Samsung PN58C550 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)

Review by TacosBell for Samsung PN58C550 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
Rating:
I purchased this TV brand new about three weeks ago. I found it to be an excellent plasma for the size and price. The color and contrast are great. I have to disagree with the other reviews saying this TV has a loud buzzing sound. Mine doesn’t buzz at all. The TV looks great with HD cable, DVD’s, XBox 360, etc. I would purchase this again and would recommend it to anyone.

The only thing I would caution anyone about is the speakers. Mine do not buzz, but they aren’t great. They seem too quite and there is hardly any bass (comparing them to my older 42″ Panasonic Plasma). Even after changing the equalizer, the sound is still weak. If you do not have any sort of home theater system, you may want to consider one.

Review by Matthew Cummings for Samsung PN58C550 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
Rating:
Set up my unit on 5/21 which I bought from a brick/mortar store (sorry Amazon!), after researching the hell out of it. My equipment includes a WDTV Media Player (HDMI w/optical out), Nintendo Wii (analog), HD HTPC on the make, and Denon AVR-590(two optical audio inputs and three HDMI inputs).

PROS:

– NO BUZZING! YEAH!!

– Great picture out of the box – will be fine-tuning things later, but early indications are very positive. Several units had more features but PQ suffered. With so many blu-ray players and HTPCs that stream Netflix/Pandora, don’t get lured in by feature-laden units that fail to deliver great PQ.

– Media Play – plug in any USB or HD into the unit to watch video, listen to music, and view pictures.

– Input panel is easy to access – swivel base is a real plus.

– The manual states that it can connect to a home network and “can access the Internet through your LAN connection” – this one might be interesting if I could get a third party wireless USB stick to work. So far, no success – I’ll report back on this one.

CONS

– No memory card access – will attempt access with a card reader.

– Cannot tell unit to show subtitles only when muted – 7 different versions available, but none of them allow you to read subtitles when it’s muted.

– Lack of widgets – I really wanted the web widgets, but wouldn’t sacrifice PQ. With the new HD HPTC almost finished and running WMC 7, it will interesting to see if WMC will be enough.

– Sound effects and music sound great through Denon, yet dialogue is sometimes difficult to understand – I suspect that is due to my inability to read the language known as Denon and to configure it accordingly. Audio is being passed through the Denon with a single HMDI connection to the back of the Samsung.

Manufacturers like Sony and Samsung make way too many units. Once you choose a manufacturer or a set of features you cannot live without, eliminate as many inferior units as possible. Then, find where your top 3 prospects are sold and get full demos on each including use of the remote. This was the only way I was able to determine that the 550 would work.

Review by Dan Croitoru for Samsung PN58C550 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
Rating:
I was hesitant at first to buy a product without any reviews but I really needed a tv so there it goes…..

First one was delivered damaged but i got a replacement in about four days.Tv looks good on or off.I think it has really nice colors and after messing with it for a day or so I got it where I wanted it.I think the colors look better than on an LCD.Being a plasma I was a little worried about the screen letting out some heat and consequently the energy consumption but I was impressed once I hooked it up to a kill-a watt monitor.I Normal mode (after calibration) it takes between 130W to about 170W which I think it’s impressive for a 58 inch plasma.Also it emanates just about as much heat as a new lcd which is very little.I hooked it up to my router and now I can stream movies and pics to it from my laptop wirelessly(wired from the tv to the router but wireless from the router to my laptop).I would buy again.It does buzz a little but I can’t tell unless I sit a couple of feet from it.

Review by Roger Wade for Samsung PN58C550 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
Rating:
This is a replacement for my first order which arrived with a cracked screen. Seems like I’m not the only one to experience that. Thankfully, this one was undamaged. Amazon, gets top marks for customer service. They were very understanding and helpful in getting the replacement on the way. Why buy anywhere else?

First off, this TV looks great and has a wonderful picture. It replaces a Sony, 50″ 3LCD, which was only four and a half years old. It also had a top-notch picture, but we wanted to upgrade and our kids were happy to get the Sony.

I was kinda worried that I might get one that buzzed, but this one is very quiet and so far (3 days) we are delighted we chose this TV. I did a lot of research before ordering. Trying to decide whether to go with Plasma, LCD or LED. After viewing this baby our decision to go with Plasma, was a good one. Looking forward to football season now.

We have the signal coming through a Yamaha, receiver via HDMI. It’s great to be able to get rid of all those other cables and it’s as simple as the push of a button to switch to/from TV speakers to surround system or to Blu ray. I would have given this sweetheart five stars but nothings perfect.

If you are looking for a really good plasma in this size I highly recommend you look closely at this one.

Review by topgun6999 for Samsung PN58C550 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
Rating:
Great TV. This was the first time I ordered something like this at Amazon and I could not be happier. The local store was $200 higher. Add in tax and delivey and my savings were around $400. The service was outstanding and was delivered right on time.

Now about the TV.

Pro’s

1. For the size and price you can’t bet it.

2. Picture is outstanding. I did have a Samsung LCD and you really can tell how much better the picture is because the blacks are so much better.

3. So far I have not had the set professional celebrated but I did run a THX dvd with a video set up and the movie mode right out of the box was right on.

4. Controls and Menu is really easy to use expect as noted below.

5. Frame and style is very nice.

Cons’s

1. Some how the TV can control other non-Samsung devices. I have a Pioneer AV receiver that I wanted to control everything. Some how when I used my universal remote to cut everything on the receiver needed to be on HDMI 1 but the TV thought it should be on TV/Sat setting. Every time I cut it on everything would work but the tv would switch the imput on my reviver and I would loose my picture and sound. After about 20 minutes I found how to cut that off and now everything works great. Thats why I still give it 5 stars

BUZZ note: One thing that just about made me go with another TV was the Buzz factor. After having the TV for about 2 weeks there is some sound coming from the TV. In the owners manual Samsung does say that Plasmas do make a noise. To me its not a Buzzing sound but more like static. Its like when you turn your speakers up to loud with no sound and there is a static sound. That is what it sounds like to me. Also I have the TV wall mounted so it should be the loudest with that mount but I can say I hardly notice it. Sometimes if I am switching from PS3 to DirectTV it is louder but once the video feed come in it goes away. Also if there is any sound in the room you do not hear any static/buzz. I have not noticed at all that this TV get hot.

Sound: I have no idea how the speakers sound. I use my AV reciver with 7.1 surround speakers so I have not even cut on the TV speakers

Over all Great TV at a Great Price!!