Panasonic TX-P50GT30B belongs to the class of latest 2011 GT models which has been tinkered in certain areas. It is visible right from the appearance up to the technology incorporated. A few interesting tit-bits of the TV and which has been revamped from the previous model is listed below,

• The panel is based on the Neoplasma display technology whereas the previous models are based on the NeoPDP. The characteristic cosmetic and performance oriented advantages are cleaner bezel, and rapid switching phosphourous. Owing to the incorporation of such phosphour, it can actively control the crosstalk and the afterglow effect.
• Secondly, the display is constructed using the recent version of the Infinite Pro Black Filter which reduces the effect the surrounding light and actively reproduce deeper blacks
• The aesthetic level is increased by immersing the design with elegancy and contemporary look.
• Viera Cast internet feature is replaced to the latest Viera Connect platform
• Last, but not the least the GT30 family has been scrutinized for THX certification including the 3D viewing.
• The power consumption is also admirably good owing to the Neoplasma display technology and are not practically higher than the LCD models of the comparable size.

In other words, Panasonic tries to deliver critically good essence of the VT30 product line but at a relatively cheaper price.

Overview

Panasonic TX-P50GT30B TV has all the exciting features of the modern television but at the affordable market price. The 600 Hz sub field fast switching phosphorous renders good image quality in both the 2D and the 3D content. The Infinite black pro display deeper black and controls the glare occurring on the face of the panel under ambient light environment. The Viera Connect contains a few internet applications but are essential ones. Finally, Panasonic’s Neo Plasma technology provides the changes in the plasma display and along with the THX certification the television has great expectations to be met.

Design

The overall design vibrates elegancy and the sleek structure furthermore deepens the contemporary look. The screen is fitted within the chrome trim framework, which at the first glance might not be alluring. However it tapers to deep black bezel which eventually fades in to the gun metallic colour grey area surrounding the Panasonic logo located at the bottom centre. It is the very first effect that one would perceive on looking at it. Chiefly, Panasonic has renovated the structural aspects of the 2011 television designs and this one is not an exception. The bezel’s black is more attractive as it is sort of jet and gloss black combination used. Edges have been opted for a brushed aluminium sort of appearance which is rather rounder towards the corner. The Bezel’s inside is trimmed with silver colour and is located right adjacent to the panel. The silver trim makes it nearly impossible for the perfect merge of the deep blacks with the bezel, even though when it is capable of it. This sort of detraction could be avoided by placing the silver trim outside the outer edge of the panel rather than the inside.

Besides this, the Panasonic TX-P50GT30B 50 inch screen looks majestic. The bezel part measures 3cm wide towards the side and 6cm towards the bottom. Considering the thickness and bulkier plasma models, this one is surprisingly thinner and measures from 3cm to 6cm towards the end, and the largest thickness beholds the area for the electronic components. However, the wall mount would be critical as it weighs around 26Kg, despite the slim structure. Nevertheless, it uses downward pointing inputs to assist in wall mounting. Even so, the HDMI slots are somewhat closely packed which could lead to clumsy cable arrangement.  Apart from the tidy and pristine appearance the screen suffers slight brightness fluctuation (Fbr) and the image retention is still not handled uniformly. Though the occurrences are rare, visible banding could have been eluded. The screen is designed to permit less power consumption especially while displaying darker images. However in reality, it is not so and considerable and obvious delay in deciding the dimness or the brightness makes a hindered viewing experience. We expect almost an instantaneous shift.

Slots and Connectivity

Surprisingly Panasonic has opted for hard wired power cable for a higher end model like this one, whereas it has chosen the removable kettle power cable for the entry level television. It could be for some technical and design reasons; still one could not help notice the minute differences. As mentioned earlier, the connections are re-structured with the style of being positioned within the reach, especially towards the bottom of the display and it faces downwards. Despite the good logical location, the HDMI ports could have been placed conveniently. The allocated space for providing the connections to the television is a point of debate. Some would feel comfortable with the positioning whereas for some it is too closer to the edge thereby making the cable visible. However, Usage of right angle adapters prevents the cable being seen awkwardly at the television side. Furthermore, if it is planned to be wall mounted it is advisable to plug-in certain connections which are slightly tricky. Such connections are to be considered prior to mounting the television on the bracket. The inherent nature of the plasma technology is to yield more heat when compared to its LCD/LED counterparts. An in-built cooling fan vents off the heat and certain sensitive ears can pick the shallow sound of the fan. Though it is not annoying, it is one of the observations noted.

Like in any latest models, Panasonic TX-P50GT30B 50-inch 3D TV poses four HDMI port, three USB port, Scart connector, RCA input and RF connection. Alongside, LAN connector to get connected to the net and firmware updates is also present. The aerial socket along with the satellite connector faces downward. The special connectors such as the SCART and the composite video uses break-out adaptor cable. One of the USB cables can be used for recharging the 3D glasses.

3D Glass

Panasonic has given the choice of purchasing the 3D glasses to the consumer itself for this model. The VT30 television lines are supplied with two pair of 3D glasses whereas this one does not come with any. Hence, it is up to the user to purchase the 3D glass and view the content or leave it alone. Buying universal 3D glass can also be a good choice, but Panasonic has re-engineered the 3D glasses to a better style and usability. The latest glass has considerably wider eye coverage area, so it blocks out the light entering from the sides. It is available in three sizes, viz Large, Medium and Small and hence anyone in the family can try. They fit comfortably even over optical glasses and can be recharged.

Speculations loom around that in the near future, new 3D glass would be released.

Remote Control

The remote control is user friendly and produces a click sound rather than the squishy feeling. Panasonic remote control is relatively the same as the one used for VT30 line-ups. Basic remote control style is sufficient to meet the navigating demands. The remote control’s colour glares up in silver and deep grey combination. The first impression which one would get on holding the remote is that the front row buttons are rammed towards the edge. Such an arrangement provides very little space for the fingers to be placed for maneuvering the lay-out. Unique combination such as the power button, direct 3D button and the TV/AV input button is placed in the front row. The menu button occupies the second row and shares the row with the aspect ratio change, TV recording and the Viera Connect buttons. Menu button is something very essential for the user and had it been centrally located it would be very appropriate. Surprisingly, the Viera cast is inscribed inspite of Viera Connect, could be because of space constraint. Four coloured buttons are located beneath the cursor buttons. Major function of these buttons is to support the navigation and control various functions. The volume and the channel change bars are pushed down beneath the controls located for accessing the connected equipment. Overall it is intuitive and still user-friendly but somewhat peculiar in arrangement.

User Interface

The set-up process is very easy and once the connection is given; aerial or satellite dish, the respective channels tune in seamlessly. Another notable point is the calibration time or otherwise indicated as the run in time. It varies between 200 to 500 hours, to get the most optimum result and settings. The menu system is re-shuffled and is easy for navigating when compared to the previous year menu style. It has a very sophisticated access and we appreciate the effort for removing the block and gaudy graphics sequenced with primary colours. Colours are substituted with mild colours and partially transparent grey backdrop. Unlike the previous year arrangement, this set-up facilitates easy reading and navigating. The menu system consists of four controls, viz picture, timer, sound and set-up. The sound has furthermore three selections viz, speech, music and the hall. Various features of the in-built sound system such as the equalizer, balance are controlled. The timer sub-menu consists of timer programming, timer off/on and the auto standby options. The set-up offers eco navigation, recording, link setting, network and display setting and child lock. The picture related stuff such as the 3D setting and the over scan are now tactfully placed in the picture and not inside the set-up menu as done with the previous models. The picture menu offers a wide and contrast combination such as the dynamic to the THX preset, which can be defined as an innovative setting. Besides this, the professional 1 &2 present in the advance settings are two modes of ISF. The application of the ISFcc is to offer good setting condition for the calibrator to be viewed for day and the night environment. Once again, the settings optimised for various viewing condition can be locked, thereby avoiding accidental change of the settings.

