Skip to main content
DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

BUY NOW
  • Introduction

  • Tour & Design

  • Performance: Summary

  • Performance: Blacks & Whites

  • Performance: Color

  • Performance: Motion

  • Performance: Viewing Effects

  • Remote Control

  • Audio

  • Connectivity

  • Controls & Menus

  • Formats & Media

  • Power Consumption

  • Conclusion

  • Introduction
  • Tour & Design
  • Performance: Summary
  • Performance: Blacks & Whites
  • Performance: Color
  • Performance: Motion
  • Performance: Viewing Effects
  • Remote Control
  • Audio
  • Connectivity
  • Controls & Menus
  • Formats & Media
  • Power Consumption
  • Conclusion

Introduction

Tour & Design

**Front**

From the front the Samsung PN50A760 is dominated by its 50-inch display. The display is surrounded by a glass bezel in black with subtle red highlights. Below the display on the bezel is the Samsung logo. There's a glowing red strip sitting just under the bezel that acts as a touch sensitive power button. On the right side of the bezel towards the bottom are the rest of the touch sensitive on-tv controls.

**Back**

The back of the Samsung PN50A760 is relatively plain, you'll find a tightly grouped collection of ports at the bottom right.

**Left**

On the left side of the PN50A760 you'll find another collection of ports for easy access.

**Right**

There are no features on the right side of the Samsung PN50A760.

**Stand/Mount**

The Samsung PN50A760's stand is a flat glass pane with the same black and red highlights as the television bezel. The stand does rotate and the television can also be mounted on the wall if you wish.

**Controls**

The on-tv controls are found in two locations. The power controls is found on the touch sensitive red glowing strip that sits directly underneath the bezel on the front. The rest of the controls are found on the right side of the bezel towards the right.

**Remote**

The Samsung PN50A760's remote is similar to those we've seen from other Samsung televisions with a glossy black finish on the front and a curved back.

**In The Box***(5.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760 ships with a remote with batteries, instruction manual, power cord and a cleaning cloth. There are no cables included so you'll need to pick those up separately.

**Aesthetics***(8.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760's is a step above the typical glossy black televisions that you see. The glass bezel and stand are obvious signs of higher-end constructions. You'll have to decide for yourself if you like the subtle red highlights towards the edge of the bezel, but we like the simple and elegant design.

Performance: Summary

The Samsung PN50A760's performance in our testing showed many of the strengths and weaknesses we've come to expect from Plasma televisions. We were quite pleased with the deep blacks the televisions was able to produce, but less impressed with the brightest whites. Handling of greyscale was very good, as was color temperature, but color reproduction was just average. We were very happy with the smoothness of motion, but not as happy with the artifacting we saw. Despite the limitations of plasma the Samsung PN50A760 still did very well overall in our testing and should provide viewers with solid picture quality.

**Calibration**

Televisions don't come out of the box ready to give you the best picture possible, much as we wish they did. As such we take time to calibrate every television that comes into our labs so that we can be sure we're testing the best image quality possible. You can pay someone to come to your home and calibrate your HDTV, or you can use the settings we offer below, which should get you 90% of the way towards a great picture.

To calibrate our HDTVs we use a program called DisplayMate. DisplayMate allows us to finely control what's being displayed on an HDTV so that we can look for specific problems and take very accurate measurements. In addition to using DisplayMate we've also worked closely with DisplayMate's founder and developer to ensure that our staff has the benefit of his years of experience working with HDTVs.

Performance: Blacks & Whites

**Black Level***(8.48)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#blacklevel)

We measured the deepest black of the Samsung PN50A760 at .08 candelas per meter squared (cd/m2). This is a very good number, reinforcing the reputation that Plasma televisions have for producing deep blacks. You can see below that amongst our comparison televisions only the Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ8OU, another plasma display, beats out the PN50A760. The other two televisions have a significantly higher black level, with the Vizio SV470XVT in particular coming in at over five times brighter than the Samsung PN50A760.

