Samsung PN59D6500 59" Plasma Smart HDTV Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2012-05-07
·
2,097 words · ~10 min read
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Welcome to an unboxing that actually serves a couple of purposes. So, for
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one, we're going to have a look at the Samsung
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PDP 59 in series 66 6500 plasma display.
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So, this is a 59 in, but check this out.
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So, they're calling this plasma plus one because due to the slim bezel design of
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this particular plasma TV, Samsung figures you get about an extra inch out
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of it. So, 59 in actually turns into a
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60-in viewable display equivalent. So,
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that's kind of cool. One thing I noticed about the plasma displays, we're
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actually in the brand new NCIX location here. If you want to just do a quick pan
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around. Um, so this is going to be for Samsung showcases. So, you can see we've
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got a lot of Samsung TVs that we're going to have to definitely unbox and
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check out for you guys here. One thing I've noticed about the plasma boxes is
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that they come in significantly wider boxes. So, I guess that's to uh prevent
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any damage from occurring to the panel if it falls over on its side. Seems like
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it's a little bit more fragile than LCD in that way. So, the first thing we find
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when we open it up is the mount. So,
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this is going to allow us to here I'm just going to put this on my little
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pillar here. So, this is going to allow us to mount the actual panel to the
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stand. There's also a little thing in there about presumably how to do it. All
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right, let's take out some of these packing materials. So, this display is
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actually going to go over on the other side of the room. I'm opening it in
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front of uh this backdrop, which is actually going to be for an LCD display,
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although most of the general advantages and features and specs are going to be
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pretty similar. It's got 3D, it's got uh
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Samsung's smart TV features, which allow you to watch YouTube videos, browse
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Twitter, all that good stuff. On this particular display, we've
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got a great looking brushed aluminum base here. I'm
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just going to plastic off here so you guys can check that out. Although for
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me, the base of the TV has never been a a huge sticking point. Uh if you are
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putting this somewhere where the base will be a factor, because for mine, you
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can't even actually see it. If you're putting it somewhere where the base will be a factor, then you're going to want
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it to look pretty nice, and I think they've definitely achieved that. So,
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I'm going to go ahead and put that down right there. And what else we got in
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here in terms of accessories? Look how big this box is. I could like fit myself
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in there. I can't even I can't even reach down to the TV. So, I'm going to
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be removing the plasma display. Um being careful not to not to lay it down flat
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or turn it upside down or anything like that. And I'm going to have to do this
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off camera with the help of cameraman because I can't do it myself. It's
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really big and really heavy. TV has been extracted, but due to my short stature
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and short arms, I still can't get the uh remote and accessories out. So, I'm just
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going to Yeah. See, this is what it takes. This is how dedicated I am to
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unboxing. I will even get inside the box
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if that is what is required of me. So, inside this baggie, we find a bunch of
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interesting stuff, including Oh, look at that. They've got an adapter for
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component input. Honestly, new stuff
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like this, you're not really going to want to be using component input, but if
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you so require, then you have at least the option. These look like fairly thin
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cables, and for an analog signal, that does matter. But, there you go. So,
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that's kind of your backup there. Uh, this is one of those interference
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reduction doohickeys with the magnets and the whatnots. So, I'm going to go
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ahead and presume that's for uh power
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cord or something along those lines. Okay. Uh, warranty information is a one
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year uh for all plasmas, labor, and parts.
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Okay, got it. What else we got? Samsung smart TV. So, uh here's some accessories
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including hopefully in English somewhere. Okay. Okay. Well, I'll do my
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best here. Hold on. Oh, maybe this is English. Yeah, there we go. So, a Skype
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TV camera. You got a wireless LAN adapter, wireless router, installation
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solution, ultras slim wall mount. Oh, that's kind of cool. Okay, neat. As well
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as 3D glasses. Wide variety of 3D glasses, including those lightweight
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ones that we have on display at our new Vancouver store that are actually quite
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comfortable compared to other 3D glasses. Some safety instructions. Okay,
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we got a cleaning cloth. We got uh another one of those interference
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reductor doohickeys. Uh we got a couple AAA batteries. And then we have the
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Samsung remote. So this one doesn't come with
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the Wordy remote. I believe that's reserved for some of the very high-end
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models. So this looks very similar to the remote that I have for my TV. So
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give me a sec here, guys. I'm going to climb out of this box and then we'll get the TV uh assembled here. So, we're
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ready for the unveiling of the TV itself, which cameraman helped me get
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the uh the sheath here positioned just right so that I could get it opened up.
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And there we have
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it. So, I'm just going to go ahead and remove the plastic bezel covers.
