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Some people are in the lucky position to receive high-end stuff from high-end companies for review. I’m not one of them. But a family fellow member felt it was time for 3D and purchased the new Samsung C8700. And I managed to get a good look at it. It was a Thursday morning when the mailman rang the door and entered with a big package labeled Samsung. The sentiment of excitement was hard to suppress. I opened the box and saw the TV it is stand and a lot of cables. The instruction manual was huge and contained instructions in a lot of languages, I only employed it for installing the stand though. Real men don’t need user manuals! Read: geeks like me. Design I had a good look at it after installing the stand and cautiously placing it on the furniture. The basi thing I noticed was the silver metal border around the screen, a highrisk move taking into account the all-black trend of the last couple of years. But I actually like it. It makes the television look more premium and makes it stand out from the pack. The very edge of the television isn’t silver but see through plastic. From the side it’s very thin. Under an inch thick, that’s in regards to as thin as it gets for sure. The screen is held by a 4-legged stand, which looks great. At original I wasn’t sure but it grew on me. And the evident gains of the stands are the great stability of the TV and the distinguishable design. The all silver looks will disappoint a heap of users though; I’ve heard stories of persons going for the C7700 just for the black borders around the screen. Overall the Samsung C8700 is one of the prettiest TVs on the market. Its all silver design and 4-legged stand will make it stand out wherever it stands. The backlit Samsung logo is also a very nice touch. Less successful is the branding on the lower left corner. And it ought to be cited that the design isn’t for everyone. Connectivity & specs The high-end Samsung C8700 allows you to connect almost any device, like you’d suppose from a TV in this price class. It has 4 HDMI 1.4 ports, the new ordinary which allows greatest or most complete or best possible 3D visuals. Further more in comes with: PC audio in, RF in, Cl+ slot, 2x USB, 2x scart, optical audio, Ethernet, headphone and 2 components. That’s genuinely nice connectivity right there. All the connections are angled, so you may put the Samsung on the wall without worrying regarding cables sticking out. I ought to also mention that most of the connections require a particular ‘extension’ cable, which is provided in the box. It also packs a lot of severe specs. It has 200hz, a new hyper 3D engine, Internet, DLNA, PVR and a marketed contrast radio no television will ever accomplish. Further more it’s a LCD edge-lit LED, which means that the light comes from the side. It has local dimming in 12 zones, meaning that the TV may control the light at 12 constituents of the screen to achieve better blacks. All these specs will come back further in the review; so don’t worry if you don’t know what any of them mean. For your convenience, here’s the full spec list provided by Samsung. Remote The Samsung C8700, C7700 and C9000 televisions are the original to carry a particular new remote. It’s thinner silver remote with backlit keys. The traditionalisti rubber keys have been substituted for flat keys, which give you no point of reference for blind use. Also new are a few buttons, most noticeably the 3D button. I in truth like the new remote. It looks amazing. The silver fits the TV well and I found the key portion logically. Features I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to these things. I always try to use each feature that a gadget has in store for me. Samsung has included a lot in the new C8700, including Internet apps and media play. They have likewise provided a new menu graphic for the dissimilar features. It displays an icon of the feature on the edge of a wheel which you may turn using your remote. Television keeps playing even after activating the menu, a nice touch. The new Samsung application store allows you to download apps for the television. Offering is different per country but it must include the likes of Twitter, Facebook and weather. Downloading went with ease and using the apps was a mixed experience. The fixed processing capablenesses of the TV will have to be mentioned; don’t suppose iPad like experiences. Navigation wasn’t always smooth and numerous of the apps were totally useless. Still it’s a nice upgrade from last year’s leds. But the more or less bettered sluggish feel still makes me want to keep away from all of it. Media play means that you may insert an USB device and play it is content. This may not sound like a big deal but it is. Samsung claims to help almost each format, and in a way they’re right. The feature has bettered this year. The user interface firstborn lets you choose amidst Movies, Music or Photos. Browsing the USB disk follows after your selection; fortunately this is easy and fast. Sub maps are handled perfectly and I was competent to navigate with severe speed. So does it genuinely play each format out there? Yes and no. I threw a lot at it, including media that the PS3 can’t play. AVI, MPEG, MP4 were all played with ease. MKVs weren’t a problem either, even the big 15+ gig ones. I