Samsung QE65Q8C QLED 4K HDR TV Review & Comments

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I wanted a nice and tidy unit to fit it all on but can't find one anywhere. I may have to go the av rack like you I think as wall mount isn't an option.
 
I wish LCD/LED TV manufacturers perfected the technology before moving on to the next thing. Right now the word NITS seems to be the buzz word, but nobody outside of a studio or geekfest had ever heard of until a couple of years ago, now it's in every post!

I really can't see why the LED backlight issue can't be sorted, imagine if they did to an extent that it can half-hope to compete with OLED. THEN start introducing the crazy brightness levels without the backighting showing itself and quite frankly ruining a TV. Let's face it most films have cinema bars and if they aren't black it spoils it; on LCD grey bars can be ignored, but vertical strobe lights can't be, especially not on a flagship-ish TV.

I turned down a 55KS9000 at John Lewis over the weekend for £1199+free £450 soundbar (miss-priced due to leaving an old free soundbar offer sticker with a further reduced price!) because I know it will disappoint watching at night with the light bleed.

If Samsung weren't chasing NITS, they would perhaps have left the LEDs on the side and that at least would mean cinema-black option to control the bars. As it is, it looks garbarge unless it's full 16:9 content.

But then I don't see why ALL mid-range and upper tier TVs don't have FALD now. LED technology is mature and it is very cheap. Circuitry to control an array of lights is hardly rocket science surely, and even if it didn't have the 4million and OLED has, if it had a 500 hundred zones with dynamic control that would make it capable of showing decent black level and cinema bars etc.
 
I've watched 5 movies now on the 65" Q7F and not once noticed the black bars not staying black. I'm quite blown away by this set so far. I've been scrutinizing for problems and to my eyes the screen seems fantastic. Out the box I've tweaked away and have achieved what I feel is an incredibly detailed and balanced picture with natural colours. I've noticed no irritating things whatsoever so far that has made me think "oh dear". I know the price is high and I came very close to buying a 902B but this set has one huge advantage and that is for people who want to wall mount and have a slim set that mounts perfectly flush with no cables apart from a 2mm optical cable. Very aesthetically pleasing in a lounge I have to live in! No other set has this and in my mind was a huge selling point. I've read and seen the advantages of all the types, OLED, fald, edge lit and everything has a compromise. It's just people have to chose which compromise and advantages suits their lifestyle. One-day they will perfect it but in the mean time I personally am absolutely loving this set. Feel free to ask me anything.
 
Just to add. I watch a good mix of standard sky HD, blu ray and 4k Netflix. I've been gaming on my PS4 too and this is just incredible playing Last of US and Witcher 3 currently. I can feel no lag at all. Motion to my eye has not been a problem. I'm sorry to bore people but genuinely happy so far. I've put on a few YouTube screen test stuff and notice no issues. I know it's expensive but in all honesty I know if I'd spent less on the 902B or anything else it would of been an eyesore and irritating to where it is positioned. I use active Avi ADM 40 speakers as my sound and I'm so happy that the optical out I need is on the connect box. It's just one less cable to have hanging down my wall.
 
I wish LCD/LED TV manufacturers perfected the technology before moving on to the next thing. Right now the word NITS seems to be the buzz word, but nobody outside of a studio or geekfest had ever heard of until a couple of years ago, now it's in every post!

I really can't see why the LED backlight issue can't be sorted, imagine if they did to an extent that it can half-hope to compete with OLED. THEN start introducing the crazy brightness levels without the backighting showing itself and quite frankly ruining a TV. Let's face it most films have cinema bars and if they aren't black it spoils it; on LCD grey bars can be ignored, but vertical strobe lights can't be, especially not on a flagship-ish TV.

I turned down a 55KS9000 at John Lewis over the weekend for £1199+free £450 soundbar (miss-priced due to leaving an old free soundbar offer sticker with a further reduced price!) because I know it will disappoint watching at night with the light bleed.

