LCD HDTV • LED HDTV • Plasma HDTV Review : Best Price : Best Buy Buy Cheap LED HDTV Online , LED HDTV , LCD HDTV , Plasma HDTV 19 22 26 32 37 42 46 47 52 55 By Brand Sony Samsung LG Panasonic Sharp Toshiba , Discount On Sale

Design: Samsung is noted for their sleek design and this tv is no exception. Samsung says it has a charcoal touch of color but I really didn’t notice any color in the bezel. It is black and goes to clear at the outer edge. It sits on a metal stand with a clear neck holding the tv. At the bottom middle of the tv below where it says Samsung is a blue light which can be turned off. I noticed the light flickers ever so slightly when a command is sent from the remote you are using. The tv is VERY slim. Only 1.6″ at it’s fattest point. This is amazing considering this tv is a fully backlit LED unit with local dimming. Truly amazing and a design that will have your friends jealous.

Picture Quality: This is the best looking LCD tv made today. I have viewed many other LCD tv’s including the Sony XBR8 and the Samsung A950 from last year and this one is the best looking I have seen. From a picture quality perspective the XBR8 is closest but not quite up to par with the 8500. Realistically if you had either of these sets in your house they would look spectacular. The blacks on the 8500 are so dark it approaches the level of blacks in the best Plasma tv’s. In a dark room I could not tell where the tv screen ended and the bezel began because the screen was so dark. The colors are superb and can be tweaked any number of ways to your liking. I prefer the “Natural” mode for everyday use and the “Movie” mode for watching blu-ray movies. The 240hz refresh is nice but the best thing is that you can independantly control Blue and Judder settings. Cranking up the 240hz tends to produce what some call the “soap opera” effect but this can easily be eliminated by tweaking. There is also a Game mode which I use when gaming on my PS3.

One interesting thing I found out was that the Movie mode using the Warm 2 setting is pretty much spot on from a calibration perspective right out of the box. I say that because I have a Spears & Munsil calibration blu-ray disc and when I ran the tv through the calibration process using Movie mode on Warm 2 I literally only had to tweak one setting by one or two points. I could see many people just flipping back and forth between Natural and Movie modes, depending on what they are watching, and not bothering to calibrate the tv as it looks great pretty much out of the box.

I also wanted to mention that standard def looks good on this tv. It doesn’t look nearly as good as HD but it is totally acceptable in my opinion.

Sound: Having such a think profile I expected the sound to be horrible. Surprisingly it was quite acceptable. While I would recommend a surround sound system I never felt like the tv speakers were all that bad. My wife has never mentioned anything and I have never been watching a tv show and thought, “oh the sound stinks”. I would say it’s about average which is ok to me considering the tiny amount of space Samsung had to work with. While audio-philes may not like the tv speakers/sound I think a lot of people would be totally fine with it.

Viewing Angle: I sit about 9′ to 10′ away from the screen and have not noticed any real issues with the viewing angle. Of course no LED LCD will have a viewing angle as good as a plasma but unless you are sitting at an extreme angle you probably won’t have to worry too much about this. I think this is more of a personal preference…sure the best picture is right in the center of the screen but I don’t think sitting to the right or left a few feet makes the picture dramatically different. Maybe a video-phile would notice but my wife doesn’t notice and has never said a thing.

Reflection: Be aware that this is NOT a matte screen, it is a reflective screen. If you have windows directly facing the tv then make sure you have curtains or blinds that can block out the light enough not to bother you. I don’t think it’s anymore reflective than other Samsung tv’s but coming from a matte screen prior to this it was a big change for me.

Widgets: The tv comes with internet connectivity for Yahoo Widgets, You Tube, Twitter, USA Today Sports and several others. You can either buy a Samsung USB wireless stick to connect the tv wirelessly to your network or you can plug an ethernet cable directly into the back of your tv. I have an ethernet cable plugged directly into the back of it. First things first, the widgets do not load fast. I’m not sure why but even using a direct internet cable into the tv they still do not load fast. No idea why but they are slooow. Slow enough for me to be annoyed and not use them much. It’s odd because when I went to the You Tube widget and looked up a video it played quickly and was smooth. Hopefully Samsung will have a software update to allow the widgets to load faster. Right now I would say they are just a novelty. If they can decrease the load times and add more apps such as Facebook, then I think this has potential. But people are not buying this tv because of the widgets, they are buying it for the picture.