had one instance where it declined to play my audio format because it was not supported – DTS I think. I was in cloud 9 until I came all over a little problem. Do you know those little HD cameras? They now and again record in a file called.MTS, also known as AVCHD. The Samsung C8700 didn’t want in and couldn’t even see the files appear in the browsing window. A little hiccup in an other than as supposed or expected perfective playback score, guess I’ve to use the PS3 for AVCHD files. Calibrating Everyone who’s severe with regards to televisions may tell you that proper calibration is critical. To accomplish this I calibrated the television for a few dissimilar scenarios and in the long run chose a compromise. Because I don’t want to switch settings each time I alter to gaming, SD or HD movies. The menu is very easy to use. I pressed display choices and found myself confronted by a few sliders controlling: sharpness, contrast, backlight, colors etc. I could likewise modify the local dimming settings (smart LED) and the way the television tries to remove grain. After with regards to 2 hours, I found a good compromise in settings, displaying both SD and HD very well. I had turned the sharpness down a notch to remove not wanted artifacts around objects, most noticeably in SD signals. Contrast was upped a bit but not too much other than as supposed or expected it removes shadow details. Colors were set up high and backlight was set to greatest or most complete or best possible with the eco sensor enabled. The new eco sensor is Samsung’s response to Sony’s system. Basically it reads the environs and changes settings accordingly. It may lower luminance based on ambient light, turn the TV off when there’s no signal and a few other less interesting things. The sound settings give basic control, not closely as spacious as the effigy setting capabilities. It permitted me to alter the sound to the optimal settings for: movies, music and speech. And of course it has the surround mock-up setting, which I like. Last but not least the C8700 may normalize volume deviations amongst channels. This may work but I held it off because I never experience this problem much. Normally you’d be done now but there’s one more setting to worry about: 3D. Samsung has provided a wide array of tools to make the experience, exceptionally the conversion system, as comfortable as possible. Settings include: generated depth, luminance and the way the system generates the 3D effect. I noticed that larger depth in the settings may be genuinely nice or in truth annoying. It all depended on how well the conversion worked in the primary place. So with my TV calibrated it was time for a good deal of real world tests. So I did what each family does… connect a 2TB HDD with 1080p content and hundreds of movies and TV series that I legally own. But before that I watched a heap of regular television. Testing Now bear in mind that I don’t have the instrumentation to do a scientific test. I just looked at real world material and calibrated the television using a method that each normal person uses. First galore general remarks regarding the testing routine and findings. I watched content in three categories: SD, HD and gaming. I took my time and got a good look at dissimilar distinct features of the effigy quality, peculiarly motion, colors, black levels and general sharpness. First my finding that applies to everything I watched. The looking at angles on this TV are disappointing. A little angle already resulted in a substantial loss of colors. Everything became tinted rather quickly. There’s also a great deal of lightning uniformity. It’s a problem that troubles each edge lit LEDs, basically the edges are more bright because the background light comes from the edges only. I didn’t detect much for the duration of my tests, but it’s there. Okay now for some real world testing starting with SD. SD First I connected a digital television receiver box onto the Samsung C8700. The signal was SD (720×480) and 50hz. The quality was okay from a distance. For the 46″ model a distance of at least 7 feet (2,1 meters) is recommended. From up close the lack of pixels became painfully obvious. I likewise noticed that the television was unable to remove all graining without losing detail. Motion was handled well by the 200HZ engine, which means that the television makes motion smoother by placing more frames in between. I searched for more SD materials and found an episode of Glee. Episode 21. It stumbled upon the same problem. The effigy wasn’t very sharp and looked washed out. The missing pixels become a big pain. Again the same counsel applies. Only undertake looking at this from a distance! Students don’t buy a 46″ television for a one-room house, which some call home for lack of better. Overall I was disappointed by the SD picture quality but it wasn’t the Samsung C8700′s fault. It’s just very hard to display DVDs crisp on a panel of this size. It’s watchable from a distance but don’t get too close. My second test was one for the future. Every thing we watch is converted to HD. This new higher general equals more pixels and therefore a better video quality. In fact we have so much faith in this engineering that we’re even converting old classics like Star Wars episode 4-6 and the Shining to the new platform. Remember