**Peak Brightness***(6.36)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#peakwhite)

Like most plasma displays the Samsung PN50A760 doesn't get quite as bright as LCD televisions. We measured the maximum brightness of the PN50A760 at 170.92 cd/m2. We should note that the peak brightness of a plasma television like the PN50A760 varies widely depending on how much of the screen is taken up by white, This is because it takes a lot of power to produce a bright white and plasma televisions have hard ceilings on their total power usage as they use a lot of power and can get really hot. The real impact of this hard ceiling can be seen when you compare the peak brightness with different percentages of white on the display, as you can see in our White Falloff test below. For purposes of peak brightness we use the number from the 20% white screen as this is a good approximation of the amount of white you'll see in the typical scene.

**Contrast***(7.34)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#contrastratio)

The contrast ratio is simply the peak brightness divided by the deepest black. We measured the Samsung PN50A760's contrast ratio to be 2137:1. Contrast ratio is one of those numbers that manufacturers like to throw around a lot, and you may notice that our measured contrast ratio is far below Samsung's published number of 1,000,000:1. The discrepancy can be explained by differences in the way that we and manufacturers measure peak brightness and black level. We try to use numbers that will best reflect your actual usage of the television. Manufacturers tend to inflate their numbers by doing things like turning the screen off completely to measure the deepest black and using a 4% white screen to measure the brightest white.

**Tunnel Contrast***(8.94)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#tunnelcontrast)

In this test we look at how well the black level on the screen holds up as the percentage of it is steadily decreased. Some displays can see significant increases in the brightness of the deepest black when there are a lot of other bright colors around it. The Samsung PN50A760 did a reasonable job in this test, below you can see a graph of the black level against the percentage of white on the display.

You can see that although there was a slight increase in the deepest black it wasn't huge. You also need to realize that as the percentage of black on the display gets progressively smaller and the rest of the screen gets taken up by white it's almost impossible for a display to hold the black level completely constant. Given these constraints we're quite happy with the Samsung PN50A760's performance here.

**White Falloff***(5.23)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#whitefalloff)

This test is pretty much the opposite of the one above. What we're looking at here is how the peak brightness varies as the percentage of white on the screen changes. As you might expect from our brief conversation above it varies quite a bit with plasma displays like the Samsung PN50A760. Below you can see a chart showing you exactly how much it varies.

You can see that the power constraints that plasma displays are under are tested the most when white takes up the entire display. The result is that this is the situation where you get the lowest brightness, coming in at just 72.66 cd/m2. As the percentage of white decreases, however, the brightness increases, ending up at 232.27 cd/m2 when the screen is 5% white. Unfortunately this behavrior can have some annoying real world impacts. For example if you're watching a scene with a lot of white in it, say polar bears playing in the snow, you'll notice the brightness of the display fall significantly. It's worth noting that this is not a problem shared by LCD televisions, something you may want to consider if you're a fan of arctic documentaries.

**Uniformity***(8.25)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#uniformity)

Here we look at how uniform the display of the Samsung PN50A760 is. We noticed some cross hatching in areas of a black screen and to a lesser extent a white screen. We also noted some issues with what is commonly known as burn-in. This is an innacurate term that often refers to two different issues. The first is uneven aging of the pixels. What happens here is that pixels age naturally and become less responsive over time. The second is known as latency. In this case the impurities in the elements of the display are redistributed. In both cases you see the result if you have part of the display work harder than other parts, for example if you have a logo displayed in the same place for an extended period of time.

With the Samsung PN50A760 we noted some latency issues where a logo on our computer desktop showed up as a ghost even when we were displaying something different. We know it was a latency issue because the ghost disappeared relatively quickly after the impurities redistributed themselves again. With aging issues it would take much longer for other pixels to catch up in the aging curve. Latency issues are not that big a deal, but it does mean that a plasma television like the Samsung PN50A760 probably isn't a good choice for a computer monitor or a display monitor.

**Greyscale Gamma***(9.48)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#greyscalegamma)

In this test we look at how well the television reproduces the greyscale curve from white to black. The human eye actually notices differences in greyscale in ratios rather than linearly, so we look at the slope of the gamma curve logarithmically rather than linearly. Below you can see the gamma curve for the Samsung PN50A760 plotted logorathimically.

Our ideal for a gamma curve is a slope of between 2.1 and 2.2, which is indicated by the blue line on the graph above. The Samsung PN50A760's gamma curve was actually quite close to this ideal at 2.29. This is excellent performance, but there could be some issues that become more apparent when we graph the gamma curve linearly as you can see below.

