 Best Value on the Market, PERIOD |
| Review Date: June 25, 2009 |
| Reviewer: BVaria, Austin, TX USA |
The gentlemen who complained about the noise clearly has some other issue going on. I encourage him to try and get a full replacement from his reseller or Samsung. Mine makes no noticeable noise at all.
The B560 is an interesting animal in it carries all of the higher-end features that the 8 series carries at a lesser cost (TOC, CinemaSmooth, etc). It is in fact one of Samsung's best plasmas despite being a 5 series. The "B Series" Samsung plasmas are without doubt the best plasmas on the market. In a world consumed by LCDs and their over saturated, unrealistic brightness and color, plasmas just don't look as bright and noticeable on the showroom floor. The irony about this is that once you get any display home, inclduing a plasma, you'll have to turn the brightness down to achieve any realistic color space. It's a known fact that manufacturers create special default profiles that blow colors out of proportion which attracts the "dumb consumer". It's a shame that plasmas haven't done as well as LCDs as of late, but the B series plasmas are pound for pound the best TVs out there, and the B560 is the pinnacle of that value.
Don't get caught up in super-saturated colors and brightness levels. Black levels and realistic natural colors are what really matters, and plasma is still the best technology for that. Additionally, the off-angle viewing of plasmas is in a league of its own.
The motion is so natural, the colors are accurate, the black levels can't be beat. It's absolutely great. The power usage is significantly less than other plasmas including the "A series" Samsung plasmas. However, LCDs are still less power and heat consuming (the only negative of this TV compared to an LCD). That aside, you'd have to spend nearly twice as much for a comparable LED-based LCD display that still may not hold its own when it comes to naturalness and color space accuracy.
I consider myself an AV expert, and I work for a company that produces Blu-ray devices (no I don't work for Samsung, I work for a Japanese company actually) and this was the TV my hard earned money was spent on. I recommend it whole-heartedly, and I truly hope Samsung continues to produce plasmas as they've got a true winner in the "B Series" lineup, the B560 being my favorite of their line card. |
A great T V
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| Review Date: August 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: S. Owens, Colorado |
I have had the 58B560 for about a month now, and agree with the posts above that it is the best value available today, and has an amazing picture. How amazing? We bought "Twister" to watch on it, and not only noticed that we could see each and every one of Helen Hunt's hairs blowing in the wind, we could see that the makeup artist left a few pancake lumps on her cheek! Now having noticed these little details, you can imagine how exciting it is when the tornado picks up the tanker truck and throws it at the camera!
The only thing you will be disappointed in is this: once you experience high-def 58" TV, you will really think that the standard def that is still the standard on most TV stations really looks bad. I understand that you can tweak this and make it better, but I haven't had the time or interest, since I don't watch much TV, the little I do watch is usually available in high-def and I bought this rig to watch high def sports and movies (both of which it excells at).
One tip: Samsung makes an amazing line of Blu Ray players that link automatically to the TV and really work great. They do such a great job of upconverting standard DVDs to 1080 high def that it is really hard to tell if you have a blu ray or a DVD in the player. I really like my "all Samsung" system--it really coordinates nicely and you can actually download all the movies you want from NetFlix for $9.95 per month (although the quality is somewhere between standard def TV and DVD--good enough, but not great--I understand that this is a NetFlix issue and they are working on it, and that my Samsung equipment will display the better quality when it becomes available).
I tortured myself for months, researching everything available, reading hours worth of blogs and threads, etc. Finally pulled the trigger on this one and got it from Amazon for an amazing price, including delivery, no sales tax. About $600 less than the big box store, when you take into account delivery charges and sales tax. Delivery was great, picture is great, energy consumption is pretty low (check it out on Crutchfield if you don't believe me) and the heat level is low for a plasma.
A word about "buzzing." If you read all the blogs, and this information is gleaned from about 30 hours of blog and thread following, it becomes apparent that about 5-10% of the sets sold have a very loud, annoying, buzzing problem--this is not due to extra sensitivity on the part of buyers, it is a real problem. This is actually a low percentage, other sets from Samsung and other makers have a higher percentage, it is a plasma issue, and the 58B560 is better than most. It is also apparent that there is absolutely nothing you can do if you get a "buzzer." People report that they call Samsung on the warranty, and Samsung does all kinds of things, including replacing the panel, and nothing ever works. The only real fix is that you should simply keep the box, and if you get a buzzer (you will find out right away--all of the reports indicate that a set either buzzes in the first week, or doesn't buzz at all) call Amazon and be persistant until they agree to exchange the unit. There is no other fix. That is why you want to buy from Amazon. In my case, I waited until Amazon itself had the better price to buy the unit (rather than one of its affiliates) since I was totally paranoid about the buzzing issue and I know that Amazon itself is easier to deal with than anyone else.
People say that the rate of buzzing increases with altitude in plasmas and that you should not even buy one if you live at altitude. It appears that this is not the case with the 58B560, a set may or may not buzz, but it appears that this is strictly related to which set you get and not your altitude. I live at 5,650 feet and mine is absolutely free of buzz.
Therefore, be aware of the situation, but don't let it discourage you from buying this excellent TV, just be sure to buy your set from Amazon or another retailer that guarantees that you can return a "buzzer" and be sure to keep your box and all packing material for at least a few weeks.
Finally, although my TV does not "buzz" it does make a "TV sound," about the same at the six year old 36" Sony Trinitron it replaced. All plasmas make this TV sound, they are not silent. If you want silent, get a LED TV, but it will cost more and the picture won't be as good. I can't even hear my TV sound if I am 5 feet away, and can't hear it at all unless the TV is on mute.
Five stars and two thumbs up on this TV. |
Amazing TV, exceeded my expectations...
