Samsung Ps59d8000 Quick Review - Sub 100 Hours

[petetherock]

A questions for all these settings share:

I guess it matters if you do it in daylight viewing or a more scoptopic "HT" mode?

So what are the conditions used when you post?

[Owen]

picked my 64D8000 up on the weekend and LOVE it

I sit about 2.8m from screen and that is perfect distance. have not had a full play around with it and im yet to fully tune the colours the way i like it but so far the picture looks awesome. And im coming from a panasonic plasma owner.

You have only lived with the 64" for a short time, you will soon find it small for wide screen movies.

I upgraded from a 57" to a 70" in 2007 because the 57" was definitely too small at my viewing distance or 2.8 metres. The 70" was big for about a week but I soon realised that while it was ok for 16:9 content it was not ideal for wide screen (scope) movies.

I now view a 100" projection screen from the same 2.8 metres, this gives me a scope (wide aspect ratio) image about the same height as the the 16:9 image on the 70" and finally the size is right for movies.

After 4 months I still consider a 100" screen viewed from 2.8 metres spot on for Bluray movies and I dont feel bigger would be better even after trying it, the 70" is now relegated to normal TV viewing.

Edited August 29, 2011 by Owen

[Shonky*]

I see version 1015 of firmware has been released about a week ago. I have not upgraded.

Apart from it fixing some blanking problems in the UK where BBC seems to switch between interlace and progressive I can't find any details.

Does anyone keep track of the firmware versions like they do with the Denon receivers? I haven't found anything in my searching.

[Tiles]

I see version 1015 of firmware has been released about a week ago. I have not upgraded.

Apart from it fixing some blanking problems in the UK where BBC seems to switch between interlace and progressive I can't find any details.

Does anyone keep track of the firmware versions like they do with the Denon receivers? I haven't found anything in my searching.

I think I read somewhere it improves internet wifi connection, I could be wrong.

Hay here's an awesome idea samsung, how's about we state what we are attempting to fix so the consumer can make an educated decision on weather to update or not.

I'm sticking to my current FW, still love this tv

[kitcho75]

I think I read somewhere it improves internet wifi connection, I could be wrong.

Hay here's an awesome idea samsung, how's about we state what we are attempting to fix so the consumer can make an educated decision on weather to update or not.

I'm sticking to my current FW, still love this tv

as far as i can see all you get is some new apps in the smart hub. but im yet to really test it. I hope they fix the Explore 3D app.

[Tiles]

You have only lived with the 64" for a short time, you will soon find it small for wide screen movies.

I upgraded from a 57" to a 70" in 2007 because the 57" was definitely too small at my viewing distance or 2.8 metres. The 70" was big for about a week but I soon realised that while it was ok for 16:9 content it was not ideal for wide screen (scope) movies.

I now view a 100" projection screen from the same 2.8 metres, this gives me a scope (wide aspect ratio) image about the same height as the the 16:9 image on the 70" and finally the size is right for movies.

After 4 months I still consider a 100" screen viewed from 2.8 metres spot on for Bluray movies and I dont feel bigger would be better even after trying it, the 70" is now relegated to normal TV viewing.

Do you have this paragraph saved so you can post it on every DTV forum or what??... Ive seen you write this so many times and its just annoying, not helpful.

The guys stating he just got a 64" tv and really likes it and then you find the need to post that is not nearly big enough and you've got bigger bla bla bla.

I've had a 58" and a 59" more than 12 months and I still think it's a great size. Too much bigger and you wouldnt want to be watching regular tv with it as so much content is still broadcast in SD which obviously would look awful on a 100" screen at less than 3m.

I watched the NRL finals friday night at mate of a mates house on his 65" VT20 which looked absolutely shocking at around the same distance. Until 95% of content is broadcast in 1080i or above I think a 64" is more than acceptable for a variety of content. But if you happen to have a dedicated home theatre room which is only strictly used for watching blu ray quality viewing, then go for your life, get the 100"+ projector and go head to head to see whose is bigger, yours or owens

[Owen]

Maybe you should read my post again and go on what I said not what you thought I said.

