Home > Consumer Reviews > Samsung FPT5884 58-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

I purchased the Samsung 58' plasma in mid October. Since the item was only a few weeks old when I purchased it I had trouble finding reviews. I went to best buy where the Panasonic th-58pz700u and the samsung fpt5884 were set up side by side. I could not see any noticeable difference in the picture quality. The pioneer pdp-6010fd was in a different area of the store so it was hard to compare it to the other two. I had read reviews that the panasonic had possibly taken a step backwards this year with their plasmas, and that the 5,000:1 contrast ratio was a inadequate. The Pioneer seemed too expensive for miminal improvements over the samsung and panasonic. The 24 fps (3:3 pulldown) film mode would be nice, but I don't watch that many movies and when i do I don't notice any visual defects. The 2 year warranty made it an easy decision to go with the samsung. The pioneer would have been nice, but to me unless I'm looking at both sets side by side everyday, I'm not going to know I'm missing anything. My Samsung 58' looks great to me and that's all that matters. I also own a Hitachi 55hds69 plasma that I use in my basement. The hitachi was praised for it's connectivity and accurate color reproduction. The hitachi's downside was a weak black level. The samsung's black level is incredible, especially when compared to the Hitachi. Samsung's color reproduction seems to be pretty good too. The Hitachi has a native resolution of 1366x768. The difference in the 1080p vs 720p is noticeable on hd dvds and blu-ray movies, and night and day when viewing digital photos on the tv. The samsung's anti-glare coating is pretty effective too. My only two real complaints are the 1.)fact that you have to cycle through all the inputs to get to the one you want, and 2.)the tv will not send the sound out in 5.1 dolby digital only analog stereo (with the exception being direct input sources like a cable through the coax on the tv). That's really not a big deal since you will probably use a separate receiver, but with the hitachi I can just leave my receiver on one source and change only the input on the tv since the hitachi will send all outgoing signals in 5.1 dolby digital. The input selection thing is quite annoying, because when I wall mounted the tv I ran a set of component input wires and a set of rca av wires for future use so I would not have to take the tv down if I ever wanted to use those inputs. Now the tv always cycles through those inputs. I unplugged those wires and it still cycles through them. I called samsung tech support and they were of no help. They suggested turning the tv off for 2 minutes and then transferred my call to level 2 tech support. Level 2 told me that those inputs had always showed up and that was the way the tv functioned when I bought it. That is not true, and I even asked the guy "if that's true then why aren't all the input options showing up?" He didn't know. Also the picture in picture is pointless. It can only be used with analog sources. Please do not use the pic in pic as a factor in buying this tv.

If you are on the fence as far as plasma vs lcd I would like to dispell some of the misconceptions and myths associated with plasmas. Burn-in is always the first thing you hear when it comes to plasmas. I have owned the Hitachi for 11 months and I can honestly say that I have never had any problems with burn-in or image retention on either tv. I don't watch a lot of programs with side bars, but even when I do it has never been a problem. A friend of mine has a 42' LG which I did see image retention on the side 4:3 black bars on after he played a playstation 2 game on it for about 2 hours, but even that went away. I have an xbox 360 and a playstation 3. I have played a-lot of games on both sets and have never had any problems with burn-in from gaming either. Normal viewing of programs like espn hd where there are commercials to break up the side bars changes image enough to avoid the problem. If you're watching a-lot of standard def stuff and you're not willing to live with the zoom views, then I really don't know why you would buy a HD tv anyway. HD is meant to be 16:9 aspect.

The second issue with plasmas is the glare off the screen. My hitachi is terrible. Although it is really only evident when gaming or watching movies with a-lot of dark scenes. The samsung 58 seems to do a-lot better job with the glare issues. The only time I notice it is when I watch a dark movie at night, I will get some glare from the lights in my breakfast nook area. None of the other lights in the room produce glare on the set so I simply turn those lights off and use a different light source. The other thing to remember is that the plasmas are so much brighter than conventional tube tvs, crts, and even dlps that most glare is eliminated anyway. I can watch football or baseball all day long and only notice the sunlight shining onto my screen when I turn the set off. My previous tv in my family room was a 60' hitachi crt. The glare off the plastic screen protector was horrible, and the image wasn't bright enough to overcome the problem. Oh and speaking of that 60' crt, when I bought it 10 years ago they told me never to play video games on it because it could burn-in. Thousands of games later, no burns what-so-ever in the crt screen either.
Plasma tvs have an awesome viewing range, easily handle fast motion, and easily produce deepest blacks. Lcds have a more limited viewing range, have difficulty with fast motion, and struggle to produce deep blacks. To me it is a shame that lcds seem to lead the market only because of a couple of misconceptions associated with plasmas that are widely overstated.

