Samsung PN50C490 50-Inch 720p Plasma 3D HDTV

Samsung PN50C490 50-Inch 720p Plasma 3D HDTV

Customer Reviews
As good as it gets! Period! Buy this tv, February 4, 2011
By Lauras Husband
Greetings, please dont make the mistake of dismissing this tv as a simple 720p plasma as I did.
I recently purchased a 46 inch Sony Bravia 120hz LED LCD I thought it was great. I was in the market for a larger LED 55 to 60 inch for the living room. I went to best buy and reviewed side by side with a 55 samsung led and a sony 60 led. I adjusted the settings on all three and tuned them down equally, the sales guy didnt like this but I did it anyway.

This tv more than holds its own. I have a 42 inch Panasonic plasma that was highly rated, this tv blows it out of the water. I thought that the 3d aspect would hurt the 2d performance but it does not. This panel is reflective, but it is glass. This tv is clearly a much higher quality than than the other plain 720 or 1080 plasmas on the market, this tv out performed the plain Panasonic plasma that it sat by.

600 hz vs. 120 or 240. You can see the difference,go see for yourself.

I feel sorry for all the people who will buy a 1080 lcd this week for a little more money. This tv is special and I am glad I found it, I am not even into 3d.

To the negative reviews below, I dont see your issues at all on this tv.

One funny thing, I set my sony PS3 output to 720p and if I hit the info on the remote, it is saying 1920x1080 24 frames per second? That cant be right can it?

I love the look and stand of the TV, it looks like a $3000 set. Their is a silight twinge of purple on the bottom, which is really not noticeable. Prince would love it!

This tv is special for the price, dont pass it up!

Update: Ok the media play feature supports ripped blurays dvds and music on an external western digital 2tb drive!!!
This is huge for me, as I dont have to buy a wdtv or apple tv player!! Frickin awesome!!

If you question buying this TV please read :), January 29, 2011
By Dwayne Morris
The TV is great, it gives you a great 2D picture and an awesome 3D picture. You can convert 3D to 2D and 2D to 3D. Although it says it is 720p,while I play games or when I looked at avatar on blu-ray it displayed in 1080p. I find it weird and thought it was an error but it isn't it actually displays in 1080p. When in goes to 3D the colors become very vivid(just like if you have an regular tv in dynamic) and then it switches to 720p but everything look crisp and very sharp. I was amazed by it due to the fact a plasma was sharper than my LED tv and both have the same contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. I was playing super star dust in 3D and I notice after I turned the game off I seen a ghost image of the sign still there and became very scared that it was screen burn in. But no need to fear Samsung pixel shift is here!!! The pixels shift every minute or you can set it to what ever you want it set to and every 10min the screen refresh. There is a mode that you can use when your tv is not in use to scan the screen and erase the images..OOOOOOO...The tv is great,have plenty of inputs and the sound is better than most recent tv's. 5 out of 5 from me :D

I HATED PLASMA NOW IM IN LOVE, January 19, 2011
By JAHman
I was really skeptical about buying a 3dtv that is this cheap,but it proved me wrong big time.I went to HHGREGG pick this tv up for $600.00 bucks. But first I had the guy display a 3d movie on it and it worked flawlessly. Took it home ,setup is very easy.I had my ps3 so I didn't need to buy 3d blu ray player .Remember,to get the best quality video signal you need a HDMI cable dont ( don't buy in store ,i got a rocketfish hdmi cable right here at amazon for dirt cheap and it works great).
I have to admit that I had a little problem actually playing anything in 3d with ps3 .I thought for a sec that I would had to return. Anyone that buys this tv and wants to hook it up to the ps3 ,make sure you reset the display setting .When you do that, you see that the ps3 recognises the tv as 3d. Games look really neat in 3d ,I've tried Black Ops,Wipe Out HD, Super Star Dust HD, and a few videos from the ps3 store and I have to say this is the deal with 3d .I just rented A Christmas Carol 3D and it blew me away.
To get the effect for 3d you have to adjust it a little bit .Go into the menu then 3d setting and there is a slider for the 3d .it is usual set to half way which gives you a great sense of depth but slide towards the right and every pops out of the screen. 2D is just as impressive ,the colors are rich ,black is actually black not greyish.Don't be con out by people saying," Oh but its not 1080p." I was saying the same thing to myself and now really cant tell the difference. Movies looks stunning ,Video Games looks amazing and 3D is a great plus.Audio is ok just like any other TV.I use a surround sound system so I don't really care about the TV speakers.
WARNING: As with all plasmas never crank up your settings for the first 100hr of viewing ,because it might be prone to Image retention or Burn in( I did research on this ,you should too). but there are protections on the tv if this were to happen, such as a sliding bar of black and white that wipes the screen of any IR.I personally didn't see any on mines.since the plasma was built last year, it is less likely to have burn ins or IR.
Overall, This is the tv to get if you don't want to pay a ridiculous price for 3D. Its flawless just as a regular HDTV and an awesome experience in world of 3D.