even though that a camera with ΒΌ the amount of pixels shot those movies. Which means that the extra dots need to appear from thin air – not possible. So I only tested HD movies filmed after 2007, innovative movies. HD I started with Leap year. This new 2010 romantic comedy was the perfective prospect because of the gorgeous scenery of Ireland. And boy was it beautiful. The Samsung C8700′s local dimming scheme does a outstanding occupation in generating impressive black levels. Black is in truth black on this television! Motion was likewise good as the scenery flashed by. It was genuinely smooth. Some don’t like this but I do. Leap year ended in a totally dark room. During the movie I couldn’t detect that the television was adjusting it is luminance dynamically and to be honorable for the duration of the end I found the screen at times too bright. Not sure if the eco scheme actually adjusted the LEDs accordingly. Secondly I watched Avatar. This fast pace movie was perfective because it may genuinely stress the Samsung and show any imperfections. Let me be honorable there weren’t a heap of for me but could be for some. It all rests on the motion. It’s buttery smooth and closely looks unreal because of it. Some will not like this but no matter the setting I used I couldn’t get rid of it completely. I also noticed artifacts around galore of the objects, but it wasn’t a big deal as it only happened once. And I wouldn’t have seen it if I was paying attention to the movie. Color reproductions and black levels were again spot-on. Although I think that most full LED local dimming sets could do better, but that’s only noticeable in a direct comparison environment. And it’s not like your neighbor will buy one and install it right next to yours for showing. If someone experienced this please contact me and I’ll remove that statement. Blu-rays or legally owned 1080p content are aweinspiring on this set and the real reason why someone would own a television of this caliber in the primary place. Color reproduction is splendid and black-levels are spot on. Motion isn’t always handled perfectly. I saw a lot of artifacts and a heap of humans will find it unnatural no matter the settings. If you’re one of those people than this may be your deal breaker! Gaming Gaming. We all do it, a lot of confess it but few feel proud of it. I connected my PS3 to the Samsung C8700 to test gaming. Again I don’t have the high-end stuff to measure input lag, this review represents what the naked eye sees. First up was Need for Speed Shift. This new EA title was freed in 2009 and marked a alter for the series. Moving more towards the semi-simulation racer with great graphics and spectacular crashes. The Samsung C8700 kept itself well for the duration of the tests. The color reproduction was good and the effigy remained crystal sharp in spite of only showing 1280×720 pixels. I did detect galore input lag equated to my reference display, a 2ms TNT panel. But for me as a casual gamer I don’t see this as a huge issue. LittleBigPlanet was tested next and the Samsung C8700 nailed it. Input lag was even less of an issue thanks to the slower paced game. The game showed better depth thanks to the sharpness and the size of the display. Further more I saw not one thing unusual. Last but not least was the game Resistance 2. This usual shooter sits high with the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield Bad Company 2. My basi impression wasn’t too outstanding with this title. I found the color tending a bit too much towards the yellows. And I found halos around a heap of of the objects for the duration of heavy motion. I got rid of it after numerous tweaking, but it wasn’t ideal. Gaming was nice on the Samsung C8700 television. The big size genuinely makes the experience more immersive. I did observe a good deal of input lag but it’s not that huge of a deal. Glasses Samsung doesn’t provide glasses with the television. Costs are 70 – 130 $ depending on the model you choose. Your choices are fixed amid Samsung rechargeable or non-rechargeable, the latter working on special batteries. Glasses from other makers don’t work. For this test I employed a set of non-rechargeable glasses. I found them to be intermediate in both looks and comfort. They don’t look as good as the more pricey rechargeable glasses. And I felt a pinch at the touching point near my ears. Moving the glasses as bit relieved the pain. Samsung claims that the glasses may work over 100 hours with a single battery and those numbers are impressive. But in spite of that I have to advise every one to go for rechargeable ones – at least for yourself. They’re better looking, more comfortable and not a single soul wants to buy batteries these days. My family fellow member decisive to buy 2 rechargeable for regular use and 3 non-rechargeable ones for guests. Conversion Samsung’s biggest change for 2010 is 3D. It’s not a surprising move; challengers like Sony have pushed it and every one knew it was coming this year. But I still don’t have any comparison because Samsung is the only one out there with a entirely available 3D set. I’ve seen Sony’s 3D engine a while back at a demonstration, but can’t use it to compare because they were running particular demos. For this percentage of the review I tried the particular 2D to 3D conversion on a