These LED 65 in Reviews are confusing. Please help me decide (1 Viewer)

[bemgolf]

I need help from educated people that have expertise in the area of LED Large screen TV’s. I really have two TV’s that I am looking at. I had about four but have narrowed this down to two..
All reviews on both of my models below say this is true of each. I have talked to several that have these models that they say it is not an issue. Are the people reviewing these using a magnify glass and are so technical that our eyes will not see this issues. I just want an honest opinion here.
What I am wanting:
Main need is picture quality (that means less banding, color uniformity issues, bleeding, shadowing)
Screen Size : 65’ (could go larger not smaller)
Type: LED (no plasma too bright in the viewing room and too dark of screen. No burn in possibilities if I do not buy period.
Refresh: 240 hz
Here are my two
1 Sony KDL65HX729
They are saying that this one has dealt with the uniformity issue but has shadowing. They do have the local dimmer along with edge lit backlight to help with uniformity.
2 Samsung UN65D8000
I guess the biggest issue with this one is color uniformity issues they say in the review it is a fabulous TV, then turn around and say it has color uniformity issues. It’s like you are even more confused now.
Not that BB is a great place to start but they do list these as the Magnolia series so I am guessing they are the top that BB has to offer. Just wanted to deal with the negatives on each and weight your thoughts.
I have surround sound speakers with a mid line receiver so sound issue will not be a problem. What are your takes on the two sets?
Uses %’s
Sports, TV shows 75
Playstation 3 20
Movies 5
Any recommendations on these two would be appreciated.

 

[Sam Posten]

Ask yourself this:
Are you the kind of person who is going to sit 3 feet away from a panel trying to find every flaw or do you want to buy a panel, sit a reasonable distance from it, and watch it calibrated and be happy with it?
If you are the first then no amount of our discussion is going to help you, no panel is perfect.
If you are the second then get a demo of both in locations with lighting as good as you can get in a showroom and see what looks best to you. Try out both UIs. Pick one and never read another review.
There are no bad panels on the market today at the high end. Even the cheapest panel today is better than some of the best from a few years back. This will continue to happen, be ready for it.
Edited to add that you seem to have discounted the Panasonic GT 50 and ST 50, those are well regarded and not nearly as expensive as the one I chose, the VT50. I chose the VT to get the THX calibration out of the box but the ST also has this and it's a lot less dough.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

Hi guys.
Sam and kevin have given some excellent advice.
Not all panels are created equally. For led, i really like the samsung 8000 series. Also consider the thx certifed lg and the sharp elites.
Gregg

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings
Just a quick addition. Plasma - burn in ... is not a thing of the past. It is still very much with us ... especially for the masses.
I've seen plenty of Panasonic and Samsung 2011 models with burn in issues and the sets were no more than 6 months old in all cases. 4:3 bars are the culprit. Far too much of that every morning as they watch the local news or traffic channels that are not in HD or 16:9.
I can't be sure if it will never go away, but the clients all had to go through months of anti-burn treatment to try to minimize the burn in. And still going as far as I know.
Not a thing of the past at all. Perhaps too much listening to people telling them that it is a thing of the past leads to this.
Plasma sets still need to be used in a responsible manner.
Regards

 

[schan1269]

My Hitachi plasma(one of those when Hitachi tried to butt heads with Pioneer) shows no signs of burn in. It is routinely subjected to Wii and Atari Flashback. I however keep "news ticker" to a minimum as people always seem to forget, early LCD suffered from "dead pixel"...
Dead pixel=burn-in.
The other two plasma in the house...
32" Emerson. Bedroom TV, never has had a shred of burn-in and it was bought as a floor sample from Target/Kmart or wherever it was.
42" Panasonic. Right at 18 months old. Not a shred of burn-in.
So...does burn-in exist?
Sure it does if you abuse the TV.

 

[bemgolf]

This is the reason I will not have to deal with it. Don't buy one.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings
I don't need Joel Silver to agree with me. He should just go tell my clients that burn in is a thing of the past and see what they think then. This is not some 48 hour static image test trial. These people didn't know any better and started to burn in those 4:3 bars when the TV was brand new ... and we in the calibration world know that plasma sets are also most prone to burn in during that first 500 hours of use.
They didn't know ... and really, why should they.
Still very real.
Then again, just go ask Ray about his VT25 panasonic and tell him that those speedvision logos burned in on this TV are only his imagination. One of those holy Sh%t moments for him when I pointed it out on his plasma set. Yup ... thing of the past.
Regards

 

[schan1269]

So you remove the first 500 hours of "breaking in the TV"...takes what? 2 months(you can, and it is advised, leave the set on when not home for the first month...that is what I did. 24hrs CONSTANT and the 500 goes by in a hurry).
After the first 500 hours, you then have 99,500 hours of perfect TV viewing an LCD can't hold a candle to.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings
I'd like to know where it is advised to leave the TV on when not home for the first 500 hours. I have never heard of that. The TV engineers I talk to have not heard about that either.
Just because a set is more prone to burn in does not immediately equate to wasting electricity for 500 hours. That's inane..
As for the 99500 hours ... do you really believe that figure that the manufacturers toss about? What exactly do you think the picture will look like at hour 90000? It's going to be pretty far from perfect. Do you really think the picture looks the same at hour 10000 as it does at 30000 or 60000?
The answer that you get from manufacturers about what this image actually looks like at 90000 hours is the following ... "you will get a picture..." but what will this picture look like? "you will get a picture..."
Regards

