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Review
While HDTV sets have come down in price greatly in the past year, some
people just don’t want to spend 2-3k on a television. Well, people can
now get a 1080P set for less than $2k. Vizio offers HD sets comparable
in size/performance for much less than its bigger name competitors. In
this review we will detail what the Vizio offers consumers.

While most LCD’s offer sets in the 46″ range, the Vizio offers a 47″.
For those that think bigger is better, the 1″ is a nice extra. With a
pixel resolution of 1920×1080, this HDTV is capable of displaying 1080p
signals. This means that the GV47LF will not need to compress even the
most intricate progressive scan data signal before displaying it in
brilliant color and clarity. The Vizio Gallevia has an 8ms response
time and can produce over 16 million colors. Although it is a 1080P set
like the Samsung 4669 we reviewed, I didnt feel as though the picture
was quite as clear or bright. When watching the Vizio by itself, the
picture was outstanding. It wasn’t until I viewed the Vizio next to the
Samsung could I tell a difference between the two. Overall the picture
of the Vizio was very good when displaying hidef movies or a hd
television show.

The Vizio, while not offering as many connections as some of the other
sets reviewed, offers ample inputs for consumers. It has 2 HDMI
connections on the back of the set, 2 component inputs, 1 antenna
input, and 1 S-Video input. For most people this will be more than
enough to handle all their equipment needs.

The Vizio has a black bezel screen with silver speakers on the bottom
and a silver stand. While there is nothing wrong with the Vizio’s
appearance I personally do not find it nearly as attractive as most of
the major brand LCD’s. I prefer the all black sleek designs of many of
its competitors. 32Of course this comes down to just personal preference.

When evaluating this set, I feel like the Vizio is more than adequate
in all categories without being excellent in any of them. Everything
about this set is solid and should make any consumer happy. For those
of you that either don’t have $2-3K for a tv or just don’t want to spend
that type of money then this may just be the set for you.

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Review
In the battle between LCD vs plasma televisions one of the flaws of the
LCD was its inability to handle fast motion images. The problem seemed
to show itself mostly in sporting events and action movies. If you
watched closely you could see the image blur while in fast motion. The
newer LCD sets have tried to solve this problem by running on 120hz.
These LCD’s are now able to handle the fast motion with virtually no
blur. The Samsung LNT4669 is one of the newer LCD models currently on the
market that process with 120hz. I have seen several sporting events on
this set (football/basketball) and could see virtually no motion blur.
It is clearly more capable of handling motion that previous LCD models.
This technology doubles the frame rate from 60 to 120 frames per second
(120Hz LCD panel) without repeating the same image to make more frames.
Instead, the TV intelligently calculates the middle image between
frames and inserts it in the middle making the transition much more
smooth and fluid.

Like most of the newer lcd/plasma sets, the Samsung LN-T4669 also has 1080p resolution. 1080p is the highest resolution currently available which
can be seen in either HD-DVD or Blu-ray. Most HiDef programming is only
720p/1080i but the Samsung is future proof which should comfort any
buyer. These 1080P sets really shine when playing a hidef movie (HDDVD
or Bluray). Watching a scene from Pirates of the Carribean on this set
is simply amazing. The colors seemed to pop off the screen while the
images were crystal clear. The 20,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio the
Samsung possesses will give you a picture better than you ever thought
possible - with whiter whites, blacker blacks and a nearly infinite
subtlety of gradations in between. I mostly use a Samsung 71″ DLP for
my viewing and can safely say that the Samsung 4669 clearly produces a
much cleaner/brighter picture.

The Samsung LNT4669F is also no slouch in what it offers in terms of
input/connections. It offers 3 HDMI inputs, 1 being on the side of the
tv and 2 in the rear. Connect HD digital devices like disc players,
game consoles, and satellite dish components into the 2 rear
connections and use the side-mounted input for cameras, camcorders, and
laptops. HDMI is the best performing interface for displaying an HD
source on an HDTV. If you have Blu-ray or HDDVD, PS3 or Xbox360, then
you definitely will need several HDMI inputs. Along with the HDMI
inputs you also have 2 S-video, 2 component, and 2 antenna connections.
Basically it has more connections than anyone will probably ever need.

The set itself is gorgeous like most of the flat panel televisions on
the market. It is glossy black and very smooth. The Samsung weighs
55lbs without the stand and 66.8lbs with the stand. The screen itself
has a depth of only 4.1″ making it perfect to hang on any wall. If you
use the stand the depth increases to 12 3/5″. The height is 30-9/10″
with stand (28-1/5″ without) and the width is 44 3/5″.

Overall this is a great set if you are willing to spend the extra money
for 1080P/120hz. If you are like me and watch a lot of sports and
Blu-ray/HD-DVD movies, then this set is definitely for you.

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Like most 50-inch plasma televisions, the Pioneer Kuro PDP-5080 HDTV has a screen resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels. That’s not as many as competing (and usually more expensive) 1080p models. However, at the 50 inch screen size, the benefits of 1080p are dubious for most sources. While most plasmas do an adequate job of displaying blacks, the Pioneer Kuro PDP-5080 is exceptional! One flaw out of the box is its color accuracy. The Kuro’s accuracy is not the best, especially with greens. To achieve the best picture, an adjustment is definitely needed and can be easily tuned.

Design
The Pioneer Kuro PDP-5080, like most plasmas today, is very sleek in appearance. The shell is a glossy black with silver along the sides, bottom, and top of the set. From the front, only the black is visible. The Pioneer Kuro 50″ plasma includes a matching stand. It allows the speaker bar below the panel to be completely removed in case you want to use an external audio system exclusively.

Overall
This Pioneer 50-inch plasma TV displays a deeper shade of black with supreme shadow detail and a clean image with little noise. The Pioneer Kuro HDTV also has an anti-reflective screen which greatly reduces the glare of light. Although it isn’t 1080p, we don’t feel this is a problem for a set this size. We were hard pressed to find a difference between the picture from this set and one of the newer 1080p sets. Overall, we feel this is one of the best sets on the market, definitely worth purchasing.

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Review
The Samsung FP-T5084 50 in HD plasma is capable of displaying a true high definition picture (1080P). It is Samsung’s first venture into the hd 1080p market. While plasmas have had problems displaying dark blacks in the past, this set does a pretty good job. It is definitely on par or better than most of the plasmas currently on the market. Although the picture was pretty good right out of the box some adjusting was needed to get the best possible picture. Luckily, the Samsung provides plenty of picture controls which are easy to use. Once adjusted, the Samsung delivered a bright colorful picture. Watching the HD movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory colors were practically exploding off the screen. It was able to handle a broad range of colors equally well.

The Samsung FPT5084 is very sleek and visually appealing. Samsung has mounted this model’s hidden speakers to the side of the 50 inch screen, as opposed to the bottom. This makes the panel a little more short and wide, which makes it easier on the eyes. The sides of the frame also consist of verticle chrome strips, which curve towards the outside and conceal the speakers. The top and bottom frame of the television is relatively thin for a plasma of this size. The bottom bears the Samsung logo and blue light. However, this feature can be disabled.

Overall, the Samsung FPT5084 is a quality tv that should be recommended to anyone looking for an affordable 1080p set. It gets alot of things right even if it isn’t perfect. We would like to see a better glare reducing screen and better processing of non-hd programming but these are in no way a deal breaker. Hopefully, Samsung will address these issues with their next set.