I specifically said "You have only lived with the 64" for a short time, you will soon find it small for wide screen movies." Obviously this is referring to "scope" format movies that are the norm on Bluray. Scope moves have large black bars above and below the image on a 16:9 display so a 64" 16:9 TV provides a scope image about the same height as 16:9 content on a 48" screen. Maybe you think an image that size is impressive at 2.8 metres but I sure dont and never have.

None of this has anything to do with "mine is bigger than yours", I am simply relaying my personal experience from living with a range or screen sizes to encourage forum readers to buy the largest screen they can afford or accommodate. A 64" at 2.8 meters is fine for general viewing, never said it wasn't, however for movies it leaves a lot to be desired.

The suggestion that a 64" viewed from 2.8 metres is the perfect size is misleading to forum readers, for 16:9 content or SD its ok but for scope movies I cant agree, and if that upsets some people so be it.

The ideal screen size is dependant on viewing distance. If the screen is not big enough people can just move thier seat closer for content that benefits from it.

[Owen]

Duplicate deleted

Edited September 12, 2011 by Owen

[Tiles]

Maybe you should read my post again and go on what I said not what you thought I said.

I specifically said "You have only lived with the 64" for a short time, you will soon find it small for wide screen movies." Obviously this is referring to "scope" format movies that are the norm on Bluray. Scope moves have large black bars above and below the image on a 16:9 display so a 64" 16:9 TV provides a scope image about the same height as 16:9 content on a 48" screen. Maybe you think an image that size is impressive at 2.8 metres but I sure dont and never have.

None of this has anything to do with "mine is bigger than yours", I am simply relaying my personal experience from living with a range or screen sizes to encourage forum readers to buy the largest screen they can afford or accommodate. A 64" at 2.8 meters is fine for general viewing, never said it wasn't, however for movies it leaves a lot to be desired.

The suggestion that a 64" viewed from 2.8 metres is the perfect size is misleading to forum readers, for 16:9 content or SD its ok but for scope movies I cant agree, and if that upsets some people so be it.

The ideal screen size is dependant on viewing distance. If the screen is not big enough people can just move thier seat closer for content that benefits from it.

Read your post correctly the 1st time (feels like the thousandth time on dtv). Now you can read my last sentence and you will understand what I was getting at.

Someone mentions they are happy with their new tv and you instantly feel the need to tell them "You will soon find it small for wide screen movies". That's not constructive so don't dress it up like it was. Alot of people looking at this size set (who are the people reading this thread) are probably coming from a 50" or smaller tv and there is a big chance that these people will be more than happy for quite some time with a 64", watching "scope" movies and all.

Other's who have a dedicated Home Theatre room used strictly for "scope" full hd movies, will most likely not be looking at a 64" plasma (hence would not be reading this thread) and quite possibly a projector screen instead, probably much the same size that you speak of. Maybe you could start that thread owen

And your example of a 64" displaying a "scope" image as being the same height as a 48" and you not being impressed is interesting and all, except you failed to add that on the 64" you are adding another 16 inches to the width of the screen compared to the 48", which kinda helps... doesn't it??....

These are all just opinions and perceptions and everyone's is different. Hell, does this mean it's down to the front at the cinema or else it's off to the IMAX for me?..

[Owen]

A 64" screen viewed from 2.8 metres is like sitting in the back row of a cinema, that may be "ideal" for some but most people prefer to sit closer than that.

The THX recommended viewing distance achieved at around a mid cinema seating position requires an 82" screen for a 2.8 metre viewing distance which means a 64" is far from "ideal".

Bluray is good enough to allow a 100" or slightly larger screen at 2.8 meters and still look fantastic, with a good display the picture is much better than a commercial cinema. The immersion and impact of images that size and quality are in a different league but its still a long way from a front row seat as far as size goes.

