Samsung 3D TV – D8000 or D7000

After the technical problems that plagued my Samsung C8000; I like many others had my doubts about Samsungs next effort in the 3D television stakes. With a TV just 5mm in depth I had started to wonder if looks had been placed ahead of quality and reliability. I had been doing a little research and with just Internet images to go by I was unsure if I should plump for the D8000 or the D7000 both looked on par with my old C8000 where looks were concerned but which one should I go for?

I was slightly more attracted to the chrome finish of the D8000 but I couldn’t quite make my mind up. I had been promised a new replacement set by Samsung, when I asked if it would be the D8000 or the D7000 I was told I could have either, I remember the technical guy saying “I just assumed you would like the better D8000”.

Up until this point I had assumed that the extra £100 asking price of the D8000 was down to aesthetics. The D8000 having a chrome finish with a very thin bezel and the D7000 having a slightly larger bezel with glass trim. When questioned why the D8000 was the better of the two the technician informed me that it had slightly better components over its D7000 cousin, the D8000 also has slightly more onboard memory 2GB vs. 1.75GB. If my mind had not been made up previously it was now, the D8000 was going to be my next 3D television especially now that I knew it had better inners.

d7000 samsung

Samsung D7000 Glass Bezel

The day my Samsung D8000 arrived I felt nervous, I so wanted everything to be perfect and problem free. After unpacking the set and securing my ultra slim hanging wall brackets to the back it was time for the moment of truth. Was my new 3D LED-backlit LCD TV going to wow me. I swithced the power on and I wasn’t disappointed, the picture quality both in 3D and standard 2D was breathtaking. When hung on the wall the set looks slightly smaller than the C8000 but this is due to the fine bezel and the screen running closer to the edge.

D8000 Chrome Bezel

Samsung D8000 Chrome Bezel

The only downside was the sharpness of picture quality straight out of the box; it was like staring at a lazer it was so vibrant and bright. A quick search on the AV Forums revealed several posts with suggested settings. I tried one and the colour looked too pastel and soft for my liking so I tried another, this time it worked, I now had perfect picture quality.

Another improvement for me was the D8000 having a standard figure of eight detachable power supply cable. The C8000 had a power cable that was moulded into the unit, something that can cause frustration and grief when trying to thread it through a hole with a moulded plug attached.

  • HD Freesat
  • HD Freeview
  • Smart TV
  • Wifi Enabled built in
  • Full HD 1920 x 1080
  • Full Active Shutter 3D
  • DLNA Certified
  • Real black filter
  • Hyper Real 3D Engine
  • Full web browser

The D8000 and D7000 range of Samsung TV’s truly are amazing, you won’t be left wanting with either one of these. The addition of Smart TV is also a great feature, just as Smartphone technology has revolutionised the way in which you use and interact with apps and content on your phone the Samsung Smart TV now lets you view and interact with your favourite content exactly when you want from the comfort of your living room.

If I had to find a negative it would be that the 3d glasses of the older range are not compatible. This new range of 3D TV uses bluetooth connectivity so if you are upgrading from an older Samsung range you will also need to upgrade those 3d specs too.



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Samsung Smart Hub TV

Not to be confused with Internet TV which came as part and parcel of the C8000 range of Samsung 3D Tvs the launch of the D8000 and D7000 range saw Samsung release its Smart Hub. In much the same manner that your mobile smart phone pushes information and Internet accessibility to you the Samsung Smart Hub does much the same thing, it brings the Internet into your living room.

Whether it is facebook, skype, twitter or video calling you can always stay in touch with friends and family using the Samsung Smart TV function. As long as you have Internet access you can you can access a host of apps from the press of a button on your remote control. There are lifestyle apps for pleasure a youtube app and even a selection of apps which enable you to watch the latest movies streamed from Web servers although a membership for these is required. The BBC iPlayer is another app that comes ready installed as well as a dozen or so free games including Texas Hold’em Poker.

The Smart Hub is a great addition to this already stunning range of LCD 3d TV but it is where we in the UK really do miss out on the qwerty style remote control pad that our friends on the other side of the Atlantic received as part and parcel of the package. Typing in long urls and typing with a standard remote control is tedious and tiresome so you might want to invest in an upgraded remote control.

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Samsung Flush Mounting Brackets

Apart from the stunning looks and the fine picture quality of the Samsung C8000 and D8000 one of the main selling points for me was the slim line design. I wanted to hang the TV I purchased on the wall, to be precise I wanted it to sit nicely on the chimney breast but I did not want to channel holes in the wall or have to build a false floating section either. I wanted my TV to sit like a work of art against my wall.

