Wow Rebates

Amazon.com: Samsung FPT5084 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV $1,598.06

Samsung FPT5084 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV
Samsung’s 50" FP-T5084 offers full HD 1080p resolution. Watch its astonishingly crisp picture from any angle - even in a brightly lit room, thanks to its ultra FilterBright™ anti-reflection filter. Enjoy the dazzling color array of 18-bit processing; a 15,000 contrast ratio reveals the deepest blacks, the whitest whites, and every detail in between. SAMSUNG’s powerful anti-burn-in technology assures a long screen life. SRS TruSurround XT technology and 15-watt per channel audio amplifiers deliver sound through bottom speakers. Connect your digital devices to the 3 HDMI ports, one on the side, and take advantage of the full complement of audio and video inputs, including one for your PC. Control all your CEC-compliant digital devices through the one FP-T5084 remote. And it’s energy star compliant, so you’ll use less energy.

Connections

• HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface version 1.3): 3 (2 rear/1 side)
• Component video: 2 (Y, Pb, Pr)
• S-Video input: 1 side/1 rear
• A/V inputs: 1 side/1 rear
• PC input (D-sub) 1 rear
• Headphone jack 1 side

Reviewed By T.Kandil July 16, 2007

Purchased this baby on July 13, 2007 and…

This is my initial review of this television after owning it for about three days.

What I love:

Watching Blu-Ray in 1080P is just spectacular! I own a PS3 and have a 1.3a HDMI cable for connection and the picture is superb. I watched "The Prestige" and "Casino Royale" in 1080P and was blown away. No pixelation or judder during fast-moving action scenes and the colors and details were impressive. This is clearly what this TV was designed to do. No complaints

I played Ninja Gaiden Sigma(720P) on PS3 and it looked amazing. The background was so beautiful I couldn’t even play the game. I was just staring at the details and vivid colors. Once I have broken-in this TV (at least 100-200hrs) I will play more games. I get nervous about image retention.

However, this TV comes with "Pixel Shift" which is supposed to help prevent this problem. Also, there are several built-in programs that will help alleviate the problem if, God forbid, there is image retention. I like that very much and it is a nice feature. I talked to an ISF-trained tech from a local store and he told me with these new plasmas that you would have to leave an image for several hours for "burn-in" to occur. He also said that there is no "break-in" period like I said above, but that I should NEVER use the DYNAMIC picture setting because it will turn your plasma into toast. So take this for what it’s worth. I am being very cautious with my $3000 newborn.

What I like:

I have DirecTV HD service and the picture is VERY NICE. There is some pixelation during extremely fast action or explosions, but trust me that is the crappy satellite feed and NOT the plasma. No complaints here.

What I think is OK:

The SD channels are good, but not great. It definitely varies from channel to channel and this, again, may just be DirecTV. Don’t get me wrong they are MUCH better than on my Samsung LCD, just not amazing or anything. I am so spoiled. It’s funny, you’ll be watching a show in SD and the picture is not so good and then it goes to commercial and they look awesome. I guess what they say is true "Garbage in, Garbage out."

Other observations:

I only listened to the sound for about 10 minutes because I have 7.1 surround, but it sounded good and that is all I will comment on that.

I read that the pevious model Samsung 5054/64 has problems with judder or skipping frames with tickers(CNN,ESPN,etc.) on the bottom of the screen. I don’t see this problem and I am LOOKING for it big-time. Nothing that I can detect. Do not worry about this cause it is not a problem.

Sorry about the long review, but I know there is not much out there on this one. I can’t wait to see what the fellas/gals at CNET or CR have to say. Good Luck and feel free to ask me about anything specific.

Update Jan. 7, 2008
I have had this tv for 6 months now and I have no regrets. I will say that it can get very hot and doubles as a heater. Especially after watching for several hours. But it is a minor annoyance.