STUNNING PICTURE, January 9, 2011
By Mary C. Wiley "speedlady" (Edina MN)
We've only had this tv for 3 days and we're already in love! Watched an old movie on PBS last night and the picture was just stunning! Haven't tried 3D yet at all. We were going to buy the 450 but the 490 showed up for $50 more so we opted for the 3D model to keep our options open for the future. Will need to upgrade to a blue-ray player and get the glasses before we can do that.
Wish they had offered a package deal that included the glasses, but long term we may be better off buying them separately as new models of the glasses are coming out all the time and prices should be dropping.
We're thrilled with the price (caveat, bought online but not from Amazon and paid $150 less than Amazon's price) and everything else about this tv, with the possible exception of the metallic stand. Would prefer a stand that was not as noticeable.

Nice TV but the 3D experience is very bad, January 2, 2011
By M. Hamed (usa)
The resolution is great when connected to a source of 720P. The 3D is not that good I do not know why..the 3Dexperience I had on other 3D TVs in the store were much better. The Tv works great when connected to any game console, PC, or Bluray. Also HD channels look great

Not just a great 3DTV, a great HDTV in general, December 29, 2010
By Zhiyong Sun "Forry" (Canada)
Everything the other reviewers praised about this tv is true to me, I will come back and update my review with more content but thought my experiment with the Media Play function of the tv would be useful for potential buyers of the 2010 boxing day season in Canada (yes in Canada, mine was purchased boxing day from best buy canada).

This tv provides several ways to watch HD content other than blu ray disk (like a 720 or 1080 video from a hd camcorder, or a blu ray rip, etc.):

1. HTPC connected via the VGA port or HDMI port. I tried the VGA port connected to a PC. The tv display native 1360x768 resolution and the image is clear, sharp, and rich in color. So it's like a PC monitor but lot bigger. HD content played on it looks great. With an HTPC you can play like everything, but the drawback is you have to have two pieces of hardware setup and running and sometime things get complicated and not really suitable for the wife (no offense). Other similar options include the various HD media players on the market such as the boxee box. But again two pieces of hardware.

Update: I compared the video quality of the same files (some randome HD content of the HDTV capture, HD camera clips, as well as HD movie rips) between PC-VGA-TV playback and the TV's build in Media Play playback (as detailed below), the TV's media play always result in better quality, clearer, sharper, and more colorful image, better contrast, etc. Apparently when using PC to play the video, it often depends on the software used for the playback, which could be fine tuned but require time and effort; on the other hand the TV's own playback function seems to be optimized already for any formats that it can recognize. Especially for 1080i file (I have tried several, including the 1080i file recorded on my Sanyo FH1 HD camcorder, the TV gives very smooth play back without the interlacing defect, while when played on my computer using VLC, the interlacing effect is very annoying to say the least.

2. The Media Play function. I was skeptical about it when purchasing it and thought it's a gimmick (as I have seen in many similar product as a bonus feature). I understand there are a million kinds of video formats and lots of products can only handle very few.

The Media Play function of the samsung PN50C490 in reality is much better than I expected. The following is what I have tested. You can refer to the manual for a complete lis of support format but lot of times you really have to try yourself. I tried them on both a 8GB USB drive and a 16GB SD card via USB card reader, both works the same. Update: tried a externally powered usb sata drive with two partitions (both NTFS), the TV recognized both partition as two devices, and allow you to switch between the two. The HD content on each partition played flawlessly. On the manual it's written: USB-HDD is not supported. It's quite confusing but hey, fact is fact. I am definitely going to get a large external hdd just for the TV.

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mp4, avi, mkv: yes. Even subtitles of various sort is supported.

Mac's m4v and m4a format, not supported. These are from the itunes. The Media Play can't recognize and display the files. If I change the m4v into the mp4 extension, the file can be played with video but no audio. m4a music file is absolutely no go.

Casio digital camera (P505) avi video format: yes.

Sanyo FH1 HD camcorder mp4 file (720p and 1080 60i): yes. but 1080 60p file can't be played (unfortunately). I own this camcorder.

Panasonic GH1's mts file (AVCHD) and mov file (motion jpeg): they can't be recognized in the media play. However, if you change the mts file into .ts file, and the mov file into .mp4 file, both type can be played flawlessly.

