At the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas Samsung boldly
claimed that the future of TV is curved, and now it's putting its money
where its mouth is by building its flagship TV series for 2014, the 4K-resolution HU8500 range, around a curved screen
On
the 65-inch HU8500 model we find on our test benches the curve is very
much in evidence. The screen clearly bends away from you, creating a
distinctive and attractive profile that's sure to have plenty of shelf
appeal in this year's TV style wars.
The curved screen and Ultra HD
resolution are far from the set's only attractions, though. Also
important is the compatibility of the UE65HU8500's new external
connections box with the UHD-friendly HDMI 2.0 standard, the H.265
compression standard being used by Netflix for its upcoming 4K streams,
and the new HDCP copyright protection system.
Plus
there's a helpfully tweaked version of Samsung's renowned smart TV
platform, a new QuadCore Plus processing system and a new remote which
introduces 'point and click' functionality to Samsung TVs for the first
time.
The UE65HU8500 arrives a few weeks ahead of
upcoming new UHD/4K rivals from the likes of Sony and Panasonic, so we
can't yet draw any comparisons with those models. But we'll certainly be
looking for improvements over both Samsung's own F9000 UHD models from last year, as well as other stand-out UHD TVs like the Sony 65X9005A, LG 65LA970W, Toshiba 65L9363, and Panasonic L65WT600.
The curve brings more positives than negatives, which is a pleasant surprise
Design
While
there are some controversial aspects to introducing curved screens to
the 'flat' TV market, nobody can deny that the way the 65HU8500 curves
gently backwards makes for a very attractive and distinctive design.
The
frame around the curved screen is fairly, if not spectacularly, slim
and quite nicely finished in gloss black. Build quality is a little more
plasticky when viewed up close than you'd expected from a £4k Samsung
TV, but the main thing is that its slimness leaves you feeling like the
picture is the main attraction, rather than the screen that's producing
it.
One point worth raising here is that, while many
people may feel instantly attracted by the curved design, it's not
conducive to wall hanging. The way the edges of the screen obviously
curve away from the wall looks slightly awkward.
You're not going to get the UE65HU8500 flat against the wall
Features
There
are three main strands to the 65HU8500's feature assault. First,
there's the curved design we've just discussed. Second, it's got a
native UHD resolution. And third, it sports Samsung's latest Smart TV
system.
The first two of these are more or less
self-explanatory, though we'll quickly remind you that UHD resolution is
3840x2160 pixels, leading to four times as many pixels as you get in a
full HD 1920x1080 TV.
There's plenty to talk about
regarding Samsung's new Smart TV platform though, even if it doesn't
look all that new when you first open it up.
The opening
TV hub screen is more or less identical to the one Samsung used last
year, and again you can scroll across to four other hubs. But look
closer and there are some substantial changes to be found.
Catch up on the latest films and TV shows in Samsung's stylish on demand menu
Smart features
The
most obvious one is the ditching of last year's seldom-used 'social'
hub screen in favour of a Game hub, carrying links to the games
available via Samsung's online portal. The social stuff (YouTube
channels, Twitter etc) has been moved to the hub menu devoted to you own
content (such as multimedia stored on USB sticks or networked
computers).
As with last year's Samsung smart TV system,
the first TV hub can be used to show recommendations culled from the TV
listings, based on an analysis of your previous viewing habits.
Another
hub page is built around on-demand content from a wide range of
providers – including Netflix and Lovefilm/Amazon Prime. The fifth hub
is essentially a Samsung's App 'store' showing you what apps you already
have installed. It also provides access to many, many more you can
download from Samsung's servers to the TV's built-in memory if they
pique your interest.
The 65HU8500 introduces a handy and
cool-looking new multi-window tool that can divide the screen into four
square segments, each containing a different source. We've seen picture
in picture before of course, but the possibilities opened up by having
four windows rather than two are startling. Especially as you could run
the internet in one while watching different sources in the others.
The extra processing power makes all the difference
Football crazy
Also
new for 2014 – with the World Cup in Brazil looming large – is a
Football mode. This adjusts the picture settings to optimise the way the
beautiful game looks onscreen. It also implements a nifty system
whereby the TV can analyse crowd noise to spot game highlights that it
can then automatically record to USB drive!
Elsewhere
there have been some significant changes to the ways you can navigate
Samsung's latest smart TV system. This includes being able to use your
finger (rather than your whole hand as was the case last year) for
navigating the onscreen menus.
There is a much more
effective smart phone/tablet control app and a new remote control that
offers point and click functionality, as well as the track pad system
Samsung has supported with previous remote designs.
The
UE65HU8500 has a hugely extensive suite of picture set up tools,
including full colour and gamma management. It also supports local
dimming from its edge LED lighting system, part of which includes
Samsung's Cinema Black feature.
This controls and
individually handles the lights that correspond with the black bars
above and below 2.35:1-ratio films, to stop them becoming distractingly
'infected' with light bleeding from the main part of the picture.
Big brain
Samsung
claims that the UE65HU8500's Quad Core Plus processing brain can work
twice as fast with Smart TV functions or picture processing systems as
the most powerful engine from its 2013 TV range.
This
has potentially huge implications for a UHD set, given that currently
such TVs have to spend the vast majority of their time using processing
to upscale HD and standard definition content to the screen's UHD panel.
The extra processing power could also have profound
implications on the effectiveness of other key processing elements like
the local dimming system, the dynamic contrast system and the set's
motion processing engine. The intriguing new processing system Samsung
has developed to make sources a better fit for the screen curve will
also benefit from the extra power.
You can't turn this
part of the processing off, which may alarm purists, but hopefully it
won't throw up any significant problems.
3D present and correct
Although
it's not the core feature it once was, the UE65HU8500 still carries 3D
playback, with two pairs of active shutter 3D glasses provided free with
the TV.
Since this is an active 3D system, its 3D
pictures will be scaled to UHD, rather than the essentially full HD
resolution delivered by UHD 3D TVs that use the passive 3D system.
As
with last year's Samsung UHD TVs, the UE65HU8500 ships with an external
connections box. This box also contains the TV's processing brains,
making it possible to upgrade to a new one in the future, allowing your
TV to keep up with the latest connection and processing power
developments.
