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101 of 106 people found the following review helpful.
BUY THIS TV RIGHT NOW!
By Gearhead
Let me save you the time in case you don't want to read this detailed review, then just hear this caveat out: "The PN58C7000 is the GREATEST deal you can possibly get for a new 3D HDTV".There's so much detail for this review, I don't even know where to begin! It would be helpful to state a precondition that this plasma ultimately replaced a Samsung 42" 720p plasma, which was tipping the scale at 6 years old, but still had an incredible picture for its time. Within the last several months, I spent a lot of time watching 1080p content on my friend's TV, and started noticing the difference. If anyone out there is not a believer that 1080p will blow your old fabulous 720p set away, believe it as it will.This was one heck of a quest. Let's rewind the clocks a bit as this all started back in December 2008, when I was visiting ABT checking out their newest HDTV lineup. I had been itching to get a new TV, and having had a plasma all these years, I was determined on getting a plasma replacement as the reviews usually include them on the "best HDTVs" list. Anyway, if anyone has been to ABT, then you'll know that by the furniture/appliance area at the entrance of the store, they have home theater seating to sample, and usually have an incredible HDTV on display. Well I remember looking at the regular LCD/Plasma "row display" (near the TV/Audio sections), and looked over by this area to see 3 TVs lined up on the wall. To say the least, those TVs had the BEST picture of any set in the entire store. As I approached, I could see the words "Panasonic" and "THX" enlarged on the wall. They were truly the most magnificent displays I had seen at the time, matched only by the Kuro (which they also had on display in the projector room). Well as it turned out, the TV series was the infamous Panasonic TH-PZ800U. They had a 42, 50, and 58" screen all in a row of 3. I instantly fell in love with the 58" model. I was shocked how much larger the 58" is compared to the 42", which is what I had.Low and behold, the 800U from Panasonic was CNET's TV of the year, and the second highest rated TV ever, second only to the Pioneer Kuro. Now let's fast forward to January 2010. Since seeing that TV at that time, I instantly was a Panasonic fanboy; I had no choice really now that they were the largest manufacturer of plasmas. I followed the V10, G10, and Z1, all of which received serious accolades. I came close to pulling the trigger on the 54G10 many times, but decided to wait until CES 2010. Boy am I glad I did! With the release of 3DTVs and HDMI 1.4, I did not want to buy an obsolete model. Another major milestone I'll never forget reading about was the infamous CNET/AVS articles regarding the Panasonic "rising blacks" issue. More shocking was Panasonic's arrogance that this issue was expected with no fix. This totally destroyed Panasonic's reputation with me. An entire year of following Panasonic plasmas went down the drain.At that point, I had given up hope on plasmas, and thus started a new quest: LED. I looked at the UN55B6000, B7000, and B8000 models. Recently I came close to buying the UN55C7000 (3D model), and had a chance to get an awesome deal; actually I would have saved almost $50 this route. Seeing the TV in person really changes you though, the flashlighting (in the corners) and image ghosting was noticeable in the store. The 240hz feature was unbearable as well (soap opera effect). To me, 240hz feels like someone is fast forwarding the scene 1-2x on a DVD. I have no idea why people are pretending they don't see it. I eventually came to terms to getting the Vizio VF552XVT, but something held me back. The picture looked okay in the store, but perhaps it was the design of the TV. I mean, it's really an ugly TV, how can its design even compare with that of Samsung? It's almost a whopping 5 inches thick, which in today's day and age, is just unacceptable. My 6 year old plasma is exactly 3 inches. I felt this would be a downgrade from what I already have as I wanted some appeal as well.That was one part as to why I didn't want the Vizio. The other was 3D. I have been following 3D for quite awhile now, and originally didn't plan on being an adopter because of the lack of content. However, after seeing that the price deviation from 2D to 3D TVs had dropped to about $200, it was a no brainer. The hard part was choosing LED or Plasma for 3D. After reading numerous threads from owners of both LED and Plasma, I came to the conclusion that plasma was a better choice for 3D, mainly due to its response time. This made me ecstatic as I had originally thought plasma was totally dead. I mean, how could it not be? Check out this list of the only makers of today's plasmas:1. Samsung = buzzzzzzzz2. LG = gets mediocre reviews for its subpar quality, and has a mirror screen finish for antiglare3. Panasonic (the king of plasma) = rising black issue; unimpressive designs (with the exception of the Z1)I considered the LG PK750 (after reading CNET's review), but couldn't find enough positive reviews; I don't believe I've seen an LG plasma consistently listed on CNET's top 5 plasmas list, or even LED for that matter. I also considered the Samsung