CNET has not reviewed the Samsung HP-T5054, but we have reviewed the Samsung HP-T5064. The two televisions are similar, although the HP-T5064 is equipped with a few more features, including a better antiglare screen and a USB port for displaying digital photos. We expect the two Samsung plasmas to perform similarly. For more information, check out the full review of the Samsung HP-T5064.
Intro:
This version of the Samsung HP-T5054 is a 50-inch, plasma television.Compared to other plasma TVs on the market, it is relatively inexpensive at around $1,400.In general, a liquid plasma display can provide more realistic black-levels than an LCD display can.
Noteworthy Features:
With built-in HDTV compatibility, this television can display images that are significantly sharper and more realistic than regular television, as long as the source is high definition.(It can easily render standard-resolution digital TV broadcasts and also depict the full resolution of widescreen DVD video.)The 3:2 pulldown feature of this set reduces artifacts that can occur when motion pictures are transferred to a digital format such as DVD.
Weaker Features:
None noted, given available product data.
Suitability:
A plasma TV, suited for personal entertainment and home theater.
Value:
In view of its relatively inexpensive price, this TV has great features for the money.
Suggestions:
(1) For assistance in shopping for a new HDTV, review CNET editors' Ultimate HDTV Buying Guide.(2) If donating or repurposing your old TV is not a viable option, CNET encourages households to recycle their electronics.Please explore the following website to find a recycling center in your area Electronics Take Back Coalition.
Receiving HDTV broadcast:
The three common methods to receive HDTV broadcasts are via satellite-TV set-top box, cable system set-top box, and over-the-air reception from a digital HDTV broadcast station.
True HDTV:
True HDTV programming is now available in three resolutions: 720p, 1080i, or 1080p.
Tuner options:
An HDTV-ready satellite or cable box will act as an outboard HDTV tuner for your digital television set that lacks a built-in HD tuner.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular BRIGHT & CLEAR & EASY TO USE
I puchased this TV at Conns and they actually found a lower price online and matched it at $2099.00. ...
I puchased this TV at Conns and they actually found a lower price online and matched it at $2099.00. The brightness and clarity is supurb. I have Sony 42" in the bedroom from a year ago and there is no comparison.The clarity of this TV, brightens up the room and the sharpness with the HDMI cable is awsome.No need to spend an additional $1000 for the 1080 version unless you are using a Blueray Player.
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by Texdot (see profile) -
May 22, 2007
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Incredible Picture, simple setup,
This TV is the first flat screen I've purchased. When choosing this model, I compared this TV to Pioneer ...
This TV is the first flat screen I've purchased. When choosing this model, I compared this TV to Pioneer plasma TVs at BBY & CC and the HPT5054 picture was much better. None of the LCDs or projection TVs came close.
First, a 50-inch TV is huge! We call it the B.F.T.V. It looks great. The black frame helps prevent it from sticking out more, but a TV this big in my low-ceiling, military base house living room tends to say "All I do is watch TV."
Setting up the TV was easy. We've got an antiquated mom&pop cable system where I live, so I connected the cable direct to the TV and also ran the Gen Instruments cable box (which descrambles some digital channels into a 480P signal) into the TV's air antenna. Switching back and forth is as simple as hitting the antenna button on the remote. The TV tuner does a much better job of processing analog signals than the cable box.
HD signals are displayed BEAUTIFULLY, crisp, vivid.
All images are very clear and adjustable for the room lighting.
The TV tuner sends digital sound to my Denon receiver via optical digital cable or HDMI. Analog channels are transmitted in simple stereo and HD channels are direct Dolby Digital. So, watching a DVD or TV, all my sound comes digitally from the TV to the tuner which processes the analog into 5.1 sound. It's almost shameful to have such a capable home theater tuner sitting as a slave to the TV's audio signal, but it works great.
If I'm too lazy to use the Denon receiver, the speakers on the TV are quite capable and create a fairly decent simulated surround effect. Only gripe on sound is that adjusting sound levels on the remote require multiple presses and releases of the volume buttons.
I also purchased a Samsung DVD-R/VCR combo, which can be controlled through the TV via the HDMI cable using a proprietary system called Anynet. It requires a few extra button smashes to initiate (hitting an Anynet button), but it automatically powers up the DVD/VCR and controls menus. Securing from Anynet requires using the source button (not the Anynet button). My only complaint is the confusing button smashing required to start it up and then return to TV viewing. It trips me up each time, but once Anynet is running my 3-year old knows how to switch from her Little House DVD to her Matilda VHS tape.
