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I purchased this marvelous television after countless research and first-hand looks at B&M stores. The PN597000 is a slight step-down from Samsung's flagship 8000 model, but it's also plagued with the same issues, most notably a "peeling" issue.
Samsung devised a solution to eliminate most of the glare from the 7000/8000 series sets, calling it the Real Black Filter. The RBF is a sheet of thin plastic laminated on the inside of the front set glass to mitigate glare caused by direct incoming light for those rooms with a lot of ambient light present. Kind of like a tint for a car window. Is it effective? Yes.
Does it at a huge price? Absolutely.
You see, what Samsung failed to predict and discover and, more disturbingly, what they refuse to acknowledge even at this stage is that this plastic sheet can PEEL on its own from the inside, possibly due to the considerable heat generated from the plasma set, creating air bubbles within the screen itself that will only EXPAND during the course of time, distorting or otherwise ruining the television.
I've learned about the peeling issue before getting the television set, since it seemed not everyone was having this issue (although a great number were). I thoroughly inspected my television around the edge using a flashlight and found no signs of peeling. It wasn't until after 100 hours of breaking in the plasma did I notice a slight distortion on the top right corner of my set, and it was as I feared: my set was peeling.
I'm still one week into the purchase of this television, and I will undoubtedly return it toward the tail end of my 30-day exchange window as my television's newfound problem will only accelerate over the course of time. Every report I've heard from other owners with this issue seem to indicate that matters will only get worse from here.
I urge both current and potential buyers to research this matter before it's too late. I will exchange my set for a newer model, but I have very little hope that the new machine will not suffer from the same issue as my current one as the problem is inherit in the design of the set and not a mere random defection.
UPDATE: 07/09/2011 A second peeling (air bubble) has appeared, this time on the top left corner of the screen.
UPDATE 2: 07/27/2011 Just received my replacement TV from Amazon (Love you, Amazon!), and am currently in the process of breaking it in. By this time, Samsung has discovered the underlying cause of the peeling issue. Apparently, the television's bezel is pressed too closely against the black filter, and needs to be separated slightly more. A solution has been devised and, from my understanding, Samsung will fix or replace any TV suffering from peeling issues with an updated panel provided that it's still under warranty. Unfortunately, they won't replace existing stock of their TVs with revised models, so new customers might still face this issue
UPDATE 3 (11/24/11): Second TV has not shown any initial signs of peeling or bubbling. I attribute this more to luck than anything else as the TV was built around the same time as the original defective one, and Samsung didn't address the issue at the point of the purchase. I've read that, in some cases, signs of peeling might won't surface until months later, and some owners are SOL as a result since the peeling occurred after the expiration of the warranty. I'll post another update in 3 months (or sooner if any unfortunate developments occur). If it can last a year without any problems, I'll upgrade my rating.
Update 4 (6/3/13): I've now owned the replaced set for two years and no problems whatsoever, so as promised i have upgraded my rating to 5 stars after originally giving it 1 due to the screen bubbles. This will be my final update of this product.
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