I had already researched the various brackets on offer, I did not want a massive chunky metal frame sticking 4-6 inches out, I wanted my new 3d TV to sit as flush as possible against mt desired location. The HDMI sockets on the side of these 3D TV’s are placed on the side so I knew these would not be a problem in my quest to mount my TV as flush as possible. 

I discovered that Samsung sell flush mounting brackets (WMN2000BX) priced in excess of £100 at high street retailers or between £60 and £70 online at places like Amazon Samsung WMN2000BX Ultra Slim Wall Mount Screen Sizes Upto 40-inch to 55-inch. You can also get cheaper clone models for around £20 a pair, just use the Amazon link and search for “Samsung Slim Wall Mount”. Granted the Samsung own brand do have a better quality finish but nobody is going to see that unless you unhang the TV from the wall. The only gripe I had about the clone style was that the length of the screws required cutting down, they were slightly too long.

Now if you have never seen these flush fitting wall brackets before you might be wondering if they are strong enough to hold your expensive 3D TV in place? The answer is YES they will hold your TV securely in place with zero risk of failing (assuming you screw them into place using the correct wall plugs for yor type of wall and it would require a knock of immense proportions to dislodge your set.

When I first saw the images for these brackets I did wonder how they secured such an expensive TV to the wall. Looking at the image above, the top part screws to the reverse of your TV using the top two VESA holes. Between the two round black connectors runs a metal cable housed in a plastic sheath, a little like the kind you would find on a bicycle lock but obviously not as thick.

The silver round circles screw to your wall, they are cone shaped and if you can imagine hooking your TV over them as you would a picture the cable slots down securely behind those silver disks. The final part pictured bottom right of the above image screws into the lower VESA mount, it is on a pivot allowing you to leverage the TV away from the wall while you insert various connections.

So just how flat to the wall is realistically possible? The images below are of my actual TV sitting as flush as I could get it using the cloned brand of flush wall mounting brackets purchased from Amazon.

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Samsung Remote Control

Why is it that we in the UK always seems to lose out when it comes to goodies? Granted when I received my nice new C8000 series TV it came with a classy solid looking remote control as pictured here to the right. Gone was the black chunky looking plastic hand held device that seems to ship with every TV and in was this sexy looking slim remote control that matched the appeal of the TV. It even has a back light button which you can turn on and off. It was simple to use and you could tell it was quality as it sat in your hand.

With the release of the D8000 and D7000 range the talk was of hew Samsung remote controls. Some reports suggested that we would be treated to a new touch screen remote while others had hoped it would be the new RMC30C2 touch screen version. If I had thought that the C8000 controller was sleek and sophisticated in looks I was about to be blown away with the one that many had hoped would be shipping with the D8000 range. Then came the disappointment, the new RMC30C2 with its 3” colour, touch-sensitive screen was an optional extra and only those sets being shipped to the USA were going to be treated to the dual sided qwerty style remote. Here in the UK we were being packaged with an old fashioned chunky black controller, a massive step backwards for us brits.

Now it isn’t all doom and gloom, if you can manage to grab yourself an old style silver C8000 handset then you will find it works perfectly with the new D8000 and D7000. If you wish to get yourself a nice QWERTY version then expect your pockets to feel £100 lighter however if you really want to impress your friends with a touch screen Samsung remote then you are going to have to stump up the best part of £200

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Samsung 46C8000

Having actually owned two different Samsung 46 C8000 televisions, not for as long as I would have liked to have owned them as I shall explain later. I along with thousands of other TV enthusiasts fell in love with the slim line looks and the pure sex appeal of this TV long before I ever saw one switched on. The pictures on the Internet had me drooling and longing to own one. I remember the anticipation when a local store received one in stock, I so hoped that the picture quality lived up to the expectations I had dreamed of and I wasn’t disappointed.

The in store demonstration of the 3D was simply mind blowing, not that I really wanted the TV for the 3D aspect, I would have purchased this TV for its looks alone as long as standard playback was up to scratch. Owning such a superb looking TV with great picture quality was enough to sell it to me without having 3D that was just a bonus as far as I was concerned. I so nearly purchased one from my local retailer but even with the manager willing to knock £100 off the price I knew that I could get this TV for far cheaper than the £2100 asking price.

I spent hours and days researching for the best deal, I say deal because cheapest wasn’t going to mean the best. I needed to find a TV that fell into the criteria of the John Lewis price match policy because this would enable me to purchase it from John Lewis taking advantage of their 5 year free warranty. My search finally found one and although I had to jump through a few obstacles John Lewis did match the price of £1530.00 including free delivery and a 5 year warranty.

