Samsung - 55" Class / 1080p / 240Hz / LED-LCD HDTV

I am currently the owner of a Panasonic V10 58' plasma, a Pioneer Elite Pro 151 60' plasma, and this Samsung B8500 LED LCD. I am the previous owner of a Samsung B860 58 inch plasma, a Samsung B8000 edge lit LED LCD, and a Sony XBR8 LED LCD. I will say this - This television is the second best television of 2009. There is no doubt about that. The Panasonic V10 is head and shoulders above every TV for 2009, but this television ranks #2. With that said, it's a pretty disappointing #2, especially considering the price. This television cost me about $1,400 more than my V10. I bought it because I had purchased the B8000 right when it came out, and that TV was a step above garbage. I really wanted to see what improvments the local dimming LED panel would offer over the B8000, and this is a much better television in every regard. However, let me just state a few things about it. This television is exceptional when you are viewing it during the day time in a brightly lit room from directly in front and center of the TV. In any other viewing condition, it leaves a lot to be desired, -- to say the least -- and is a big disappointment for a TV that is supposed to be the flagship of the company. That's not to say it's bad, it is anything but bad. However, it's barely a hair above the B750 traditionally lit LCD which you can pick up for about $1,700 right now. When viewing this television from any type of angle -- even just a few feet from center -- the colors begin to fade and the blacks begin to lighten and turn grey. If you view this television from extreme angles, it's not even the same TV. The colors completely wash out and the black levels become totally grey. I know that this problem has plagued all LCD's, and having owned -- and still owning -- several of the top performing LCD's and LED LCD's over the last few years, I knew what to expect. I guess I just expected more from this television than I had any right to. Viewing this television for films in a completely darkened room was also pretty disappointing. I'll give it this much, it does handle 24fps content appropriately, and the black levels are outstanding. As a matter of fact, the blacks on this television are as deep and endless as the Pioneer Elite 151 and the Pansonic V10. However, anytime you are viewing a scene in a film in which their is something bright displayed in an otherwise really dark scene -- think the cave scenes in Iron Man, or some of the Rorshach scenes when he's using his flashlight in Watchmen -- this television exhibits terrible blooming. The light of the bright image floods into the darkened areas and lights them up, as well as flooding into the letterbox bars --if the bright area is anywhere near them -- and lighting up the letterbox bars. Blooming is a problem that is exclusive to local dimming LED LCD's. The television displays blooming because the LED's have to illuminate to display the bright images in the scene and the illumination of certain LED's next to ones that are completely darkened causes the light to shine into the darkened areas. The Sony XBR8 exhibited blooming as well. Probably even a little bit worse than this television. If you are watching a film that doesn't have any -- or many -- darkened scenes in a completely darkened room, this television will display the film as good or better than any other television I've ever owned. However, any film with darkened scenes will really show just how terrible a television can look when it has a problem like this. This television doesn't display light coming in from all 4 corners and the top and bottom in a darkened room like the edge-lit LED LCD's do, but those televisions don't have a problem with blooming. I would still prefer local dimming LED LCD's to the edgelit models. But I'm just trying to describe the problems that they both have. I am still within the 30 day limit for returning this television, and I probably will. I'm hoping that these problems can be resolved on the 2010 model local dimming LED LCD's. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this to someone unless they are extremely well to do, and not interested in viewing films in a completely darkened room. If you are rich and you only watch television in a brightly lit room, this television is probably the best you can get for those conditions. The highly reflective screen is quite distracting in a brightly lit room, but the blacks remain intact when viewed from the center, and the colors are phenomenal. This television ranks either 3rd or 4th best all time overall. It's a tie for 1st going to the Pioneer Elite 151 and the Panasonic V10. #3 and #4 would be either this or the Sony XBR8. It's a toss up I'd probably put this 3rd and the Sony 4th. I would also say that the B750 LCD is number 5. The B860 plasma, and all of the edge-lit LED LCD's are garbage. Especially the B860.