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**OFFICIAL** 2015 Samsung 4K SUHD JS8500 Series TV Thread

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#1 · (Edited)
This thread is for all Samsung 2015 4K SUHD JS8500 Series TV owners to post observations, comments, and questions.

4K SUHD JS8500 Series TV Links:

65" http://www.samsung.com/us/video/tvs/UN65JS8500FXZA
55" http://www.samsung.com/us/video/tvs/UN55JS8500FXZA
48" http://www.samsung.com/us/video/tvs/UN48JS8500FXZA

Owners Manual: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/UN65JS8500FXZA

Specifications

Series/Model #: JS8500
Type: 4K SUHD TV

Video
Screen Size: 48", 55", 65"
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Panel: 10 bit
Native Refresh Rate: 120 Hz
Motion Rate: 240
PurColor: Yes
UHD Upscaling: Yes
Depth Enhancing Technology: Yes
Nano Crystal Color: Yes
Dimming Technology: UHD Dimming
Precision Black (Local Dimming): Precision Black
Wide Color Enhancer Plus: Wide Color Enhancer
Ultra Clear Panel: Ultra Clear Pro
Peak Illuminator: Yes

Audio
Dolby: Dolby MS11
Sound Effect: DTS Studio Sound
DTS Premium Sound: DTS Premium Sound 5.1
Sound Output (RMS): 40W (10W x 2, Woofer 10W x 2)
Speaker Type: Front Firing (2.2 CH)

Features
Wi-Fi: Built-in
Processor: Quad-Core
Voice Interaction: Yes
Motion Control: Ready/Yes
Smart Evolution Ready: Ready (Future Proof Only)
3D: Yes
One Connect: One Connect Mini
OS/Platform: Tizen Smart TV

Dimensions
Size with stand (WxHxD): 57.7" x 35.1" x 11.1"
Size without stand (WxHxD): 57.7" x 32.9" x 1.2"
Shipping Size (WxHxD): 65" x 37.5" x 7.1"

Weight
Product Weight with stand: 69.7 lb
Product Weight without stand: 60.8 lb
Shipping Weight: 84.7 lb

Product Reviews

Rtings - http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-brand/samsung/js8500/
CNET - http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-unjs8500-series/
HDTVtest - http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/ue55js8500-201506114124.htm
4k News - http://4k.com/tv/a-review-of-the-sa...a-hd-led-3d-tv-series-2015-flat-screen-model/

Calibration Settings

DenPom - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-l...js8500-series-tv-thread-301.html#post39373410
Prme19 (Movie) - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-l...-js8500-series-tv-thread-33.html#post34495410
Prme19 (Standard) - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-l...-js8500-series-tv-thread-61.html#post35124130
ERuiz - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-l...d-js8500-series-tv-thread-9.html#post33772057
 
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#9,621 ·
So many people forget this. If you are paying "x" amount of money for a good receiver, use it. Plug everything directly to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV.

Hell even a lot of newer sound bars have HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 passthrough so you can do this.
while i agree with this, I should also note that because of samsung's stupid implementation of ARC, this can have weird effects with your receiver, which is why I plug my uverse box straight into the tv. everything else to the receiver.
 
#9,623 ·
Perhaps you've never had a receiver before, but what you're trying to do doesn't make any sense...

Your cable box directly connected to the receiver should mean you pick that particular connection on the receiver. It will process the audio directly and then also pass the video on to the tv. Why on earth would you want to pass the audio to the tv and then back to the receiver again?
Hi, I am not new to receivers but am new to owning a smart TV. In the past I had a Toshiba 65" rear projection TV and a Sony receiver DB925 (I think that was the model) that had optical audio in. My TV finally died after over a decade of use and my receiver was acting up, not always enabling the rear sound channels, so it was time to upgrade them both.

I only have two things that I connect and use, a cable box and my HTPC. I use the HTPC for playing back all videos, DVD's/Blu Rays and Youtube content etc... However to get the Youtube 4K content I will need to use the Smart Hub apps, at least until I get the HTPC up to 4K capability.

I connect both the cable box and HTPC to an HDMI switch box that extracts the audio from the HDMI and sends that out to my receiver via an optical output. That way no matter what was input into the HDMI switch box, the audio was extracted and sent to the receiver and the video went to the TV.

This has always worked well for me. I don't see how that was an incorrect way to do it if it worked. :)

This is the first time I had a TV that had apps that produced their own sound from the TV itself. Usually TV's are input only. The confusion is getting sound from the TV back into the receiver the easiest way possible. :)

I am no longer using the HDMI switch box's audio output with this new setup.