In fact, people who bought one of last
year's UHD TVs from Samsung will be able to replace their connections
box with one of the new ones created for the HU8500 series. This gives
them immediate access to things like the HDMI 2.0 ports, the H.265
compatibility and Samsung's latest Smart features.
This sort of future proofing feels more invaluable than ever before, given how fast the TV world is changing.
One
last point to cover before getting stuck into the UE65HU8500's picture
performance is its audio. Traditionally a weak point of Samsung's TVs,
the brand has tried to improve things by equipping the set with a duct
system that runs along the TV's rear and gives the speaker 'air' more
room to breathe.
Picture Quality
Not surprisingly, we want to kick this section off by
looking at the impact of the UE65HU8500's curved screen. Specifically,
is it really 'made for one' rather than a family-friendly technology?
It's
all about viewing angles. A long-held fear is that using a curved
screen will make the picture uncomfortable to watch for anyone not sat
in the perfect place - directly in front of, and at exactly the right
distance from, the TV.
But
due in part to the fact that the curve isn't actually very severe, the
viewing 'sweet spot' issue isn't nearly as limiting as you may have
feared. In fact, in some ways the UE65HU8500 actually supports off-axis
viewing better than Samsung's flat TVs.
The thing is that
the new panel Samsung has created for its curved LED debut loses no
colour saturation or contrast, even when viewed from as much as 35
degrees either side of directly opposite.
That means that
anyone who's watching the TV from within a 70-degree arc will get
perfect colour and contrast. Whereas moving even slightly off axis with
Samsung's flat TVs in the past has tended to cause at least parts of the
screen to lose colour saturation and contrast.
Geometry
The
35-degree either side situation also applies to the UE65HU8500's
picture geometry. Stay within the 70-degree safe arc and you don't feel
like the curve is messing up the image's geometry.
It's
true that the benefits of the curve diminish the further off axis your
viewing angle gets, but crucially the curve doesn't actually start to
cause distracting geometry problems until you get past 35 degrees either
way. This means the UE65HU8500 supports a much wider acceptable seating
area than you'd expected, especially if your room is quite large and
you're not sat too close to the screen.
It's worth
saying that the effective viewing area would be reduced with a smaller
curved screen, so the advantages of curving a screen will likely
diminish as the screen sizes get smaller. But nonetheless, the fear that
curved TVs might only support one or two viewing positions is largely
unfounded.
The curve isn't evil
If you're paying
attention you'll have noticed that the word 'benefits' was used a moment
ago when discussing the curve. The use of a curved screen can actually
enhance the viewing experience, creating a feeling of being more
immersed in the pictures you're watching.
This is chiefly
thanks to the way it creates a greater sense of depth, and gives you
the impression that some of the picture information is wrapping around
into your peripheral vision, just like the real world does.
This
extra sense of immersion from the curve is a subtle effect for sure,
but it is definitely there. We suspect it's being increased by the work
of Samsung's depth enhancement processing. The depth boosting aspect of
the curve is, as you might expect, particularly obvious and handy when
you're watching 3D sources.
Curve issues
While
it's fair to say the UE65HU8500's curve has left a much better taste in
my mouth than expected, it's not without its issues. Get outside the
70-degree viewing arc discussed previously and the image does start to
become tiring to watch, as your brain tries to compensate for the way
the image distorts at this angle.
Get far enough down the
TV's side and you even start to see the frame of the TV curling across
in front of some of the picture, which clearly isn't a great thing...
However,
the bigger problem is the effect the curve has on reflections. If you
happen to have a bright light source opposite the screen the curve can
cause the reflection of this light to stretch across further than would
be the case with a flat image. Occasionally the curve can even cause a
double reflection.
To be fair, the UE65HU8500's screen
structure does a much better job of 'soaking up' light reflections than
previous curved demo units. And the reflection problem doesn't tend to
be an issue with general sunlight and downlighting; it just happens when
a light source is directly across from the screen. If your living room
set up is likely to give you such a potential reflection, then you may
need to stick with a flat TV or do something to adjust your room layout.
The TV menu looks great, but that light reflection does not
Native UHD playback
Moving
on from the pros and cons of the curve, next under the microscope is
the UE65HU8500's UHD resolution. It is a joy to behold.
Native
UHD content looks mesmerising. The quadruple resolution is beautifully
expressed, creating images of stunning density, gorgeous detail,
spectacular realism, immaculate colour blending and enhanced depth. The
extra detail allows objects to be resolved further into the distance
than normal HD screens can manage.
The 65-inch screen is
easily big enough to make the UHD advantage over HD blatantly obvious.
Though the UHD advantage is obvious on pretty much any size of screen.
The
UE65HU8500's native UHD pictures actually look even crisper and cleaner
than those of its 2013 UHD sets, thanks to a number of key improvements
to the general image quality.
The most immediately
obvious step forward comes with colour, as Samsung's new panel and
'PurColor' colour processing engine combine to produce a much more
dynamic and subtly distinguished colour range. Having so much more
colour range to work with does wonders in making the extra detail in the
image look even more precise.
Contrast
Also
boosting UHD picture quality is the TV's outstanding contrast
performance. Samsung has long had a knack for getting deeper black
levels out of LED LCD TVs than most rivals. It's taken this prowess
further than ever before with the UE65HU8500.
Provided
you reduce the set's backlight setting to around eight or nine (unless
you're viewing in a very bright room), dark scenes benefit from black
colours that really do look black. More importantly where the screen's
UHD technology is concerned, the UE65HU8500's black level response is so
effortlessly achieved that even the darkest corners of an image contain
impressive amounts of subtle greyscale/shadow detail information,
enhancing the image's UHD appearance.
There's
UHD-enhancing improvement, too, from the UE65HU8500's motion processing.
The extra processing power within the UE65HU8500 means you can now use
the motion processing system to take away LCD's usual motion blur,
without pictures exhibiting the usual nasty unwanted processing side
effects.
4K sources ahoy?
At this point it needs
to be stressed that our tests of the set's native UHD abilities had to
be made using the same compilation of demo content we used last year.
There's still no readily available native UHD content out there that
normal consumers can get their hands on.
This situation
is soon going to change (a bit), thanks to Netflix launching its 4K
streaming services (to anyone with a 15Mbps broadband connection).