Well this review has to be "first impressions" because I have had the 5884 less than a week. The only bad part was the "white glove delivery service" offered when bought through Amazon. My delivery was confirmed with a 2 man crew, well, the second person must have been invisible because it was just the driver, so I had a choice to make, reject the delivery for another day or help the driver with the unit. He brought the tv into the garage where he unpacked it and then he and I lifted it up, 140lbs!!
It really is a job for 3 people, it was tough, but we did it, I wrote to Amazon about this experience, but they have not emailed me back.
Onto the tv..............Attached the HDMI cable from the cable box to the tv, then the power cord, turned it on, the SD channels are OK, not great, but when I went to the HD channels, it blew me away. I was watching a live broadcast of news, and I thought the newscaster was in my living room. The settings out of the box are amazing. The contrast was turned up to the max, may play with that, turned off the annoying chime when the tv turns on and off, have surround sound from the speakers, and that is about all the tweaking I did. They say to be careful at the beginning and have a picture full screen so it does not leave a burn in effect. The colors are vivid and realistic, and the unit is really easy to use. Recommend spending some time reading the users manual to learn about the tv and all the controls on the remote. I am using it as a tv, I am not a gamer, so I cannot comment on game content and picture quality of gaming. Some of the buttons on the remote are small, and only part of the remote is backlit, when you hit a button to backlight the unit only a few buttons, not all are backlit. I recommend spending time to know the remote control. I think the sound is excellent fromt he speakers, no vibration, and I may not bring up the receiver and speaker system as I had originally plannned, but just leave it as it is. I considered 3 tv's at this size, the Pioneer, Panasonic 700u and this unit. I could not see a difference in picture quality of the Pio over the other 2, so I eliminated the Pio, also the price was much more. What pushed me over the edge to buy this tv was, it was a little less expensive(not primary reason), shipped than the Panny, I thought the picture was brighter on the Sammy, and the Sammy has a 2 yr warranty, while the Panny has a 1 year warranty. Amazon did prove to be reliable, but the actual delivery was not fun as I mentioned above.
I would highly recommend this unit. Good luck to people wanting to wall mount it. It is a 3 man lift job to the wall mounts if you desire to do so, the tv comes on the stand out of the box and is sitting on our dresser, just perfect.
Update: I called Amazon about the delivery problem, they gave me a small credit to my next order, OK,resolved.

After much research online and staring at Panasonic and Samsung sitting next to each other at various stores, went with Samsumg FP-T5884. Extremely happy with the purchase. I am going through all my DVD collection! I have it hooked up with Philips DVD DVP5982 (1080P upconvert - didn't want to waste money on Blueray or HD DVD at this time) and Onkyo 705 receiver. I have Dish Network DVR 722 and the DVD player hooked up to the Onkyo receiver with HDMI and the receiver hooked up to the TV with HDMI. Make no mistake, you have to take time to tweak the settings on these devices to get the audio and video you like. Once you do that, just sit and enjoy the experience!! The Standard Def content from the Dish Network is also ok once you tweak the settings. Overall, you can't go wrong with this TV. Make sure you get HDMI 1.3 certified cables if running through a receiver capable of 1.3. I have cables & surge protectors from Belkin, works perfect.

I purchased my Samsung FPT5884 plasma from Amazon after Thanksgiving on Monday, November 26. Amazon was out of stock, and my Samsung was shipped by Vanns. I expected to receive White Glove delivery since I purchased through Amazon, but I discovered that Vanns does not provide White Glove delivery like Amazon. This was initially very concerning to me, but all turned out well. I was called by the delivery company on Thursday to set up a delivery time for Monday, December 3 -- 7 days after I placed my order! The delivery company arrived when they said they would and delivered the huge box to my front door. My adult son helped me uncrate the TV and place it on the entertainment center. Beware, it does take two very strong people to handle this monster (or White Glove delivery)!

Within minutes I hooked a HDMI cable to my HDTV cable box, and the monster screen lit up in rich, glorious color. The picture definition and detail were absolutely remarkable. Setup instructions were very easy to follow. I turned off the internal Surround Sound speakers since I'm using a Bose system for Surround Sound.

I also purchased a Samsung Blu-ray disc player, and you will be blown away by the Blu-ray movies on this 58 inch monster. The screen is so large, it's like having an IMAX theater in your home.

My friends are wowed by the luxurious, rich colors and amazing detail of the picture. The live sporting events are absolutely spectacular. You really do feel like you're at the game.

Obviously, this is a major purchase. I spent considerable time and energy visiting the electronics stores and researching the technical reviews on the web and the consumer reviews on Amazon. I'm convinced I purchased the very best 1080p plasma HDTV for the price. If you purchase this superior piece of technology, I think you will too.

Just got this tv last week and it has surpassed all expectations. I have hi-def from a Terk antenna and its the BEST picture I have ever seen, even compared to other high-end displays found in stores. SD channels are good only when using s-video or component, but even a regular progressive scan dvd player looks amazing using component video cable.
For the price compared to KURO or panasonic this one is a great great tv