Samsung UN55D8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D LED HDTV

I want to review the Samsung UN55D8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D LED HDTV You can find this products and reviews at amazon.com

I wanted to give this TV a glowing review; after all, it has some of the latest LED technology, and the style is trend setting. After a week with this TV, I am less than satisfied with the ‘Samsung Experience’. Let me get this off my chest first. Did you ever go to an event, like a county fair, early, when not all the rides and attractions were open? You’re excited because it looks like it can be a lot of fun, but it’s just a bit too early for the full experience. Well, that’s the way I feel about this TV. First of all, the 3d glasses that are supposed to ship with this TV were not in the box. Instead, there is a voucher you may mail in, or go online to order (which I did). After a week and no response, I called to find out why the delay. I was told to read the voucher’s fine print, which said there was a 10-12 week wait for the glasses. Not good. Secondly, I found an issue with the remote control unit, which is not a fun thing to have in your hand. It is sort of short and stubby, with two sides. One side has a QWERTY keyboard for text entry, and a touch-sensitive pointer. I find that the up, down, right, left controls do not work correctly with my unit, and called support to report this. They seemed very interested in the matter and told me they would call back in 45 minutes (after they set up a testing unit) for further info. There was no call back. Another reviewer mentioned the difficulty in pairing the remote with the TV, via Bluetooth. I also found this to be a problem and not consistently easy to do.

Samsung has incorporated a feature called Smart Hub into their ‘Smart TV’. This is a portal that has Netflix, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Pandora, a web browser, and several games and applications that are either free or paid for. The feature is nice and I look forward to seeing it develop. You need to register your TV and create an account, similar to an Apple ID, before you can purchase any of the apps. You would think you could do this from the TV, but you can’t; you need to go online to do this. Not a big deal, but it was confusing. The Samsung website is not ready for prime time either. The discussion board is not yet running. One nice thing is the Live Help, which works VERY well. However, I was not able to get the level of help I needed.

Okay, enough with the gripes. This is one fine TV. It is very light, has a narrow profile and includes a nice, chrome-plated stand that lets you to rotate the TV about 30 degrees in either direction. A big factor for me was the thin bezel, which allowed me to fit a 46″ set into my 43″ wide cabinet. The TV has plenty of inputs, including some strange connectors that let you to connect component and composite video. I do have a non-HDMI DVD that uses the component connectors, and it worked well. The setup of the TV is not difficult if you have some experience with hookups, and I was able to get all the components and my receiver working in short order. As I mentioned above, I am not a big fan of the shape of the remote, and I am trying to duplicate most of the functionality in my Harmony universal remote.

One thing I did was hook up my TV to my iMac to show photos to my photo club. I was not expecting the quality to be better than my 27″ iMac, but it was FAR better. The color was most natural in Movie mode, Warm 1 setting. The sharpness was uncanny. I saw no obtrusive artifacts on the screen and was pleased as punch at the jaw-dropping quality of my photo images (and so were the club members). The TV is connected to our UVERSE system, and the HD quality is very good. I have no measurement or calibration tools, but I have a fine eye for photography. The color balance, contrast, and sharpness are excellent. The only thing I need to get a handle on is the ‘Film mode’, which can turn watching Modern Family into a strange experience; it almost makes some programs look like they were videotaped like a soap opera. I leave this feature ‘off’ for the time being. Tonite we watched the 10 Commandments (1956), and the quality was incredible! I have yet to see any Blue Ray DVDs, as I haven’t purchased a player yet. And, of course, I don’t have the glasses for 3D. I do plan to update my review as these things change.
This TV merits at least a 4-star rating. I may add another depending on how things develop.

Update 6/8/2011
Finally received my 3d glasses from the ‘Samsung Fulfillment Center’. They are active-shutter type glasses and come with standard USB cords to charge them. You can plug the cords into the back of the set and the glasses will recharge when the set is ON. We watched our first 3D movie together last night. The 3d effect was excellent and I could see no artifacts. The glasses fit over my lenses and were comfortable. They turn on automatically when they sense a 3d broadcast, which is nice.