Samsung are also launching a 4K server for use with its TVs, containing
five pre-loaded movies and allowing download of up to 50 more over the
year ahead.
Nonetheless, it remains the case that for
some time to come the UE65HU8500 will be spending the majority of its
time upscaling HD rather than playing native UHD. So it's great to
discover that the UE65HU8500's upscaling is nothing short of
outstanding.
4K upscaling
Samsung's UHD upscaling
was impressive enough last year but, presumably as a result of the
extra processing power now available, the UE65HU8500 takes things to a
whole new level. Its genius lies in the way it manages to add huge
amounts of detail and clarity to HD images without exaggerating source
noise or making the image look too gritty.
There is still
clearly see a quality difference between upscaled HD and native UHD
content. But the gap is smaller than it has been before, making the
UE65HU8500 a new upscaling benchmark.
3D
Donning a
pair of the 3D glasses provided with the TV and powering through
Gravity and The Hobbit on 3D Blu-ray continues – mostly - the picture
quality love-in. The extra detail of the upscaled UHD 3D images is
palpable compared with passive 3D images, and this extra resolution
makes the 3D world feel more realistic and immersive.
The
screen's superb contrast helps enhance the depth of the 3D picture too,
and the enhanced motion processing really comes into its own with 3D.
This allows you to use the motion system on a high enough setting to
greatly reduce the screen's native 3D judder without the image falling
prey to many distracting artefacts.
The UE65HU8500's 3D
efforts aren't flawless, however. For starters the 3D picture preset
pushes the backlight too hard, leading to signs of backlight clouding in
dark areas. I'd recommend reducing the backlight level until such
clouding disappears.
The presets also set the sharpness
level of 3D pictures too high, resulting in some over-stressed details
and edges. So again, nudge down the sharpness until this flaw becomes
less aggressive.
The final, less easy to defeat, problem
with 3D images is some slight interference from crosstalk ghosting. But
this is seldom aggressive enough to be truly distracting, and resolution
fans will likely consider it a tolerable price to pay for the extra
resolution delivered by the active 3D upscaling.
Input lag
There's
one more general picture quality concern that needs to be reported:
slightly high input lag. Even using its Game preset mode it takes the
UE65HU8500 around 62ms to reproduce pictures after receiving picture
data at its inputs. This is around double what I'd like to see (and
double what you'd usually see from Samsung TVs), and as such has the
potential to marginally damage your performance with reaction based
video games.
Usability
Samsung has made some quite major improvements to the control options of its new generation of TVs.
The
most significant is the new remote control, which introduces a welcome
'point and click' option to proceedings that was missing from previous
Samsung remote generations. This point and click feature isn't quite as
intuitive or accurate as the one provided by LG's Magic Remotes, but
it's certainly a welcome addition to the user system 'pot'.
The
new remote also features a very sensitive touch pad designed to allow
accurate movement of the onscreen cursor just by moving your thumb
gently over it. While the buttons around the edges of the touch pad
permit more conventional button-press cursor movements.
Providing
so many functions on the new remote can lead to a bit of confusion
initially, as an awful lot of functionality is compressed into a very
small physical area. Overall, though, the new smart remote is a definite
improvement over the previous one.
The small remote looks great, but will lost in the sofa cushion
Gesture control
Also
improved is the gesture control system. Previously made hard to use by
the simple fatigue induced by having to wave your hands around, this
time the system is sensitive enough to respond to just finger movements.
It's still not a system I personally found myself using often, but it's
good to know it's there for those occasions where the remotes have
disappeared down the sofa.
As a final interface option there's
voice control. The main positive of this function is perhaps the way it
allows you to input text into search fields, rather than its use as a
means of menu navigation. But if you take the time to go through the
tutorial and experiment a bit, the voice control system can provide you
with a few useful content-finding shortcuts.
When
add the high presentation values of the onscreen menus to the
proceedings it's clear that Samsung has again pushed the boat out in
trying to develop a truly next-generation, smart-friendly operating
system.
Ironically the sheer weight of options available can
initially feel rather overwhelming and frustrating. But stick at it and
you'll soon find what controls work best for accessing different
features.
Sound
While there's a decent chance a TV as
high-end as the UE65HU8500 will be partnered with an external sound
system, it's still nice to find that the built-in speakers are capable
of producing a really excellent audio performance by TV standards.
The
set can hit high volume levels without the cabinet rattling or
phutting, and it's also got a much more expansive dynamic range than we
usually hear from integrated TV audio systems. This extends to some
credible bass at one end of the audio spectrum to bright, natural
trebles at the other. The mid-range between is wide and open enough to
keep voices convincing and provide plenty of the sort of subtle effects
and details that bring good soundtracks alive.
That Samsung has managed to achieve this from a down- rather than front-firing speaker system makes is seriously impressive.
Value
Obviously
the UE65HU8500's £4,000 asking price means it's hardly a mainstream
proposition. However, it's a whole £1,000 cheaper than the equivalent
model from last year's UHD range, despite all the improvements and
additions it carries. And it seems to me that a 20% price reduction for a
new technology in the space of a few months is a pretty fair rate of
price erosion.
It will certainly be interesting to see if
Samsung's UHD rivals are able to be so aggressive with the prices of
their UHD TVs in the coming weeks and months.
Samsung is not, it would seem, a brand that likes chasing
anyone. It seems almost obsessed with being the pace setter, the race
leader, not the valiant runner up. This obsession has seen the brand
invest vast amounts of research and development time in recent years in
successfully hunting down seemingly unassailable rivals in the
smartphone, tablet and LCD TV sectors.
Now, if the
Samsung PS64F8500 plasma TV is anything to go by, Samsung's ruthless
quest for world dominance now has a new quarry in its sights: Panasonic.
Or more specifically, Panasonic's long-revered plasma TVs.
Samsung
is hardly a plasma virgin, of course. It's served up numerous plasma
television hits before. However, these previous plasma successes have
mostly traded on value for money - when it comes to absolute picture
quality, Panasonic has remained the king of the castle.
With
the Samsung PS64F8500, though, the brand gets so close to upsetting
this established order that you can practically hear Panasonic's teeth
chattering.
