Samsung Plasma Flat-Panel TV - 50" (HP-T5054)

This is a good set, but it could have been better. You will need an audio/video receiver even if your speakers have optical input. This is because the set will not pass 5.1 from your HDMI input to the optical output. The set has good burn-in protection. It has a white screen, which is in case you do get burn-in. It also has a scrolling screen, which will reduce image retention, and it has pixel shifting. Pixel shifting will move pixels if the system detects a static image. You can set how many pixels it will shift (up to 4), and how quickly it will shift it (down to 1 minute). I have it set on max (4 and 1), and I can't notice the shift. The default setting of "Dynamic" is a bit too much for the break in process (100 hours). I had image retention from watching the NBA playoffs. I was using the default, Dynamic setting as well as the default pixel shift setting. When I tried using it as a monitor, it resulted in gray bars on the side. This was even at native resolution. One time, and only one time, I did get it to display without the bars. To be fair, I wasn't using the dedicated PC input. I was using DVI to HDMI cable. I tried setting the scaling to my video card's scaling of the native resolution, and to the Samsung's scaling of the native resolution, and it would still display the bars. The black levels are good, and I can't complain about the primaries.

At 50" 1080P vs. 720P is hard to tell apart. Good black levels. Good corrective measures for burn-in. No ghosting.

Power button feels cheap. Cannot output 5.1 from optical out when using HDMI input. Default settings WILL lead to image retention when watching sports. When connecting a PC, there were gray bars on the side. No optical input.