What you'll notice here is a lot of bumpiness in the curve. This may indicate some problems with making greyscale transitions in some places, particularly at higher intensities. We did notice some processing issues with certain greyscale patterns and this may be what is happening here, or it may be related to the variance in luminance as the screen gets brighter due to the power limitation issues as we discussed in the white falloff section.

**Resolution Scaling***(8.25)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#resolutionscaling)

Although the Samsung PN50A760 is capable of natively displaying 1080p content, the reality is that the vast majority of content you'll display on the screen is going to be at a different format. Generally speaking 1080p content is only available from Blu-Ray discs. In this section we look at how well the display handles these other formats.

480p**(8.35)**

This is the format used by DVDs and many standard definition broadcast television channels. One of the most obvious issues you'll notice with 480p content on the Samsung PN50A760 is that the screen doesn't scan properly, cutting off about 3% of the screen on every side. We played around with the PN50A760's display options but weren't able to get rid of this overscan issue. Aside from that we didn't notice any major issues.

720p**(7.90)**

720p is used a lot by sports broadcasts. This is because it produces smoother motion than 1080i, which is interlaced and we'll discuss further below. When viewing 720p content on the Samsung PN50A760 we noticed some overscan issues, just like we did with 480p. In this case we saw 2% of the display on every side cut off. There were no issues with Moire patterns or legibility but we did notice some light/dark banding in high contrast patterns with alternating black/white lines.

1080i**(8.50)**

The vast majority of 'high definition' television is broadcast in 1080i. This has the same resolution as 1080p with 1080 lines from the top to the bottom of the screen, but in 1080i you alternate between displaying 540 lines at a time. This produces lower signal bandwith, which is why broadcasters like it. Unfortunately it also produces some potential problems with motion artifacts and resolution, which is why sports broadcasts tend to use the smoother 720p format. Thankfully we didn't notice any of these issues with the Samsung PN50A760 when displaying a 1080i signal, which should mean that you'll get a high quality picture out of broadcast HD content, just not quite as good as what you'll see from true 1080p content.

Performance: Color

**Color Temperature***(9.53)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#colortemperature)

You may remember learning in school that the color of stars varies depending on their temperature, from cool red to hot blue. Televisions can also show such variance in their whites with reddish or bluish casts across the range of whites from dark grey to bright white. This is what we're looking for in this test. Below you can see a graph of the Samsung PN50A760's with color temperature varying across the greyscale.

You can see from this graph that the Samsung PN50A760 does show some variation, but such variation isn't a big deal if your eye doesn't notice it. That's what we look at in the graph below. Here you see the color of every point graphed. The key feature here is the red circle, any variation within the red circle is not noticeable by the human eye. You can see that the vast majority of points for the Samsung PN50A760 fall within the circle, which means the PN50A760's performance in this test was very good. About the only thing you might notice is a slight bluish tinge to dark greys, a common occurrence with HDTVs, but even in this area the variance shown by the Samsung PN50A760 is significantly less than we've seen from other televisions. We were very pleased with its performance.

**RGB Curve***(7.59)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#rgbcurves)

Every color that your television set produces is created by mixing different amounts of red, green and blue, much like you produced varying colors by mixing primary ones in art class as a child. As such the accuracy with which the display produces those colors is very important, and that's what we look at in this test. Below you see three graphs for the Samsung PN50A760, one for each of these colors, graphing their brightness as compared to their intensity. As you can see there's a pretty obvious relationship here, as the intensity of the color gets higher so does the brightness.

There are more subtle things we look for when deciding if the colors are being reproduced accurately, however. One thing that you can notice immediately is that the curves are slightly bumpy. We much prefer to see the curves smooth and even across the range of intensities. This bumpiness indicates that the Samsung PN50A760 has some issues when going from one level of a color to another, which can produce inaccurate colors on the display.

We also noticed some separate issues with artifacts on the Samsung PN50A760. In particular we noticed that in certain greyscale patterns the display showed a signal processing problem that produced something that looked like noise. This could certainly show up when watching content that has similar greyscale patterns, say on a suit or a building. Overall the Samsung PN50A760's performance in this area was just about average, we've seen significantly better, but also worse.

