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Question of the Day: Will you be subscribing to the new Disney+ R49 streaming package?
Samsung D7000 any good?
- Thread starter Warmunger
- Start date
You don't maybe have a cat or dog? Have heard some storieso of animals scratching TVs, could be happening while you're away
Lupus
Honorary Master
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Nope it's not the cat or the dog, it's dust, if you are not incredibly careful in removing the dust it scratches everything. I've seen it with my own eyes, while using a so called lint-free cloth.
Lupus
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I think you've fallen for their marketing, it's not 600hz, it's only 60hz but due to subfield motion it's "600hz"
I've seen a couple of photos and I don't think it's shinyer than my LA46C750, I use small and soft brush to clean of the dust before I clean it using my old camera lenspen microfibre cloth. I'm mostly worried about backlight bleeding at the edges and clouding.
I have a D7000 46". I don't have issues with the backlight uniformity. What I do have issues with is the picture quality. However, this is not a fault of the TV, but the source material - my standard DStv feed. As someone said in a UK review, why would you buy a state of the art HD TV if you aren't going to embrace the technology that goes with it? In other words if you spend R19,000 on a D7000 you should really be watching HD content on it and watching blu-ray dvds. The retailers run manufacturer-supplied blu-ray content on their demo units and when you see it, your mouth drops and you think wow, that picture is just awesome. So you buy the TV, come home and plug it in to your standard DStv and you WILL be disappointed in the picture quality. So you need to consider the bigger picture, if you'll excuse the pun. You may have to consider getting HD content. That involves the aquisition of a bigger 90cm dish (about R900 for an aluminium one), unless you already have one. You need a dual LNB, you need an HD PVR 2P Decoder (R1,499 on special for the next couple of months). You need to get an installer to come with the signal strength meter and set it up - perhaps another R350 for that and you need to pay R65 extra per month for access to DStvs HD channels and currently the selection is limited:
1. Discovery HD Showcase (channel 172)
2. SuperSport HD (channel 171)
3. M-Net HD (channel 170)
4. SS HD Extra (channel 174)
5. M-Net Movies 1 HD (channel 175)
So for the moment there are only five channels being broadcast in HD and how many of those do you actually watch? Is it worth R65 additional subscription on top of the R559 you pay for the DStv Premium bundle?
To be honest if you're not fussy the standard picture is ok, but nothing to write home about. The one sporting event I do watch is the Tour de France and there you would find the picture clarity of the peleton taken from the helicopter cam was very fuzzy. Switching over to HD in the store showed a marked improvement in picture quality. Standard DVDs also look fine, but widescreen DVDs give you that irksome letterbox effect. I thought that buying a widescreen TV would sort this out, but unless I've missed the obvious, you still get the letterbox effect and widescreen DVDs should be avoided when buying DVDs.
The Samsung remote looks cheap, but it works, although you can buy a touchscreen remote for additional money. I feel Samsung should have included it instead of giving you the cheap remote suppplied with lesser TVs. The single pair of 3D glasses included with the TV are cheap and nasty.
I considered the Sony Bravia EX720 as my alternative. The Sony had plugs that come straight out of the back making flush mounting on a wall impossible. Samsung's plugs either face straight down, or point to the side which is the right way to do it.
Reviews also stated that the slim downward firing speakers on the Samsung were adequate for normal listening and I would concur that they are fine. You can turn the volume all the way up to 100 (max) on a music video and it still sounds fine, but it won't blow you out of the house. You may want surround sound for better sound with greater volume. The speakers on the Sony were said to sound tinny. I can't say whether that is the case, but it's probably true.
Personally I'm not crazy about the slim acrylic bezel on the D7000. Reviewers are raving about these new TVs from Samsung, but to me it looks cheap. I did consider upgrading to the D8000 with the metal bezel, the 55" already being available with the 46" due any day now. When I looked at the D8000, I was just as disappointed with the metal frame and it isn't worth the additional money. The best looking TV I think was last year's Samsung C8000 with the "bushed titanium" bezel. That looks awesome, but unfortunately it's now old technology with first generation 3D that had its inherent problems of ghosting.
Regarding LED vs Plasma, just remember plasma TVs are power hungry. I looked at a 50" Panasonic plasma and that consumed 415 watts while the D7000 won't use more than about 130 watts running in 3D mode. In fact for standard viewing I think it consumes less than 100 watts. What plasma does offer is a much larger TV for the same money. For instance instead of a D7000 46" you could get a Samsung Series 5 Plasma 59" for the same money. My TV is often on 18 hours a day, so for me power consumption is an issue. I think LED TVs will probably overtake LCD TVs which will eventually fade from the market place. I suspect plasma TVs days are numbered too, but then who knows?