You have things set up the proper way to get the best quality out of your system. You want your cable and any blue-ray or game machines connected to the HDMI input ports of your receiver. Your HDMI out from your receiver should be going to HDMI 1 on the mini hub. You then want your digital audio from your mini hub to the receiver. I believe it is port 4 on the receiver (TV in). You will then just have to switch HDMI ports on the receiver to select the proper input.
Oh, so I want to switch that to the Connect One's HDMI 1 instead of 4. Maybe that is the issue. I will try that tonight. I am unsure the difference between HDMI 1 and 4 as far as that but I will try. I need to look that up in the manual and will do so after I post this. I used 4 because it had ARC on it and thought that was the way to go. :)

If you don't care about getting better than Dolby 5.1 out of you system you can connect all sources to the mini hub and run HDMI 4 on the mini hub to the HDMI out of the receiver thus enabling arc. Also, as you system is set up, you want to make sure that you have video on pass through in the receiver. You want to let the TV to the 4K processing.
I am okay with using the digital out for all sound, it is already wired up. :)
ARC was only something I was going to use if it solved the issue of getting both the TV pass-through sound as well as the Smart Hub apps sounds.

BTW What would be better than Dolby 5.1?

I have never use ARC before and thought it was able to take the sound coming in from the HDMI cable, process it into the TV and then take the TV's processed sound, including the Smart Hub apps sound, and send that back up the same cable to the receiver. If it does do this then my receiver cannot switch to that ARC channel and is simply passing the native cable box sound instead. The receiver is ARC capable etc...

I just need to read a bit more but have been so busy, I thought I would ask you guys to get me started,

Thanks for your help. I will change over to HDMI 1 and test it and let you guys know if it worked. :)

BTW guys is just a generic term and does not exclude all the females here. :)
 
#9,624 ·
while i agree with this, I should also note that because of samsung's stupid implementation of ARC, this can have weird effects with your receiver, which is why I plug my uverse box straight into the tv. everything else to the receiver.
I always advise against using ARC. They are so finicky and they wreck havoc on universal remotes. I would use optical over ARC any day of the week.

I turn off anynet+
 
#9,626 ·
On the ARC thing-

Since this TV is 4K and the easiest way to get 4K is to use the native apps, I ran an optical cable through the wall to plug into the OneConnect box and to the receiver, and I set the audio input as optical for the "TV" mode on my receiver. I didn't bother with ARC, in part because the Harmony remotes don't have a direct input IR code for HDMI 4...and in part because it's so buggy.

On the Pixel thing-

If this were just a single pixel I wouldn't let it bother me, but the cluster of 4 dead/dim ones is large enough that I initially noticed it from about 4-5 feet away from the set, and you can see it when sitting from about 10-12 feet away if you know exactly where to look. The dim ones are very odd, if you move from side to side they kind of shimmer, and when you zoom in on the pic I took it's almost like what appear to be micro lenses that focus the light are not in alignment with the LCD panel itself or something.

Anyway, I got an exchange scheduled (even though they say out of stock it appears that they have some for exchanges tucked away or are expecting inventory soon) for Thursday. Hopefully it isn't worse. If so I may just return the set and try something else later.
 
#9,627 ·
So many people forget this. If you are paying "x" amount of money for a good receiver, use it. Plug everything directly to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV.

Hell even a lot of newer sound bars have HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 passthrough so you can do this.
I was wondering why the TV itself as a HD audio option, since both ARC and optical do not support HD audio. Also does anyone else have the issues of the speaker setting defaulting back to TV after being set to the receiver when using ARC? I have a feeling ARC is changing the setting and I may just end up using optical to avoid this issue.
 
#9,628 ·
I was wondering why the TV itself as a HD audio option, since both ARC and optical do not support HD audio. Also does anyone else have the issues of the speaker setting defaulting back to TV after being set to the receiver when using ARC? I have a feeling ARC is changing the setting and I may just end up using optical to avoid this issue.
The TV does NOT have an HD audio option. Also, notice the part especially that I put in bold about CEC in the bottom half of the quote below.

ARC (Audio Return Channel): This is the feature that will pass audio from the TV (eg. OTA, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, etc.) back to the AVR over the same HDMI cable that connects the AVR from the Monitor Out jack to the TV. In order for the ARC feature to work, it must be offered on both the TV and the AVR. Just because the TV and AVR are HDMI 1.4 or higher DOES NOT mean they offer the ARC feature. Note the S510BT does NOT offer ARC and therefore ARC will not work when connected to a TV with ARC. In order to use the TV's ARC feature you must set the TV's "HDMI-CEC" setting (LG - SimpLink; Phillips - EasyLink; Panasonic - VieraLink; Sony - BraviaSync; Samsung - Anynet+; Toshiba - CE-Link,RegzaLink) to ON as well as setting the AVR's "HDMI Control" setting to ON as the factory default is OFF. Some TV's also require the audio to be set to external speakers (eg. Samsung - set to Home Theater). Also make sure the HDMI cable from the AVR is plugged into the ARC labeled jack on the TV (eg. HDMI1 - Panasonic, HDMI2 - Samsung, Panasonic). Once these settings are made, turn all devices OFF for a few minutes and then ON again ... TV first and then the AVR (although if that order doesn't work, try AVR first and then TV). Note that a side effect when using the TV's HDMI-CEC/ARC set to ON is that the AVR will always shift to the "TV Audio" source input when first turned ON rather than going to the last input that was on prior to the AVR being put into Standby (as is the case when ARC is OFF). First introduced on the 2014 models, there is a new "TV Audio Switching" setting which defaults to ON, but can be set to OFF in order to prevent the AVR from automatically switching to the "TV Audio" source. Also new on the 2015 models is an ARC setting which defaults to OFF but should be set to ON when in use. If you are unable to get the ARC to work, try replacing the HDMI cable from the AVR --> TV with a newer cable as doing so will often resolve the issue.