B860, as I saw this in person. The B860 was one of the reasons I kept hope alive with plasma. To me, the B860 has an excellent picture, being compared to various LEDs and the Panasonic V10. I even compared it to the PN58C8000 at Best Buy (the 8000 was on the bottom; B860 on top), and honest to god if I couldn't tell which model was which, I probably would've chosen the B860 for its deep blacks compared to the grays of the C8000. I also looked at the VT20/VT25 from Panasonic, but the price premium is exorbitant (close to $600 more than the Samsung). Plus I could care less for the 2 included movies that you get (Ice Age and Coraline). Besides price, seeing the marketing ad from Panasonic that their plasma is an "ultraslim design" at 3.6 inches, is a total joke to me. The Samsung PN58C7000 is 1.4" thick. Coming from a 3" thick TV that was 6 years old, and seeing Samsung's museum style models, ultraslim to me now means under 1.5 inches, or even the new Samsung LED C9000 at 0.25 inches! Panasonic needs to go back to the drawing board on this. Sony also suffers from this pitfall. Their new flagship XBR60LX900, which costs $4,500, claims "ultraslim design" at 3.625 inches. Seriously, who are they kidding???In my humble opinion, if 3DTVs weren't becoming mainstream, I would have given plasmas an expiration date. I feel that 3D is a game changer for plasma. Panasonic won the Best of Show CES award for 3D, and the VT25 is listed as the top TV on CNET, and for 3D. Almost every review I have read comparing LED to Plasma for 3D, I have heard of the same issue: ghosting and blooming for LEDs. Plasmas have an unparalleled ability for response time, which is essential for fast motion 3D. I haven't heard one person NOT complain about image ghosting and response time with an LED 3D set. One of my friends has the UN55C8000 3D LED (which is the flagship Samsung LED that costs $1,000 more than my C7000), and even he admitted it has ghosting and artefact issues, as well as flashlighting. To say the least, prior to 3D and Panasonic blacks issues, I was ready to abandon ship on plasma technology. Then the Samsung PN58C7000 came along. This was it, and my quest was over. After 18 months of searching for the perfect TV, I now have it. The design is unparalleled, the image quality is spectacular (Avatar looks just as good as it did when I saw it in theaters), and the set is future proof with HDMI 1.4 and 3D. All packed together for a remarkable price of close to $1,800. We come back to my original statement: "The PN58C7000 is the GREATEST deal you can possibly get for a new 3D HDTV". Enough said. The price to performance ratio is just monolithic.I should mention that this TV was bundled with the free glasses and C6900 BD player. That's right, FREE. It's almost as if you're getting paid to take a 3DTV off their hands. However, if anyone is curious, I would have done the combo deal with BD player and the free glasses. Why wouldn't I? The kit costs $350 on its own (glasses $150 each). You also can't find Monsters vs Aliens 3D anywhere except eBay, where the price can go up to an astronomical $100. You'd be a fool not to jump in on that deal. As far as I know, Monsters vs Aliens was the first 3D blu ray in existence, and is only included in the exclusive bundle from Samsung. Even if you somehow already own a 3D BD player (like the PS3 which to date does not have the 3D firmware...), you're still better off buying the BD player to get the free kit.3D Glasses - they are very comfortable and sturdy (except for the arms which seem flimsy). They have a 1 year warranty, so I hope their durability proves the test of time. The nice feature I like is the glasses turn off when contact with the 3D emitter is lost and instantaneously reactivate when the emitter is back in focus (this happened when I was laying on my couch and turned my head away). They also power off when there is no 3D content playing through the TV, upconversion included. Since they are battery operated, this is important. Lastly, you cannot power them on at all until the TV is in 3D mode, which is a really nice power saving feature.BD-C6900 - an awesome BD unit. The BD discs load up as fast as my old Sony reference DVD player. Also, my friend's first generation Samsung BD/HD DVD player is so old that it takes close to a minute to load up. That's how my old Toshiba HD-A1 (HD DVD) player was. Thank the Gods that you can load a movie in under 15 seconds! The audio is also excellent. I have the HDMI going directly to my TV, and am using the 7.1 multichannel inputs on my receiver. The sound was extremely crisp on my test BDs. I'm pretty shocked at the quality of analog inputs. On my friend's older Samsung BD/HD DVD player, the 7.1 analog inputs sound very dull. A pleasant surprise. I did an A/B test of using optical audio versus multichannel analog, and decided there was too much detail lost when using optical. With bass management being a potential issue, I liked using analog so much I will just jack up the volume on my subwoofer when watching BDs. Eventually I am planning on upgrading to an HDMI 1.4 receiver.To address the common questions and/or complaints I have read about the C7000:1. Buzz - I have heard horror stories about this as this is the biggest downfall of any Samsung plasma (my wife's PN42C450 has a