Ask anyone who has owned a 64"- 65" TV for a while and they will tell you that you get used to the size very quickly, what looked big at first soon looks ordinary and the desire for something larger is pretty much inevitable.

[SLE3551503562118]

So after alot more hours, how are your D8000's going?

[pc10]

So after alot more hours, how are your D8000's going?

Yes please - I'm about to go and buy one (if I can get a good deal) so any feedback would be appreciated.

[nathlive]

Hello, I am the owner of a now 4 month old PS59D8000 that i purchased due to my impatience waiting for a VT 30. Panel has been very impressive until about a month ago wheni noticed watched football on nine that there was sporadic Judder, Shudder, Jitter....what the name is. The movement changed from fluid to blocky and well juddery (pro AV terms). This has either increased in frequency since then or i have just dialled my eyeballs in to it. This does not happen when watching Blu- Ray on Samsung 3D 2011 model but is horrible when watchimg a DVD on my Integra DVD which does upscale and is also visible on Tivo whether plugged directly into the screen or via my Integra DTR8.9 Receiver upscaling or pass thru same thing. I'm at a loss as to what to do other than call Samsung. It is slowly driving me nuts! Any thoughts cause i'm ready to put my trusty NEC 50 XR5W back on the wall.....

[tolly84]

hey everyone, i think this my first post on here (i'm a long time reader)...

I work for a major electronic australian retailer, so I like to here everyones impressions of the tv's!

My experience with samsung the last few months has not been a good one

My last few plasma's have been samsung's and served me well until i took the plunge into purchases a PS59d6900 about 10 weeks ago.

The first few weeks I had it were fine, though the picture seemed a little "washed out" after lengthy calibration sessions...

About 6 weeks into having the set I noticed the BRIGHTNESS JUMPING up and down... Particularly when Star Wars was released on bluray, the movies all the have the black bars and the black was levels on them were jumping around throughout scenes..

So being lucky enough to work for who I do, i was able to take my TV back and switch is for another one of the same model..

I get home my second PS59d6900 and the tv has this massive BUZZ SOUND coming from the left and right side of the tv (sounds like a speaker turned up really loud, with no sound coming out) mixed with a low level electric shaver..

So that set went back a couple of days later and I cracked open another PS59d6900 at work (before i took it home this time) and it had a massive dint in the back of the screen...

That's when I decided to Upgrade to the PS64D8000 plasma...

Got the unit home, unit buzzes ( not as loud as the other though ) + i'm pretty sure i've gone mental AND WORST PART OF ALL....

THE PS64D8000 HAS THE BRIGHTNESS JUMP'S/POP's...

I've googled this issues and It seems to be happening a lot in Europe..

ANYONE THINKING OF BUYING A D8000 PLASMA BE AWARE OF THESE ISSUES!

[Felix..]

Yes I posted above that I have at times noticed fluctuating brightness on my set. A lot seems to depend on the content, your individual sensitivity to subtle changes in brightness and the particular picture settings you choose. Some owners will swear on their children's lives that they've never seen it and I believe them. But it's there alright if you know what to look for and when. It's not regarded as a fault by Samsung but rather an engineering design decision to boost contrast during transitions from scenes of varying brightness.

The Cnet settings mentioned earlier in this thread nearly completely eliminate this effect for me. However I prefer a slightly brighter picture and I'm prepared to accept this effect being a little more prominent in certain scenes as a consequence. My 64D8000 excels in so many ways and improves upon my previous Pioneer Kuro panel that this is one quibble I'm more than prepared to "live with" and the only negative I've experienced versus a stack of positives. So no way would I return it. Having said that if Samsung were to introduce a software update at some point to disable that feature then I would certainly deactivate it.

I have no issue with buzzing or peeling thankfully. In fact my set is virtually dead silent compared to the Pioneer which buzzed slightly.

Not sure if you've stumbled upon this in all your googlings Tolly but these are two links to keep track of:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....762&page=12

http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Samsung-2...6976163?sk=wall

Edited October 6, 2011 by Felix.

