Samsung UN55B8500 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LED HDTV

5 comments

1. 

   kite6t9 on December 26, 2009 at 10:18 am

   I am a proud owner of this bad boy and I am so glad I waited 3 years to buy a new TV. I have watched Planet Earth on Blu-Ray and it looks georgeous. Playing video games looks really great too, Uncharted 2 looked amazing on this set. I still have yet to find the best settings for picture quality but the one I got from Cnet works just fine. I highly recomend this set for the price being offered isn’t too bad.

2. 

   MidLifeCrisis on December 26, 2009 at 12:33 pm

   Sorry to say that I am guilty of only writing reviews when i am dissatisfied.
   
   you know the ol saying, “When we do right, no one remembers, but when we do wrong, no one forgets” hahaha.

   First, let me say that I paid ~$3400 +TAX for this TV. A GREAT deal .. and I would be totally satisfied if it were not for the fact a month earlier I purchased a UN55B8000 for ~$2400 and i like the less expensive one more. I have them sitting, side by side, and the pictures on the 8000 are clearer, less noise(meaning less grainy) etc. Now, that being said, there are differences where the 8500 is superior. But even at the great prices i got on both TV’s, im saying, not $1000 better … some might say I have no taste, its possible … I drink Beer and whisky, not wine .. hahahah

   I would have to speculate, from my observation, that the 8500 is more sensitive to cable signal fluctuations and “noise” than the 8000. YES could be my cable, but not the point .. side by side, 8000 looks better / cleaner , channel for channel … in “my” home. I have had the cable dudes out to check it .. they say all is good, of course, hahaha ..what else would they say .. BUT, if your input is so clean that any TV would not see any reception issues you are very lucky.

   PRO’s
   
   It’s a very nice TV looks very good … very life like at times … even old movies etc look good.
   
   Very easy to set up yourself.
   
   Can hang on the wall and display photos of your choice, or canned artworks (yeah, I got’s class real good)
   
   No Flash lighting from the sides
   
   VERY black blacks ( what good is it if ya cant see anything in the dark area, I ask myself)
   
   GREAT colors

   CON’s
   
   The 8500 suffers from the same lack of picture detail that the 8000 has, during dark seines. I expected better.
   
   The Widgets are pretty much worthless.
   
   For that much money, I expected better quality picture than my 8000
   
   THE HEAT that is generated from this TV you can feel just by walking in front of the display. IT RADIATES several feet. my 8000 doesn’t do that.
   
   I have the Impression that this 8500 TV is more sensitive to signal than my 8000.

   Go look at them side by side, with simular settings, and make up your own mind.

3. 

   A. Oliver on December 26, 2009 at 2:32 pm

   Most of what I have to say about this TV has already been said – it really is the one LCD to beat at the moment. Everything that’s said about it really is true – the LED Local Dimming features really helps elevate blacks to – almost – the level of Plasma.

   So it’s good, it’s really good, but that’s all been said before. Instead I’ll focus on the elements that aren’t quite there IMHO.

   FIrst off – the remote. It’s RF (radio frequency), not IR (infra-red) like every other device out there.
   
   Not a big deal if you only use your TV remote, but it does mean you can’t use your existing remote (e.g. cable box, receiver, etc.) to control the TV, and it also means you can’t use the TV remote to control those other devices. So gone are the days of one universal remote to control everything, unless you want to go out and buy a Logitech Harmony 900 Remote Control (Black) to go with it.
   
   Given that the TV, almost by definition, is the one component that isn’t going to be hidden away, it seems odd to have opted for RF over IR.

   Secondly, the stand. It really doesn’t seem stable enough for such a large screen. Yes, it’s sleek, it’s subtle, but it doesn’t seem to offer enough stability in my mind.
   
   If you’re wall-mounting the screen you’re fine (given a suitable wall mount bracket, of course), but be aware that the screen seems unstable when on the included mount. That said, it hasn’t yet tipped, but living in an earthquake-prone area it’s of special concern to me.

   Those are the only real issues I’ve encountered. There’s a few other elements that might or might not be important to some people, but I’ve never seen them discussed anywhere before.

