Why am I not getting the actual string value with this byte array conversion?

I am trying to send a "getvar" command to a printer over the serial port, and receive the response, but all I'm getting when trying to verify what I'm sending, and what is received is: "System.Byte[]"

Here is my code:

const string quote = "\"";
. . .
string getDeviceLang = string.Format("! U1 getvar {0}device.languages{0}", quote);
. . .
String deviceLanguage = PrintUtils.GetSettingFromPrinter(getDeviceLang);
. . .
MessageBox.Show(deviceLanguage); // <= this shows "System.Byte[]"

public static string GetSettingFromPrinter(string cmd)
{
    string setting = string.Empty;
    try
    {
        BasicPortSettings bps = new BasicPortSettings();
        bps.BaudRate = BaudRates.CBR_19200;
        bps.Parity = OpenNETCF.IO.Serial.Parity.none;
        bps.StopBits = OpenNETCF.IO.Serial.StopBits.one; 

        Port serialPort = new Port("COM1:", bps);
        serialPort.Open();
        byte[] outputBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(cmd);
        MessageBox.Show(Convert.ToString(outputBytes)); // <= this shows "System.Byte[]"
        serialPort.Output = outputBytes;
        byte[] inputBytes = serialPort.Input;
        setting = Convert.ToString(inputBytes);

        serialPort.Close();
        return setting;
    }
    catch (Exception x)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(x.ToString());
        return setting;
    }
}

What do I need to do to actually see the string I'm passing and receiving, rather than just a string representation of the data type?

UPDATE

Does this look right:

setting = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(
    inputBytes, 0, inputBytes.Length);

? It at least compiles, but...

UPDATE 2

Okay, this code:

public static string GetSettingFromPrinter(string cmd)
{
    string setting = string.Empty;
    try
    {
        BasicPortSettings bps = new BasicPortSettings();
        bps.BaudRate = BaudRates.CBR_19200;
        bps.Parity = OpenNETCF.IO.Serial.Parity.none;
        bps.StopBits = OpenNETCF.IO.Serial.StopBits.one; 

        Port serialPort = new Port("COM1:", bps);
        serialPort.Open();
        byte[] sendBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(cmd);
        MessageBox.Show(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(sendBytes, 0, 
                        sendBytes.Length));
        serialPort.Output = sendBytes;
        byte[] receiveBytes = serialPort.Input;
        setting = GetString(receiveBytes);
        serialPort.Close();
        return setting;
            }
    catch (Exception x)
    {
    MessageBox.Show(x.ToString());
    return setting;
    }
}

...does return the expected val (! U1 getvar "device.language") here:

MessageBox.Show(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(sendBytes, 0, sendBytes.Length));

...but still an empty string here:

        String deviceLanguage = PrintUtils.GetSettingFromPrinter(getDeviceLang);
        MessageBox.Show(deviceLanguage);

// Helper function, from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/472906/converting-a-string-to-byte-array
static string GetString(byte[] bytes)
{
    char[] chars = new char[bytes.Length / 2];
    System.Buffer.BlockCopy(bytes, 0, chars, 0, bytes.Length);
    return new string(chars);
}

Maybe the "sendBytes" simply aren't being sent, and that's why there's no response/nothing in receiveBytes...