Here's an opportunity to discuss plasma tech rather than plasma marketing:
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I had the chance to check this model in 51 and 64 inch sizes at Ansons Ayala a while ago. It really is an awesome plasma tv. Picture quality is crisp with very accurate colors. Saw it side by side with the 60F5500 and you can just see the difference. 60F5500 pixels are visible at about 3-4 feet from the display. The F8500s are just smooth as silk!
60F5500 is not 1080p. The Samsung plasma line is unique because the 60 inchers are usually PenTile screens rather than 1080p screens.
Here's my old old post on Sammy PenTile plasma panels:
For panel sizes larger than 50", you'd think that resolutions have nowhere to go but up. ... Not.
Surpisingly, in 2012 Samsung came up with two 60 inch plasmas that are not Full HD --- the 60 inch PenTile panels of the 60E550 and 60E530. It's more power-efficient, but expectedly produces an inferior picture. What's more puzzling is that Samsung won't even tell us what the resolution is. All they're saying is that it "reproduces FHD-like experience."
http://ramsaysmarthomes.ca/info/Samsung%202012%20Panel%20Chart.pdf
The footnote reads: *Samsung’s Pentile Panel reproduces FHD-like experience utilizing sub-pixel rendering technology, making it 40% energy efficient over last year’s 59” comparable model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family
For 2014, Sammy made a 64 inch PenTile plasma (not yet available in the Phils.):
Samsung PN64H5000 (USA) Plasma TV Review
By David Mackenzie 14 March 2014 Verdict: Recommended
... Overall, we think the Samsung PN64H5000 is going to put smiles on the faces of self-emissive display fans, at a time where there’s precious little other good news (Samsung seems to have one foot out of bed with OLED at the moment, and we don’t have to remind anyone about Panasonic’s recent decision).
The “elephant in the room” is the pentile subpixel layout, which observant users might find to be an acquired taste at this screen size.
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/pn64h5000-201403143657.htm
But still, PenTile aside, they do say the F8500 really is very sharp, even on a 1080p vs 1080p comparison.
On avsforum, when they compare the F8500 with the ZT60, they say the F8500 is sharper. Not necessarily a good thing, depending on how you look at it.
The negative side of the Sammy's sharpness, they say, is a more digital-looking picture than Panny. The positive side of Panny's less-sharp picture is an analog look --- that is to say, a more natural-looking pic.
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Another thing to note is that the louvre filter thingy that barrister was explaining was very obvious. The 51 inch was put in a pedestal that was about 18inches from the ground and getting close to it looking down made the picture unviewable.
On my demo unit, the louvre filter darkening does not appear from normal viewing distances, because the vertical angle of view does not become large enough from a normal viewing distance.
But when you are about 2 feet from the screen, it's easy to view the screen with a big vertical viewing angle, maybe around 40 degrees or more, causing severe darkening of the screen.
This will not be an issue for regular-distance viewing, but it will be an issue for kids who like to sit on the floor and up close to the screen.
This is not unique to Samsung. Panny plasmas also had louvre filters, starting with the ST model up to the ZT model.