Viewing experience can be tailor-made by maneuvering through various options such as the contrast control, brightness control, sharpness control and the CATS. The Contrast automatic tracking system (CATS) must be used wisely because it adjust the contrast from one scene to another which can in turn create image fluctuation. There are certain minute details to be considered before tuning for the various picture settings. Take for an example, while tuning either the professional 1 or 2, it is vital to turn off the 16:9 overscan. It can deliver HD material which would influence the resolution adversely. Similarly the picture quality is appreciable even without accessing the resolution enhancer and it is advisable not to do so. Aspects such as the side panel control, pixel orbiter and the scrolling bar functions effectively reduce the issue of image retention.

Grouping the programs as per the EPG is available. Panasonic’s EPG has not been refurbished in any aspect and still maintains the same style. EPG lacks the facility to provide preview in thumbnail view and many would not be a fan of an outdated EPG.

The colour adjustments can be enhanced using the colour management system, white balance and the gamma setting. White balance maintains two calibration of the grey scale, whereas the CMS adjusts the primary details of the colour such as the hue and the luminance. The 3D settings can also be adjusted to yield very fine details.

Features

Neo plasma display technology
Plasma display technology always had an upper hand in delivering good picture quality but with effect on image noise and power consumption and chunkier models. Panasonic has researched a great deal in this area and has come up with the Neo plasma technology. Basically, the structure and the materials used in the plasma technology have been replaced. It uses new rapid switching phosphorous which can reduce the after glow time, an inherent issue of the plasma technology. Moreover, the rib structure surrounding each pixel has very reduced dimension which enhances the way it emit light. This in turn can produce good luminous panel, which yields bright and smart pictures.

600Hz SFD Frame Creation Pro
The 600Hz sub field fast switching phosphorous is based on the switching phosphorous technology. Fast switching phosphorous, the newly evolved technology works in each frame, as it ought to be displayed for fraction of seconds. It works in delivering good high definition picture quality. Especially the fast moving objects are displayed clearly even in the 3D setting.

Infinite Black Pro
Infinite black pro delivers the best and excellent blacks with negligible graying. It can be equaled to that of VT20 television lines of Panasonic, by calibrating the television. It controls the screen reflections and produces excellent deep blacks even under broad daylight. It is achieved by altering the panel louver shape and material used for constructing the same. The filter is redesigned to prevent light reflecting the panel. Moreover, the absorption effect is reduced thereby creating controlled glare and largely eliminating the internal reflections which can happen on the panel’s face. The minor downside observed in this technology is that, it also reduces the level of vertical viewing angle, yet it gives the freedom for the user to watch the TV from any horizontal angle. Despite, the black squares surrounded by white squares it is still able to deliver impressive blacks. The TV sometimes handles the floating blacks nominally, which is observed to occur while showing dark content. Owing to the technical advancements, the effect is least felt in this model. The automatic Brightness Limiting circuitry readily balances or increases the luminance, when something very bright appears on the screen. The mid range of ABL suffers when bright content appears on the screen. The screen automatically lowers the luminance and then reverts to the normal condition. The fluctuations are noticed in the brand new sets and fades away after 100 hours of usage time.

VIERA Connect
The Viera Connect, an improved internet service of Panasonic television is simple and straight forward to use. It had widened the applicability to several steps. By simply connecting the LAN cable or using the Wireless dongle, the connection is established. Numerous internet functions can be browsed using the Viera connect. Facebook, Skype, Acetrack, Cinetrailer, Euronews, Twitter are a few. It gets added regularly. The application is smart and easy to use. The Skype video call is possible by adding the additional HD communication camera from Panasonic. The camera includes exclusive unidirectional microphone which can pick the sound around the hall effectively, thereby can engage in family video conferencing.  Panasonic has extended the Viera Remote apps to be downloaded to the Apple mobile devices. By doing so, the mobile phone can be used as remote control to watch the television. The app readily equips the mobile to be navigated through the touch screen. Not to mention, the Viera Remote app allows the user to input the characters while browsing the internet, so any messages on the Facebook or Twitter can be keyed in directly from the mobile phone. Furthermore, by downloading the Viera Simulator App, one can transfer the Apple iTunes directly via the TV. Overall, Panasonic is serious to capture the market of internet television and inter device application.

Performance
Panasonic TX-P50GT30B 3D Plasma TV has good picture quality; however the best is delivered once it is calibrated. The accuracy is impressively increased especially the grey scale and the colour gamut. Specifically the interlacing and the scaling are handled well and imitate blacks with magnificent contrast ratio. The scenario is further enhanced in the high definition mode.

Calibration Results

Calibration process is made easier by allocating the inner area clean in the screen for viewing the ongoing calibration. The grey scale calibration is important because, it determines the extent of discoloration which proportionately influences the entire image quality. Results are summarized below;

• RGB tracking shows an extent of 5% slightly higher for green and 5% lower for the red when compared against the reference standard.
• Delta E, is approximately between 3 to 5, though it is low, it still produce minor discoloration in the grey scale defining which would adversely impact the colour accuracy
• Gamma value comes around 2.0 which is more apt for day time viewing and yield brighter picture, but can slightly influence the black level.
• On running the calibration for prolonged time, one can certainly meet the expected improvement in the colour gamut, but overall it is very good.
• The latest colour management system permits the calibration of luminance, hue and the colour. The primary colours were nearing accuracy whereas the remaining colours exhibited slight errors. In continuation with the same, one cannot calibrate the secondary colours and hence should live with it.

Image Quality
P50GT30B Panasonic 3D TV produces brilliant video processing results with good scaling of the 576i and the 480i images by not losing minute details. There were no issues of undesirable ringing complaints. Very slight jaggies were observed only at the bottom but not so visible. The television quietly detected the 3:2 film cadence, whereas there was a few seconds of struggling time noted in detecting the 2:2 cadence. Besides this, it was unable to lock at 30fps. Nevertheless, we like the way it displayed the content containing video text and the displayed letters were not blurred or appeared shredded. An interesting phenomenon while watching the 24p content is to turn off the intelligent frame creation and the smooth film function. In the presence of these effects, the film would appear with motion artefacts. There is no judder effects observed under this condition.

Picture Quality – 2D

The picture quality of the 2D high definition material is outstanding. The colour accuracy is at its best and the grey scale in combination with the scaling and the de-interlacing looks phenomenal. The standard definition 2D content also surpass in image quality, occasions of inferior image quality would be the result of compressing poor incoming  content and cannot be regarded as the TV’s defect. The accuracy of the colour palette is breath-taking, but sometimes the accuracy level reveals the 50Hz bug seen on rapidly moving objects. Again, the issue is not seen in Blu-ray discs as it is encoded in the 24p thereby resulting in the nearly judder free content. The image quality can be expressed as the team work effectively carried out by the neo plasma technology, infinite black pro and the 600Hz SFD.

The issues observed in the image quality with respect to the Panasonic plasmas when compared to the previous launches are not widely seen in here. The flickering effect is user sensitive and would be prominent for a few, but there is no doubt that this one has no major issues as such. The PWM noise is seen at certain instances, but the image quality is never curtailed at any cost. The posterisation effect, an inherent disadvantage of the plasma technology is observed here, but the extent is what one would see for. It definitely did not detract the viewing attention and hence can be considered very minimal. The buzzing sound of the plasma display could be heard only if we try very hard to listen by keeping the head close to the television. Image retention is not highly pronounced, but a few complaints of the burn in issue can be seen in the discussion forums. Though it is reported by Panasonic as temporary, it could have been avoided.

Picture Quality – 3D

The THX certification of 3D has placed the Panasonic on great expectation platform. The expectations are not completely met, but some signs of potential improvement in the 3D can be awaited. The 3D usability is simple and notable 3D settings are available. The 2D to 3D depth control permits the user to select the image depth of 3D on the 2D content. The 3D adjustment controls only the depth of the 3D content. The picture sequence reverse the 3D image, whereas the edge smoother function adopts to lower resolution side by side content. Not to mention, the 3D detection mode can automatically detect the incoming 3D signal with respect to the side by side, top and bottom and the frame sequential.

