Seriously considering Samsung UE55F8000 TV. Opinions?

HungryHippos

HungryHippos

HungryHippos

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I am in the market for a new TV as my current one is some years old and I am not that happy with the picture quality any more.

As my Living Room is 14" across, I need something a bit bigger than my current one which is 40".

So I've been trawling the net looking for good TV's to get. I know a lot of people here like the Plasmas but I am thinking I would prefer an LED so I've been focusing on those.

This one has reviewed very well and is within my budget (only just). I can pick it up from my local big superstore place with a free sound bar etc. for £200 less than the RRP listed in the link below. Cheaper than JL/Richer Sounds and they don't come with anything extra.

It's a very expensive piece of kit, but I figure it's something that will last me a good while and I will use it often. What do you guys reckon on this unit?

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/led-tv/UE55F8000STXXU

I'm going to go and see some TV's in person tomorrow. I'm hoping they have this one in stock too.
 
I have the 7000 and it's fantastic, a bit too much backlight bleed though on blacks so might query that. I took out a 5 year damage plan thing so they will replace it.

3D and 1080p films looks amazing as you'd expect for the price. A lot of the features I don't use, voice activation, hand gestures, apps etc all got disabled.
 
Yeah I must admit I will probably use the simple features, can't see me really using the 3D, Smart stuff so much, but the main thing I am after is good PQ generally and it looks like it will deliver that :-).

If anyone knows of a good place that may sell it a bit cheaper and can be used in a price matching war let me know in trust message, would be appreciated!
 
Psycho Sonny said:
If good pq is what you are after then why have you disregarded plasma?
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That is a good question. For me its for the following reasons:

1. I had serious buzzing problems when I owned a Panasonic G20. I tried 3 of them but in the end I gave up.

2. Plasmas tend to have reflective screens. Prefer a more matte screen in high light conditions.

3. Power consumption. Small thing I know but plasmas consume a lot more power and generate a lot more heat.
 
Eulogy said:
That is a good question. For me its for the following reasons:

1. I had serious buzzing problems when I owned a Panasonic G20. I tried 3 of them but in the end I gave up.

2. Plasmas tend to have reflective screens. Prefer a more matte screen in high light conditions.

3. Power consumption. Small thing I know but plasmas consume a lot more power and generate a lot more heat.
Click to expand...

Buzzing isn't an issue on either of the two modern plasma's I own, I did think my gt50 had started buzzing, but it was my phone chargers, they buzz when connected but not charging anything. Yes they do buzz slightly on a full white screen only but its not loud enough to be heard over my sound bar, so basically its not a problem.

Also lol @ power consumption. A plasma £ for £ is 2-3 times better than an LCD. You can get a 50 inch plasma for less than £900 which is better than £2000+ LCDs.

The plasma is usually on average 100w more in electricity than the equivalent LCD. Your talking about spending an extra £1000+ to save £20 per year, you do the math, how many years before you save money?

You did however get one point right, they are reflective, if you cannot adjust lighting to suit then by all means get an LCD, but do not use power consumption or buzz as a factor when making said decision.
 
From my perspective Plasma TV's are too much of a compromise; I shouldn't need to adapt my life to watch TV.

I'm happy to pay twice as much for an LCD screen if it means I don't have to watch TV in complete darkness, worry about run in and image retention. Ill give up the superior black level performance for convenience.
 
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SDK^ said:
From my perspective Plasma TV's are too much of a compromise; I shouldn't need to adapt my life to watch TV.

I'm happy to pay twice as much for an LCD screen if it means I don't have to watch TV in complete darkness, worry about run in and image retention. Ill give up the superior black level performance for convenience.
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adapt your life? please :o

ideally a plasma would be situated where sunlight was behind the tv at all times.

on top of that all bright lighting within the room should also be behind the tv and any lighting in front of it be dimmed.

i therefore close the curtains, turn off the room lights, but turn on room lamps instead and use my BIAS lighting kit.

the BIAS lighting kit is enough to brighten up a lot of the room on one side whilst the lamps, light up the other.

ideally though you would want wall lights well positioned within the room, but obviously that means re-wiring, etc so currently we just use lamps instead because it's the much cheaper solution.

i never sit in complete darkness because that's how eye strain develops, and you end up with major headaches and migraines.

even when the lamps are turned off for movies, i always have my BIAS lighting kit on. you should never watch in complete darkness it's extremely bad for your health unless of course it's just once in a blue moon cinema experience.

i'm willing to put up with this niggle if it means i save over £1000 plus have a better tv.
 
You mock my statement but then list a whole loads of changes you have done to your room layout, lighting and seating position.
It's not practical for me and vistors to sit in a mostly dark room whenever I/we watch TV.

What you have (need) there is a cinema room not just a TV.
 
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seating position for me has never changed

and a lot of people should change the lighting setup of a room when re-decorating, etc.

anyway, as i stated before the reflectiveness should be a factor when considering a plasma, electricity costs and buzzing on the other hand just simply are not real issues.

if you do not wish to cater the room for a plasma then don't. should you do then it's cheaper and better.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
seating position for me has never changed

and a lot of people should change the lighting setup of a room when re-decorating, etc.

anyway, as i stated before the reflectiveness should be a factor when considering a plasma, electricity costs and buzzing on the other hand just simply are not real issues.

if you do not wish to cater the room for a plasma then don't. should you do then it's cheaper and better.
Click to expand...

Well when I owned a Panasonic plasma a few years ago the buzzing sound annoyed me so much I returned it. The two replacements I had after that also had the same problem. In the end I gave up. A lot of people online had the same issue as me.

