UN55C8000 Review
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The Samsung UN55C8000 is the first Samsung LED-backlight TV that can dim actually the different sections of its screen by using edge-lit LEDs as opposed to full-array behind the LCD element. Samsung terms it as “precision dimming”.
The Samsung UN55C800 has better black level performance than other edge-lit TVs; 3D compatible; better 2D-to-3D conversion; well-integrated Apps platform containing widget content and superb streaming; sleek and stylish deep panel; numerous tweaks and picture controls; more color accuracy with linear grayscale.
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UN55C8000 Review
>> Hands down best bang for the buck!, By Plastic Chef America (Portland, OR) <<
Let me start by saying that I do own this TV, and it is replacing the c7000 model. About a month ago I walked into a local retailer and asked when the 3D sets were coming out, to my surprise they had just received the first shipment of C7000 3D ready sets from Samsung. After spending about a half an hour checking out the TV, and asking a lot of questions I decided to take the plunge and purchase the TV, 3D Blu-Ray player, and starter kit. My intentions were not to buy a new set that day, but it was getting to be time to upgrade anyway so I wanted to have something with some "wow factor" for a while. A friend and I loaded up the set and got the connections made, cracked a couple of beers and checked out my new investment. There were mixed reactions to say the least. Once the novelty of the 3D wears off you can be really critical of that model. Huge amount of "crosstalk" on the picture, and cloudy bright spots with "flashlighting" in the bottom two corners. Very disappointing. I went back to the store to look at the display model again and did not see a fraction of the issues that my set was showing. The 
salesperson said that the Panasonic Plasma should be coming in any day and they expected it to be light years ahead of the Samsung in picture quality, black level, no crosstalk, etc.
After a week or so I went in to see the Panasonic that was now also on display only to see the same issues with crosstalk in 3D. The 2D experience on the Panasonic was quite good but at the time the only size available was 50", and I was replacing a 62" set and really didn't want to make that drastic of a change. So on bright pictures the Samsung was absolutely stunning! In a dark room while watching a dark movie the picture was just unacceptable for a TV in this price range. At this point I figured that I would return the TV, and wait for one of the larger Panasonic's to hit the stores.
Then I saw that the C8000 was being released earlier than expected, and had new technology called Pinpoint Dimming. After doing quite a bit of reading reviews, and others' experience with the Samsung locally dimmed set's I decided to give Samsung another chance before going to Plasma. Amazon had the TV for sale before my local retailer so I placed the order and crossed my fingers that I would not be returning two new TV's instead of one. Well let me wrap this up by saying that I am sooooo glad that I made this choice!
The Samsung UN55C8000 is absolutely stunning in aesthetic quality, and is the best picture quality I have probably ever seen! Dare I say it is even better than the 8500 from last year that gets such great reviews. There is no flashlighting, the black levels are completely pitch black, and as another reviewer already stated, once you get the picture dialed in the way you like it there really is no comparison. Everyone that sees the TV in my house has to stop and watch for a while, in fact, the downside to owning it is that I can't get people to go home!
Now with that being said, there are some minor observations that would be different in a perfect world. If you put this set in a large room and watch it from a large angle you will lose some of the black levels, and for the price it really should have wifi built in. Also, in the menu's it seems that some settings should be grouped together under the headings, so you have to jump around in the menu's a bit to get your set dialed in, but this is typically not something you will be doing all the time. Other than that I really can't see a problem with it. When considering the C7000 or C8000 do yourself a favor and choose the latter. Even if this set was hundreds of dollars more it would be worth it. This one will be hard to beat.
UPDATE: After having the TV for about a week it started having some technical issues like switching sources randomly, and changing the picture settings for no reason. Samsung tech support was very good and we thought initially the problems were being caused by the Logitech remote I use, however after increased tech issues the TV had to be returned. Being that the picture quality is so exceptional on this set I have already replaced it with another one of the same model purchased at retail (for much less money actually) and am keeping my fingers crossed that this one does not have any technical issues. I am leaving my review at five stars simply because every so often you can get a bum product, or something could have happened during shipping, but have to say that Samsung, and Amazon have been really great about taking care of me on this, and the picture quality really is very good. Reading the other reviews I am surprised that anyone would not give this a five star rating. When replacing my C8000 I checked out one of the last B8500's still available, and side by side I have to say that not only me, but most people in the store were more impressed with the C8000. By the way, I have owned several products that C-net gave very high ratings that I had no success with, and vice versa, so I really think it comes down to your own expectations on a purchase like this.
