Samsung's latest LED-packing HDTVs get official prices, availability
By Richard Lawler 
posted Mar 31st 2009 11:02AM
posted Mar 31st 2009 11:02AM
posted Mar 31st 2009 11:02AM
The percentage of returned gadgets that have nothing wrong with them.
Of the $13.8 billion worth of returned products in 2007, only 5 percent were because gadgets were actually broken, according to a 2008 study.
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Eh, but unfortunately no local dimming, eh?
not needed... go see this TV...
Too bad I will never buy a Samsung product ever again after fiasco with the HLR6168 model. 6 light engine replacements after the warranty ran out (luckily covered by 3rd party warranty that was eventually bought out), Samsung refusing to stand behind their product and defects that are still there to this day that will never be fixed.
Never again will I buy any electronic device from Samsung.
I'm sure Samsung misses your business...
These are edge-lit, not locally dimmed.
You'll have to wait until later this year (I'm sure they'll have a new model) or buy one of last year's 9 series.
After Pioneer anounced that it was stopping plasma production, I ran around like a headless chicken until I managed to grab a Kouro 60 incher, and now that I took it home it's gonna stay on my wall until I'll be able to afford an OLED monitor, or until I will be buried with it.
Samsung makes nice cellphones (my Omnia , so far, has'nt disappointed me) but among TV/monitor producers it would'nt be even my second or third or fourth choice.
In my humble opinion even fellow korean LG makes better and far more convenient plasmas and LCD screens.
Samsung TVs can kiss my gold plated cables.
JoN
I did go see this TV at BB and was not impressed at all. Compared to the LN55A950, this tv does not achieve the same black levels, there was some blooming and for certain scenes it was grainy as hell with a weird looking picture. Saw the same tv at Frys and it was the same thing, poor black levels and mediocre PQ. The same movie playing on the 950 yielded a much different picture.
Do you understand that for this product cycle, samsung focused more of their efforts on a thin form factor then display, processing and LED technology? In essence they took their existing generation display pannels and stuffed them in to a thinner form factor. So these models are placeholders or for those who like the existing PQ and want a thin form factor.
Not until the fall will we see their next generation display pannel tech that will replace the 55A950 with multi zone LED backlight, local dimming, more led zones to control, deep black levels and an overall better PQ.
And i think you will find that there a lot of people who didnt like what the Series 9 panels produced image and blacks wise. I found the blacks to be do black to the point that detail in dark scene's was near impossible to see. These new panales actually have 3,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ration as compared to the Series 9 1,000,000:1 so the balcks they produce cant be far off the mark compared to the series 9?
Hmm you must have seen the tv not setup right. I saw these led tv's at a local sears and the picture quality beat every pother tv they had on the floor (no plasmas)
Sticking with Panasonic plasma.
I saw the 9000 calibrated and set up next to a 50" Panny plasma and no lie here, the sammy was acutally surprisngly better. Better colors, and in some cases actually had better blacks than the plasma. Don't know how it stacks up to the Elite Kuro yet, but any plasma lovers out there may want to look into the 9000 series tv until OLED comes around.
Also, some folks have pics of these LED televisions against a variety of other televisions, plasmas included at avsforum.com so you can check it out.
don't knock this till you have actually seen the 9000 series up close and set up properly.
Ooops... I got confused. I meant the 8000 model. I mistakenly typed 9000 but that was the a950 I was confused with. Sorry. It was the 8000 series model.
The Samsung better freaking be better than the 50" VIERA. A 46" 8000 series Samsung is $3300!!!! So yeah, I'll stick with a 50" Panasonic for $1300. Sure LCD can match Plasma, but you gotta spend an arm and a leg to get it. I'll stick with a cheap plasma that doesn't have to resort to tricks and gimmicks to make the picture look good, which makes them nice and affordable. Oh, and if you move to the side, the colors stay nice and vibrant.
Here's your choice: two TVs, they both look great, almost indistinguishable, one is a 46" at $3300, the other is 50" at $1300. Which one do you choose?
I wasn't too impressed with these tvs either. The motion blur was extremely noticable, especially when comparing it with the other LCDs around it. I think I'll pass on these ones
Motion blur, poor black levels, grainy? I've seen the 6000 and 7000 in two different Sears, both looked stunning.
Please tell us you can turn off the ridiculous "120 Hz" gimmick.
Here are some pics someone has taken of the 55" b7100 against the panasonic th-58pz800u...
The panny is on top, the sammy on bottom and both calibrated according to the user...
http://www.imagebam.com/image/1d9bf428623894
http://www.imagebam.com/image/b6210b28623895
The third link shows how the LED handles black levels.
http://s2b.directupload.net/file/d/1724/w3x8225p_jpg.htm
Keep in mind, this is also only the 7000 series, the 8000 is better. And I dont know how good the panny 58" is. Could be low end. But this shows how improved samsungs LCD's have become.
HC,
That's an impressive comparison.
Do you have the forum link where those photos came from?
It may be from the AVSForum.com thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1127577
The guy (who owns a Home Theater store) compares it to a calibrated Panasonic TH-50PZ800U in many many shots.
Panasonic has much better prices especially in this economy.