Customer Reviews
Exceeds My Expectations 
2006-09-14
I recently bought this TV at Best Buy for $2400 - it was an open box item, but came with a 4 year in home warranty, so what the heck. I have to say the TV is just amazing. I knew they looked good from seeing them in the store, but the store lighting does not do it justice. The picture is amazing, even with just a plain digital signal. HDTV is mindblowing. I had no problems setting it to "stretch" the screen when displaying a standard channel. I was worried about sidebars, but no need for worry with this TV. The picture quality is the best available in my opinion, and even the sound from the TV is pretty good, so if you don't have surround sound yet, you will still be impressed a bit. I give it 5 stars, and kudos to Samsung for a great product!
BTW, if you have a lot of regular DVD,s and can't afford to upgrade to HD-DVD yet, check out an upconverting dvd player, but make sure it used HDMI, which this TV supports.
Some good...Some bad 
2006-08-09
Perhaps once everything goes hi-def, my plasma tv experience will improve. I have approx 25 hi-def channels in my area with the rest being digital. To start with, this was not my first choice. I'd originally tried to buy a Toshiba 50" but it was on national backorder and after approx 30-day wait, the online dealer I was working with said it was unlikely it would ever be available. So I bought the Samsung based on what looked like top notch specs and good picture when I checked it out at Best Buy. The picture I get on my high definition channels is quite good with the exception of nagging problems with occasional unnatural skin tones. This isn't always the case but happens often enough and is much more noticeable on the non hi-def channels. The picture that you see at Best Buy will not necessarily be what you see at home. But it still easily beats my 10 yr old 31" JVC. Shortly after I got the set, I noticed random fits of static in the audio. It got worse so I had to call Samsung for a service call. The service man also pointed out that we should be able to program the HP-R5052 to fill the entire screen no matter which channel I'm on. This option was "grayed-out" on virtually all channels. He also pointed out I'm also starting to get "burn-in" where the gray or black bars are at the edges of the screen when not watching a hi-def channel and I've only had this for 4 months. The set had to go to the shop for the repairs and we're in about the third week without it. It's probably good for us to find other ways to entertain ourselves but I paid for the thing and can't use it. Irritating. Samsung customer service was quite easy to deal with but parts order takes 1 to 2 weeks. Come on...are these parts coming by pack mule? If I had it to do over, I'd look much closer at skin tones before buying and probably choose something other than Samsung.
Looks good! 
2006-06-04
I've been looking for over a year now, and this TV is great. On standard defintition TV, there's some compression and DNIe artificacts but DVDs look great. The cables DO stick straight out of the back of the TV, even though they are recessed. This could cause some problems with mounting. But it works great, looks great, remote works well, and it's cheap enough compared to others seeing as it's discontinued. Just remember SD programming won't look any better than most TVs! Also, the manual doesn't go into much details with some of the options.
Buyer Beware 
2006-05-08
Unit was broken out of the box. Bottom half inch of pixels are dead and there is a solid white line of pixels at the top in all video modes. Picture is shifted up such that the top half inch of the picture is cut off. Unfortunately, I did not notice the dead pixels during delivery since I didn't have a cable hookup for it yet and there was no damage on the box. To top it off, two days later the internal gasket at the top of the plasma glass fell down and was hanging about a foot and a half into the display on the inside of the glass rendering the TV unwatchable.
If you read the fine print three levels down in Amazon's return policy, you will see that they refuse to accept returns on TV's larger than 27" regardless of how badly broken. Even in violation of Maryland law requiring an Implied Warranty of Merchantability. Amazon was unsympathetic and referred me to the manufacturers warranty. They assured me I would be "completely satisfied" with Samsung's customer support. Wrong!! Four phone calls, one service visit and a month and a half later, I still do not have a working TV. I call Samsung every week and each time they tell me that someone will call me back immediately with the status. Each time they never do.
As far as the panel goes, I am unimpressed. The menu is cumbersome, instructions are poor, and I haven't been able to get the Program Guide function to work with a Cable Card. Picture quality is only average. There is an annoying bright blue circle about 2" in diameter surrounding the power button in the front. The light is on at all times and serves double duty as an indicator for infrared remote activity. It can't be turned off unlike the annoying power-on "melody" that thankfully can be turned off via the settings menu.
