Samsung B8500 officially announced!

Nice find.

that looks good

What's the difference between this set & the 9500 set from a year or so ago?

Do want...

When are they going to get 60" or more on these

Beat me by an hour and half. I was just about to post this.

Another source, fyi ... [Whoops, I'm still too new]

But it does look like local dimming on the 8500, which implies to me that the 8500 will be this year's replacement for the the A950. I can't confirm or deny that there won't be a 9000 of some kind later in the year, but I kinda doubt it. Someone more in the know feel free to correct me.

How about now: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/s...94&newsLang=en

Nice! It's finally officially announced. Now I can't wait until 6-8 months down the line where a newer tv is announced (9000 series) and I can snag the 8500 for around $3,500!

Hi Dujo,

www
high
def
junkies
[dot]
com/showthread.php?p=51315#post51315

The 8500 is their flagship locally dimmed set for now. I'm looking forward to testing and reviewing one (3-6 weeks, it looks like).

Yours,

David

As far as 1080p televisions go that is a very nice looking TV, anybody find a european release date, or are they day & date with US? Damn think I'll be giving this one a closer look.
Cheers,
Jiff

according to samsung media rep there will be no 9000. this model is it for the rest of 2009. and not wireless HDMI either, like 9000 was rumored to be. tuner built-in...sounds like the biggest advantage over A950 is the depth (and I assume light) weight of the display...

Basic specs below. I'm glad I grabbed a 950 on closeout. The 8500 loses a bunch of analog inputs, like the other Sammy thinline LED units.






8500 Series LED HDTV

Screen Sizes
54.6-inch / 45.9-inch
Resolution
Full HD 1080p
Design
Touch of Color™ (ToC™) with Charcoal accents
Crystal neck swivel stand
Compatible with ultra-slim wall-mount solution (sold separately)
Video
7,000,000:1 contrast ratio
2ms response time
Auto Motion Plus™ 240Hz frame interpolation with separate blur and judder adjustments
Ultra Clear Panel
Wide Color Enhancer Pro
Audio
Down-firing speakers with integrated woofer
15-watts x 2 (55-inch class)
10-watts x 2 (46-inch class)
SRS TruSurround HD™
Features

Medi@2.0TM



Internet@TV - Content Service with Yahoo! Widget Engine
Content Library ™
(2GB flash memory)
USB 2.0 Movie with MPEG4, DivX, MP3, JPEG decoders
DLNA-CERTIFIED™ for wired / wireless access (USB dongle for wireless sold separately)



Natural Mode
Energy Star® v3.0 compliant
Built-in ATSC/Clear QAM digital tuner
Picture-in-Picture
Local Dimming
A/V
Connections

4 HDMI (HDMI-CEC) version 1.3 inputs (side)
1 component input (rear)
2 USB 2.0 inputs (side)
1 Ethernet connection (rear)
1 optical audio output (side)
1 PC input (rear)

Estimated Selling Price
54.6-inch (UN55B8500): $4,499.99
45.9-inch (UN46B8500): $3,599.99
Availability
August 2009

$3,600 seems a little steep for the 46". I wonder if it means a price drop for the current led tvs when they come out. Been thinking about pulling the trigger on the 46" b8000.

Sharp has announced their new plant for making large panels is scheduled to begin manufacture this October. They sell panels to a number of manufacturers. So presumably by early next year we should start seeing various new LCD TVs 60 inches and above.

I expect in a year to be seriously shopping for a 60 inch LED locally-dimmed replacement for my faithful but increasingly stone-age D-ILA. Hope I can hold out that long. I was looking at a Samsung B6000 in Best Buy today and MAN it looked good.

good, hope you'll be happy with your extinct tv with the analog inputs for your laserdisc and vcr's. Some ppl like to go forward, and some...make a u-turn and head back the other way. Let me guess, you're still estactic with windows 98 right?