   The TV really needs some way of turning off the inputs that you’re not using (or concerned with). I will likely never use an antenna connected directly to the TV, yet I can’t remove the ‘TV’ option from the On Screen Menu (used to switch between inputs). Come on Samsung! why not? The same goes for the PC input. There’s even a dedicated button on the remote to switch to this input. I’d guess that the majority of users nowadays would use a cable or satellite STB, so there should be some way of re-assigning that button to the users’ preferred input rather than only linking to the antenna.
   
   It’s worth noting that the OSD does demote idle HDMI connections so they’re out of the way. It should be able to do the same with the other inputs, too.

   The TV has a digital optical output that relays sound from any input through to a receiver. In theory this works great, except that if using HDMI input to the TV, only 2-channel audio is output. This might be common (e.g. some idiotic limit of the HDMI standard), but it was completely unexpected to me.
   
   It does mean that you’re going to be running audio (presumably optical) cables between any HDMI-based device and your receiver – you can’t rely on the audio being routed through the TV.

   For reasons I don’t understand, all the HDMI ports are arranged vertically on the left-hand side of the unit. While not a big problem, it does make routing cables harder and means you need longer cables than you might think – given the cost of good HDMI cables, this can add up. Samsung aren’t alone here – most TVs I’ve looked at do the same thing, but it’s inexplicable to me.
   
   On a similar note, the thin profile of this screen also extends to the connectors on the back – don’t try and use cables with overly-thick connectors (such as some of the cables from people like Monster Cable. The TV just won’t take them. To be fair, the manual does state a 14mm maximum thickness for cable connectors, but that’s not until after you’ve unboxed the thing and are fiddling around with the cabling.

   One other thing I couldn’t find documented anywhere – including Samsung’s site – is power rating. The back plate lists 465W maximum – significantly better than just about any plasmas of the same size I looked at. Typical draw seems to be around 250-350W, depending on what you’re viewing.
   
   I don’t understand why power ratings are so hard to come by on these things.

   So despite the above all sounding negative, I’m really, really, happy with the TV – all the good things have already been said and I’m just highlighting the few things that caught me out.

4. 

   D on December 26, 2009 at 5:24 pm

   I originally purchased the UN55B7000 and was not at all satisfied with the LED edge lighting. There was no way to get rid of the light shining in from the corners of the screen and the backlight uniformity was terrible on dark scenes. I tried to like it because I did not want to spend nearly twice as much on the 8500 but I could not get past the search light effect in the corners. I returned that one and purchased this TV and I am very glad I did. There is no comparison between an edge lit LED and this one with the local dimming back lit LED’s. In the brightly lit stores, you can not appreciate this feature like you will in your dark living room. The black bars on the top and bottom when watching a movie with a ratio that does not fill the screen, are black, not grey. You will not see any light shining in from the corners. Also, the dynamic contrast feature of the 7000 series would make the screen lighter and darker during the movie depending on the light of the scene. That was very annoying. With the local dimming LED, this is not a problem. The picture is also noticeably better with all video sources whether HD or standard definition and I am using the same cables with this TV as I did on the 7000. I have the blur reduction set on 10 and the judder set on 2 for the best looking picture I have ever seen on a TV. I have Dish HD and the HD channels look amazing on this TV. Even the standard definition channels look very good. There is a very noticeable improvement on picture quality over my last LCD TV and the 7000 that I returned. Every time I watch this TV, I feel that it was well worth the price I paid for it. If you are looking for the best picture you can possibly get from a TV, LCD or plazma in my opinion, this is the one to get. If you take some time to play with the adjustments, I’m sure you will find settings that will make you say WOW, that’s amazing!

5. 

   Y. Yosef on December 26, 2009 at 7:25 pm

   Purchased this TV after long debating with the XBR10 and I am glad i chose the Samsung with the slim mounting it is definitely looks like a painting on the wall.
   
   Now just turn on your blu ray and you what you paid for true HD vivid experience.
   
   The screen comes in a glossy finish so it kind of reflects everything when there’s Light….
   
   The widgets feature Lacks the Amazon on demand service (on amazon web site it says “Amazon Video On Demand is temporarily not available on Samsung”)I hope that they Will fix it soon .
   
   Accompanying this TV are Martin Logan speakers Denon receiver and A PS3 I’ll post some Pics. You cant go wrong with this TV In one word AMAZING.