 

[schan1269]

It isn't "written in stone" that you can(should???) leave a plasma on for 500 hours.
Who here is going to say the "break in period" isn't 500 hours? (several electronics stores won't schedule the calibration till "enough time has passed" to be close to 500 hours)
As a person who plays Wii and Atari Flashback on a Hitachi P50X902...I have experienced zero burn-in. But, I also let the set stay on for around 3 weeks constantly.
So let me guess, it isn't advisable to do the same thing for brand new out of the box speakers either? Set the stereo on FM or a cd on constant repeat....(though speakers don't really need that long...somewhere along 50-100.)
And about the "100,000 hours"...
That is what everybody in plasma-land(and for that matter LCD-land) is publishing these days...well, at least the major tier 1 are.

 

[schan1269]

By the way...On Samsungplasmatvfaq...
"After how many hours of viewing is my unit broken in?
Estimates vary, but 250 hours is widely regarded as the safest. Anytime the panel is on during the break-in period counts towards break-in."
and...
"Do not leave static images on your plasma TV screen for more than 30 min.
Avoid extended viewing of broadcasts with non-transparent logos (bugs or DOGs) or where the screen is consistently divided into fixed parts, such as cable news channels.
Enable pixel shifting and routinely use burn-in protection controls to recalibrate pixel intensity levels uniformly.
Use grey bars instead of black while watching 4:3 content. You want all pixels to be turned on as much as possible so they all break-in during the same period.
Note: You can leave your set on 24 hour hours a day or just overnight to speed up the break-in process, provided you adhere to the above guidelines."
So maybe I'm a bit "cautious" with 500 hours...gee...

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings
That is an interesting site, but it is not a manufacturer site. It is an enthusiast site. Extreme as it might be ...
Did you catch the gist of the 100,000 hour claim that I was trying to make. You said 99500 hours of perfect TV viewing.
The manufacturer has not said that and neither have I. The question I raised is what the image on the TV will look like at 30000 hours? at 50000? ... at 90000? It will look far from perfect ... and there will be nothing you can do to change the way it looks short of buying a new TV.
regards

 

[schan1269]

Personally, I think the 100,000 hours of life is a ton of hooey...
My cousin bought their Panasonic plasma at Best Buy(the only place close to where they live) and the BB clerk actually had the audacity to say they were making a monumental mistake...
I've been in that BB tooling around and this particular one has absolutely worthless clerks. I know my way around AV(been playing with this stuff since the RCA Colortrak 2000 27" tv was the "hottest thing"). I've owned Dahlquist. I've owned OHM Walsh. I've owned BIC TPR.
This last trip in there I had already placed my order elsewhere for my first universal player over HDMI. (tired of not being able to play them with an Onkyo SR707)
Just for giggles went over to the BD players and a "Magnolia shirt" walked over...
I said...
"I want a HDMI universal player."
Gee that turned into 35 minutes of 8 different people staring into computer screens trying to figure out what that meant...

 

[Steve Schaffer]

That 100,000 hrs is usually defined as the amount of time it takes for the panel to drop to 50% of it's original maximum brightness. To add a little perspective a set that is left on 12 hours a day for an entire year accumulates less than 5000 hrs.

 

[Steve Berger]

That 100,000 hrs is usually defined as the amount of time it takes for the panel to drop to 50% of it's original maximum brightness. To add a little perspective a set that is left on 12 hours a day for an entire year accumulates less than 5000 hrs.

That is correct. It is, however, not a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) figure nor does it indicate the life of circuit boards. (power supplies, timing control, input, video processor, tuner, etc) which have a much, much, shorter lifespan.

 

[DaveF]

Greetings
I'd like to know where it is advised to leave the TV on when not home for the first 500 hours. I have never heard of that. The TV engineers I talk to have not heard about that either.
Just because a set is more prone to burn in does not immediately equate to wasting electricity for 500 hours. That's inane..

I ran solid color display roughly 24x7 for the first week or two, when I bought my Kuro in 2009. That was the advice from serious Kuro plasma enthusiasts at AVS. I don't know if it's necessary. But 3 years later, and lots of mixed aspect ratio content, I've got no burn in.
After the last two tvs I bought I left with even stronger opinion than Sam's: it's impossible to shop for a new tv. Retail stores are completely unlike watching at home. Except for crude impressions, like side roll off or basically UI, you can learn little there. Shopping online...no first hand impressions there. and that leaves you with AVS and HTF threads to buy based on enthusiast reviews. That's what I did.
But unless you're really getting the set calibrated and watch with a highly critical eye, in a controlled environment...you can be lead to worry and shop for nuances that you'll never see.
Which is not to say I won't drive myself to distraction next time I buy a new display...