**Color Gamut***(7.74)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#colorgamut)

All televisions are supposed to produce colors within a specific range defined by a standard know as ITU Recommendation .709. In the graph below you can see the Samsung PN50A760's performance graphed against that standard.

You can see that the Samsung PN50A760 does a very good job here, with it's color gamut matching the standard's very closely. There is a slight bit of error, but it's not significant enough that you'll notice it in most content and is significantly better than we've seen from other televisions. If you're wondering exactly how much error there is, you can see the exact numbers in the table below.

Performance: Motion

**Motion Smoothness***(8.5)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#motion)

As is typical of plasma televisions the Samsung PN50A760 did a very good job producing smooth motion, with very little motion blur. This is in sharp contrast to LCD displays that often show significant motion blur with fast moving objects.

**Motion Artifacting***(6.50)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#motion)

Where the Samsung PN50A760 didn't perform quite as well was with motion artifacating. The big issue here is an obvious greenish tinge that trails bright objects in almost every situation. This is definitely an issue you're going to notice while looking at the television. We wish we knew why this happened, but we don't. It's likely related to a problem with the televisions processing.

**3:2 Pulldown & 24fps***(6.5)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#3:2pulldown)

3:2 pulldown is a process used to convert signals that should be displayed at 24 frames per second, but because of the limitations of broadcast televisions are actually sent to the television at 60 frames per second. Via 3:2 pulldown this content can be reprocessed so it displays at 24 frames per second. This is important because 24fps content has a film-like look that is usually the original intent of the producer.

Unfortunatelly this process can also introduce some issues, and we saw a couple of them with the Samsung PN50A760. In particular we noticed some flickering in high contrast moving patterns and jaggedness with certain repetitive moving patterns like stadium seats. This could produce a noticeable effect when you are watching content processed with 3:2 pulldown.

The Samsung PN50A760 is also capable of natively displaying content that is fed to it at 24fps. This is commonly done from a Blu-ray player feeding content that was produced at this frame rate. This doesn't involve the 3:2 pulldown process so the issues discussed above won' apply in these situations.

Performance: Viewing Effects

**Viewing Angle***(12.33)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#viewingangle)

In this test we look at what happens to the contrast ratio of the Samsung PN50A760's display from a range of different viewing angles. This is important if you put your HDTV in a large room where people will be viewing it from a wide variety of angles. Every televisions should look good from straight on, what happens when you're at 45 or 60 degrees is something different. Below you can see the contrast ratio of the Samsung PN50A760's graphed against viewing angle.

Let's start with the positive, the Samsung PN50A760's contrast ratio stayed above 50% across almost every viewing angle, only falling below it when you get out to 85 degrees from the center. This is an excellent result, in fact the only other television to even come close to the Samsung PN50A760 on this test was another plasma the Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ8OU. Generally speaking plasmas have better viewing angles than LCD displays, where we've seen viewing angles ranging from as little as 15 degrees to as much as 55 degrees. Another positive is that colors ont he Samsung PN50A760's display held up well across viewing angles as well.

That's not to say that the scene you see from 60 degrees on the Samsung PN50A760 is exactly the same as what you see from straight on. If you look at our graph you'll see that the contrast ratio does vary quite a bit even as it sits above 50%. What we saw is that the maximum brightness on the display falls relatively steadily across viewing angles, but so does the deepest black. They don't fall at the same rate, however, which is why you see those fluctations. The take away here is that although the viewing angle on the Samsung PN50A760 is excellent, you can expect the screen to get slightly dimmer as you view at wider angles.

**Reflectance***(5.0)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#reflectance)

We found that the Samsung PN50A760's glossy screen did not do a good job of diffusing light, we were easily able to make out the discrete lights of an LED array when shone on it, even when we varied the angle of the light. When we were viewing real content on the display the reflection of the light was still noticeable enough to annoy you. The bottom line is that you'll want to be careful whan positioning the PN50A760 in your home in relation to lights and windows because glare could be a significant problem.

**Video Processing***(2.0)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm)

As with most HDTVs the Samsung PN50A760 offers a variety of different options that are supposed to improve picture quality in various settings.

As you can see above the only place we saw an obvious change was with Dynamic Contrast and we would avoid that control as it can have a significant impact on the quality of your color accuracy. That's not to say that these options won't help you out in specific situations but we recommend leaving them off most of the time and perhaps playing with them if you have a particularly poor picture.

