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Samsung PS-42Q96HD
by scotlandizdabest
Every family has a TV in the UK. It may not be 100% true but a huge majority do. But in this time, HD is the thing to have. If you have a PS3, Blu-Ray player, Xbox 360 or a Wii then having a HD TV can dramitically increase the quality of the games and films you watch and and play. After Ciao finally putting this in the catalogue, this is ... my review on my favourite TV!
About It
The Samsung PS-42Q96HD (I had to check the back of it as I was almost one number out!) is an incredible 42 inch flat screen TV which has Freeview built in, as long as you are able to access it in your area. This TV is fantastic if you want to catch up into the HD era, or if you are buying along with HD hardware. We bought this to replace our old TV, and was seen as a 'family investment' and a treat. Samsung seems to be, by far a head of the game from what we saw, in HD TV's.
Why This TV?
This is our second Samsung TV, and after being exceptionally pleased with our last one, it seemed sensible to buy another. Even when we went to buy our second, we were still blown away by Samsung compared to other brands. LG, was the only one that we would have maybe considered.
The Samsung appealed most because of the quality. But the size of it is we, at the amazing 24 inches, which is really big. Dixons showed it off better as they had it connected to Sky HD box but it was so impressive you could not say no. It does stand out from other TV's and from what we could see it was a clear winner. It was ahead of the game.
Where To Get It
Dixons is our local store, however after doing some research online, it can be bought in many places. Currys, Amazon, Comet and Samsung itself are just a couple of places you can buy it. There are so many sites and stores offering it, however I would stay with the shops you trust, whether they are on the Highstreet or online. Stay local if possible, if your buying online, because of the size of it, you may get a hefty delivery charge. And you really don't want that.
I wouldn't recommend buying a TV off Ebay but I searched it and it is there for a discounted price. So it can be widely found if you just ask your local electronics store or Google it.
Setting It Up
The box was great and had a handle on it to keep it upright and easy to carry. The TV was very well packaged and the instructions were the first thing you find. They were nicely laid out, and I was slightly relieved it was written in 'Ikea Style' which means in 5 different languages and exceptionally confusing. But it was not like that at all, it had good pictures and were very easy to follow.
Now you have to set up the stand which was easy and build it up. Now you have to 'Apply Pressure' and put the TV onto of the stand, and push it down. This was a little difficult as of the weight TV is rather heavy so will need two people. Once you have done that you then pick it up and place it where ever you want.
The TV StartUp
Before buying I would definately check that you actually have room for the TV. I'm warning that as we did, and it was the best thing we ever did as it just fitted where we wanted it to, with only a centimetre to spare. Now after you have positioned it, you have to plug in the power, the aereal and any other inputs such as a DVD player or games console. It has 2 scart lead which may be limit you to the amount of inputs you can put on it. It also has:
DVI-D (Maximises pixel qualtity of input devices)
3 x HDMI (For High Definition Players)
Surround Sound Speaker Ports (For exceptional 3D sound)
So pretty cool and useful selection of ports to allow your TV to be connected to many things. It is a great selection of ports, and allows you to connect to many different inputs, to get the best out of your TV.
Now once you have set up all that you have to turn it on. Good news, the remote comes with 'Samsung batteries' which is pretty good. So you set up the controller and you will be taken to set up the freeview. This takes very little time which is good and you are ready to go. Our freeview is really strong and showed off excellently on this brand new TV. It looked good brand new...
Design Of TV
You would not believe that the little stand that came with it, actually easily supports the weight of the TV easily. A lot of the TV's that are flat screen look pretty much the same. This one in the shop looked a lot the same as others, the sleek black look which is really nice. There is a big Samsung badge on the front which seems to give it a little designer edge to it. A bit of a status symbol. It does have a bit sticking out the back but not even enough to really notice. If you are planning to have lots of leads then be careful as it can be pulled down with it all, so just be careful. But the design is really fantastic and modern.
Picture And Sound Quality
Quality is one of the best reasons why we picked this TV. The resolution of the TV is high, at 1024x768 pixels. This is means there are about 2,500,000 pixels working on this one TV. Now that is pretty impressive. Now of course you will get better quality using Sky HD and a Blu-Ray player but watching ordinary Freeview shows has vastly improved. The News is one of the most impressive things to watch as the colors are so bright and very crisp and clear. I am very impressed with the quality for the price we paid for the TV. If you are wanting excellent quality however you may want to go on the higher quality TV which are a lot more expensive.
The sound quality is very good. It has built in speakers which give stereo sound. This makes watching films and playing games much more effective. Of course you can buy extra accessories to make sound better but it isn't really nessicery.
Price
We got ours from Dixons for a respectable £665 which is a really good price for what you get. For a 42" screen with HD quality, I thought that was really impressive. Considering that it could have cost in excess of £2000 last year. All the others stores do it for roughly the same price however there are some really good Christmas deals on which are brilliant, like up to £50 off etc. Have a look as the prices are always changing. Don't pay more than £850 for this (exc P&P) as there are much better deals around.
Overall
I am so happy my family decided to invest in this TV. I love Samsung now, and as we have two, I can certainly tell you they are brilliant. Obviously they differ from model to model, but Samsung TV's certainly seem to be the best. f you are thinking of buying this then it would be best to go to your local electronics store and compare. This was in our price range and bigger than we were going to get which was a bonus.
