3 reviews

Samsung PN51D550

$1,300.00 Released March, 2011

The Pros:Good burn-in protection, never retains old images. 3D picture quality is excellent, effect has you ducking out of the way and feeling like you're really there. Conversion of 2D to 3D is a lot of fun and works real well.

The Cons:Internet connectivity isn't very useful, Samsung apps don't seem to load. Fair amount of glare off the screen, need to be aware of light sources. Sound isn't very well defined, sounds hollow and washed out.

The Samsung PN51D550 is a 51" plasma 3D HDTV that resides in Samsung's 2011 line of plasma TV's. The 2011 line has some of Samsung's largest and slimmest plasma TV's yet, however the PN51D550 resides in the middle of the line in terms of size.

The TV uses the shutter style of 3D, where the image flickers at a very high frequency between two different version of the video, which is then coordinated with the 3D glasses to block out the left or right lens. Because of this, the 3D glasses are active and require batteries. Like all 2011 Samsung plasmas, the Samsung PN51D550 can upconvert 2D video to have a 3D effect, as well as use the Samsung AllShare software to stream media from a DLNA compatible computer over WiFi. However, the D550 does not offer the Samsung Smart Hub with a web browser and Samsung Apps, like the higher level D8000, D7000, and D6500 televisions do.

Features

51" diagonal screen
3D ready
Plasma
ATSC/ClearQAM HDTV tuner
2D to 3D upconversion
600Hz
200,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
Samsung AllShare for DLNA streaming (requires Samsung WiFi dongle)
Wall-mountable
Inputs: USB x2, HDMI x4, Component x2, Composite x1 (uses same audio as a component), PC x1, RFx1
Outputs: Optical digital audio

User Reviews (3)

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ProScore

Pros

3

good burn-in protection, never retains old images
2

3D picture quality is excellent, effect has you ducking out of the way and feeling like you're really there
2

conversion of 2D to 3D is a lot of fun and works real well
2

bezel is extremely thin for a plasma, much smaller than plasmas of the past, sleek design saves a lot of space
2

plays movies off of a thumb drive right away, look great without noticeable loss of detail