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this set. When looking at the set straight on the black levels are truly awesome, possibly better than plasma. Totally inky, DARK blacks. Colors are rich and vibrant while still accurate and not "cartoon" looking. This is without calibration, right out of the box. The blooming issue others describe is not really as bad as some would imply. In a well lit room it is not really visible at all. In a totally dark room it is more visible. A worst case example is white titles scrolling on a black screen. In that case, the local dimming lights around the titles and illuminates an area larger than the titles. If you look at the screen straight on (0 degrees) there is a subtle halo around the titles (others call this blooming, really blooming only occurs in CRTs). However, if you are at an angle to the screen greater than about 60%, the LCD contrast diminishes. Where the set has locally dimming, it will remain black. However around the titles since the actual LCD contrast is less, the halo will be more pronounced. This is **really** not as bad as many would claim. I'm pretty picky, and it really doesn't bother me that much. This is why I went with the Samsung 8500 in the first place, it was supposedly the best of the locally dimmed sets. As for motion resolution, it seems great. This set actually replaced a CRT projection set that had essentially perfect motion resolution and color accuracy. Not the sharpest set in the world, but essentially no motion blur at all. This set is as good. Typically I see compression artifacts on fast motion before the screen itself is the limitation. This is another advantage of Samsung. Samsung and Sony are the only "true" 240 Hz panels. LG, Vizio, and Toshiba are actually 120 Hz panels with a strobing backlight. The set has a mode that will also strobe the backlight similar to the other 240 Hz sets. I tried turning it on and off during the Super Bowl, and really the only difference I could see was that the screen was dimmer with it enabled. I really think that those that write reviews complaining about motion resolution really can't differentiate between compression artifacts and LCD motion blur. Basically, LCD blur will be a smearing where the display can not respond as fast as the video is changing. Motion artifacts will be blocks and other patterns. It may look different depending on the source (Blu-ray vs ATSC) and the coding scheme used, and if the source added de-blocking and de-ringing and how much. Personally, I can't detect motion blur on any real content. Yes, I imagine that a moving resolution test pattern as used to measure motion resolution could reveal some differences and limitations. With real source material, with even high quality sources the TV does not appear to be the limiting factor. While I do use an external audio system, presently connected with the stereo analog audio out, my wife will occasionally use the internal speakers for late night viewing. THEY ARE AWFUL, DREADFUL!! While I really don't expect great sound from any LCD TV, this type of sound on a $4000 MSRP TV is simply unacceptable. Even speech is almost unintelligible. A $25 boom box has infinitely better audio. I have a a few other smaller LCD sets as well, and they sound MUCH better. The fact that the speakers fire to the rear certainly doesn't help. If you buy this set, simply assume you can't use it's built in speakers. I can't express just how bad they sound. I'm sure Samsung's goal of a thin set, and no speaker bar made them make trade offs. In my opinion they were a mistake. I really couldn't care if the set is 1.6" or 16" deep. I care far more about quality picture, sound, and price. The set also has very limited analog inputs. There are NO S-Video inputs. The only composite input actually shares on of the connectors of the only component input. So, unless you use some sort of external switch box, you can have ONLY one composite input OR one component input!! Come on Samsung, analog sources haven't all disappeared yet. The lack of S-Video totally is disappointing. So, if you have a Wii and anything else analog either component or composite, you will need an external switch!! Come on Samsung this is also a mistake, and one that really made me strongly consider the Vizio 551 for roughly $1,500 less! All of the connectors are around the perimeter of the set, most on the left side, none on the back and I guess this is again another trade-off to be thin. Again I say, make the set thicker and give me a bunch more inputs. Another pet peeve that most sets have today, including this one is a single coax input. So, if you have both an external antenna, AND cable, you can only connect one. Even if you use an external switch you would need to switch between cable and over the air and rescan. So, I have the cable connected to the set to use clear QAM, and the antenna through