As its name suggests, the Samsung PS64F8500
is a 64-inch TV - a damn fine size for movie fans, and a heck of a lot
of television to be getting for a full price of £2,999.99 (around
AU$4,620/US$4,575).
What's more, despite its very
respectable price the Samsung PS64F8500 is no feature lightweight. On
the contrary, its highlights include active 3D playback, a comprehensive
multimedia playback system, a full iteration of Samsung's latest
startlingly powerful and flexible smart TV/online platforms and a much
more refined and uncompromising plasma panel design than anything the
brand has unleashed before. You
can even wave your hands at and talk to the TV if you want to - things
we've not previously felt inclined to do, to be honest, but which
suddenly, thanks to recent significant firmware updates from Samsung's
seemingly tireless engineers, have started to make sense.
Despite
Samsung putting so much effort into the PS64F8500, the TV doesn't sit
at the head of a long line of cheaper plasma models, as you might
expect.
There's a 51-inch 8500 model that costs
£1,899.99, but aside from that your only Samsung plasma options are the
60-inch and 51-inch F5500 models - priced at £1,299.99 and £899.99.
These use less high-grade panels and video processing, don't have
built-in cameras and don't support voice or motion control. If you'd rather have a Samsung LCD TV, the obvious options to consider would be the brand's flagship F8000
LCD TVs - a range of outstanding sets that currently top out at 55
inches but will ultimately be joined by 65-inch and 75-inch models.
But you should note that the biggest two models in this series will likely be far more expensive than the Samsung PS64F8500.
So
far as rival sets from other brands are concerned, the inevitable
competition will be Panasonic. Where models we've already tested are
concerned, the closest option is the Panasonic P65VT50. But we'll also soon be looking at the brand new Panasonic P65VT65 and flagship Panasonic P60ZT65 models.
Series information: I performed a hands-on
evaluation of the 60-inch Samsung PN60F8500, but this review also
applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have
identical specs and according to the manufacturer should provide very
similar picture quality.
Design
It's too bad many buyers well-off enough to afford an F8500 will likely
elect to wall-mount it, because it has the most unique stand I've ever
seen on a plasma TV. Set atop a table the big panel is kept upright by a
smoothly curving base that flares out in the middle and recedes gently
back to either side. Seen from the front it almost looks like it's
smiling, and the stand makes a beautiful complement to the TV's thin,
dark gray metallic frame. Samsung calls it "Titan Black," but it looks
dark gray in person.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Since the base spans the entire width of the TV, you might need a
wider table or TV stand than normal. The 60-inch Panasonic VT60, for
example, has a standard pedestal base measuring 21.8 inches wide, while
the 60-inch F8500 requires at least 54.8 inches of width. Despite its
floaty appearance the F8500 seemed stable enough when I tried to rock it
back and forth. As always with a large flat-panel TV, however, you
should use wall anchors, especially in households with kids.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The remote is even more remarkable than the stand. Samsung's recent
flagship TVs included daring if disappointing clickers, from the chunky QWERTY flipper of the D8000 to the unresponsive touch pad of the E8000.
The company totally redesigned the touch pad this year, and it's a
massive improvement. Despite a few flaws and the need for a learning
curve, in many ways it's the best remote control included with any TV
I've ever used.
Sarah Tew/CNET
It's small, with just a few buttons above and below a spacious touch
pad, but it fit perfectly in my hand. The remote is Bluetooth, so it
works without needing to be aimed at the TV. Responsiveness was superb,
so I found myself merrily swiping along large menus and rarely missing
my selection. Convenient slider bars above and on either side of the pad
worked perfectly to scroll past pages at a time. The whole pad
depressed with a satisfying click when I made a selection, although
(nitpick alert) a laptop touch-pad-style tap-to-click would be even
better. In total navigation was faster, almost as accurate and, I gotta
admit, much more fun than with a standard remote.
The main flaw
of Samsung's clever clicker comes with its lack of buttons. The few that
are included have raised, uniquely tactile shapes and useful
backlighting, but to improve the remote's size, design and perceived
simplicity, plenty of common keys go missing. To enter numbers, for
example, you have to hit the "More" button, which calls up a numeric
keypad (below) that requires tedious swiping around to select each
digit. You can also "rotate" the keypad -- it's fastest to use the top
slider bar -- to access additional controls, such as transport functions
(play, pause, stop, and so on), Picture-in-picture, an Info screen,
various set-top-box controls, and, well, more.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Sarah Tew/CNET
Most traditional remotes have dedicated keys for these functions, and
how much you'll miss them depends on how you typically use your TV
remote. For example, I rarely need to dial in channels directly, but I
do use the fast-forward, skip, and play/pause keys all the time when
watching TV (e.g. controlling my DVR). That's basically impossible with
Samsung's remote (see below).
Sarah Tew/CNET
Like most Smart TVs Samsung has two distinct menu systems, one for the
TV's settings and one for the Smart functionality. The former are
exactly the same as last year: opaque blue layers logically arranged and
featuring helpful explanations, a nifty preview pane, and very quick
navigation, thanks in no small part to the remote
Key TV features
Display technology
Plasma
LED backlight
N/A
Screen finish
Glossy
Remote
Touch pad
Smart TV
Yes
Internet connection
Built-in Wi-Fi
3D technology
Active
3D glasses included
4 pair
Refresh rate(s)
96Hz, 60Hz
Dejudder (smooth) processing
Yes
DLNA-compliant
Photo/Music/Video
USB
Photo/Music/Video
Other:
Built-in camera and microphone for voice and gesture recognition;
cable box integration and control via IR blaster; additional 3D glasses
(model SSG-5100GB, $19); optional Smart Evolution kit (available 2014 and beyond; price/model TBD); optional keyboard (model VG-KBD2000, $99)
Features "Featuritis" is one way to describe Samsung's "kitchen sink" approach to its high-end devices, from its phones to tablets, to TVs, to refrigerators, to -- yes -- actual kitchen sinks.
But there's no avoiding the fact that products like the F8500 have more
options than just about any other competitor. I'll try to cover them
here, including whether they're useful or not, and I expect to augment
this section as I spend more time with it.
