This is my first HD TV. I ruled out LCD because I never saw one that didn't look blocky during fast motion scenes. LED hasn't impressed me enough to make up for the huge difference in price. It's hard to believe that plasma TV's are the least expensive of the 3. When I started researching I was surprised to find 42" was the smallest plasma size. 37-40" would have been plenty for our bedroom, but getting a 42" plasma for less than a 37" LCD is a no brainer.
I was originally leaning towards the Panasonic 42" until I downloaded the manual and found out it didn't have an analog audio out jack. Neither does the LG. The Samsung 430 & 450 however do have L/R RCA audio out jacks on the rear panel. Not having audio out was a deal breaker for me since this TV is for our bedroom and my wife insists I use headphones at night so she can sleep while I watch TV. Having just spent about $60 on a wireless headphone set I had to have audio outs on the new TV. Most sets today only have a digital audio out and a converter costs about $50.
Contrary to some online reviews and even the online manual, I've discovered "my" 450's audio output works even with the TV speakers set to ON. I can simply lower the volume and audio is always available through the rear RCA L/R output. Since my headphone has its own volume, I have zero issues. Even after I updated the firmware the feature still works. I could not get by without the external audio.
So far I only have a few minor issues. The Anynet link between my Samsung Blu-ray player only worked for a few minutes now I have to use both remotes. I haven't figured out what I could have changed to disrupt the operation but even when it worked I was disappointed to find the TV remote doesn't have the "Next Track" function. There aren't a whole lot of things you need to change once your DVD player is setup but you need more than PLAY, STOP, FF, REV buttons. I have a lot of TV show DVDs that I like to skip past the opening and closing titles. Now I'm forced to use FF or grab the other remote. And speaking of remotes, the TV remote is unecessarily HUGE! The Samsung DVD remote is the exact same shape/layout but smaller. Again, it's only missing a couple important buttons to work the entire TV/DVD set but Samsung forces us to keep both remotes handy. There is NO way my wife is going to remember which is which. Add to that our FIOS remote won't operate the Blu-ray player at all, and it only works the TV power, volume and channel buttons. So we're stuck with 3 remotes.
All that said, the picture is fantastic. It's "smoother" than the Panasonic with the default settings. You can crank up the detail and colors etc if you want but I actually turned the color down to about 45 and nudged the flesh tones up a little (they seemed a little too yellow to me out of the box). Other than the remote issues, I think this was a very good purchase. The store even threw in a simple wall mount for free which easily offset the tax amount. Do NOT spend a fortune on wall mounts, Amazon has some great low priced mounts. Luckily I didn't need anything special, no swivels and no tilting that a few washers couldn't fix. Just remember to drill pilot holes so you don't crack a stud with the large wood screws.Buy Samsung Pn42b450 Lowest Price, Order Now! [Click Here!]
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