Samsung 42" Plasma TV

Great plasma TV!

Strengths: quality, style and price

Weakness: can't automatically switch between tv input and PC input without restarting PC

I spent hours surveying the plasma TV market before I settled down with this one. The TV is awesome. The image is sharp & bright, and the colors are accurate. It requires little bit effort to set up the connections with TV, VCR,HDTV box,and PC input. The only complaint I have is when you use this TV as a PC monitor you have to be careful to switch the input to TV. Since there is no way you can...
Read Full Review

I spent hours surveying the plasma TV market before I settled down with this one. The TV is awesome. The image is sharp & bright, and the colors are accurate. It requires little bit effort to set up the connections with TV, VCR,HDTV box,and PC input.

The only complaint I have is when you use this TV as a PC monitor you have to be careful to switch the input to TV. Since there is no way you can return back to PC mode unless you restart the PC.

Overall, considering I only paid $2000 for this 42" TV, I'm very happy with my purchase.

By xiaoke_tong - Apr 1, 2006

Best Value Plasma

Strengths: The picture is superior to Sony plasmas that cost 25% more. The frameless design is very attractive and is not distracting to look at when viewing.

Weakness: My personal preference is for the speakers to be on the side. While viewing non-HD channels, the picture sometimes looks a little grainy, but that may have to do more with the size of the TV.

Overall, I believe this TV is the best in its class. When viewing in HD, the colors are incredibly bright and sharp. The functions on the TV are very intuitive to use and it is really not necessary to read the instruction manual. I am very pleased with my purchase.

By jbenzer - Jan 12, 2006

Nice plasma

Strengths: Picture, contrast, sharpness.

Weakness: Like all plasma TVs it cannot dusplay still images for very long.

This is one of the best plasma TVs out there, annoyingly when you watch widescreen movies you do get a little burn in where the black bands are displayed. These usually disappear after using the built in burn protection for about a minute or two. If you are going to use this TV mainly for TV there is nothing better out there, if you want to connect your PC or display many still images consider...
Read Full Review

This is one of the best plasma TVs out there, annoyingly when you watch widescreen movies you do get a little burn in where the black bands are displayed. These usually disappear after using the built in burn protection for about a minute or two. If you are going to use this TV mainly for TV there is nothing better out there, if you want to connect your PC or display many still images consider Samsung's 40 inch LCD HDTV which is similarly priced.

By toimfortes - Dec 26, 2005

The Perfect HD Television

Strengths: Sharp picture, vivid colors, easy set-up, good price

Weakness: Only one HDMI port

My HP-R4252 arrived a week ago and I am watching more television than I ever wanted to. First the set-up: there's almost nothing to do. The TV did it all. I was watching high definition programming before I had even opened the manual or understood most of the features. I just connected the HDMI cable (which you have to buy separately) from it's single HDMI port to my cable box and after a few...
Read Full Review

My HP-R4252 arrived a week ago and I am watching more television than I ever wanted to. First the set-up: there's almost nothing to do. The TV did it all. I was watching high definition programming before I had even opened the manual or understood most of the features. I just connected the HDMI cable (which you have to buy separately) from it's single HDMI port to my cable box and after a few minutes of handshaking between the two devices everything worked perfectly.

After a few days I familiarized myself with the very easy to understand manual. The only adjustments I made were to set the time and date which were not automatically acquired from my cable signal (I don't know why) and to turn on a feature which dims the brightness automatically when the ambient light in the room gets darker.

When I watch anything over cable, the unit automatically presents the image in the best aspect ratio. I really like this as it annoys me when I'm at someone else's house and they have selected an aspect ratio which distorts the image.

After a few days I hooked up my old progressive scan DVD player. Some of my older DVDs displayed the movies in a seemingly odd way: very wide and short (top to bottom). I went to the manual and learned about the hidden buttons on the remote that are revealed when you pop open the secret compartment! One of them: the p-size button can be pressed to toggle through aspect ratio corrections. I was quickly watching even these old DVDs (on my old player) in perfect image size once I found this button. So in this case, you do sometimes have to adjust the picture size manually. I had to hook up my DVD with one of the plentiful component connections since there is only one HDMI input on the TV - my only complaint.

This is a great TV - the best I have ever seen. Many people told me Panasonic is best, but when I viewed them side-by-side by side in the stores, I preferred this Samsung (which was also less money).

I am very happy after one week and would highly recommend this set to anyone.

By tdfisher - Dec 24, 2005

Great Picture, Great Price, Great Looks

Strengths: - Sleak Design - Picture/Color quality - Easy set up

Weakness: -None

I searched for an HDTV in a price range I could afford. $2500 was my max, and even if I was to spend more, I still would have chosen the Samsung. It did however, fit perfectly into my price range and had superior picture quality and looks compared to other sets priced over $3000. It has a cablecard slot which will be great for the future, as right now it does not allow for interactive feature...
Read Full Review

I searched for an HDTV in a price range I could afford. $2500 was my max, and even if I was to spend more, I still would have chosen the Samsung. It did however, fit perfectly into my price range and had superior picture quality and looks compared to other sets priced over $3000.

It has a cablecard slot which will be great for the future, as right now it does not allow for interactive feature from your Cable Company, such as On Demand, PPV, and the interactive TV Guide.

The design has the screen surrounded by a black border, which give the impression of a floating image which is very cool.

The speakers are on the bottom as opposed to the sides, which makes this TV much sleaker than others.

The picture quality is great right out of the box as I was sitting about 2 feet away from the screen in High Def mode and was blown away. Crispness and color was perfect.

It also has an auto pixel shift which helps prevent the notorious burn in factor known on Plasma TV's.

I highly recommend this TV!!!

By gbobay - Oct 21, 2005