But first, let's look
at what I actually consider important: features that affect picture
quality. The main reason the F8500 costs so much more than the step-down
F5500 is its superior plasma panel. Samsung calls it
"Real Black Pro" or "Super Contrast Panel" depending on where you click
at the company's Web site, but the main differences between it and the
F5500's are better light output, deeper black levels, and a better
antireflective screen. I haven't compared the two directly yet, but
based on what I saw from the E550 and E8000 from last year, I expect the F8500 to be substantially better.
The two Samsungs share much of the same feature set, otherwise,
however, including the full Smart TV suite described below, the same
remote, and even voice control. The F5500 has fewer inputs, no built-in
pop-up camera (pictured below), and a dual-core processor compared to
the F8500's quad-core.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The
F8500 continues Samsung's tradition of including four pairs of active
3D glasses in the box. The new SSG-5100GB specs are slight retreads of
the SSG-4100GBs from last year with no real improvement made to
their flimsy design, but at least additional pairs are cheap. Panasonic
and Sony's throw-ins, for what it's worth, are better. Since the F8500
adheres to the universal standard, you can always purchase other glasses.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The set will also be compatible with future Smart Evolution kits. Acting as a sort of brain transplant, the kits debuted this year to upgrade the company's flagship 2012 TVs. Samsung
promises a semblance of future-proofing for its most expensive TVs by
offering a similar kit for the F8500 in early 2014, as well as "years
down the road."
Perhaps the single most significant thing about the latest
Samsung smart TV engine, though, is its ability to track the TV shows
and on-demand content you watch so that it can build up a profile of
what you like to watch and then make recommendations accordingly.
These
recommendations appear on the home TV screen when you select it, or you
can speak to the TV and ask it to recommend programmes it thinks you'll
like.
There
is an inevitable catch with this system in that it takes 2-3 months for
the TV to really get a close feel for your favourite content, leaving
you in the meantime sometimes feeling bewildered about some of the
recommendations it makes. But we guess you just need to stick with it.
One
last smart feature to mention is the way the TV enables you to control
it via Samsung apps for iOS and Android devices, additionally enabling
you to share multimedia between your devices and the TV, and stream
video from the TV to the Android or iOS app.
The Android
app also enables you to watch something from a second tuner while the
rest of your family watches the main tuner on the TV.
The
only problems here are that you have to use multiple apps to achieve
everything that's possible rather than having a single 'one-stop' app,
and that you're given no guidance anywhere over what apps you need and
how to set them up. We only found out everything via regular
communications with Samsung's technical people. Leaving
the impressive and ever-improving Smart Engine behind, the Samsung
PS64F8500 sports a comprehensive range of picture adjustments and
calibration tools, including all the gamma and colour management tools
even the most serious of tinkerers - or a professional calibrator -
could reasonably hope to find.
It's well worth dwelling
for a moment, too, on some of the major improvements Samsung has
introduced to the plasma panel at the Samsung PS64F8500's heart, because
these really do have a major bearing on its performance, as we're about
to discover.
For starters, a new Real Black Pro Filter
in the screen soaks up more ambient light than previous iterations,
enabling black levels to look deeper on the screen and light to emerge
from the screen more efficiently and potently.
Samsung
has also been able to speed up its panel response time so that it can
reach higher brightness peaks in real time, as well as introducing a
reworked discharge waveform that gives a further boost in contrast by
enabling plasma cells to go darker faster.
Brightness has
been further improved, meanwhile, by increasing the panel's active
discharge space - meaning that more of the screen area can receive light
from the plasma cells, by introducing Magnesium Oxide into its
conduction materials to boost energy efficiency, and by deploying an
improved discharge gas in the plasma chambers.
Smart TV Samsung's Smart Hub offers the usual
array of apps, social media hooks and access to local content, but that
stuff is presented as secondary to an ambitious "On TV" section.
Available from no other TV maker I've tested yet (although LG has
something similar this year), it basically attempts to replace your
cable or satellite box with the TV's own interface -- and when it can't
do that, at least control the box via Samsung's own remote.
The Hub's new design is reminiscent of an Android
smartphone, with five different home pages you can flip through by
swiping the remote touch pad's scroll bar. Navigation and the slick
animations were superquick on the quad-core F8500, although I wouldn't
be surprised if step-down Samsungs moved a bit more sluggishly. Overall
the design is refreshing, colorful, and relatively simple, a welcome
change from the cluttered feel of the company's previous Smart TV suite.
It's also a big step up in design from Panasonic's multipage suite,
although it doesn't provide the quite same level of customization. Setup:
Like many new TVs, Samsung greets new users with a step-by-step guided
setup, which I usually don't describe. In this case, however, it's
unusual enough to merit mention. First, it's accompanied by strange
Muzak. Second, it's quite involved, including setup not only for Wi-Fi
but also for cable box control, and requires you to choose your provider
from a list. I wasn't sure which channel lineup to choose between the
two different options for Verizon Fios, so I just picked one.
It
also asks you to sign your life away. In addition to the Smart Hub
terms and conditions policy and privacy policy, you'll have to consent
to supplemental privacy notices, one each for Samsung's Recommendations
engine, Voice Recognition, Nuance (the company that powers the voice
recognition software), Synch Plus, Yahoo, and the Online Remote
management. Upon completion of setup, the message reads: "Your Smart TV
is ready to use. The more you use your TV, the smarter it will get!"
Once you get it set up, you're taken to the default home page for the
Smart Hub. Unfortunately, as with Panasonic's 2013 TVs, you'll be
greeted with this page every time you turn on the TV. A tweak from the
default (Menu>Smart Features>On TV Settings>Auto Start>Off)
is enough to fix it, but it's still annoying. At least there are no
pop-up ads.
Sarah Tew/CNET
On TV and Recommendation engine:
The default Smart Hub home page, On TV, consists of a grid of TV show
thumbnails along with a large window showing live TV. Below each
thumbnail is a progress bar showing time remaining. You can also switch
to a "timeline view," which displays a list of five shows for every
hour.
On TV basically acts as a very select electronic program
guide (EPG), replacing the staid grid of hundreds of channels with a few
cozy images of your favorite TV stars. As you use the system to select
shows, Samsung's "recommendation engine" kicks in to surface more shows
it thinks you'll want to watch. I didn't spend much time trying to make
those reccs make sense for me, but as someone who doesn't watch much TV
beyond sports and the occasional series like "Mad Men" and "Game of
Thrones," I probably wouldn't be a good subject. I usually know what I
want to watch, and I don't need suggestions from the likes of TiVo (one
service that has incorporated "suggestions" for years) or Samsung.