Picture Quality
A full LED backlit LCD offering a stunning 7 million:1 contrast seperates the B8500 from other LCDs by reaching deep into pitch black, formely only possible with plasmas. Some LCDs turn off pixels to achieve inky blacks – ok for still pictures, but too slow to work with most video – basically a gimmick to inflate contrast numbers. The B8500 however, masters the darkest blacks and brightest whites to produce a bold three dimensional effect or “pop.” In a dark room, the b8500 outperforms every LCD on the market, shy of the coveted pioneer plasmas. In a moderate to bright environment however, the B8500 absolutely dominates.

The highly reflective screen can be annoying for those with unfortunately placed light sources or windows without blinds. A matte screen, as on the LG 55LH90, might be a better fit for some, but a matte screen diffuses the light causing the entire screen to lose those desirable inky blacks. I can’t say one is better than the other, but for a TV that can produce such dark blacks, I think the glossy screen makes more sense.

Motion handling is the best of any LCD I’ve seen thanks to seperate blur and judder adjustments and very few motion artifacts. Blu ray discs will exhibit perfect cinema-like panning or, if you want, a more smooth and clear pan similar to a home video. My verizon fios hd occasionally shows judder when there should a smooth flow of movement. The b8500 can help minimalize this, but it is not powerful enough to eliminate it and if set poorly, it can be made worse.

After some quick, basic calibration colors are vivid and mostly accurate. Noise and artifacts are very minimal on 720p and nonexistant on 1080p. Haloing (i.e. white text on black background cause background to lighten near text) is only visible rarely unless viewing from greater than 30° off center and increases in severity as viewing angle increases. Viewing from greater than 30° off center vertically or horizontally also causes a slight loss, contrast and color depth. Viewing from greater than 50° off causes a significant loss in contrast and color, creating a flat image and showing major haloing effects. The ideal viewing range is within 15° of center, though if centered vertically, image is barely degraded at all up to 30° off center. Ideal viewing distance is roughly 8 to 14 feet for 720p and 5 to 10 feet for 1080p, though don’t take those numbers too seriously, you can obviously enjoy this tv from just about any distance. At 4 feet or less though, the 46″ model is a better choice.

Ease of Use
The preset picture modes are all quite good for those who aren’t picky and just want to watch their tv and the b8500 does a decent job of assigning settings automatically based on the input. Of course, high-end buyers are more likely to calibrate sources to their liking or hire a pro. The tv will remember settings for dynamic, natural, standard and movie profiles for each source. That gives you a lot more flexibility than only having one or two, but it is complicated by a confusing lockout of various settings depending on how the source is identified. You can change the name of a source and find more or less settings available for adjustment, but how this works should be clearly documented. Also, there is a little lag when navigating menus, making constant adjustments of the many, many, many settings somewhat slow and annoying. The layout of the menus themselves and the amount of adjustments available is wonderful. The remote control works using RF so you don’t have to point the remote at the tv. The remote is a little bulky, but offers all the buttons you’d want for operating the television easily. The scroll wheel is inaccurate for navigating menus and only really works as a directional pad.

Design
While, I prefer the touch of grey on some other samsungs, the small blue light on the bottom of the b8500 is stylish, attractive and best of all, can be turned off. The bezel is attractive, thin, and highly glossy, but can be distracting when it picks up too many reflections. The 1.6″ thick screen is amazing, but how often do you look at the side of your tv? The 61 lb. weight without stand is quite light for a 55″ tv, but again how often will you move it? It does seem to use fairly little power and creates much less heat than a plasma tv. The swivel stand works well, also quite attractive with a brushed gunmetal finish.