The full definition 3D, Panasonic has drained good amount of energy in delivering the best in class of the 3D. It oozes out 3D content with excellent control on the motion and reduced crosstalk. The reasons can be attributed to the high speed drive, fast decay phosphor, high speed illumination. The glass also acts as a good medium to enrich the 3D performance. The screen size is also another factor which pays good dividend in watching the 3D. Any smaller screen size would derail the effect of watching the television through a window. The cross talk, though present at some occasions is negligible as the content itself is rich in producing an immersing effect rather than the distracting effect. Not to mention, the 3D games were handled at it its best with no complicated ghosting effects. The only concern is the input lag observed while watching the game mode. When compared to other Panasonic plasma models, which has an impressive 16ms input lag, this one delivers 30ms. Agreed the economic price range of the Panasonic TX-P50GT30B, but we would expect the input lag better so as to keep the gamers excited.

The 50Hz Issue
The issues pertaining to the 50Hz material made tremendous round-ups in the discussion forums, in the previous year. It was reported as seeing green, red, blue ghosting that encircles fast moving objects and rapid camera pans. The issue is not seen when viewed with the intelligent frame creation or with the blue ray disc content. Technically, the issue can be reported as image split-up on the leading corner of the on the move white circles, exclusive with the 50Hz content. The issue becomes obvious depending on the extent of the movement. The higher resolution and the lowered compression in PAL DVD’s make the issue prominent. Though Panasonic has played a good game in the 3D arena,  it had over sighted the 50Hz issue, as the P50GT30B also suffers from the same, but rather to a lesser extent.

It would be unfair to consider this as an emergency situation and an issue of concern, because most of the users would not even notice the slight differences, and definitely does not dilute the viewing experience. If at all, noted it can be controlled by keeping the IFC in the mid range, whilst the Max level can eliminate the issue altogether, it can take a heavy toll on the content itself making it appear in video quality. Finally to summarise, the 50Hz issue is largely user dependent and for some the ghosting tendency would be undesirable, but many would not even pay any heed to it. Overall, this is the area wherein Panasonic ought to pay attention and get it ironed rightly in the next release, and besides this the overall performance is fantastic.

The fluctuating brightness issue as seen in the ST, GT and the VT sets is seen in this too. The reason can be attributed to the content taken with hand held camera and hence once again the source is the culprit. The firmware 1213 pre-installed in the Panasonic 50GT30B takes care of the brightness fluctuation of the incoming content.

Verdict

Amidst the claims made by Panasonic as the energy efficient and THX certified television, 50GT30B stays closer to delivering good performance. Neo Plasma technology has shredded the myth of high consumption plasma technology by creating energy efficient system. In continuation with the same, the neo plasma has taken care of the image quality of the 2D and the 3D content respectively. Despite the claims made by Panasonic with respect to the 50Hz material, it still can be improved. The easy to use navigation and the addition of Remote Apps so as to upgrade the Apple mobile phone as remote control is a good thought and can see the potential of extending in other phones also. To summarise, it is a good television with the right features and also renders good viewing experience.

Check all Latest 3D TVs Reviews & Prices in this website.

Panasonic TX-P50GT30B 50″ 3D TV – Technical Specification Table

Smart TV concept is catching up among the zealous crowd of television viewers. The key attraction is that Samsung Smart TV has altered the course of network TV to a more integrated web browser. It aids in streamlining the media content on the home network and can also connect to online widgets. The Samsung Apps store adds more mileage and it is one of the first to introduce this functionality that had been used in phones and media players. Amazingly, there had been more than one million downloads from the Apps store. Though it is still in the budding phase, by giving downloads pertaining to TV viewers interest, we can say that Samsung Apps would crystallize shortly to a more sensible usability. Not to mention there are bundles of games, Face book and twitter access which can make the user addicted to TV than anything else. Samsung 46″ UE46D8000 Smart 3D LED TV is one such television with the Smart TV embedded in it.

Overview

The ultra narrow bezel and the slim body are attractive and deliver an aesthetic appeal to the interior. The connectivity is enhanced with four HDMI slots and is enabled with connect share, Anynet+ and All Share. The Samsung D8000 also referred as Smart TV is actually smart with integrated web browser and good media content. The colour reproduction is enhanced with the micro dimming and the wide colour enhancer features. In addition to this, the remote control is also revolutionised by integrating a QWERTY keyboard on the other side of the regular remote. But we must review the usability of the same. Finally the 3D viewing is far more enriched and the user can enjoy a stream of movies with unbeatable 3D performance.

Design

The Samsung UE46D8000 46-inch Smart 3D LED TV is all about style, elegance and sleek body embedded with tons of entertainment features in it. Measuring just 29.7mm thickness, the Samsung fondly calls this sort of, masterpiece as One Design. Amazingly, the Smart TV is perfected to light-weighted aspect without sacrificing the sturdiness. The characteristic feature is the mega slim bezel. It guarantees a good watching experience. The TV frame is fitted with a metallic silver border. It spruces up the interior of any house. In addition to this, it can be wall mounted too. Be it sitting quietly inside a cabinet or a wall, the TV actually camouflage in any surrounding, but still stay true to its stylish build. In most of the home appliance purchase of such higher end television means one need to create an extra space in the room, or hunt for furniture that can fit the television. In other words, added investment is required to acquire the television. However, with this one it would not be an issue, because the bezel body with 46 inch wide screen can fit into a space much lesser than that, take for an example 42” inch wide cabinet can comfortably accommodate it. The screen is semi-glossy in nature that is susceptible to reflections. Owing to the shiny coating which similar to that of laptop screen, the viewing can be disturbed in a very brightly lit environment.  However, the screen is not so sensitive to be disturbed by the reflections created from lamps. The chrome plated stand offers the rotation to the tune of 30º degrees in both the directions. The buttons such as channel shift, volume control, menu, power are of touch sensitive type. Furthermore they are located on the rear side of it. It consists of Bluetooth feature, but since the transmitter is located beneath the Samsung logo, there is trouble in getting the connection activated. At such instances, the user must increase the proximity of the remote control to the transmitter and eliminate any other Bluetooth pairing gadgets away from the television. This could have been avoided by fixing a better place for the Bluetooth transmitter.

3D glass

The 3D glass compatible with this model is Samsung SSG-2100AB. It is of battery operated type and works on the active shutter technology. This technology creates an effect such as the staggered one, because it blocks the left followed by the right eye. This happens at a rapid rate and hence we can feel the real life like 3D effect, which is stunning. The glass is designed more like the sun-glass and is lighter than other chunkier ones. But the glass lacks a complete coverage near the corners. Owing to this, many would land up getting an annoyed feeling. The light can pass through it and can create visual stuttering. In some cases, the sunlight penetration can cause a peripheral flickering, though the 3D technology is not so robust to be watched under bright room lit conditions, nevertheless the effect could have been controlled. Moreover the 3D effect is better in a wider screen than the 46 inches.  The operation part is simple with a LED indicator that signals the shut down. It automatically shuts down when not in use for several seconds. The plastic lens located on the front part of the 3D glass synchronise with the IR of the television to give the 3D effect. Nevertheless, it is reflective too and therefore any change in the scene conditions such as the too brighter scenes or the light-setting can disturb the synchronisation with the television. However, the situation can be avoided by blocking the sensor area in the glass to certain extent using an electric tape or something. Despite such minor flaws, all in all SSG-2100AB is great with increased depth and richness. As a final note, only one glass is supplied with this set. Most of the glasses are expensive and this one too falls under higher price range category. Hence for a family packed environment one must chip in additional money to get the extra glasses.