Remote Control

**Ergonomics & Durability***(6.65)*

We've seen the remote that comes with the Samsung PN50A760 on other Samsung models like the LN46A750. The remote is well designed and attractive. We particularly like the way the back of the remote is curved and it's weighted towards the bottom with a bulging and tapering design that helps keep it balanced in your hand.

The buttons on the remote are backlit in a red light that is easier on your eyes than the bright white lights we see on some remotes. The buttons are mostly made of soft plastic and provide solid key travel and tactile feedback when pressed. We do still have some concerns about durability, however. The rotating dial in the remote is a moving part that can break and we detected the same rattling inside the remote we've seen on previous versions. We're not sure if that last is something to be worried about, but we would prefer it if our remotes didn't rattle.

Oh, and in keeping with the red highlights found on the PN50A760 itself the remote has a subtle red finish on the rotating directional pad, something we haven't seen on the other Samsung remotes we've reviewed.

**Button Layout & Use***(4.8)*

The Samsung PN50A760's remote is long, measuring almost ten inches in length. Thankfully the design means it stays well balanced, but we still find it a bit annoying to have to shift our hands so much to reach things like the number pad. In fact the remote is large enough that those with smaller hands may find it difficult to reach volume and channel controls from a neutral position. The labeling on the remote is generally good for the basic buttons, but some of the buttons are rather arcane. For example what do the four colored buttons sitting underneath the directional pad do?

Another interesting feature of the PN50A760's remote is the rotating directional pad. You can use it like a standard directional pad by pressing up/down/left/right, but it will also rotate like an old style iPod controller to quickly move up and down lists. Frankly we're not sure how much value this adds, and we're pretty sure it isn't made up for by the increased chance of the rotating part breaking.

**Programming & Flexibility***(1.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760's remote can't be used as a universal remote to control other parts of your home theatre system. It does support Samsung's Anynet+ technology, however. This allows you to control other Samsung devices connected to your HDTV with the remote. We much prefer a more universal approach, as such we only award a single point for this proprietary technology.

Audio

**Sound Quality***(6.0)*

The quality of the Samsung PN50A760's speakers is reasonable for an HDTV. If you're fine with television audio and don't want anything impressive you'll likely be fine with the built-in speakers.

**Surround Sound***(5.0)*

Like most televisions the Samsung PN50A760 offers a simulated surround sound mode. We found that turning this feature on can improve the sound quality in some situations. There was more depth to the sound without giving up the ability to hear things like dialog. That said it's still nowhere near as good as the quality you can get from even an inexpensive set of real surround sound speakers. If audio is really important to you we recommend you invest in such.

**Loudness***(7.44)*

We measured the loudness of the Samsung PN50A760's speakers at 74.4 decibels. This is a bit lower than the average, but it should still be plenty loud for most viewing environments.

Connectivity

**Input Ports***(7.5)*

The Samsung PN50A760 has a good selection of input ports. On the left side you'll find a small selection made up of an HDMI, S-Video, composite video and analog audio inputs.

On the back of the television just around the left side ports you'll find the bulk of the ports, including three more HDMI, two component video and three analog audio inputs. You'll also find the VGA port for connecting a computer along with a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting your computer's audio. You'll also find the antenna port that supports both analog and digital OTA and Cable broadcasts.

**Output Ports***(3.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760 offers three output ports, all related to audio. On the left side you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack for connecting your headphones to the television. On the back you'll find the digital audio and analog audio outputs. That addition of the headphone jack is a nice extra that most televisions lack.

**Other Connections***(3.0)*

In addition the rather standard connections mentioned above the Samsung PN50A760 also has an ethernet jack. This can be used to both access internet content, albeit a rather limited selection, using Samsung's InfoLink service. You can also use the ethernet port to stream media content from a server on your network using the Wiselink Pro-DLNA function. We'll cover these features in more depth in the Formats & Media section.

**Media***(1.0)*

Rounding out the solid selection of ports and jacks on the Samsung PN50A760 is a USB port found on the left side of the HDTV. This will allow you to connect supported USB devices and play back movies, video and music stored on those devices. Once again we recommend you check out our Formats & Media section for more information on these media features.