Sound
I did not play around much with the sound as I use a 5.1 setup. I assume most people purchasing this tv will use external speakers, but the internal ones sounded just fine for what they are.

Comparisons
Competing models include the LG 55LH90/55LHZ, Toshiba 670u, Pioneer 500m/600m, Samsung 52B750/55B650/58B860, Sony xbr8 and Panasonic V10. My personal experience with display models showed the plasma screens to perform poorly in bright environments. Given the open layout and 20′ ceilings of my living room, plus my wife’s preference for at least dim lighting, this ruled out plasmas. The 58B860 in paricular lacked the light output to produce bright enough whites in all but a pitch black environment. The 55LH90 seemed to be the closest competitor and much cheaper, with the xbr8 and 52B750 being close behind. The LH90 however, seemed to produce too many motion artifacts, couldn’t deliver quite as much “pop,” along with a slew of more minor negatives.

Misc.
Upgrading from a Syntax Olevia 37 hvs (matte screen LCD), this tv has truly blown me away. While the perfect (OLED?) TV is still out of reach, the b8500 leaves little room for improvement. Input lag, a major concern for video gamers, runs a tolerable 45ms according to my Rock Band 2 manual calibration with game mode turned on. With game mode off, the input lag increases to 140ms, which is easily noticeable. Game mode disables some processing but not the LED backlighting. The picture with game mode on even using a component connection (1080p) is incredible, though in need of some anti-aliasing on occasion. Turning off extra processing not disabled by game mode seems to have little effect on further decreasing lag. I’m still trying to figure out the best motion settings.

The B8500 also has a ethernet port for connecting to the internet and your home network (including DLNA or Anynet). A cd included with the tv helps you play media from your PC. Widgets will automatically update to display weather, sports, news, etc., but are a little slow and less convenient than popping open a laptop. Still, it’s a good idea to plug in the tv to your router at least occasionally for firmware updates.

Conclusion
For those in the market for a 55″ HDTV, the b8500 is the most versatile and polished product out there. While a couple extremely high end plasmas beat out the b8500 in a dark room, no other LCD performs as well and the plasmas quickly lose out as you increase ambient light. The attractive and practical design and feature rich menus complete this incredible package. While the 55LH90 is easy to recommend to those focused on price vs. performance or in love with matte screens, the UN55B8500 is clearly a step up and would make a remarkable addition to any loving home. Prices should come down as we head into the holiday season and onto the super bowl, however these seem to be selling as fast as they arrive for now.

Learning how to use its features and to set it up is another matter and that is the one gripe I have with the TV. Samsung only provides a four page manual which tells the owner nothing. Instead it includes a flash drive which contains a manual for its use but it took me over three weeks to realize what the flash drive was for. The manual does not show the available ports or how things are to be connected to the TV. I finally figured it out by trial and error and got the flash drive connected. Finding out how to use it however, was again a lot of trial and error. Once I was able to read the pages, it was hard to read, mostly grey on black (I hate black-you can’t see where anything is on black). Figuring how to page the manual on the TV isn’t easy. Samsung provides numerous steps to take but the user has to leave the Manual screen to go through the steps and unless the user writes out all the steps, it is a tiresome process to follow the steps.

So I tried using the flash drive on my computer. Well the manual is in a strange format so it will not open normally. Windows searched for a driver that would allow viewing the manual and found one which I downloaded and installed The one I found that worked was from IrFanView but one must also download all the plugins before it will work. However, when I opened the Manual, it was unprintable except with a screen capture utility.

That was more trouble than it was worth and it then dawned on me to go to the Samsung Support Center and see if there was a Manual that could be downloaded. Voila, the Manual was available in both PDF and Word formats but because the Manual is in three languages, it is 273 pages long. Just print the first 75 pages.

What I found is that with no difficulty I could run picture shows directly from either my camera or from a card reader. They come out beautifully. If I tried to print pictures that big, they would be grainy as all get out. But the pictures show in full size on the big screen in terrific detail and color and they have depth.