The chunky remote usually just sits waiting to be used, as I have programmed a Harmony Universal remote to allow me to use SmartHub and control most of the functions. SmartHub is still evolving and there are many update messages that indicate it is constantly upgraded. I do enjoy the Vimeo and Vudu sites, as well as Netflix. The gamed, browser and other ‘apps’ are not appealing to me yet.

I continue to laud the picture quality on this set. I can’t say it is better than a Sony or Panasonic or other brand, but I have no reason to look further. I can only describe the HD quality as ‘rich’ and brimming with tonality. The shadow detail amazes me, and the blacks are truly black. I never find the the picture to be overly contrasty or saturated. I also find no reason to fiddle with the controls, once they are set. After over a month of viewing, I still find myself saying ‘that’s remarkable’ when I watch high quality broadcasts. Again, I use ATT Uverse as my cable provider, and our signal quality is very good. I don’t expect to buy another TV of this caliber for a good long time, and feel confident that this Samsung will grow with us for years to come.

Update 11/18/11
After months of use, I still like this TV. Samsung, it appears, is trying to be like Apple and even sent me a survey ploying me with questions about why I liked Apple computers, iPads, iPods, etc. I can see they are trying to formulate a strategy. Let me say that SmartHub is their way of giving TV users an ‘app’ experience. It has fallen short IMHO. The apps they have are rather cheesy and I’d rather use an iPad while watching TV, than switch to Smarthub and turn off the programming. Another failing, they don’t give you access to Amazon streaming for movies (they used to, but not in the 2011 TVs). Why? AppleTV is a good accessory for Netflix, Youtube, and many other features and it has a far better interface. The only thing I like about SmartHub is the ‘Explore 3D’ feature that has several creative 3D features on it. With the current dearth of 3D source material on DVD, it’s nice to have a handy place to experience it and show it to friends. You should really check that out.
One negative on this TV, the viewing angle. If you are off-axis, the picture washes out and you lose the experience of seeing really deep blacks.

I want to review the Samsung UN55D8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D LED HDTV You can find this products and reviews at amazon.com

I wanted to give this TV a glowing review; after all, it has some of the latest LED technology, and the style is trend setting. After a week with this TV, I am less than satisfied with the ‘Samsung Experience’. Let me get this off my chest first. Did you ever go to an event, like a county fair, early, when not all the rides and attractions were open? You’re excited because it looks like it can be a lot of fun, but it’s just a bit too early for the full experience. Well, that’s the way I feel about this TV. First of all, the 3d glasses that are supposed to ship with this TV were not in the box. Instead, there is a voucher you may mail in, or go online to order (which I did). After a week and no response, I called to find out why the delay. I was told to read the voucher’s fine print, which said there was a 10-12 week wait for the glasses. Not good. Secondly, I found an issue with the remote control unit, which is not a fun thing to have in your hand. It is sort of short and stubby, with two sides. One side has a QWERTY keyboard for text entry, and a touch-sensitive pointer. I find that the up, down, right, left controls do not work correctly with my unit, and called support to report this. They seemed very interested in the matter and told me they would call back in 45 minutes (after they set up a testing unit) for further info. There was no call back. Another reviewer mentioned the difficulty in pairing the remote with the TV, via Bluetooth. I also found this to be a problem and not consistently easy to do.

Samsung has incorporated a feature called Smart Hub into their ‘Smart TV’. This is a portal that has Netflix, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Pandora, a web browser, and several games and applications that are either free or paid for. The feature is nice and I look forward to seeing it develop. You need to register your TV and create an account, similar to an Apple ID, before you can purchase any of the apps. You would think you could do this from the TV, but you can’t; you need to go online to do this. Not a big deal, but it was confusing. The Samsung website is not ready for prime time either. The discussion board is not yet running. One nice thing is the Live Help, which works VERY well. However, I was not able to get the level of help I needed.

