Samsung Series 8 UA65ES8000M (65")

Not happy Jan – THE GOOD: Great Picture quality. Nice streamlined look. THE BAD: 1; At first we were very happy with our Samsung TV but after a few weeks of trying use the motion & voice control we quickly realized it was useless. The sound was also rather weak due to the small tinny speakers at the back of the unit. We had to buy a soundbar to get good… Read more

sound.

The smart hub was OK but the the apps were slow and clunky and streaming anything like catch up TV was often impossible. YouTube & Surfing the net was also a pain, the TV keyboard is extremely frustrating & everything runs at a snail pace.

But overall we have enjoyed the TV until recently.

2; We can no longer use the smart hub or any of the apps or internet features due to serious issues after one the the frequent updates needed for the operating & app system. After the update the TV will no longer connect to our network and no amount of trouble shooting will fix it. No internet also means we cant update the TV which will probably cause more problems down the line.

We tried Samsung customer support for help & were advised to buy a new TV as they had no idea how to fix it. We paid $3000 for this TV only 3 years ago. We expected it to last much longer than this & cant afford to buy another TV. We bought a chrome cast to stream & have given up on the so called smart operating system & apps.

3; Recently the TV has started turning itself on all by itself during the night while we sleep. It also randomly turns itself off while we are watching it. It's creepy.

We thought maybe we had bought a lemon but after a lot of online research have we found 1000's of similar complaints & issues across all models of Samsung smart TV's. It's obviously a problem Samsung are aware of however they either don't know how to fix it...or they don't want to fix it. Not sure which???

THE VERDICT

I will never buy another Samsung product again. I feel ripped off paying so much for a smart TV that is not so smart & I received no help from customer service, they didn't seem to have any idea and didn't seem to care anyway.

I would also never buy a ""smart"" TV. Your better off with a good quality HD TV and a streaming stick like chrome cast or Apple TV etc. Streams much better and costs a lot less!

Sorry Samsung, you have lost us :-(

Amazing Picture Quality – I researched 65 inch LED TV's for 2 or 3 months and decided to go with the Samsung UA65ES8000 and we are pleased we did the picture quality is amazing. You can really see the difference in picture quality from HD to normal TV. Certainly would not go any lower than a 65 inch and our lounge is not very big. We only bought the TV for the picture… Read more

quality so are not going to be bothered with the other features. Have tried the 3D and that is awesome although there is not much of a huge selection of 3D Blu Ray movies. We also have the Samsung HT-E6750W Blu Ray Home Entertainment System connected to the TV and I would highly recommend this as the sound is brilliant. Certainly notice the sound quality without it. The TV was very easy to set up with the on screen instructions as they do not make hard copy manuals. Remote control very easy to use. Purchased it from 2nd's World at a huge discount to retail price and the TV is brand new. Price, Picture Quality is Awesome None

Brilliant Picture - Pointless everything else – Specifically bought this 65" tv for the picture quality and I have to say it is brilliant. Whilst watching Avatar in 3D i found myself consistently amazed at the clarity and level of detail and depth this screen produced. Sadly - all the gimmicky cr@p samsung put on the rest of this set is pretty much a pointless sales ploy that should be… Read more

completely ignored by any sensible tv buyer. The only exception to this could be youtube but good luck trying to type your searches in with any reasonable speed and accuracy.

The "apps" just seem like a smart phone wannabe. skype, facebook, web browser etc are unusably slow and glitchy - you'll find yourself persistently annoyed at the glitches and inevitably reach for a tablet or netbook to accomplish the tasks you want to achieve.

I was deceived by the ease that the USB keyboard plugged in and integrated with the unit. here I was thinking that it there wouldn't be a 3 or 4 second delay between what I typed and what letters the set actually picked up from the keyboard...consistently followed by a furious pounding of the delete key which does not actually function - open the browser and type ebay.com.au and 4 seconds later the tv displays eb.c.auca....repeat 4 times give up and open the netbook....

to alleviate the risk of sounding overly negative - let me reiterate here - the picture is outstanding - for actually watching some sort of show - you can't go past this set.

back to the issues.

once the set was setup - i attempted to access some of the stored media on my home server. This is a windows home server machine with all the bells and whistles you could want in a home media server. Sadly - the samsung unit refuses to utilise any sort of directory or folder search for media and instead relies on DLNA to access its media stream. this means you have to install some kind of DLNA server on your media server. Serviio did the job but I found myself asking why, in this day and age, I needed to install a program to allow my state of the art tv to view my media files on my server when a 100$ android media center from ebay can stream 3D HD video faultlessly without any assistance at all.

Gripes aside - once Serviio was installed on the home server the tv picked it up and streamed the 3D HD avatar movie faultlessly.

IP Camera's: don't expect the web browser to access your Blue Iris Security camera center...or the IP camera's themselves etc. its too glitchy and dysfunctional for that. A 3 year old android phone - yep no problem accessing the blueiris server or camera's themselves direct but your state of the art tv will fall over in any attempt at that so forget it.

the remote controls: note plural. you get two. one is a standard remote that is normal the other is a good attempt at basically a track pad with some sort of functionality but you will find yourself thinking...hmmm....this "smart remote" is actually more difficult and cumbersome to use than the normal one and then you pick up the normal remote and the "smart" remote is located to the back corner of your coffee table.

3D glasses - these are comfortable and watching a move at night will provide, in my opinion, better than cinema quality 3D images. on the other hand - if you have any sort of reflection or daylight in your view during the movie you will find yourself wincing under the flicker.

Motion control - yeah no....still haven't figured out how waving my hands around is somehow serving a point... make note....just disable and pick up the remote...forget about the motion control gimmick.

Voice control - yeah another pointless waste of programing... turn it on - prepare for a few hours of yelling and wondering you're supposed to say to the thing...then turn it off and pick up the remote...and yay it all does what you want without having to remember a bunch of ridiculous commands and looking like a douche yelling at your tv to play source 3 god dam it.

To wind up this review - generally buy this tv for a great picture. I rant about this but you will be genuinely impressed with this regardless of what background your viewing experience comes from. If you think your buying some sort of PC/HTPC/tablet replacement....think again. Picture quality - second to none in this market. everything else - get a series 6 - does the same for less money.

Amazing 65 inch picture quality. No regrets buying this television! – Having researched this purchase for over 18 months we finally were seduced by 40 months interest free at Joyce Mayne. We went for the 65 inch....we thought it would look too big. My how we were wrong... We sit less than 2 metres from the television and it looks perfect! The clarity and definition is scarily realistic. Voice control and hand… Read more ·  1

control gets a bit of getting used to but Angry Birds is good way to practice! The picture is the best we have ever seen!