Customer Reviews

Samsung UN55B8000 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz LED HDTV

5 star:		(101)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

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.))

I have owned Sony televisions exclusively for the past 30 years. I was in the market for a new TV to replace my older Sony 50" Grand WEGA LCD projection set. I always keep up with new technologies in consumer electronics and knew that LED backlighting was the way to go. One day, I visited Best Buy to see the new Sony models. I was particularly interested in the Sony Bravia XBR8 LED TV. It has an awesome display, but I couldn't bring myself to part with $5K for a TV. The high price was a big disappointment. I knew Samsung made LED models so I decided to check them out too. I was immediately floored. They looked far better than Sony's more expensive LED model and for $2K less. But, was I really willing to purchase something other than a Sony TV? I would have to be convinced. I did a lot of research on these Samsung sets. I demoed them in several stores and read as many reviews as possible. IMO, the Samsung LED TVs are by far the best technology currently available. Their display must be seen to be believed. Most impressive of all, is the fact that Samsung accomplished this in a set that is only 1.2" thick.

Well, I was finally convinced and decided to purchase the Samsung UN55B8000. I have owned it for almost a month now and I am in awe every time I watch it. This set is beautiful even when it's turned off. But, you won't want to turn it off because the clarity, detail, brightness, contrast and color are absolutely exceptional. For the first time I have owned a TV, I did not have to make any adjustments to the factory settings - it looked perfect right out of the box. In fact, I had purchased a calibration DVD and was surprised to find that I didn't have to make any adjustment to any controls.

Of course, the most amazing thing about this set and what intially lured me to it is its picture quality. It's difficult to explain the level of detail it produces. I have HD cable programming (1080i), which looks fantastic. Games on the Xbox 360 pops out at you. But the images produced from a Blu-ray source is absolutely breath-taking. I was also pleasantly surprised at how bright the display looks in my sunlit family room. I thought I would have to adjust the brightness to view the set in daylight and again when watching at night as I did with our old Sony TV. Although the screen on the UN55B8000 has a gloss finish, it does a great job of reducing glare and reflections.

I do want to respond to the negative comments that others have posted here regarding uneven backlighting or vignetting effect caused by the edge-lit LEDs when the TV displays dark images. The only time I notice this was when the set displays a totally black background such as in movie credits. At best, it appears as a very faint illumination from the corner. But even then, I really had to look for it. I don't think this is an issue at all; at least not one that should deter anyone from purchasing this incredible TV. I have to assume that those that have experienced this anomaly are probably looking at an uncalibrated set that has its brightness level turned way too high.

I took advantage of the slim design of this set and purchased the ultra slim wall mount. The TV hangs like a picture frame and looks like a masterpiece, which it is. The slim case houses adequate speakers, producing fairly good sound quality for normal TV viewing. Of course, you would want to watch movies through a surround sound system.

As for the other features of this set; the internet widgets are pretty cool, but slow. I especially like the YouTube widget. The DLNA network feature is also a nice addition, but the interface is also slow and not very intuitive. I'm hoping that a future firmware upgrade would improve the functionality. The content library feature is my favorite. It allows you to display a slideshow of artwork or other pics with soft background music - great for parties. You can download additional content for free from Samsung.

I am extremely pleased with this television and would recommend it to anyone.

Clarity and colors are stunning. It literally makes everything you watch look like it was filmed with a consumer grade camcorder rather than pro grade cameras. This TV makes things look like they are happening in front of you in your very own room. You see every strand of hair, every wrinkle, every mole and blemish on faces. You have to see it to believe it. One way to describe it is that everything looks "different" than what you may have been accustomed to seeing. I recommend that you see this TV in a brick-n-mortar store to see what I mean.

The number of adjustments menus is also above and beyond what any one of us not in the business of making these TVs is ever going to need. For folks that want to tweak, here is your opportunity.

However, this TV is not perfect.

1. Corners show reverse vignetting where on very dark scenes you can see the corner illumination projecting significantly into the screen. It looks like a flash light is projecting from the corner. The corner itself is very dark but a very faint light spreads in a fan pattern from each corner towards the center of the screen. This is only visible in very dark scenes where the primary display color is black. You can not see this normally.

2. The stand does not feel sturdy. If you push on the very top of the bezel, the screen will rock back and forth... I freaked out the first time I did that when I bumped the screen during placement of the TV on my entertainment stand. Looking at the attachment point, Samsung went super cheap; the current attachment technique does not belong on a TV in this price range. You are provided with (literally) a shoe-lace attached to a triangular piece of plastic that attaches to the TV. The other end is supposed to be attached either to the wall or your stand. This is really out of place for a TV of this caliber and I think is my biggest disappointment with this TV.

As the LED display technology advances, I'm sure this TV will be surpassed in performance by future models from Samsung or competing brands. However, for the time being, this is a very good HD display with some imperfections.

I'm pleased with the purchase and look forward to many years of service.

Regards,

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.

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.