Slots and Connectivity

Like the many latest television there are plenty of slots. It consists of four HDMI ports, component connection, SCART connection and AV connection. There is also a separate slot for the home theatre connection. Pretty interestingly a tag is attached on to a few of the dongles, which has to be inserted to use the RCA connector. The tag notifies that the cord should be inserted securely. With some of the connections, the user must refer the instruction manual. Even though there is an E-manual, it does not cover completely about the connectivity part, for which we have to refer the instruction manual. But, there is no clear cut instruction as how to connect the cable or the satellite dish to the television. The smart install also skips with just briefing the connection to a cable. The external port enables the connection of a USB connector only. But, it is not possible to connect an iPad or iPhone or iPod with the help of Apple’s video connector. Only MP3 songs can be played. The product is wireless enabled. The wireless LAN adapter supports the communication protocol, viz IEEE 802.11a/b/g. Samsung recommends the usage of 802.11n. When the video is played over the prior connection, the content may not play very smoothly as expected.

Remote Access Control

Samsung has attempted to revolutionize the TV remote control and hence introduced the QWERTY type. Though, we appreciate the idea and the implementation, had Samsung Engineer’s carried an in-depth research in the usability it would have been better from the user perspective. The keyboard can be considered more as a marketing tactics used by Samsung to get the user frequented with the Samsung Apps, a store very much similar to that of Apple Apps. But what it lacks is the functionality and usability.  It is a multidirectional keyboard with hotkey, optical sensor directional key. But it lacks intuitive lay-out. It is dual side remote with the basic remote functions on one side and the QWERTY keyboard on the other side. The unit as a whole is stubby in user’s hand and might not be highly welcomed by the children. The regular remote has a backlight function, but it does not last longer than three seconds and hence the user should scrap through very quickly under dark setting. The QWERTY pad can be used for the net and the Smart Hub purposes with the LED screen. However the keypad is a 5 way control type and by using the touch pad located on the right side of it, one can readily navigate the internet. It is relatively faster to operate than the 5 way control, but the only disappointment is it is small in size and the user would not able to find it quickly. In addition to this, sometimes Enter key has to be hit prior to typing anything and it can be frustrating as this issue is not uniform in nature. The arrangement of the keys is somewhat in a jammed manner so as to bring the compactness, and hence the typing can be a daunting experience for some. Another common problem encountered with the remote is the pairing issue. The remote works via Bluetooth and hence must be paired with the television prior to operating the same. Unlike the latest synchronisation technology, the process here is not made easy. One needs to get close to the television and hold the remote as per the prescribed distance of eight inches. The sym and the tab buttons had to be pressed and the “pairing” notification appears on the screen. Though the procedure is simple, there is some basic engineering defect that has caused dissatisfaction with respect to the procedure itself. In case of unsuccessful pairing, the television is to be put in the reset mode and then the action must be repeated. The consoling factor is that in case of Bluetooth pairing failure after multiple attempts, one can scan for the Bluetooth device similar like that of cell phone and can find out whether it is the issue of the television or rather than the remote itself. As a final note of conclusion, the remote control is not very ergonomic and sits at ease in our hands, unlike the sleek model ones. Moreover the response rate is very slow and very important factors such as the grouping favourite channels are not available. We could only say that the remote control does not completely compliments the television’s style and usability and makes the user-interface difficult.

User interface and Set-up

The user-interface in Samsung UE46D8000 LED Television is made simple with the E-manual integrated in to the television. Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is available and furthermore, the now and the next guide broadcast daily program available on the respective channel and the corresponding time.  The EPG is very practical in the Samsung UE46D8000YU. On the other hand, Rovi on Screen solutions also provides the EPG guide but is limited in certain countries. The viewers can sort programmes that can be watched before and after 24 hours. The timer recorder function can record a programme that has been planned to be broadcast. It can support the USB stick and the USB HDD of Raid type is actually not supported. The favourite channels can be grouped within the Smart Hub. It is simple to edit one channel at a time and can apply the changes to all channels as desired. Samsung has put a thought for theft issues if their TV if it had been to be put in public places. The Kensington lock must be purchased and can be attached to it. As the television is integrated with the E-manual the user-interface is highly smooth. It is possible to toggle between the e-manual and the selected menus, thus rendering a good upper hand in the settings area.

Features

Smart Experience
Samsung UE46D8000 Smart TV has got a bunch of smart features. Television can be more personalised using the smart hub, your video, search all, social TV and Skype. The smart hub is a highly interactive feature. User can do tasks such as downloading the Apps, surfing the web and getting recommendations on the shows to be watched. Since the Samsung Apps is in the nascent phase, many features are missing. The Netflix-plug is somewhat less functional and does not yield a good image quality.

3D
The 3D effect is something very stunning with the Samsung UE46D8000. Aspects like 2D to 3D conversion, side by side, top and bottom, vertical stripe, checker board and frame sequential are available. The hyper real engine of Samsung gives the dazzling and almost real like effect. The 3D perspective can be adjusted to the tune of + or -5 and the depth from 1 to 10. In addition to this, the 3D sound effect creates a cinematic hall like effect. Thanks to the Depth rendering technology used by Samsung. The micro dimming effect plays a vital role in giving the deeper black and purer white for capturing even the smallest details very vividly.

Picture Quality Enhancing Features
The picture enhancing features is highly appreciated. It does not give any halo effect. Technology such as the wide colour enhancer is an added bonus. The algorithm drastically improves the picture performance. It displays the details and the tone far advanced than any TV could reproduce. The Digital noise filter keeps away the annoying image noise produced due to the low quality content from different sources. All in all, the picture looks really great and the ultra clear panel accentuates the quality. It even controls blur due to the latest panel construction technology involved.

Miscellaneous Features

Samsung UE46D8000 3D Hyper Real Engine TV is configured with features such as the All share; connect share and Free View HD. Though the internet connections are slow, it can be still viewed. The All share connects the TV and other compatible Samsung devices such as the mobile phones through one network. The user can listen to music, watch movies transferred from the device to the TV. The view is further facilitated with auto chaptering, bookmark function, digital content management and many more. Skype is enabled and Skype to Skype video calls can be made.

Performance

Huge expectations lurk around the Samsung D8000 3D Full HD LED TV. Primarily because, it has been launched with an immense preamble but only the user’s experience can decide the success rate. Even if lots of glittering features such as the Smart TV are added, finally it is the performance that all matters at the end of the day. Once when it is switched on, the default settings gives away too much of brightness, and when it is adjusted to the ample viewable settings it is good. Samsung UE46D8000YU is striving to reach perfection in the colour gradation area. It is a terminology used to define the ability of the TV to differentiate colours from each other. It is considered the best, when there is ideally no band, whilst this one produces some at the semi-dark areas. This can be even reflected in the gamma settings, which deflects 0.13% as against 100% during the calibration. This could be attributed to the limited reproduction of darker colours.

The picture quality in the standard definition mode is comparatively better and crispier than the previous launch. The high definition mode is simply great with detailed colour contrast. The black levels re noticeably improved than the previous year models. However the response time matters a lot in establishing the desired picture quality in the high definition and this one has commendable one. Owing to this, there is minimal blurring. In continuation with this, the trailing effect which produce halo around the object is also not to be seen. One of the major reasons suspected for this performance is the scanning backlight function. The incorporation of the feature has significantly increased the refresh rate and by constantly resetting the vision. When some of the features add beauty to the viewing experience, but a few should be kept at bay while watching the television. The Motion Plus is one such a adjustment that needs to be completely turned off to enjoy a complete gaming experience. When it is activated, it creates a less natural look and resembles like a least expensive soap opera.

The 3D viewing experience is made better in the Samsung D8000 Smart 3D LED TV.  Largely, it is due to the considerable reduction in the cross talk effect which was more pronounced in the previous 3D LED models of Samsung. The cross talk reduction or compensation mechanism is effective and we could say that the same momentum is maintained in the forthcoming LED 3D technology, and then it can perform on par with plasma based 3D technology. The performance is similar to that of Sony X720. The 2D to 3D conversion is specifically enhanced with movies having mountain scenes and spectacular flying sequences such as the Pearl Harbor etc.

