Samsung's F8500 PDP owners thread with reviews

[GuyIncognito]

Am I pretty much out of luck in hoping to find the 60" model new for $1500 still from a store? I have been checking typical places like Best Buy and Amazon to see if they happen to restock a couple here or there but so far no luck. Are there any small shops that might ship it? It seems the 51" is the only one that comes back into stock on Amazon randomly. I even called Value Electronics which is a small shop based in New York because their website said they had some in stock, but when I called the guy said that no longer do and need to update the website. Not sure what other options are out there.

If not, what is the next best option as far as picture quality for a 60" TV?

[GuyIncognito]

Originally Posted by GuyIncognito

Am I pretty much out of luck in hoping to find the 60" model new for $1500 still from a store? I have been checking typical places like Best Buy and Amazon to see if they happen to restock a couple here or there but so far no luck. Are there any small shops that might ship it? It seems the 51" is the only one that comes back into stock on Amazon randomly. I even called Value Electronics which is a small shop based in New York because their website said they had some in stock, but when I called the guy said that no longer do and need to update the website. Not sure what other options are out there.

If not, what is the next best option as far as picture quality for a 60" TV?

Anyone? Also, I am wanting 3D since I have a lot of 3D blu-rays.

[Sixx]

Originally Posted by GuyIncognito

Anyone? Also, I am wanting 3D since I have a lot of 3D blu-rays.

If VE doesn't have them, I guess I'd try emailing Samsung. Maybe you can obtain a list of dealers that the last shipments went to. I searched for over two months for my 51. They aren't easy to find! Good luck!!

[poke smot]

Well watched a ton of 3d over the weekend. Ya know just 15 to 20 min chunks from like 15 different movies. My conclusion: my set up hates sin city 2. I saw no real significant ghosting except on that title. So...

I guess the irony is this: my passive set had great 3d and mediocre 2d, so the jump in quality from 2d to 3d was huge. This discrepancy made me want to watch a lot of 3d. On this Samsung though the 2d is so good that when one switches to 3d the effect isn't as great - if that makes any sense.

[revgen]

The F8500 exhibits more crosstalk with 3D films than I'd like, but I'm happy with it for the most part, especially with Cinema Smooth (24hz->96hz) turned on. Only a few 3D films give it major crosstalk issues. All of which I can count on 2 hands. I've watched about 50 3D titles so far. On the plus side, it performs well with sports, low resolution DVD's, and high-def 2D material.

As far as passive 3D TV's not exhibiting crosstalk, that's not necessarily true if you're viewing from an angle that isn't straight down the middle. The only way to have virtually crosstalk free 3D is with a DLP set.

[poke smot]

Originally Posted by revgen

The F8500 exhibits more crosstalk with 3D films than I'd like, but I'm happy with it for the most part, especially with Cinema Smooth (24hz->96hz) turned on. Only a few 3D films give it major crosstalk issues. All of which I can count on 2 hands. I've watched about 50 3D titles so far. On the plus side, it performs well with sports, low resolution DVD's, and high-def 2D material.

As far as passive 3D TV's not exhibiting crosstalk, that's not necessarily true if you're viewing from an angle that isn't straight down the middle. The only way to have virtually crosstalk free 3D is with a DLP set.

I hear ya. I messed around with cinema smooth in 2d when I first got the set and it wouldn't turn off - eventhough I turned it off, the motion effect was still on. I had to pull the hdmi plug and put into another to reset that device. Im kinda scared to use it. does it just add the soap opera effect? if it reduces ghosting maybe i'll try. The only thing im still struggling with in terms of 3d is brightness fluctuations when in any picture mode besides dynamic.

I will say that transformers 4 looked amazing and I was able to turn the dial to +1 for a tiny bit of extra 3d goodness. Regardless, moving forward, there is no contest when comparing active vs. passive. now that I own both, passive is the better tech...imo.

[Robert Zohn]

I agree that passive 3D is better than active. When they came to market I was stuck on the full HD resolution of active 3D, but after spending much time with both technologies I now agree that passive is better for many picture performance reasons.

-Robert

[revgen]

Originally Posted by poke smot

I hear ya. I messed around with cinema smooth in 2d when I first got the set and it wouldn't turn off - eventhough I turned it off, the motion effect was still on. I had to pull the hdmi plug and put into another to reset that device. Im kinda scared to use it. does it just add the soap opera effect? if it reduces ghosting maybe i'll try. The only thing im still struggling with in terms of 3d is brightness fluctuations when in any picture mode besides dynamic.

I will say that transformers 4 looked amazing and I was able to turn the dial to +1 for a tiny bit of extra 3d goodness. Regardless, moving forward, there is no contest when comparing active vs. passive. now that I own both, passive is the better tech...imo.

Cinema Smooth doesn't have a motion effect. It simply repeats frames 4 times, so it resembles film coming out of projector. Motion Judder Canceller is the one that has the smooth "soap opera" look to it.

The problem is that when you turn off cinema smooth, the F8500 turns on the Motion Judder canceller. You have to turn that off right afterwards. It's a bug in the set that Samsung has yet to fix despite numerous firmware updates.