low buzz that can be heard on mute). Some can hear an annoying buzz over normal volume. One extreme was comparing the buzz to their refrigerator. Unbelievable how a TV can be manufactured like this! Does mine buzz? Well, I would say no instinctively. Why? Because it does buzz SLIGHTLY, and I mean slightly. Can I hear it with the slightest ambient noise? Not at all. In fact, the only way the buzz is heard is by placing my ear a half-inch away from the screen in the middle. If it is dead silent in the room, and you step back 6 inches, you won't hear a peep. Does that qualify this set as a buzzer? I honestly doubt it. My old plasma buzzes louder. Perhaps it's the fact that I have a 1500 watt amp powering my speakers, but I assure you that if you watch the news at the lowest of levels, you will not hear a buzz. When I started reading about the Samsung buzz issues, I put my old plasma on mute one day, and low and behold there was a buzz.In fact, the buzz on my former plasma is actually 100 times louder than on the C7000. Even on my old set, with the tiniest bit of audio from the TV, you can't hear it at all. If I can't hear it watching regular TV, then I doubt it will be an issue when I watch with my home theater at 75-80 decibels. It's true, all (or most) plasmas have a buzz. This is something I wasn't aware of (I'm the only plasma owner I know). However, I never noticed it in 6 years until I heard complaints about Samsung. I can't tell you how worried I was about my set being a buzzer (which is why this issue was listed first). God must have blessed me with a non-buzzer. Honestly, I hope Samsung addresses this. For a TV at this price point, you SHOULD NOT have to gamble with a 50/50 chance of getting a buzzer. I have heard that most of the earlier models that have a build date of April or May are susceptible. June and beyond should be better. I don't know what my build date is as the box it came with was hauled away.2. Lack of wifi - I'm not sure why this is a complaint. You can buy a 100FT Cat5 cable for $6 to run to your modem. Wifi will add a higher premium to the TV, as will the separate $80 wifi dongle. $6 vs $80...hmm, I wonder??? I'll pass. Not only is wired ethernet cheaper, you will have the best possible and stable connection to the internet for streaming. Period. Don't buy into the wifi fad, unless you absolutely need it (plaster walls; multiple levels, etc).3. Motion Judder Canceller (MJC) - I can't BELIEVE how overhyped this is! I fired up the TV expecting the motion judder canceller to look like a 240hz LED (I absolutely detest the cheesy soap opera effect of LCDs), and the MJC is NOT THAT BAD on this plasma. What is everyone complaining about??? Coming from plasma, which is the king of motion response time, I can tell you the MJC is extremely tolerable on this set. Quite honestly, the MJC on the C7000 is somewhere in the middle of a LED 240hz and plasma; it feels like only half the speed of a normal soap opera effect. If you're as detailed as I am, you'll have read the 135+ thread pages on AVS regarding this plasma and the MJC for the C6500/C7000/C8000. Yes, it's installed by default. Not sure why Samsung did this as there are loyal plasma and film fans that don't want it. I do respect that. Luckily, there are some workarounds to this. I used Star Trek BD as a test, and disabled MJC from the TV; I wound up reactivating the feature since the picture quality looked noticeably better. Let me tell you, if it was that bad I would have used the workaround to permanently disable the MJC already. I wound up resetting my picture options to turn MJC back on, though. Being a loyal plasma owner, this must tell you something. Future firmware is also making this less of an issue.4. Image Retention (IR for the tech savvy) - I have yet to experience this. This issue should really be a universal problem of all plasmas. However, as long as you break in your plasma for more than 100 hours, you should be good to go. Technically, Samsung stopped requiring a break in period for plasmas as of 2007. The old adage is still to do one. The C7000 manual clearly states there is a possibility of "image retention" (fancier slogan for burn in). Until plasma manufacturers GUARANTEE there is no chance of burn in, I will continue with the break in protocol that has been adopted since the birth of plasma. The burn in prevention technology Samsung uses is awesome, you get your choice of a screensaver, scrolling black/white page, and pixel shift. I use all of them. My old Samsung plasma didn't have tweakable burn in tech like this, and there was never IR. Keep in mind, I do heavy gaming. Once the C7000 passes the break in period, I'll start playing again.5. Poor antiglare - I have heard that if this plasma is in a brightly lit room, or near a window, the antiglare doesn't help much. I can't really comment on this as I have a dedicated home theater room with no windows. This isn't an issue to me, which is another reason I passed on the C8000 plasma's marketing scheme of the "Real Black Filter".6. Lack of "Real Black Filter" (RBF) - The C8000 has it but not the 7000. I believe it helps reduce the antiglare. I do know that it partly consists of a simple film that is attached to the screen; I heard some cases of it being removable. That seems cheap to me. I cannot