Samsung PN58C6500 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)

Review by LarryT for Samsung PN58C6500 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
Rating:
I’ve had my TV for almost a month now….

Picture Quality:

I like it much better than the Samsung UN55C6300 LED I ended up returning. That TV made things look too “cartoonish” AND I have not experienced any audio syncing or juddering at all which I did with the LED.

Initially, I only made two adjustments to my pictures settings. I set the black level to darkest and changed it to movie mode. This thing has an awesome picture without ANY calibration at all. However, I have since used calibration settings found on the AVS forum and they did enhance the picture even more.

Internet: I have it hooked up via Ethernet and have really enjoyed having the ability to view Netflix movies, Amazon movies, Blockbuster movies and view the Facebook and YouTube widgets.

Media: I was able so successfully stream music, pictures, and videos from my PC and a Flash Drive.

Basically, almost every thing I was using on my PS3 in regards to internet, I am able to do with this TV.

In summary:

I’m totally in LOVE with this TV and hope it will last me many years.

Review by A. Shlensky for Samsung PN58C6500 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
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I was worried about if this TV was going to buzz like the previous model. I can only tell if its buzzing when its silent at no volume. So if anyone is worried about that, with volume on you can’t here a thing, and my room forces me to sit closer to the TV than normal. Its an amazing TV. I’ve had it for about a month now. Crystal clear picture and its huge! Still tinkering with settings and I will use the previous reviewer’s advice. Highly recommended.

Review by sdbhoy for Samsung PN58C6500 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
Rating:
Had my Samsung 58C6500 up and running for a couple of weeks, got it to watch the world cup and it has been a great experience thus far, great price on Amazon, after months of research and store visits, saw this in Frys, and then went on line and got the best price. Delivery was not an issue, out of the box the stand was attached, managed to do the un-boxing myself and just had my wife help me lift it to the media center, hooked up my U-verse via HDMI, excellent picture quality, internet apps look good, only down side i found was once I hooked up to my A/V receiver and 5.1 speakers, running Pandora on the TV was not coming via my amp, rather the built in speaker on the TV, could not figure out a way to get that output via the amp, not an issue as I picked up the BD-C6500 Blue Ray, which had the apps also and Pandora outputs via my speakers,

Prior to hooking up to my amp/speaker I used the inbuilt speaker for a couple of days and was impressed by the audio quality, so if you don’t want to add your own speaker the ones built in are good enough, of course you don’t get the depth or range with surround sound.

another feature I liked that made my decision to buy this was the included stand allows you the swivel the screen based on seating position, had not seen this on some of the other sets I looked at.

Overall very please and would recommend to buy this, 58inches of HD glory, and forgot to mention that this unit is only about a 1/4 of an inch deep,

Review by OLDKOZ for Samsung PN58C6500 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
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Had my PN58C6400 (same as the C6500) for 3 weeks now. Intially ordered a 2009 model from Amazon/Modia but it was out of stock and they upgraded to this 2010 model, nice. Order arrived couple days early, opened & inspected the unit before signing for it (highly recommended)and had no damage. This was by far the biggest ticket item I’d web purchased but I was happy with the transaction and remain so. Had not planned on wall mounting, but this 2010 unit is so thin (1.4″) that now I’m thinking about it. Have noticed NO buzzing or any other unsusal noises. I did not “burn in” the screen with test slides like some techies like to do (think it unnessary). I’ve just been sure initially to watch a variety of material, and always in wide-screen even if it means having to stretch the pciture to fit for 4:3 material. Don’t know what the internal speakers sound like and don’t care as I haven’t used anything in my main room but the surround system for 10 years now. Suggest using direct high quality digital audio connections directly from sources to your Home theater system, not HDMI to the TV then back, which can limit return audio to only 2 channel.

As for viewing sources and setup, I don’t do any Gaming and I’ve yet to try any of the Internet features as my DSL sppeed needs to be upgraded to at least 3.5 mghz. Watch mainly DISH HD programs and numerous Blu-ray movies. Got on AVS Forum website for this Samsung model family and got some excellent setting recommendations which I use for my two input sources. Use the “Movie” mode to have access to all adjustments, “Standard” has some disabled, and “Relaxed” and “Dynamic” even more are greyed out. (If you initally find the Dynamic mode good, you’ll quickly tire of it as it gets fatiguing to the eyes.) I had initially researched buying a LCD-LED unit but am very happy with this plasma. Picture quality is outstanding and still promotes the “wow” factor. The picture quality remains excellent from any angle and light relections don’t seem to bother the picture nor are they visible. I’ve had no Image Retention problems (there are a couple of features built-in to prevent them) More importantly I’ve seen NO motion artifacts which are common on LCD TVs. If you have no interest right now in 3D (I don’t) and are looking for a great picture with deep blacks, & accurate color and video processing, this represents an excellent value. Yeah it puts out a little heat, give it 4″ if clearance on each side for proper ventilation. It also consumes a little more energy than an LCD , but I’m willing to pay for it and I don’t live in California.