If Samsung weren't chasing NITS, they would perhaps have left the LEDs on the side and that at least would mean cinema-black option to control the bars. As it is, it looks garbarge unless it's full 16:9 content.

But then I don't see why ALL mid-range and upper tier TVs don't have FALD now. LED technology is mature and it is very cheap. Circuitry to control an array of lights is hardly rocket science surely, and even if it didn't have the 4million and OLED has, if it had a 500 hundred zones with dynamic control that would make it capable of showing decent black level and cinema bars etc.


Agreed - but I think Nits was last year, this year the latest "must have" is Colour Volume. To be fair to Samsung they know their market is probably not interested in perfect blacks or natural pictures. Bright and over-saturated will no doubt capture get the younger gaming generations attention ...

However I think they may have problems shifting units this year as both the QE and MU series are vastly overpriced for what they offer. If you are going cheap then the KS series from last year looks a no-brainer over the the MU models but once they are gone it will be a hard sell.
 
Agreed - but I think Nits was last year, this year the latest "must have" is Colour Volume. To be fair to Samsung they know their market is probably not interested in perfect blacks or natural pictures. Bright and over-saturated will no doubt capture get the younger gaming generations attention ...

However I think they may have problems shifting units this year as both the QE and MU series are vastly overpriced for what they offer. If you are going cheap then the KS series from last year looks a no-brainer over the the MU models but once they are gone it will be a hard sell.

Colour Volume is dependent on 'Nits' too. Its just a better way to assess the main aspects of HDR in one figure rather than break it all down into its components and can show how HDR TV's compare more easily.

Colour volume is determined by the Colour Gamut and how bright these colours go. Colour Gamut is usually shown by a Triangle of colours with Red, Green and Blue but these colours can also have luminescence (brightness). Its like a Toblerone where the triangle is the colour gamut' and length is the brightness (measured in Nits) - this effectively determines the colour volume. A TV with identical Colour Gamuts can have different colour volume depending on their contrast ratio (the difference between the Peak Brightness and black level). The Q8 is not as Bright as the new Sony FALD LED but because it has a wider colour gamut, it has a greater colour volume. Both TV's meet and pass the minimum standards for UHD Premium of course.

The MU series are 'expensive' and based on RTINGs review, are not that far off the standards of the Panasonic DX702 from last year - which is better than last years KU series. Its not good enough for UHD Premium standards though - something the KS series passed easily. The KS also has a wider colour gamut and whilst Colour volume wasn't mentioned last year, I bet it has a greater colour volume. The Q series are not as bright as the KS series (it seems) but do have a wider colour gamut which is more likely to increase the colour volume.

As far as pricing goes, most TV's this year seem expensive but most TV's last year were as well. The 58" DX902 was around the £2700 price point but dropped nearly £1k in ~3months This years TV's seem expensive because the prices of last years are now 'cheap' you can buy a 65" KS8000 for less than £2k so seeing the prices of the Q8 and MU - also looking at last years OLED TV prices now, really makes these seem a LOT. Brexit may have had some influence but I do think they have priced these as a 'worst case' scenario - fearing the collapse if/when we leave the EU.
 
I wish LCD/LED TV manufacturers perfected the technology before moving on to the next thing. Right now the word NITS seems to be the buzz word, but nobody outside of a studio or geekfest had ever heard of until a couple of years ago, now it's in every post!

I really can't see why the LED backlight issue can't be sorted, imagine if they did to an extent that it can half-hope to compete with OLED. THEN start introducing the crazy brightness levels without the backighting showing itself and quite frankly ruining a TV. Let's face it most films have cinema bars and if they aren't black it spoils it; on LCD grey bars can be ignored, but vertical strobe lights can't be, especially not on a flagship-ish TV.

I turned down a 55KS9000 at John Lewis over the weekend for £1199+free £450 soundbar (miss-priced due to leaving an old free soundbar offer sticker with a further reduced price!) because I know it will disappoint watching at night with the light bleed.

