, and a price around $3000. I was not interested in HDTV (this is EDTV, fine for my needs), nor did I want a built-in tuner since I have digital cable. The Daewoo suprisingly came out on top. Don't overlook this one, you'll save some big bucks by shopping around for this one.

We purchased the TV back in February and had it for about 8 weeks. In late April we started to get red lines from top to bottom about every inch on the screen. We purchased the extended service plan from Best Buy and called them. They sent their service person out and he determined the TV could not be fixed. Best Buy wanted us to deal with Daewoo because of the manfacturers warranty. DO NOT DEAL WITH DAEWOO DIRECTLY, Daewoo will not give you a new replacement unit it is reconditioned.
When I informed Best Buy of Daewoo's replacement policy they picked up the broken TV and replaced it with a new one.
Even though we had this little problem the TV is fantastic and highly recomended. We are very happy with it and you will be too I'm sure......

This TV is great overall. I am extremely happy with the picture quality when using it under HD. Its absolutely unbeliveable!! The drawback is Time Warner only has about 13 HD channels, everything else is in SD. Under a SD signal the TV is an average performer (which is why I gave it 4 stars & not 5). The picture does get grainy and my $300 TV looks much better than this set! But it is still "bearable".

I did go down to a local electronics store and do a comparision of this set against the leading brands (under HD signal), and i must say it was just as good or even better than some of those 5K+ TV's out there.

Its works great when hooked up to my pc, I did have to go out and get a decent video card with a DVI out. The picture quality is simply great.

Bottom Line: Buy it! But just be prepared to be patient until more 'n more programs get broadcast in HD.

This is the nicest and thinest TV I have ever seen, and now owned. The colors are awsome, and everything is very familiar if you have owned a TV in the past, except for how thin this unit is. We bought this to give ourselves more room, and didn't actually realize how much room until the old 32" Tube TV was gone. We got to get rid of the TV stand, and the huge TV and now have a nice small unit that we can hang on the wall. Philips makes awsome product, and we have had a grat experience from Amzon throughout the entire process.

I had actually planned to buy a rear projection tv (hdtv, 16:9, etc), but plasma screen prices have come down quite a bit lately making it competitive with rear projection....

Anyway, back to Fujitsu. The 4209 is a fairly good screen, although the technology is 2-3 years old. And they are literally screens since they don't have a built in tuner or audio. You need to supply an external tuner (cable or satellite box) and a home theatre system to get this up and running. Something to consider.

For those needing the tuner and audio, the PDS4229 is a better choice. The 4209 is more of a corporate/trade show type monitor rather than a consumer home theatre monitor. Also, while the 4209 is hdtv compatible, they don't have the 3:2 rollup feature, as in other later models, to down convert from 16:9 to the current 4:3 screen aspect ratio. Another consideration point.

Plasma screens can also have some setup work to properly distinguish the input source (dvd, sat, vcr, cable, pc) and display the proper color settings. The majority of the time, the setup is automatic though.

Finally, mostly all plasma screens have problems generating "a good black" color like for night time or space movie background scenes. Instead, of displaying black, the plasma screens display more of a dark, dark, gray due to the plasma gas still being electrically charged. Because of the constant charging of the plasma cells, the lifetime of the TV is estimated at 20,000-25,000 hours (at this point 50% of the plasma has been discharged). If this bothers you, you might want to stick with direct view or projection.

In conclusion, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Plasma can offer one of the best, brightest pictures around, but there are some drawbacks as with anything. And with anything in technology, the prices can only go lower over time.

Well Plasma Tv are very pricey as you can see however they are great for people who have web TV and like new digtal things
I bought a Plasma tv this on THIS TV IS SUPER IT WEIGHS 1.5 POUNDS AND IS THIS LIGHTEST THING ON EARTH YOU SEE I TRAVEL ALOT AND STILL NEED A TV

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1. PRICEY REALLY PRICEY
2. MOST DIGITAL TV OUT THERE
3. VERY LIGHT EASY FOR TRAVEL
4.EASY TO USE install wed TV all

The Fujitsu 4209 is great, for the price and the picture quality is better than more expensive TV models like the Sony Plasma's and Panasonic Plasma's... I am really happy with my screen, the various imputs make it easy to switch back and forth, I like that I can alos hookup my computer to it, for presentations...
(Family presentations of downloaded pictures on a 42" screen). Plus it was allot better than the "Sampo" made TV's that GATEWAY.com is offering, plus I don't have to wait 3 months for mine. For the peace of mind of the Fujitsu name brand, and picture quality, I realy am happy with my new TV.

This product is truly designed for owners of digital cameras with various types of memory cards. The image quality on large format HD screens is quite impressive.

Downside, you have to have a compact flash card and reader in order to import the updated software. Looking at prices at Amazon this could cost more than half the price of the unit itself. This is a serious shortcoming for this product and my reason for a average rating. I have still not been able to get the unit to work on either of my networks using Windows XP.

Most people keep their photo's on CD's and a CD slot would have been a great feature, even over the assortment of memory card slots they provide. I would believe that most images are moved from memory cards to hard drives and cd's for long term storage and later viewing making a CD drive much more practical.

This is a very well executed product.

After using the Prismiq MediaPlayer for six months (which I have now sold off on ebay), this is a godsend. Even my wife can now use the Roku HD1000.

* Component Video Output of upto 1080i (this is a plus for me as I have an HDTV, although this may not be an important feature to you if you do not have HDTV) -- finally some justice done to my digital photos. Actually, the UI is more readable as well because of the higher resolution.

* Very good UI, although some some features (better playlist navigation, auto-playlists or sort by artist/album/genre etc) are desperately needed.

* Open platform, SDK is freely available. Opens door for 3rd-party developers

* No special server software needed, other than SMB file sharing.

* The company engineers (including the CEO) seems to be listening to the customers and coming up with useful feature updates.

* The only negative feature is its price. At $500, it seems a bit too expensive.

High-Resolution HDTV output looks fantastic, for both pictures and
menus. MP3 player displays ID3 tags and can play in the background
while you do other things (like watch a slideshow). The user
interface is clean, minimalist, and easy to use. It finds shared
content on networked drives and inserted flash cards and they appear
in the user interface automatically. Unlike the competition, it
requires no proprietary server software: just plug it in and you are
ready to go. And it costs about the same as competing products, but
none of them provide HDTV output.

The only drawback is that the remote responsiveness is slightly worse
than other electronics, though programming a learning remote from the
supplied remote makes it better.

This TV is great in every aspect except video games.Playstation looks horrendous on it. every single jagged edge shows upand makes u want to ..... Dreamcast looks ok but make sure to hook it up through S-Video. Evcerything else about this tv is cool but i recommend u buy the 50 in panasnic instead. END

This television provides incredible picture quality... I would say it is equivalent to computer monitors from 5 or so years ago in clarity. At it's best it is a preview of the future, when 12xx by 10xx resolutions will be the standard.

The plasma TV pales to none. The only problem is that it is too clear at times. The blemished of the actors really show up. Here in Japan we have High Definition TV and the High Definition is fantastic on it. Everything looks so real. You might want to view further than about 3 meters or so. The size and the light can give you a headache if viewed too closly for too long. But, basically that is about the same as any TV. Great buy!