The day my TV arrived I unpacked it like a child at Christmas, setting it up was a breeze and the picture quality playing a Sky HD channel through it was fantastic. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t have a free pair of 3D glasses to try out but I did receive a voucher to send off for a pair which duly arrived two weeks later.

After several failed hours of trying to get the 3D glasses to work I eventually took them to a store to try on a demo TV. The glasses worked fine, oh no, please don’t tell me I have a problem with the 3D on my new D8000? Sure enough a search through a few forums and a pattern emerged that many of the early sets were shipped with a faulty 3D transmitter. Now it was time to test how good the John Lewis aftercare service was. To be honest I cannot fault John Lewis in this department, they had a replacement set out to me within 3 days taking away the old set at the same time.

Setting it up the second time I felt nervous as I prayed that this time the 3D transmitter would work and sure enough it did. Fantastic, now I needed to find a few more pair of 3D glasses and invite a few friends round to show off my new 3D television.

I think it was three weeks that past before I encountered my next negative experience although at the time I never realised that it was one. While sitting watching the TV it performed a power cycle, shutting itself down and back on. I remember picking up the remote control and wondering if I had leant on it. A few days passed by and the TV did this again, I wasn’t too bothered, I just assumed a software upgrade would be released at some stage to hopefully cure whatever it was causing this.

As the days went by the power cycling became more common, mainly when you first switched the set on. Stupidly I decided I could live with this, in hindsight now I realise this was wrong. When you spend £1530.00 on a TV it should be perfect in every way. However this power cycling became twice a day then three times a day and even 5-6 times, eventually enough was enough.

I had been searching the forums for answers, not many people had experienced the same problem as I had, many had been complaining of what they called a handshake problem. A hand shake problem was where the TV lost connection to its input because of a glitch with its HDMI source causing the screen to go blank for a split second. Samsung were aware of this problem and despite attempts to fix it they never did.

After lengthy phone calls to a support technician my set was taken away for repair. Was I happy that my set was going to be repaired rather than replaced yes of course I was. My problem was that the C8000 had been littered with reliability issues to such an extent that John Lewis had withdrew it from sale. I could either have a repair or a refund. Now a refund might sound okay but I had invested in 3 further pairs of 3D glasses and at £90 a pair what would I do with them?

My set was away for 7 days being repaired before being returned, the guys who returned it waited while I set it up again to ensure everything was okay. I wasn’t sure if the picture quality had the same wow factor, to me it didn’t look as good but I was assured it wasn’t the TV and that it was the input source, I wasn’t 100% sure but decided to see what it was like after a little play. The guys left and no sooner had they drove out of the street the TV started going through a power down cycle again. I couldn’t believe my eyes and I was straight back on the phone to complain. Within 30 minutes the same guys who had dropped it off were taking it away again.

After several days I made a call to the repair centre to see what the situation was, I had now been without my beautiful TV for 12 days. I was informed that my C8000 had been fitted with a new panel, a new power supply and a new motherboard and that final testing was being carried out, hopefully I should have it back within 48 hours. When my phone rang two days later and the voice on the other end told me that the set had failed again while on test I finally hit the roof.

While all this fuss had been going on I was contacted by someone from the head of the Samsung repair team. This guy had been reading about my problems as I had been listing them and discussing issues with members at the AV Forums. The guy wrongly thought that I had been suffering the hand shake issue which they were trying to get to the bottom of. After his call I had dialled 1471 and I managed to get his mobile number.

On calling this head of department and speaking direct to him on his mobile phone, he was appalled that a service team had taken so many attempt to repair the TV and he was in amazement as to why they had virtually replaced every part thus making a new set all bar the housing. Several phone calls later and my refusal to accept the set back and also hearing that Samsung were no longer producing the C8000 due to poor reliability and I had the call I had been waiting for.

Samsung had agreed to replace my C8000 with the even sexier brand new D8000, not only that, as the 3D glasses are non compatible I was to receive four new pairs of the Bluetooth 3D glasses. I was told that it could be up to 14 days before I received my new D8000 as Samsung themselves had none in stock in the UK but I didn’t mind the wait. My new set arrived and so far so good, I will report on my findings of the D8000 in another post but for those considering an old C8000 don’t do it, my research has found that the C8000 is riddled with reliability issues that are not going to go away.

I have read online tests, reviews and reports all giving the C8000 a glowing report but the problem is that the ugly issues and reliability failings that plague this model do not rear their ugly head until weeks or sometimes months into owning one.

Further reading AV Forums C8000 Owners Thread:

 

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