Superb qualityJanuary 3, 2008 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Having looked at the various options (Plasma v LCD) like the previous reviewer it came down to two Plasmas (Pana or Sammy). Was'nt too bothered about waiting for a 1080 Plasma and thought all the LCD's lacked punch compared to the Plasmas (this was side by side in Comet). I am using it with an HDMI connector to a Sony RDR-HX870 HDMI DVD Recorder with 160GB HDD (originally got a Samsung DVD-HR853M HDMI DVD Recorder with 160GB HDD but quickly returned it as it was worse than useless). The quality with the HDMI cable to the DVD recorder is absolutely perfect, I don't use SCARTS where I can avoid (SCARTS must have been designed by a committee somewhere...ugh!).
Found the Samsung PS50C96 - 50" Widescreen HD Ready Plasma TV - With Freeview very easy to set up, just plug and play (unlike their DVD recorder).
Possibly agree that perhaps the sound maybe just lets it down, I currently don't use anything other than the onboard stuff (might invest in a surroundasound kit).
I use it all with a loft aerial and am fortunate to pick up all the Freeview available.
Whole thing I am sure will be superb in HD on Sky but its also superb on SD.
Great picture, good looking set, poor serviceSeptember 27, 2007 38 out of 40 found this review helpful
Having agonised over which TV to buy I finally opted for this giant from Samsung. First decision was LCD or Plasma. I got very close to a 1080p LCD (Samsung again) but the skin tones let it down and also it didn't perform so well on standard definition (SD) material. Decided to look at Panasonic and Samsung Plasmas and very little to choose between them except you got bigger screen for your money with Samsung.
Having got it home I was very impressed with picture on Freeview (built in) and on DVD via the SCART (RGB) connection. Havn't got any HDMI kit yet so cannot comment on its performance with upscaling although that is next on the list!
However one serious gripe has occured. I have an external audio/video switching unit (Pioneer receiver) and as the Samsung sound (and in deed most TV's) do not have good speakers in them I wanted to use an external receiver and speakers. To keep quality high I choose to use the optical audio output from the Samsung. Immediately I noticed dropouts on the audio. I called Samsung and they said "it must be my receiver or optical cable". They recommended I by a good quality cable. So 45 later I have a new optical cable and still audio dropouts. Being a bit of an engineer I decided to measure the optical audio stream with a meter on another bit of audio kit. Sure enough the audio was dropping from the TV (not the cable or reciever). I then browsed the AV forums and found that this is a common fault with Samsung Q/C 96/97 series TV's! Called Samsung again and they ordered an engineer to contact me. To cut a long story short he said Samsung were aware of the issue but do not consider it very important! A Firmware revision "may follow at some point in the future"......not very impressive!
Make your own mind up about whether that is good customer service!
If you do not wantg to use digital audio out from the TV this is an excellent set but if you think you may want to improve audio at some point avoid all Samsungs in the Q/C 96 and 97 series.
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