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Review Samsung UN55B8500 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LED HDTV
Picture performance, advanced connectivity, and an eco-friendly design and breathtaking blend with the UN55B8500 Samsung 55-inch LED HDTV in order to achieve a high level of image quality and provide a unique and engaging entertainment. Using Light Emitting Diodes (LED) as its primary source of light – rather than traditional Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL) – This advanced HDTV also offers the advantages of an ultra-high contrast ratio and a depth that allows a thin smarter design. Read more…
And the 8500 series also includes innovative LED Local Dimming Technology, which turns off LEDs selectively blocks to make perfectly true blacks, while others are left to produce more light in order to express the pure white.
Booth Crystal neck swivel.
With Samsung’s innovative use of white LEDs as a backlight source, the series 8500 is capable of a stunning 7,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for detail and the depth image and an extreme ultra-fast response time of 2 ms panel the content faster. Its Wide Color Enhancer Pro ensures that the colors are more vibrant, while Samsung’s Ultra Clear Panel works to improve image clarity and brightness regardless of ambient lighting of a room.
At the battle motion blur and the vibrations of image that can plague LCD screen for displaying fast movement, the 8500 Samsung LED HDTV Auto Motion Plus technology uses the interpolation frame with a ulatra-fast 240Hz refresh rate – four times that of other televisions. It also boasts high dynamic contrast ratio, complements of the ground breaking light source LED.
The series 8500 has new Samsung @ Internet TV service online content. Developed by Yahoo, the Internet @ TV or use a wired or wireless Ethernet to access content on the screen by Yahoo, Flickr, YouTube and more with the push of a button. The widget-based interface and run the scroll bar along the bottom of the screen to facilitate navigation of the latest programs and content.
Customer Reviews
By Bearcat (Ohio)
To clarify this is my tv and not just basing this review on time spent in a store of navigation. This TV has been difficult to find and the only place I found this in stock has been my local Best Buy, with a section of Magnolia.
Design: Samsung is known for their elegant design and this TV is no exception. Samsung says it has a touch of charcoal color, but really I have not noticed any color of the bezel. And ‘black and goes to clear the outer edge. Sits on a metal support with an apparent neck holding the tv. In the bottom half of the TV downstairs, where it says Samsung is a blue light that can be turned off. I noticed the flickering light ever so slightly ‘when a command is sent using the remote. The TV is very thin. Only 1.6 “at its fattest point. This is amazing considering this tv is a complete unit with a backlit LED local dimming. Truly amazing and a design that will have your friends jealous.
Image Quality: This is the finest LCD TVs made today. I have seen many other LCD TVs, including the XBR8 Sony and Samsung A950 last year and this is the most beautiful I have seen. In terms of image quality XBR8 is closer, but not quite up to par with the 8500. Realistically, if you had one of these groups in your house would look spectacular. The blacks are so dark in 8500 approaches the level of blacks in plasma TV is better. In a dark room, I could not tell where the TV screen over and bezel began because the screen was so dark. The colors are superb and can be adjusted any number of ways to your liking. I prefer the “natural” mode for everyday use and the film “mode for viewing movies on Blu-ray. Updating 240hz is nice, but the best thing is that you can independently control the settings of Blue and vibration. Raising the 240hz tends to produce what some call the “soap”, but this effect can be easily eliminated by tweaking. There is also a game mode that I use when I play on my PS3.
One interesting thing I discovered is that the movie mode using the Warm 2 setting is placed virtually on the prospect of setting right out of the box. I say this because I have a calibration Spears & Munsil Blu-ray disc and when I run the TV through the calibration process using the Movie mode, the Warm 2 I literally had only one to change the setting of one or two points. I have seen many people just flipping back and forth between the natural and the movie mode, depending on what you are watching, and not worry about how to calibrate the tv looks great pretty much out of the box.
I also wanted to point out that the standard definition looks good on this TV. It does not seem nearly as good as HD, but it is quite acceptable, in my opinion.
Sound: Having a profile to think I expected the sound is horrible. Surprisingly it was quite acceptable. While I would recommend a surround sound system I’ve never felt like the TV speakers were so bad. My wife has never said anything and I have never been to watch a TV show and thought, “Oh, the stench of sound.” I would say that this is an average which is ok for me considering the small amount of space Samsung had to work with. While the audio-philes can not, as the speakers TV / audio I think a lot of people would be totally fine with it.
Viewing Angle: I sit on 9 ‘and 10′ away from the screen and have not noticed any real problems with the viewing angle. Of course not LED LCD will have a viewing angle as good as a plasma, but if you are sitting at a corner that probably will not have to worry too much about this. I think this is more of a personal preference …Maybe a video-phile would notice, but my wife does not notice and never said a thing.
Reflection: Be aware that this is NOT an opaque screen is a reflective screen. If you have Windows in front of the TV so make sure you have curtains or blinds that can block the light is not enough to disturb. I do not think it is more reflective than other Samsung TV, but from an opaque screen before this was a big change for me.
