Samsung UN65F8000 Review

After auditioning two different Samsung UN64F8500 plasma TVs each of which had absolutely superb images, the annoying issue with plasma RF interference and my high-end electronics made me move to a non-plasma choice. Know that it was NOT the Samsung brand of plasma TVs that caused me to eliminate this display technology from my home theater, but rather the plasma technology itself. I love the visual results this technology yields but I hate what it does to my audio system.

While providing a stellar picture superior to that of an LED, our choice of  an LED TV was a compromise just like anything regardless of what you are considering to add to your system.  For the plasma technology, there were two strikes against it: 1) the RF noise (I spend a lot of time and money assuring that this is eliminated from my system), and 2) potential health issues from prolonged exposure to high levels of RFI (although there is little scientific evidence that humans are adversely affected by such exposure, risking my health by believing those in authority on this matter is not who  I choose to trust). IMHO, anyone putting a plasma TV into their high-end theater (or owning any kind of plasma display device for that matter) is woefully uninformed.

With that said, there are a few very good choices for high-tech LED models and we decided on the Samsung UN65F8000 3D LED model as our next resident in our home theater room. With a very narrow frame, thin profile, and reasonably light weight for such a large screen, this Samsung fit right in to our needs. Replacing a 52" LCD, the newest black technology for this screen boasted plasma-like blacks and - well, read on to find out.

Samsung UN65F8000

This TV is pretty large, above average in display size but not altogether that heavy. Compared to the 5-year old LCD it replaced, this unit was a little lighter so mounting it in place on the existing stand was not an issue. The I/O cables are on the RH side (as seen from the front) and on the LH side on the old set, so interconnects were rerouted accordingly. The power cord enters in the LH side of the set and I put a toroidal core on it to help eliminate any stray RF interference (double loop of the cord through the core bonded closed with cable ties). These cores are also on all other pieces of equipment in my rig.

Toriodal Core on Power Cord

This TV has a lot of built-in processing ability. The calibration settings out-of-the-box are fair but lead to over-driven whites and exaggerated reds, and with a bit of patience and the HD Basics calibration disk , I adjusted the levels to meet our viewing preferences. My settings are listed below.

Picture Menu

Picture Mode	Movie
	Backlight	16
	Contrast	90
	Brightness	46
	Sharpness	20 (rec. 3)
	Color	49
	Tint	G51/R49
	Picture Size	16:9
	3D	3D Mode	Off
		3D Auto View	On
	PIP	Off
	Advanced Settings	Dynamic Contrast	Off
		Black Tone	Off
		Flesh Tone	0
		Color Space	Auto
		White Balance	R-Offset	24
			G-Offset	25
			B-Offset	25
			R-Gain	23
			G-Gain	26
			B-Gain	25
		10p White Balance	Interval	R	G	B
			1	-3	-1	-4
			2	0	0	-1
			3	0	0	-1
			4	-3	-3	-5
			5	-3	-5	-8
			6	-4	-7	-10
			7	-5	-8	-10
			8	-3	-6	-10
			9	0	-3	-6
			10	-6	0	-8
		Gamma	0
		Expert Pattern	Off
		Motion Lighting	Grayed out
	Picture Options	Color Tone	Warm2
		Digital Clean View	Auto
		MPEG Noise Filter	Off
		HDMI Black Level	(grayed out) Low
		Film Mode	(grayed out) Off
		AutoMotion Plus	Standard (Rec. On)
			Blur Reduction	10
			Judder	0
			LED Clear Motion	Off
		Smart LED	Standard
		Cinema Black	Off
	Picture Off	N/A
	Apply Picture Mode	All Sources

Smart Features Menu

Apps Settings	Auto Ticker	Off
	Push Notification Settings	N/A
	Channel-Bound Apps	N/A
	Properties	N/A
Social Settings	N/A
Voice Recognition	Off
Motion Control	Off
Remove Viewing History	History	N/A
Photos, Videos & Music	N/A
Samsung Account	N/A
Notifications	N/A
Open Smart Hub	N/A
Terms & Policy	N/A
Smart Hub Reset	N/A

System Menu

Eco Solution	Energy Saving	Off
	Eco Sensor	On
	Min Backlight	3
	No Signal Power Of	15
	Auto Power Off	Off
Auto Protection Timer	4 hours
General	Game Mode	Off
	BD Wise	Off
	Menu Transparency	Medium
	Sound Feedback	Low
	Panel Lock	Off
	Boot Logo	Off
	Light Effect	Off
Anynet + (HDMI-CEC)	On
Auto Turn Off	Yes
DivX Video On Demand	N/A

With the menu settings administered as above, the lip-sync was way off compared to the old LCD. Setting the AV Delay in my OPPO BDP-105 at +70 yields very good audio-video synchronization (aka lip-sync).

What's WRONG with It?

• Picture quality. Any LED picture is definitely not up to the same video quality as a high quality plasma TV but this one is closer to plasma quality than most. Blacks are very black for an LED set but again not as good as the best plasmas on the market. As a result, the richness of deep colors is just not there - close but no cigar.
• The screw holes for mounting the thin profile to a wall bracket are incredibly short (only about 10mm deep) so most mounting hardware must be tossed for much shorter M8 screws. 
• The 3D technology uses the active shutter method and I am not a fan of quickly blinking battery-powered glasses (if you have a medical condition where you are sensitive to rapidly-flashing lights, you may not be able to use this technology in your home). More on this in a bit.
• 3D ghosting was still visible in some (but not all) high-contrast scenes. 
• Dynamic color tracking (shifts in shades as color intensity rises and falls) is pretty good under most conditions but plasmas are constantly better.
• Minor uneven color intensity in large areas of dark color (e.g., deep blue skies have minor rises and falls of color hue)
• Viewing more than 30 degrees off center makes the picture wash out.
• And like all flat panel sets, the built-in speakers suck.  