>> WOW. Amazing LED set!!, By F. Fernandez "BrokenFern" (Valencia, CA) <<
First off I want to be clear about the kind of review this is intended to be. I am not a profession TV rater. I am not a videophile. I am a regular Joe and I am reviewing this for the regular Joe who is thinking about spending more than usual on a good quality television. During the next few months, I'm sure you can find a more professional review from the usual places... But for now, this is my impressions.
CORNER LIGHT: After reading many reviews on last years B8000 and this year's C7000, I was worried about the light that emits from the corners. I've seen displays of last year's B8000 and this year's C7000 and have VERY easily seen what people are talking about. I took a big gamble in purchasing this TV before I read if people were having issues with this Samsung UN55C8000. So let me say... After watching this TV for about 5 hours per day for 3 days... I have NOT seen the light coming from the edges as seen on other sets. And believe me I've been looking. I tried to find it watching the HD feed on Time Warner Cable, Blu-ray's from the PS3, Blu-Ray's from the Samsung 3D Blu-Ray player, watching at night, during the day... Nothing. I just do not see it! 
LOOKS: This TV looks just amazing. It has a VERY dark black screen. It looks as beautiful turned off as it does on. I was nervous about the brush metal look, but it actually looks very nice and compliments the new chromed four-legged stand.
PICTURE: The picture clarity looks incredible. It's as if I'm discovering HD for the first time. This set replaces a Samsung DLP set, so of course this is a vast improvement. Having said that, I have a newer plasma in the bedroom and this set looks much better than that. As with all new LED sets with 240 Hz, there is a bit of the Spanish Soap Opera/Home Video look to it. Some people really like this, some people don't. I really like it. For those of you that don't, you can always turn this feature down or off. To me this makes the picture look very clear and it makes it stand out from the other sets.
3D: Along with this TV I purchased the Samsung 3D Bluray player so I can get the 3D startup kit for free. Turning the 3D feature on and connecting the glasses was easy. The intro to Monsters v. Aliens was very cool. The opening scene in outer space looked incredible. The ball tied to a paddle part was funny and kinda made me jump a little. I haven't spent too much time with 3D but I did notice that there were some scenes in the movie that had a double image while wearing the glasses. It doesn't happen a lot, but it is noticeable. You can see this right away during the church scene at the beginning of the movie. It was a little annoying. I'm hoping that this is the kind of stuff that gets ironed out with a firmwear update, or as more content is released, they learn to fix it.
OnlineTV: This is also a very new area for me. I never understood the need for me to want apps on my TV... But its actually kina cool. I've tried a few apps but my favorite by far is the Pandora app. I'm a big fan of Pandora and this app I actually like better on my TV than online or the iPhone. The only thing I hate is that Samsung did not have Wifi built in. I think pricing this set at the $3000+ mark should be enough to include it with the set and not require me to drop another $80 for the USB adapter. I just hardwired it, but that's another wire I don't like dealing with.
USB: I wanted to mention that this set allows you to connect a USB external hard drive and play music, photo's and movies directly from the HDD. I have a Western Digital 320GB Passport filled with movies and music, and I was able to navigate the files structure in the drive using the remote quite easily. And it played all the files formats I threw at it.
Pros:
No corner light!!!
Very dark screen.
Very clear picture
Pandora Samsung App
3D was surprisingly fun
USB external HDD capable
and... NO CORNER LIGHT!
Cons:
Slight double images on 3D.
Wifi requires an $80 USB adaptor.
Overall I am very satisfied with the Samsung UN55C8000. Even with the few CONS, this set to this average Joe is a definite 5 star! As I spend more time with the set, I'll be sure to update this review if I find something worth mentioning.
Please feel free to ask me questions and I'll try my best to answer them. I know how nerve wrecking buying a big ticket item such as this is... So I would be glad to help as much as I can.
>> un55c8000 Rocks (with the right settings), By Happy in Ohio (Ohio) <<
I almost pulled the trigger on the b8500 from 2009, but waited on this set and I'm happy I did. I was back and forth between the b8500 Sammy and getting a new c8000 or c7000 plasma from Sammy this year. The prices are better than even the closeout prices from last year, and you get 3d (although it may be a novelty for now). In any event, I got this set, the BD-C6900 Sammy bluray and 3d starter kit for a phenomenal price in late March from Amazon.