Best things I've watched in HD with this TV so far: - the NASCAR race in Richmond. Wow, the colors, the smooth transitions of the images and the Dolby Digital sound were great. - KCET in HD. It's the Los Angeles area public tv station in HD. It's like having moving art display. - KCAL News on Channel 9. The recent fire in the Hollywood Hills was shown in HD and the blacks were deep and I could see the flames turning and spinning and still break out the rotor blades on the helicopters as they dropped water on the flames. - The NBA playoffs. It was great to see Phoenix beat the Lakers in HD.
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by hecarmen (see profile) -
May 10, 2007
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 out of 10 - Abysmal Horrible it?s absolutely going to screen burn.
I read the reviews for this TV and figured Id give Samsung the benefit of the doubt but after three ...
I read the reviews for this TV and figured Id give Samsung the benefit of the doubt but after three days the DirecTV logo is screen burned into the tv and we are taking it back to the store. One other thing, if you watch any amount of standard def TV pass this one up, because it has horrible up conversion and its almost unbearable to watch anything other than HD on.
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by quistoman (see profile) -
March 4, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Best 50" plasma available
With a 15000 to 1 contrast ratio and a surperb HDTV picture this is my 50" of choice. I spent ...
With a 15000 to 1 contrast ratio and a surperb HDTV picture this is my 50" of choice. I spent months comparing sets, both online and in store to replace my Panasonic LCD rear projection. I needed something that would do 1080p for my blu ray dvd player.
So one day I walked into my local Circuit City where you can see most of the wall mounted TV's from the front door. One set stood out like a sore thumb. The picture jumped out at me and made the rest of the look mediocre.
At the time they did not have the tag on the set so I assumed it was the 5084 model. I spent nearly an hour comparing sets, changing channels, etc. This set still stood out over my other choices; Aquos 52", Panny 50", Hitachi 50" and basically every other set there.
I did not buy as I went to 5 other stores over the next several weeks and ever store that had this set impressed me the same way. The picture just stood out.
Turns out the one in CC was the 5054 and with rebates and discounts only cost me $1500 (I know I could have gotten it cheaper online)
This set also makes the standard def channels look good with my Panny could not.
3 out of 10 - Poor big disappointment with temporary image retention
On the third plasma reject from samsung since x-mas. All with the same apparent problems or defects. Previos image is ...
On the third plasma reject from samsung since x-mas. All with the same apparent problems or defects. Previos image is retained, when screen goes to black. Also in shadow detail, green pixel are stimulated. Very noticible, even after calibration with spyder tv pro.
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by media one (see profile) -
July 27, 2007
5 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular A great plasma - you can't go wrong
This has to be the most overlooked TV in the HD market right now. The 5064 has a USB port ...
This has to be the most overlooked TV in the HD market right now. The 5064 has a USB port and supposedly better glare reduction than the 5054, but did extensive comparisons and found them to be identical. I use an Xbox 360 to stream photos, so the USB slot was irrelevant to me. I got this TV on a well known website a-m-a-z-o-n for on twelve hundred sixty-eight bucks. It is an unbelieveable deal.
Burn-in. It is true, burn in is exaggerated. And now that I have owned this TV for a little while I am convinced that a lot of people are falsely reporting ghosting as burn-in. Ghosting is when you leave a static image on the screen, especially a brilliant color against a bright color (like blue against white) even for a short time (say 15-20 minutes) For a while afterwards you will see that ghost image against a bright screen. And yes, this will even happen with pixel shift active. This is okay though. It goes away after a while and if it is taking longer than you would like, just run the scrolling pattern for an hour or so, and voila, gone.
Also, and I mean no disrespect to Cnet or AVS forum gurus. Their settings are garbage. I adjusted my settings to Cnet's specs and to some on AVS forums and the TV looked absolutely HORRIBLE. Whites were non-existent and were totally yellowed out. Terrible. I prefer to put the TV in standard mode, put the contrast down to 45 and put the gamma down to -2. Then adjust the color temp to your liking. I like normal for movies and cool blue 1 for my xbox 360 and cool blue 2 for my Wii. And they also suggest that game mode always be off. Guess what? I played around with this setting with my 360 and my Wii and it looks better with game mode on for games. Too bad the Wii is not in high def though.