**Placement***(8.75)*

We were quite pleased with the placement of ports on the Samsung PN50A760. The danger with larger televisions like this is that the manufacturer will place the ports in a difficult to reach position such as the middle of the back, similar to what we saw from the Vizio SV470XVT. Thankfully Samsung has avoided this problem by thoughtfully placing all of the ports either on the left side of the television or right around the left edge on the back. Combined with a swiveling stand this makes them eminently easy to access.

Controls & Menus

**Ease of Use***(7.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760's menu system is a typical tabbed interface with the tab headers lined up on the left and lists of menu options appearing to the right. You navigate the menu system using the directional pad and you can also rotate the pad to move up and down lists, although we didn't find that this added much value.

The menu system is consistent, you basically have two types of menu options, those you can adjust directly or those that take you to a sub-menu. We did appreciate that all the sub-menus looked similar, something that other television menu systems haven't done a great job with. Perhaps our biggest annoyance with the menu system is that when you first launch it you see the Picture options listed on the right, but the focus of the navigation is on the tabs on the left. We found ourselves consistently trying to navigate the picture options right after launching the menu, which would invariably lead us to a different top level menu.

In addition to the standard menu system the Samsung PN50A760 also has a Tools menu that can be accessed with a dedicated button on the remote. This gives you access to a subset of features that Samsung has decided most users will want to access. What it doesn't offer is the ability to add or remove options, something we've seen on other televisions.

**Picture Controls***(8.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760 offers a plethora of picture controls for those who like to tinker with their picture options. At the top level you see Mode, Cell Light, Contrast, Brightness, Sharpness, Color and Tint controls. Below those are two sub menus, Detailed Settings and Picture Options as well as the Picture Reset Option.

Detailed Settings gives you access to Black Adjust, Dynamic Contrast, Gamma, Color Space, White Balance, Flesh Tone, Edge Enhancement and xvYCC settings. Of particular note here are the ability to adjust the Gamma manually and very detailed white balance controls.

Picture Options let's you adjust Color Tone, Size, Digital NR, DNIe, HDMI Black Leve, Advanced Film Mode, Blue Only Mode and Screen Burn Protection. Once again there are some interesting advanced options here. Overall the Samsung PN50A760 has some of the most complete picture controls we've seen on any television.

**Audio Controls***(7.0)*

Audio controls are not quite as extensive as picture controls, but are still better than the average television. At the top level you have Mode, Equalizer, surround sound, language, Multi-Track Sound, Auto Volume, Select Speaker, Sound Select and reset. We're paticularly happy to see a full equalizer.

**Other Controls***(6.0)*

In addition to the Picture and Audio controls the Samsung PN50A760 has four additional top level menus. First up is Channel, where you can control the antenna, program channels and fine tune a signal.

Next up is Setup where you find the typical potpouri of options like Language, Time, V-Chip and Picture in Picture. Input let's you change your source and edit the names.

Finally the Application menu is where you go to access media content controls like Samsung's Wiselink, InfoLink and Anynet+ features.

**Manual***(5.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760's manual bundles both english and spanish versions into a tome-like package that will likely take you several days to get through. Of course the other possibility is that you'll take one look at this monster, stick it in a drawer and forget about it. The manual lacks an index, although it does have a fairly complete table of contents. It's all black and white here and we would have preferred to see larger text, bigger screen shots and better headers on the pages so you can flip through it more easily. It does provide almost all the information you might want, however, although it may be a good idea to download the PDF version so you can search it more easily.

Formats & Media

**Formats***(10.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760 is a full 1080p HDTV, able to support content with 1080 lines progressively displayed from top to bottom. This is the highest quality of HD content available, but you're only going to get it from Blu-ray discs. The vast majority of the content you'll be putting on your television will come in 480i/p standard definition or 720p and 1080i high definition. Thankfully the Samsung PN50A760 is also able to play back this content, albeit with some small issues we discuss in the Blacks & Whites section.

In addition to supporting a wide array of formats the Samsung PN50A760 also supports the 3:2 pulldown process that provides a more film-like feel for content as well as the ability to play back true 24p content, which doesn't require a conversion to look like film. It also supports a wider color gamut, known as xvYCC color, which is being used by some modern content but is still not widespread.