a DirecTV HR10-250 TiVo. The internet Widgets work, but are for the most part kind of hokee. I haven't used the Blockbuster streaming, but most of the other ones are more or less useless. The YouTube one does work fairly well. They are S L O W to respond. It is not the internet connection they are connected to, the set just is really, really slow. They also don't support general internet access, and there are not very many available. This definitely doesn't replace a PC (one is connected to this set). The DLNA client seems to work much better. It will stream 1080i MPEG2 content flawlessly. The remote is kind of odd in that the forward and reverse buttons are not actually mapped to forward and reverse, but rather the navigation buttons. The user interface is okay, and again somewhat slow, but much better than the widgets. Overall this is pretty useful. It can stream from a network attached PC. I will likely add a DLNA server NAS to the network with a big hard drive. It doesn't seem to recognize ripped Blu-ray content though, and apparently doesn't even recognize the container type. I'm not even sure ( I should check BEFORE writing this) that Samsung even specifies what codecs are supported. I does appear to support MPEG2, but I'm not sure about MPEG4, H.264, or DivX. As I said in the beginning of the review, the picture is really good. Probably the best LCD available. It is still LCD, and the local dimming does have limitations, but Samsung seems to have done an excellent job. While plasma might not suffer the haloing (blooming), this set is much better overall, especially in a variety of lighting environments. Some times during the day the set is on with t larger window open and a lot of light. It still provides a good picture. Plasma would not do as well in that environment. It also doesn't use as much power, generate as much heat, and have burn in problems (yes, no matter what vendors like Panasonic try to tell you, Plasmas burn in, and have limited life). I really didn't want a Plasma, and really wasn't happy with most LCDs either. I was also concerned with the glossy screen, especially when the room is brightly lit. There are some occasions where there has been some glare, but it has not been nearly as much of problem as I thought. The comments about viewing angle are also somewhat overblown. While as I commented above about the decreased contrast of axis and the resultant increase in haloing, this is over 50 degrees or so off axis. While yes, the best viewing is 0 degrees straight at the set, a few degrees off is really not noticeable as some would imply. At a reasonable distance from the set, one set over on the couch does not make the picture horrible as some reviews have implied. A few degrees (something like 15 to 20) make an almost imperceptable difference. With some degradation viewing is still quite acceptable to probably 45 degrees, and usable to over 60. Don't believe the reviews that after a few degrees there is no color and all blacks turn to gray. It is far more gradual and subtle as you move off axis. Would I want to watch a movie at 60+ degrees, probably not. Can I watch the set in the adjoining kitchen while getting something, absolutely. I have an older Vizio 32" LCD in the bedroom that exhibits MUCH worse color shift and contrast loss, and never looks as good as this set at any angle. (Notably, the sound on the Vizio is MUCH better though!). If you look at the Samsung web site you will notice that this set has been removed. Only the 8000 and below are still shown. I expect that Samsung will be releasing a new flagship set. Some of the complaints hopefully will be corrected. Overall though, I would recommend this set. This picture is the best of any LCD I've seen. The sound is awful, plan on an external sound system. Some are better (LG claims THX certification), but none really sound good though. That is definitely the weakest area of this set. The internet widget s are not all that useful, but that is not why I bought it. The attached Media Center PC will remain attached. The remote, while not universal is pretty nice. It has nice, big buttons. There is also a light sensor and apparently an accelerometer as well. In a dark room, if you tap or move the remote, it will light up. It might even be too sensitive. Even if it is sitting on a coffee table, just tapping the table will make it light up. I also purchased a Samsung Blu-ray play (BDP-1600). While this might not be the best player I chose it because of HDMI-CEC integration. Samsung calls this AnyNet. It works fairly well. It sets up a custom profile for the player and a virtual AnyNet input in addition to the actual HDMI input. Putting a Blu-Ray disc in the player will automatically turn on the TV, select the player as the input, and start to play. This makes it really simple for those who are technically challenged (or live with those that are). .