I also wouldn't normally use On TV to select my shows, because most of
the TV I watch is stored on my DVR's hard drive. That list of recordings
isn't incorporated into On TV at all, so On TV has no idea which of
them I watch and can't make suggestions based upon them. For people like
me, who almost never watch live TV, Samsung's attempt to replace the
cable box simply doesn't work.
Even someone who watches a lot of
live TV and doesn't know what they want to see will experience some
hiccups with the system. One issue is that choosing a show, for example,
"The Price Is Right," took me to the standard-definition channel on my
system, not the HD one. Another is that the On TV page shows just six
shows each under Now Playing and Coming Up; If you want to browse more
than that, you have to turn to your cable box's trusty EPG.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Cable box control:
The system uses a single, old-school wired IR blaster (above) to send
commands from the TV to the cable box. Like most such systems it's
disappointing, and further hobbled by the Samsung remote's paucity of
controls.
I set up the system to control my Motorola DVR from
Verizon Fios. Samsung's remote navigated my DVR's menus and EPG nicely,
entered channel numbers as expected (complete with a handy channel
history list) and items like a swipe-to-fast-forward were nice. On the
other hand, mainstay buttons like "Guide" and "DVR" on the Samsung
remote, and the transport keys on the virtual remote, didn't work at
all. So, absurdly, I couldn't stop fast-forwarding once I'd swiped to start.
Confusingly, there's a separate universal remote control setup routine
that goes unmentioned in the initial setup, but even after playing
around with it, I was unable to get full functionality. The system
failed to properly control my Denon receiver, for example, and even when
it worked, the Volume keys on the remote controlled the TV's volume,
not the receiver's. There's no way to reprogram Samsung's remote to
perform these functions, so in the end I had to use other remotes in
addition to Samsung's, defeating much of the purpose.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Cross-platform streaming video browse:
The second page, called "Movies & TV Shows," is a portal to
Internet-based streaming video services -- despite the name, it doesn't
surface any cable-based TV shows. The recommendation engine works here,
too, to suggest new content based on past selections. Choose a TV show
and you're taken to a page listing related shows, cast information, a
description, and a "Watch Now" button. Clicking it will show you results
from Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, and Samsung's Media Hub, along with
per-episode pricing. Unfortunately, Amazon (including Prime), Hulu Plus,
and HBO Go aren't included in the results; you'll have to go into the
individual apps to search those. Update: I originally
wrote that there's no way to search the system without using voice
commands. Turns out you can, but it's hidden. Hitting the "recomm
search" area on the remote once brings up recommended shows. Hitting it a
second time quickly thereafter brings up a virtual keyboard for
searching. Unlike voice search, however, results from your cable service
won't show up in these search results--only results from those same
four Internet-based streaming video services will appear.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Media and Social: The fourth page accesses music,
photo and video content, whether from an attached USB thumb or hard
drive, DLNA device (NAS drive or PC) or smartphone, or the cloud.
Naturally the TV is compatible with Samsung's AllShare system, and it
can also access cloud storage from DropBox, SkyDrive, and SugarSynch, as
well as work with MHL and Miracast to screen mirror-compatible smartphones. I didn't test this functionality, nor did I test Samsung's remote control apps for tablets and smartphones.
The fifth page is called "Social," and it's filled by default with
YouTube clips. You can link it to Facebook, Twitter, and Skype accounts,
which seems mildly interesting. When I did so, however, the only things
that surfaced were "Friends' Pick" on Facebook, and there was no easy
access to tweet or post status updates. As it stands, except for easy
Skype access, this page is even more useless than I'd expect from
"social" on a Smart TV.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Apps and Web browser: Samsung's selection, available on the fifth page, is second to none, and it's still the only TV maker with HBO Go. Other
notable apps among the hundreds available include Spotify, Fios TV,
Amazon Cloud Player, a Camera app, and Samsung's "Explore 3D" app.
There's a cool "Fitness VOD" app that you can use in conjunction with
the camera to put yourself alongside a workout coach on screen, and
many, many more.
The page design, which is basically a bunch of
small icons again reminiscent of a smartphone, is much cleaner than
before. "Recommended" apps appear above a large editable grid of "My
Apps" in the bottom area. Most of the important apps come preinstalled,
and the chaff is all happily hidden inside the Samsung Apps section one
layer down.
The Web browser is the best I've used on any TV,
thanks in large part to the touch pad remote. The scrollbars work as
they should, the "Return" key is a handy shortcut for "Back," and the
virtual keyboard makes entering URLs and search terms as easy as
possible with its smart suggestions for letters, terms and sites.
CNET.com loaded quickly enough, including comments, and the browser
passed this Flash support test.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Of course, you'll experience even less frustration if you connect an
external wireless keyboard. The TV can pair with a Bluetooth keyboard or
mouse; I used two versions of the Samsung Wireless Keyboard (VG-KDB1000
and VG-KDB1500) that worked great, and the set should also work with
newer KDB2000 models too. I was also able to use a cheaper wireless USB
keyboard, the Logitech K400,
whose touch pad worked just as well as the Samsungs'. It's true when
they say that all functions might not work within all apps, however; I
was unable to type search terms into Amazon Instant or Netflix using
either keyboard (although arrow-key navigation and Enter worked fine,
for example).
Voice and Gesture control: If you
got this far expecting a thorough evaluation of what Samsung claims is
new and improved control via voice and gestures, I'm sorry to disappoint
you. I didn't test those features at all for this review, so I can't
say one way or the other whether the F8500 improves on last year's effort. Stay tuned for that.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Picture settings:
In true Samsung tradition, there's plenty on tap here, including
2-point and 10-point grayscale control, an excellent color management
system, and four picture presets. The company also includes a "Black
Optimizer" setting that has a real effect on black levels, a Film Mode
option that does as well, and, yes, a dejudder control to turn the Soap Opera Effect on or off. I can't really ask for anything more.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Connectivity:
Nothing major goes missing here. Four HDMI ports, three USB, and an
optical digital output do the digital heavy lifting, while analog video
is served by a single component-video port that's shared with composite
video. There's no VGA-style PC input, but there is an RS-232 port for
custom AV control systems, as well as port for the included wired IR
blaster.