If Samsung weren't chasing NITS, they would perhaps have left the LEDs on the side and that at least would mean cinema-black option to control the bars. As it is, it looks garbarge unless it's full 16:9 content.

But then I don't see why ALL mid-range and upper tier TVs don't have FALD now. LED technology is mature and it is very cheap. Circuitry to control an array of lights is hardly rocket science surely, and even if it didn't have the 4million and OLED has, if it had a 500 hundred zones with dynamic control that would make it capable of showing decent black level and cinema bars etc.


Totally agree, it's become an obsession.

I'm more interested in how dark a tv can go rather than how bright... which is why I won't consider and LED panel no matter how many ways they dress it up.

I often watch in a darkened room so Oled is more tempting for me.
 
Totally agree, it's become an obsession.

I'm more interested in how dark a tv can go rather than how bright... which is why I won't consider and LED panel no matter how many ways they dress it up.

I often watch in a darkened room so Oled is more tempting for me.

I always watch in a darkened room and with SDR, there is no issues with light bleed, 'grey' or uneven bars, haloing etc. The Blacks, whilst not 'perfect' when measured, are incredibly black none the less. The difference between an OLED black (0.00nits) vs an LED (0.03nits) is imperceptible - maybe if they were next to each other you could see a difference.

At the other end of the scale, OLEDs are around 650nits (give or take depending on mode) which is bright - especially when compared to SDR. But that's still a long way off from 1400-1500nits. The disadvantage of LEDs is that you can get some unevenness with black bars although not distracting and no worse than some LEDs have with SDR content and occasional haloing (mostly at the credits) but with full screen images, the picture is more spectacular. Its not as if you have to watch with the backlight on Max either - you can turn it down several notches and still get over 1000nits - even turn it down to get 800nits to minimise these issues and still get a brighter and more vibrant image than an OLED can produce.

HDR isn't always about 'brightness' as most of the films image is less than 300nits but the brightness is used to make things like Neon, lightning, LED Lighting, fire, sun etc really glow like they would in more real world situations. You talk about the 'dark' areas but LG OLEDs crush black detail so lose that and its not as if these panels can get 'dark' - a consequence though is viewing angles so that maybe an issue in some houses.

No TV is perfect and each has their 'pro's and cons'. I admit looking at the price of last years OLEDs and comparing them to this years QLEDs, I can't make a case to buy the new Samsungs. However if you look at the price of the KS series, its a great TV for the interim - the next few years until HDR really takes off and we get HDMI 2.1 and its feature set (eARC, Game VRR etc). Maybe by then, we will see big improvements in OLED technology - enabling them to go much brighter. Maybe we will see the the self emitting QLED panels too. I can see 12bit panels coming soon too.

I see it more of a question of what budget you have, whether you intend to buy something that will see you through whilst HDR and technology are expanding or happy to spend a fortune and not too bothered about what is around the corner, how much HDR (mostly films as they are often in the 21:9 ratio) you watch and think you will watch in the upcoming few years etc. If your HDR viewing consists mostly of films and watch a lot then maybe it is worth considering an OLED but if 95% or more is SDR, then an LED may well surprise you. We don't know how these TV's handle HLG either so maybe that could be worth waiting to compare.

I bought my KS8000 because at the time it was around £1k less than an equivalent sized OLED with better specs but I also had one eye on the future and wasn't prepared to spend that 'extra' for something I may be replacing in 2-3yrs. Most of these TV's are only 'just' passing the 'minimum' requirements for HDR10 but fall short on reaching the full standards. At most we only have around 75% of the REC2020 colour gamut and it seems not even 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut. DV content is 12bit and mastered to 4000nits yet we still only have 10bit panels and fall short on that level of brightness so overall there is a lot of room to improve - let alone the new HDMI2.1 specs and feature set. I would have been more annoyed if I spent £3k+ on a TV and then felt compelled to replace in a year or two than buy something for half that price to see me through the early days when content is more limited and barely watched.
 
