Pros: Lots of features, Excellent picture quality, Good value
Cons: Black levels are not so impressive, Reflective screen in well-lit rooms
The Samsung PN51D6500 is a great value for the money, providing a balance between performance and features. It offers solid display performance, a fantastic multimedia & streaming content platform, and 3D display. The performance is strong in most regards and the weaknesses are endemic to plasma TVs, not this model in particular. Samsung’s new approach to multimedia content makes it the best Smart TV platform, perhaps.
This TV is just ideal for environment of a living room that is quite dark or home theater due to its relatively low light output and brightness. Viewing shows the deepest black levels to be very rich, even as peak white was less than average. Combined though contrast looks good and the TVs picture quality is fantastic with smooth motion, excellent realistic color rendition, inky blacks, and top quality dark shadow detail. In a very bright room with lots of sunlight, this may not be the best TV for you due to the lower brightness levels.
Dispensation quality is a key for up conversion of lower end signals and the PN51D6500 performs very well in this area. It does a very nice job of smoothing any would-be artifacts from images. We believe this is a category that does not receive enough attention with the widespread adoption of Internet TV services which stream video in 720p or less resolution. Colors are rich, and black levels and dark shadow detail remain outstanding. Side angle viewing is perfect even at extreme side views.
The PN51D6500's wireless access needs no Wifi dongle and works seamlessly. It's speedy too. Even when streaming movies we experienced no lag in programming.
Samsung's Smart Hub has a good selection of Internet TV Apps and Options. There are the usual must haves like Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, USA Today, AP, Accuweather. There are also many free easily downloadable Apps such as NBA Game Time Light, MLB.TV, ESPN Score Center. Some of the Apps are more worthy than others. For example, the ESPN Score Center App shows box scores from MLB, Nascar, NHL, WNBA running down the left side of the screen. MLB.TV does the same. Neither has any video clip footage. If you want to access the games, you'll have to subscribe to the premium service. Many small Apps like Pac man, or ART, or Eye Exam or various workout video apps cost between .99 and 2.99 each.
Sound quality from the PND6500 is very good especially compared to the super thin LED-LCD TVs we have seen lately. The 10W X 10W speakers deliver lots more base and a fuller, richer sound – without the tinniness of super small speakers. There was plenty of volume to fill a large room at the 50% level. There are impressively 5 Sound Mode options whereas most TVs only have two. Music videos did not sound great but we felt the sound quality was well balanced. The included remote is well laid out, simple, backlit and easy to use. There is a special key for the Smart Hub features. Using the return button when searching through Internet Apps options saves lots of time. The new menu for 2011 is excellent. Its simple design is much faster and easier to use than last year's as there is a tutorial description for each function out to the right. Menu options are complete without going overboard. There is no dejudder control function on the D6500 series. The Samsung 3D active shutter glasses are battery powered and much improved from last year in that they are very light and more comfortable. They also work better as there is no more flicker and flashing from the sides as the glasses struggle to sync with the TV. This is probably a result of better transmitters in the TV as well as the glasses.
It’s surprising to find that the Samsung PN51D6500, a plasma TV, does not produce as good a 3D image as its LCD sister model, the UNxxD6500. The differences are not overwhelming, but the Samsung PN51D6500 clearly shows more crosstalk, especially in high contrast areas.
This is quite unusual, because everything reviewed prior to this TV indicates that plasmas using active shutter are better than LCDs using active shutter, with crosstalk being the primary issue. We’re all in agreement that passive 3D (or “Cinema 3D,” as LG calls it) is a distant third due to the resolution loss.
Cons: Black levels are not so impressive, Reflective screen in well-lit rooms
The Samsung PN51D6500 is a great value for the money, providing a balance between performance and features. It offers solid display performance, a fantastic multimedia & streaming content platform, and 3D display. The performance is strong in most regards and the weaknesses are endemic to plasma TVs, not this model in particular. Samsung’s new approach to multimedia content makes it the best Smart TV platform, perhaps.
This TV is just ideal for environment of a living room that is quite dark or home theater due to its relatively low light output and brightness. Viewing shows the deepest black levels to be very rich, even as peak white was less than average. Combined though contrast looks good and the TVs picture quality is fantastic with smooth motion, excellent realistic color rendition, inky blacks, and top quality dark shadow detail. In a very bright room with lots of sunlight, this may not be the best TV for you due to the lower brightness levels.
Dispensation quality is a key for up conversion of lower end signals and the PN51D6500 performs very well in this area. It does a very nice job of smoothing any would-be artifacts from images. We believe this is a category that does not receive enough attention with the widespread adoption of Internet TV services which stream video in 720p or less resolution. Colors are rich, and black levels and dark shadow detail remain outstanding. Side angle viewing is perfect even at extreme side views.
The PN51D6500's wireless access needs no Wifi dongle and works seamlessly. It's speedy too. Even when streaming movies we experienced no lag in programming.
Samsung's Smart Hub has a good selection of Internet TV Apps and Options. There are the usual must haves like Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, USA Today, AP, Accuweather. There are also many free easily downloadable Apps such as NBA Game Time Light, MLB.TV, ESPN Score Center. Some of the Apps are more worthy than others. For example, the ESPN Score Center App shows box scores from MLB, Nascar, NHL, WNBA running down the left side of the screen. MLB.TV does the same. Neither has any video clip footage. If you want to access the games, you'll have to subscribe to the premium service. Many small Apps like Pac man, or ART, or Eye Exam or various workout video apps cost between .99 and 2.99 each.
Sound quality from the PND6500 is very good especially compared to the super thin LED-LCD TVs we have seen lately. The 10W X 10W speakers deliver lots more base and a fuller, richer sound – without the tinniness of super small speakers. There was plenty of volume to fill a large room at the 50% level. There are impressively 5 Sound Mode options whereas most TVs only have two. Music videos did not sound great but we felt the sound quality was well balanced. The included remote is well laid out, simple, backlit and easy to use. There is a special key for the Smart Hub features. Using the return button when searching through Internet Apps options saves lots of time. The new menu for 2011 is excellent. Its simple design is much faster and easier to use than last year's as there is a tutorial description for each function out to the right. Menu options are complete without going overboard. There is no dejudder control function on the D6500 series. The Samsung 3D active shutter glasses are battery powered and much improved from last year in that they are very light and more comfortable. They also work better as there is no more flicker and flashing from the sides as the glasses struggle to sync with the TV. This is probably a result of better transmitters in the TV as well as the glasses.
It’s surprising to find that the Samsung PN51D6500, a plasma TV, does not produce as good a 3D image as its LCD sister model, the UNxxD6500. The differences are not overwhelming, but the Samsung PN51D6500 clearly shows more crosstalk, especially in high contrast areas.
This is quite unusual, because everything reviewed prior to this TV indicates that plasmas using active shutter are better than LCDs using active shutter, with crosstalk being the primary issue. We’re all in agreement that passive 3D (or “Cinema 3D,” as LG calls it) is a distant third due to the resolution loss.
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