discern if it's worth the extra $500 to get it. It is the only gimmick that people seem to know about versus the C8000.7. Lack of Connectivity - This TV was designed without analog in mind, and purely for high definition and HDMI, which is the absolute BIGGEST complaint I have to agree with people about this TV. Specifically, the lack of S-Video, composite, and component outputs is quite upsetting. There is no S-Video output at all (not that surprising), and 1 component output that is shared with composite (major surprise for me), which basically means that you can only use one component or composite. Samsung's website states there are 2 components, and 1 side composite. NOT TRUE! There is only one shared component/composite port. That's all. How can a TV manufacturer get away with this? Several of my legacy analog devices are no longer compatible until I upgrade my receiver with HDMI passthrough (I'm using an older non-HDMI audiophile pre/pro). However, I have come to grips that S-Video is being deprecated. No current Samsung or Sony device implements S-Video anymore, and I believe LG and most BD players have followed suit as well. It's only a matter of time before S-Video is extinct completely. Nonetheless, there should have been AT LEAST one separate composite port, and one component, not a COMBINED composite and component. Samsung, fix your website specs!8. Digital audio port - Another complaint of mine. Yes, you can connect a toslink optical cable from the TV to your receiver. No, it WILL NOT output Dolby Digital for any of your connected sources, only with DTV broadcasting. What this means is, if you connect your Xbox 360 or DVD player to your TV (with optical through your TV to your receiver), you will NOT get 5.1 digital audio. The TV will downmix the audio stream from the source component to 2 channel PCM. This is stated through the TV manual (page 11). What's the point of this? I feel this is purposely limited by TV manufacturers in order not to compete with their HTIB systems.9. It's hot enough to fry an egg - This must be a case by case issue as I have no overheating issues whatsoever. My old plasma literally generated enough heat to warm my home theater room in the winter. No joke. You could feel the heat generated from the TV two feet away, and to touch the rear of the panel was quite hot. I should note that my old plasma was one of the very first to have "fanless cooling", which meant it was very quiet. I have been breaking in the C7000 overnight, and just today went to power it off. After 13 hours, the entire panel was almost cool. There is very little heat, which is a major concern for an electronic device. I did not feel any exorbitant amount of heat anywhere within 1 foot of the TV, certainly nowhere near as much heat as earlier generations of plasma. The C7000 has worked like a champ in this regard. This makes me happy as I have been known to literally play games 12 hours straight.10. "It's not Samsung's flagship" - I beg to differ! I actually never saw the C7000 in person before purchasing. Magnolia had the C8000 and B860 on display, and I used that as a baseline. The B860 was last year's model, and the difference was discernable. If we did an A/B test in my home theater room with the C7000, C8000, and B860 models, I bet you would have a hard time picking one out over the other, or the results would be marginal at best. Save yourself $$$ by getting the C7000!!!Last but not least, I should mention the entire reason you're probably reading this review: 3D. The 3D is PHENOMENAL!!! Forget any 3D demo you may have seen at a store. I watched 3D demos on Samsung LEDs, Panasonic plasmas, and Mitsubishi DLPs. I honestly wasn't that impressed. Holy cow, those store demos might be the reason people are skeptical about buying a 3DTV. Watching Monster VS Aliens was a total treat. The image REALLY DOES pop out at you (just watch the first few minutes and you'll see what I mean). Now on the flipside, I noticed an image ghost 3 or 4 times throughout the movie. It was noticeable in sharper scenes, mostly the character's hair. This happened near the middle and end of the movie (I guess the studio's wanted to impress everyone with the beginning of the movie). I had heard the 3D was horrible when these TVs launched, but with recent firmware updates, it has greatly improved. I would highly recommend adding the latest firmware before using this TV as a workhorse. Samsung, keep them coming!The 2D-3D conversion is very cool, and adds value to the Samsung over any other 3D brand as they're the only ones (plus Sony) who have this conversion engine. Can the 3D be improved? Certainly. This is a first generation 3DTV though, so bugs were expected, as they should be with a new product launch (DVD wasn't perfect either, anyone remember The Matrix "white rabbit" DVD problem?). The images don't pop out as much with the 3D upconversion, but I also haven't properly calibrated the TV as I'm in the break in mode. If you're like me and buying this set for current 2D content, then the 3D is just a value-added bonus.Luckily, Samsung has been excellent with releasing new firmware every month. My TV came with 1019 installed. I manually updated to 1022. If you check, there was just an update to 1026 was recently released. I highly recommend making sure you