Another thing is they gave me the Samsung D7000 with a 3 year guarantee; I think the Sony only had a 1 year guarantee.
1. Discovery HD Showcase (channel 172)
2. SuperSport HD (channel 171)
3. M-Net HD (channel 170)
4. SS HD Extra (channel 174)
5. M-Net Movies 1 HD (channel 175)
So for the moment there are only five channels being broadcast in HD and how many of those do you actually watch? Is it worth R65 additional subscription on top of the R559 you pay for the DStv Premium bundle?
To be honest if you're not fussy the standard picture is ok, but nothing to write home about. The one sporting event I do watch is the Tour de France and there you would find the picture clarity of the peleton taken from the helicopter cam was very fuzzy. Switching over to HD in the store showed a marked improvement in picture quality. Standard DVDs also look fine, but widescreen DVDs give you that irksome letterbox effect. I thought that buying a widescreen TV would sort this out, but unless I've missed the obvious, you still get the letterbox effect and widescreen DVDs should be avoided when buying DVDs.
The Samsung remote looks cheap, but it works, although you can buy a touchscreen remote for additional money. I feel Samsung should have included it instead of giving you the cheap remote suppplied with lesser TVs. The single pair of 3D glasses included with the TV are cheap and nasty.
I considered the Sony Bravia EX720 as my alternative. The Sony had plugs that come straight out of the back making flush mounting on a wall impossible. Samsung's plugs either face straight down, or point to the side which is the right way to do it.
Reviews also stated that the slim downward firing speakers on the Samsung were adequate for normal listening and I would concur that they are fine. You can turn the volume all the way up to 100 (max) on a music video and it still sounds fine, but it won't blow you out of the house. You may want surround sound for better sound with greater volume. The speakers on the Sony were said to sound tinny. I can't say whether that is the case, but it's probably true.
Personally I'm not crazy about the slim acrylic bezel on the D7000. Reviewers are raving about these new TVs from Samsung, but to me it looks cheap. I did consider upgrading to the D8000 with the metal bezel, the 55" already being available with the 46" due any day now. When I looked at the D8000, I was just as disappointed with the metal frame and it isn't worth the additional money. The best looking TV I think was last year's Samsung C8000 with the "bushed titanium" bezel. That looks awesome, but unfortunately it's now old technology with first generation 3D that had its inherent problems of ghosting.
Regarding LED vs Plasma, just remember plasma TVs are power hungry. I looked at a 50" Panasonic plasma and that consumed 415 watts while the D7000 won't use more than about 130 watts running in 3D mode. In fact for standard viewing I think it consumes less than 100 watts. What plasma does offer is a much larger TV for the same money. For instance instead of a D7000 46" you could get a Samsung Series 5 Plasma 59" for the same money. My TV is often on 18 hours a day, so for me power consumption is an issue. I think LED TVs will probably overtake LCD TVs which will eventually fade from the market place. I suspect plasma TVs days are numbered too, but then who knows?
Another thing is they gave me the Samsung D7000 with a 3 year guarantee; I think the Sony only had a 1 year guarantee.
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PostmanPot
Honorary Master
If your room doesn't have too much direct sunlight perhaps a C7000/D8000 plasma?
Smurfatefrog
Expert Member
Correction, there are 6 HD channels. Supersport has had 3 HD channels for 4 or 5 months now
And the R65 is not for the HD channels, its for PVR functionality & Xtraview. You can get the HD channels with normal premium subs of R559
I'm not sure if they ship - they say they have a well established warehousing and delivery infrastructure, so maybe - I could ask, I guess. I have dealt with them for over twenty years and buy everything there. They have eight stores in the Western Cape and are the biggest retailer of domestic appliances and furniture in this area. Sean has worked there for over ten years and he knows his stuff - he never has to ask my name, there's never any pressure for the sale - take as long as you like and call me when you're ready kind of thing. Nothing is too much trouble - he will plug TVs in and switch them on if they are not connected, he will change the feed from standard to HD and back again and he's a nice guy. I got 5% off the floor price, so I paid R18,999. Payment was done via EFT and they have accounts with the big four banks. They also check the products for quality before they leave the store. Tafelberg have been around for 40 years and I believe you get a better level of service there than from some of the other national retailers.Warmunger said:
You are of course correct - I just discovered they had 6 HD channels when they screened an ad earlier, but I got the info off their website, so I guess they haven't updated that page in a while.Smurfatefrog said:
I didn't know that you could get HD at no additional cost provided that you don't have PVR functionality & Xtraview enabled. I must have been misinformed by a DStv sub-distributor, or perhaps they just didn't explain the situation very well.