Panasonic GH2's mts and mov file: although the codec in these have been revised in the GH2 camera, the above still hold true. Just change the file extension and done. Maybe because the Gh2's 1080 is still 60i so can be supported, as the Sanyo's 1080 60p can't be played.

A remark on GH1/GH2's video on the samsung: I don't own the panasonic DC but intend to get the new GH2 that's why I am interested in the video compatibility issue. I downloaded the camera produced original files from some review websites. mts files are 1080 or 720; mov files are 720. I had thought with the 720p resolution of this TV set it can't benefit from an full HD source (the 1080 files) but I was so wrong!

All the 1080 clips I played in the Media Play are just clearer and sharper then the 720 clips. I hope potential panasonic gh2 buyers will benefit from my test, as this is one piece of hot new camera on the market right now.

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More about Media Play, Music funtion

Now more about the media play's function, not on movie but on music. This is just sounds like a great feature but it's implementation is a complete fail. Yes like movie you can browse to the folder and start to play an mp3 but wait, not like watching a movie where you need the display on (apparently), can you afford to leave a 50' plasma TV on just to listen to music? Of course not. So the logical thinking of me is, go to Eco option of the tv and turn the display off. But nooo, as soon as you hit Menu on the remote, the music play stopped, matter of fact the whole Media Play thing exited. So, the music player there is just useless. Plus, it only plays mp3 anyway and the sound quality wasn't great. So, please forget about it, just so you know.

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More on BluRay playback

I just got an PS3 as my 3d bluray player. Works great for the samsung. The Bluray playing is gorgeous no doubt about that. However, the "it only does everything" PS3 can't do half of the video format the Samsung's build in media play function does. And the PS3 can't even support the NTFS format! This again shows how great this little Media Play bonus feature is on the Samsung (just for the video playing of course).
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More on Anynet+

Had no idea what this feature was until I saw the tv source discovered the PS3 automatically, and I realized that I can use the tv remote to power on/off the PS3 and control its operation (for this to work you have to connect the ps3 to the tv using hdmi)! So basically the direction button and enter button works to control the bluray/dvd playback on the ps3. Then if you need the extra control options (like to back to top menu, change audio video, subtitle setting, etc.) you hit the Tools button on the Samsung remote, then select the Playstation 3 info. This will bring up the pop up menu of the ps3 (just as if you press the arrow button on your ps3 game controller). Pretty neat. It's a lot of button press but pretty intuitive. Not as convenient as a real PS3 bluray remote, but that's one less remote to operate in the dark when watching a movie. So, my praise on this one too.

Pleasantly Surprised, December 24, 2010
By Slo-Hand
This is a really nice T.V. for the money. I had to wait over 3 weeks for delivery but Amazon discounted the package an additional $47.00 and offered an additional $30.00 gift certificate because the original delivery date of 12/20/2010 was missed. The T.V. was delivered 1/7/2011 by Home Delivery and they must have done a good job because the television arrived undamaged. The stand does not come attached to the set which was a complaint lodged against a previous model plasma so no problems there. Assembly was easy and with a little help from my wife so was the initial physical set up.
I read through the manual and started thinking 'Man this might be complicated', but it wasn't. The remote is large and well laid out and the onscreen menus lend themselves to easy navigation. In a few words the picture is easily adjustable and incredible. Definitely the easiest to adjust of any television I've ever owned . I can personalize the look of each video game I play with ease. When I played the 3d bluray 'Legend of the Guardian ..the owls of Ga'hoole' I could not believe what I was seeing on my television. There are simply no words to describe how much of an improvement watching quality 3d blurays is over watching regular blurays. I am so glad I bought this.

Over the air high definition broadcasts look outstanding on this television . Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 ps3 looks incredible on this display once set to taste. Tiger Woods pga tour 2011 even looks pretty good on this T.V. The display settings you made for television broadcasts do not carry over to hdmi 1, 2 or 3. There are also 2 component inputs, a pc input and a usb input. I have little to no use for component or vga (computer monitor) inputs so I can't rate them. The usb input is for charging rechargable battery glasses, uploading photos, videos, firmware updates etc. none of which I have tried to do. I use the CR2025 30 hour battery operated 3d glasses and am glad I got those over the rechargable kind because of their liteness. I tried the 2d to 3d function on Tiger Woods pga tour 2010 ps3 and liked it. It added a definite 3d effect. 3d blurays will not play with a ps3 on this television. The ps3 does not recognize this television as a 3d enabled device for 3d blurays so I ordered a Samsung 3d bluray player and that works beautifully. Regular blurays do work with a ps3 and this television as do 3d video games like 'Avatar The Game' and 'High Velocity Bowling'(2 games I have played in 3d with a ps3 and this television). You can apply A 2d-3d effect on this televsion for a muted 3d experience with the glasses. I did that with Jim Carrey's a Christmas Carol and Legend of The Guardians (The Owls of Gahoole) and it adds a very toned down sort of 3d effect and no competition for the actual 3d blurayS. Also the 2d -3d effect seems to produce some eyestrain which is not an issue with 3d blurays for me. I'm glad the 2d-3d effect is there however and do use it to add variety to my 2d viewing.