But I wish the USB ports were either on the side or the front where they are easily accessible. I intend to wall mount the screen but if I do I won’t be able to get to the connections which are on the back. And even then it is difficult to insert USB cords because the recess is so narrow.

This Samsung UN55B6000 is excellent technology and priced to move. We’ve got it hooked up to a cable box (MOT DCT 6200) via the 1 component connection and the image is sharp and crispy and the colors are vivid and bright.

We have an older PC connected via the VGA connection and the 3.5mm mini audio connection. Internet browser windows come up real sharp in 1920x1280i resolution. Sidebar: I’m also using wi fi and wireless mouse and keyboard.

Hi-res images look fantastic. This TV was assembled with web-browsing and computing in mind (Net widget, USB, JPEG and mp3 friendly) and Samsung has nailed it.

Online Support and Configuring the Cable Box:

Initially, the cable box was sending 720x480i to the TV. Fortunately I was able to find forums online with posts from a Samsung HD Tech and a cable co. employee that outlined the solution — turn off the cable box, hit the menu button (cable remote) and here you can select the higher (or different) resolution.

Additionally, the cable box required two power cycles for this (resolution) change to take effect but when it did I was viewing cable tv in 1920x1080i.

Using Samsung’s P.Size (Picture) Button:

When watching cable programming broadcast in HD, the 16:9 (aspect ratio) mode looks the best to me. For standard definition programming the Wide-Fit mode stretches the image a bit to fill the screen.

Cons: Expensive, backlighting (actually, it’s edge lighting on this model) is a little uneven in the corners. While watching credits at the end of a movie, you can see light and dark patches when the background is supposed to be solid black. This only occurs with really dark images and is a function of the TV being so thin.

1- amazing size to performance ratio. This TV is incredibly thin. You will have to see it to believe it. At just over an inch thick (not to mention 55″ from corner to corner), this television boasts some of the best stats available, compared to any other brands/models out there.

2-LED back lighting. This feature is what initially caught my eye. When I first saw it I noticed immediately how incredibly deep the blacks were. This boost in depth of the color plate seems to permeate the entire color spectrum, allowing for deeper, more remarkable fullness when viewing all forms content.

3- base statistics. The contrast ratio (although I have read many conflicting, reports, including the manufactures own specification information, which makes it difficult to place an exact quantitative value), 120hz, 1080p, 4 millisecond response time, USB x2 connections, LAN access, ect… They are all there. This television has the capabilities to seamlessly bind your computer or local area network and your home theater into a truly coherent “media center” provided you have the gumption.

4- “Xbrite” like display. I call it this for lack of a better option. The screen itself of this LCD is not matted like many of its predecessors, it is glossy resembling a plasma TV or some of its smaller LCD PC monitor cousins, which allows it a brighter, fuller color clarity. This could be considered as “bothersome” by some because it allows for more apparent reflections of light, casting it back into the viewers eye, but the shear intensity of light emitted by this TV puts this claim to rest.

Cons:

1- Menus. After spending multiple hours removing my previous television, measuring and cutting holes in walls, fuddling with cables, and vacuuming dust bunnies and drywall dust, I found my self at the heart of my disappointment with this TV. Navigating the menu system. Don’t get me wrong, it is not difficult, but it is entirely cumbersome. To start off a simple task like switching sources is made time consuming and attracts attention because you have to hit a minimum of 3 buttons on the remote to switch to your closest input. This may seem like someone complaining that you have to turn the faucet on to fill a glass of water but just play with it for a bit and you will see what I am talking about. The menus themselves are all animated and take a moment to load, which adds to the frustration when trying to navigate through them, and when you get to the input you want you have to manually exit the menu by pressing the “enter” or “return” button on the remote. This problem could have been easily alleviated by having shortcut buttons to the individual inputs on the remote, like most other manufactures offer.