The picture is still fantastic and I would put it up against a Pioneer Kuro anyday. It will absolutely destroy a Panasonic. They are very good plasmas, but I would go with SAMSUNG everytime. I saw the price has dipped below $2000 for this set now. People, if you want a 50" 1080p Plasma, DO NOT WAIT. THIS IS YOUR SET. I love it and it is my baby…You can thank me later.

Reviewed By  R. Reed August 16, 2007

Mixed feelings about this plasma…

I just purchased this TV a few days ago and I have mixed feelings about it. Here’s what I like and dislike about the set.

Likes:

- Aesthetically it is one of the nicest flatscreen TVs I’ve ever seen. I also purchased the SANUS Flat Panel TV Stand for the set and it looks fantastic on the stand

- Picture quality is stunning Dynamic mode.
- Sound quality is above average for a television
- Excellent value for the money, 50" 1080P for under $2400–what a steal!

Dislikes:

- picture quality (PQ) on older non-HD channels is terrible. I was watching an old NBA game on ESPN Classics and it was unwatchable. I tried tweaking the settings, but nothing really improved the picture.
- the PQ was about the same–and at times–not as good as my wife’s Panasonic 720p Plasma. I’m hoping it was due to a weak cable signal.
- The picture seemed somewhat washed out while using "Movie" mode
- Phoned Samsung for a minor issue and they were no help

Conclusion:

I’m on the fence about this TV and will probably swap out my TV cables and try some setting I found on the Internet. I’ll update this post with my results.

Updated on 8/21/07:

The PQ on HD channels is mesmerizing; especially, Discover HD and NFLNet. I find myself watching these channels more and more because of their excellent PQ. I’ve decided to deal with the poor PQ on the non-HD channels since they’ll probably be going away in the year or two. Also I’m planning on purchasing a Blueray DVD player to experience the full potential on this set.

After a couple of weeks and endlessly tweaking the settings on the TV, I’ve come to the conclusion that the default settings provide me with the best PQ. However, I did change the following setting:

Color Tone: Cool1
Digital NR: Auto
DNIe: On

Under the "Detail Menu":
Black Adjustment: High
Color Space: Auto
Edge Enhancement: On

Hope this Helps

Reviewed By  K. Morris February 27, 2008

Great TV and Buying Experience …

Received the FPT5084 set as a replacement for a different model set that was defective. At first viewing, this set seemed kind of dim to me, but has brightened up substantially after breaking in.

The HD picture quality on this set is excellent with bright rich colors. There are plenty of picture settings to play around with just to tweak it the way you want, but just altering the basic ones got it where I wanted it. Watching some of the better HD channels like HD Theater or Discovery HD is a joy. Can’t wait to pair it with a Blu-Ray player to see what this baby can really do!

Standard analog TV picture quality is OK at best. Certainly part of the problem is that standard TV was never meant to be shown at these sizes, yet I have seen better quality standard definition on other large sets. Thankfully, this problem goes away over time as all programming moves to digital and/or HD next year. Digital standard TV looks good.

The built-in speakers are adequate for TV speakers, but nothing more. If you want anything besides basic TV sound, you’ll need to add additional equipment.

The TV comes with 3 HDMI ports and also a Wiselink feature to show and play pictures and music from a USB Flash Memory.

The design of the TV is quite elegant. It’s a glossy piano black finish, with a subdued blue accent light under the screen.

There is definitely a buzz on this set. It is very noticeable from the backside when I was hooking up cables. In a quiet room with the TV muted, it’s audible out to about 6 feet in front of the TV. As I usually watch TV from further away, and with volume, this is not a problem. I have read the buzz is due to grounding strips vibrating against the back cover. Usually shifting the TV around can reduce the buzz.

This TV definitely is subject to Image Retention. The wife left QVC on all night once and the ghost images from their product info boxes were showing after changing the channel. Also when we watch too much standard TV with the black bars on the side, the lines are definitely noticeable later on. Fortunately, Samsung has provided several built-in tools to reduce IR or get rid of it after it occurs. They also gradually fade on their own after watching other TV shows for several hours. You’ll want to watch standard TV in wide screen mode to minimize the effects.

