Official Samsung UNxxES8000 Owner's Thread - Page 343

After everything you went through, why not try direct from the manufacturer?

My ES7100 came direct from Samsung and its definitely free of dead pixels, flashlighting, clouding and banding.

+1
A lot of good stories about Amazon in this thread. Mine was from Amazon too.

I'm still considering the 65HX950 with the rationale that if I don't like that one or I continue to have bad luck then I'll just wait for the new models of the Pannys and Sammys and decide then. My preference is still LED, but would not rule out Plasma.

That may be the best option. I did notice the price of the 65HX950 is identical on Sony's site, Amazon and BB... so perhaps direct from manufacturer may be the best route.

Sony over the pass couple years, hardly ever budging on MSRP. They really hold hard that the retailer follows their pricing structure.

I use mine with my HTPC pretty extensively. I also play a fair amount of PC games through steam w/ xbox360 controller. The TV works really well for that kind of stuff. I doubt it would be ideal for image editing in photoshop though if that is what you are asking?

My view is that the evo kit is the application side of things (i.e. smarthub). I would be pretty surprised if we received any smarthub updates once the evo kit is out there. As far as firmware updates go, don't hold your breath on future firmware updates, unless there are bugs still outstanding. I expect that once the "flashing smarthub" bug is fixed that we won't see any further firmware updates for the es8000.

Huh????
Ours came from BB (Magnolia center inside BB) and it was a factory-sealed carton.

Most mailorder houses are a little queer about returns, insisting that you use an outer box, so as not so plaster shipping labels all over the original factory carton (Ergo allowing them to resell it, especially if it comes back as "no trouble found" (as they sometimes do). Return shipping on gigantic boxes is a major pain, which is why I won't buy major items mailorder. They also want all original packaging, styrofoam inserts, plastic bags that the manuals come in, etc., ad. nauseam. Mailorder returns are a hassle. You can often get some great deals but you better be ready to live with it or else open it up as though you were going to try it out then rebox it as a gift for someone.

Unfortunately in my area yes they open. Even called corporate to complain. The 3rd party company they use for Best Buy Home Delivery is required to open tvs at the BB warehouse in both the Maryland and North Jersey warehouses to confirm the screen is not broken, they then rebox or restore prior to delivery. That's why the plastic straps have been removed. I shared a few horror stories with Garnosh about my experiences with bb delivery. The most recent delivery they cut open the front of the box and the foam sheet. Screen luckily was not scratched but if did have dead pixels. I feel if they treat the tvs like that, who knows what goes on behind the scenes which is one reason I think may have contributed to me getting 4 of 5 panels delivered with dead pixels.

It may not be like that in all regions, but anyone in NY, NJ, PA, DE , MD and VA are in this particular company's region.

I'm curious about the return policy. Do you need to send pictures to show proof that the item is defective? Do they just accept it regardless? I'm wondering how many times can one return the item to amazon too.

When I went into BB to exchange or return my second set, the rep wasn't too thrilled. She said they watched my 1st exchange for 2 hours and couldn't find any defects. Luckily, I had pictures that I took of the TV to show proof of the issue.

Glad that your thinking about switching to directv! if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at 815-415-2110 and ask for chelsea i would be glad to assist you with picking the right package for you

At BB, TV does not need to be defective for a return or exchange, they only ask so they know if they need to send the tv to the BB repair center prior to selling as an open box/refurbished.

Really? Brand new account, one post, just for this? lol...

I think that's because the account gets banned after a warning about posting an ad, so they just create a new one.

Thankfully, it turns out that the adapter cable (3.5mm to RCA) that came with the TV was bad. Bought a new one at Target and everything is ok.

I ended up keeping the 60" model, but had a 65" ES right after the Sony. I mentioned up thread that the extreme vertical banding on the 65 was the deal-breaker for me. (I posted some pictures up thread showing the vertical banding on my 65 compared to the 60). As far as 3D goes, I also mentioned that IMO, the 60"ES 3D has more pop and depth than the 65 did. Here again, my assessment may be skewed towards the 60 because I was so distracted by the banding. Plus, the 65" set had very noticeable light bleed coming from all four corners that was especially prevalent when in 3D mode.

Last night I played some of Monsters vs. Aliens and The Avengers (two of the discs you mentioned earlier) and unless I am just not attuned enough to see it, I am unable to detect the background crosstalk you described. The only time I saw any kind of soft background was when it was a direct stylistic choice (the camera deliberately shifting focus to whatever is taking place in the foreground).

One other thing I forgot to mention about the 950 that was a turn-off for me, was the poor off-axis viewing radius that also impacted on 3D performance. I don't know for sure if this issue is isolated to the 55" model I had, because I don't recall many 65" owners complaining about it, but it's definitely a factor on the 55, and, in fact, every professional review I read about the 55, sited it as a negative.

A lot of the soft hazy out of focus background shots I was having problems with in Monsters Vs Aliens occurred near the end while they were in the space ship. The 60 rendered all of the backgrounds as just described as well as having the depth of certain items incorrectly placed compared to when I viewed it a week before on the 65. It could be just rotten luck on my end to get replacements from a bad batch as all three bad ones were the Oct. 2012 HS01 panels from Mexico. Even in the beginning while they are in the artic lab, the items on the wall and background were a total mess.