Pros:
Great picture on the right settings - I fooled around with the settings for 10 days before finding the right mix. This set has a lot of options on settings and you can end up with a totally different looking TV if the settings are poor. Basically, switch to Standard, Color 45-50, Tint 45/55, Backlight 12-14, Brightness 45, Sharpness 0 (this is important) and switch almost all the other settings off except for Smart LED to med/high, Motion Plus to Custom with 10 blur/2 judder, Mode Auto2, and Natural. 
Nice stand and titanium bezel. Good look.
Remote is very nice compared to the bluray remote, but I'm using a Harmony 900 for all my components so it isn't used.
Bright screen compared to plasmas I've had. Blur settings above enable you to enjoy great sports and movies without the "soap opera" effect.
Pinpoint dimming actually works! No flashlighting like the c7000 series I've witnessed.
Real 3D content (Monsters v. Aliens) looks great (even with a 1.3 highspeed HDMI cable -- however, 2D to 3D conversion of regular programs gives only nice depth - not pop out 3d.
Super thin TV - fairly lightweight.
Netflix app works through both through the TV and the bluray and surprisingly has good pic quality - not bluray like, but close to DVD quality with no glitches (assuming you have a fast internet connection). Software upgrade worked well for bluray and TV to update netflix and the other internet apps (just not the firmware update to the TV itself) through wifi.
Cons:
Lots of screen glare in a bright room (although offset by bright picture)
Narrow viewing angle - if you're off center by more than 5 feet you lose blacks.
TV isn't wifi - need a $80 adapter or have to hardwire it - TV firmware didn't update through the adapter - had to update on Samsung site with USB.
In all, a great TV. I'd love to move up to a 65 inch but the price is way too high. The bezel is so narrow that you can really get a large screen into smaller places than you'd think. Lastly, get those settings right. Movie mode is way too dingy; dynamic mode is way too bright. Once you hit the sweet spot - this tv rocks.
>> Also converts any video game into 3D!! With GREAT results!, By Mr. Mitesh J. Patel (Marina, CA USA) <<
Simply Breathtaking! So much new stuff here that its hard to figure out where to start. The picture quality is first rate, but I don't think anyone would expect anything less from a TV of this stature, so I'm not going to speak anything more about that - 8 million:1 contrast ratio!!. Make sure you upgrade your HDMI cables to v1.4 to get the 3D to work best, although I've heard that it works just fine with other HDMI versions.
I had originally thought the 2D movie to 3D feature was a bit over-rated by some other reviews that I have read, however after playing with it for a while, I have developed a new appreciation for it. I recommend watching the Blu-Ray - Planet Earth, the chapter on Mountains. The 3D was simply ashtonishing. I can't seem to wrap my head around how the TV can do this 3D conversion on the fly, but I'm definately excited about this technology. Earlier I had watched "300" with the 3D turned on and it was pretty trippy until I got sick to my head. It also works with video games like PS3 and Xbox360 (keep in mind its fake 3D and not as good as real 3D, but some will enjoy the new way of playing and watching TV). I thought Halo looked pretty impressive on the Xbox360, until I saw how good Gears of War 2 looked in 3D. It was hard to believe the 3D was fake, and I don't think I will ever play Gears of War without the 3D from now on. Make sure you turn up the 3D settings to "10" for maximum 3D effects. The amount of 3D pop up can be adjusted on a sliding scale of 1 to 10. Just about every video game looked great in 3D.
I am not sure if TV this compatible with NVIDIA's 3D technolgy, but if it is, you may be able to play your PC games in REAL 3D by connecting your computer! I'll update this when I find out more.
I have not tested the real 3D yet because I have not received the 3D player yet and PS3 has still not updated its firmware to play real 3D. But I will update this after testing it.
The downsides to this TV are as follows (I admit these are nitpicky complaints):
- Several people have complained that this set does not display 24p properly. I have tried to the best of my ability to verify this, however, with the effects turned off (or set on "clear"), the TV looks to me that it is displaying 24p just fine. Since I cannot find fault, I'm assuming most viewers are not going to notice anything so I cannot dock any stars in rating.
- the special features are hard to locate - good luck finding how to adjust settings on the 3D pop up level! 