Okay, enough with the gripes. This is one fine TV. It is very light, has a narrow profile and includes a nice, chrome-plated stand that lets you to rotate the TV about 30 degrees in either direction. A big factor for me was the thin bezel, which allowed me to fit a 46″ set into my 43″ wide cabinet. The TV has plenty of inputs, including some strange connectors that let you to connect component and composite video. I do have a non-HDMI DVD that uses the component connectors, and it worked well. The setup of the TV is not difficult if you have some experience with hookups, and I was able to get all the components and my receiver working in short order. As I mentioned above, I am not a big fan of the shape of the remote, and I am trying to duplicate most of the functionality in my Harmony universal remote.

One thing I did was hook up my TV to my iMac to show photos to my photo club. I was not expecting the quality to be better than my 27″ iMac, but it was FAR better. The color was most natural in Movie mode, Warm 1 setting. The sharpness was uncanny. I saw no obtrusive artifacts on the screen and was pleased as punch at the jaw-dropping quality of my photo images (and so were the club members). The TV is connected to our UVERSE system, and the HD quality is very good. I have no measurement or calibration tools, but I have a fine eye for photography. The color balance, contrast, and sharpness are excellent. The only thing I need to get a handle on is the ‘Film mode’, which can turn watching Modern Family into a strange experience; it almost makes some programs look like they were videotaped like a soap opera. I leave this feature ‘off’ for the time being. Tonite we watched the 10 Commandments (1956), and the quality was incredible! I have yet to see any Blue Ray DVDs, as I haven’t purchased a player yet. And, of course, I don’t have the glasses for 3D. I do plan to update my review as these things change.
This TV merits at least a 4-star rating. I may add another depending on how things develop.

Update 6/8/2011
Finally received my 3d glasses from the ‘Samsung Fulfillment Center’. They are active-shutter type glasses and come with standard USB cords to charge them. You can plug the cords into the back of the set and the glasses will recharge when the set is ON. We watched our first 3D movie together last night. The 3d effect was excellent and I could see no artifacts. The glasses fit over my lenses and were comfortable. They turn on automatically when they sense a 3d broadcast, which is nice.

The chunky remote usually just sits waiting to be used, as I have programmed a Harmony Universal remote to allow me to use SmartHub and control most of the functions. SmartHub is still evolving and there are many update messages that indicate it is constantly upgraded. I do enjoy the Vimeo and Vudu sites, as well as Netflix. The gamed, browser and other ‘apps’ are not appealing to me yet.

I continue to laud the picture quality on this set. I can’t say it is better than a Sony or Panasonic or other brand, but I have no reason to look further. I can only describe the HD quality as ‘rich’ and brimming with tonality. The shadow detail amazes me, and the blacks are truly black. I never find the the picture to be overly contrasty or saturated. I also find no reason to fiddle with the controls, once they are set. After over a month of viewing, I still find myself saying ‘that’s remarkable’ when I watch high quality broadcasts. Again, I use ATT Uverse as my cable provider, and our signal quality is very good. I don’t expect to buy another TV of this caliber for a good long time, and feel confident that this Samsung will grow with us for years to come.

Update 11/18/11
After months of use, I still like this TV. Samsung, it appears, is trying to be like Apple and even sent me a survey ploying me with questions about why I liked Apple computers, iPads, iPods, etc. I can see they are trying to formulate a strategy. Let me say that SmartHub is their way of giving TV users an ‘app’ experience. It has fallen short IMHO. The apps they have are rather cheesy and I’d rather use an iPad while watching TV, than switch to Smarthub and turn off the programming. Another failing, they don’t give you access to Amazon streaming for movies (they used to, but not in the 2011 TVs). Why? AppleTV is a good accessory for Netflix, Youtube, and many other features and it has a far better interface. The only thing I like about SmartHub is the ‘Explore 3D’ feature that has several creative 3D features on it. With the current dearth of 3D source material on DVD, it’s nice to have a handy place to experience it and show it to friends. You should really check that out.
One negative on this TV, the viewing angle. If you are off-axis, the picture washes out and you lose the experience of seeing really deep blacks.

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