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Samsung PN51D6500 Plasma HDTV

24.09.2011
The $1400 (as of September 4, 2011) Samsung PN51D6500 sports some very cool features. One attractive and easy-to-use screen gives you access to all of your local and Internet sources. It provides a single interface for searching for movies and TV shows across all of the set's video-on-demand services. For the most part, its images--both 3D and 2D--look very good, and its audio is as good as you could reasonably expect from an unaided television. But pieces of its user interface--especially text entry-- feel half-baked. And even by plasma standards, the PN51D6500 is a power hog.

The PN51D6500's image quality is very good, but not exceptional, earning Very Good marks for Brightness and Contrast, and Good for Detail and Motion. But the set had its problems, too. More than one judge complained about yellowish colors and too much contrast, and some test scenes looked oversaturated. It received universally low scores in a test that the PCWorld Lab designed to isolate and exaggerate diagonal motion problems. We noted less extreme but similar problems in a clip from Mission Impossible III.

Though PCWorld hasn't yet added 3D image quality tests to its HDTV test process, several scenes from the 3D Avatar Blu-ray disc looked very impressive. Simulated 3D from a 2D image occasionally looked great, but not reliably so.

The PN51D6500 uses active-shutter glasses. The TV doesn't come with glasses, but a current promotion sells the PN51D6500 bundled with the , which includes two pairs of glasses. Samsung assured me that it has no plans to discontinue the promotion.

The PN51D6500 gets as close to true surround sound as any television set I've heard. The sound is quite rich, too, with a full dynamic range. I noticed considerable strain with the volume turned all the way up, but since that's too loud for comfortable listening, it shouldn't be a problem. At 70 percent, I heard no strain and felt no need for extra volume.

Press the remote control's Smart button, and you'll find the Smart Hub, one of the most attractive and practical user interface screens I've seen on an HDTV. Here you can point and click to different sources, run Samsung apps, and access various Internet-based services--while whatever you were watching remains visible in a window. Current services include BBC News, Hulu Plus, MLB.TV, Netflix, Pandora, and a collection of radio stations. The Social TV app gives you access to Facebook and Twitter, though you must create an account with Samsung to get to them. You can download additional apps for Accuweather, Google Maps, YouTube, and other services.