The F8500 deserves a spot in the upper echelon of TVs you can buy, and
in a bright room it's the best plasma I've ever seen. In moderate
rooms, it doesn't quite match up to the picture quality of the
like-priced Panasonic TC-PVT60 series, and while I'd say it's a superior
performer to the ST60 by a nose, they both earn the same 9 rating in
this section.
This plasma manages to combine exceedingly deep
black levels with the potential for whites brighter than any other
high-performance plasma available. Color accuracy is superb, if not
quite reference level, and of course it exhibits the perfect off-angle
and picture uniformity characteristics of the breed. Its video
processing unfortunately requires you to make a choice between correct 1080p/24 film cadence
and the deepest black levels, however, something you won't have to do
with other TVs. One tertiary weakness is sound quality, while its 3D
picture quality, aided again by superior light output, was outstanding.
Click
the image at the right to see the picture settings used in the review
and to read more about how this TV's picture controls worked during
calibration.
Black level:
The F8500 can produce some of the deepest levels of black of any
display I've seen, beating the depth of all but the very best plasmas
and local dimming LEDs. In our lineup, which includes the best flat-panel
TVs we have available (and, I'd argue, most of the best ever made), it
looked just a shade lighter than only the VT60, the Kuro, and the Elite
in most dark and mixed scenes. In the very dark "Drive" Blu-ray, for
example, the depth of the F8500's letterbox bars and black areas like
Driver's car
stereo and leather gloves (4:12) was superb. Even sitting right between
the Kuro and the VT60, the F8500 looked almost as deep -- and made the
VT50, ST60, and especially the E8000 seem slightly grayish as opposed to
inky black.
Unfortunately, you do have to trade away true film
cadence if you want the absolute deepest black levels the F8500 can
deliver. When I switched the Film Mode setting from Off to Cinema
Smooth, those inky blacks got slightly brighter, reaching about the
level of the ST60 and the VT50 (from 0.002 fL to 0.004, if you're
counting). That's not much of a jump, so film cadence purists might not
mind making it. On the other hand, of course, all of the other sets
delivered correct cadence without sacrificing black levels.
Shadow detail was another strong suit for the F8500. As Irene grasps
Driver's hand under the vacillating light (30:29), all of the folds in
his pants and jacket, along with the shadows along the steering column
and door, looked correct, neither too bright nor too dim, and every
detail was preserved. That said, I'd still give a slight advantage in
most scenes to the Panasonics, particularly the VT60, where certain
shadow details appeared just a bit more distinct, especially in areas
very close to black. The walls during the slow pan over Driver's room
(37:20) or, even better, the very deep shadows and gasses in the
Creation sequence from "Tree of Life" (23:48), again showed the
Panasonics' slight advantage. In any case the difference was very
subtle, and it was tough to pick a clear winner between the F8500 and
the three Panasonics, even with the benefit of side-by-side comparison.
It was easier to see the F8500's superiority to the E8000 in this area.
I watched a lot of Drive as well dark parts of other films, and I
didn't notice any instances of abrupt changes in overall black level --
aka "brightness pops." I also checked out the two pops tests that created
the artifact in 2011 Samsung plasmas, in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," but the F8500 didn't show the
issue there either.
A strange image retention artifact did occur
on the F8500 that I've never seen before. When I paused the image or
the shot lingered for long enough on a dark stationary element, purplish
noise would begin to gradually accumulate in shadowy areas. It happened
in the upper-right of the screen on the beige car interior (between
4:14 and 4:19), for example, and became quite obvious if I paused. It
wasn't overly distracting, and disappeared nearly immediately when the
image changed, but it's still unusual and potentially distracting in
certain stationary shots with near-black material. I also saw it during
calibration (see the picture settings above for details), but in any
case this issue doesn't spoil my recommendation. Color accuracy:
The colors on the F8500 are superb. The rich saturation imparted by its
deep black levels combined with very low measured error levels to
create a palate that stands against the lineup extremely well. The only
flaw was a spike in blue in the middle of the grayscale that adjustment
couldn't tame, an issue that perhaps manifested in slightly cooler skin
tones in areas like the face of Irene in the restaurant (46:54).
On the other hand, the F8500 came closer than the others to the E8000
which, according to our measurements, has the best overall color in the
lineup. It's difficult to say which was "better" -- the warmer Panasonic
VTs or the slightly cooler Samsungs -- but to my eye the Panasonics did
appear a bit more pleasing and saturated. Regardless, the F8500 looked
slightly more accurate than the ST60, and significantly more accurate
than the Kuro and the Sharp Elite.
The measurement of the
F8500's near-black (5 percent) was also among the best I've ever seen,
leading to pleasingly neutral dark areas and shadows. Of course, most of
the others were also extremely good in this area, but the F8500 was
just a bit better. Video processing: As I
mentioned above, this area is the F8500's only major stumbling block.
The only way to achieve the correct film cadence of 1080p/24 sources,
like most Blu-ray movies, is to engage the Cinema Smooth setting under
Film Mode -- which lightens black levels somewhat. When I did so, I saw
the nice, smooth-but-not-too-smooth movement in areas like the swinging
camera in the grocery store in "Drive" (15:30) and of course even more
clearly in my traditional such test, the pan over the aircraft carrier
from "I Am Legend" (24:58).
Switching back to Off, which
delivers the deepest black levels, caused the cadence to assume the
characteristic, slightly hitching motion of 2:3 pull-down. It's a subtle
difference, but videophiles will have to choose between correct cadence
and the deepest blacks. I chose the latter, for what it's worth.
The F8500 offers two levels of dejudder that introduce the
characteristic Soap Opera Effect. Even the weakest, Standard, produced
an exceedingly smooth image that won't appeal to those who dislike that
effect. Unlike Panasonic's plasmas, however, engaging dejudder did not
affect my motion resolution measurements.