We have not had a single problem with it so far. The only thing I would watch out for is the setting up, if you are buying this for someone who cannot easily lift heavy objects then it would be best to make sure you, or someone else can do it for them. But this is an incredible quality TV. For example if you watch Harry Potter in HD like we did, it is exceptional, you do have to see it to believe it. My new favourite gadget.
Price - 8/10
Setting Up - 8/10
Design - 10/10
Picture - 10/10
Sound - 9/10
Reliabiity - 9/10
Overall - 9.5/10
Completely Recommended!
Copyright of dooyoo.co.uk - Scotlandizdabest
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Samsung PS-50A756
by darlofan
The wife and I decided to buy this TV as an early Christmas present for ourselves to replace our 40" Samsung LCD.
I'm so glad that we did, and more importantly, so is the wife, who is normally not so free with our money :)
First of all, set up was extremely easy, basically take it out of the box, plug in the ... power and it was good to go. While the set isn't overly heavy, the sheer size means that you will need two people to lift it onto your stand.
I honestly don't feel I could get a better picture on any other TV than I do on this, well not so my eyes would notice the difference anyway. Standard definition is actually quite clear despite the TV size, and is certainly better than our old TV, but obviously this TV comes into its own when watching HD content.
It quite literally blew my mind how detailed everything is, watching football is a joy, and you can actually make out individual blades of grass (God how sad do I sound) I have to say that when you first watch a HD program its generally quite hard to justify the expense, however if you watch a SD program afterward you will come to realise that its money well spent, and money that should have been spent much sooner.
HD gaming on either the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 is immense, these consoles were truly made for TVs like this.
The sound is adequate, in that for an internal speaker its very good, however, if you are spending this type of money, then it would be criminal not to have a surround sound system to get the true benefit of HD.
Samsung havent skimped on extras either, the TV can be connected to your network so that you can see news feeds / local weather on the screen - this feature is to have more features added to it in the future.
There is also a USB slot, that allows playing of AVI/MP3 files directly, which has proved a bit of a blessing for watching our family holiday movies which we now encode to AVI format and store on our hard drive rather than onto seperate dvds.
The remote is decent, however there is a multi purpose jog wheel that can be a little unresponsive at times. The remote has a backlight function which is great when you are watching TV in the dark, and the buttons are quite large so theres no pressing the wrong buttons accidently.
The frame has a red tint running round the edge, that really sets the TV apart, without it becoming distracting while watching.
In conclusion, if you are looking to upgrade to a 50" TV then you wont go far wrong by putting this high on your short list of possible buys, I couldnt recommend it highly enough.
(This review has subsequently been posted to ciao.com)
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Samsung PS-50A556
by freetimeaction
Samsung PS50A556 50" Plasma (Full HD)
I purchased my A556 plasma in October 2008, after receiving a credit note for my last faulty plasma which was written off.
The A556 is a 5 series plasma, offering full 1080p HD technology on a 50 inch screen.
The screen has a piano black finish, which looks stunning. ... At the footer of the screen is a glass trim with a small ice white LED glow located at the centre. To the right of the panel, are 5 'Touch' buttons for On/Off, volume up and down, source and menu. There are no buttons, you simply rub your finger across the writting, and the function works. That's 5 ugly buttons neatly removed from the screen.
Connectivity:
There are plenty of connections to the rear and side of this plasma including - Composite, Component, RF, VGA, HDMI (x3), S Video, digital audio, SCART (x2) and WISELINK. They are all located to the right hand side of the panel (if looking from behind).
There are 2 cable ties / brackets on the reverse of the panel allowing you to clip all your leads into, and keep them from looking untidy.
The 2 SCART sockets are a little close together, meaning if you have 2 bulky scarts they won't actually fit side by side, which is a problem for me.
9/10
Picture Quality:
The screen offers a 1920 x 1080 pixel display, and a contrast ratio of 30,000:1. It's brightness levels are 1,300cd/m2, which is more than enough for any lighting.
As the screen is Full HD, this means it can handle up to 1080p from any HD source (Xbox 360 / BluRay) The quality of the screen is fantastic, and the dark scenes look black, rather than grey. The colours looks vidid, and look even better in HD.
There are a few areas of the screen which look blocky, but this is only visable when less than 2foot from the screen.
9/10
Sound Quality:
I'm not one for using the on board speakers, as I tend to use a seperate sound system. However, on the odd occasion that I do use these speakers, they are great. The sound dosen't distort, and it can be played quite high.
But as with any on board speakers, there is no surround sound, or base to play with.
8/10
Menu:
For the novice, the menu may look a little scary at first. Not only cna you adjust the standard brightness, contrast and colour, you can also change the cell light, gamma, and each colour (red / green and blue) there are more than 25 different options just for your picture mode.
One great feature I use and love is the ability to rename the ports on the TV. Change HDMI to 'GAME' or Scart1 to 'Cable'
10/10
Appearance:
It's black piano finish looks great, and in my opinion Samsung have nailed it. Their plasma tvs are one of the nicest looking sets money can buy. The in built stand can be removed if you wish to wall mount it, and it's even provided with a clip on cover to be placed over the whole where the stand would be removed from.
10/10
Remote control:
Now, this is also designed in a piano finish, but it looks like Samsung have made a step backwards here, with a bulky and ugly looking remote.
5/10
Overall:
Fantastic TV, worth the £1k price tag and offers a great FULL HD TV at the fraction of the price of other leading brands.
A must for any serious gamer / film fanatic.
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