Samsung UN55B8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz LED HDTV
Posted by TVReviews on September 28, 2009 · 3 Comments
From the ManufacturerSamsung with NFL(May 30, 2009) Redefining the standards for viewing quality, energy-efficiency and home entertainment decor, the Samsung 8000 Series LED HDTVs deliver unparalleled picture quality and enhanced connectivity while also helping you reduce your carbon footprint with the reduced power consumption of the LED screen. Using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) as its primary light source–rather than traditional Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL)–this cutting edge HDTV also offers the benefits of an ultra-high contrast ratio and a slim depth that allows for a more artful design. To battle motion blur and image judder that can plague LCD displays when displaying fast movement onscreen, this 8000 Series LED HDTV utilizes Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus frame interpolation technology with an ulatra-fast 240Hz refresh rate–four times that of other TVs. It also boasts high dynamic contrast ratios, complements of the ground breaking LED light source. The …
Buy Samsung UN55B8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz LED HDTV at Amazon
Had my Samsung UN55B8000 TV a couple of weeks now. It has more than lived up to the hype. Hooked it up and put on a blu-ray disk. Even the delivery guy’s jaw dropped, and he’s delivered/set up hundreds of TVs.
TV is only inch and half thick and only weighs 60 pounds or so.
In fact, it is sometimes almost too good. When viewing people on HD you can see every little mole, scar, wrinkle, stray hair, makeup, five o’clock shadow, makeup line, etc. I’m sitting here watching the news and I can clearly see tiny pieces of lint on the guy’s black suit. I’m guessing the talking heads of tomorrow are all going to have to have much better complexions.
If you like to tweak your TV this one provides a lot of different controls. There are already some websites that will give you what they consider good tweaks to maximize the pic. You can also look for the B7000 tweaks. Looks pretty darn fantastic right out of the box so if you aren’t a techie, don’t worry about it.
Sounds..not particularly good or bad, but I don’t want TV speakers taking up space anyway. If you are going to spend this kind of money for a TV you should be using your stereo system.
Some reviewers were complaining about the number of inputs. Again, how many is enough. I run my PS3, XBOX360, IPOD, and the Dish box through my Denon and so I only use one HDMI.
You can plug it into the internet. No set-up, just plug it in. First thing it did was download 12 updates to itself. Have no idea what they did but …didn’t cause any problems. It automatically loads up some of Yahoo’s widgets. Fun to try but…not something I have really gone back and used much. Also has some built in content…recipes, artwork, etc. that I haven’t bothered to look at.
You can plug in USB drives and view content directly off the drive.
I long ago got rid of my roof antenna. I bought a little Turk indoor antenna and plugged that in so I can pop over into over-the-air signals and watch TV. It will automatically search and find the on-air channels. It even downloads some kind of TV guide from the internet for the channels it finds.
I also wanted to see if there was any signal degradation from Dish. I haven’t noticed the HD degradation with Dish that I had with Comcast. The way Comcast packed the HD signals you could see a real difference between OTA and the packed pics.
Samsung also provides software which allows you to use your PC as a server. Then you can display your pics, music, etc on the TV. Took a little playing around but was easy compared to some of the others I’ve tried to use.
I’ve played games with both my PS3 and the XBOX360. No problems. No pixelating. Did not bother to change TV over to game mode. I haven’t fooled around with the 240Hz function. I just leave it on standard.
I’m sure there are other features I haven’t tried. With the ability to update itself over the internet I have no doubt they will teach it even more amazing tricks.
I’ve set up my Harmony 880 Pro to control all my devices including the IPOD. IPOD menu/info will display (through my Denon) on the TV.
All of the above features are great but the main thing is… the picture is just absolutely mind-blowing wonderful.
So, fantastic TV. I am VERY happy with it. Obviously I highly recommend it.
((Now I’m watching Wall-E in HD and it is pretty amazing.))
Not perfect, but it’s the closest thing I’ve seen so far. Really deserves 4 1/2 stars instead of 5 due to the lack of a couple convenience features missing from the remote, and the limited number of non HDMI inputs. The picture quality, light weight, reduced power use, and thin cabinet are just terrific. The remote takes a couple hours to really bond
with though you can start watching TV and movies pretty quickly without knowing how to make adjustements other than selecting your input source.
Pros:
* Increadible Dynamic Contrast. I feel like other people are in the room with me. Even up close to a few inches away the images is crisp, clear, and lifelike.
* Light weight at only about 65 lbs or so, about 1/3 that of an old 32″ TV.
* VGA computer input, 4 HDMI, Audio out, and a couple other type inputs.
*240Hz demo feature lets you display 240Hz on one side and 60Hz regular on the other. There’s also multiple modes of 240Hz you can select. Great feature to play with while watching the latest Bond movies.
*2ms response time (sounds good to me)
Cons:
*Only one regular RCA input that is shared with a Component input (you can use either the 3 component inputs jacks~ or just one of them for your video, then use the Left and Right audio). Bottom line is you only have one non-HDMI video Input (not counting the computer VGA input).
*PIP only accessed from tools menu instead of a single button on remote. Swapping PIP image to main image required selecting that source input instead of a single swap button. Can only display TV or Cable image in PIP and not other HDMI input devices.
*Touch of Color is only one blue light at the bottom instead of all around the edges as I expected.
That’s the quick review. I’m sure someone will go into more detail soon and I look forward to hearing other takes on this new LED series. I’m very happy with the purchase, especially at 10% or more below the list price.
I bought this TV because the overall picture quality is good and it’s unbelievably thin. However, there are some inherent problems with the set which are driving me nuts.
The backlight is extremely uneven at the corners. In dark scenes (like credits, or the entirety of letter-boxed movies) you will see little searchlights coming from the corners. Once you see it (and you will see it), you won’t be able to NOT see it.
The autodimming feature is also poorly implemented. Again, in credits or scenes where there is more dark than light, it will turn the backlight down for “better contrast”. However, when the TV changes its mind about the scene, the previously dim white areas will pop bright white. It looks very strange.
I’ve read that there are “workarounds” but some of them involve going into the service menu (which apparently voids the warranty). This TV should work better in dark scenes for the price.