I hear what you're saying but the oled black level makes the contrast higher than LCD in terms of perception, hdr and new specs like that I'm not too fussed about, I just want a good uniform screen that has a great picture and doesn't glow in the corners.

Philips made a 21:9 to years ago, I wonder why this didn't take off as I would consider this as a trade off to get a black barless picture for films and either put up with a cropped image top and bottom for general tv or side bars. LCD would be perfect for this!
 
I hear what you're saying but the oled black level makes the contrast higher than LCD in terms of perception, hdr and new specs like that I'm not too fussed about, I just want a good uniform screen that has a great picture and doesn't glow in the corners.

Philips made a 21:9 to years ago, I wonder why this didn't take off as I would consider this as a trade off to get a black barless picture for films and either put up with a cropped image top and bottom for general tv or side bars. LCD would be perfect for this!

Answer me this then - how much difference can 0.03nits make? That is the measured difference between the two technology and anyone who owns these TV's will tell you the blacks are inky black.

Contrast Ratio is 'calculated' by taking the peak brightness value and dividing by the black value. As OLEDs have a '0' black value, any number divided by 0 gives an infinite answer. Therefore OLEDs are judged to have an infinite Contrast Ratio. In terms of perception, the human eye works on 'light' and every review will say that HDR and the specular highlights of LEDs is far more impressive than OLEDs. If there was 'writing' on an OLED at 0.03nits on a black background, you would struggle to see it but you could see the difference between highlights at 600nits and the 1400nits. Again it comes down to the way our eyes work and that is down to receiving light. In fact with dimming, the blacks on an LED can drop lower - from AVForums review of the KS8000 - The KS8000 uses a VA panel and, like Samsung's other SUHD TVs this year, it delivers a very impressive black level measurement of 0.015 nits with the local dimming off and 0.001 nits with it in the low setting. Now tell me how much difference the human eye can detect between 0.000nits and 0.001nits and how much difference that can and does make at the other end of the scale - how much 'brighter' 600nits looks against 0 black compared to 1400nits and 0.001nits?

The Perceptual Colour Volume uses the PQ EOTF out to 10,000nits and the Rec. 2020 colour gamut measured using the ICtCp colour graph to take into account human visual perception. This measurement uses 393 data points which produces a number expressed in Millions of Distinguishable Colours (MDC). The Sony A1 (OLED) has a perceptual colour volume rating of 335, the Q8 (LED) has a perceptual colour volume of 442 - meaning the Q8 has MANY more distinguishable colours - and that includes those at the darker end of the spectrum too.

There is a reason that the KS series won many awards last year and was the TV of choice for most 4k HDR Bluray reviewers and aficionados - in particular the KS9500. The KS won best TV for 2016 with WhatHiFi. The OLEDs are regarded very highly - understandably so - but their strength is mostly with SDR content- certainly last year. OLED's lost detail in the blacks with crushing and lost details in the brights too - also suffered tone mapping issues with content mastered over 1000 nits resulting in clipping.

I am not saying that LEDs are the best and OLEDs are terrible, they aren't. Each has their benefits, strengths and weaknesses, pro's and con's. Buying a TV these days is not that straightforward and necessitates drawing up a list of what's most important, what you will primarily be using it for and what areas you may be willing to compromise on. By compromise, I mean that you won't be getting 'the best' in every category for every source. Don't watch SD and rarely/never watch HDR, then OLEDs may well be the 'best' option for SDR HD and 4k content. Spend hours gaming at a time then maybe an LED is the 'safer' option - especially if you don't want your HuD or Health Bar to be retained when you switch sources. Also when I say 'compromise' I don't mean that you have to go without or have 'poor' quality in those areas - an OLED may be the 'best' for SDR HD and 4k content but the LEDs are still excellent. LEDs may have the 'edge' when it comes to more spectacular HDR but OLEDs are still excellent choices. Whatever you decide, you will have to compromise in some areas
 
Hi everyone, just bought it (the 55'' model) and I have a quick question. I have properly connected the tv to my home network but I can't find the way to add as a source a network drive (which my androidtv box find successfuly). Anyone know where this option is? It seems to be missing in the "source" section...thank you!
 