But that is about all I can say that I would fix with this set. Now on to the good things.

What's RIGHT with It?

This is beautiful television set with some of the most accurate colors I have ever seen, even in ultra HQ plasma sets. While still lacking the deep richness of the best plasmas, the color accuracy of this set was actually superior to them in many other regards. Discrete shades of blue are one example.

For example, videos of surf curling into a tube appeared more natural and less greenish-pastel-like as some plasmas lean toward, and color accuracy is solid across the entire screen – completely edge-to-edge.  Even 3D mode has some amazing abilities.  Where the Samsung F8500 plasma showed great separation in medium distance films (e.g., a typical Avatar dialog scene), the F8000 created greater dimensionality and believability.  Scenes appeared more natural and less staged. The Cousteau Ocean Wonderland created realism where sharks seemed to swim in a space just behind the screen as if I were peering through glass in an aquarium.

Clarity, even with only 30 hours on the set, was fantastic. One of the things LED sets have over plasmas is a characteristic color temperature difference that my eye is more sensitive to than that of the plasma sets. My eye is more blue sensitive and my wife’s is more red sensitive. Between the two of us, we both judged the clarity to both of our eyes as stellar. When low-resolution videos or commercials pop up, there is a sigh of disappointment heard from both of our prime viewing positions knowing what is possible but not what was being displayed. Just as it is when your stereo becomes sufficiently refined are you selective about the source material you wish to hear, so it is with a high quality television where you only want to watch those images that demonstrate the capabilities of the television. There are a few dozen favorite well-recorded audio tracks with which I am intimately familiar I use as a reference when auditioning equipment. So it is with HD video where most movies look like MP3 tracks sound – compressed, weak, masked, and thin. Add video terms like blurred, over driven, color biased, and grainy and you get a good idea of the number of reference videos in my personal collection.

What strikes me most is walking into the room and being surprised by this television’s clarity and accuracy. When entering any of my friends video rooms, there is a moment of adjustment where I “recalibrate” my senses to the “oh yes, this is a television and not real life” moment; not the case for this Samsung. Sudden glances like live baseball games (the 6-8-13 Angels at Boston game on FOX) draw me into the action and my senses scream “WOW! This is amazing!” The carriage ride in the 3D Alice in Wonderland where Alice and her mother are talking before arriving at the party, you can see the glass in the carriage windows is beveled at the edges and the images actually track the bevels. Watching the live Indy Car series on ESPN shows more detail in night lighting reflections off of the suspension arms just as it appears live at the track. Stand blur and stair-step distortions are hard to find as the camera tracks the car and your eyes scan the stands.

In summary, have no hesitations about buying this set. It is pretty close to doing everything a HD television set should do and the 3D mode is excellent, better than most movie theaters. While the active glasses burn batteries and off-center viewing is limited, you will be pleasantly surprised by all of what this set does well. This set is a keeper and one that will be in our family for a long time.

UPDATE 6-24

With the set with now well over 100 hours on it, images have stabilized and minor adjustments to the calibration were made. These changes are: GAMMA = -1, BACKLIGHT = 15, BRIGHTNESS = 47.

Colors are still rich, deep and very accurate, difficult for an LED set at any price range to achieve. Still slightly favoring reds, this television picture continues to capture my attention as I walk into the room regardless of what is showing. It may be the fact that the wall behind the set is chocolate brown that caused the white level to appear a bit too strong, but for whatever reason turning the gamma down just a notch helped make the daytime levels more appealing. At night, the colors are equally as impressive and subtle details are amazing. Seeing the weave of sweaters and shadow content in low lighting conditions will impress even the most avid plasma fans.

Minor changes in video processing (along with a firmware update to my OPPO BDP-105) also changed the lip-sync delay. The OPPO's AV DELAY setting now averages +70 or +80 for most source material (this setting changes and is something I have just learned to live with - HOPEFULLY this will be addressed and resolved in the 4K format). 

UPDATE 12-19

Reportedly, there is a problem with the video settings file in the original post. So here is a link to the PDF for my current settings. Note that the new BIOS to the OPPO BDP-105 changed the delay most of the time to +40 and at others to +60. I have a real issue with this digital delay issue and I understand why it cannot be "standardized" but hey, that's what sync pulses are for, right? Hope this gets straightened out in the 4K format. I really get tired of adjusting it to watch CNN, and then again to watch movies, and then again...well you get the idea.

Yours for higher fidelity,
Philip Rastocny

I do not use ads in this blog to help support my efforts. If you like what you are reading, please remember to reciprocate, My newest title is called Where, oh Where did the Star of Bethlehem Go? It’s an astronomer’s look at what this celestial object may have been, who the "Wise Men" were, and where they came from. Written in an investigative journalism style, it targets one star that has never been considered before and builds a solid case for its candidacy.

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·  Extreme Green Organic Gardening 2012	·  Build an Extreme Green Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder
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