Sorry, but the other comments about reverse vignetting or edge-lighting are sheer nonsense. You can see anything if you look hard enough - and that is the point. I originally bought the Samsung UN46B8000 (46 inch LED) and observed no such issue whatsoever - just a superb picture. After nearly 30 days I got bigger screen envy, so I went back to Best Buy and purchased the UN55B8000 (55 inch), and traded in the 46 inch. Once again a fantastic picture with no edge-lighting. No issues at all. Samsung has hit the sweet spot with the 8000 series. This 240Hz version is especially wonderful when viewing action scenes.

Anyone who has seen my set is blown away by the superb picture, rich colors, color contrast, etc. - and these are comments from my friends, the Geek Squad installers, the Dish Network guy, and so on. This set was worth every penny. You will pay more, but you get what you pay for. And on top of all that, this set allows me to go wireless and online with the built-in widgets (the Samsung USB link is extra).

My problem is that I have to get up each morning and go to work instead of staying home and enjoying this TV. Sheer torture <GRIN>.

This TV is replacing a Sony 50" rear screen projection LCD HDTV that still has a great picture. However, the Sony uses a $200 projector bulb to display the tiny LCD enlarged through lenses up to the 50" screen, and that generates a LOT of heat (and only lasts a couple of years). Additionally, the Sony TV only displays up to a 720p image, which is fine, but pales in comparison to this new Samsung model. The LED-side backlit LCD Samsung TV remains cool indefinitely as it's viewed, which is a major issue if you don't use your TV to heat your living room.

The first time I saw this new Samsung in a local Best Buy showroom I was immediately transfixed. The image was stunning, razor sharp, bright, and when I touched the top rear of the case, absolutely room temperature. Because the screen case is only about 1 1/4" thick the unit seems flimsy sitting vertically on its crystal plastic cylinder atop a base, but that's a minor issue to me. Many people will remove the base and hang it on the wall. I have a TV nook, so this unit sits on its base out of the way of anyone possibly bumping into it.

This TV has the best image of any TV I've EVER viewed. I'm not a TV snob, just a daily viewer, but I've owned a lot of high quality TVs over the years, and this one stands out. Once I plugged my Dish PVR and Sony PS3 Slim in and looked at the picture in my living room environment, I was convinced I'd made a good decision (and I moved the Sony to another room).

It's only been a couple of months since my spouse began pushing me to upgrade to 1080, but I thought my DVDs looked great on the Sony TV and didn't feel the urgency. Now, viewing those same DVDs on my PS3 Slim/Samsung 8000, they look grainy, and definitely remind me of my transitions from Beta to LD to DVD way back when. When I popped in a new Blu-ray movie I was convinced. I'm not sure I'll ever enjoy my old DVDs the same way again.

The TV worked perfectly out of the box. I plugged it into a gigabit switch to my broadband connection and upgraded its firmware in a few minutes. A couple of days later my Blu-ray Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark disk arrived and I was hard pressed to change ANY settings. In fact, most of the test screens were puzzling to me, since they looked fine. The Spears & Munsil disk shows you a sample of a good image and a bad image for each test screen, and almost all of the test screens on the Samsung looked exactly like the benchmark images. There was one test image that appeared off (screen was so bright the test boxes were nearly invisible), but even with the brightness turned completely down the image didn't change, so I left it at the setup default. Bottom line, the TV was calibrated nearly perfectly already out of the box. The over saturated, super bright settings you view in the showroom are what Samsung calls Dynamic. I selected a different setting for my Dish satellite and Blu-ray viewing modes that's fine for home viewing. Of course, Samsung allows you to customize to your heart's content if the simple options don't work for you. This unit also boasts a 240Hz fast image smoothing functionality, which basically takes your standard 60Hz (or 24Hz for DVDs) signal and interpolates (creates) additional images to display something on your screen more frequently so you don't notice the jumps as fast images move across the screen. I can't say that I've noticed this in daily use. But perhaps sports fans will appreciate it, or it'll become more obvious in action movies.

You can have a separate setup for each input, so I configured my Dish satellite images to bright natural tones, and my Blu-ray settings to a movie configuration (where many images are darker than commercial television). I bypass the TV for audio, using the TV as a monitor only, which is just as well. While there are four HDMI inputs, the optical out ONLY PASSES THROUGH A STEREO SIGNAL to your AV receiver/amplifier. That means NO DTS/5.1/7.1 audio if you pass all your components through your TV. So, I plug my satellite and Blu-ray video inputs directly into my TV's HDMI ports, and their optical audio connections directly into my AV receiver driving my 5.1 system. I configure my Harmony remote to turn on my TV, set the video port, and set my AV receiver to my satellite audio in when watching Dish, and my Sony PS3 Slim when I'm watching a movie.

