Pros: Excellent Value at the price I paid, Excellent picture after making adjustments to the settings, beautiful bezel design, remote control and adjustments are logically designed

Cons: Couldn’t get my iPod/iPhone to connect/play audio or video files via the USB hard drive interface,software for interface is horrible, black shiny bezel is a dust magnet, picture is a little green using presets, buzzing power supply reported by some.

Summary: I bought this TV as a Black Friday special for $799. I decided to go with this unit after doing a lot of research on LCD’s and Plasmas from Panasonic, Sony, Vizio and Samsung. I was considering the Panasonic Viera TC-PVT20/25 3D TV as my ideal choice. It was CNET’s editor’s choice for 2010 and the one I really wanted but I had other purchases to make, such as a Sony PS3 so it was out of my budget. I also decided that I didn’t need 3D TV as much as I originally thought. I may reconsider once they start marketing 3D TV’s that do not require the expensive and fragile 3D glasses, but for now I was fine with a 2D TV.

After comparing technologies I definitely wanted a plasma for several reasons:
1) My Previous TV was a 42 inch Panasonic Plasma that I purchased in 2006. It was OUTSTANDING and reliable for many years (I ended up re-gifting it to my parents..part # TH-42PX60U). I feel today’s Plasmas are even more reliable and don’t have the issues that the early models suffered from.
2) The Higher refresh rate is better for sports (600mhz vs. 60,120 or 240mhz on LCD/LED TV’s)
3) Plasmas have deeper blacks and any burn in is usually very short term and washes away quickly.

So why did I pick this TV??? After reading the reviews of this Samsung online and going into my local Best Buy to see it in person I decided that this was a good model to take a chance on. Truthfully, it was the $400 instant rebate from Samsung that really made it stand out so I took a calculated risk. Plus, Best Buy has a great return policy provided you keep the original packaging. Ideally I would have wanted to stick with a Panasonic model but I couldn’t justify the price increase to go with their comparable 2D TV (TC-P50G25 which was priced @ $1299).

Pick up and initial set up: I ordered the TV online and had it available for Will Call pickup. They loaded it into the back of my truck & secured it after pulling it out of the box at the store to inspect for damage first (you can save yourself a lot of hassle by doing this). Also, make sure you have 1 or 2 friends available to help you carry it into the house and hold it while installing the base or wall mounting it. My neighbors assisted me and after about 10 minutes I was able to get the TV set up. These new models are dust magnets and I have to clean it 2-3 times a week. My old Panasonic has a Matte Grey Metallic finish and hid dust extremely well. There are still a few models that have that color, including the Best Buy version of the Panasonic model I wanted. Just be aware you will be cleaning this or any other glossy black TV a lot. Use the cleaning rag that came with the TV and only use water (NO SOLVENTS). The TV has 4 HDMI ports and I used 3 of them to connect to my Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Cable Box. There is also a USB port to connect external hard drives, but I can tell you that it does not work well with iPods or iPhones. The software behind it is horrible and appears to have been added as an afterthought. If you want to connect an iPod then get a proper dock through a Home Theater system.

Features/Picture and Sound Quality: I powered it up and thankfully I heard no buzzing noise from the power supply. From what I’ve read that has been an intermittent problem with this model. My advice is to exchange the TV immediately if you experience this issue. The remote is set up very logically & on screen controls are fine. This TV has a LAN port but it is not an internet TV that includes Web Apps (not needed for me because of the PS3/Xbox). It has 3 preset display settings (vivid, Movie and Standard). The Vivid is probably the most useful in my opinion, but they all are a little green in terms of color saturation. Thankfully, there are a lot of fine tuning adjustments available. I went online and pulled up suggested “ideal” calibrated settings for one of the sister PNC models to this unit, the 590. It as a definite improvement but I decided to go with a much brighter cell light setting. This TV is not quite as bright as the Panasonic units I’ve seen but it’s still good. Once I messed with the settings I found the picture to be fantastic, especially on HD channels such as ESPN or playing back Blue Ray movies on my PS3. Gaming is a joy on this TV as well. I had an older Denon S-301 all in one progressive scan DVD/Home theater hooked up to my last TV, but decided not to re-connect it because of my new PS3 purchase (I no longer needed the DVD). I am going to look for a simple but effective audio solution in the future when money permits. For now, the factory speakers work fine. They are no better or worse than what you see on other TV’s in this category.

In summary if you can get this Samsung PN50C550 for $799 to $899 I think it is a steal. Overall I’m very satisfied with my purchase and used the money I saved to get other things I wanted like the PS3. If the price jumps back up then you should consider the equivalent Panasonic model because the price vs. performance delta isn’t there.

source: http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-pn50c550/4505-6482_7-34005787.html#ixzz1CWAV8LQm