- 46-inch backlit display full HD 2D or 3D
- Smart Hub
- Built-in WiFi
- Web Browser
- 1-Year Parts and 1-Year Labor Warranty
- Brand Name: Samsung
- Model: UN46ES6500
- Display Technology: LED-lit
- Display Size: 46 inches
- Image Aspect Ratio: 16:09
- The box is *huge*. The TV is *thin*. Not even an inch at the edge, and
maybe just over in the center. The menus are pretty straightforward.
(I don't care too much about the 3D or Smart features of this TV at the
moment, and don't have much frame of reference for how to judge modern
3D, so I can't really review these aspects.) The screen doesn't seem
too glossy, but it apparently works very well as a mirror because I can
see a negative image of my kitchen when it's off.One extremely annoying "feature" of these TVs that I've found out after
purchase is the "CE Dimming" feature. This is not the "ECO Dimming" or
anything you can control; It's hard-coded into the certain picture
modes (Standard and Native, at least). This feature is something that
will reduce the backlighting when there is mostly black on the screen.
(For example, if there is 100% brightness white text on a pure black
screen, it would actually display at a fraction of that intensity due to
the backlight dimming). I've read that this is to reduce the
appearance of light bleeding in from the edges, since it's edge-lit.
This "feature" annoys me significantly, particularly because I am not
allowed to control it. After searching around I found out this is
called "CE Dimming" and you can hack it by going into the service menu
(you can find the instructions online yourself), however messing with it
apparently voids the warranty. The only picture mode I found that
doesn't use this is "Movie" mode. But, movie mode looks terrible with
its default settings.
After 3 days of struggle, experimentation,
and research, I've found settings that actually give me a picture I can
call "good" or better. I'm not an expert, but I'm technical and pretty
picky. So, because I have found no calibration settings for this series
of TVs yet, I'm going to provide the ones I am using, if only to
prevent any of you from having to obsess over this for hours and hours.
I'll offer a little bit of explanation as to why I'm setting it the way
I am. I got some guidance and expertise from a known site, but as of
right now they do not have professionally calibrated settings. What I
did is by eye only.Movie mode is the only mode I found that doesn't use "CE Dimming", which
is a huge annoyance to me. (I'd rather see edge-lighting, easily. Not
sure why I can't control that, Samsung.) Backlight, brightness, and
color are kind of like salt and pepper: Use to personal taste in your
environment.
A note about almost all the other settings: I like
an eye-popping, colorful picture as much as the next guy, but I don't
like it at the expense of information loss. From my own experimentation
(in Standard and Native modes), all the Dynamic Contrast and Black Tone
settings did was flatten out the low end of the blacks. Dark scenes
look like "paint by number" with all kinds of banding and digital
multiplication/division. Lame, worthless settings if that is the
effect, and a problem in general with "digital" stuff.
Standard
white balance isn't fine-grained enough to make the adjustments to any
of the picture modes that are necessary, in my opinion. I messed with
it for a long time, so I know. :) The only way to get actual,
fine-grained color control is to use the 10p White Balance settings.
Now, I only know this from messing around with it, but what this does is
allow you to control the individual colors R, G, and B as 10 different
intensities, from black to white. So, Interval 1 is the darkest reds,
greens, and blues (close to black), and Interval 10 is the brightest R,
G, and B, close to white. If you use "Expert Pattern 1" you can see how
this works. Short summary?: Red is WAY over-represented and blue is
WAY under-represented when everything is set at 0. Everything looked
neon until I calibrated this, particularly the reds, and greens to some
extent. (Maybe they can create a "1980's" picture mode!)
The
noise filters aren't needed when you have everything calibrated
correctly. They are kind of an excuse for having the eye-popping
over-saturated settings that Standard and Dynamic mode come with. I'm
not too sure on the Film Mode and LED Motion Plus. They didn't give me
any noticible changes. The Auto Motion plus is nice, but I found that
it starts getting choppy when you have other effects going on, including
a lowered sharpness (I imagine it must be doing some extra calculations
for that.) So, I only set it to Clear because it doesn't seem to get
choppy with that set, but still provides some stability and smoothness
in fast scenes.I give the picture (once it is set correctly) a 5/5. The fact that I
can't adjust certain "features", combined with the level of screwing
around it requires to make the picture look good makes me lower that.
Seriously Samsung... why can't there be a default mode in here that has
professionally calibrated settings? You must know that the reds are way
too saturated, right? You can still set it to "Standard Mode" by
default to create eye-popping pictures that make people buy the TV. But
with all your expertise, why not just have a mode that has all this
stuff pre-calibrated and save us the time?
