Samsung PN50C450 50-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV (Black)

Samsung PN50C450
I picked up my PN50C450 on Friday March 19th from BestBuy after months of research. In general I don't make purchases from BestBuy. I did the "purchase online / pick up in store" option and was very satisfied (I avoid sales people whenever possible :>). Sorry for the long review but it took me 4-5 months of research to pull the trigger on this TV. Here are my impressions.

Setup
Instructions on the box for removing the TV were clear. After a quick look at the assembly instructions (and sending my kids upstairs to play for 20 minutes) I screwed on the mounting bracket to the base. Just as I read on other reviews these screws did NOT go in easy. Samsung needs to address this as it doesn't instill confidence in the product when the first step in assembly has a minor glitch. Had a bit of a time getting the TV to lineup with the bracket (my issue not the TV). Put in the last 4 screws in the back and those went in much easier. Took a...Read more

I got this tv on sale the day after it arrived in stores for only $720 and I could not be happier with it. The picture is fantastic right out of the box. As with all plasmas, make sure you take the break in period seriously by turning down the contrast and brightness a bit for the first 100-200 hours. I've also been running the anti-burn in scrolling feature for about an hour a night when I go to bed and have yet to notice any sort of image retention although I haven't played any video games on it yet.

There's a lot of chatter about these Samsung plasmas having an annoying buzzing sound coming from them but I have yet to notice it. Maybe I just got lucky with mine but it runs very quietly.

I purchased this set at Best Buy for $719 + tax about 1 week ago and have been very happy with it thus far. I'm not gonna lie, I was hesitant to go the 720p route; I don't want to be the one paying to be at the front of the tech curve, but I also don't want to be the one purchasing something that is soon to be obsolete. Luckily, our Best Buy had this 50' set at $719, the Samsung 50' 1080 plasma step up at $1300, and a 46' 8000? series edge-lit LED LCD Samsung at $2100 all side by side for easy comparison. The comparison ended up making my decision easier.

Picture - all in store picture settings so probably not apples to apples, but I noticed considerably more sharpness in the LCD than either of the two plasmas. However, colors looked deeper and "popped" more on both of the plasmas vs the LCD. The 1080p plasma unit was a tad sharper than the c450, particularly noticeable when viewing up-close and when it showed black lettering on a white background. You could see a...Read more