2-Sound. The sound quality is greatly deteriorated by the fact that the speakers on this model face the opposite direction of the screen. Reverberation off a wall is not an adequate substitution for direct focus. The sound quality is not bad in itself, such as being boxy, tinny or deteriorating with increased volume, it is just not as full as others that I have heard (but this is to be expected being the form factor that it is). It will be necessary to have a surround sound system with this TV, but you probably already have one if you are seriously looking at this model.

3 Limitation of inputs. For some insane reason, Samsung preemptively decided which inputs (HDMI) you could use for which devices and placed limitations on those inputs as they saw fit. This is entirely lame and a let down. Scrolling through the menu selections on various HDMI inputs you will notice that a good majority or your picture modifications are not adjustable according to what input you have currently selected. Despite changing the labels of the inputs and reorganizing HDMI inputs, you are not able to get the full gamut of picture corrections that you payed a lot of money for. This, for me, is the biggest let down of the television. There is nothing worse than seeing a whole slue of options that are supposedly available, but are “grayed out” for some unknown reason. I expect, at this price and ability, to be able to fully customize each input that the televesion has, regardless of what peripheral I am connecting to it.
This con might not prevent you from purchasing this TV, but you should be at least aware of it. I have a lot of different devices connected at any given time, ie. blue ray, dvd, vhs, xbox 360, ps3, wii, xbox, n64, psx, snes, nes, pc, camcorder, camera, and some flash based devices, like some of the newer ipods/iphones, and it really bothers me that I cannot change the settings to what ever fits my needs best.

4- Dynamic contrast. This feature seems to be a blessing and a bit of a curse. On one hand you get dark, rich colors, and on the other you get much darker whites when the majority of the screen is dark in hue. You only need to scroll through the menu system of the TV on a static, dark background to see this flaw in action. How dynamic contrast works is that it lowers the backlighting of the television when it senses most of what it is displaying is dark, which makes any contrast in hues, i.e. whites to blacks, much darker than they would normally be. This may not be a deal breaker for some, but depending on what you watch, there is a noticeable difference. I personally like to watch a lot of the space/nasa documentaries, and when they show Hubble images of deep space that are for the most part black, with just a few pin points of light, you notice that that you are loosing quality/brightness of image (as compared to other flat panels without this dynamic contrast perk).

5- Lack of inputs. This downfall is the price you pay for having such a small form factor I guess. 4 HDMI is ok, minus them all being individually limited, but there is only one component in, no composite/S video in at all and the stereo out is a 3.5mm jack so you need an adapter, which is not included. The TV does have optical audio out, so if you have a somewhat capable/newer surround sound system you will be ok, provided you spend the money and buy the expensive cabling to connect it (heaven forbid that your receiver is more than a few feet away or else you are going to feel it in your wallet). Another problem that all of these digital connections bring, that is rarely advertised, is that there is a lot more optimization involved to make them work normally. Say “good by” to just plugging things in and having them work. If you don’t have a lot of patients for reading user manuals or trial and error, it might be necessary to pay the extra cost for having some “Geek” come to your house and make everything work properly for you.
Another slight annoyance is that this TV does not offer any sort of video out. A slight inconvenience really, but I would like to keep my options open.

6- 120 hz it more like “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Some people like its effects on movies/games, I personally have turn it off to make the TV look normal to me. You really need to evaluate the feature for your self and make a decision. For me, it looks like it increases the frame rate at times and slows it down in others, which gives the overall viewing quality a “hurky-jerky” feel. Others that have seen the feature on my TV say it gives it more of a 3D quality or that it is more like looking out a window, as apposed to viewing a TV. Its effect is much more noticeable while viewing certain media such as , blue ray, DVD’s or video games. I can barely notice it while watching HD/SD content from Comcast (1080i/480p respectively).

7-”Media Center” short comings. What, no youtube? Even my phone has that. I would also like to see WMC connectivity, a flash enabled web browser, and come to think of it, bluetooth, so you can connect a qwarty keyboard to actually take advantage of it all. This would truly bump this TV into an upper eschelon, rivaled by no other device to date.

