Samsung's F8500 PDP owners thread with reviews

[poke smot]

Just ordered the 51 inch f8500. This will be a huge upgrade since I'm on a 42 in Vizio right now. Merry Christmas to me!

[v_squared123]

I took delivery of a 64F8500 last week and all this week I spent watching 3D movies.

By far the best 3D experience I have seen. Tops the ZT60 in 3D easily. Letterbox bars in 3D movies were noticeable darker than the ZT60 as well. Didnt expect that!

[Sixx]

Originally Posted by v_squared123

I took delivery of a 64F8500 last week and all this week I spent watching 3D movies.



By far the best 3D experience I have seen. Tops the ZT60 in 3D easily. Letterbox bars in 3D movies were noticeable darker than the ZT60 as well. Didnt expect that!

I have a VT65 in my main system. I'm hearing the comparison is all personal preference( and obviously settings). I'll be surprised if the Sammy is a better performer, except for more well lit rooms. Congrats on your new display!

[v_squared123]

Originally Posted by Sixx

I have a VT65 in my main system. I'm hearing the comparison is all personal preference( and obviously settings). I'll be surprised if the Sammy is a better performer, except for more well lit rooms. Congrats on your new display!

From what I can see, its not a personal opinion. If you haven't noticed, I own both the ZT60 and F8500. 65" and 64" respectively. The performance gap in 3D is very very obvious.

To put this in data we can understand:

ZT60 3D tops out at just 5.0 ftL.

The F8500 tops out over 12 ftL. Thats more than twice as bright.

Also, the interlaced reset pulses are disabled in the ZT60/VT60 in order to achieve maximum brightness. This is why the letterbox bars are noticeably brighter ( worse ) in 3D mode. Its obvious Panasonic engineers tried to maximize brightness output as much as possible through this sleight of hand.

[Sixx]

Originally Posted by v_squared123

From what I can see, its not a personal opinion. If you haven't noticed, I own both the ZT60 and F8500. 65" and 64" respectively. The performance gap in 3D is very very obvious.

To put this in data we can understand:

ZT60 3D tops out at just 5.0 ftL.

The F8500 tops out over 12 ftL. Thats more than twice as bright.

Also, the interlaced reset pulses are disabled in the ZT60/VT60 in order to achieve maximum brightness. This is why the letterbox bars are noticeably brighter ( worse ) in 3D mode. Its obvious Panasonic engineers tried to maximize brightness output as much as possible through this sleight of hand.

In the reviews I've seen, brightness was certainly in the Sammy's corner. I'm no fan of 3D, but I'm looking forward to seeing the 51 in action this week when I receive mine. My Panny is in a dark room and the 51 will be in a brighter room as part of my secondary system.

[v_squared123]

Originally Posted by Sixx

I have a VT65 in my main system. I'm hearing the comparison is all personal preference( and obviously settings). I'll be surprised if the Sammy is a better performer, except for more well lit rooms. Congrats on your new display!

In dark room viewing, the ZT/VT does lead by a margin however in black level reproduction only.

According to professional reviews, both ZT/VT and F8500 reach 100% of the rec 709 colour accuracy and saturation charts

Cnets review stated that the F8500 and Kuro were matched in their skin tone reproduction in a side by side comparison. The Kuro for quite some was the reference display for colour accuracy and black levels.

The ZT/VT has a slightly more preferable ( pinker as opposed to neutral ) reproduction in skin tone but this was only visible in a side by side comparison.

Suffice to say this is getting into the videophile realm of qualitative and quantitative differences, the differences are nonetheless minimal in 2D viewing.

3D is the only large performance gap between the two displays.

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by Sixx

I have a VT65 in my main system. I'm hearing the comparison is all personal preference( and obviously settings). I'll be surprised if the Sammy is a better performer, except for more well lit rooms. Congrats on your new display!

The f8500 is the better display for 3d. The zt60 is the better display for 2d. Both essentially kill all other tv's in both areas.

Originally Posted by v_squared123

In dark room viewing, the ZT/VT does lead by a margin however in black level reproduction only.

According to professional reviews, both ZT/VT and F8500 reach 100% of the rec 709 colour accuracy and saturation charts

Cnets review stated that the F8500 and Kuro were matched in their skin tone reproduction in a side by side comparison. The Kuro for quite some was the reference display for colour accuracy and black levels.

The ZT/VT has a slightly more preferable ( pinker as opposed to neutral ) reproduction in skin tone but this was only visible in a side by side comparison.

Suffice to say this is getting into the videophile realm of qualitative and quantitative differences, the differences are nonetheless minimal in 2D viewing.

3D is the only large performance gap between the two displays.

Cnet if I recall correctly don't have professional calibration quality done when assessing displays though. With such displays I would assume many would be getting such a calibration done. The vt60 pushes skin tones towards the green spectrum pre calibration not pink (this may be a difference between the au and us models though). In any case this 'issue' isn't an inherent display problem as calibration makes both essentially have reference everything. The zt and vt60 still edge out the f8500 in 2d performance. The f8500 is only slightly better in 3d imho as whilst it was brighter it was more prone to crosstalk from my viewing. It was still better, but not the night and day you seem to be suggesting.