Samsung’s attitude towards the whole thorny plasma vs LCD debate is refreshingly non-partisan. Basically, so long as there are people out there wanting to buy both technologies, Samsung will continue to sell both as well. There’s none of this ‘trying to force you to go one way or the other’ nonsense championed by many rival brands.
Having said that, there’s no doubt that the majority of Samsung’s marketing push with its latest screens has been focussed on its LCD rather than its plasma contenders. Most specifically the sumptuously designed ‘hint of red’ A656 LCD models, numerous examples of which have performed very nicely in recent TrustedReviews tests.
So it’s with some curiosity that we get our hands on Samsung’s PS50A556: the first plasma TV we’ve seen from the Korean mega-corps in some time. Will this turn out to be one of Samsung’s best-kept secrets, or will the brand’s relative silence about its plasma screens be joined by a luke-warm performance?
First impressions, as usual with Samsung, are very promising. For the TV’s price of just £1040 for a 50in plasma TV is really quite amazing. Especially when that 50in plasma TV also happens to sport a Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 pixel count.
The set is also quite easy on the eye in its high-gloss black finish offset by a little semi-translucent strip along the bottom edge. Having said that, it’s certainly no rival for the A656 LCD models aesthetically, and doesn’t stand out from the crowd as much as Samsung TVs usually do.
It’s also not quite as emphatically well connected as many Samsung TVs. But that just means it ‘only’ has three v1.3 HDMIs like the vast majority of its rivals, rather than the grandstanding four found on other recent Samsung TVs. The PS50A556 does still retain, though, the handy ‘Wiselink’ USB 2.0 port for direct playback of JPEG images from USB storage devices, alongside the customary D-Sub PC and SCART options.
People looking to fit the PS50A556 into a custom, fully wired home cinema installation might be annoyed that the set has no RS-232C control port. But to be honest, we suspect that the majority of such people will be looking a little higher up the AV tree for their big-screen centrepiece.
When it comes to other specifications, the slightly hit and miss tone established so far continues. Failing to really catch the eye, for instance, is a claimed contrast ratio of 30,000:1. It probably sounds crazy to diss a figure like this when only a year or two ago the very highest flat TV contrast figures around were between 15,000:1 and 20,000:1. But there’s just no getting around the fact that the industry leaders in the plasma world, Panasonic and Pioneer, are now both quoting figures in excess of 1,000,000:1.
It’s also a slight pity these days not to find 100Hz on this set, though there is potential compensation for this in the shape of Samsung’s Movie Plus system, which interpolates extra frames of image data to try and make motion look sharper and more fluid.
It’s also a slight pity these days not to find 100Hz on this set, though there is potential compensation for this in the shape of Samsung’s Movie Plus system, which interpolates extra frames of image data to try and make motion look sharper and more fluid.
That’s not the end of the video processing either, as the set also carries Samsung’s DNIe+ video processing, with its desire to improve colours, contrast, motion and noise suppression. You get 18-bit colour processing promising 262,144 shades of grey level gradation, and Samsung’s Filterbright technology, whereby a special filter built into the screen drastically reduces onscreen reflections. This feature is one of the contributing factors to the set’s 30,000:1 contrast ratio.
Other interesting features include a selection of reasonably useful picture presets; picture-in-picture facilities; a tool for tackling plasma’s issues with screen burn; and an unusual ‘cell light’ option reckoned to affect the screen’s overall light output. Though to be honest, we struggled to see how this latter feature did anything not also achievable via the set’s brightness and contrast settings.
Other interesting features include a selection of reasonably useful picture presets; picture-in-picture facilities; a tool for tackling plasma’s issues with screen burn; and an unusual ‘cell light’ option reckoned to affect the screen’s overall light output. Though to be honest, we struggled to see how this latter feature did anything not also achievable via the set’s brightness and contrast settings.
There’s one last niggle I need to get off my chest before we get into the PS50A556’s performance: it’s operating system. For the most part this isn’t bad, thanks to a decently designed remote control and passably attractive onscreen menus. But it lets itself down in two really daft ways. First, to skip between external video inputs, you have to repeatedly press the ‘Source’ button, rather than being able to call up a list of inputs and quickly select the one you want from there.
Second, if you choose, say, the Sports picture preset, you can’t change this from the Picture or Sound onscreen menus; if you try to, you just get a message telling you to change the feature from the separate Setup menu. Surely it would have been simpler to let you adjust the Preset from the picture and sound sections rather than generate an error message pointing you elsewhere? Weird.
Coming to the 50PSA556 pretty soon after LG’s surprisingly impressive 47LG7000 LCD model, I have to say that my immediate feeling regarding its picture performance was one of slight disappointment.
This stems from two sources: the image’s brightness, and the image’s sharpness.
Regarding the brightness, there’s just no ignoring the gap between the sort of vibrancy and punch of the LG LCD and the relatively dull, muted light output of the Samsung.
You can improve things to some extent by calling in the PS50A556’s Dynamic output mode, but even this can’t totally redress the balance. And it also has the unfortunate side effect of making sources – especially standard definition broadcasts – look distractingly noisy.
As for sharpness, despite the PS50A556 having a Full HD resolution it just doesn’t deliver the same sort of jaw-dropping high definition snap and clarity seen with the very best LCD screens – especially any of Philips’ recent output.