Review by Hamish Macphail for Samsung PN58C6500 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Black)
Rating:
Addressing the negatives others have mentioned re Samsung plasmas:

Buzz: Unless I’m totally deaf (I can still hear my baby yelling so I don’t think so) this TV doesn’t make any noise AT ALL. Nada. I can’t even hear a cooling fan running when I’m standing next to it. Total. Silence.

Residual images: I use a HTPC extensively and not noticed any residual images so far.

Reflective screen: It does have a glossy glass finish but as long as you’re not sitting so you’ll see a reflection from a window it’s not an issue. I don’t see any glare from our couch.

Reliability: Delivered in perfect condition and it’s not broken yet (only had it a week and will report back if it fails – I don’t expect it too, seems well made)

User account setup: Creating a user account and putting in your IDs and passwords for Picasa etc. is painful using the 0-9 keypad on the remote. Qwerty would be a nice option – but it’s a once-only process so not a big deal for the inital account set up. It does mean updating Facebook status or Tweeting isn’t something you’re going to do using the TV, until Qwerty is an option (like TiVo Premiere introducing a Qwerty remote soon).

Positives:

Beautiful unit: Lovely glass one-piece screen and bezel. I use the stand which is a really nice solid glass pivot version – much nicer than the fixed position plastic ones with cheaper models / other makers. Came ready-attached to the TV.

Picture: As everyone else says, the picture’s what you want – outstanding. 58″ is a wonderful size for a TV – the bezel is quite thin so although the screen area is almost twice what it was on the 42″ Hitachi it replaced, it doesn’t take up that much more space in our living room. Having said that, sitting next to the 42″ screen it did make it look like a portable. And it cost less than the 720p 42″ TV I bought in 2006.

Inputs: Multiple inputs – although I only use one HDMI as it’s hooked to a switched HDMI receiver.

Samsung Apps: These are really great – and despite the Samsung TV feature table not showing them as available on the C6500, I can confirm they ARE present in full on the PN58C6500.

Netflix watch instantly is there but currently only shows your instant queue – you can’t browse categories (which you can on PC, Roku or TiVo – expect this will get upgraded soon).

Vudu is a GREAT service – HD movie streaming of the latest releases, instant BluRay quality on demand. Fantastic. The optical audio (SPDIF) output WILL send 5.1 Dolby Digital to your AV receiver if you’re watching a 5.1 source (like Vudu). Vudu is owned by Walmart and interestingly BestBuy have just got going with their rival service, CinemaNow – which looks very similar to Vudu (not tried it myself yet). One limitation which only occurred to me after I got the TV – you can output digital audio from the TV but you can’t output digital video signal e.g. to a projector. So if you want to use Vudu for HD movie streaming on a projector, you’ll need a separate box with Vudu built into it instead.

Hulu Plus is there but it’s a subscription only service – you can’t use regular Hulu for free. Still, it’s a nice option.

Lots of other usual suspects are there – Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps. Picasa is there but surprisingly it won’t play videos, only pictures (probably that will change with an upgrade too down the line. While I was writing this the Pandora app updated itself automatically so they’re constantly changing).

All in all this is a great TV – full featured, beatifully made and with the excellent picture I expected. An HDMI output would be nice for me so I could use Vudu / Netflix HD on my projector too, but I’m not aware of any TV which will do that (is anyone else?)

UPDATE SEPT 26th: Still loving this TV two months in. In fact, the picture is so good and so nice to live with that it’s making me unhappy with the picture I’m getting from my old Optoma HD72 projector – which by comparison looks too dim and soft (it’s actually a pretty good picture, but the Samsung TV just steps all over it). Avatar Bluray for example is outright stunning in its detail on the Samsung. On the Optoma projector, it’s just ok. Checking if budget will allow upgrade to Epson 8500 …