Note also that with some TVs (eg.. Samsung) the AVR will also revert to the TV input while in Standby which will prevent you from using the HDMI pass through feature (eg. cable/sat box) without turning the HDMI-CEC setting on the TV to OFF. If this is too annoying, either turn off the HDMI-CEC/ARC setting on the TV when not using it or forgo the ARC feature (set HDMI-CEC/ARC to OFF) and use an optical cable from the TV to the AVR. The optical cable will pass the same audio (PCM 2.0 or DD 5.1) that the HDMI cable would have passed with no loss in audio quality. If you have the cable/sat box connected directly to the TV (eg. due to an HDMI handshake issue), check your TV owner's manual to see if the TV will pass DD 5.1 from connected sources when using the ARC connection (as some down mix to stereo only). If not, then connect an optical cable from the sat/cable box to the AVR instead if it passes DD 5.1 over the optical audio out.
 
#9,632 ·
Any idea how long we can expect to wait until the update is available without having to use a USB for update?
Your guess is as good as any of ours. There's never seem to have been any time frame. Sometimes the TV gives the update before it's posted on the support page but usually it's on the support page 1st. So it's hard to say. :)
 
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#9,633 ·
One other thing, I'm using a 3rd party wall mount with the standard VESA M8 screw, the manual is less than clear on if you need to use those plastic standoffs when using a third party mount or if those adapters only apply when using a Samsung mount. The screws go in fully and tightly with a washer and the M8 screws and not using the standoff, I'm not sure with the standoff if there would be enough "bite" on the screws to make it be really secure.
 
#9,634 ·
The TV does NOT have an HD audio option. Also, notice the part especially that I put in bold about CEC in the bottom half of the quote below.

I have attached a picture below with the sound setting "HD Audio." So I am not sure what that setting really does if there is no HD audio support. Also I was not referring to the receiver changing to the TV input, I was referring to the TV itself. Under the speaker setting you can choose the output device to either TV, receiver, optical or bluetooth. This option needs to be on "receiver" in order to receive audio back to the receiver through ARC. What I find is many times not only do I need to switch the receiver to the TV/SAT input, but I also need to switch the TV's speaker setting back to "receiver" because it changes to TV.
 

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#9,635 · (Edited)
I have attached a picture below with the sound setting "HD Audio." So I am not sure what that setting really does if there is no HD audio support. Also I was not referring to the receiver changing to the TV input, I was referring to the TV itself. Under the speaker setting you can choose the output device to either TV, receiver, optical or bluetooth. This option needs to be on "receiver" in order to receive audio back to the receiver through ARC. What I find is many times not only do I need to switch the receiver to the TV/SAT input, but I also need to switch the TV's speaker setting back to "receiver" because it changes to TV.
Not sureAbout that option. That's got to be some mislabeling because this TV cannot handle HD audio like Dolby Digital true HD or DTS HD audio that's on Blu-rays or that come through the apps that I'm aware of (but I could be wrong). As a matter of fact you can't even get Dolby Digital + on the built in Netflix app on this TV because I do believe it does not support Dolby Digital + passed along the ARC or optical output. Your only audio option on Netflix app is Dolby Digital 5.1 or less. That option in the menu says something about down converting HD audio if your receiver can't support it. Again I think that's just some mislabeling on Samsung's part.

I've never connected a Blu-ray player to the TVs HDMI put and try to past HD audio from it through the TV out the ARC to my receiver to see if it reaches the receiver still in HD audio form. That would be a good test to try, if your receiver and Blu-ray player supports HD audio. I know my previous 2010 model Samsung would not do that but I honestly don't know about this model because I have all my external source boxes connected straight to the receiver and in the receiver connected to the TVs HDMI4 ARC port. :)
 
#9,636 ·
Not sureAbout that option. That's got to be some mislabeling because this TV cannot handle HD audio like Dolby Digital true HD or DTS HD audio that's on Blu-rays or that come through the apps that I'm aware of (but I could be wrong). As a matter of fact you can't even get Dolby Digital + on the built in Netflix app on this TV because I do believe it does not support Dolby Digital + passed along the ARC or optical output. Your only audio option on Netflix app is Dolby Digital 5.1 or less. That option in the menu says something about down converting HD audio if your receiver can't support it. Again I think that's just some mislabeling on Samsung's part.