EDIT (2012-05-28):
After further tinkering, I think I have refined settings to make the
picture pop a little more without ruining the picture. Use above
settings, but adjust to these:
Dynamic Contrast: LOW
Black Tone: Darker
HDMI Black Level: LOW
Color Space: Native
After purchasing a Samsung UN55D7000 about 6 months ago (2011 model)
which I was very happy with, I needed a new TV for my bedroom and this
model was the perfect size and it had many of the same features.
This
TV is the 2012 model and is still fairly new, they are still working
out the bugs with the smartTV side for the 2012 models at Samsung. I
noticed that this TV does not have the HBO2GO app yet and I read how it
is because it is a 2012 and the app has to be changed.
Also the Browser is not working, this could be an issue with just my tv but I tested it and it would not connect.
I
compared this TV next to the D7000 and it was exactly the same but it
did not have the "spotlighting" that occurs on the 2011 models. The
blacks seem much blacker also.
I have not tested the 3D part, one
good this is that this model comes with 2 pairs of glasses, they are
the ones with batteries you have to replace and they do not recharge but
I did not buy it for the 3d part.
I tested the Pandora app and
it worked the same as other my other TV. The entire Samsung model line
up seems to be ahead of the curve and quality seems to be great. The tv
is very thin and crystal clear. The built in speakers sound good.I just received the TV yesterday at noon time and here are my initial impressions on it (an update will follow in 2 weeks)...
Please
keep in mind I previously owned a Samsung UN52A650, UN46D6000,
UN55D6000 and now on my 4th Samsung unit UN60ES6500, all purchased
through Amazon.comYes, the ES6500 models do come with only 3 HDMI inputs. I don't know why
people are rating the TV low because of this (downgrade) feature.
Having previously owned the UN55D6000, which had 4 HDMI inputs, I never
made use of all 4 HDMI ports anyhow because I do own an Onkyo 607
receiver with a built in 5 HDMI switcher.
Here is how I use the HDMI labeled ports:
1)
HDMI/DVI (recommended for PC use) - connected to my HTPC computer, very
sharp clear text in 1920x1080 resolution with Windows 7
2) HDMI 2 -
connected directly to Sony 3D BX58 BLU RAY player (since my Onkyo 607
does not support 3D, but planning on buying Onkyo 616 through Amazon).
Amazing picture quality. Be sure to use a high speed (10.2gbps) HDMI
cable to playback 3D content.
3) HDMI 3 - connected to Onkyo 607 receiver (cable box, Asus Oplay media player, Xbox 360, PS3)
The
TOSLINK (optical output on TV) however does not pass through HD-MASTER,
TRUHD, or any other high fidelity sound other than Dolby Digital and
PCM. The only way to achieve this is to connect your blu ray player
through your surround sound receiver.
The speakers sound OK, but
only use them when watching conventional TV programming. Surround sound
is used mostly especially during movies and sporting events.Default settings set the contrast level at '14' which is too low for my
taste. I did some calibration to match my UN55D6000 set and found the
UN60ES6500 to be a tad bit dimmer than the UN55D6000, maybe because of
the new semi-gloss finish on the screen. Again, I will come back in two
weeks to update this section after I have found the perfect settings
for each of the 3 HDMI inputs, which can be configured independently.
Now
for the 3D part... I don't have an actual 3D blu ray movie just yet,
and will update in 2 weeks when I do watch one. However, I was able to
view 1920x1080 24p/30p demos on my Sony 3D blu ray player and watched
various content including music videos, sports, and PS3 games. I've
seen plenty of store demos on 3D, and after playing around with the
UN60ES6500 3D features, I must tell you that 3D has come a long way
especially on this unit. The UN60ES6500 3D feature is simply mind
blowing!! You may have seen 3D, where it feels like the 3D only goes
'into the TV' and not protrude out towards you. The UN60ES6500 3D
feature DOES COME OUT at you, and with great depth! I've seen some LG
models that their 3D content goes 'out of the TV', but let me tell you
the demos I've watched last night REALLY came out!! I'm very amazed
Samsung, job well done here! Even the 2D->3D worked impressively
well, but again not as good as REAL3D video footage.
Again, I
will come back and update this in 2 weeks from 4/26/2012. Hope this
helped some of you in rethinking about buying the UN60ES6500. Thanks!
I decided to actually do a critical review of the smart TV features
since that's what it's sold as, rather than just give it 5 stars and act
like "Oh my god its new!! its sooo cool and good picture, I love my
newt TV!!" I mean if you wanted good picture and nothing more you can
get that for $500. All around I'd actually give it 2.5 stars, and I am
going to keep it, as there isn't really any good TVs this year it seems.
So here goes...
My goal was use this TV's features to get all
my content from the internet so I could cut/bypass the cable bill and
save about $900 a year, that's enough to buy a new TV every year. I was
going to use the web browser to visit various TV websites like NBC,
PBS, etc. like I do on my computer and view shows that way, instead of
cable. I was going to use netflix for other shows and movies, plus the
on-demand apps for any movies/shows not on netflix... Maybe even get an
antenna. Total price for internet plus netflix/onlineTV would be
$30/month. This can be done supposedly with ps3 and xbox; but for some
of us, we don't play games and don't see a point in buying those devices
for simple tasks. I will explain my experiences, problems and
solutions to this end.
