samsung_un55b8500_55_inch_1080p_240hz_led_hdtv
By A. Oliver “ankhmorpork”
Most of what I have to say about this TV has already been said – it really is the one LCD to beat at the moment. Everything that’s said about it really is true – the LED Local Dimming features really helps elevate blacks to – almost – the level of Plasma.
So it’s good, it’s really good, but that’s all been said before. Instead I’ll focus on the elements that aren’t quite there IMHO.
FIrst off – the remote. It’s RF (radio frequency), not IR (infra-red) like every other device out there.
Not a big deal if you only use your TV remote, but it does mean you can’t use your existing remote (e.g. cable box, receiver, etc.) to control the TV, and it also means you can’t use the TV remote to control those other devices. So gone are the days of one universal remote to control everything, unless you want to go out and buy a Logitech Harmony 900 Remote Control (Black) to go with it.
Given that the TV, almost by definition, is the one component that isn’t going to be hidden away, it seems odd to have opted for RF over IR.
Secondly, the stand. It really doesn’t seem stable enough for such a large screen. Yes, it’s sleek, it’s subtle, but it doesn’t seem to offer enough stability in my mind.
If you’re wall-mounting the screen you’re fine (given a suitable wall mount bracket, of course), but be aware that the screen seems unstable when on the included mount. That said, it hasn’t yet tipped, but living in an earthquake-prone area it’s of special concern to me.
Those are the only real issues I’ve encountered. There’s a few other elements that might or might not be important to some people, but I’ve never seen them discussed anywhere before.
The TV really needs some way of turning off the inputs that you’re not using (or concerned with). I will likely never use an antenna connected directly to the TV, yet I can’t remove the ‘TV’ option from the On Screen Menu (used to switch between inputs). Come on Samsung! why not? The same goes for the PC input. There’s even a dedicated button on the remote to switch to this input. I’d guess that the majority of users nowadays would use a cable or satellite STB, so there should be some way of re-assigning that button to the users’ preferred input rather than only linking to the antenna.
It’s worth noting that the OSD does demote idle HDMI connections so they’re out of the way. It should be able to do the same with the other inputs, too.
The TV has a digital optical output that relays sound from any input through to a receiver. In theory this works great, except that if using HDMI input to the TV, only 2-channel audio is output. This might be common (e.g. some idiotic limit of the HDMI standard), but it was completely unexpected to me.
It does mean that you’re going to be running audio (presumably optical) cables between any HDMI-based device and your receiver – you can’t rely on the audio being routed through the TV.
For reasons I don’t understand, all the HDMI ports are arranged vertically on the left-hand side of the unit. While not a big problem, it does make routing cables harder and means you need longer cables than you might think – given the cost of good HDMI cables, this can add up. Samsung aren’t alone here – most TVs I’ve looked at do the same thing, but it’s inexplicable to me.
On a similar note, the thin profile of this screen also extends to the connectors on the back – don’t try and use cables with overly-thick connectors (such as some of the cables from people like Monster Cable. The TV just won’t take them. To be fair, the manual does state a 14mm maximum thickness for cable connectors, but that’s not until after you’ve unboxed the thing and are fiddling around with the cabling.
One other thing I couldn’t find documented anywhere – including Samsung’s site – is power rating. The back plate lists 465W maximum – significantly better than just about any plasmas of the same size I looked at. Typical draw seems to be around 250-350W, depending on what you’re viewing.
I don’t understand why power ratings are so hard to come by on these things.
So despite the above all sounding negative, I’m really, really, happy with the TV – all the good things have already been said and I’m just highlighting the few things that caught me out.
Best picture I have ever seen and the size is amazing hangs like a pretty picture on the wall.