I'm happy with this purchase for now. Best Buy has a similar deal to the one I got on Amazon but that doesn't include delivery and you'll need a truck or Vann to move this set properly so I'm still glad I bought it at Amazon even with the 17 day delay. The picture for high def programming, video games, blurays and 3d blurays is great and the screen is large. The sound is excellent even with just 2 10 watt speakers. There are 5 different sound settings and an equalizer. I haven't noticed any buzzing with this display. Disadvantages would be the inherent fragility of plasma screens which means they really have to be treated with kid gloves while transporting(box in the upright position); having to be vigilant of image retention in your viewing habits ..(watch out for any fixed images that could get burned into the set even with the default pixel rotation feature in place). Screen reflections might be an issue depending on room lighting but using the 3d glasses cuts reflections so that could be a solution for that. Wall mounting this set would pose a challenge because all but two of the connections plug straight into the back at a 90 degree angle as opposed to the bottom, sides or back parallel. Regular digital broadcasts don't look that great on this set. That's a very small issue for me as I'm generally not too interested in those signals. I can't tell the difference between this picture and 1080p sets I've seen for high def programming, blurays, 3d blurays and quality video games. I would have given the set 5 stars except it has not withstood the test of time. The warranty for home use is 1 year parts and labor. For commercial use, 3 months parts and labor.

I bought a $119.00 plexi-glass screen protector for this set. The touch sensitive controls on the side were not impeded but there is about an inch of overhang which may partially impede the 3d emitter at the bottom. I have noticed that the 3d glasses angle to the 3d emitter matters in keeping the 3d in sync. The magic number seems to be 60 degrees for me with the screen protector in place which means any angle at or above that figure will cause the glasses to lose sync. It's not a huge deal and only becomes an issue when I'm standing and relatively close to the set(3 feet or less). A taller person might have more of an issue though depending on how high the T.V. is placed and whether or not he's standing,sitting or lieing down. Samsung might want to consider using something like a web cam for their 3d emitter in future sets to avoid this issue altogether. It's not going to be a huge deal for most people and there will always be the option of raising the set higher if it is a problem. This is not the only potential issue with the glasses but fortunately I have not had to tape the sensor on the glasses like some other folks have done.

I have not been initially happier with a television purchase than I am right now and that's primarily due to the way quality 3d blurays look on this set !

this has a little bit higher resolution than 720p, December 21, 2010
By Better one
for the retard that said it is not 720p has to be the biggist idiot because 1024x720p is 720p and this t.v. has a resolution of 1366x768p witch is slightly higher resolution than regular 720p with is still 720p and will have a slightly better picture when watching a blueray compared to a regular 720p tv but for h.d.t.v. cable or satellite viewing this tv will look just as good as a 1080p tv would because H.D. cable and most satellite services are broadcasted in 720p or 1080i THE bottom line I do not own the t.v. my aunt and my grandma as well as my brother do own the tv and it is fantastic for everthing but standerd def. t.v. and that is normal because it is a 50 inch tv it is supper thin and 3d is soo damm alsome buy this thing the worst you have to do is send it back you wont be dissapointed especialy when its under 900 bucks im abought to get one after xmas because i spent all my money on gifts. :(

Best value 3D TV, December 6, 2010
By Mohammad Masud Hasan
First of all, seeing is believing. Me and my wife both visit Sears and HHGREGG stores multiple times to compare plasma vs. LCD/LED and 720p vs. 1080p. We find that plasma is better than LCD/LED in terms of color and other features for picture quality. The lower brightness of plasma is not an issue since there is not much light in our TV room. (In fact, Samsung PN50C490 plasma has "Dynamic" picture mode to view at higher brightness, but we mostly use less bright "Movie" picture mode so that it is less stressful to eyes at night.) We both cannot differentiate much between 720p and 1080p plasma TVs, even watching as close as suggested for 3D viewing (e.g., about 7 feet for 50 inch). Moreover, because of plasma's superior color contrast, saturation, accuracy, and frequency, both me and my wife feel better viewing experience in a 720p plasma than in a 1080p (yes!) LCD/LED when we compare those in store display side by side. Therefore, we decide not to spend another $400+ just to get 1080p or LCD/LED. Those who are still confused, please read CNET TV buying guide. "According to the Imaging Science Foundation, a group that consults for home-theater manufacturers and trains professional video calibrators, the most important aspect of picture quality is contrast ratio the second most important is color saturation, and the third is color accuracy. Resolution comes in fourth, despite being the most-cited HDTV specification." Thus, resolution is the feature that we can compromise to save money.