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| Review Date: May 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Dave, Marriottsville, MD USA |
This TV was delivered by Pilot about a week ago and is nothing short of fantastic. From the instant the power was turned on it has worked flawlessly. The picture with my DirecTV HD signal (HD-20 DVR) is amazing - I can't imagine it getting any better. I have not tried any of the calibration techniques bantered about on the net yet, partially because the picture looks so good now that I don't want to mess it up. I am a big sports fan and so far I have watched the NBA playoffs, the Indy 500, some baseball, and a little NFL Network and there is absolutely no blur or distortion in fast action sports. HD movies have also been spectacular with this set. The built in speakers sound fine, but I have them turned off because I run audio through a Home Theater system (single HDMI cable from my Pioneer 1019 receiver).
The "white glove" Pilot delivery was great. I had a 12-5pm delivery window and they showed up at about 1:30, can't complain about that. They carried it to the basement and set it up in about 5 mins. The set comes with the stand already fully assembled, so all they had to do was take it out of the box and set it on my table. I would definitely order another TV this way, it was very low effort on my part.
So far, the TV has exceeded expectations and the hours I spent fretting over which TV to buy seem to have paid off. If I run into problems down the road I will update the review. |
Great plasma picture, everything works, sound needs help!
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| Review Date: July 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: John M. Story, |
After studying various brands, models, lcds, dlps, plasmas, etc, and looking at various sets playing in local stores - got an excellent price from amazon.com on this Samsung and it arrived quickly all in one piece. Easy set-up on my existing stand - it's not heavy or cumbersome for two people to move. Plugged it in - no buzz. Yea! Turned it on and followed the initial set-up instructions. Hooked up the new Samsung Blu-Ray, a near-new Panasonic dvd/vcr recorder/player, and an Insight Cable HDDVR - all three using HDMI cables. Set the "Movie Mode" to on, turned down the contrast just a bit, tweaked a few more things to my personal taste, and proceeded to be amazed by the images this set can produce. Blu-Ray is absolutely excellent, dvd is upconverted to 1080p and looks great, old videos look smooth and better than you'd expect, HD cable looks much better - depending on the channel and program you're watching. Also, I still watch quite a bit of two digital cable channels: Turner Classic and Fox Movie channels. After realizing that I can adjust "Movie Mode" individually for each source, I did a lot of tweaking to get these two digital favorites looking "acceptable, fair-to-good, ok-for-now." At least, I can live with them the way they look which is about the way they looked on the 4-year-old Sony 55" HDTV the Samsung is replacing. I don't care for the built-in sound system which is thin, hollow and blah - got a small Sony sound system which does fine in my condo, which residence came complete with a "no-loud-speakers" clause in my owners contract. Reflections are minimal in my living room - not a problem at all. The TVs remote is ok and it talks back and forth to the new Blu-Ray player which takes some getting used to. The Blu-Ray machine has Netflix built-in which works fine using my wireless LAN - no problems. Also included with Netflix is a service that was new to me - Pandora - which allows you to go online to a website, build various "radio stations" playing only music you like, and the Blu-Ray plays the music back thru your TV. This is a wonderful addition to any Home Theater - I love it! A problem: the sound pauses on some selections - just for a moment at the beginning as the song starts to play. Samsung thinks it's Pandora's problem; Pandora isn't sure; I think the Samsung Blu-Ray needs a firmware upgrade to address this very small and not very bothersome complaint. More thoughts: don't forget to use the supplied "tether" to tie your new set to the wall - it feels a bit "teetery" to me. It gets warm on top but not what I'd call "hot." I keep fiddling with the settings on each source's "Movie Mode" trying to better the picture and have them all about where I think they belong - your mileage may vary: please tweak away to your heart's content - it's free! Image retention/burn-in: haven't noticed this being a problem - I keep the set on 16x9 most all the time and run the "scroll" to wipe the screen every evening for about 10 minutes. This seems to address any slight problems. As far as using those "first 100 hours" dvds I read about - too much trouble for me. Trying to be as gentle as I can be with it the first month or so will have to do. Friends who have seen the new Samsung in operation cannot believe the Blu-Ray pictures the set delivers: they've been simply amazed!
BOTTOM LINE: I love it, but wish I'd gone ahead and gotten the 63" model instead of the 58" - maybe next time! |
Great picture with no problems.
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| Review Date: July 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: R. H. George, Beavercreek, OH United States |
The 560 has a great picture and more than adequate sound. Although the sound may not be up to audiophile standards, it is plenty good for me. If I want to I can turn on the stereo receiver and enjoy from there. There is no buzzing at all, as experienced by the other reviewer.
The picture is flawless. DirecTV has a very detailed picture on many of the cable channels (National Geographic, A&E, etc.), but my local channels on DirecTV are not quite as good as they are directly off the air.
My only complaint is the inherent heat output of the plasma display. If you have marginal air conditioning, you will not like the noticeable heat being put into the room. It will be a plus in the winter time.
Delivery by Pilot was on-time. The TV was ordered on a Friday evening and it was delivered the next Thursday within the window given by Pilot. Although the box was clearly marked with two labels that the TV was to be handled by two people, Pilot showed up with one person. He unloaded the box from the truck and dragged it into my house. He and I had to lift my 76 lb old DLP TV off the component cabinet and then lift the new 100 lb TV onto it. I am 74 years old with back problems and I did not appreciate Pilot showing up with one person.
That bad taste was quickly replaced by the enjoyment of watching the 560. It is a BIG screen and dominates the corner of my room, but is just the right size for me, viewing from about 12 to 14 feet away. It makes for an awesome viewing experience! I don't think one can go wrong buying this TV. |
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US $2.92
