Samsung PS51D450 51-inch Widescreen HD Ready Plasma TV with Freeview

i dont usually write reviews, but as i struggled to find info on this model, i thought i'd try and dish out some info and my thoughts on this tv.

the tv arrived 3 days after placing our order, city link were really good (read a lot of bad stuff about them). i couldnt help laughing when i saw the size of the box! putting the stand on single handed is a bit of a mission, i would advise you to get someone to help with that. we are extremely happy with it so far. this is my 1st plasma, and like many people that havent had a plasma before, i had my reservations about them. you often hear horror stories about screen burn, buzzing and colour issues... but plasmas do have a better picture than anything (that is, until amoled is around)

1st of all, i have experienced no screen burn or image retention whatsoever, and i have had some marathon xbox sessions! the screen is reflective and this was the 1st thing that put me off plasmas in the past.., im the 1st person to admit that when you see them in a store with the bright lights reflecting off them, they look bad, but in a home its completely different. when the tv is on, reflection and glare is minimal, only noticeable during dark scenes in a well lit room. the picture is amazing, i thought 51" + 720p = huge pixels. simply not the case. ive seen a lot of 1080p lcd's and this genuinely puts them to shame, the picture just looks sharper and more natural, i havent even noticed any juddering on fast moving scenes, its super smooth! this goes for blu ray, upscaled dvd's, freeview and downloaded movies.

there are some controls on the lower right hand side of the bezel, i was lead to believe in some reviews that this was a 'remote only' tv. the controls are the usual standby, volume etc, but they are touch sensitive rather than buttons and are practicly invisible ... i didnt even notice them until i cleaned it! another plus (for me at least) is that theres no distracting led that you get when most tv's are on... the older samsungs were rediculous! this just has a dim red standby light when its off.

the customisation regarding picture settings are brilliant, with some tweaking or a google search, you can come up with some great settings. i was also surprised how good the freeview reciever and epg are, i expected freeview to look a bit rubbish, but its as good as you could ask for an sd reciever.

there arent really any bad points to this tv... and ive been looking for problems! if i had to nit-pick, id say the stand is a bit wobbly and is missing the handy swivel that most other sets have, the speakers arent that great... they do the job ok, but you cant expect fantastic virtual surround sound in a set this thin, also, the standard picture settings need a tweak as they really dont do this set justice... thx would have been nice :) overall, im real happy with this tv, beatiful display, super thin bezel, loads of customisable options, built in usb 2.0 media player, super smooth 600hz, game mode is brilliant. also this tv is called the PN51D450 outside of europe, knowing that helped with finding more reviews.

so in conclusion, for just over £500, you cant go wrong with this tv, if like me, youve been brainwashed into thinking you need 1080p, dont believe it... i personally rate the picture on this as one of the best i have seen, and ive seen a lot, plasmas just look better than anything else at the moment :)

oh, dont forget your hdmi leads!

EDIT!

a few months on and i have started to notice a bit of image retention... i was watching snooker and the score on the bottom of the screen stays in the same spot for hours and temporarily 'burn' an image into the screen. it does vanish after around a minute and it doesnt happen often, but my previous statement about no retention is false, it does happen, but it is minimal. it got me worried about tv station logos like mtv or e4 that are always in the corner, but it really isnt a cause for concearn... ive had it around 4 times in as many months.
also sometimes notice buzzing on very, very rare occasions... when loading the internet(through an external source), you often get a blank page for a few seconds before the images/text loads... in this situation, the screen can be a very bright colour and likes to buzz, its not really a problem, just worth mentioning. it also likes to pump out heat (not a problem in winter!) and the remote control can be a bit unresponsive at times as i think the ir transmitters are a bit rubbish, plus the control looks and feels a bit cheap (im looking for a better samsung remote thats compatible with this tv). apart from that its a great set, im used to the size now and the novelty has worn off, but i still give it 5 stars :)

My family and I have only had this tv for a couple of weeks but are all over the moon with it. Picture quality and sound are very good and it was dead easy to set up. Only complaint is that the free to view timer is out of cinque but i'm sure that will be easily rectified once I get time to read how to do it. A star buy for families on a budget!

Undecided whether to opt for a new 2011 46" LCD 5 Series or the 2011 51" Plasma range became impatient and made an impromptu decision went for the 450 51". The decision to purchase was made without having seen the product - but I was confident that Samsung would deliver.

The technology is incredible for the price. The new screen is extremely thin almost on a par with the LED, but certainly far slimmer than our old 5 Series.

The picture quality is fabulous. The image is extremely smooth when watching sporting events such as tennis. HD image quality at 720p/1080i is far improved when compared to the older 1080p LCD 5 series. Which quickly provided reassurance that the picture viewing quality was indeed a step up. Previously I had been concerned that a larger screen would dilute the quality of the picture in the lower resolution - however it is not an issue. There is a Dynamic mode which I used after install which was great.

The television which has 2 HDMI connectors is sufficient for our purposes - satelite HD and possibly a Blu-Ray player in future. Impressed with the feature to play USB movies - just connect a memory stick and hey-presto. The quality was once again outstanding.

Sound is provided by the SRS sound system at 10kw - the sound is clear and has depth and tone. More than I had anticipated. Once again an improvement on the old 5 Series.

I had read reports that the screen is reflective - I have only detetcted this when the screen is turned off. It is not an issue for me.

Amazon's ordering and delivery process was excellent.

Highly rate this television.