Samsung PN58B650 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV Review
October 14th, 2009
Samsung PN58B650 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV Review from Kristin. So far so good, I recently bought this TV from Amazon along with this TV I purchased the following item Bell’O SFP-9901HG Color Accented Flat Panel Audio Video System. I have yet to receive the stand but it says it can hold up to 58″ inch plasma, I’ll edit the review later to let you know how that works.
I wanted to write this review since I saw another review stating that they had issues watching 480i content with this TV. I haven’t found anywhere where this is well documented and on top of that, I had absolutely no problem watching regular DVD’s on this TV with my HD DVD player Toshiba HD-A35 1080p HD DVD Playerthrough an HDMI cable. They played stunningly (especially for a regular DVD). The picture was crisp and clear on DVD not to mention how it looks when I play an HD DVD. Perhaps the reviewer may need to update their firmware on their hardware; otherwise I’m not sure why they couldn’t watch a standard DVD on an HD DVD player. I have yet to try any games on this TV so I can’t rate it in that area.
I have had no issues with the volume controls or loudness of the regular speakers. I currently do not have a home theater and these controls are set lower than what I’ve had to set my other 2 TV’s at (a 42″ inch and 52″ Toshiba Regza LCD TV). The speakers get a + from me.
I was very worried about burn in after purchasing this TV. I have only had LCD’s therefore the issue of burn in never arose. I have researched this problem a lot and it seems although it can still be an issue it isn’t as prevalent as it once was. Most of my DVD’s including HD DVD will leave the block boxes at top and the bottom while watching and this worried me. However, they say as long as you integrate watching regular TV or swap it up so that it isn’t there all the time, the burn in issue really isn’t an issue. The biggest thing is to be careful for the first 200 hours as this is when burn in can occur the easiest. Just don’t leave anything paused or sitting there for an extended period of time and your average semi-cautious user won’t experience any problems.
I did a lot of research before I purchased this TV, including checking prices, visiting local retailers and just viewing articles on the Internet. Overall, for me, I think this was a very good buy. I think anyone who purchases this TV definitely won’t be disappointed.
UPDATE: (September 7, 2009)
I’ve owned this TV for about 3 months now and just wanted to do a little update since it can be hard to review something correctly after only a week. The stand I got for the TV works great for me. A little low even at it’s highest but I don’t like high level TVs as they put a kink in my neck. I played an old Nintendo NES game (Tiny Toons 2) about a month ago which left some burn in and made me extremely unhappy. I started to berate myself for not buying an LCD and not have to worry about burn in. I ran the ’screen wash’ that is built in and it took it out within 10 minutes or less. I had no retention of any image any longer. Since then, I have played Zelda, Twilight Princess and haven’t had any issue with any burn in (most newer console games come with game mode built into the consoles as well). In addition, I also purchased a surround sound system since I’ve always wanted one. I ended up getting the Yamaha YHT-791 Yamaha YHT-791BL Home Theater in a Box (Black). I still use the TV speakers for regular TV but use the surround sound system for movies, games, etc. I have to say that overall everything works beautiful together and I still couldn’t be happier with my purchase. The TV is amazing and I always get a lot of compliments on picture quality and the size of the TV (oh yeah). For the price you can’t really go wrong. I purchased mine with a coupon in June for $2189.00.
As others mentioned there is a buzzing sound, sometimes it irritates me sometimes it doesn’t. Just depends on how low I have the TV. It still wouldn’t be enough to make me downgrade to the Samsung 55″ inch TOC LCD TV, which was my first choice.
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