get the most up-to-date firmware as there are a lot of 3D fixes.Amazon shipping - I was worried about this as several reviewers had received TVs with cracked screens. I heard one story where someone had to exchange their TV 3 times due to cracked screens. Good God, that would be upsetting! I once again lucked out. The shipping service was Pilot, and they were most excellent, especially since the TV arrived in perfect condition. I scheduled the delivery window online through a link emailed to me. I received a call an hour beforehand that they could deliver it sooner. Since it was before my 4-hour window and I was preoccupied, they came back at the scheduled time. They brought the TV in, unboxed it, set the TV on the stand, and powered it up. I had to sign a checklist that there was: no damage to the set, screen powers on, screen has no dead pixels/bad image, and remote works. They then took the box away. I would say the entire process took 10 minutes. What service! If I ever need another TV, I will use Amazon henceforth.So that's my review. Take it as you will as I understand your mileage might vary. If you're on the fence, I would just order this set as you might be in the surprise of your life. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. CNET didn't review this set at the time when I ordered it, but they have now and it is currently listed as the best 3D set, and number 2 overall for 2D picture quality. Consumer Reports also rated this as a best deal TV.I have heard some cases where the TV has worked perfectly, then 3 weeks later it takes a dump. I've had it about a month now, and will update this review appropriately should there be a change in my rating.UPDATE: 10/4/2010I have now owned the TV just over 3 months, and all is well. I recently added pictures to the images section for the C7000, take a peek. As usual, please let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to assist.Since my review, CNET has officially released reviews for both the C7000, and C8000. The C7000 was rated as the second best TV until the C8000 took that spot. Here is one interesting comment CNET made in their review that I would like to point out:"Black level: The Samsung PNC8000 performed well in this category, delivering a shade of black that exceeded the LG X950 and the Samsung UNC8000. Between the two Samsung plasmas the PNC7000 had a very light edge in depth of black over the 8000, but it would only be visible in a side-by-side comparison."Also, here is a quick breakdown of settings I have found that work well in a dark room:Mode: MovieCell Light: 16Contrast: 90Brightness: 51Sharpness: 30Color: 47Tint: G50/R50Energy Saving: OffEco Sensor: OffGame Mode: OffBlack tone: OffDynamic contrast: OffGamma: +1Flesh tone: 0Edge enhancement: OffColor tone: CoolSize: 16:9Digital Noise Filter: OffMPEG Noise Filter: OffPixel Orbiter: 4/4/1
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
What a great TV, AFTER updating firmware! Full 3D Review!
By J. Dombrowski
I purchased this last week and got the bundle, Samsung Blu ray player and 2 pairs of glasses etc.. Got the TV up and running for the last week and now have a great idea of how much this thing can do and how well it performs/looksOut of the box the Tv looks amazing, love how slim it is and the overall clean look. I started watching with the current firmware and the quality just didnt look that great, I almost thought about returning it! The Motion jutter control really makes it look like everything is a soap opera, really annoying. So I downloaded the newest 1026.00 Firmware and WOW, what a difference with picture quality and clarity of this set! Amazing!! Just some simple tweaks and turning the MJC off make it look stunning!3D is my favorite part of this TV, I have watched almost everything possible this week on Directv and 2 3D blu ray movies.. There is almost no ghosting or "crosstalk" like I saw at Best Buy on the UN8000 LED TV. Its amazing how much "pop" the 3D has, some content literally comes out to your face!! Amazing clarity as well! I am truly hooked on 3D!I do notice a slight buzz, but not really even a buzz, just a hiss... but only if I put my ear close to the screen and no volume.. Who does that?? So really all this buzz talk is nothing.I rate this TV among the best of the best! No need for the 8000!
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Knock Your Socks Off!!!!
By R. Lynn Rea
Well after Amazon's usual service and delivery I just could not wait to hook up the Samsung 3D Blu-ray to the new PN58C7000 Samsung Plasma 3D TV.And I was not disappointed. The made for 3D Monsters vs Aliens was understandably outstanding, it was created just for this. But the 1966 2001 A Space Odyssey on Blu-ray was equally impressive with nice depth. The pen in the space liner sequence floated out in front of the screen. The entrance into the space dock was likewise rendered with depth making the movie quite a bit more enjoyable than with the 3D turned off.I suspect we will all be watching in 3D more and more. I am glad that I waited and paid the small difference in price.I'll let someone else help with the decision about the black filter that is the difference between the C7000 and C8000.And when can we have something about 85" Samsung?
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