Customer Reviews

Samsung UN55C7000 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV (Black)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am simple. Simple tastes. Simple pleasures. Simple needs. I will research a major purchase enough to know what will stick around for 5 to 10 years depending on how much technology changes, look at my budget, and fire away with the best purchase I can make.

That being said, my requirement was 1080p, 240Hz, 55" with a Blue Ray player. 3D didn't matter to me at the time, but when I saw the deal for this TV, which included 3D, the Blue Ray (with 3D) and the glasses and the (How to Train Your Dragon) movie for a cheaper price than what I was pricing just the TVs for in previous weeks, I snapped it up.

The results, pure and simple, are stunning. We watched Train Your Dragon with the 3D glasses and were quite frankly blown away.

Yes, in this day and age, everyone wants to be the expert of what they know and poo-poo anything that is not professional quality, not top-of-the-line whatever and will write extensively about it...and this is actually a good thing for sure. But to me, does the technology deliver? Absolutely! Was I blown to the back of my seat. Absolutely. Was the quality of the picture great? Absolutely. Will 99.98% of purchasers like this product? No. They will LOVE it. The rest can write 10,000 words about how and why spending the extra money will prove to be the better choice for exactly 6 weeks until the next more-awesome thing comes along to trump today's tech.

Simply stated...you want something that is great and will last for years? Come get it. It's here, it's cheap enough to say yes, and you will not regret the purchase if your life has more to do with just being entertained with what you have instead of always pondering what you could have.

There will always be Ferrari (and the like), but somehow I think the rest of us simply enjoy a really well built, reliable, affordable car with a good sound system that will last.

This is that purchase. Let the Porsche and Ferrari owners duke it out over track times and performance that most likely they will never experience from day-to-day anyway. And if you do like performance above all else...be prepared to pay for the experience that comes with it. This works plenty for my 1 to 2 hours viewing experience per day.

For those looking for this bit of information, I have the TV and it is hdmi 1.4, Amazon has it wrong in the Description and you can even find this information in the Product documentation if you don't want to take my word for it. This TV also can upgrade a 2D hdmi 1.3 signal to 3D. The cloudy lighting issue some see with the Edge-lighting technology reported on the 2009 product has been greatly improved for 2010 and I can't really say I even noticed it a in a black scene. Folks need to stop using past products to review current products, this is 2010 and not 2009. Outside of that, performance wise you will be blown away and will feel less pain knowing you just spent your child's college fund.

