My wife would laugh but I always try to do my homework with purchases like this. If I were to go out and buy a random 4k set and end up disappointed I'd have no one to blame but myself. At least now I know I made an educated decision. I don't buy TVs often (at least not in the past) so I knew I didn't want to squander this opportunity.

There is no Panel Lottery with the JS Series, all are Samsung made TH01 10bit Panels. Quality TV!

It depends to a point. I've heard a few people in Samsung K8500 thread need to replace their Cables to a newer 2015/2016 made Cable.
I have always bought High Speed with Ethernet Cables, when I bought my K8500 UHD Blu-Ray Player in April, I plugged it in using a 4 year old HDMI Cable & it worked with no problems at all. As long as they are a Category 2 Cable which I'm pretty sure "High Speed" is, you should be ok but be prepared just in case it doesn't work.

JS for the 3d. Why eliminate such a great feature which actually adds to the viewing experience ? The 3d on this set is not mere gimmickry. Hopefully Samsung will take notice of all these comments made about passing up TV's without 3d and bring back this attribute in future sets.

I agree, I enjoy 3D & have an extensive range of 3D Blu-Ray's. I was an early adopter to 3D & bought the first C8000 (over $5k in 2010). I was sad to see Samsung drop it in 2016 but like you I hope they listen to consumers & add it back to next years line up.

I had some old GE and Vizio cables that I replaced because I wasn't sure what version they where. I ended up going with these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I think someone else in this forum recommended them.

Just to add to this ^^^^

1.4 and 2.0/2.0a are all HDMI connector specs NOT cable specs. Even though they are often advertised as such, there is really no such thing as a HDMI 2.0 cable.

All you need (at least for short cable runs - say under 15') is, as @mc_avs pointed out above, is a "High-speed" "Category 2" cable (which by the way is the same thing). You should also make sure it is rated for a bandwidth of 18Gbps or more (most newer ones are).

As long as you get an image (and audio) with no drop-outs or "sparkles" (snow), you are good-to-go.

Richard

I went with this one since I wasn't sure whether my 8 y.o. cable was rated at 18 Gbps, plus I read that it works with the UBD-K8500 player/JS8500 TV combo -- I also wanted a braided cord, and the < $10 price tag didn't hurt either:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NQ9OQU2

The cable arrived yesterday and the build quality is very nice. It seems to have helped slightly with picture clarity, but that might just be wishful thinking/placebo on my part.

Haven't tried that yet, but will give it a shot when I get the chance. I did stream a few compressed 2160p vids on YouTube via the TV's web browser, including my go-to "WILDLIFE IN 4K (ULTRA HD) 60fps" test clip, and they definitely have a darker appearance than before the 1455.0 firmware update (however the detail/clarity remains mind blowing on this TV):

That is a very apt description of what I am experiencing too after the 1455.0 update, the picture has a noticeably darker cast to it. Thanks for confirming that I'm not the only one. So far I have tried a brand new high speed HDMI cable, reset Picture option, soft reset the TV (unplugged power cable from outlet, held power button for 30 seconds, and reattached power cable), changed input source, and rebooted cable box, all to no avail. I have yet to perform a Factory Reset since it's not without some risk, I'm leaning towards waiting for another firmware update to see if that corrects things (but next time I'll try the over-the-air method rather than the USB flash drive route).

Just out of curiosity:

1. What size panel do you have? (65" for me)

2. What firmware version were you running prior to the 1455.0 update? (1221.7 for me)

3. Did you update via the Internet or via USB? (USB for me)

4. Did your set perform 2 reboots as part of the update or just 1? (2 for me)

5. Did your TV retain all prior settings following the update? (all retained for me except audio delay which changed from 0 to 100 milliseconds)

Thanks again for the reply, sorry that you have this same PQ issue. Please let me know if you find a way to resolve it.

Thank you for your follow up. This clears the issue up a bit. These are the HDMI cables I bought when I moved into my new house and mounted my TV:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L3KNWBU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Obviously just adequate (at least for my 1080p LG). I don't think they are rated for 18Gbps though. Those KabelDirekt HDMI cables look like they may fit the bill, though.

Biggest positive first impression of the UN65JS8500:
Impressive flesh-tones "right out of the box" in all picture modes.
(much more so than the LN52B630)

Biggest negative:
Glitchy user interface. I am however finding that if you give the TV a little extra time to "boot up," and only issue one command at a time things go much more smoothly.

I am the same way after I wake up in the morning. :-D

Hopefully any glitchy UI issues can be worked out with a future firmware update. I'm actually reading through this thread right now (on page 315 currently) and wondering how well the apps work; mainly Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. Hoping to use the built in apps and keep the Amazon Fire TV Stick with the LG when it gets moved to the wife's office. I'm currently still back in December of 2015 thread-wise but there seems to be widespread reports of crashing and general unreliability in apps. Has this improved at all? As an IT guy I know this could also be caused by network settings and a user's home network environment.

Netflix works great. Almost as if the set was designed as a Netflix media center.

I've had minimal issues with the built-in apps. I use the Netflix, Amazon, and HBO GO apps pretty regularly.

+1. There are occasional glitches or boot time problems but in general they work just fine (I only use Amazon, Netflix and rarely Ultraflix).

YouTube works pretty great. I have my PC hooked up to my TV and used to always watch YouTube videos that way but sometimes when a commercial would play it would crash when the video I was watching started back up. The TV's built in app is rock solid and fast.

I agree, YouTube works good too, but I watch YouTube mainly from my PC as I use YouTube for various music/artists/bands and I use my two channel setup for audio using PC/DAC/Amp (also like navigating with my PC better )

Does anyone else think the You Tube scrub bar and controls stay on the screen too damn long before they disappear? I hate that.

It can definitely be glitchy after you first turn it on but give it 5 minutes or so & it's fine. It also has a lot to do with the Fast Start Up function of the TV which you can turn off.

so happy I found this forum. just spent a painful 90 minutes on the phone with both a samsung and netflix app with no resolution....

I own the UN55JS8500 and can watch Youtube/Netflix in 4k but no HDR yet (waiting for the 4k bluray player to drop in price). Hopefully we see that September update.

I heard that youtube also had HDR videos now....does anyone know about that app being updated?

I am guessing that any Apps that do HDR, will be updated when the move to Tizen 2.0 happens sometime in September/October.

Thanks for the information

Does HDMI UHD Color setting have to be turned on to watch in HDR?

Did anyone try new Nvidia shield update today. It has HDR enabled Netflix app.

No, have to check it out. Must be update day. My Note 4 and Tab S2 got Marshmallow today.

Maybe others already knew but the AMD GPU released today with HDMI 2.0b. First product I know of offering it.

No, HDMI UHD Colour is for when you have a 4K UHD Blu-Ray Player connected to the TV, you turn it on for that particular HDMI input.

So, we're not getting HDR support for Netflix, are we?

Yes we are but it won't be until about September/October from what I was told buy a Samsung Rep. I'm guessing it will be in conjunction with the release of Tizen 2.0 to the 2015 SUHD TV's.

The Amazon app supports HDR