[andys]

I've had the 59D8000 for a little while now, after selling my C7000. Absolutely no issues to report. No peeling and no buzzing to speak of. I haven't noticed any changes in brightness at all. (I'm using slightly adjusted Movie mode settings). 3D is vastly improved over the C7000. It looks like they've taken the Panasonic approach and dropped the depth off slightly, compared to last year's C7000. It's a much more stable picture though, with pretty much no ghosting. I'm very happy that I went with the D8000 over Panasonic's offerings this year. Apart from a slight improvement in black level (and much more appealing bezels this year on the GT & VT), Panasonic have made no improvements over last year's VT20. They are still yet to rectify the 50hz bug, and the motion blur on fast panning shots (on all sources including BD). Add to that the very obvious flucuating brightness 'feature' and it was simply not on the cards for me. It was a pretty easy decision to go with the D8000.

Andys.

[tolly84]

Yes I posted above that I have at times noticed fluctuating brightness on my set. A lot seems to depend on the content, your individual sensitivity to subtle changes in brightness and the particular picture settings you choose. Some owners will swear on their children's lives that they've never seen it and I believe them. But it's there alright if you know what to look for and when. It's not regarded as a fault by Samsung but rather an engineering design decision to boost contrast during transitions from scenes of varying brightness.

The Cnet settings mentioned earlier in this thread nearly completely eliminate this effect for me. However I prefer a slightly brighter picture and I'm prepared to accept this effect being a little more prominent in certain scenes as a consequence. My 64D8000 excels in so many ways and improves upon my previous Pioneer Kuro panel that this is one quibble I'm more than prepared to "live with" and the only negative I've experienced versus a stack of positives. So no way would I return it. Having said that if Samsung were to introduce a software update at some point to disable that feature then I would certainly deactivate it.

I have no issue with buzzing or peeling thankfully. In fact my set is virtually dead silent compared to the Pioneer which buzzed slightly.

Not sure if you've stumbled upon this in all your googlings Tolly but these are two links to keep track of:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....762&page=12

http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Samsung-2...6976163?sk=wall

Completely agree with what you had to say! I stuck with samsung over the years because there picture has way less flickr during 24p playback then the pana's!

I wish i could just suck it up and deal with the set, but the buzzing mixed with the brightness pops is doing my head in..

What I don't get is the brightness levels jump up and down within the same scene (3 seconds), but then I might replay the same scene and it won't do it...

I really really hope they release some firmware to fix the issue! apparently panasonic's were doing it and they fixed it with firmware :S

thanks for your input

[SLE3551503562118]

Yes thanks for the replies people.

What about judder on panning shots? I heard the Samsung judders bad unless you have cinema smooth on but will only work on 24p stuff.

[nathlive]

Well after installing another client purchased Samsung 55" LED 8000 series today and sitting at the 3.5 meter distance i sit from my 59" PSd8000 i think we really have nothing to complain about, the plasma's we have are overall very, very good apart from intolerable buzzing of course. Our tech eyes become very well atuned to picking these blemishes that are invisible to the untrained or not caring eye. If only we could untrain our eyes.

[tolly84]

Well after installing another client purchased Samsung 55" LED 8000 series today and sitting at the 3.5 meter distance i sit from my 59" PSd8000 i think we really have nothing to complain about, the plasma's we have are overall very, very good apart from intolerable buzzing of course. Our tech eyes become very well atuned to picking these blemishes that are invisible to the untrained or not caring eye. If only we could untrain our eyes.

well said!

[Tiles]

Hey Andys nice to see you stuck with samsung! Are you just using the stock standard 3d settings?

I must say mine still has a bit of a buzz but i dont notice it and my old panasonic 42" is probly louder anyway.

As for brightness fluctuations I'm pretty sure it is a design "feature" which basically is implemented to reduce the risk of your plasma melting from running the phosphers so hot for lack of a better nerd explenation. On bluray if it bothers you enough, I simply switch on Cinema Smooth which eliminates the fluctuations but does slightly increase black levels. If your watching in a slightly lit environment then it shouldnt matter too much, but in a dark environment you will notice but which bothers you more is up to you, it's all about trade offs.