We can put the performance of Samsung UE46D8000 in exceeds expectation category. At the same time, certain shortcomings such as the backlight bleeding must be totally eliminated in the forth-coming models and since the edge-lit technology it yields away rather easily.

Verdict

Samsung has applied a different strategy to make the user glued to the TV for most of the time. In order to do so, it must be equipped with functionalities provided by other electronic items. It has rightly integrated with the Skype to make the calls, and the Smart TV to get connected to the net and the Samsung Apps to get numerous content suiting to their needs. Though the concept itself is a breath of fresh air, we must however take in to account the performance factor. Since the TV is contained with internet capability, Samsung has supplied the QWERTY keyboard sort remote control. From the user perceptive, it had created issues with respect to pairing with the internet and cannot be operated at ease. Hence we could only say, the accessory designed for such high end usage must be truly user-friendly. The saddest part is that some of the technical details are also eluded from the user manual, which Samsung must seriously look in to. With respect to the performance it exceeds expectations and the minor upshots observed in the previous 3D TV’s are eliminated. The picture clarity is scintillating and not to mention the super applicability of the Samsung Apps. It is directed for every occasion, take for an example, if the TV is turned on in the morning, one can see fitness related apps. This has made it more than the TV and completely brings a personalised touch to the viewing experience.

Samsung UE46D8000 46″ 3D Television – Technical Specification Table

Customer expectations are higher these days. They demand a mobile phone flexible enough to function as a music player and additionally perform as a camera and so on. Therefore it would not be surprising if they anticipate their TV to function similar to that of a computer. Being innovative is the key word to strike excellent products in the market, a unique skill that Samsung has developed over years. Staying true to the afore-said statement, Samsung’s PS50C680 makes a distinct entry in the 3D TV field that is developed based on plasma technology. Watching motion pictures in 3D effect is something that most of us are excited about. Many manufacturers are channeling their new products for the exclusive 3D fans. The pioneers are Samsung, Sony and Panasonic, almost giving neck to neck product releases with astounding features. Samsung has indeed capitalized the unique features of plasma technology in their 3D TV. Plasma technology has an upper hand whilst compared to LCD and LED with respect to, good picture quality with negligible motion blurs, rapid refresh rate and faster response time. Hence integration of 3D concept to the plasma TV would truly yield various entertainment features.

Overview:

Samsung PS50C680 3D TV is based on Plasma PDP technology with a refresh rate of 600Hz. The characteristic features include Eco sensor, cinema smooth picture quality, Anynet, connect and share movies, wide colour enhancer and so on. But the main selling factor is the alluring 3D effect produced synonymous to that of a movie theater.

Design:

Samsung PS50C680 3D Plasma TV is impeccably chiseled to perfection. Designing plasma TV’s with large dimension has greatly reduced down to notable specs. The display panel size measures 50 inch wide and all the electronic components are compactly packed in between a meager thickness of 2.8 inches. The TV has an attractive glossy screen with chrome based quad and swivel stand. The swivel set up gives a good clarity viewed from any angle and can be tilted to a tune of 20 degree sideways. The TV comes detached with the stand and the user needs to mount the same on the stand. The guide stand is connected to the stand using screws, but the user must be able to differentiate between the front and rear side of the stands. The TV must not be placed prior to fastening the screws as it can slide to one side during the set-up. Instead of going plain with one colour, the TV is coated with Black to Blue gradation giving a great finish. Overall the look is appealing and gives much of a theatrical touch to it.

3D glasses:

Samsung PS50C680 comes with one pair of 3D glasses. The glass can be worn by anyone and even over an optical glass. But Samsung must overcome its tightfistedness to provide just one 3D glass with the TV set. These are designed with crystal shutter glass. It operates by obstructing each eye very rapidly in a sequential manner. The glass consists of liquid crystal lens and minute electrons and battery. It synchronise with the TV through the infrared radiation. The glass designed by a particular manufacturer cannot be used with other TV. All these factors puts the consumer in a critical position, and somewhat becomes a drag if they need to go to the Samsung dealer to purchase another 3D glass. Samsung must really put some quick action in to it so as to enjoy the full benefits of 3D watching by the entire family. Restricting the glass numbers to one or two is a selling barrier when considering the competition with ace manufacturers such as Panasonic and Sony.

Slots and Connectivity:

The connectivity is not so complicated for users accustomed of using some recent revolutionised TV models. But for those, who have upgraded from their old chunkier ones to this pretty slimmer version, would take several sessions to get used to the connectivity.  But the advantage over the earlier model is, the thickness is reduced affording a good connectivity facility. Besides the Samsung PS50C680 50-inch 3D TV consists of 20 degree rotational swivel stand, thus making it all the more easier to just turn the TV around for connection purpose. There are four inputs for the HDMI cable in the rear side. It has provision to connect to the DVD, Blu Ray player, cable box or high definition set top box. The HDMI/ DVI cable connection must be executed with care, as an incomplete connection can lead to slight distortion in picture colour quality. The HDMI input 1 jack must be used in case of HDMI/ DVI cable connection. The DVI cable connection must be given in the DVI -HDMI mode. The PC/ DVI audio input jack can be used for audio connections. The incompatibility of older version external device such as DVD, Blu Ray player and cable connection is somewhat an inherent issue with many of the manufacturers. This TV is also susceptible to the same, hence if the user highly suspect the external device version is older than 1.3, the service provider must be approached to upgrade the same.

Remote Access Control:

The Remote access control is a neat rectangular structure that gives a sleek grip to the user. It is designed in a manner that can be used by visually impaired people also. The power switch, channel and volume buttons has Braille points over it. There are two switches located on the top most position of the remote control. One power switch takes care of the TV’s on and off operation, whereas the other turns the remote control on or off. This switch illuminates the remote control, so that the user need not search for the controls while seeing the TV at night. Samsung has purposefully provided this switch because it wisely controls the battery usage once when it is turned on. Grouping the favourite channels under one button is possible, and the location for the same is placed downwards for quick access. The four way navigational button is centrally located and we appreciate the positioning of regularly used menu quite nearer to the navigational tool. The remote control set-up is similar to that of any TV besides the special functions such as Anynet button, HDMI is quietly placed at the bottom of the device. This avoids confusion while using it.

User-interface and Set-up:

Samsung PS50C680 set-up consumes least time once an appropriate position to place the TV is finalised. Since the product highlight is 3D, the user must ensure that the TV is placed at a good distance, as the ideal viewing space is thrice the times of the height of the screen.

Once the TV is connected to the power cord and the antenna set-up is configured, the remaining part is actively taken care by the TV itself. With the self prompting options such as language selection, channel selection, clock setting, the rest of everything is a child’s play. Samsung PS50C680 Full HD 1080p 3D Television offers better maneuvering through the remote access control. The channels can be readily sorted in to, the number of channels available, the added channels, and the favourite channels. All the favourite channels can be readily boxed in to one category by merely selecting the favourites, and is further grouped under one button control. This is a good feature when compared against the conventional model, where in one by one registration to the favourite family is only possible. The TV offers the picture setting to be stored for every external device connected to it. While using the PC mode only 4 settings are permitted.

