Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1020 in Home Theater
- Size: 55-Inch
- Color: Black
- Brand: Samsung
- Model: UN55ES6500
- Released on: 2012-02-20
- Dimensions: 31.70" h x
49.50" w x
10.90" l,
39.50 pounds
- Hard Disk: 500GB
- Display size: 55
Features
- Smart Content with Signature Services
- Built-in Wi-Fi
- Web Browser
- Full HD 2D and 3D
- TV with stand (Width x Height x Depth): 49.5-Inch x 31.7-Inch x 10.9-Inch, TV without stand (Width x Height x Depth): 49.5-Inch x 29.1-Inch x 1.9-Inch
Samsung UN55ES6500 55-Inch 1080p 120Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV (Black)
Product Description
Samsung UN55ES6500 55-Inch 1080p 120Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
409 of 434 people found the following review helpful.
By Some Dude
This review is for the 60" model.First Impressions-----------------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--------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--------Picture Mode: MovieBacklight: 15Contrast: 100Brightness: 46Sharpness: 10Color: 50Tint: 50/50Dynamic Contrast: OffBlack Tone: OffFlesh Tone: 0RGB Off: AutoColor Space: AutoWhite Balance: 25 for all10p 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, 0Gamma: 0Color Tone: Warm2Digital Noise Filter: OffMPEG Noise Filter: OffHDMI Black Level: LOWFilm Mode: Auto2Auto Motion Plus: ClearLED Motion Plus: OnComments on the Settings------------------------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.Overall-------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: LOWBlack Tone: DarkerHDMI Black Level: LOWColor Space: Native***********************EDIT (2012-11-06): Now there are finally professionally calibrated settings available (have been for a few months). You can do a search for "un60es6500 calibration" and it's one of the top results. But, there are problems with those settings. The major one is the regular "White Balance" blue offset setting. They say to use 28. The problem with this is that increasing the offset makes the black baseline move up. So, 100% black now appears brighter. I've adjusted their settings and come up with a slight modification that I think looks fantastic. (Also, my experience with the latest firmware 001023 from Nov 1 was NOT GOOD. It wouldn't allow any picture mode except Dynamic. I did a factory reset, and things are better now.)Picture Mode MovieBacklight 17Contrast 100Brightness 45Sharpness 10Color 60Tint G50/R50ADVANCE SETTINGSDynamic Contrast LowBlack Tone OffFlesh Tone 0RGB Only Mode OffColor Space Native10pt White Balance OnGamma -1Expert Pattern OffxvYCC OffPICTURE OPTIONSColor Tone Warm2Digital Noise Filter OffMPEG Noise Filter OffHDMI Black Level LowFilm Mode Film2Auto Motion Plus ClearLED Motion Plus Off10PT WHITE BALANCEONInterval Red Green Blue1 0 -1 -12 -1 -1 -13 0 0 04 -1 0 +15 -1 -1 +16 -1 -1 -17 -1 -1 -18 0 0 09 +1 0 010 +2 0 0WHITE BALANCESetting ValueR-Offset 25G-Offset 25B-Offset 25R-Gain 18G-Gain 23B-Gain 25***********************EDIT (2012-12-02): I've recently updated to the latest firmware version 001024 and I think it is an improvement. With that update, I've adjusted my settings to the above, but with Gamma -2 and Black Tone: Dark and Color Tone: Warm 1. Looks great to me!***********************EDIT (2013-01-02): I've recently updated to firmware version 001025. I might be me imagining it, but I think the video quality degraded slightly, and the issue with SmartHub (where the SmartHub will just pop up randomly, for a second or two, for no reason) is still there. Samsung needs to get their sheet together, because this is just silly, for a $2000 product. But hey, once you've got their money, who cares!***********************EDIT (2013-02-18): The SmartHub problem is fixed now. It apparently just needed to be updated to the latest version, and wasn't an issue with the firmware, as I'm still on 001025 and haven't had that issue in over a month.
108 of 115 people found the following review helpful.
By Brian
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.
88 of 97 people found the following review helpful.
By CKE
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2Q0Y4XX82D3M0 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
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