- the 240hz smoothing feature, when active, ends up making the picture look so smooth that action movies resemble home video movies (also described as Spanish Soap Opra effect). On the one hand it's great to have no flicker or choppiness, but it makes Hollywood movies look very low budget for some reason, despite all the new details that can be seen. The only kind of movies that look good with the full 240fps smoothing are computer animated movies like "UP", and documentaries like "Planet Earth". The smoothness really works well for movies like this, the mountain scenes felt like actually being there, and made me dizzy! I didn't have that effect when I had originally watched it in 24p a couple years back. In fact I remember thinking back then how nice the mountain scenes would have looked if not for all the "judder/choppiness" of 24p. For all other movies I keep the setting on "Clear" which brings back the cinematic 24p picture judder. As annoying as the choppiness is, it sure brings back the Hollywood Magic.
- The illuminated "SAMSUNG" logo that is directly under the TV picture is annoying since I like to watch movies at night, however, I later found out this can be turned off in the settings.
- The TV isn't as sturdy feeling as my previous flat screen. Because its so thin, it tends to wobble in its base if tapped, and it just gives me that uncomfortable "unsturdy" feeling. This is not a big deal though, I don't think it will fall and you can always choose to mount it to the wall.
- The flat remote control is cool to look at, but difficult to operate since you can't "feel" your way around the keys. However, you shouldn't have to use the remote much since most of us use the cable box remote anyways.
My final verdict: Buy this TV if you are REALLY excited about 3D as I am, I don't think you will be disappointed. Don't upgrade just for picture quality. last years 240hz models look just as good, and some reviews say last years look even better.
20April UPDATE: I have finally tested the Monsters VS Aliens 3D movie. The 3D was in fact first rate in most scenes of the movie (even better than theater 3D, but NOT better than IMAX 3D). The fact that this was the very first 3D blu-ray movie is obvious because there is occational ghosting present in some scenes (double images). While many critics have quickly chosen to complain about this, I see another point of view. There were just too many perfect 3D effect scenes in all types of enviornments for me to believe that the ghosting is inevitable. I think the occasional Ghosting effects were due to this title being rushed out the door with the release of Sumsungs new 3D TV lines. I don't think there will be any issues with removing the ghosting from future titles when more time is given to master the 3D content. Color me impressed and glad I made this purchase!
>> I'm in Love, By R. Henry "Altima man" (Mt Vernon NY) <<
Got my Samsung UN55C8000 Last week Thursday, to replace my LN52A650. I have no Issues with my tv. The Black level are great, the motion handling is very good. I've watched 4 Blueray movies on it so far.Played some God of War 3. I've yet to see the lights in the corner/top like what some other's have said. No clouding at all. The color is very good. Compared to my old LN52A650, This UN55C8000 led tv is a stunner. The only compaints I have are 1 wifi not built in and 2 it's not 480htz.
>> Active 3d Rocks!, By G. Bertagnolli "Sedryn" (Dallas, TX) <<
You get the best of it all. The 8000 series functionality with 3D capabilities.. The coolest thing is you can watch regular 2d TV and Movies in 3D. The TV's 3d processor converts 2d. It isn't as good as true 3D but I watched the original Star Wars "A New Hope" converted to 3d at the smooth 240Mhz and was wowed.
I bought the package with 3d Blu-Ray player and glasses. Great deal and It was easy to set up. After 2 weeks of use, I have no cons to report. However, don't forget to buy a high speed HDMI cable. Waiting for the super slim C9000? If you don't have the (rumored) 6k to drop on it, This is your TV.. It's thin enough.
>> The best vehicle for 3D content, By Ciro Silva "Stereoscopic 3D designer" (Sao Paulo, Brazil) <<
Acquired the TV while on a trip to the States and brought back to Brazil with me (a 55" by commercial flight!). My lab at the University of Sao Paulo has created stereoscopic 3D content for teaching and entertainment for many years. This Samsung UN55C8000 LED TV has proved to be the perfect medium to show our material to small audiences. The images are cristal clear and the definition is superb! Thanks Samsung and all the others manufactures (Panasonic and Sony so far) for bringing this futuristic machine to reality in my time. I highly recommend it. Just be patient and wait for all the wonderful content (entertainment and educational) that will be flooding the market very soon.
>> To read more reviews of Samsung UN55C8000 visit Amazon <<