Samsung has included SPDIF (Sony, Philips Digital Interface) that can reduce the interface going to the devices such as AV/ home theater and speakers. It gives an overall good digital sound. The most exciting feature that sets it apart from the rest of the factor is the 3D. The 3D must be activated only after wearing the 3D glasses. There are options to convert the 2D images to 3D. The user can readily access the 3D tools without much difficulty, but in certain cases there are restrictions. When it is switched from one channel to other the 3D mode is disabled, and one needs to re-set that again. Even when accessing the media play, the 3D mode is deactivated. Picture in Picture function does not support the 3D mode. The 3D mode specifically attracts the younger ones at home, the user must understand that these are the restrictions while using the 3D mode and hence must not try repeating the same action. It can merely lead to complain that 3D viewing is not satisfactory. Samsung must tweak some serious technical stuff so that the moment you turn on the 3D mode all the channels gets automatically converted to that mode and the user need not get frustrated. There are particular viewing angles for the 3D viewing, if not adhered properly a good feel is not experienced by the user. There are particular options within the 3D mode such as the side by side option that puts two images at either side. The top and bottom option places one image over the other and, the line by line option displays the image on the alternative eyes and so on. Such features make the 3D viewing an awesome experience.

Features:

Plasma Technology:

The plasma technology has certainly taken a good roll against the LED lit LCD monitors.  Samsung PS50C680 uses 600 Hz sub-fields thereby giving a crisper image display. The juddering effects are not much pronounced and the scrolling text looks pretty sharper. The frame transition is made ultra smooth due to the integration of 12 subfields in each frame. The key aspects that make this plasma 3D TV highly preferred than the rest is the good contrast ratio and the wider viewing angle. Contrast ratio in plasma technology must be fine tuned with care, as artificially augmenting contrast ratio can lead to a daunting watching experience.  However Samsung’s mega dynamic contrast ratio yields a denser and more saturated colour perception that does not harm the eyes even after long watching hours. Image retention issue is noted during the initial months of the purchase, but is observed to fade away. The inherent disadvantage of plasma technology is the power consumption. As Samsung promises that with the TV there is almost 40% less energy usage than the previous model. But the black levels are not as good as Panasonic plasma technology.

3D Viewing:

As stated earlier, the 3D gimmicks will not pop up the moment the TV is switched on.

The user must tune the TV set in to the 3D mode and must wear the 3D glass. The 3D effect gives a good picture quality and astonishing real life like effect. The TV set works on 3D HyperReal Engine facilitated with Super 3C realisation technology. This gives an excellent picture quality even when a 2D image is converted to 3D. However, on continuously watching the 3D effect with the glasses can be bit overwhelming. A good 3D effect requires condition such as darkened environment as light obstruction between the 3D glass and the 3D emitter can marginally reduce the effect. Particularly the Samsung PS50C680 mesmerises the user while watching the sports channel or any wildlife channels.

Connect and Share:

In the Samsung PS50C680 it is possible to connect the digital cameras and can get an enlarged view of pictures and videos. This would be a good experience for the user, because photo previews are normally not seen is such wide screen. Hence getting a good peek in wide screen can give good guidance as whether to print the picture or not. The wide screen provides details about grains, image noise, if at all if there is any. The TV also supports music collection, so it is an ultimate multipurpose entertainment choice. The user can do the afore-said functions by connecting the USB cord to the TV.

Anynet+

The Anynet + features smartly replace the usage of multiple remote access control for several devices at home. But the only requirement the equipment connected through HDMI must be Samsung compatible. If this is the case, then this feature gets a good score among users who constantly replace the remote access.

Performance:

Colour:
The colour gamut produced on the TV screen captures the user’s attention. Even if the reception is poor from the source, the in-built selective filter greatly reduces the transmission errors and gives good and sharp images. The cinema smooth and the movie mode alter the image clarity to upgrade to the level of watching it in big screen. The colour temperatures are attempted to achieve an equivalent movie effect. With the Plasma technology behind the screen, the TV unlike its 3D LCD competitors need not bother about the colour quality. It definitely exceeds the latter, nevertheless Samsung has included Wide Colour Enhancer feature. This technique saturates each pixel count, thereby attaining a natural luminescence effect. So it is needless to say as why the picture quality in this TV exceeds expectations.

Standard Definition:
Compared to its predecessor model, Samsung has revamped certain colour adjustment features in the Advance setting mode. The user can adjust the screen depth (black tone) to 3 different levels such as dark, darker and darkest. It is possible to calibrate the picture using the expert menu. Adjusting the hue colour and standardising the range of colours is well handled by Samsung PS50C680 in the standard definition mode.

High Definition:
The Full High Definition mode brings real good image clarity than the conventional HDTV. The concept of viewing HD is given a good boost by providing rich and vivid colour delivery. The HD surely exceeds the performance of previous HD model TV’s and is worth every penny invested to purchase the set.  The High Definition mode is even applied to any standard DVD being played. The BD Wise feature available in Samsung’s disc players is integrated in to the TV. Hence it can automatically detect the best resolution applicable to the disc. The process does not take much time and can put the user in a much comfortable position rather than fiddling with the setting for optimal resolution.

3D:
The 3D performance is filled with vibrancy and especially users will definitely enjoy pictures like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. Watching a football game gives a real feel to the user similar to sitting in the arena and watching the game. The colour depth is decent and Samsung has particularly taken good care to minimize the physical annoyance caused by 3D viewing. However a continuous view time of 2 hours will not hurt the eyes. Again this is subjective and varies as per the user’s age and limiting physical conditions. But sometimes it is a bit of inconvenience caused with respect to the 3D optimisation time taken, once when the TV is switched on.  The 3D viewing can be disturbed in the presence of electronic devices used along with the 3D glass.

Crosstalk Noise and Screen Burn:
Samsung PS50C680 is equipped with digital noise filter facility. It can tactically reduce the analog noise produced as a result of low quality reception. The image noise occurring during transmission is effectively minimised thus producing crisp pictures. Occasionally some users complain of a buzzing crosstalk noise created while viewing in the 3D mode. The 3D technology is not been completely evolved or researched to bring the best in the TV set; it is still under the development phase. Samsung clarifies that the noise is created due to the malfunction of 3D emitters or panel board and sometimes even the infrared hindrance caused by the 3D glass can also be a trouble maker. Under such circumstances, prior to plunging in to the service, it is advisable to check the cable connections. Sometimes if it is not properly connected, colour distribution will not be smooth. Leaving aside such trivial occurrences, the overall rating is remarkably good for this product.

Sound:
Samsung has done a good job in improving the sound quality in the plasma TV family. In a seamlessly perfect piece such as the PS50C680 TV, the sound effect makes the user just to gaze the screen even if it is for longer hours. Embedded with the SRS theatre sound, it consists of special features, namely “amplify” that can selectively increase the intensity of high frequency sound for hearing impaired individuals. Occasionally sound echo occurs due to the variation in decoding speed between the main speaker and the audio receiver. The remedy to this is to set the TV to the external speaker source. The drawback in that setting is the limited sound output and it is not possible to mute the function. On the positive side it supports the Dolby digital plus and Dolby pulse sound output and the sound quality adequately meets the user expectations.

Warranty:

Samsung PS50C680 Plasma 3D TV comes with  one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

Samsung PS50C680 3D plasma technology based TV has lots of goodies to cheer the customer’s entertainment value. The TV can be connected to the LAN setup and permits the user to access the internet. Provided with a Samsung wireless LAN adapter, wireless networking is also possible. Samsung has made efforts to control the environmental impact caused by the Plasma technology. It has attempted to reduce 40% power consumption than the previous year models and the raw materials used in the plasma technology is more eco-friendly. This feature sets it apart from the competitors.

3D is the most attractive aspect and it gives a promising performance. Despite of few synchronisation issues of 3D glass with the emitter, the user can enjoy the 3D effect to the fullest especially during a sports sequence. The TV is a good value for the money invested.

Samsung PS50C680 Plasma Screen 3D TV – Technical Specification Table

Samsung has got UK’s 3D ball rolling in a very solid fashion with its UE40C7000. For those keeping track of the 3D TV arena, it would obvious that the TV market is not really brimming at the moment. But looks like Samsung is undisturbed by this fact, which is evident from their wide range of 3D HDTV models on their shelves, even as they sit at the high-end of their product catalogue. We just hope that its more glamorous and larger sibling, the UE46C8000 3D TV would launch the brand into a similar type of stratosphere taken by Panasonic’s 3D debutant, the Panasonic TX-P50VT20.  The UE46C8000, which is a part of the C8000 series, is just a rung below the priciest C9000 TVs. Make no mistake, it has an absolutely stunning design. In the following review, let us find out if its sleek display can look amazing even when it is switched on as well as off.