Assembly: You know that problem with the
screws not fitting in the stand that they've been having for almost a
year now? Well it would have been excusable if this were a new item to
hit market; but I bought this thing in August and apparently they're
still having the problem. I wasn't going to wait 2 weeks for them to
ship new screws so I pushed hard and jammed them in,that seems to work.
First
turning it on: The thing asks to Update; say YES!!!. I didn't at
first which meant each time I tried a feature it had to update that
individual feature. The whole process of waiting for updates took about
an hour. I tried going to manual update but the whole screen went
blank each time I tried that; I had no idea what was going on. I
decided to just leave it on for 30 min on the blank screen and see if
would update; well apparently it did, then I had to turn it off and back
on again to receive any acknowledgment from the TV. All around the
whole interface it extremely buggy at first, and gets a little less
buggy with the update. I tried the MSNBC App first, it worked ok for a
while then started having buffering problems then crashed. Thats what
it does. I dont know why these apps are so buggy its not rocket science
to make an app. Netflix doesn't seem to have a way to browse by category
like it has on the computer and iphone. You have to use the slow search
feature to find movies or just watch what it suggests to you from
you're queue or whatever, not a huge problem, but slightly annoying and
easily fixable by netflix and Samsung. It crashes a few times a day but
again not a huge problem.
Web browsing: The web browser actually
works better than other reviewers are giving it credit for. I'm still
pissed at it but Ill explain later. You need a smart phone, ipad or
keyboard for it to be practical. You must download the remote app to
your phone and then you can type into the browser, search and navigate
fast using the iphone keyboard. After using it a while I got pretty good
at it and learned some of the quick keys on the remote; keep playing
with it if you're having problems it's not so bad. It is a basic
browser, it can watch some of the video on bing, I can watch all the
videos on yahoo news. I tried going to Pbs.org and it couldn't read any
of the video. This is a major problem for me as I find no excuse for
it. My pathetic cheap little phone can watch all the video on pbs and
just about any other site, but my TV, can't. What kind of a TV has
trouble with video? That's all it does... is play video, and yet it
sucks when compared to a smart phone or my 5 year old laptop. The
remote app is basically just the same as the regular TV remote (other
than the keyboard). The app comes with a laptop-like track pad that
would be really cool for moving the cursor around the screen if it
actually worked. I am now looking for ways to visit the websites on my
computer, hit full screen and stream it to the TV, I think I might have
to buy an apple TV or one of those 50 dollar devices to get it to work;
which sucks because I didn't have to buy an $1100 TV if I was going to
do that, any TV can do that. Or I might just plug an hdmi cable from
the laptop to the TV.
Sound: Sound is great I think. This was
important to me. I am a minimalist and didn't want to have to buy the
whole home theater thing just to get decent sound, its not like my life
revolves around TV or anything. As it turns out most if not all the
2012 TVs suck this year, and sound is one of their weakest points. CR
rated samsung's sound really good and that factored into my decision
which I'm happy with.
I see a lot of people who haven't done
their research like to know about the picture. So I guess I'll teach you
how to shop for picture quality. In the year 2012 you don't need to
worry about picture quality. The manufacturers have mostly mastered
this. TVs are basically divided into a few classes, low end LCD, high
end LCD, and plasma. So for picture all you have to ask is "am I
willing to settle for low end LCD, like westinghouse and other cheap
brands", and "do I like the plasma look or LCD look better?" and last
do you want glossy screen or matte screen. So if you're stressing over
whether lg, Panasonic, Sony or Samsung has a better picture you're
wasting your time, they are all the same, they are all excellent.
I
give it 2.5 stars because I don't see much excuse for its pitfalls.
It's pitfalls cause major inconveniences and yet are really easy for
Samsung to fix. I don't think I'm asking a lot that my $1100 TV can play
all the internet videos that my $150 phone can play. I mean this TV
costs as much as a computer, a fancy computer at that. TVs with apps
have been out for years. The apps should work flawlessly at this point,
and they should have extremely advanced features. My parents bought a
Samsung a few years ago and it does everything this one does except
browse the web. I also knock a lot of stars off for false marketing. I
hate it when companies lie, saying their product has all kinds of
features that really are very buggy or done half-ass, poorly updated.
What do they think I'm going to do with a browser built into my TV?
Read? No, the only purpose it serves is to watch videos on websites.
So don't say you have an internet browser when it only views everything
but video. If your goal is to just buy it plug it into a cable and BD
well you'll be fine, it's cheaper than Sony and Samsung seems to have
better Quality control than Lg so buggy smart features aside it's pretty
decent.