A major Los Angeles vendor set up a display with the UN55B7000 sandwiched between a LaserVue and a Kuro 151. The results were pretty plain to my eyes. The Luxia pretty well crushed both of them. The cult of Kuro will denounce me for heresy and blaspheme, but this is what I saw. About 1 hour of fiddling with the settings on LaserVue did not change the situation much. The Kuro was locked in at calibrated settings which the employees would not allow me to change. Evidently, it was fully tuned up. Once again, this left me with the impression that a fully calibrated Kuro is an over-rated beast indeed. No wonder Pioneer quit the market.

The bottom line: I bought this unit the next day. It took about 2 hours to tune up after I took it out of the box. [Use the natural color setting. Customize motion smoothing to 7 for jitter control and 7 for blur control, or shut it off entirely] Since then it has been pretty astounding. Unbelievable color. Unbelievable reds. Unbelievable contrast ratios. Unbelievable black levels. Very bright. Generates no perceivable heat. Does not get hot. The detail and sharpness and depth of image is truly astounding. I have never seen anything that can compare, and I have been shopping for several months now.

Cons

I am still questioning the merit of the 120Hz motion smoothing technology. It does weird things to slow motion instant replays. It does stranger things to 24fps movies. Seems to work best with live actions sports and HDTV programs shot on digital. You can always turn it off. Blu-rays seem more natural with the technology switched off. Ultimately, Blu-Ray looks magnificent either way.

Advice

I have had this for a week now and am very, very pleased with the set. I have the 7100 series from Best Buy. This is a special model only sold through Best Buy. It is the same as the 7000 except for some cute little add ons. One being the ability to scroll through a series of museum paintings. This allows you to use the set as a picture viewer/screen saver and when used with your audio system makes a nice back drop for a party or something of that sort. You can not add pictures. It also allows you to go to the internet and use Yahoo widgets and about five other widgets. There are also a couple of games built in. Will most people use these features? Probably not!

The other feature is the Touch Of Color which I really do not care for anyway. The 7000 is generally $300 cheaper than the 7100 so you chose.

The 7100 series is on sale the week of Apr 28, 2009 for $3,100. This is a $600 price drop. This is the same thing that happened to the Sony 240 hz set. In January 2009 it was $3,900 and is down to $2,800. If you want to wait, it will drop more but that is technology.

My wife usually does not say anything about the TVs we have except if she can not get the remote to turn everything on. She and my son were watching James Bond – Quantum of Solace on bluray. She told me that it was like sitting in the director’s chair on the set. The quality of the bluray screen is so clear that it takes on a 3D appearance. The colors are true, the whites are white and the blacks are black. There is no bleeding or blurring of motion. The dark scenes are just as life like as the light scenes.

If I spend this much on a TV, then I will also have a good sound system so the built-in speakers are not a problem. The TV remotes are not that useful. The small round remote is useless. Again, I have the set connected to an amp, a cable box, a bluray player and an old VHS player. I use a programable remote so I do not use the Samsung remote.

The thinness of the set makes the set shrink from the viewer. I mean my old 56′ cabinet was two feet deep. This set is 1 and 1/4 inches deep. It hugs the wall so well that it does not dominate the room even though it is 55″. The most important part is that there is little to no heat generated by this set. It uses 40% less power than an LCD of the same size. This should help the set last longer and save power on AC and set top use as well.

When using this set to compare pictures make sure that you look at about a dozen different high definition stations. The high definition stations are not all the same! HDNet1, HDNet2, The Science Channel, and ABC in my area are tremendous with the quality in the order shown above. The worst are CBS, PBS, and TBS. There is a big difference in video and audio quality of these stations. Again, look at several stations your area may be totally different.

I had planned to purchase the Sony 240hz TV. I am so glad that I did not. The matte finish on the Sony does little to cut down glare but really, really mutes the picture. The colors and picture on the Sony are also muted by the matte finish.

The picture on the Samsung LED is like looking through a really, really clean window. In other words – awesome!

Pro: Picture quality.