Top positive review
449 people found this helpful
GREAT gaming TV!
By Lawrence B on Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2016
*Disclaimer - I purchased this at my local Best Buy store, but wanted to copy my review over to Amazon for you guys* I went to the new Sony XBR55X850D TV from a Samsung UN55H7150 TV, which I LOVED. Really wanted in on the 4K/HDR hype, what with the PS4k/4.5/Neo coming out later this year (supposedly). So, I decided to upgrade my 2014 1080p Samsung H7150, which I absolutely loved and had ZERO problems with. I left a review here on the Sony TV, which I was really dissatisfied with due to the terrible Gaming mode and jittery backgrounds/cursor and other odd effects (even on non-Gaming mode). I spent almost 3 days calibrating and changing the settings on the Sony TV, mixing different options for the motion controls, while trying to keep input lag as low as possible without having to resort to the awful Gaming mode. After this and having called Sony Support 3 times, which I was told there's no other settings that would help, I gave up. Let's just say I hated that TV so bad that I drove 1 hour and 15 min (one-way) to the next state to exchange it for this Samsung TV (the UN55KS8500 curved model). Best. Decision. Ever. I had done a lot of online research prior to buying the Sony TV and then this new Samsung, when I took the Sony back. Long story short, this Samsung model (the KS8000 and KS8500) are considered the #1 TV's in their price and size categories. So, what makes this TV so great? Quite a few things, really. While I've owned Samsung TV's (even my computer monitor that I type this on is a Samsung) exclusively in the past, I'm open-minded and not biased (hence why I was willing to give the Sony a try...). Setup - out of the box, getting it on the stands, the simplified remote - all wonderful and really high quality. Although I'm not too terribly a fan of the "feet" style stands. I much preferred the stand on my old H7150 Samsung and especially the Sony TV, above. But, it does it's job and has a minimal footprint. Additionally, the stands do not require to be screwed into the TV, just pushed and "clicked" in. Also very easy to remove. The ONLY thing I noticed physically about the TV that had me worried is the input panel on the back, which the One Connect box and Ethernet cable plug into - it's a little loose and wiggly. However, we think this is on purpose, as to accommodate thicker cables, if needed. Once I got my Ethernet cable (Amazon Cat6) plugged in, it was snug and had zero wiggle. If this really is the case, GREAT thinking, Samsung!! Now, for the picture. And Gaming mode! Out of the box, the picture was super bright and colorful. I knew right off that I would need to scale it back some on the backlight/brightness levels. Got the PS4 plugged in (via the One Connect hub box). No signal. We couldn't figure it out. However, after about 5-10 min of plugging and unplugging, it finally worked - didn't figure out what the problem was, but it hasn't done it any more. Probably just initialization woes. I tested the Standard video mode with Dark Souls III. Ugh, the input lag! It's greater than 100ms and VERY noticeable! But that's what Gaming mode is for, right? Switched over. Input lag went down to about 20ms. PERFECT. Also, the picture quality difference was hardly noticeable! Spent a few hours calibrating the picture, reducing sharpness and other settings. Now, the picture (color-wise) is equal to or better than the Sony I had and that I exchanged for this one. Some games exhibit a little background jitter, but it's NOWHERE near as bad as the Sony TV. You get adjusted to it shortly. I chalk it up to the nature of 4K/upscaling/new tech. Here in a few years, It'll probably be non-existent. I feel that Samsung has one of the better Gaming modes available on TV's currently. Highly recommended for all uses - Gaming/Movies/Television/Netflix, etc. Also, I would like to add that the feature difference between this 2016 8000 series and the higher 9000 series is not worth the price difference. Get the 8000/8500 series and don't look back! My settings in Game mode are as follows: Backlight - 10 Brightness - 40 Contrast - 100 (default) I may try bumping this down to 95 or 90 and see if it's drastic or not. Sharpness - 10 (the default setting resulted in really bad "texture flickering" in games...setting to 0-10 effectively resolves this issue) Color - 50 (default) Tint (G/R) - Middle (default) HDMI Black Level - Normal (Make sure you change the PS4/Xbox One to FULL RGB settings, or you will get a washed out picture or crushed blacks) Dynamic Contrast - Medium (default) ....High looks great for gaming as well Color Tone - Standard (default) All other settings not mentioned are set at their defaults. :-) Please also note that the pics taken are on game-mode and are pre-calibration.