I've been researching new HDTVs for a couple of months now, and this unit is currently the most popular (including the less expensive 7000 and 6000 series units, and the just released 8500 rear-LED backlight unit) and best rated. A couple of comments I've heard and read about with this TV concerned its side-LED backlight scheme, and how that prevents the TV from darkening just a portion of the screen (vice LEDs all across the back of the screen, individually controlled). I can attest that this unit has phenomenal blacks (not dark grays, as my Sony TV has). I'm sure the 8500's rear-LED scheme will provide more discriminating dark areas on the screen, but for the moment that's not worth the extra thousand dollars to me. The blacks and dark areas on the 8000 look great. I did notice that the corners of the screen appear slightly darker where the backlights can't run into the corner, but only on the showroom models that were on all day long. I haven't yet observed dark corners on a white screen on my home unit. I've also heard that some people have experienced hardware failures after a week of home viewing, typically where the screen goes all white, which requires a repair. Best Buy told me if that happens and they can't repair it in two weeks, they'll replace the unit (they also offer a 4-year warranty for another $400). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I didn't get a defective unit, but so far so good. The TV looks so great, I was willing to take the chance. Anyway, if it works for a month, it'll probably work forever, such is the history of electronics. Just a heads up, Samsung Customer Service is getting a LOT of complaints on the Internet for unresponsiveness to repairs. But again, the TV is so good, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed. As an aside, Samsung extended their warranty to 15 months parts/labor when I registered it online, so perhaps they have noticed the hardware issues/complaints.

While this TV is listed currently at $3,899 retail, its everyday price almost anywhere is ~$3,009. Sales and promotions can save you more. When Fry's Electronics offered it at $2,699 last week, we immediately went to our local Best Buy (which price matches and offers free delivery, trash take-away, and old TV take-away, if you want) and purchased it, with a table and a PS3 Slim.

So far, I'm completely satisfied. This is a great HDTV and I look forward to watching it each evening. Oh, and I'm definitely going to start buying more Blu-ray DVDs.

Let me begin this review by stating that Amazon.com has been VERY good about helping me with my problem. Their return policy and customer service are among the best in the industry.

NOW: Samsung is a different story.

I bought this television based on the specs, the online reviews and Samsung's own website. The screen size and the price point seemed great for us. When it arrived, it was even more beautiful in person. Sadly, the picture quality was awful. I know that electronic devices can be perfect out of the box or DOA out of the box, so I was a bit disappointed when I installed the TV and found out that it wasn't working properly. The backlight was horribly uneven (more than just the typical "edge lit LED screens are uneven" stuff...this was very noticeable on all inputs). Any all-black screen was marred by clouds of white light. Worse, there were digital artifacts around all edges and contrasty spots. It looked like a B&W checkerboard surrounded everything, and it was also visible on all HDMI inputs (Dish DVR and XBox) AND on our Samsung BluRay player. The sound occasionally dropped out, and there were weird all-magenta screen flashes randomly happening. You get the point. This was a defective TV.

Unaware of Amazon's customer-friendly return policy, I called Samsung to take advantage of their in-home warranty service. I'm not going to spend pages and pages ranting about how awful the experience was. I'll just say it was awful. They came out three times (VERY late, two out of three of them) and could not fix the problems. I thought it would be a no-brainer to have Samsung step up and replace the TV with a working model. NOPE! They've given me the run-around for almost two months. They finally said that the service tech had not specifically written "deemed unrepairable", so they could not replace it unless he did. Hours of back-and-forth calls later, they finally deemed it unrepairable, and said they'd replace the TV...except that they apparently do not have any of that model available in any of their warehouses. They told me I should just wait for them to contact me. They do not know when that will happen.

I checked Amazon's site, and they said they'd take back the TV right now and replace it with a brand new one. I've owned other Samsung products in the past, so I'm not overly worried about getting another lemon. I'm just very, very disappointed in Samsung's terrible customer service. It's rare to find a company who is adamant about NOT caring a bit about customer (dis)satisfaction. Google "samsung customer service sucks" for many more stories just like mine...

And again, I have to say that Amazon is a stellar company. Thanks to them for rescuing me from further dealings with Samsung's corporate flunkies!

I took delivery of this product today, and it was connected very quickly and the universal remote was set up in a snap. The picture is truly amazing. as sharp and awesome as i have ever seen on any set anywhere. I took a Samsung 58 inch plasma that i had in the family room and moved it to another room, and put this one instead. The reason? The plasma is a wonderful set, but produced a lot of heat both on the screen and through the top vents. It was like a heater being on at all times the tv was on in the room. So we moved it to another room that gets less use. This new LED/LCD is the most incredible picture i have ever seen. I am watching a blu-ray DVD of Lord of the Rings and it is absolutely stunning. The 240hz makes a difference and the 5:1 ratio is incredible. I have only one negative right now, i have been unable to hook up my wireless network to get Yahoo internet. I have a MAC time machine router and it is just not connecting when i put in the Samsung USB device. It will work, i guess i am doing something wrong. I am sure a quick call to someone at Best Buy will do the trick. Bottom line - this is the most wonderful set I have ever seen. Samsung has truly reached the top.

Picture quality 9 of 10, pretty cool actually. Yes, there is some color variation in corners of screen (light pumping) minor, u really have to look for it. Samsung 950A is a little better IMHO. But is old tech compared to networking opts on 8000. Wait for 950B, later this summer. If u can.
Haven't had to make any tweaks to picture, apart from temporary changes depending on signal source.
Take care if hanging on wall; Tv is slim & fragile. make sure top 2 bolts are carrying most of the wieght, or you will buckle internal TV support frame.
All-in all, a very fine Tv that should remain techno enough for years to come.