Samsung LED vs Panasonic Plasma

[dansmitherson]

Hi I am in the market for a 55" or 60" (depending on price) TV have narrowed my choices to Samsung 7 or 8 series LED and Panasonic plasma TH-P60ST30Z or TH-P55GT30Z

Have a question why is it that the Samsung 7 or 8 series UAxxxx look so much better than all other sets I have compared with. They have so much pop in the picture, it is very bright very crisp and very sharp, always grabs your attention in all the stores I've compared against. I have played with its settings and dialled down the picture settings and it still is the best looking.

I'm not very technical on TV's so need your help. Don't want to make the wrong choice again I had a Sony SXRD that turned yellow.

[Dunnersfella]

To begin with - you need to know, if you like the picture, then you are the only person that counts. Our opinions are only that, opinions...

So here's mine.
When you go into the store, many TV's will be running great looking BluRay's or via High Def. media generators. This will juice every last bit of performance out of the panels. The best TV's are sitting (typically) in the darkest part of the showroom. So always make sure you compare the brands of TV side by side, set to 'normal' or 'standard' running the material you will watch. Preferably... TV1 TV3 etc. Why? Because this will give you a fairer / more real world comparison.

Now - LED's certainly do pop... The TV for the Play Station generation.
But here's the thing, do they look realistic? Does the grass look like grass... or does it look like radioactive green sludge? Do people have accurate skin tones (do the poms look pasty, does colouration in the skin look 'real'?).
Quite often LED's will feature fairly horrendous looking blacks.
By black, I mean 'gray'ish'.
When the picture is completely black, then the Samsung screen will actually look beautifully black, but once there's colour elsewhere on the panel, things go to pot. Torch lighting is one of the issues many complain about, washed out blacks too. As they offer very crisp pictures, they can be slightly unsympathetic towards lower quality footage too.

So yeah, personally I prefer plasmas, heck I have a Panasonic version myself. The motion performance smokes what you'll find on the Samsung plasmas, let alone the LED's. The blacks are better and I find the colours far more accurate. Samsung certainly has very well styled LED's though, but I wouldn't buy one.

[AgrAde]

The subtle texture details you maintain during movement with a plasma TV go a long way in making the picture convincing.

[too_tall]

I will second the "does it look natural" as I have so many friends who went and bought a Samsung set ( LED, CC backlight, or a plasma ) and have then spent countless hours trying to make the thing look nice after getting it home and realizing that the green grass of a rugby field and the totally overblown reds of anything red look absolutely terrible.

Panasonics are not too bad about this, as long as they are set to more modest settings, and not the aggressive "retail" settings.

Movement wise, I my brother in law has had 2 Samsungs replaced as he was never happy with the motion. HN had told him that the Samsung sets were best for motion ( And were silly enough to write it in an email ) and he has been comparing it to my Pioneer 508LX - a set which many people still consider one of the better 50" displays made, even though it must be getting on for 4 years old now. He eventually went for a upper end Panasonic set and once we "calibrated" it he is a very happy camper. Its performance is nearing that of my Pioneer now I think. Maybe not quite so neutral, but its most definitely watchable, something neither of the Samsungs ever even began to be for an old fusspot such as myself.

[vtec8u]

Had the same question recently... And ended up with a series 7 LED.
Found some calibration settings on the web (from a review) and used those to start with.
Do colors look realistic? Yes I think so. I know what the other replies refer to and I don't think the set presents unrealistic (play station generation) colors.
Motions issues? None for movies or sport.
Washed out blacks? I have never owned a plasma so can't compare to that, but looks substantially better than previous LCD set. Batman begins and the dark night both had plenty of shadow detail, as an example.
Additional brightness over a plasma is good for daytime viewing if that is your thing.

The bad....
Viewing angle isn't great.
In some situations (very few that I have come across with the settings I use) there is some backlight spill in the corners of the picture. Only noticble on movies that aren't 16:9 aspect ratio.

Am I happy with the set. Yip! And yeah it does look pretty cool compared to other sets :-)

[dansmitherson]

Thanks for the opinions, am still pondering and comparing.
It seems the Samsung 7 & 8 series models starting with UA have quite a striking colour and brightness difference than other sets even with the same source material. They also have highly polished screens. I did find this a bit distracting in the shops as it was reflecting a lot, and also there is this noticeable pattern/weave effect to the screen I think the polish brings this out?

I am unsure what this looks like in the home however, reflections maybe lower.

[Ernie]

It will still look like it did in the shop... Don't try and kid yourself.

[Dunnersfella]

The black parts of the picture will certainly suffer from reflections, the white levels are high enough to stop the rest of the picture being washed out though.

[dansmitherson]

Right so I have settled on a Plasma. Now what are the opinions of these 2

Panasonic TH-P65VT30Z
Samsung PS64D8000

It's hard getting to see these side by side, most store don't have display models.

[tkr001]

I would go for a panny over a samsung every day of the week if for no other reason the support locally from Panasonic is superb. But I like their panels too.

[AgrAde]

The D8000 is the successor to the C7000, which I owned and grew to hate. In comparison my GT30 is fantastic. I'd take the Panny no question.

[too_tall]

In my opinion, Panasoinc are the only mainstream manufacturer of displays I would consider because I prefer a natural image, and good motion and black levels. If the bright, super saturated, almost thermonuclear look is more you thing, with motion processing thrown in to boot ( and no processing that I have seen improves things ) then Samsung all the way.

And I am talking about displays which have had a lot of time spent on trying to get them looking as good as possible, either via calibration equipment or simply tweaking using various methods such as test disks.

[clevedon]

I would go for a panny over a samsung every day of the week if for no other reason the support locally from Panasonic is superb. But I like their panels too.

+1

[Dunnersfella]

The D8000 is a dog in my books...
The motion is poor, sure some people don't want any form of motion processing on their panel. But if you decide you do for certain content... then there's simply no option on the Samsung! They have removed it for 2011, which in turn removes the option for you to tweak the set to the level you desire. And if you do want to check out its motion performance, take a look at Freeview HD content when credits are scrolling across the screen - it's simply 2nd rate.
Another aspect I dislike is the panel itself. If you have lights in the room, the glare will show up a rainbow effect when viewing dark scenes. In a showroom this will be easy to spot, just turn the TV off and have a look at the reflection. Then, compare it to the VT30 - no comparison.

I'd love a VT30, but I'll probably have to wait until the next generation (quite a while off by all accounts)... maybe they'll improve on its major weakness - and that's a somewhat larger bezel than I'd prefer. But still, for a 65" TV, it's certainly not a distracting element, just a minor niggle.

[Adam]

Saying that the D8000 plasmas are dogs is absolutely ludicrous. I have compared the Panasonics and the Samsungs and they are both excellent in terms of colour, black level, motion and colour. You should try to see these models together, but if you can't, buy based on the look of the television and price. The reality is that you will be pleased with either, and the differences between them in real world environments is minimal, despite the ridiculous hyberbole you may read online.