Amazon’s price was hundreds less than the big box electronics stores. About 3 weeks after purchasing, Amazon lowered the price even more. I sent an email asking for a credit of the difference, and had it posted to my credit card the next day.

Overall, I’m very happy with this TV and with Amazon.

Reviewed By  Mishima Triad, January 10, 2008

Wow, So Far That’s All I Can Say is Wow …

I’ve had this TV for almost 3 weeks now and it is amazing. This is my first plasma TV so I’ll try not to be biased in my review as I’ve viewed many HDTV’s; but there could obviously be some. In shopping for a plasma screen, I had narrowed my selection down to this TV and the Panasonic TH-50PZ700U which is also a 50" 1080p plasma. I looked at both of them in stores and really couldn’t tell much difference in picture quality (though the signal feeds were crappy at all the places I looked). As far as features go, both models were about the same, roughly the same number of inputs, except that this one has 3 HDMI inputs as opposed to the Panasonic that only has 2. Ultimately I decided to get this TV based on the price, Amazon.com had a great deal at the time.

So far, I have not been disappointed with this decision at all. The picture quality on the TV straight out of the box was great. I hooked up my PS3 via HDMI and played a Blu-ray movie and several games and they looked fantastic right off the bat. Initially I hooked my cable directly into the back of the TV so I could pick up the local HD channels, since I only had a digital box and the TV can decode HD signals (it was a weekend so I couldn’t get an HD box until Monday and had to see football in HD). I went and got an HD box as soon as I could, hooked it up through HDMI and it has looked fantastic - I’ve been watching a lot of football and college basketball and I really don’t see how it could look much better. Of course I’ve tweaked the settings some, this TV has a plethora of picture settings that you can play with as I’m sure most high quality plasma’s do. I have my day and night settings, which both work wonderfully to get the picture just like I want it. Also, the glare on the TV is minimal at most. I have the TV right beside a sliding glass door so there is always sun shining in through the blinds during the day and it has little to no effect on my viewing (it was much worse on my CRT that I replaced with this).

Samsung says that there is no break in period for this TV; but after reading on A/V forums (www.avsforum.com is a good place to go to learn some stuff) and my own experience, I would say that you should still give it a break in period for at least the first 100 hours. From what I read, pretty much any plasma is going to need this, even the newer ones that say they don’t. Samsung does not give settings for the break-in for this model; but you can look at the settings for the HTP-5064 and use those for this one (because most of the menu items are the same). I have had a couple of cases of image retention (IR), not to be confused with screen burn in - one from watching football on NBC for about 8 hours last Saturday as they keep that stupid peacock and score bar down at the bottom all the time and the other from playing an old video game for about 3 hours straight. The good news is that the TV has several built-in tools to erase IR and they work quite well. They also say that usually image retention will go away as you watch other stuff; but I haven’t wanted to take the chance so I’ve used the built in tools and they work like a charm. I’ve also read that IR should almost never occur after the first 200-300 hours of use; I’m not there yet, so I can’t say; but hopefully this is the case (or I might have to change my review).

So now that I’ve reviewed the TV, I’ll talk briefly about my Amazon.com experience. Getting the TV and extended warranty plan was no problem; but getting up to that point was. I had a lot of trouble getting an Amazon.com store card (so I could do the no interest financing) and with my spotless credit history, it really ticked me off. Then I didn’t get approved for as much as I needed to get the TV and extended warranty so I had to do this roundabout mess to order and still use the card on the purchase. Anyway, it was a big hassle; but once the order was placed everything was good. Eagle got it to my local distribution center very promptly. The only problem there was that I saw online that they had checked it into my local distribution facility on a Friday so I called to set up a delivery time and they told me they wouldn’t be able to deliver it until the next Wednesday, which I thought was ridiculous. So I just went and picked it up myself; no hassle there other than just driving out there and getting a friend to help me out.

So anyway, very long story short; I have been very happy with this purchase so far.