Panasonic TX-50V10E or Samsung PS50850

[Nektarios]

I want to replace my 32 inch Sharp LCD TV in my living room with a new bigger one, after all my research I have concluded that plasma is the way to go because of incredible PQ and viewing angles, black black and no image post-processing. I really am convinced.

And I don't want just whatever plasma, but a real good one, so I narrowed my selection to these two:

Panasonic TX-50V10E
Samsung PS50850

Are my choices good and if yes, which one you would recommend me?

And more importantly I still have some general negative thoughts about plasma:

Flickering, I can't stand it! It reminds me the days of broken CRTs, which I thought I left behind years ago. Are all plasma flickering? I am afraid it will cause me headaches! I can't understand why people don't mention this at all.
Phosphor trails: With good LCDs I really can't see any problems with motion blur, but with plasmas I can see the trailing all the time! This is far worse than LCDs!
Buzzing: is it really that bad? Can you clearly hear it or is it just an exaggeration?
Radiation: Another thing I heard from a salesperson in some store bushing plasmas was the radiation that they emit. Is this true? I also thought radiation was a thing of the past.

 

[paulr2006]

I want to replace my 32 inch Sharp LCD TV in my living room with a new bigger one, after all my research I have concluded that plasma is the way to go because of incredible PQ and viewing angles, black black and no image post-processing. I really am convinced.

And I don't want just whatever plasma, but a real good one, so I narrowed my selection to these two:

Panasonic TX-50V10E
Samsung PS50850

Are my choices good and if yes, which one you would recommend me?

And more importantly I still have some general negative thoughts about plasma:

Flickering, I can't stand it! It reminds me the days of broken CRTs, which I thought I left behind years ago. Are all plasma flickering? I am afraid it will cause me headaches! I can't understand why people don't mention this at all.
Phosphor trails: With good LCDs I really can't see any problems with motion blur, but with plasmas I can see the trailing all the time! This is far worse than LCDs!
Buzzing: is it really that bad? Can you clearly hear it or is it just an exaggeration?
Radiation: Another thing I heard from a salesperson in some store bushing plasmas was the radiation that they emit. Is this true? I also thought radiation was a thing of the past.

The Panasonic V10 would be your best choice

a) I do not see any flickering on my set
b) Not seen any phosphor trails at all (but I dont game)
c) Can't hear any unless you put your ear right next to the back of the set & in point of fact many LCD's Buzz louder!
d) Not sure about this but I suspect it's not true.

IMO this set is a very good one which handles motion very well so I don't think you would ve disappointed, however a FEW people have reported flickering & causing eye/headache but this is rare.

 

[Nektarios]

The Panasonic V10 would be your best choice

a) I do not see any flickering on my set
b) Not seen any phosphor trails at all (but I dont game)
c) Can't hear any unless you put your ear right next to the back of the set & in point of fact many LCD's Buzz louder!
d) Not sure about this but I suspect it's not true.

IMO this set is a very good one which handles motion very well so I don't think you would ve disappointed, however a FEW people have reported flickering & causing eye/headache but this is rare.

Thanks for your reply.

These are possibly the things that may make me draw back from getting a plasma, as I can see the phosphor trailing (it's just a miniscule color shift on the sides of moving objects) and the flickering is just a no no for me. I just hope I can get used to it.

Now about these 2 tvs, yes the panny is the best in PQ but it's damn ugly, on the other hand the samsung has excellent design that "upgrades" your living room. Don't forget that I have the probably ugliest tv ever, Sharp LC32GA6E and I'm a little fed up with this. Is the samsung that bad afterall?

@all

Another question I have is that the furthest seat in my seating set is 3.5m away and the closest is just only 1.75m, would 50" be too much? I think it will, maybe I should look for a 46" or even a 42"?

 

[perceptionist87]

Thanks for your reply.


Now about these 2 tvs, yes the panny is the best in PQ but it's damn ugly, on the other hand the samsung has excellent design that "upgrades" your living room.

Another question I have is that the furthest seat in my seating set is 3.5m away and the closest is just only 1.75m, would 50" be too much? I think it will, maybe I should look for a 46" or even a 42"?

Hi there,

Hehe, I agree that neither your current TV nor the new Panasonic would win a design price.

You're right, maybe 50" is too much for your seating distance (most people here could make more if it, if you post in feet --> use google and enter "meter feet" it will spit out a conversion factor)

So you're seated approx. 6-9 feet away. A 46" would be perfect in my opinion.

If design of the TV is important to you, maybe the samsung might be the way to go.

 

[Nektarios]

Hi there,

Hehe, I agree that neither your current TV nor the new Panasonic would win a design price.

You're right, maybe 50" is too much for your seating distance (most people here could make more if it, if you post in feet --> use google and enter "meter feet" it will spit out a conversion factor)

So you're seated approx. 6-9 feet away. A 46" would be perfect in my opinion.

If design of the TV is important to you, maybe the samsung might be the way to go.

OK the seating range is 5.7 to 11.5 feet and is clear that whoever seats on the shortest seat the 50" will be enormous. But I have never heard anyone saying that they got a too big screen, I always hear of the opposite so maybe a 50" is just a matter of getting used to it.

About the design, yes it is somewhat important for me and samsung wins hand downs in this department, my question is is that bad in PQ?

 

[paulr2006]

I can't agree on the style thing, I think the V10 is superb in this respect! in terms of PQ the Samsung is good but does suffer more from image retention.
Also Panasonic are known for their excellent build quality & service, something which Samsung is trying hard to do but lags behind quite a lot i'm afraid. Not sure where you are located but in the uk you can get a free 5 year warranty with Panasonic but it's 12 months with Samsung.

I am very critical on PQ & can assure you I don't see any phosphor trailing but if this is an issue to you then I think you need to look again at LCD & forget plasma.

I view my 50" at 7 feet & sometimes wish it was a 58" - they do shrink to fit the room you know

 

[perceptionist87]

OK the seating range is 5.7 to 11.5 feet and is clear that whoever seats on the shortest seat the 50" will be enormous. But I have never heard anyone saying that they got a too big screen, I always hear of the opposite so maybe a 50" is just a matter of getting used to it.

About the design, yes it is somewhat important for me and samsung wins hand downs in this department, my question is is that bad in PQ?

You're right, 50" inch might be cool for you. But prepare for your nearest seated colleagues' comment: "whoa, did the cinema move to your place ?"

Now I might get a bit subjective in my advice:
I had a 50" Samsung plasma and it was a let down, got rid of it via ebay. The specs claimed it had 18 bit processing but it put on the screen awful false contouring, banding and lazy processing (pixel clouds)
The picture, even on BluRay, reminded one of an 8bit bitmap image (no exaggeration here). Colour was way off the chart (blue tint) and the grayscale showed reddish blacks that one could notice bare eyed.
Also saw this for the 650 reviewed herein this forum by the AV pros.
But the review states that colour repro is on reference levels.
I can only assume that they have made giant leaps forward since my trial experience. But be prepared to do some configuring via the intuitive menu Samsung provides. You can get the colours even better back to chart than on any Pansasonic, but Samsung always looses hands down in out of the box colour rendition.
But simply do some research and you will see how much of my statements are still applicable.

I keep saying this because I'm really convinced:
If you're into design aspects, consider the Panasonic pro panels on their website.

 

[Nektarios]

OK I got so anxious for the panny and got to a big store to see them first hand and maybe buy one on the spot. But there I saw some big problems, and I made a whole new thread about them. Please see it and tell me what you think.