Samsung are going backwards. My 2014 hu7500 has an sdr picture on a par or better than these.
Leds being placed on the bottom causes a lot of issues with uniformity. The 2015 models even had cinema black with worked very well but is also impossible on newer models. Unless Samsung up their game the likes of Sony and LG will leave them behind as they are being a lot more innovative right now. My current tv is a 2015 eg960 and i paid 1599 pounds for it and these new Qleds cannot even come close with sdr which is most of what we will watch for many years to come.
 
Samsung are going backwards. My 2014 hu7500 has an sdr picture on a par or better than these.
Leds being placed on the bottom causes a lot of issues with uniformity. The 2015 models even had cinema black with worked very well but is also impossible on newer models. Unless Samsung up their game the likes of Sony and LG will leave them behind as they are being a lot more innovative right now. My current tv is a 2015 eg960 and i paid 1599 pounds for it and these new Qleds cannot even come close with sdr which is most of what we will watch for many years to come.

I can assure you, the HU7500 is not as good at SDR PQ and Samsung are not going 'backwards'. These TV's, have much darker blacks. The HU7500 at best can't match the minimum requirement necessary for HDR yet these TV's have almost perfect Blacks. 0.0001nits compared to the HU7500's over 0.05nits - the minimum level stipulated for HDR. The black level alone makes these a much better SDR TV

With SDR you don't get any bleed, any uniformity issues, any haloing etc and the only time that can be present is with HDR content - even FALDs have haloing.

As for going backwards, not only is SDR improved, these TV's have HDR and will have HLG and Dynamic HDR support too. The only thing th HU7500 does 'better' is 3D. Even the sound is better...
 
You'll find that actually they don't. It's all marketing gimmickry. They are still VA lcds and come with all the same issues. The local dimming cannot make up for the lack of real contrast. Going back to their last line of lcds with the old ccfl backlights blacks have actually gotten worse.

They were darker without the need for local dimming. All Samsung are good at these days is marketing because their products are falling behind the competition. The newer Sony tvs are a step forward with their dual guide plates. Even they however are no comparison to OLED.

Even under store light the superiority of oled can be sen just with the colour and viewing angles.

VA has had it's day and eventually Samsung are going to have to bite the bullet and accept reality just like Panasonic did with plasma. People can justify their purchases all they want but they are only deceiving themselves. QLED is a dead end and people are being conned.
 
Gawd, I left hifi forums because it was full of people getting riled about equipment that they won't buy and feel the need to be a spokesperson and armchair expert. Samsung aren't conning people and the public and reviewers will decide. It's a tv to watch stuff on. If it looks good and makes the film enjoyable then it's a win. Price is only relevant if you can afford it. So all tv's have pros and cons. These Qled fill a space in the market. It might not be your preference or what you would buy but for others it ticks the boxes.
 
People are being conned. The very term QLED is to get average consumers confused into thinking they are getting something that is better than it actually is. Quantum Dot and all that other garbage is just more marketing crap to make people believe a product is better.

SUHD was another marketing term that means nothing but a price increase for an average product.
The truth is lcd has gone as far as it can. Only Samsung believe charging a fortune for old tech is justified. Sony, Philips, Panasonic and LG have moved on.
 
I can assure you, the HU7500 is not as good at SDR PQ and Samsung are not going 'backwards'.

Only because they're all front.
 
Old thread I know but does anyone know the length of the cable that connects the tv to the one connect box? Thank you
 

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