Design:

Slim Beauty:

As we have just mentioned, the Samsung UE46C8000 3D TV is a beauty. Its screen is enclosed in a thin silver brushed aluminium finished border. This border is in turn surrounded by an even thinner translucent acrylic border, which at the bottom sports the touch sensitive zones. The entire display itself is unfathomably thin, measuring just 2cm at its deepest point. This incredible sleekness has been achieved by locating the light sources, that is, the LEDs around the edges of the panel and also by scattering this luminance across the whole screen with light guide plates. Silver TVs have not really been in fashion since around 2005, and we will bet that there are enough consumers in the current market who will be more than happy to see the style making a come-back. Having said that, after 5 long years of seeing just black, we did find the bezel to be slightly distracting at first. To prevent the set from falling over, it is supplied with quite a large four-legged silver stand.

Remote Make-over:

Even the remote control seems to have gone through a make-over to match the TV design. Similar to the TV itself, it has been styled in brushed titanium with a glossy silver trim. All of the buttons have been hidden below the face, hence, even though they provide a little bit of feedback when they are pressed, operating takes a little bit of getting used to, as you can no longer run your fingers over the surface of the remote to find your way around. At least, it is not to the same degree as you were able to do before. The remote control does include a few raised lines and also a tactile dot for this purpose. We do appreciate the fact that, like some of Samsung’s other remotes, the UE46C8000’s control features backlighting which can be enabled by pressing a dedicated button at the top-right.

3D Glasses:

The Samsung UE46C8000 LED 3D TV supplies a pair of their active shutter glasses (SSG-2100SB), which arrives in a nifty triangle shaped box. In contrast to Panasonic’s idea of packing their 3D glasses in a sturdy-looking plastic case, guess Samsung decided to take a more trendy route and have packed the glasses in a soft pouch. These 3D glasses seem to be more comfortable to be put on than Panasonic’s glasses, which put pressure on top of the nose. Samsung’s active shutter glasses transfer most of the weight to around the ears, and are hence more comfortable, especially over long periods of time.

Disappointingly, unlike the Panasonic VT20, Samsung do not ship the 3D glasses together with the display, whilst Panasonic has given away 2 pairs with their 3D set. Now, this is pretty stingy, given that the UE46C8000 is usually selling for at least as much as Panasonic’s display. However, it is not all bad news with the glasses, as Samsung is doing a deal though where you would get two pairs is SSG-2100AB 3D glasses and a Monsters Vs Aliens 3D Blu-Ray disc free if you purchase the Samsung UE46C8000 along with a Samsung BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray player.

Slots and Connectivity:

Now, let us move on to connectivity. With the HDMI cables having the provision to be plugged directly into one of the telly’s four inputs, the remaining connectors like the SCART cables have to be plugged to the breakout adaptor cables as this LED LCD TV is extremely slick, which can then be plugged into the telly. This is also the case when it comes to the RF aerial input. Though this is not very inconvenient, it is just that it is a little unsightly; but of course, you are never going to look at the back of the TV or the sides either. Much to our expectations, all four HDMIs are 3D-compatible v1.4 standards, but then both the Ethernet and USB ports warrant additional attention owing to their multipurpose natures. The USBs come in handy with recording premium video, which includes HD from the digital tuners of the telly to a variety of USB HDD, as well as more predictably playing back a wide variety of video, music and photo multimedia files, and making the TV Wi-Fi via an optional dongle.

With the supplied breakout cables, the UE46C8000 46-inch 3D Television effectively consists of 2 SCART connections, a composite video and stereo audio input, a component video input, an Ethernet jack, a PC “VGA” input and an Optical audio output. Since the physical inputs are not located on the TV itself, we wonder if Samsung would be able to let users customise the connectivity options of their ultra-thin TVs in the future. For example, providing an alternative for swapping the SCART connectors out making way for some additional set of Component video connections will be appreciable, particularly with gamers.

User-interface and Set-up:

This Samsung C8000 LED 3D TV utilizes their very own user interface that looks and feels good. Details get stored in the per-input format akin to the LE40C650 LCD TV. As far as the display settings are concerned, we would have appreciated if Samsung had incorporated a “Copy all” function such that Colour settings and Greyscale input can be copied to all inputs and some minor adjustments made here and there as against writing down all our settings and re-entering them manually.

Samsung has also gone quite big with its picture adjustment options on the UE46C8000. Akin to their line-up of other high-end Samsung displays, the C8000 also features the Greyscale controls, a basic Gamma Control and a full-fledged 3D Colour Management System. In other words, almost everything we need to fine-tune the display and get the best possible picture from it. The most impressive highlight is with the fine-tuning point of view; having noise reduction routines, offset and gain adjustments for red, green and blue colour elements, a 10 point white balance adjustment, and even has an option for activating a local dimming too that is capable of activating separately different sections of the edge LED lighting. Well, we don’t really fancy this option, as it occasionally produces some evident squares of backlight irregularity. Then again, we would suggest that you give this option a try to see if you encounter the same squaring problem that we faced. The most disappointing stuff in the set-up of the UE46C8000 include its colour management tools that do not go a touch further and Samsung also has not followed the lead of its Korean rival LG in looking for endorsement from the Imaging Science Foundation.

Additionally, there are also a couple of other controls tucked away far inside the menus; however, a few of which we haven’t stumbled across before. The first of these is LED Motion Plus, which has three different settings, as well as a fourth “Off” switch. This control provides with options for black frame insertion and backlight scanning, which is supposed to enhance the alleged motion clarity by offsetting the conventional sample-and-hold results of LCD panels.  There is also the Motion Plus menu. This is Samsung’s 200hz system, and it is our favourite out of all manufacturer’s attempts to improve LCD motion clarity. This takes care of setting the De-judder and De-blur controls in parallel thereby enhancing motion clarity without giving films the dreaded “soap-opera effect”. Finally, Smart LED combines a variety of processing features in an effort to improve contrast. The controls for the 3D mode are housed in the main Picture menu, and are easy enough to get to.

Features:

The looks of the C8000 is backed up furthermore with an awesome set of specs and features outside of the 3D headliner. With the UE46C8000?s compatibility to almost all  new 3D formats being its prevailing feature, it also packs an alleged 3D HyperReal Engine that claims to deliver enhanced performance benefits over its rivals.

LED LCD:

The fact that the Samsung UE46C8000 sports a 1920 x 1080p LCD panel does not come in as a surprise. This panel is illuminated by the LEDs that are placed above and below the screen. As you can see, this type of placement is quite different from the usual set up of placing the light source behind the panel. This compliments the extremely thin chassis design that Samsung has been trying very hard to push lately. Of course, the UE46C8000 is 3D capable LCD based TV. As you can imagine, Samsung had to work quite hard with the C8000 in order to get its LED LCD technology up to handle some extremely fast frame rates that are associated with its HD 3D sources. To begin with, it sports a 200Hz display; thanks to the scanning backlight Samsung could have easily announced it as a 400Hz model, had it felt comfortable in following the same optimistic labelling system taken up by two of its major rival brands.

Crystal Address Technology:

Samsung also had to use its brains to develop a faster crystal address technology, which helps the screen to respond fast enough to keep up with the active shutter 3D system. It has also introduced blank frame technology to its 3D transmission system to try and make the display and glasses sync as effectively as possible.

Samsung’s Internet@TV:

The Ethernet port can be plugged in to a PC that is DLNA-enabled, access interactive services like future Freeview HD together with hooking up online with Internet@TV feature of Samsung.  Internet@TV consists of YouTube, Twitter, rovi TV listings, Picasa the online photo album, Skype; provided an external camera is included in addition to a whole host of interesting and ultimate third party ‘Widget’ apps, remarkably from AccuWeather, the History Channel, and Getty Images.

