vkd 2010-07-19

Reviewer: V. Dara

I purchased UN55B8000 on Feb 14th, 2010 after my old Samsumg DLP HDTV stopped working after 5 years. The life of these HDTVs is lot shorter than that of old CRT TVs. Anyway, the picture quality is good, it depends on so many factors, whether it is 1080 or 720, compressed or uncompressed, TV channel, etc. I saw the best quality of picture while watch news (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc) over the antenna which transmits at 1080i, uncompressed. While watching Dish TVs 720p, compressed transmission, I could see the degradation of the picture quality. Sound is very bad, it hurs my ears, should definetly have external speakers. While watching dark scenes, you might see some light throwing off from sides, but it is not a deal breaker, never bothered me so far, it is minimal. Hooked up internet the very same day I purchased the TV, but didn't use it much since then, primary reason being the widgets are very slow, very bad user interface. The 240MHZ didn't help me much as I could still see blurry image for fast moving objects, I was told that it is not just sufficient for you HDTV to support 240 MHZ, even the transmission should be 240MHZ (even your HDMI cable should support it). When I visit my friends house and see their old HDTVs, I realize that my HDTV's picture quality is better than theirs.

Great TV 2010-07-18

Reviewer: Lostsong222

I saw this tv in a store lined up next to several others from across the room. In comparison, the un55b8000 had a clearer picture. After installling mine, I did see the cloudy lights in darker scenes, however, that was easily fixed with some fine tuning in the picture menu. I love this tv.

GLAD I WAITED!!! 2010-07-13

Reviewer: Happy Shopper!!!

I am so glad i waited long enough to buy this TV. I have wanted to buy a Samsung TV since the series 6 Touch of red but kept pushing it forward as a new always came out just before i made up my mind.
I finally bought 5 March, 2010 when the C series was released and the price crashed to $2096.98. I got the last one available on that day. The picture is so clear it hurts the eyes, takes some getting used to.
The speakers are not the best, so one needs to buy external speakers to be able to really enjoy the sound, but picture wise it is spot on.
Glad i waited!!!

Amazing TV 2010-07-11

Reviewer: Jim

I've been wanted to buy this new TV for over a year. Now that I have it (June 2010) I can't get enough of it. The clarity and color is staggering. At first my wife said it almost hurt her eyes as it was so clear. Now she's used to it and can't believe the picture quality either. This TV especially watching a Blu Ray movie is breath taking. I took it right out of the box and only changed one setting for the color to Dynamic instead of Standard. It did make a difference in picture quality otherwise I've done no tweaking. I can't imagine a better TV. I'm extremely happy with this purchase through Amazon.com.

a little disappointed 2010-06-29

Reviewer: Paul S. Wilson

I purchased this tv after owning a Toshiba 46 inch DLP for almost 7 years.

The picture quality of the DLP was excellent; it had a very "theater like", somewhat grainy presentation that everyone enjoyed.
It's killer problem, of course, was the lamp. They kept blowing, at $150 apiece, every year or two. I got very frustrated with that, and so did most manufacturers, who stopped making them.
But as I say, great 720p experience.

So I thought I would get away from all that and go to a more mainstream, updated LCD experience with the LED Samsung.
I read about "motion blur" and so went for the 240hz refresh rate, which videos said really corrected the problem.

But upon watching the tv, I experienced something I had not to that point read about, "Soap Opera Effect". It involves a technical discussion that I won't get into, but the result is that many programs and movies look as though they were shot with a camcorder or that the viewer is watching video tape, hence the "soap opera".

Everyone in my family noticed it. So I went back online and read what others had to say about this issue. To shapen the picture and reduce motion blur, the tv comes from the factory with a default setting called "auto motion plus 240Z" enabled. This setting is what people say causes the soap opera effect.
The "fix" for the wierd viewing this causes is to turn that function completely off.

Well, not so great to have to disable a feature that supposedly made this tv a more worthy LCD. Then, if you watch a football game or "certain movies", you will need to reenable the setting to avoid blur. Great.

I guess I didn't do enough research. I trusted that a brand like Samsung would have technical stuff together. Had I known about this, I probably would have gone for plasma instead, which doesn't have this inherent problem. I stayed away from plasma because of its old burn in issues (which have mostly been solved) and because of reports of gradual fading of the picture.
But that may have been a bad decision on my part. It is difficult to find a DLP below 60 inches these days. DLPs have solved the lamp problems by going to LED also, and DLP is a great picture, so I sort of wish I could go back to that.

Before I turned off "auto motion" my wife wanted to return the tv, but this is not easy since we bought it through Amazon instead of the local Best Buy. I will update my experience at a later date, as we have only had the set for about a week.

Anyway, this was/is a very expensive LCD/LED TV to have to watch programs rendered "soap opera" like. So I am a bit disappointed. This problem must apply to most if not all LCD technology, so lesson learned (too late)