Top critical review
694 people found this helpful
Forced ads on latest update that can't be removed.
By Hucklebarry on Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2016
I will update this with a proper review if Samsung will remove the forced ads they just installed with the latest firmware update (Oct. 2016). The new ads install on the TV's main navigation bar (not hidden on the internet screens, account profile, or within any apps). This is an unavoidable ad on the TV's "home" location, whether you have cut the cord or not, these ads are placed so you will have to see them. I have not yet found a way to disable or hide these ads. I have notified Samsung that I want the ability to remove the ads or receive a full refund since this is not a cable box or rented modem. I purchased this TV and its mine. All of it. I do not consent to ads being displayed that it pulled from the internet while I'm accessing features I actually want and paid for. At no point did I receive a discount or rebate for accepting ads. I see this as no different than McDonald's breaking into my home and painting a Big Mac on my living room wall. I will post the update from Samsung and will either discuss the TV's positive features, or begin investigating other options to get Samsung's attention. Edit: First response from Samsung was generic. They claimed to understand my issue of unwanted advertisements in the main navigation bar of the TV but then offered up several generic options (reboot the TV, reset to factory defaults, etc). Responding to escalate with them. ------------------------------ Update: 12/15/16 Tv behavior changed last night. There was a popup asking me to agree to a new Terms of Service. I did not see a new download, but may have missed it. I declined the agreement and had to back out of the notice screen multiple times to get it to go away. After declining that (which included a section on internet ads), the navigation bar emptied of all but one icon (TV). Every internet based app is now gone. This is almost acceptable except, Plex, which I use for local content only. I'll have to use the TV to see if the ads are actually gone (since they were kind of random in when they appeared), but it does appear that if you give up all of what makes this TV a smart TV, then they will not push ads down on you. I don't feel like this warrants a change in the review score as I now can't use YouTube or Plex (neither of which have any relation to Samsung internet advertising). They still aren't offering any incentive to view their ads on a full purchase price TV. They have opted to remove advertised features and then let me have them back only if I agree to be subjected to their ads. This will be my last Samsung purchase (not just TV). This line of thinking is as far away from customer satisfaction as I can imagine. If you are going to take away the smart features of my TV, refund the extra I paid for those smart features. (sorry for the rant). I hope this helps you make a purchase decision. If you want to watch TV and are ok with having smart features act as ransomware, then you might like this TV. If you want to feel like you get full value for your purchase, and you actually own the device, this is the worst TV I think you could buy. edit: 1/3/2017: After another update, I received another choice on ads. I was notified that the terms of service were updated and I was given a yes or no box on whether I wanted to view online ads. I chose no, which matched the wording to NOT receive ads. This restored the apps that came with the smart TV. However, I have since received ads in the same place (the main nav-bar of the TV). So, I'm back to square 1. All functionality, but with ads. To quickly answer a question on why I don't return this to Amazon (the update was pushed down past the return period. Hence part of the frustration... they changed the product after I was stuck with it). They should not be allowed to do this. OR, I should have to opt in to allow this, which I did not do. AND, this should be clearly marked on the OUTER packaging that basic user rights are forfeited to gain the "full experience". Edit: 1/30/2017-- An ad showed tonight. FYI and beware trusting Samsung's claim that this is fixed. Edit: 3/19/2017 - saw another ad. While the frequency is much improved, the issue has not been solved. Edit: 4/1/2017 - 2 more ads popped up over the past 3 days. Edit: 4/5/2017 - another ad last night. I'm not going to update this part anymore unless the developer would like to post a true fix that can be verified.
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