Samsung UN46ES6500 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV (Black)
- Smart Content with Signature Services
- Built-in Wi-Fi
- Web Browser
- Full HD 2D and 3D
- TV with stand (Width x Height x Depth): 42-Inch x 28.4-Inch x 10.9-Inch, TV without stand (Width x Height x Depth): 42-Inch x 24.9-Inch x 1.9-Inch
Samsung UN46ES6500 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV.Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep – Power: 0.1 Watt
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A Video Review on the Samsung UN46ES6500,
Customer Video Review Length:: 5:57 Mins
The Samsung 6500 LED 3D TV is a great option for anyone in the market for a mid-point LED television. It offers many of the options of the higher price sets (such as the high-end Samsung 8000 series), but lacks the pricier cutting edge technology (Such as the motion and voice control). Through-out the video portion of this review reference the LG LM6700, which is at a a similar price point.
Notes-
Picture Quality – It took some tweaking, but once I had it properly set-up the picture quality was very good. The picture is crisp (which you would expect from any 1080P set), but it also offers better brightness than our LG LM6700. The LG always seems a little dark, but the Samsung 6500 offers better overall brightness, and to me, it makes the picture *look* better. One other thing, until I got the picture adjusted properly, I did notice some color blooming which subtracted from the overall picture sharpness… never fear, this can be adjusted out. Some people may also be concerned with the 120Hz refresh…. I also own the Samsung 8000,and my version is 240Hz, and I don’t notice any difference. I guess the only time it maybe noticeable is while watching a 3D Blu-ray.
3D- The Samsung 6500 comes with 2 pairs of active (read *battery operated*) 3D glasses. Using the Samsung 6500 to convert 2D to 3D works, ok, but it will not take your breath away. I used it to watch a baseball game, and “Men in Black” and while I noticed the difference – it was not dramatic. The LG LM6700 uses passive glasses, and to me, seems to have better 2D to 3D capability.
Sound – Again, it took some adjustments to get the integrated speakers to sound the way I wanted. It required me to turn the surround setting on, and play around with the set-up. One thing to note, is that out-of-the-box, the Samsung 6500 makes a clicking noise every time you raise or lower the volume. This is pretty annoying, but it can be disabled.
Features – This is what separated the Samsung 6500 from some of the pricier models, but to me, it really doesn’t matter. The Samsung comes with a nice programmable remote, plenty of applications (Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Pandora,…although Amazon is noticeably absent). However, as I mentioned it does not come with the voice and motion control of the Samsung 8000 series. The Samsung 6500 offer “Family View” and Fitness channels… but in all honesty, I really have not used them. In terms of features, the LG LM6700 has very similar features – but they are better organized and easier to use.
Back Panel – I mention it in the video portion, but the Samsung 6500 offers 3 HDMI inputs (which is enough for a Game device, DVR, and Blu-Ray… or some other combination), 1 component input, 0 (zero) RCA and S-video inputs, and optical output, a LAN input, and multiple USB inputs. I question why modern TV manufacturers have completely dropped RCA inputs – they still come in handy.
Wifi – The Samsung 6500 comes with built-in wifi.
Final Verdict – The Samsung 6500 offers a great picture with plenty of apps you would expect. While the LG LM6700 does have it beat on ease of use (it requires a lot less tweaking), but ultimately it can not offer the ultra-bright picture of the Samsung 6500. Is the Samsung 6500 the greatest LED TV on the market… nope, but it may be the best one at this price point!
4 1/2 Stars
|Excellent 3D TV, the “Smart” stuff isn’t great but I don’t care.,
I got this TV to upgrade from an older Samsung 46″ 60htz LCD which I loved. I spent a lot of time comparing TV brands when buying that first TV and didn’t have to do much shopping for this one. I knew that I loved Samsung’s picture over any other TV except for some of the Sony Bravias but they’re overpriced IMO. I wanted a 55″ 3D with at least 120htz and this one fit the bill. I bought the last one on Amazon so I came back here for this purchase. They delivered it quickly and it was in perfect condition as expected.
I was initially aprehensive about this TV after seeing it only got 3 1/2 stars in customer reviews so I read all the reviews. I found that the people who gave the TV a negative review were all upset about the Smart TV internet features. Slow connectivity when using a browser, Netflix, Youtube, etc. I understand their reason for being upset because a TV that includes those features should function properly. Unfortunately these rely heavily on your internet connection speed which may not be fast enough to support them. Oh well, buy a faster internet plan. This TV is on the low end of the Smart TV spectrum so I wouldn’t expect those features to perform as well on it considering the other 3 models above it have dual core processors built into them to handle that. Buy one of those models with the dual core if you’re main reason for having a TV is to surf the internet or watch youtube. Or just use your computer for that like the rest of us. The actual “TV” is top-notch and the 3D is spectacular!
I agree with some of the reviewers that the picture needs tweaking to get it right. I was fully prepared for that because I had to tweak my last Samsung for a while before getting the picture just right but once it’s set, it’s awesome. This TV has even more options to tweak so it can get confusing for the inexperienced but it’s capable of producing one of the best pictures out there if you know how to tune it. The Dynamic, Standard, and Native picture modes are actually pretty useless unfortunately. Set it to Movie mode and start tweaking. Yes, it starts out dark so increase the backlighting and brightness, bump up the color and sharpness, high auto contrast, darkest black level, etc… If anyone wants my specific settings I’ll list them if you ask.
The 3D is simply awesome. Home theater 3D isn’t going to be as good as going to an IMAX theater but it’s still pretty sweet. One thing to keep in mind is that the picture mode settings that you did in TV mode don’t carry over to 3D mode nor do they carry over to the other sources, HDMI in, Component In. So, if you have a PS3 hooked up to HDMI you’ll have to edit the picture settings for that source to match the main TV settings so you get the same picture in both. Game Mode limits the amount of settings you can tweak so you have to use your judgement with that but if you match everything you can it’ll work out fine. Just remember to turn Game Mode OFF before watching movies because it degrades picture quality.
I’m sure this isn’t the best review out there for the TV but it might be of some use to some of you. If you’re considering a 3D TV and you’re not overly concerned with using it as a web browser and just want a great TV then this is it. Once dialed in, the picture is fantastic and the price is right. If you’re interested in the Smart TV features MORE than watching a great and inexpensive 3D TV then pay more money for the next models in the series that have the dual core processor. Regardless, stick with a Samsung because it’s always the best picture for the money.
|Struggle, Pain, and Joy,
This review is for the 60″ model.
First Impressions
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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.
Struggle
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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.
Settings
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Picture Mode: Movie
Backlight: 15
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 46
Sharpness: 10
Color: 50
Tint: 50/50
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Black Tone: Off
Flesh Tone: 0
RGB Off: Auto
Color Space: Auto
White Balance: 25 for all
10p White Balance (R, G, B): ON
– Interval 1: -8, -7, -7
– Interval 2: -10, -3, 2
– Interval 3: -9, -2, 6
– Interval 4: -9, -1, 8
– Interval 5: -10, 1, 10
– Interval 6: -6, 3, 10
– Interval 7: -9, 5, 10
– Interval 8: -1, 5, 8
– Interval 9: -5, 1, 6
– Interval 10: 0, 2, 0
Gamma: 0
Color Tone: Warm2
Digital Noise Filter: Off
MPEG Noise Filter: Off
HDMI Black Level: LOW
Film Mode: Auto2
Auto Motion Plus: Clear
LED Motion Plus: On
Comments on the Settings
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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…
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