I've owned this television for a few weeks now, and I've been putting it through a battery of tests using a variety of different sources and room lighting conditions. To get right to the point, I am returning it -- it will be picked up this week -- and waiting for either the UNC8000 precision dimming edge lit led set, or perhaps either the XBR-HX900 or XBR-LX900 from Sony. The C7000 is a good TV. It compares favorably -- if not signficantly so -- to any of the edge lit led lcd's that Samsung released in 2009. However, it doesn't hold a candle to the UNB8500 that was released late in 2009. It is also outperformed by Vizio's latest (552), the Sony XBR 8, and even LG's LH 90 gives it a run for it's money and outperforms it in a few important areas. Essentially the performance of the C7000 is either matched or exceeded by multiple televisions that cost significantly less. If you are not a videophile and do not concentrate on picture performance in a completely darkened room, I'm sure this television will suit you just fine. However, if you are a videophile and/or picture performance in a completely darkened room and accurate reproduction of theater film viewing is very important to you, this television is not for you. This TV exhibits many of the same problems that plagued Samsung's 2009 series of edge lit led's -- namely, a lot of light shining through from the corners, top and bottom, and sides of the picture while viewing in a darkened room -- and does not perform the way you would hope for a television that costs this much. Samsung did improve upon the fluctuating back light problems of last years edge lit led's. This television does not have a fluctuating back light problem at all. However, I must come back to the issue of light shining through from the edges of the screen. It's a big concern for anybody who wants to reproduce a natural theater experience and view films the way they were meant to be seen. You simply cannot recreate that experience with this television. When you view a film -- or any other content -- in a completely darkened room, it is impossible not to notice the light shining in from the edges. That is a huge problem for a lot of us. I will say that when you are viewing a film in a bright room, this television is an outstanding performer. It is also an excellent performer for viewing sporting events, animated features, and other lively bright content in a brightly lit room. Of course, most of us do not wish to pay $3,300 to only be completely happy with our televisions when we are watching them in a brightly lit room. The light shining in from the edges also creates the potential to create a lot of problems with 3D viewing once we have sufficient 3D content available. Imagine trying to immerse yourself in a 3D viewing experience and not be able to focus on the 3D atmosphere due to the fact that there is light shining into the viewing area. I just don't see it working. It seems that it would be a major obstacle in viewing 3D content. Imagine going to see Avatar in 3D or IMAX 3D and having light shining into all of the edges of the film. There's just no way that it wouldn't distract you and take away from your viewing experience. I foresee this being a huge problem for 3D viewing once we have the content. I will discuss some of the positives of this television because I don't want anyone to think it's a bad television. I would have really given it 2.5 starts out of 5 but Amazon doesn't allow for a half star so I went with 3 because the positives probably do outweigh the negatives on this TV. The color accuracy is what we have all came to expect from Samsung, which is to say it's flawless. The black level is outstanding -- if not up to par with the local dimming led sets such as the 8500 and the XBR8, or the Pioneer Kuro 151 plasma -- and does not have the fluctuating backlight problem. The black level is definitely better than last years edge lit led sets. The video processing and motion resolution is beyond reproach. It appears that this particular feature is probably comparable the 8500, which is the only lcd in history to be able to resolve all 1080 moving lines. It will be interesting to see if this television can do that once the reviews come out and the video processing has been tested. This television handles 24fps content perfectly, and reproduces the proper cadence of film based content. It is definitely a good television, it just has some major flaws, and is outperformed by a few sets that cost over $1,000 less. The potential for 3D viewing problems definitely exists, and Samsung needs to find a way to cure the problem of having light shine in from the edges of the screen.

This TV is great. It looks really sleek and has outstanding features. One major problem, I guess Samsung did not learn from last year that it is not okay to have LED backlighting that creates clouds on the screen. I owned last year's model and during dark scenes I could see what can be described as projector type lighting within the screen. The LEDs give off white light that is visible on the screen during dark scenes. Well this TV has the same issue but the lighting looks more visible than on my last year's model. I don't think that this is acceptable for a television that retails for $3299 and that is from a company such as Samsung.

I was watching a space movie and my friend could not understand why there were white clouds on the screen. I had to play along since I could not bring myself to say that there were not clouds but the backlighting in the television.

I am going to keep it because not many televisions out there can produce the same quality picture. This television does provide great picture quality as long as you get over the backlighting issues. I actually wish the TV was a little thicker since it is too fragile due to how thin it is. I have to say that Amazon is awesome. The order was very well managed.

Update 3.24.2010

My two cents about 3D

I was really excited about getting my 3D glasses and C6900 blu ray player today. I have to say that I am now even more disappointed with Samsung's 3D technology than with the edge lid technology that they are using. I sat on my couch wearing the dorky 3D glasses for about 20 minutes before I could not stand them anymore. Look, 3D is a gimmick and it looks like they got me. I can't believe that I wasted my money on this stuff. The picture in 3D did look better but not enough to get me to sit on my couch for two hours wearing some uncomfortable stupid glasses. Maybe this is why they did not have the glasses available to consumers at launch. I really wish that I would have ordered the B8500 when it was truly available.

In addition, the flashlighting screen issues on my C7000 looked even worse in 3D.

I am not a video-phile nor do I usually watch movies in a very dark room, but I was concerned by the reviews and debates on going for this TV but selected anyway as wanted a LED LCD and have always had good luck with Samsung.

I have a 1.5 year old 46" Samsung 1080p LCD TV (which at the time was one of highest rated LCD HD TVs), and this new 55" LED LCD model has a much improved picture quality in my opinion.

PROS: Excellent picture quality. I have not seen the search light issues but I usually watch it in a moderately lit room. I did see the issue slightly in the 8000 display model in the store but wasn't enough to bother me, and I would not let that stop you from buying this TV as I think the rest outweighs that potential.

