Quote:
Originally Posted by
bekindrewind 
Rumor has it the Elite is no longer being produced. Soon there may be few sets in stores for comparison. I've seen the 70" elite next to the 75ES9000. Side by side, they both looked excellent and both had their plus and minus'. Some people think the Elite is the best out, yet not at the last shoot out, so pls no hate mail from Elite owners. Currently I think the best tv's in led are the 65" XBR950, 70" Elite and 75ES9000. We all know that every time a screen gets larger, even by 5", it costs a lot more.
I used to think that edge lit was not a good as full array, local dimming, till....wait for it....sony, Lg, samsung now sells $20,000 plus edge lit sets. Why not just bump the price of those 4k sets up a little more and make them full array, local dimming if it's better then edge lit? That's a discussion for another thread.
I don't think the ES9000 is exactly the same as the D8000. It may use different processors, may have different chips, micro dimming plus vs micro dimming ultimate with precision black, dynamic contrast ratio may be different, the way things are performed, not having the evolution kit and so on. Maybe some of the features and some of the specs are the same, but it does not make it the same set in terms of PQ.
Guys I'm sitting in the same boat as you. I owned a Pioneer Elite and just sold it to my friend. I'm looking for a screen 65-80 inches that will provide as close to the PQ as I'm used to. Current run of plasmas top out at 65". So LED seems the place to look for larger size screens. I too am waiting to see the F8000 line.
By the way, I'm seeing the UN75ES9000 selling in the $7000 range on some sites. Do a search. I was under the impression that Sony and Samsung was not discounting their top end sets. So the question becomes a warrantee issue if one buys from them. I believe Samsung wants proof of purchase as a new unit and it's serial number. So maybe purchasing from a non Samsung authorized dealer is not required?
Do people really get really affended when you say bad things about their TVs? I ask this because you say "Please no hate mail" referring to the Elite. LoL! That's crazy! Its a sitting TV that doesn't ever move Lol! I own so many Samsung models between the 2 houses and I never get affended when others say bad things about them. I like hearing others opinions even if they are bad.
As far as what you said about the edge lit, I agree. I think Samsung has finally figured out a way to utilize their software based Micro dimming in a way where they adjust it through software/Firmware updates to get the best black levels as possible without creating any halo effect. It took a year for them to do this with my ES8000, but they finally did. So yea, maybe this is why they can get away with edge lit now rather than Full array.
About the 75" ES9000, I was going to upgrade my D8000 to the 9000 when my D had failed under warranty. I was dealing with a very "higher" up level corporate official in their New Jersey headquarters and I was told that the 65" ES8000 has the same exact panel as the 9000. I told him I didn't want to get another 65" because of the banding, so this is what he told me. I'm not mentioning his name though because I think he was only trying to help me save my money. I also brought up the Sony HX950 since it had just been released when this was going on and he laughed and said "that's our panel also" so this is how i ended up with the 60" ES8000.
just recently after they pushed out this new 1046.2 update on the 8000, I asked my uncle what he thought since he owns the 9000 and the 8000, and he said his 8000 looks like the same TV as my 8000 now, where as before the update, you could really tell the difference in the picture quality. Mainly the black levels. He was happy though that he's $10k ES9000 looks as good as his $3K 8000. But not too happy that he had to spend so much on it to have the same looking picture. So then, this got me thinking, so I went to Samsung's site to check out the patch notes on the 9000 and saw that the 9000 and 8000 get the same exact FW update. The only thing is, they don't even list the 9000 where they have the model #s that the FW is for. Same patch notes as the 8000 as well. This is really strange because the 8000,7500 share the same FW, but not the 7100. This made me thing even more and remembered that the 75" 9000 was always supposed to be the 75" ES8000.
It all makes sense now. Samsung is very good at ther marketing. They are out to make money first. They are NOT out to just make people happy. If this 9000 was selling for $7K, then that's a different story, cause then I would even buy one. I've been watching the price very closely to see what they do, cause for me, a 75" is the prefect size. As for the 4K, I would never pay $20k for a TV unless it was like a 110" 4K, then maybe.. I think LGs 84" 4K is only $16K though. That's a little better than the $10K 75" 1080p. Me personally, I have no desire anymore in 4K. I wish they were coming out with larger than 55" OLEDs , cause that's going to be the next big thing.
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