As for PQ I'm still more than happy. I was a little sceptical using the whirlpool guy's settings as his calibrator didn't seem to take full advantage of the Colour Management System, but it has proved to be a winner on my set as I still think it's as good as any other settings I've dialled in.

And just quickly we all know the THX recommended seating distance is 2.5 - 3 times the height of the picture. Well the height of my 59" watching Battle of Los Angeles in "scope" format is about 55cm I think. Multiply that by 3 and you get a viewing distance of around 1.65m. I tried sitting at this distance watching the movie and I must say I just didn't enjoy it and also felt abit sick after a while. As I've said, different people have different perceptions. Also the THX recommendation doesnt really translate too well to a home setting as seating to screen size ratio is so different that the many fantastic ideal viewing areas in a cinema are greatly reduced as you move one seat to the left or right in your home and your are moving greatly away from the sweet spot. Great if you watch movies alone, but not for me

Still more than happy!!

[andys]

Hey Andys nice to see you stuck with samsung! Are you just using the stock standard 3d settings?

I actually wasn't looking to buy after I sold the C7000, but a local retailer had a 30% sale for 3 hours one night a little while back and it was simply too good a deal to pass up!

As I said I'm more than happy with no issues and overall a better TV than Panasonic's offerings in my books.

As for 3D, atm I'm just using Standard mode which does a nice job. Will play more when time permits. For 2D I do use Cinema Smooth and with a little bit of light in the room the RBF does a great job of keeping blacks inky. I can't say I've ever really noticed the brightness flucuations and I have been looking. It must be pretty subtle at best, at least on mine. (It was very obvious on the Pannys though).

The D8000 is without a doubt the best plasma to date from Samsung.

Edit: There is a fw update available (1016.3) for those who are game enough!

Andys.

Edited October 8, 2011 by andys

[Shonky*]

So I have these brightness fluctuations. They are definitely real and I'm starting to find them annoying. They are basically unnoticeable on a full screen image. I didn't seem to see them originally.

However when watching a DVD or other non 16:9 format program, the black bars often change in brightness. Very noticeable and quite annoying for me at least.

It is definitely related to the current picture. The brightness changes according the picture. In one case the brightness change occurred exactly when a reasonably large credit text (white) was displayed.

Anyone have an idea if the new firmware might fix it?

edit:

I have all the power saving, dynamic contrast etc type settings switched off and I'm running the settings from the thread linked here.

Edited October 8, 2011 by Shonky*

[Shonky*]

I see there is a new 1016.3 firmware released October 7 too. To try or not to try...

[Tiles]

So I have these brightness fluctuations. They are definitely real and I'm starting to find them annoying. They are basically unnoticeable on a full screen image. I didn't seem to see them originally.

However when watching a DVD or other non 16:9 format program, the black bars often change in brightness. Very noticeable and quite annoying for me at least.

It is definitely related to the current picture. The brightness changes according the picture. In one case the brightness change occurred exactly when a reasonably large credit text (white) was displayed.

Anyone have an idea if the new firmware might fix it?

edit:

I have all the power saving, dynamic contrast etc type settings switched off and I'm running the settings from the thread linked here.

Yea sorry the only fix I know of is engaging Cinema Smooth when it is selectable, unfortunately not with DVD. From what I remember reading is that the brightness fluctuations occur to stop the plasma from over heating. Producing a bright white image makes plasma work hardest. That's why people have demonstrated showing a small completely white window from their pc on the plasma screen, then slowly increase the size of the white screen window. You will notice the screen dims and the white becomes almost a shade of grey. Basically to prevent your plasma from burning up. I have actually seen it really bad on older LG plasmas aswell.

So my only tip is to watch blu rays with Cinema Smooth engaged, small increase in black levels but no brightness fluctuations