Excellent design. I like the styling of this TV better than some of the older TOC models. Also the ultra slim design using the ultra slim Samsung mount keeps it very flush to the wall.

Neither Pro or Con: Internet Access. Perhaps I will utilize the Netflix streaming, but between TV, BluRay Player, Satellite TV DVR, laptop / netbook all with internet access, the internet apps on the TV are not a critical factors.

3D - nice to have but not certain of long term adoption for movies and TV.

CONS: None in my opinion. You should take a look to see if you notice the edge light issue and if will bother you.

I've been using the TV for a few weeks now...i was previously using an 8 series 46" Samsung LCD from 2008...which I've been very happy with..I was looking forward to upgrading to a brand new 55" inch LED from Samsung with 3d capability. I made one flawed assumption in buying this TV early on...that Samsung had learned from last years LED edge lighting fiasco and that the picture quality in 2010 would be excellent. Boy was I wrong! Read on for the reason(s)

Quick background, I have the TV hooked up to the same Verizon Fios DVR cable box from my old TV and a brand new Samsung BD-C6900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Playerusing high speed HDMI 1.3 cables (as the 1.4 was not out yet a few weeks ago).

First off, this is NOT a "plug n play" TV. My initial picture quality (default settings) using my Verizon Fios cable box was almost unwatchable. I spent a couple house "tweaking" all the settings to find the best picture quality. I am still playing around with the settings trying to get it perfect (I dont think thats possible with this TV). The picture quality has improved significantly but I still could not get rid of the clouding issue. Also, I had to turn the 240hz feature OFF, as the picture quality with it on was not good. Why am I paying for that feature if you can't use it?....Every show has different picture quality, some shows are too bright while others become too dark. I am not about to update settings every time I watch a show!

Clouding Issue: The LED backlighting creates a tremendous amount of clouding in dark scenes. It is very annoying to see while watching a program in the dark. Samsung should be embarrassed for putting out this product. The clouding issue seems to be alot more pronounced while watching from the cable box. The picture quality when using the Blu Ray player is significantly better.

I did NOT see any light shining in from the edges in a darkened room as other reviewers have mentioned.

Pros:

Very Thin
Sound Quality better than I expected. It was better than my previous Samsung TV..
Easy to use TV interface and remote.
Picture Quality using the Blu Ray player was excellent.
HDMI 1.4 compliant.

Cons:

Clouding Issue
Not able to use the 240 hz feature.
Overall picture quality when not using a Blu Ray DVD is just OK.
Picture is not "plug n play"

I was not able to test out Netflix or any apps yet although the internet connection seemed to be working fine as I updated the software on the TV and Blu Ray without any problems. Nor was I able to test out the 3D quality. I bought the TV before Samsung announced the 3D glasses promotion and I didnt feel like dropping $350 on the glasses...just yet, as I wasnt sure I was keeping the TV.

After using this product for a few weeks and giving it a solid chance, I decided to return it. I REALLY wanted to like it, I just can't. I noticed the Samsung UN55C8000 55-Inch 1080p 3D 240 Hz LED HDTV has just been released and has a function called "precision dimming". Samsung claims that feature will take care of the clouding issue, although I havent confirmed this with my own eyes. So I will be returning this TV and getting the 8000 model. Amazon by the way has been great with handling the return.

This TV has plenty of positives..it looks great, the interface and remote are very good. Sound Quality happens to be very good. But I couldn't get over the poor picture quality..not from a near top of the line LED Samsung TV with a MSRP of $3300.

I would NOT recommend this TV. Either wait for the reviews on the 8000 model or for Sony to release their LED TV's over the summer.