It's less than accurate labeling... The setting allows you to toggle between passing the audio as PCM or Bitstream, but it still doesn't give you more than DTS or Dolby Digital, which are not HD audio formats by today's standards...
 
#9,637 ·
Not sureAbout that option. That's got to be some mislabeling because this TV cannot handle HD audio like Dolby Digital true HD or DTS HD audio that's on Blu-rays or that come through the apps that I'm aware of (but I could be wrong). As a matter of fact you can't even get Dolby Digital + on the built in Netflix app on this TV because I do believe it does not support Dolby Digital + passed along the ARC or optical output. Your only audio option on Netflix app is Dolby Digital 5.1 or less. That option in the menu says something about down converting HD audio if your receiver can't support it. Again I think that's just some mislabeling on Samsung's part.
Unless enabling HD audio is only for the TV's speakers? Not that it would really be HD or anything.. The manual for this TV might as well not even exist for how useful it is.
 
#9,638 ·
Not sureAbout that option. That's got to be some mislabeling because this TV cannot handle HD audio like Dolby Digital true HD or DTS HD audio that's on Blu-rays or that come through the apps that I'm aware of (but I could be wrong). As a matter of fact you can't even get Dolby Digital + on the built in Netflix app on this TV because I do believe it does not support Dolby Digital + passed along the ARC or optical output. Your only audio option on Netflix app is Dolby Digital 5.1 or less. That option in the menu says something about down converting HD audio if your receiver can't support it. Again I think that's just some mislabeling on Samsung's part.

I've never connected a Blu-ray player to the TVs HDMI put and try to past HD audio from it through the TV out the ARC to my receiver to see if it reaches the receiver still in HD audio form. That would be a good test to try, if your receiver and Blu-ray player supports HD audio. I know my previous 2010 model Samsung would not do that but I honestly don't know about this model because I have all my external source boxes connected straight to the receiver and in the receiver connected to the TVs HDMI4 ARC port. :)
I figured its probably a mislabel of some sort with the HD audio. With the other issue with ARC is the TV switching speaker settings because it detects no audio output to the receiver when the receiver changes to a different input other then TV/SAT? So in this case the TV is just defaulting back to itself for audio output?
 
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#9,639 · (Edited)
Same EXACT thing for me (except I've never bought a trampoline :) ). Evidently, XPO is inept and Amazon has overwhelmed them, and certainly Amazon and XPO's order tracking aren't talking to each other. Waited all day long on Saturday for delivery, and nothing showed. I was on hold for 1.5 hrs for XPO, and they told me that Amazon hadn't gotten it there yet and they had my delivery prescheduled for next Thurs at the same time (that would have been a surprise). This is why, evidently, they never called me yesterday, because they were going to show up on Thursday even though I prescheduled it for Saturday (yesterday) :confused: . I called Amazon and the Amazon rep said they "have 1000s of complaints about XPO and have a special investigative team looking into the problem with XPO". :mad: Googling XPO, it appears to me they are growing so fast in recent year or two that their infrastructure hasn't kept up, but I'm speculating. Anyway, Amazon said they would offer me $100 refund for the inconvenience if I wanted to still keep the order, so I took it. Call Amazon back and complain some more and get your $100 refund. I've rescheduled with XPO for next Saturday (Thur wasn't going to work for me), or so I think:(:confused:

same thing happened to me, but i didnt get a call. i had to call amazon. they offered $75. when i read this, i chatted them and asked about $100. they said their policy only for $75. did you actually get $100?

amazon chat also said "as per our records we have not issued anyone with $100."

i persisted and they said this again: "I have checked that and I see that is just a rumor as per we have not issued any $100 to anyone and as per our terms and conditions we have issued only $75.00"
 
#9,640 ·
It's less than accurate labeling... The setting allows you to toggle between passing the audio as PCM or Bitstream, but it still doesn't give you more than DTS or Dolby Digital, which are not HD audio formats by today's standards...

I stand corrected...that setting has nothing to do with what happens via optical or HDMI.

From the manual:
Provides the TV sound resampled at HD audio quality.
-Standard audio signals are sampled at 48 kHz while HD audio signals are sampled at 96 kHz.
-Some S/PDIF receivers may not be compatible. For incompatible receivers, deactivate this mode and
use normal audio mode instead.
-The HD audio signals available on the TV are not available on external audio players connected via HDMI, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi networks.
 
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