Widgets: The TV is equipped with internet connectivity for Yahoo Widgets, YouTube, Twitter, Sports USA Today and many others. You can buy a Samsung wireless USB dongle to connect wirelessly to the TV network or you can connect an Ethernet cable directly into the back of the TV. I have an Ethernet cable connected directly into the back of it. First, the widgets do not load quickly. I do not know why, but even using a direct cable to the Internet on TV that still do not load quickly. I do not know why, but they are slooow. Slow enough for me to be bothered and do not use them much. It’s strange, because when I went to the You Tube widget and looked for a video that played so fast and was smooth. Samsung hopes will have a software update to allow the widgets to load faster. Now I would say that it is just a novelty. If they can decrease load times and add other applications, such as Facebook, then I think this has potential. But people are not buying this TV because of the widget, they are buying for the image.
Overall I think this is a good tv. It is expensive, yes. Does it have the best picture of any LCD available, yes. If you have the money this is a great tv. I use a Harmony One remote and works perfectly with this tv. PS3 games and Blu-ray looks incredible. The only quibble I have with TV is the reflectivity of the screen and that is more a result of my room setup than the TV itself. If I’m watching HD football, a game for the PS3, watching a Blu-Ray or watching The Office I was swept away by the picture this TV can provide.
By J. Finkel “Jack of Trades” (Hoboken, NJ)
The UN55b8500 Samsung is the flagship model and is the successor to the current LN55A950.
Image Quality
A full LED backlit LCD which offers a stunning 7 million: 1 contrast separates the B8500 from other LCDs, reaching deep into the pitch black, formely only possible with the plasma. Some monitors LCD pixels to get the blacks off ink – ok for still images, but too slow to work with the videos – essentially a ploy to inflate the numbers of contrast. The B8500 However, masters of the darker blacks and brighter whites to produce a bold three-dimensional effect or “pop”. In a dark room, the b8500 surpasses LCD in the market, shy pioneer plasma field. In a moderate to light, however, the B8500 dominates absolutely.
The highly reflective screen can be annoying for those who have unfortunately made light sources or windows without shutters. An opaque screen, like the LG 55LH90 might be a better fit for some, but a matte screen diffuses the light that causes the entire screen to lose those blacks desirable ink. I can not say one is better than the other, but for a TV capable of producing such dark blacks, I think the glossy screen makes more sense.
Motion handling is better than any LCD I’ve seen, thanks to separate the blur and vibration and the adjustments very few motion artifacts. Blu ray movies will exhibit perfect as panning or, if you want, smoother and clearer pan similar to a home video. My verizon fios HD shows from time to time the vibrations when you have a good flow of movement. The b8500 can help minimize this, but it is powerful enough to eliminate evil and when set, can be made worse.
After some quick, basic calibration of the colors are vivid and mostly accurate. Noise and artifacts are very minimal to nonexistent in 1080p and 720p. Haloing (eg white text on black background due to ease next to the text) is visible only rarely fail to display greater than 30 degrees off center and increases in severity, since it increases the viewing angle. Display greater than 30 degrees off axis vertically or horizontally also causes a slight loss, contrast and color depth. Display more than 50 ° out causes a significant loss of contrast and color, creating a flat and showing important effects haloing. The range of ideal vision is 15 ° of the center, although centered vertically, the image is hardly degraded at all up to 30 degrees off center. Ideal viewing distance is about 8-14 feet for 720p and 5 to 10 feet for 1080p, even if you do not take these numbers too seriously, obviously you can enjoy this TV from any distance. At 4 feet or less, however, the 46 “model is a better choice.
Usability
The preset picture modes are all pretty good for those who are discerning and want only to see their TV and b8500 does a decent job of automatically assign settings based on input. Of course, high-end buyers are more likely to calibrate the sources of their choice or hire a pro. The TV will remember the settings for dynamic, natural, standard and profiles of films for each source. That gives you much more flexibility
By Leif Kuester
I do echo rating Bearcat like him is very accurate and precise, but I want to throw my 2 cents in. When coupled with Samsung its super-thin wall mounting, which is just a glorified cable attached to two solid disks, the TV sits surprisingly close to the wall. Another neat features that I found hard to believe – When watching movies from an external hard drive, the TV can read a variety of video codec. You can read MP4, AVI, WMV, MPG. I’m not sure for sound support, but I had no luck finding a movie that I will not play right off a USB external hard drive. The TV is also equipped with 1GB of internal storage to keep files in.
All Widgits are slow, but they are sill used with the exception of video-based widgets, which I find to be too slow to load some utilities. I prefer the power of my computer, if I’m going to do any activity based on the Internet.
Of course, I would be only right to refer to how amazed I am with the quality. I’m upgrading from a 55 “CRT-based TV, and watch this TV for me is like watching TV for the first time. The major selling point in this on TV like Samsung 55″ offers is the local dimming function. HDTV I’ve seen many over the years by adjusting the backlight always get deeper blacks and brighter whites, but that simply can not do both at once. It is very annoying for me to see the TV backlight ratchet up and down while watching a scene with a brightness variable. This is where the local dimming feature comes in. This TV can do both glare and shadows, at the same time! I waited for many years to find a TV that is not distracting to watch. My wait is over with the release of the Sony XBR8, but it was more convenient, I’d love. Once I saw the visual quality of fresh Samsung 8000 series, and read the local dimming feature of 8500, I was sold on this TV and I ordered it without sampling the image. I could not be happier.
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