GREAT TV!! Was debating between several TV's (Sony was the main contender), VERY happy went with this Samsung. First - it is amazing how slim this TV is (this was not the primary attribute I was looking for, but was a nice bonus). The picture quality is amazing - though there are a lot of personalized settings that you may have to adjust to get the 'perfect' picture for you. The nice thing is that the settings are 'relatively' easy to follow and adjust compared to my previous tv's. Sound quality is just 'okay' the setting options (you can focus on voice instead of music in the background etc) are nice, and while effective, could be better. Though I must admit I have never had or seen a tv with sound settings I am happy with. Picture quality is absolutely the best out there right now - so vivid and sharp - colors are amazing. the 240 hz processor can be difficult to get used to. With regular movies and tv it can seem that the movement is off. From what I am told it is because the picture is refreshing so frequently that it is weird to the human eye - if you can't get 'used to it' the tv has multiple settings to play with to get the 'perfect' picture / movement / processor speed for you. 3d feature is cool - but 3d movies WAY too expensive. Also can be nauseating after a while - but children LOVE it (kind of like roller coasters I guess). Anyhow - would STRONGLY RECOMMEND this tv to anyone in the market - so many additional features I can not even get into - TV is online - easy to use, samsung apps, netflix etc all right from your tv - pretty amazing!

I saw this TV in a store and was blown away by the picture quality. The price was too high so I didn't buy it. I checked on Amazon and saw the price was almost $800 cheaper so I bought it here. We have not had any issues at all with the TV (had it since April 24th) and the guys that brought it into the house were great. They set it all up and took away all of the boxes.

ETA: I have not had any color/light bleeding..the picture is amazing! Everyone who comes over always comments on how amazing the picture is!

HIGHLIGHTS
Strengths

Aesthetics - 1.2" depth with 1" bezel. Great looking TV.
New Swivel quadrapod stand
Good deep black levels - Avg. to good contrast.
Excellent color saturation
Optional 240/120Hz feature for sports programming
Great connectivity options for such a thin TV
3-D Enabled for future programming

Weaknesses

Proprietary Wifi Internet TV Network
240Hz feature with Film based content (turn off feature)
Price
Difficult ISF calibration
At times over saturation of colors
Slightly Weak Volume/Audio output
Blue tone inconsistency across gray scales

HD 1080p Picture Quality: There is nothing subdued about this LED TV, from its super thin good looks to its super saturated colors. Blacks are rich and deep and colors vibrant if not over powering at times. Some dark shadow detail is lost and and subtle color notes forgotten. But it's a colorful picture many will relish. Read our extended picture notes below.

Black Level/Contrast: With color information both light and dark appearing so deeply saturated, contrast effect is excellent. Blacks appear inky and sometimes lose dark shadow detail. White light sometimes is distractingly too bright. Contrast appears more intense on the screen than the average of 191:1 post calibration ANSI checkerboard pattern contrast that we measured - probably due to the effects of the LED backlighting and saturated colors.

Dark Shadow Detail: As a result of the super saturated blacks, shadow detail can get lost in some scenes. In others, it was fine.

Color Rendition/Color Accuracy: Color saturation is a strength of these new LED backlit Samsung LCDs. Colors are super vibrant even if on the unrealistic side at times. It's what our society (maybe not so much purists) likes these days. On rare occasions there is some over saturation within blacks.

Motion Lag: The UN55C7000 did a good job eliminating motion lag and judder with the 240Hz feature turned on. However, turning the Automotion Plus feature off does introduce some side to side judder (jerkiness). Neverthless, we recommend this action for especially film based DVDs and movies on broadcast TV.

480i DVD and Broadcast Viewing: For any film or broadcast TV non-sports based material start by turning off the 120Hz/240Hz rate feature as follows: Click Menu/picture/Scroll down to Picture Options/Press enter/Scroll down to AutoMotionPlus 240Hz/Press Enter/Scroll or press to Off position. It is important to turn this feature off (see more on this feature under features section below).

Calibration Settings: Calibrating white balance was somewhat difficult on this TV. Blue tones continue to lack consistency in these edge lit Samsung LEDs, To dial in close to D6500 follow the following picture settings: Click here for extended notes and technical information regarding calibration.