I never had a chance to compare Avengers myself. Garnosh might be able to remember particular scenes though. I just know that on the 65, both foreground and background were flawless on the 65.

Not too concerned about poor off axis viewing as my wife hates 3D so I normally watch 3D movies all alone once she and the kids are in bed.... but I think I read the same thing about the 65 having the same issue as well.

I'm wondering if you have/had some bad 3D glasses. That certainly would explain your bad 3D experience with 3 TVs. One thing that's been consistently praised is the ES8000 3D experience. I remember only 1 person having some problem with a line at one side of his screen. I'm assuming you used the glasses that came with the set.

I'm not ruling out faulty glasses or faulty bluray player. But I tested using both an Oppo 103 and a PS3. Both displayed same issues. I also tried on two different pairs of Panasonic glasses and a pair of Samsungs from the 65 as well as a new pair from the 60 all with the same results. I even wondered if it was my hdmi cables, but they and everything else are the same as when I had the 65VT50 and the 65es8000.

I agree that the es8000 3D is the best when on 65 inch models like yours and the one I had, but given the variables are all the same, except using a 60 instead of a 65, unless the sets were defective or damaged as a result of laying flat, the sharp panel in the 60 doed not come close to the same performance of the 65.

But as previously mentioned, the soft hazy backgrounds may not look like something is wrong for many unless they have seen the same movie and or scenes recently where those same parts were razor sharp.

A while back, several of us were discussing different options for Active 3D glasses to work with our sets. I purchased, and finally tested a new pair from amazon, with the link below. These are a major improvement over the sets included with the original TV purchase. Having tested this pair, I will now purchase a couple more sets to keep on hand, and leave the originals to be used by the kids.

I can't say there is any discernible difference in the 3d picture quality directly, but they are much better at blocking out peripheral lighting/visuals, and they are much more comfortable in comparison. Also a plus, is that the connector for charging the glasses is a standard Micro USB port.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006YWCQLO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Cmay, with all this talk of background outta focus in some 3d movies, I am trying to understand what exactly it is. If the subject or person in the front is in focus, and the background is blurred, isn't this supposed to be the purpose of some expensive camera and lens? I have the avengers 3d disc, but haven't watched the whole thing yet, do u know of any scenes that would represent your problem?

Garnosh may be able to recall particular scenes on the Avengers. I watched that also on the 65 and the entire movie was as sharp and detailed as the 2d version. I only mention avengers because Garnosh mentioned people commented on hazy backgrounds similar to what I described recently in this thread a few months ago.

On the 60, for instance in Kung Fu Panda 2 which was the most blatant example I ran across, the opening scene after the intro where Po is stuffing his face while the others cheer on, all the characters in the foreground are razor sharp. Many of the walls and background items are hazy out of focused and sometimes double imaged. This may not seem unusual to the casual viewer since everything in the foreground is focused, but having recently watched the exact same thing on the 65es8000 the night before i knew that it was not supposed to look like that. On the 65, everything that was hazy and ghosting in the background was in focus and sharp. This happened in a handful of movies I tested, but only noticed it here and there and didn't think anything of it until I saw what it did to Kung Fu Panda 2. Another scene where it is really bad and out of focus is in the cave with the dragon statue shot. Master shi fu is in focus but everything else is a mess with 3d errors like mist which is supposed to be in the background misplaced everywhere and the dragon hazy. It's hard to describe unless you see it.

Also to the other poster, it has nothing to do with make of model of the glasses as both the Panny and Sammy glasses were fine on the 65 and both displayed the issues with the 60.

Other movies I noticed minor examples included monsters vs aliens inside the alien space craft and Frankenweenie inside the classroom.

I don't think anything was defective, I honestly think the sharp made panel is not capable of rendering 3d as well as the banding panel on the 65.

I posted a while back in relation to the vertical banding on my 65".

I can report that Samsung agreed to give me a refund on the panel after sending a technician out. The tech could see the banding immediately on the inbuilt "test picture" and didn't even want to see it on other sources to confirm that it was a distraction.

I have a 60" ES8000 to replace it and it's a near-perfect panel.

I cannot see any banding in normal use, unlike the 65" where it was noticable 20% of the time in normal viewing (especially panning shots etc).

I know this is only repeating what others have said but it reconfirms the quality of the 60" over the 65" model.

A couple of other subtle differences; the anti-glare screen on the 60" is somewhat different to the 65" model, it's hard to describe it precisely but to me the 60" screen coating looks a bit "smoky" whereas the 65" screen coating was super-clear and more reflective. The bezel edges on the 60" are smaller. Apart from that, overall PQ is just the same (less the banding). I did notice that game mode on the 60" (HDMI signal from the XBOX360) set the panel's HDMI black level to LOW, whereas the 65" detected it and set the black level to "NORMAL", apart from that one quirk the panels are practically identical.

I'm very happy with the 60" model.

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