There are even a few games on there, though anyone who has spent any time on an Xbox or PS3 will find these games laughably unfulfilling. Again, the online efforts of Samsung kind of looks to be lagging behind when compared to Philips and Sony for the moment, but then there is always the option of a constant update and Samsung is not the kind that would prefer being last in the line. So we guess a plethora of additional services can be expected in the coming months. Also, it has to be added that this C8000 packs the AllShare software that comes in handy if your are looking at getting your telly hooked up with your mobile or for that matter any portable devices that provides multimedia options.

Performance:

Colour:

As far as the performance is concerned, it is mostly terrific as with its 55” sibling. For instance, the colours radiate with startling intensity and strikes cross-screen consistency, to an extent that you might feel that it should not be really possible with an edge-LED technology. In addition to this, the consistency of lighting has been retained surprisingly well during the very dark scenes, with very faintest signs of the sort of pools of inconsistent brightness that stands out so much on 2009’s 55” Samsung LED models. You will be able to make the patches appear if you have chosen to leave the brightness or backlight settings too high. However, keep in mind that this also damages the contrast and general naturalism of the picture. Hence, just hope that you will not be tempted to do so.

Standard Definition:

While colours look intense on top of being credible, these are accompanied with believable tones of subtlety blending with small tonal differences. The picture is quite bright too, yet unusually the UE46C8000’s aggressive approach to pictures does not lead to the exaggeration of video noise. In fact, we would even say that its standard definition performance is probably the best we had ever seen. The TV is able to achieve this because, its up-scaling process adds heaps of detail making the images look sharp and at the same time being shrewd enough in detecting the source noise and trying to eliminate it.

High Definition:

It does not come in as a surprise that the Samsung UE46C8000 3D LCD TV is best with its HD performance. The HD images look blistering sharp, which is a fact that really rams home too, just how accomplished the motion handling circuitry is. Practically, you will not find any judder at all, if you make use of the motion processing carefully and LCD’s common motion blur issue is also more or less totally eradicated. These are factors that have a significant impact on the 3D playback too, helping it look crisp and fluid without giving a processed or unnatural feel.

3D:

The striking bright and colourful picture performance of the Samsung UE46C8000 3D TV does not stop with the standard definition and high definition pictures, it is great at 3D too. Some markedly less brightness is lost when you are wearing the active shutter 3D glasses than in the case of Panasonic’s 3D pictures. You get a great sense of vibrancy and depth to the tellys efforts at HD 3D. We should also mention here that the onboard 2D to 3D processor does an excellent task of converting regular 2D sources into 3D, than you can imagine. However, we cannot imagine many consumers using this feature too often, especially as the converted 3D pictures are simply no match for the real HD 3D deal. We feel that it may just tide a few folks over until more 3D sources come, in case they are seeking for an instant return on their hefty investment.

Crosstalk Noise:

While reviewing its 55” sibling, we tumbled across some significant issues with crosstalk noise while watching 3D, and this is sadly true in the case of UE46C8000 too. The crosstalk disturbance becomes apparent by ghosting around objects, with the object’s field depth affecting the extent to which the crosstalk noise is apparent. In some of the recent 3D movies, almost all of the fast moving scenes suffer very apparently with crosstalk, especially those in the distance. Similar signs of extreme ghosting, if anything less, get evident elsewhere too, that includes the Sky’s 3D channel and with same console games too. In fact, the crosstalk noise in the game makes your eyes feel tired after just a half an hour or so of playing. Lastly, with the upsets of 3D is the picture clarity that only reaches its best after the TV has warmed up for just an hour or so after switching it on. When we reviewed the Samsung UE55C8000 3D TV last year (Samsung UE55C8000 3D TV Review), it was the first 3D TV we had reviewed, so we were not quite sure on how much the crosstalk would be inherent to all the 3D TVs. But, now that we have reviewed Panasonic’s P50VT20 3D TV, we are sure that while this Panasonic model does not completely eradicate the crosstalk, it certainly suffers much lesser with it than any of the Samsung 3D models we have seen.

Viewing angle and Black level response:

Couple of other more general issues includes the viewing angle of the UE46C8000, which is rather limited and its black level response is less convincing than on Samsung’s previous edge LED generation. This might be a consequence of Samsung emphasising brightness more to compensate for the brightness that was lost while viewing 3D.

Gaming:

Gaming is a decent experience on the Samsung UE46C8000 Television. In the normal mode, the input lag is such that it makes games totally unplayable; well thanks to the “Game mode” the figure is brought down to a drastic 32ms. It sure is not an amazing figure, but is definitely a standard figure for an LCD display pleases majority of the users. As a good number of impending 3D games are prone to utilise the “Side by Side” method, we tried obtaining some input lag figures in this mode; which measured at 41ms. Note that both these numbers were calculated by sending 1080p/60 to the display and the input measurements for the 720p were on the higher side. Ensure that you set the video output of your console to 1080p.

Sound:

Samsung UE46C8000 3D TV’s acoustics are slightly better than on the company’s previous edge LED models. It has slightly more volume and punch. However, perhaps inevitably for such a slim TV, it still does not sound anything special, thanks to the lack of bass and rather under-powered mid-range. Actually, it sounds kind of less exciting when compared to the UE55C8000; which is probably owing to the fact, as you can imagine, the telly having 5W less power per channel as against its big brother. While the 46C8000 represents a vast improvement over Samsung’s previous flat TV generation when it comes to sonic ability, it is still short of bass and fails to deliver an expansive sound stage during action scenes.

Energy Consumption:

Samsung has followed suit with majority of the LCD manufacturers in the current market in promoting the so-called energy saving benefits with LED backlighting. Honestly, we don’t really find much of difference between a LED and a CCFL display. The UE46C8000 packs an Eco Solution control too, that is supposed to bring about some energy saving attribute via the display by moderating the display’s overall brightness based on the ambient light. But since this causes the image’s brightness to fluctuate your are better off leaving it alone. The same goes for the Dynamic Contrast control which if left on will adjust the brightness and contrast settings from scene to scene and thus cause the energy consumption to fluctuate. Again, the screen automatically turns Off with lack of signal, which we presume is another attempt at enhancing energy efficiency together with try to boost the contrast ratio figures. The energy consumption is less that 1W in the standby mode. By and large, the energy consumption looks to be on the higher side in comparison to few other LCD displays with LED lighting.

Warranty:

Samsung offers its UE46C8000 3D TV one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

The Samsung UE46C8000 3D TV stands unbeaten as a piece of hi-tech design in addition to being a stellar 2D performer. Guess the above two factors alone should suffice in making this Samsung UE46C8000 a crucial purchase for many. While colour vibrancy and brightness of 3D content sure does look impressive, one cannot deny the fact that Panasonic P50VT20 3D TV is also capable of the same in addition to massive reduction in crosstalk noise. This just strengthens the fact that anybody looking for some serious 3D, Panasonic is a model of choice. As a 2D TV, the C8000 is fairly decent. Even though, it features an excellent greyscale performance post calibration together with standard-def video processing, the package seems to still have a few glitches, to name a few – poor scaling in 3D mode, auto-dimming, issues with angle viewing and non-uniformity. A few of these look to be specific to the ultra-slim LED LCD of Samsung’s. While videophiles might not really be tolerable to such deficiencies just for the sake of chopping the chasis down to a few centimetres, the style-conscious spectators might beg to differ here. Viewers willing to compromise on the quality of picture in order to have an extremely thin chassis together with gaining access to the 3D world are likely to be in for a treat with this Samsung UE46C8000. That said, the price tag sure looks high given its overall performance.

Check Latest Samsung UE46C8000 3D TV Prices in our 3D TV Prices section.

Samsung UE46C8000 3D TV – Technical Specification Table