**Photo Playback***(3.5)*

The Samsung PN50A760 supports playback of photos from either a USB source plugged into the USB port on the side of the HDTV or over the network via ethernet cable. In either case the interface will look the same, using Samsung's Wiselink system. Photos appear in a strip that can be sorted in a variety of fashions. Only Jpeg photos are supported, but you can play back a slideshow of the photos, albeit with only limited controls. There re also a couple of editing options like rotate and delete.

**Music & Video Playback***(7.0)*

As with photos you can play back video and music from either a USB drive or a network source over ethernet using Wiselink. The interface for both looks very similar to that for photos, with a strip of content that appears and can be sorted using a variety of methods. The music playback mode supports album artwork in some cases, although we noticed that artwork that appeared when looking at multiple items dissapeared when playing back a single item. Only Mp3 music files are supported.

Video playback is limited to Mpeg-4, although we were pleased to see H264 encoded content supported as this provides a higher quality video. The interface is once again a simple sortable strip of items. Videos play back in full screen when selected.

**Streaming Playback***(5.5)*

As mentioned above the Samsung PN50A760 can play back streaming media content from a server source over your local network. This can be accomplished by using the HDTV's built-in ethernet port or an optional Wireless adaptor. You will also need to download client software from Samsung's website (Windows only) that you install on other computers in the network to share folders. Although we appreciate the capabilities we also have to say that the limitations on file types supported and the rather involved process of getting the system up is nowhere near as easy as some alternate solutions like an Apple TV.

In addition to local network streaming you can also access internet content via the ethernet port on the computer using Samsung's Infolink service. Unfortunately this offers access to a rather limited array of online sources, it most certainly does not turn your television into a web browser. Still, something is better than nothing and we're glad to see manufacturers trying to integrate better with online content.

**DVR***(0.0)*

The Samsung PN50A760 does not have built-in DVR capabilities.

Power Consumption

**Power Consumption***(4.88)*[

](https://reviewed.usatoday.com/televisions/content/How-We-Test.htm#powerconsumption)

As with most Plasma televisions the Samsung PN50A760 is something of a power hog. Normally we want to set up a television for a brightness of 200 candelas per meter squared (cd/m2) for our power consumption test. As is also typical of plasma televisions the Samsung PN50A760 was unable to get this bright, instead it topped out at 165 cd/m2. Despite being less bright than the typical LCD television the Samsung PN50A760 still used a remarkable average of 524.7 Kilowatts per hour. This is two or even three times the amount of power used by many LCD televisions.

You can see how much this ends up costing you by looking at the table above. Using our calibrated settings, which we recommend for best picture quality, the annual cost of running the Samsung PN50A760 for the typical family runs over $100. Even with the brightness turned down to minimum the PN50A760's cost of operating is still higher than the average LCD television. The increased power consumption of plasma televisions is something to consider if you're trying to be green or if you are placing the HDTV in a relatively small room that could heat up very quickly.

Conclusion

The Samsung PN50A760 is an impressive HDTV. Although it is plagued by many of the same issues you'll see on other plasma televisions, including low brightness, high power consumption and pixel latency issues the Samsung PN50A760 still offers an excellent feature set and overall impressive performance. We were very happy with the deep blacks, wide viewing angle, accurate greyscale gamma and rock solid color temperature. We do wish that color accuracy had been a bit better and more thought had gone into the media playback features, but overall the Samsung PN50A760 offers a lot of bang.

The question then becomes whether it's worth the bucks. At $2000 the PN50A760 will definitely put a dent in many people's wallets, but we have to admit that the price is fair, especially considering that there are other televisions retailing for much more that don't match this HDTV's performance. We should mentinon, however, that you can save a significant amount of money by moving to a slightly smaller size. The Vizio SV470XVT, Sony's Bravia KDL-46W4100 or even Samsung's own LN46A750 are all a few hundred dollars cheaper than the Samunsg PN50A760 and all performed well in our testing. If you really want all of those 50-inches, however, the Samsung PN50A760 is a very good performer at a reasonable price.

Meet the tester

Alfredo Padilla

Alfredo Padilla

Editor

Alfredo Padilla is a valued contributor to the Reviewed.com family of sites.

See all of Alfredo Padilla's reviews

Checking our work.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.

Shoot us an email

Up next