The Samsung PS51E8000 is a great Plasma TV. It features good black levels, and since it’s a PDP, those blacks are consistently dark across the entire screen surface and viewing area – even although they’re not the absolute darkest out there. After only a basic setup, picture quality is good, with a calibrated E8000 producing some of the best images we’ve seen lately.
However, if you’ve been reading this review and thinking that it lacks the sheer enthusiasm of our earlier review of the E6500 plasma, you’d be right. The PS51E8000 features almost no picture quality improvements over the midrange E6500 series, and more irritatingly still, the European version features a years-old Samsung misfeature where the noise reduction filter can’t be turned off. This means that even with high quality noise-free content, film grain (which isn’t the same as noise!) and other fine motion details can be blurred out – a difficult pill to swallow for video enthusiasts on a high-end display, and downright silly considering that the cheaper E6500 series is free of the issue. It also appears that the unlockable CAL-DAY and CAL-NIGHT calibration modes found on the US version have been left out of the European model, which is another missed opportunity to add more value to this top-end plasma.
That leaves the subjectively better design, slimmer profile, extra USB input, and built-in webcam and mic unit (with the attached voice control, gesture control, and Skype video chat potential) as the only reasons we can see for justifying a step up to the E8000 plasma series. The fact that Samsung are being generous with their midrange plasmas shouldn’t mean that we penalise the high-end version, however – but we do have to remind readers where the best value for money lies.
Compared to Panasonic’s excellent 2012 plasma range, the 51-inch Samsung plasma stacks up well. The Panasonics have considerably deeper black levels, but if you watch the television in a brighter environment, Samsung’s limitation here won’t matter much, and let’s not forget that Panasonic’s European GT50 and VT50 models produce a dimmer picture in their most configurable modes (which is another instance of manufacturers somehow managing to saddle their more expensive products with strange limitations that aren’t present on cheaper variants). Both are more or less even for motion quality, although Samsung manages to avoid coloured streaks becoming visible at higher refresh rates, which is an issue with European-style 50hz video. Samsung wins for 3D picture resolution, presenting a full 1080 lines with absolutely no jaggedness – something Panasonic can’t claim – although the Japanese manufacturer’s 3-dimensional images are more naturally coloured.
In the end we decided to give the Samsung PS51E8000 a somewhat hesistant “Highly Recommended” rating. As enthusiasts, we’re tired of Samsung (and LG) TVs performing unnecessary and damaging video “enhancements” that can’t be switched off, and we’re willing to bet that a good part of our target audience (AV die-hards) will have already scratched the 51E8000 off their shortlists as a result of this. However, the fact remains that this is small fry compared to the numerous worse problems that exist on nearly every other flat-panel (LCD-based) TV on the market. The European version of the E8000 series plasmas are hobbled, but they’re still some of the best HDTVs available today. Accordingly, the PS51E8000 just manages to score a highly recommended rating, but we feel that Samsung still need to be reminded that AV enthusiasts want a natural, unprocessed image.