I also own a Panasonic 50" plasma that I bought last year. I love this panel and I am really sorry I bought this Samsung. I was trying to save a few bucks for a secondary unit. You get what you pay for. I don't recommend Samsung, nor will I ever buy from Amazon again.
This TV is amazing! 2006-03-15
I recently purchased a Panasonic monitor and returned after I found out it did not have closed captioning and bought this Samsung. It worked out for the best. The picture is far superior. If nothing else, your dog will it! Mine watches TV all the time now and she never cared before.
Spectacular Television! 2008-02-02
I've owned a Samsung 5052 for a year now, and I couldn't be happier. I did a ton of side-by-side comparisons (Panasonic, Sony, LG, etc) before deciding that none of them had a better picture or features. I made my choice without price consideration, and as a result, I paid far less for the Samsung than I would have for many other units on the market.
The picture is amazing; no flaws, no problems. As I said, I did side-by-side comparisons, and this unit blew all the others away. The sound is excellent as well. We run movies through our surround-sound system, but regular TV viewing is more than great through the internal sound. I have absolutely no regrets about this purchase. Samsung has established themselves as a leader in the industry, and to be honest, I wouldn't have thought that a few years ago. But they do build an outstanding product, and I do not hesitate to recommend this television.
Great TV 2007-03-09
We bought this Plasma about 8 months ago and we love it, we have it hooked up to surround sound but hardly ever turn it on, because the sound on this TV is SO GOOD!! Highly recommended!!
Amazon came through 2007-01-10
This is a great product, only two situations. There is not enough content to watch to get the full flavor of HDTV, but I'm sure that will come in time. Amazon came through with the shipping when one shipper did not want to deliver to my residence, they found another shipper.
Good value for money 2007-01-09
I have a 61" Samsung DLP and now this 50" plasma. Immediate pluses, especially when compared to the DLP: better contrast, sharper picture. Why am not giving it 5 stars? Contrast could've been a little better, especially in daytime lit up family room. I hear LCDs do better in that regard. Only other minor grip: it has only one HDMI input. That is minor, though, since it does have two additional component inputs. Despite the hype (HDCP etc.), I don't see any difference at all between HDMI and component. But of course, HDMI is lot more convenient, especially when having to snake wires through the wall for a wall-mount. Overall, would I recommend this TV: yes.
In Use For Over A Year And ....... 2006-10-04
After much research I ended up buying this Samsung as an open box at BestBuy. Samsung is not my favorite brand. I am hoping that the Samsung of today may be lots better than the Samsung of old. I based my decision on which plasma to buy on how much bang for the buck I could get (picture quality, size, looks, price, etc). I also picked up a three year warantee, just in case. This was my first HD so I wasn't sure what to expect. After using this set for a year the following are my findings: Most people who have purchased their first plasma TVs (from what I have read) are saying that you shouldn't expect your normal analog channels to be anywhere near HD looking when you go to digital, because they won't be. These channels may be better than your old set but I have noticed many of mine were worse probably because the bigger screen shows all the imperfections that you don't see on your smaller 32 inch standard set. I would say that only 20% of the digital channels were better, about 40% were the same and 40% appeared worse. As time goes on there will be lots more digital and HD channels. Now the good news! The HD channels on this set are SPECTACULAR. I don't mean good... I mean simply Spectacular. I haven't seen better anywhere. The black border on this set is really nice too and makes for a nice frame for the picture. It appears to me that the picture has gotten better as time goes on and I think I read that this happens. "Burn in" is no longer a huge issue with plasmas if you use some common sense and make sure you don't leave a static image on the screen for hours and hours. You may have to play around with the settings to get the picture that suits you but that is very easy to do. I can't think of anything that I don't like about this set. I realize that you can get good and bad in any model so you are always taking your chances, but I would certainly recommend this plasma TV at this super price... but for some piece of mind get an extended warantee if possible.