Picture Settings
Picture Mode: Movie
Color Temp: Warm 2
Brightness: 44
Contrast: 93
Color: 43
Tint: G47/R53
Sharpness: 10
Backlight: 7
Picture Settings
Black Tone: Off
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Gamma: 0
Flesh Tone: Off
Edge Enhancement: Off
Digital NR: Auto
HDMI Black Level: Low
Film Mode: Auto 1
Color Filter: Off

3-D Content Viewing Note: At CES 2010 we had our first chance to see this TV in action with 3-D content from DirecTV. There was notable eye strain as scenes changed. I found myself blinking a lot and started to get a headache fairly rapidly as my eyes tried to focus and refocus. It was not a smooth viewing experience. The upside to this is that I believe the tired eye experience was primarily due to the content from DirecTV and not the fault of the TV. I believe the content was rapidly patched together for the show and not likely typical of future 3-D content.

Aesthetic Considerations: The 55C7000 comes with a 15 to 20 degree swivel quadrapod (our word) table top stand. The stand is heavy, sturdy and gives and expensive quality with its gloss chrome metallic finish. The new 4 legged stand is a gutsy move and I like it. There are accompanying screws to further secure the stand to the TV. The super thin 1.2" screen depth is accompanied by an improved 1" bezel frame surrounding the screen. This is an improvement of an inch over last years model. The bezel frame itself comes in a new Touch of Color called Mystic Earth but which is a charcoal gray color. The frame really appears gloss black/charcoal gray.

Remote Control/Menu Funtionality: The backlit push button remote control for the 55C7000 is simple, basic and straightforward without the flash of the highest end Samsung models. This standard remote control contains a discrete button called P. Size for changing the video aspect ratio. The overlaid Menu system is very attractively laid out and thorough, but slow and cumbersome to navigate.

Audio Output: Sound volume levels seem weak from the 15W X 15W built in speakers. We can understand the challenges for speaker placement in a 1.2" deep TV. For a majority of programming changing the mode to movie, and utilizing the Clear Voice feature will help a lot to improve voice tone in DVD and broadcast material. SRS TruSurround is a useful feature for HD content but it doesnt help voice tone. Overall, audio delivery from the UN55C7000 was slightly better than last years model, which was not impressive.

Features: The Samsung UN55C7000 is loaded with extra features, some surprising, others more useful. AutoMotionPlus "240Hz" Refresh Rate: This is a true 240Hz with greatly reduces motion lag and judder in sports programming. But that's the only format for which we recommend it. Media Play: Use this feature connected through USB to keep picture and video files. Clear Voice, SRS and Movie sound options are listed above under Audio Output. We mention the new 3-D ready feature under the PQ section above. Click here for an overview of all the new features on this TV.

Internet Connectivity: The 55C7000 series expands the list of potential Internet partners with Blockbuster, USA Today, Netflix, VUDU on Demand, as well as the previously offered Yahoo news, Flikr, witter, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Video. These options are nice improvements from last years package and make it more viable.. Response time is still a little slow when clicking on the various options. This feature is wireless with an optional accesssory.

For the full review see LCD TV Buying Guide

I decided to wait at least a month before writting my review about this Samsung TV set. Bare in mind, I have put this TV to every test possible, from gaming to 3D to standard movies. I'm not a techy guy, but I do know enough to give you an honest down to earth review.

Picture quality is top notch, hands down the best I've seen in many LEDs so far. I can't vouch for the c8000, but I have seen the models below the c7000 and this is the one to get. Some here have mentioned white clouds and bleeding on the screen, I did noticed it, but took care of it with a few adjustments. The picture modes include, Dynamic, Natural, Movie and Standard. I used Dynamic for games, animated movies and some Bluray movies as well. The key, IMO, is to set the back light from 20 to 17 or lower, contrast to 90-95 and brightness to 45; with these settings I get deeper blacks and well balanced whites. In some picture modes there's the option to set the HDMI level to dark/darker for even deeper blacks. Cable TV is better on Standard or Natural, the Dynamic mode makes the reds look to bright and are hard to adjust in cable.

Movies, specially Bluray, look amazing, I have used my PS3 and a Samsung Bluray player, both have done a great job at it. The only problem, specially for my wife, is the over too realistic feel of movies, they look extremely detailed with a film-like quality. I personally love it, but many find it to be too real, hence ruinning the movie watching experience. This however is easily fixed by switching the mode to either standard, natural or movie.