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So, a lot of uh a lot gets said about plasma versus LCD. And something that
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there seems to also be a ton of confusion about is LCD versus LED. I
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just want to clarify with you guys a little bit that LED and LCD are the same
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thing. It's just a different backlight technology that is going behind the LCD
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panel. So an LCD is typically uh an LCD
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panel with a cathode backlight and then an LED TV is an LCD panel with LEDs
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behind it. So this is a plasma TV which means neither of those are factors in
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the design of this particular TV. So advantages and disadvantages of plasma.
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The advantage is the very responsive screen compared to your typical large
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format LCD. Another advantage is cost.
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uh plasma panels tend to be less expensive than equivalent LCD or LED
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panels quite slim uh due to the technology involved. So with typically
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with cathode back lit LED see I'm even I'm getting confused with cathode back
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lit LCDs you need a little bit more space behind plasmas and LED back lit
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LCDs don't have that disadvantage. However with plasmas there is also the
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risk of a slightly less satisfying uh
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image quality in a less than completely dark room. So, if you guys want to see
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them side by side, the best thing to do is going to be to come to the new NCIX
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store in Aberdine Mall once it opens uh in the next couple weeks here and check
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out all the TVs yourselves. If you give me a second off camera, what I'm going to do is I'm going to throw it on the
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stand and then I'll give you guys a chance to uh check out all the inputs
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and outputs and all that good stuff. So, here we go, guys. We've got
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it unveiled for the most part. Uh installing the stand took us about 2
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minutes. So, we just uh you take that back piece. It's actually here. If you
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want to come around and have a look at the back from the other side. So, you take this bracket right here. This guy,
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you just keep the TV sitting upright and you can actually slide it into place uh
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without even picking up the TV at all. So, then you screw on the four screws
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here. Then you just position the base
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correctly somewhere, wherever you want to put it. You lower the entire TV down.
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It balances. And then you just put in the four screws here. Oh, wait.
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Actually, that's not the way you're supposed to do it, right? You're supposed to put this onto here first.
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That way you can put in all four screws. I only put in two screws, but it seems
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to be okay. It's not going anywhere for now. Bear in mind, I mean, the way that
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I would be mounting a TV like this, if I'm installing it in my home, is using a
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wall mount anyway. It's so slim, you might as well take advantage of all the
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space you have in your room cuz 60-in screen, you're going to need some distance from it. So, it does have the
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vase mount holes here. So, let's go ahead and have a look at what we've got
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for inputs and outputs. We've got USB 1 and two. One of these is for a hard
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drive. Remember, this is a smart TV, so you've got all those advanced features
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built in. Digital audio out. That's optical right there. We've got four HDMI
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ins, including one that is optimized for DVI. So, if you have a PC, for example,
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you might want to use it for that one, as well as PC audio in, just using your
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typical standard headphone jack type interface. Down here, we've also got VGA
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in, your antenna in, and then down here, we've got that uh composite adapter,
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dude, as well as our LAN port. and EX
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Link. So, that pretty much covers it for the back. So, cameraman sort of brought
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to my attention that while I did say that plasma TVs were less expensive than
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LED LCD TVs, typically he's like, well, yeah, but this is still a very expensive
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TV. And uh it's a good point because, you know, yeah, it is. But it
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does have all of the smart TV features. It does have 3D support. It also has
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um you know, good look and everything. and it's still cheaper than an
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equivalent LED back lit LCD TV. So, if you do have a nice dark room that you're
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going to put your TV in, then the plasma is definitely an option. So, I thank you
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guys for checking out our video of the
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uh 6500 class plasma TV from Samsung. So,
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this is a 59in TV, but it's actually a 60-in TV. Don't forget to subscribe to
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Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos. And
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oh yeah, cameraman's probably raging inside because I haven't mentioned the
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brushed aluminum sort of looking finish, brushed metal finish around the bezel,
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which actually looks really nice. It's a two-tone, so it's black here, silver
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here, but they are both using the same style of finish. And then you've also
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got the clear plastic outside. So there, now I've mentioned it. So cameraman
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actually expressed some confusion that our 60-in plasma here was going to be
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the 3D demo. He figured Samsung would probably want to use their LED LCD TV.
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And sorry, one of the points I brought up to him is that this is where the
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plasma TV is going to go on this side of the store here with the 3D logo. Um,
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plasma's response times just are an inherent value of this particular
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technology. Um, are actually ideal for
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3D versus LCDs, which take a little bit
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longer to change over from one image to another, which is perfect when you're
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trying to show one image to one eye and one image to the other eye with shutter
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glasses. So that's probably why Samsung opted to use this particular plasma for
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the 3D demo inside the NCIX Samsung showcase here.