High def TV shows look really nice. I have DirecTV HD and some networks care a lot more about HD than others, and it shows. But to take full advantage of an HDTV, you really need am HD DVD or a Blu-ray player. These movies simply look phenomenal. I opted for an HD DVD player since they were around $180. I figured why justify the cost of an Oppo DVD player for $170 when I could get pretty good upscaling AND HD DVD support for only $10 more. I probably would have gotten blu-ray, if it was in the same price range (sub $200) So I guess for now I will enjoy my ten free movies and just rent from netflix. When blu-ray is cheap I will jump on.
This TV is absolute top notch quality and is going for great prices right now. I highly recommend it.
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by jaylundgreen (see profile) -
January 10, 2008
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Is there anything better?
Okay, I had to put something on the Con section, but to be honest they aren't an real issues. ...
Okay, I had to put something on the Con section, but to be honest they aren't an real issues. The sound will work just fine, but if you have a receiver for sound it?s a mute point. The remote is pretty long and is just like all other remotes, only good for the TV. I can't imagine any other product being much different in these two areas and that's not at all why I bought this TV anyway.
Now as for this television it is outstanding. I have been looking for quite sometime (years) and had it finally narrowed down to the pioneer and Panasonic. I then happened upon a deal that I couldn't pass up. I quickly looked at the review of the 5064 since the 54 didn't have a video review. I figured it was the same except it doesn't have the anti-glare. I took a chance and ordered the T.V. Needless to say it was beyond my expectations. I don't see how anything could beat it. I have had mine for about 3 weeks and couldn't be happier. I have Direct HD with the DVR, an Xbox Elite and soon will get the HD DVD player. Planet Earth on this T.V. is indescribable. Even standard broadcasts look good. If you get high def however, you will find that nothing compares. If you enjoy gaming the picture quality on game mode is GREAT. Madden is quite cool.
Purchasing this product is certainly a wise choice. I truly can?t see going to a more expensive brand or any other brand for that matter. Look at the reviews do your homework and you won?t be sorry. I love mine!
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by rtashjian (see profile) -
July 3, 2007
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Best 50" Plasma for the buck! Clear,Vibrant and easy to install and use
Bought this Samsung HP-T5054 2 months ago on sale... Couldn't pass-up the good price at the time. Unit was ...
Bought this Samsung HP-T5054 2 months ago on sale... Couldn't pass-up the good price at the time. Unit was delivered and fired up at home without any hitch. The manual was well documented. The display was so clear and vibrant especially when palying 1080i DVDs or programs. If you're looking for good plasma flat screens and don't want to break the bank...this is the flat screen for you. It may not be the best but surely it's hard to to beat its great cost-to-perfromance ratio. Very easy to use with the remote. Installed it professionally over the fireplace...The piano black frame was just awsome against the bone-white colored wall. Strongly suggest adding a home theater sound system as the built-in speakers sounds very thinny and weak. My room size is about 400 sq/ft with a viewing distance of 12-16 ft. Hope this helps shoppers in making their decisions.
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by jolen1aub (see profile) -
June 14, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Execellent T,V
compare it to the pioneer they both had the best picture couldnt see a difference so reason to spent the ...
compare it to the pioneer they both had the best picture couldnt see a difference so reason to spent the 400 hunderd more. I highly recomend this t.v i love it
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by robo022 (see profile) -
April 21, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 out of 10 - Average Defect made me trade it in
It's difficult to fault the image quality of any of the leading plasmas. They are all beautiful and Samsung ...
It's difficult to fault the image quality of any of the leading plasmas. They are all beautiful and Samsung is no exception. I have nothing new to add there. After three weeks of ownership however, I ended up trading for a Panasonic. Anytime I viewed a program coming through one of the HDMI ports, the Samsung picture would blank out or be snowy. It was very frustrating because I couldn't tell if the problem was with the plasma or the equipment. Turns out after trying two separate upconverters and seeing eratic performance from the DirecTv HD DVR, I figured it must have been the Samsung that was the problem. Their online live support told me my only option was to fill out a warranty request form and assured me they would be able to figure it out. Since I was within the Best Buy 30 day period, I didn't want to chance it. I traded for a Panasonic which is just as beautiful and has the added value of a 100,000 hour half-life. That was enough for me. I've had no problems with the Panasonic. Sorry Samsung, gave you a shot but we had irreconcilable differences.
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by tjones548 (see profile) -
March 24, 2008
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