This 55" LED HDTV features an Auto Motion Plus 240Hz screen refresh rate to greatly reduce blur during fast action sequences and Wide Color Enhancer Pro technology to optimize color hues so your movies, shows, games and more will look their best.

Well, let me start by saying I was a SONY man so moving to Samsung was a leap of faith. However, since my new 8500 was delivered, I haven't looked back. This set is just fantastic. No other way to describe it. You will not be disappointed. I went ahead and bought the 8500 because I wanted local dimming. I can't compare it to the other sets since I’ve never owned the other side lit LED sets by Samsung, but I could not be happier. When you sit down in front of this set you suddenly understand what mega contrast ratio, black and white aspects, color tones, etc. all mean because the picture is so incredible. I heard sound might be an issue – but not on this set. Mine is wall mounted and the speakers are in the back of the set, so maybe they reflect sound better that way? And don’t even worry about the “glossy” screen vs. a “matt” finish reflection, it doesn’t even make a bit of difference, once the set comes on there is no reflection to speak of and I have windows all over my room. Buy this set, you won’t need another one for years to come!

Truly a stunning picture. Handles very well the finest detail and the contrast is eye popping. Watching nature (like the deadliest catch) is incredibly rewarding. This is a lot to pay for a 55 inch screen but I am absolutely wowed by the performance. I am a value shopper and subject to buyers remorse when my expectations fall short: none of that here. I do hope I can get a code for the DTV remote. My only concern about the video is born out of one scene in which a subject was in front of a window with very bright light shining through and the subject was not well presented. I suspectthough that this was a flaw in filming (or the directors artistic flare gone bad) as all other scenes have been handled with excellant clarity. There is occasionally a little bluring around fast moving objects but not nearly to the extent I have seen on numerous other flat screens. There is very little gaming in my house (WII only) but the limited expieriance with this video is superb. Great looking product with an exceptional picture and very adequate audio. Hats off to Best Buy for the buying expieriance as well: Top shelf!

I saw this product during a Samsung product demonstration and expected it to be similar to the 8000 model. Imagine if the Samsung 8000 and the Sony XBR8 had a baby and the resulting hybrid left you with the amazing clarity, refresh, color depth, and capabilities of Samsung mixed with the accuracy and contrast ratio of Sony's triluminous XBR8, without having the side lit LED's of the Samsung 7 or 8 series. This TV is still insanely thin, and the pedestal it sits on is beautiful. As always, Samsung has worked with Microsoft to deliver a "game mode" with the lowest lag possible among televisions, and the options allow you change the settings all the way from Hyper Real, to "more comfortbale", whatever you prefer. Just make sure that out of the box you go and set the TV up with your specific preferences, before judging it. No TV comes out of the box set up optimal. On a final note, this puts my Sony XBR4 in a sad place, yet this won't be a replacement, as much as an addition to.

This is one of the best tvs out on the marketbut if your major preference is sports stick to the panasonic viera, this tv not only delivers the stunning clarity and precise detail of beyond realism, it sucks you into it, you quite feel like you are right there in the game or movie, _drools_ I am seriously looking forward to purchasing one come tax season and hopefully by then the price will have dropped to at least 3g so I can blow the other thousand bucks on a home theater system, botton line if you want pure detail of the best picture buy this tv, if its for just movie theater size screen, stick to projection, sports, stick to plasma, but if you want the best of the best and bragging rights to your buddies, This tv is the one, just make sure your curtains are closed.

I first purchased the 8000 series Samsung but could not except the flashlight effect during dark scenes in movies. I returned it within the 30 days and Best Buy was very helpful during process. I then shopped around and decided on 8500. Pull the trigger and have not looked back. Setup was easy and software upgrade was simple. This TV has many settings and I have struggled with finding a happy medium when watching Blue Ray movies. I recommend Geek Squad calibration. If you have the cash I recommend this Model. It is now listed at around 3 grand!