- 7,000,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
- Auto Motion Plus 240Hz
- Medi@2.0 Internet@TV – Content Service; DLNA Wireless; Content Library (2GB Flash Memory); USB 2.0 Movie
- Fast 2ms response time
- 5 HDMI — Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) (side)
Product Description
Picture performance, advanced connectivity, and an eco-friendly and stunning design come together to form Samsung LED TV 8500. For the image connoisseur, our highest 240Hz motion blur reduction technology, our highest 7,000,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio that displays incredibly deep blacks and pristine whites, and enriched color processing deliver outstanding video. Samsung Internet@TV has web TV widgets from Yahoo, Flicker, Ebay and others to entertain, inform and c… More >>
Bad day. Downloaded Amazon.com video on demand widget. Started widget and it said I needed firmware update. Went to software update screen and it confirmed that new software was available. Downloaded Version T-CHE9AUSAC-1009.2.
Went back to widgets. Couldn’t connect.
Went to network setup page and found all connection/setup information wiped.
Tried to re-enter manually and things began to go wrong. Tried to select “manual” and it wouldn’t allow selection. Screen did allow me to enter numbers manually however. Tried network test and joy, it proclaimed success.
Went back to widgets and again couldn’t connect. Went back to network set up screen and lo and behold all network set up information had been wiped again. Repeated same procedure with same results.
Auto setup of network did not function.
Assumed problem was with new version of software (firmware?). Tried to find prior version on Samsung site but nothing there!
Spent two hours on phone with Samsung “support” and the best they could do was promise to send “disk” of firmware in the mail. 7-14 biz days, naturally. Not clear that the firmware will be a correct or even an earlier version.
Absolutely clear that no one is USA support center knows anything about the networking features of this TV.
If you sell a TV for this much money and can’t support it any better, you are asking for trouble.
I wonder if Amazon knows that its video on demand widget is destroying the networking functionality of these machines?
CNET’s discussion of this unit says that it has now been discontinued, apparently because of a patent dispute with Sharp over the LED backlighting technology.
Beware
Rating: 1 / 5
I am a proud owner of this bad boy and I am so glad I waited 3 years to buy a new TV. I have watched Planet Earth on Blu-Ray and it looks georgeous. Playing video games looks really great too, Uncharted 2 looked amazing on this set. I still have yet to find the best settings for picture quality but the one I got from Cnet works just fine. I highly recomend this set for the price being offered isn’t too bad.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve been waiting for this TV for quite a while and I was really sad to see MidlifeCrisis’ opinion that the 8000 actually had a better picture. I went to my local video store to do my own assessment. First, both TV’s are great, but the color on the 8500 is absolutely perfect. It is very natural and lifelike. The array of LEDs really helps the overall quality become completely natural across the entire screen, side to side and top to bottom. Is the picture worth $1,200? I don’t think so. So I’ll wait until the price drops to a more reasonable level. One other item I wanted to clear up. Many folks have commented on how the picture drops off at 15 or 30 deg. of viewing angle. This worried me as I pictured how my computer screen really drops off at very small offset from head on… This TV is nothing like my computer LCD! Sure the picture drops off a little, but I went up to about 80 degrees off center and could still see the entire picture just fine. Go take a look and I’m sure you’ll be impressed… The only negative thing I can find with this TV (other than the price) is the screen. Why couldn’t they have a matte screen option for us folks with lots of windows in our rooms?
Rating: 5 / 5
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
I was very pleased the first day when the TV arrived, two men brought it in and opened the box hooked up the TV to my cable and signed off that the TV arrived working and in good working order. I have seen the TV in the show room and I would have expected to pay for other extra to get the TV delivered, I was much more pleased to Pay Amazon for the TV and propmp delivery than I would at the dealer.
Samsung TV is sharp and is truly a great up grade from my old 780P. Very pleased with the product & again the up grade is a vast improvement over my last flat screen TV. I use my old TV as a big 40′ flat screen monitor now.
Rating: 4 / 5