Before you even set the TV or try many of its features, upgrade its firmware, it does a world of difference. You can do this by visitting Samsung's website, you'll need an empty USB stick to download the software. In the firmware update, you get extra menu and 3D adjusment options. Same goes for any 3D bluray player; an update is highly recommended.

EDITED 3D REVIEW
After hours of searching the internet, I finally figured out how to fix the terrible ghosting. Even though it is not 100% gone, it is nearly gone. In order for the ghosting to go away, one must let the TV warm up for about 15 minutes. After that, follow tweatv.com calibration suggestions and you will experience a far better 3D experience. I am now even happier with this TV set. Ghosting is almost gone, 2D content is amazing. If you can afford it, get this TV. Or apply to amazon's card for financing. A must have TV. To get the most of the 3D, let the set warm up by having it on for at least 15 minutes with the backlight at 20 on any mode, I prefer Dynamic; after it is warm, before you watch anything on 3D, set the video mode to either movie or standard, drop the backlight to 8 or 9, contrast to 94, brightness to 44, sharpness to 20 and leave the HDMI black level at dark or off. In the 3D submenu, set your set to -1 under the 3D optimize and play a bit with the 3D view point slider, I can't give you a specific value, because some have told me that what works for me does not for them, so try it out. Once you do this, the 3D performance will improve dramaticaly. I love this TV even more now.

ORIGINAL 3D REVIEW.
Now, the 3D, I find to be the most dissappointing feature of this TV. I get a lot of crosstalk/ghosting. Some more than others. The Shrek movies I got with this set look just OK, there's never a balance in picture quality. When you are trying to fix the 3D image for closer objects, the ones in the background suffer from crosstalk and the other way around. There's a 3D menu item that adjust the 3D view point, this is a slider that can be adjustet from 0 to -5 or from 0 to +5. What this does is, it adjusts the image margins from left to right, so for example, let's say you are watching a 3D movie and you notice the edge of a character sticking out on its left side, you'd adjust the view point to the right(the plus side)and so on. I've tried adjusting every single aspect of the 3D menu, but nothing really gets me a clean picture. I was expecting a good quality, but I can never get it. The 3D picture was its worst during non animated movies. 3D safari, Nasa's Sun, all looked terrible. I have used 1.3 and 1.4 HDMI cables, both give me the same result. I have also tried partialy covering the 3D glasses sensor to see if this would fix the problem, thinking that maybe they were allowing too much light in, but again, ghosting/crosstalk. As of now, I have given up on the 3D feature. I can't handle the dissappointment anymore. By the way, if any of you have any suggestions, please leave some coments.

The picture while gaming is amazing, simply sick! I played Resident Evil 5 on my 360 in Dynamic mode, motion plus to "smooth" low brightness. The game looks ammazing, super realistic, it was almost like watching a creepy movie. Same goes to Red Dead Redemption, awesome evironments, etc. I should warn you though, the motion plus looks good in some games, but bad in others, specially in fast moving scenarios, you'll see some ghosting specially from HUDs, but all you have to do is set the motion plus to a different mode or simply turn it off. I find that smooth and standard are the best. 3D gaming was good and bad, but mostly bad. I tried COD Black Ops, both for the PS3 and 360. It was pretty bad, but not terrible. Again, no balance. When one image was clear, the others were bad. Again, the view point, I found that to get an OK picture, I would have to slide the view point to either +4 or -3, but then again, it was not 100% clear.

There you go, this is as much as I can tell you from my own experience with this set. Picture quality in non 3D is simply beautiful. 3D is poor at its best. Could it be the media or the glasses? I can't really tell you, but I can tell you that everything I checked the 3D with, gave me no good results. Samsung's customer support could not help me if their own lives depended on it.

I'm keeping the TV, I think the non 3D quality outweights the poor 3D performance by a long stretch. At this price however, you'd expect nothing but good quality. Sadly, this is not the case. If you want a clear picture and high contrast ratio, this a great mid-high range set, there are cheaper LEDs that do not support 3D content, but have lower contrast ratios, except for the c6800, which is very expensive due to its local diming feature, but for me, as long as I don't use the 3D I'm very happy with this TV. Hope this helps.

If any of you had the same problem with the 3D and have found a way around it. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.