Samsung Plasma PS42A450

The norm at tech2 in recent times has been LCD TVs, and rightfully so, as they are leading the market for flat panel displays. But, plasma is not dead, and it won’t really die out so soon. That is why a brand like Samsung is still making them. I have here their new model, a 42-inch plasma TV, called the PS42A450. So let's see how well it fares on our scales.

Design and Features
The TV is glossy black, with quite a slim and minimalist bezel. It sits on an oval shaped stand with a similar black finish. The edge of the bottom panel consists of the only aesthetic tinge, in the form of a gun metal colored strip stuck on seamlessly. When turned on, a semicircular blue LED glows, right under the Samsung Logo on the bottom panel. The right edge bears touch sensitive buttons, vertically arranged on the front side of the edge. These are black too, thus making the overall look of the TV quite slick.

The connection window is at the bottom right corner of the back panel (left side when viewed from front), along with a small side slot on the edge. The ports include 3 HDMIs, 2 component ins and one PC (D-sub)in, apart from a few basic RCA style i/o for audio and composite video. Connectivity-wise I will have to say the options are very basic, what with LCDs offering so many options. It's definitely enough though and it is possible to set up a nice AV rack with the TV. The TV comes with 2 downward firing speakers, which give out 20 watts of total power.

The unit comes with 30,000:1 contrast ratio, a brightness rating of 1500 cd/m2 and native resolution of 1024 x 768. This makes it an HD ready panel. The main USP is a 3D engine, which allows for 3D source images to be viewed, which actually means there are 2 images played for each eye. Now to use this you will need the appropriate source content and tools like DDD software/Nvidia graphics cards. There are quite a few 3D DVD and games released, plus I heard Google Earth's latest edition can be viewed in 3D. Besides, this unit supports 100 Hz video, and also has Samsung’s proprietary DNIe engine that tweaks your images to perfection (well almost).