Samsung PS51D550 51-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 3D Plasma TV with Freeview HD

I Have owned this TV for a few month's now, so I thought a review was in order.

I bought the TV direct from Amazon and was delivered in a very impressive time. Considering it would have made at least one oversea's crossing. Three day's after order, it was delivered and arrived in perfect condition.

Assembly :

This will be a two person job. The set isn't very heavy, but awkward given it's size, to manipulate the stand into position for fixing onto TV. But otherwise, easy and straight forward. Very solid once assembled.

Tuning :

Easy and straight forward following the on-screen instruction's. I mostly use HDMI input's, so the hassle was minimal. Auto tune is available for freeview tuning.

Screen glare :

When the TV is off or on stand-by, the screen panel is very reflective. It has a clear panel, not tinted. Which mean's light will reflect pretty badly on the screen and is basically just like a mirror. Lights that are in visible when viewing the TV, will be visible and reflected by the panel, even when the TV is ON !

Be aware of this, and factor it in to your decision to purchase.

Picture quality :

Very good in both SD and HD resolution's. Tested with SKY + HD on various resolution's and input quality, with very good result's for all. Also tested using a Samsung Blu-Ray player, and also with a Samsung 3D Blu-Ray player with very excellent result's.

Compared to the set that this replaced, also a Samsung (LCD 46") the picture quality was superb. The colours appear more vibrant. Images sharper, and most of all, I noticed a good improvement in motion responsiveness. Fast moving images are solid with no ghosting or tracking issues to speak of.

Audio :

Wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is, and was a pleasant and welcome surprise ! Given the slim profile and obvious lack of space for larger speaker's built into the set, it is hard to imagine such a small speaker set to produce 'good' quality sound. Deliver's acceptable bass, which most TV's don't with these ever slimming design's. Very good.

3D :

Look's stunning in full HD, and in my opinion, more enjoyable than watching it at the cinema. With full HD, the images are sharp, vibrant and eye popping to watch. As mentioned, I tested with a 3D Blu-Ray player, but I also subscribed to SKY+3D. This was, by far, the most cost effective way of gaining access to high quality 3D content, and well worth the fee involved. But I digress.

I havn't experienced any problem's with tracking or ghosting while watching content via SKY, or the Blu-Ray player.

The only real downside (if there is one) to watching 3D on a smaller screen compared to the cinema, is that the Z-field 3D effect's (thing's coming right at you) are slightly reduced in effectiveness, due to the fact the screen doesn't fill as much of your peripheral vision. So the urge to duck is somewhat reduced.

2D to 3D conversion :

I didn't buy this television based purely on this feature. But I figured I would rather have it than not, and it did sway my decision away from other set's I was looking at.

To be honest, it doesn't really work all that well. It does an okay job of producing depth perception, but doesn't really do much for me. And I don't really use it as much as I had hoped.

The niggles and issues :

Being a plasma TV, they have a reputation for screen burn. This means that a if a static image is displayed for extended period's of time, it can burn the image into the screen. Making it noticeably visible over other images and basically ruining the experience. This TV does offer protection against this happening. Pixel shift being one of the safe guard's.

However, even with these features enabled, I have experienced some screen burn already. Some portion's of the SKY EPG can be seen over white or bright images. I ran the grey scale gradient pattern (another preventative method, that display's a scrolling black to white pattern that if left running for 5 minutes should eventually phase the burn from the screen) and it does indeed work.

Brilliant ! But I am left paranoid about it. And when watching movies, with letterbox border's for example, I find myself changing channel and breaking my enjoyment of whatever it is, simply because I don't want to risk 'damage' being done to the panel. Not ideal, but I find I can live with it.

The other noticeable issue is contrast flicker. I have not been able to narrow the cause no matter what setting's or feature's I enable, disable for change and it is a widely reported issue with this set in-particular. The screen 'flicker's' in bright or solid white colour are displayed. Or best example, imagine a desert scene, with just sand and blue sky. The sky portion of the shot will be the where you will notice it. It is faint, but a noticeable flicker.

Annoying, but not a massive issue as it doesn't always do it. It nay be a temperature issue as it only seem's to do it when it has been on for awhile, say two hour's or more. But even then, only sometimes (hard to explain).

Lastly, again widely reported, is that there is an audible 'buzz' that can be heard from this TV. I can confirm that I do hear this same buzz, and although a little disconcerting, it is nothing major. At normal volumes, it cannot be heard.

Overall :

Great TV for the money, but the small niggles may be more than you can handle. I can live with it, but other's may not be so happy. In this case, plump for one of the higher priced set's, or consider buying LED or LCD that don't suffer as badly from the same issue's, but they do suffer from their own.

I am very happy over all with this set. I was tempted to only give 3 stars, but I can live with the niggles, so 4 stars seemed fair.

Excellent 3d TV. I read a lot of reviews on different TV's and not being a person that lives and breaths techo information on formats ect... I went for this one because of the price and it's size. Wow.. is all I can say got it up on the wall in no time... I run it through a sony amplifier which has the 3d built in (had to buy this new also because my Denon one is a few years old and wouldnt' support the 3D through it). Of course you can run it direct from you DVD and not bother with the Amplifier. Make sure you have an HDMI cable that supports 3D as again this is something that I had to upgrade also. Took me a few minutes to to go through the settings, read the manual which is stored in the TV about how to work the 3D option again this really is idiot proof!!! We bought the Samsung glasses not the cheapest one on the market but well worth is as they are rechargeable and once they have be paired with the TV switch on automatically and charge down once you take them off. The TV comes with a 2d to 3d option on it. I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it is. We have SKY HD and the using the 2D to 3D with the glasses is amazing on HD channels, you'd think they were actually shot in 3D... so this was a really nice supprise as I though we would only be using the 3d for DVD/Blu ray... So it looks like we're going to be sitting infront the of the TV everynight with our glasses on!!!! As I said I'm not a techo and there is probably lots of information about formats, sound ect that I havent' covered but for us we wanted 3d and we've got it on a huge screen and it's FANTASTIC!

This is a Great TV, worth buying for the picture quality and not even considering the 3D that it also offers.
The screen is blisteringly responsive due to the 600 hz processor, great connectivity although if you have fallen behind with technology and are still reliant on scart leads for most of your connectables you may find only 1 scart socket a pain.
To enjoy full HD you should realise that most things will connect through HDMI leads and it offers 4 sockets for this, plus a host of other connections.
The speakers are not great, but most TV speakers fail to impress. You cannot get great sound built in with a flat screen. This screen is really super thin and makes my 2 year old Toshiba look bloated by comparison.
It is better in my view than the Panasonic Viera that the Toshiba replaced. This is a really great TV at a reasonable price, not often am I impressed nowadays, but this is a real high scorer in every department although you might want to consider buying a surround sound system or sound bar, oh and of course a 3D blueray player and 3D glasses to really enjoy its full potential.
Upgrading is never really cheap but you could always put the accessories on your Christmas list!