As with previous
Samsungs, the default Auto2 Film Mode setting for 1080i sources didn't
result in proper deinterlacing; I had to switch to Auto 1 to get the
PNF8500 to pass that test. Update: In Game mode the Samsung showed a relatively poor input lag measurement of 107.5ms. But there's a "trick" that
allows it to achieve a much more respectable lag score of 53.1ms. To use
it, select an HDMI input from the Input menu, go to the Options menu in
the upper-right and rename the input "PC." Doing so allows it to
achieve a better lag score. Bright lighting:
The performance of the F8500 in high ambient light is better than any
other plasma I've tested, and in this lineup is second only to the Sharp
Elite LED. Its largest advantage over the other plasmas came in the
form of prodigious light output.
Compared directly to the
also-60-inch VT60, the F8500 almost doubled its maximum light output; I
measured a peak of 83 fL (footlambert) in Dynamic mode on the Samsung,
compared to 49 in Vivid mode on the Panasonic using window patterns.
The F8500 also maintains higher light output with full-screen
patterns, measuring 19.1 fL compared to just 9.8 on the Panasonic.
Hockey or skiing, where much of the screen is occupied by white or very
bright material, appears markedly brighter on the F8500 than on other
plasmas this size, and other content is proportionately brighter too,
depending on how much of the screen is occupied by white. Most content
is more mixed between light and dark, however, making this F8500
advantage less important. It's also worth noting that most LEDs can
maintain an even brighter image than the F8500 with near- or full-white
content.
Speaking of importance, here's the part where I remind
readers that 40 fL, the amount to which I calibrate, is plenty for a
moderately lit room. But if you have an extremely bright room or just
prefer watching an extremely bright picture (like Vivid or Dynamic on
your current TV), the F8500 comes closer to the light output of an LED
TV than any plasma I've tested. Of course an LED can get even brighter;
the 60-inch Elite, for example, can achieve a scorching 300 (window) and
133 (full-screen) fL in certain settings.
The F8500 has an
excellent screen filter to go along with its light output potential. It
preserved black levels under bright overhead lighting better than any TV
in my lineup aside from the Sharp, keeping the image punchy instead of
washed out. All of the plasmas aside from the Kuro were quite close in
this regard; the VT50 was actually second-best at preserving black,
followed by the VT60 and then the ST60 and E8000.
The ability
to reduce reflections is also very important, and while none of these
displays can match a matte-screened LED/LCD in that area, the F8500 was
one of the best. Again, its least wasn't much, but reflections were a
bit brighter on the VT60. Sound quality The
F8500 was the worst-sounding TV in the lineup. Its audio was thin, bass
was distorted, and the instruments of Nick Cave's band from our test
track were less distinct. Dialogue during "Mission: Impossible 3" was
also relatively muddy, and Ving Rhames' deep voice sounded like it was
coming from another room. The ensuing explosions had little visceral
feel, and details like breaking glass were nigh inaudible. The
great-sounding VT60, in particular, trounced it, but the VT50 and ST60
also sounded better, as did last year's E8000. 3D:
The F8500 is probably the best 3D performer of any plasma TV I've
tested. Its image quality in the default settings for Cinema mode was
better than what I saw on the VT60, mainly due to superior light output
and better shadow detail. The latter difference can be equalized in
calibration, perhaps (we don't calibrate for 3D), but the former is a
distinct advantage.
In terms of crosstalk, the F8500 performed
as well or better than any of the other plasmas, but not at the same
level as my 3D reference, the LED-based UN55ES8000 -- which I subbed into the lineup in place of the 2D-only Kuro. Crosstalk is a bugaboo of 3D TVs that use active 3D technology, and appears as a ghostly double-image
around many onscreen objects. During my favorite crosstalk tests from
"Hugo," including Hugo's hand as it reached for the mouse (5:01), the
tuning pegs on the guitar (7:49), and the face of the dog as it watches
the inspector slide by (9:24), the F8500's crosstalk was quite dim and
unobjectionable -- about the same level as the ST60 and VT60, and better
than the E8000.
The image of the Samsung F8500 had more punch
and impact, however, because it got substantially brighter. No, it
didn't reach the same level as the LED ES8000, but it was still visibly
superior to any of the plasmas, particularly in brighter scenes. Details
in shadows, like the bulkhead at the beginning of Chapter 2, were also
more distinct on the F8500, although black levels were a bit deeper on
the VT60. Color also seemed a bit better on the F8500, with more neutral
shadows compared to the bluer Panasonics.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Panasonic's throw-in 3D glasses fit much better than Samsung's. The
flimsy temples of the Samsung 5100GB's barely kept them secure on my
head, especially when I wore my prescription glasses, and the design let
in a substantial amount of light from the side. At least they were very
light. Power consumption: Light output is a major factor in how much juice a TV uses, so it stands to reason that the F8500 is more of a
power hog in its brightest picture mode. Unlike other plasmas, its
default picture mode, Standard, is quite bright (with the ambient light
sensor disabled), clocking 82 fL and a correspondingly massive power
drain. After calibration to a standard light level, however, it's right
in line with what I'd expect from a 60-inch plasma.
The current Energy Star specification is still version 5.3, which still imposes a hard cap of 108 watts for any size of TV. According to Energy Star's April 2013 list of qualified TVs, no 1080p 2013 Samsung plasma earns the blue sticker, although its 43-inch 720p sets series do. Editors'
note: CNET has dropped TV power consumption testing for 60-inch or
smaller LCD- and LED-based TVs because their power use, in terms of
yearly cost, is negligible. We will continue to test the power use of
larger LCD or LED models, as well as all plasma models.
The GoodThe Samsung PNF8500 series
exhibits outstanding picture quality with a class-leading bright-room
image, exceedingly deep black levels, very good shadow detail, highly
accurate colors and superb off-angle and uniformity characteristics;
mind-boggling feature list with touch-pad remote, IR blaster with cable
box control, four pairs of 3D glasses, motion and voice command, and the
industry's most capable Smart TV platform; unique styling with
full-width ribbon stand and slim-bezel metallic finish.
The BadExtremely
expensive; correct film cadence requires sacrificing some black level;
remote lacks numerous direct commands; imperfect cable box control;
consumes more power than LCD TVs.
The Bottom LineSamsung's best-performing TV ever, the PNF8500 series pushes the plasma picture quality envelope, especially in bright rooms.