Secondly, we think about energy-efficiency. From power specifications available online, we calculate how much energy would be saved if we buy LCD/LED rather than this plasma. We find the purchase price to be paid for LCD/LED is much higher than the energy-cost we would save, even for 10 years! (If you consider 10 years inflation of the extra money you have to pay today for LCD/LED, the difference is even more.) As the 3D technology evolves, I am sure future 3D TVs would be much better than current 3D TVs and I am probably not going to watch the same TV for many years (even if I buy the best 3D TV available now). Therefore, I am saving money buying this plasma, plus getting amazing picture quality. By this time, let 3D LED TVs get mature and cheaper. Remember, currently advertised LED TVs in the market are not actual LED-panel TVs, they are just LCD-panel TVs with LED back-lighting/edge-lighting/local-dimming. Plasma is already matured, we think. For example, the burn-in problem is much reduced in latest plasma TVs. Additionally, Samsung PN50C490 has anti-burn pixel shifting feature, which we set always on.

Thirdly, even though PN50C490 does not have internet connectivity, it quickly becomes a non-issue given that I must buy a 3D Bluray player to watch 3D content. Most 3D players (in fact, all Samsung 3D Bluray players) come with internet connectivity! Hence, we do not go for higher-end 3D TV versions (e.g., PN50C7000 or PN50C8000 or other brands) to get internet connectivity within TV. Let our player do the job.

Fourthly, we have a kid who has a tendency to throw things! Although we do not expect TVs to endure flying objects, it is good that Plasma screen is tougher than LCD/LED screen (according to a CNET forum). Hence, plasma is a rational choice for us.

Last but not least, this Samsung model has 2D to 3D conversion and picture-in-picture (PIP) capabilities.

Recently, we have actually watched 3D Christmas Carol and other 2D Bluray movies using a Samsung BDC-5900 player. With our limited experience, we must say Samsung PN50C490 delivers us the best 3D and 2D television amusement we ever had. The TV and accessories together cost below a grand! By the by, we have bought this TV for $807 shipped, no tax, including two glasses in an online deal during the Thanksgiving week of Nov, 2010. We also have bought a BDC-5900 player for $119 and an HDMI cable for $1.

We love it, November 27, 2010
By Paul Kilduff (Baltimore MD USA)
After checking the reviews here, we bought this TV (sorry, we bought it at hhgregg, where we paid $970 with two free pairs of glasses).

We've had it for two weeks, and it's as good as it can be. I kind of expected a better experience with 2D to 3D (I found that it's not worth the trouble of wearing the glasses and looking at a slightly dimmer image for the 3D effect) but the 2D to 3D effect does work. There isn't that much content on cable right now, and we haven't bought the 3D Blue Ray player yet, but it's nice to know that when 3D TV starts to be really happening, we'll have the 3D TV already.

We've watched DVDs on a DVD player. I bought a new DVD player with an HDMI jack hoping the picture would be better, but actually the picture was *slightly* better using the old component cables than using the HDMI cables, so I took the new DVD player back. We've also watched HD video from Comcast, after getting an HD package from them and having them install the HD decoder/DVR, and it looks like a million dollars. I know someone with a Sony LED 46" TV, and the picture is NOT as good as this one's picture. The other day I went to someone's house who has a CRT TV that I used to think was state of the art. Well now it looks pathetic!

The bad thing about hhgregg is that they work in teams to sell you crap you don't need beyond the TV. We bargained (well, THEY bargained with US) to get the 5 year replacement warranty for $150, which I don't think is too bad. But they sold us a $120 HDMI cable, which, when I got home and did a little checking, seemed idiotic. I returned the cable (which had been discounted to $80) the next day. I got a couple of 3' HDMI cables for like $.80 cents plus shipping from Amazon. Also got a circuit protector that I don't think was worth the money we paid (part of a package, all of which was discounted to make room for the extra warranty) but I don't know if this "cleans up the signal" claim is complete hogwash or not.

Anyway, the picture looks really good.

The remote control is easy to switch back and forth among inputs (VCR, DVD, cable decoder) and I think the sound is great.

So we love it, and our visiting relative calls it "the super TV".