So please don't tell me I can't consider it a problem!

Anyway, went and saw one today at my local indian. The tv looked amazing so think I may go back and pick it up tomorrow. I expect it to last me 3-5 years before I need to consider a replacement.
 
plasma's do buzz, but it shouldn't be so loud you hear it over the sound of a soundbar or separates.

or do you use built in sound? if you do that's the real problem there not the buzzing
 
Sonny sounds like you need to get down off that high horse, the mans made sensible decisions for him about what he wants, either leave it or help!

OP I was in a similar position to you a year ago, in the end I got a Sony KDL55HX853, seemed the best PQ I could find and for my eyes better than a plasma, certainly with our room layout with a window behind the watching position.

This is now a generation out of date but at the timeit was better than the Samsung equivalent, head over somewhere you can have a proper demo of the screens your considering, whatever the equivalent Sony is now I would take a look at. I was all up for a Samsung till I looked at the Sony

Hawker
 
The Samsung looks like a cracking tv, Eulogy, and was in the list of tvs I was considering. You might want to also consider the Sony KDL55W905A. I'm a little biased as I have one of these and am very happy. The main clincher was how good the Sony is for gaming - it's superb and nearly four times quicker than the Samsung when it comes to input lag.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/sony-kdl55w905a-201305172987.htm?page=Performance

I started off with the 46" version and was so happy I upgraded to the 55". One thing to note is how variable the backlight bleed can be on these sets and why it's wise to go with John Lewis if you can. They exchanged my first 55" due to excessive clouding without question and the replacement was excellent. They said they'd keep exchanging sets until a suitable one was found or give the option to get something else. They also refunded me £100 as the price of the set had gone down since it was first purchased - can't knock that customer service!

I also don't get on with plasma - can't stand phosphor lag - and find these current high end LEDs to be up there in terms of pq in nearly every regard. I wouldn't exchange my Sony for any plasma :)
 
I have the Samsung in a 60 incher. Love it to pieces. Picture quality is up there with the best of them. Smart aspect of the TV is great (this is our first Smart Tv), very fluid and easy to use (mainly apps).
Had it a couple of weeks now and finally mounting it on the wall today.
 
hawker1986 said:
Sonny sounds like you need to get down off that high horse, the mans made sensible decisions for him about what he wants, either leave it or help!

in the end I got a Sony KDL55HX853, seemed the best PQ I could find and for my eyes better than a plasma
Hawker
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well i would go get your eyes tested, it is well known plasma's are better than LCD's when it comes to PQ.

the reason why most don't go for the better PQ display is because of the reflectiveness nature of the panel which as i said above should be a factor when deciding on the tv set.

if you don't believe anything i have written in this thread go over to avforums and do some reading.

if anybody needs to get on a horse it's you because it seems you have fallen off one and banged your head.

neither my Gt50 or D8000 buzz loud enough that i can hear them over the sound, in fact you can only hear it if your standing close to the tv and there's no audio coming out the speakers.
 
I think the general consumer confuses good picture quality with over saturated and bright colours. LCD and in particular LED TVs are very good at producing bright, vivid colours. Plasma's on the other hand excel at producing natural looking accurate colours. I know which I prefer. I swapped my 65" Samsung LED last year for a 64" Samsung plasma, won't be going back to LCD ever. My next buy TV wise will be an OLED when the prices get more sensible.
 
I went the other way - have sold my last three plasmas, the last being a GT30, due to excessive dithering and phosphor lag (which is the devil and looks bloody awful). The jerk-o-vision handling of 30fps gaming was also a deal breaker and the background worry of retention doesn't help. I kept going back to plasma as the positives were great, but slowly over the years LEDs have been catching up. Motion handling, contrast/black levels, accurate/natural picture, input lag etc. Now with the current higher end models the balance has been tipped - for me at least - and plasmas doesn't get a look in. tbh, if plasmas were perfect in every regard bar phosphor lag I still couldn't live with one.
 
Well I got the Samsung LED in the end and it's pretty awesome, after some fiddling in the Movie settings I have good color reproduction which looks natural to me (not overdone like you often see) and the black levels and general PQ are very good.

Granted Plasma may be slightly better overall PQ but I didn't want to live with the negatives of owning a Plasma television personally, to each their own etc.

Annoyingly I had picked up the TV from Currys two hours before John Lewis emailed me to confirm a price match I had wanted from an online form submission. I had been ringing around JL stores before I headed out that day but none of them would confirm they would honor it :(. The deal at Currys was for the TV and a free sound bar, where JL had just the TV for the same price.

Unsurprisingly Currys were useless and wouldn't let me return it having opened the TV, nor would they match the price or even give me anything back so reckon I am unstuck! I was considering buying it from JL with the price match and returning that set to Currys but I think they may notice and that would be a bit embarrassing!

Lesson learnt anyway - get JL to price match and forget Currys exists.
 
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Well I have said it many times on here, nobody should ever look any further than John Lewis when buying a TV, if not for their brilliant customer service but their 5 year guarantees free with every tv.

All the horror stories you hear from curry's yet people still continue to buy from them, it amazes me.

I have bought stuff from curry's don't get me wrong, like a laser printer and a dyson, etc.

But nowaday's online is so much cheaper and with JL honouring price matches, I simply wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

Also once you have opened the TV up, they can no longer sell it as brand new, although JL would have let you return it a lot of places wouldn't because of that alone. Just goes to show you how good JL are in comparison, willing to go out of their way and even profit to help their customer's, as they know they will make it back on repeat business.
 
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