Moving forward would be gaining something instead of losing something. We should be picking up new inputs with this tv and we are not, so like it or not this person has a point. And I have XP and wouldn't trade it for Vista for anything lol.

Windows 7 is around the corner which should resolve Vista issues as it'll have dual mode compatability. I know what you mean though as I buy for and manage a large network and I avoid Vista because it's not network friendly as it cannot handle pre-existing XP Pro roaming profiles (among other issues) unless I start from scratch and buy all new servers and rebuild hundreds of profiles and no way most budgets can and available time handle that proposition with a Live Network of 14 Servers unless one's network is starting from point A with Vista. Windows 7 should finally fill that gap in the near future.

I'd look at CES in Jan for improvements in the Tech area interface (also CEDIA next month) but understand HDMI and wireless can have it's limits since current HDMI has no error correction built-in - should collisions occur and they will, it can lead to audio and picture dropouts. Many of the interfaces used with one's HT must have their specs improved to have that area come to market - an area that the TV builders have very little control over directly often they have to wait for the interfaces to evolve and mature.

One of next years biggest improvements should be expansion of Tru2Way interface with cable cards without using cable boxes and Samsung is a huge partner in Tru2Way. It's being tested in different markets around the country presently - one way cable cards failed because the cable providers could not make any money off them but in this case a two way opens up unlimited Pay services the original lacked for Cable companies to promote and most were pathetically apathetic at supporting since they weren't making money off it which is the American way.

Often Samsung has tested their innovations in their home market in S Korea before they deal it out in Europe and N. America et al. It is amazing how these CR's keep jumping on these panels and I'd love to see if the PQ and shadow details truly result in improved Picture if it's truly 7 million to one.

Can't wait to see if it has increased zone's and Led's?

Samsung keeps releasing the new models every couple months or so. Really annoys me.

Hi fvbounty,

Me too (natch). Brimstone-1's comments make me hopeful on this front. We'll see soon, and I'll post a full report (natch).

Yours,

David

Price reductions are already occurring in a few different places. By the time of release lets hope to see the 46" under 3k. Maybe have to wait to black friday?

THINNER,BETTER,SUPERIOR,CHEAPER LG`S HERE:-)?


http://www.engadget.com/photos/lgs-s...sl90-hands-on/

Those are lower end LG and the one Led LG is edge lit not local dimming!

If you want a thin LCD set, you will have to forego local dimming until they figure out how to do it.

The Samsung un55B8500 is 1.6 inches thick and is Local dimming!

The LG ##LH90 does have LED backlighting and LD. The LH is 4-1/5" thick. The ##LHX (Wireless Media Box) is 1.5" thick.

From CNET:

Features
The big addition with the LH90 series is LED backlighting with local dimming. This LCD-based TV employs groups of LEDs (as opposed to the standard fluorescent lamps behind most LCD screens) that can be individually dimmed or even switched off in different areas of the screen. The system is different from edge-lit LED-based LCDs, such as the 6000, 7000, and 8000 series sold by Samsung, because the LG's LEDs are arranged behind the screen as opposed to, well, along the edges. In general we've observed improved contrast, along with some tradeoffs, with local-dimming technology

Hi ubercool,

They did figure out how to do it. The Samsung 9000 was slated to be one, but it got axed for reasons that I do not know. The LG LH93 and LH95 are slim form factor locally dimmed sets, and they have 240 discrete zones with 3360 white LEDs. They pulled this off with what I consider a very interesting trick--they put almost all of the processing guts of the television in a separate box that wirelessly transmits to the monitor. They're not due out until late-ish this fall, but from what I've read, they look pretty sexy.

For the full story, see my sig. file and add /showthread.php?t=1819&page=16

Yours,

David

I think the person was being sarcastic, like saying the LH90 kinda sux. It's an ok tv but I don't think they did local dimming as good as samsung or sony. Plus the 240 refresh rate is actually 120 on the LG.