PARENT - Sampo PME-42X6 42-Inch HDTV-Ready Widescreen Plasma TV

With a pixel pitch of just 1.08 mm, a contrast ratio of 550:1, and a brightness of 500 cd/m, your home cinema will sparkle with excitement. The monitor includes a DVI input (DVI 24-pin), RGB inputs and outputs (D-Sub 15-pin), composite-, component-, and S-video inputs, and a detachable 181-channel NTSC tuner. USB and RS-232 control ports enhance connectivity options. Variable image aspect ratios let the display be tailored to your video source.

For audio, the monitor offers 5 watts per channel stereo sound and selectable fixed/variable audio outputs, which give flexibility when the monitor is used with a home stereo. An impressive six stereo analog audio inputs let you hook up a range of external AV devices, and a dedicated subwoofer jack lets you send low frequencies to an optional powered subwoofer. BBE high-definition sound improves speech intelligibility and restores the dynamic range of compressed musical passages, while SRS TruSurround simulates surround sound through two speakers (even the stereo speakers on a TV). The set also features a trilingual onscreen display: English, Spanish, French.

http://www.area450.com/

A six stars website for SAMPO.


Go to this site and get everything you need for SAMPO !   January 31, 2004
Go to this site and get everything you need for SAMPO :

http://www.area450.com/

A 6 stars website!


Are you ready for plasma?   November 13, 2003
Gadgester (Mother Earth)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

In terms of picture quality the Sampo is pretty much on par with others in this size class. I've seen a few plasma TVs made by Fujisu at Harvey Electronics stores here in New York, and they are absolutely the best. Where Sampo "excels" is the price point. You get bright, fairly clear pictures and also HDTV readiness for a very attractive price, even better than the hot-selling ones at Gateway. BTW, Sampo makes the Gateway plasma TVs.

The PME-42X6 stands out among 42" plasma TVs in being HDTV-ready. This means it supports all the HDTV resolutions from 480p to 720p to 1080i. (BTW, BestBuy.com has a decent guide to HDTV terminology.) It doesn't have a built-in tuner, though, so you'll need to get one yourself, so add a couple hundred to your budget. As with other plasma TVs you should hire a professional to tune and set up the Sampo. Improper setups can cause the gas bulbs inside the TV to burn out faster.

As I've already said image quality is average, which means you'll see some blocky artifacts. Of all the plasma TVs I've viewed extensively, only Fujisu and Panasonic models seem to be free from such artifacts. (No, I don't work for either company or Sampo!) Sony and Philips are acceptable, too. The other Asian TVs all suffer from this as well as problems with getting the black "color" right properly. In terms of everyday use you probably won't mind such "defects," since they are not too obvious in a good DVD movie. Sampo does seem to have better color-decoding technology than others in this price class which means you get red and blue right, etc.

Before I finish up let me give you an update: I just found out via cnet.com that the native resolution of this unit is 1024x1024. This means 720p and 1080i will be simulated rather than in native. To tell the truth at least on this Sampo it doens't mean much. Everyone would prefer native support for every HDTV resolution, but even super-expensive units from Zenith and Hitachi don't have this feature. The Sampo is totally affordable and deserves a recommendation.


Horrible!!!!   September 15, 2003
DVDWatcher (NJ United States)
2 out of 17 found this review helpful

Terrible plasma. Washed out color, pic artifacts. Buy at your own risk!