wide range of media. I couldn’t test the native 3D engine because I don’t own a 3D Blu-Ray player. Sony update the PS3 already! The 2D to 3D conversion is very easy to use. There’s a button on the remote saying 3D, press it and the real time converting begins. Further tweaks are possible in the menu, controlling things like depth simulation, color correction and so forth. For this test I held everything at default because the depth simulation at greatest or most complete or best possible emphasized errors too much, and a lower value made the whole 3D experience an intermediate experience. I started with SD. Glee was a good test case. The busy hallways of overly stereotyped teens gave me the perfective prospect to see if the Samsung C8700 is competent of aligning objects properly. And it was. People in the front ‘popped out’ a bit, while background students actually remained in the back. Even with motion everything stayed fine. I may genuinely say that an episode of Glee is worth watching in 3D, in spite of a little loss of colors. Next was a motion test. I played back a F1 race that I had recorded. F1 is like NASCAR but with corners and modern technology. It was raining and I was fascinated to see how timing graphics and cars would show. After ten minutes of looking at I was disappointed and forced to take off the glasses. All of this was because my glass of water was empty and I had to refill. After refilling the glasses stayed off because the fast moving cars were a pain to watch. Cars going from the right side of the screen towards the left weren’t sharp and ‘shook’ to a great extent on the screen surface. The scheme distinctly couldn’t keep up with the fast pace. On a positive note: graphics were rightfully showed in front of the action, and the extra depth was stimulating to watch at times. Just not when there were any fast moving cars around – Red Bull cars and such. Commercials are never fun to watch, except when they’re in regards to a product you want to purchase. This has not one thing to do with my third 3D test though, which was regular television. I’m sad to say that the C8700 made errors regularly when the commercials hit in. I found slogan text (buy cheese now) to pop out while the price remained in the background. On top of that a great deal of of the graphics weren’t sharp. Overall the loss of luminance and the uneasiness from the glasses made regular television not commended for 3D conversion. Of course your mileage may vary, a heap of shows lend themselves more to the scheme than others. I popped Avatar in my PS3 and hit 3D on the remote. Mind you I haven’t seen this movie in 3D in the cinemas so no reference there. Avatar looked astounding in 3D. The opening scene when the main reputation floats looks fantastic. Objects looked sharp, and the television made to errors in depth calculations. The only downside isn’t genuinely Samsung’s fault but a compromise in the active shutter glasses technique. These darkened glasses work like sunglasses and remove a lot of luminance when observing 3D. This occurred in all the footage I saw. Last but not least: gaming. I turned on my PS3 and started the titles I discussed earlier. I was again torn amidst good and bad experiences. LittleBigPlanet made no divergence at all. But it does work in racing titles. Overall I felt the games were built up in 4 layers of depth, with not one thing actually coming out of the TV or sitting exclusively in the background. I found a lot of instances of crosstalk and that wasn’t the only problem. Some of objects showed ‘halos’ around them, a lot of weren’t sharp and other weren’t as far on the background as they necessitated to be. It made the experience very tiring and hence I won’t use it much. Native 3D games may change my mind but for now gaming in 3D is a no go, with the Samsung C8700 at least. So here’s what I think with regards to the conversion system by Samsung. It works but your mileage may vary. Some of the television shows/movies don’t work too great, in particular with a lot of moving objects. I also found SD 3D way more discouraging and hindering than HD 3D, with the latter displaying very sharp textures and objects. Gaming for now is a no go with conversion, a nice gimmick that will not last. Also a no go is looking at 3D in a resting position. You can’t watch 3D with the glasses in a 90-degree angle. Doing so will result in a black screen. I’d like to stress that I wasn’t competent to test native 3D, so for now my sentiment when it comes to 3D is subject to change. Conclusions Samsung did a terrific occupation with the C8700 LED television. Its design is finelooking and will please most buyers – but not all. Watching SD is a bit of a pain on the big screen so a few feet of watching distance is advised. HD content looks splendid though, with outstanding black levels and amazing color reproduction. But the overly smooth motion may annoy galore and please others. The 3D conversion scheme is very easy to use and may work great. Especially HD movies are converted well. Fast paced SD or gaming must stay into the 2D realm for now. You can’t actually go faulty with the Samsung C8700. It’s an magnificent television but be prepared to overlook some minor flaws for this costly silver piece of technology brilliance. |
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