In my research I had narrowed it down to 2 TVs based on
smart features, this one and the Panasonic, these are rated as having
the best smart features of all the TVs out there. The Panasonic has
slightly better 3d quality, but slightly worse sound quality, a glossy
screen which I hate, and the browser was rated a wee bit better in
Samsung; the Panasonic is also 100-200 cheaper than this one. I've found
in my research I can't have my cake and eat it too, there is no TV
40-46" that has it all. You have to pick and choose and sacrifice one
feature for another. Supposedly if you're willing to buy bigger TVs the
features are all around better, it seems that's where companies are
putting their best resources. For me Samsung had the best sound hands
down, and supposedly the best smart features so that's what I got.
I just received this yesterday and had it hung on the wall within
minutes. The setup is easy and the picture is great. Though I would
point out, the mount I used for the wall required I go to the hardware
store and pick up new mounting screws. The way the holes are setup on
the back of the set, they are indented to a depth greater than the
screws that came with the mount.
I read a lot of feedback on here
before deciding to purchase this set, which I bought for the bedroom. I
have a Samsung in my living room, which I love so going back to a
Samsung for the bedroom was a no brainer. The picture is great but
there is a review in here with very specific picture settings. I
recommend using the setup dictated in that review. It's a pain to set
all those settings but the picture truly is fantastic for the price. My
only regret is I don't have the wall space for the larger version! The
sound quality was also much better than I anticipated.
I also
want to point out that streaming Netflix works great. I do have a fast
cable connection (15 Mbps) with a great Wifi router. I think if you are
experiencing any issues streaming video, it must be your Internet speed
or wireless connection.
I have yet to try out the 3D and I am struggling with some of the Apps but overall, this is a great flat screen for the money.
I noticed there are few bleeding (few ones - below and one - above) on
the screen. However, my wife and I can't see it if we sit front little
far from HDTV. If we stand either right or left, we can see them on the
screen. The bleeding are fairly small. It will be improving if I reduce
backlit a bit. I don't see any flashing or clouding, but I will check it
for few days and nights. I haven't test on 3D and 2D to 3D yet. I am
little iffy about CE dimming, and it seems Samsung adds auto CE dimming.
According to some customers, game mode will prevent it. If it is not
for bleeding, I will be happy with HDTV.
I need calibration for
best picture and audio (movie and standard mode)and improve issues such
as bleeding. I will update sooner or later.
EDIT (Aug 16, 2012): I
saw few clouding on the screen during the night. After I switch to HDMI
2 (before I turn PS3 on), I am able to see these clouding on the black
background. While I watched Sherlock Holmes last night, I don't see any
clouding or bleeding. Still debating should I return it back and get new
one. Of course, I am fully aware of having risk to get new one that it
may have worse clouding/bleeding or dead pixel. By the way, I don't see
any dead pixel on the screen. It looks like Samsung or LG releases their
edge-lit HDTV with little or no improving on clouding and bleeding
problems. Oh well... If these clouding don't make the picture quality
worse, then I will keep HDTV. If you don't like to see clouding or
bleeding on HDTV then get backlit LED or plasma instead.
While
Netflix is connected with no problem via wifi last night, the movie
can't start due to this message: "Sorry that title is not available to
watch. Please try another title." I tried to click few movies and still
same message so far. I decided to try clicking movie this morning and it
works finely. I am not surprised about this at all.
BTW,it was
shipped by UPS. I dislike UPS because they sometimes handle it roughly. I
saw YouTube video that UPS driver threw package over the gate! Anyway, I
noticed there is left corner of box below loose a bit since they didn't
tape it all way. Fortunately, I don't see any damage on HDTV. If you
order 46 inch or less HDTV, Amazon will pass the order form to UPS so
make sure to be there at your house for UPS arrives.
I have a 8000 series 46" and it blows this picture away!!!! I'm going to
keep it, only because it beats the picture on my Samsung 50" plasma and
laziness to ship back. Next one will have to be higher model. This only
has a 7 million ratio as my other 8000 has a 25 million ratio and that
would the reason it has a better picture, and this would also be my
fault for not looking into that prior to purchasing this one. But either
way if you have an older tv and bought this one, it would be a huge
difference.
This 50" TV is just awesome and has a great picture. I put the TV on this TV stand [...]
What a perfect fit. Go for it, it's a great TV.
I
wasn't pleased with the audio at first so I ordered a Samsung soundbar.
That soundbar was too annoying as it came with another remote with more
setting choices than one really needs and it really didn't improve the
sound. Anyhow, I returned the sound bar and have the TV sound adjusted
to where we like it.
8/16/12
I had a chance to view a 3D movie
today and all I have to say is, WOW! That is so cool. When you compare
the 3D with 2D you wonder how you've watched 2D all these years. I hope
3D will be available more in the future
