Information on the Samsung UE 55 B 7000 LCD TV

The Korean manufacturer Samsung has pitched this model in the top class of flat-panel TVs. The liquid-crystal display (LCD) uses white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a backlight - in cheaper LCDs, fluorescent tubes take on this task. The LEDs mean these TVs should use less power than their predecessor models, and since the LEDs are arranged around the edges of the screen, the casing is thinner than in TVs using traditional backlight technology.

The localized backlight dimming ("local dimming") found in many top LCD TVs is not possible with this version of LED technology, but the TV nevertheless claims to allow deeper black representation than LCDs that use fluorescent tubes. The manufacturer also hopes to optimize the picture with 100-Hertz technology.

Available since spring 2009, the UE 55 B 7000 also offers sophisticated network and multimedia features, turning the TV in a hub of entertainment when standard TV offerings become tedious. This article finishes with a look at what the competition has to offer in the same size and price class.

Picture Technology

The Samsung's 1.4-meter screen has a so-called "Ultra Clear Panel". In other words: These TVs have the high-gloss panels we've seen in laptop computers since 2006. This is supposed to make the picture look more vivid, but also makes the screen more susceptible to glare.

It remains to be seen, therefore, whether the gloss finish is a sensible addition: Until now, one of the strengths of LCD TVs was that they could deliver a radiant, vivid picture, even in a bright environment. If the screen is too reflective, however, that advantage loses some practical effectiveness.

The UE 55 B 7000 displays HDTV pictures in maximum sharpness, with 1,920 x 1,080 pixels ("full HD") resolution - a thoroughly sensible choice for a screen of this size. You can find details of the ideal viewing distance in our "TV Buying Guide".

Samsung advertizes the 7000 series as having "100-Hertz Motion Plus" technology. Strictly speaking, it actually has 96-/100-/120-Hertz technology. Blu-ray pictures with the original movie frame rate (24 frames per second) appear at 96 Hertz - in other words, at four times their original frequency.

Ordinary TV pictures from countries using 50 Hertz (Western Europe and China, known as "PAL countries") appear at double the frequency (100 Hz) on the 7000 series. In countries with a 60-Hertz TV frame rate ("NTSC countries" - the USA, Japan, South Korea, parts of South America), the Samsung models double the rate to 120 Hertz.

What's more, the 7000-series models don't simply repeat the existing images, but actually generate additional ones. The technique is known as motion interpolation or motion prediction, and aims to make camera pans and moving objects appear smoother and more fluid while still retaining sharp edges.

Side-effects are not, however, unheard of: With TVs that use this technology, Televisions.com has frequently observed block noise (so-called "ghosting" or "halo" effects) around moving objects. You can set the motion compensation to one of five steps on this Samsung - for most picture sources, this should mean you'll be able find a sensible compromise between fluid motion and reducing ghosting.

Samsung highlights two further technologies that are supposed to improve the picture impression - "Mega Contrast", for improving contrast, and "Wide Color Enhancer Pro", for enhanced colors. Both systems alter the original picture, which may look attractive, but has nothing to do with reproducing an authentic picture. According to the manufacturer, you can switch these settings off in the TV's menu.

Samsung UE 55 B 7000 performance in practice:
So, that's how the theory goes - but how does the TV perform in practice? Televisions.com has already begun testing a German 40-inch model from the 7000 series, the UE 40 B 7090. In the "Movie" preset, this little brother of the UE 55 B 7000 displays a natural-looking, vivid picture with decent colors and realistic sharpness.

Despite our worries about glare, the high-gloss, deep-black filter panel is not that reflective, and successfully increases the impression of sharpness. The analog TV picture doesn't quite differentiate all fine details; digital terrestrial and cable (DVB-T/DVB-C), however, show more details (see also the "Tuner" section).

Even with the optional "100-Hertz Motion Plus" setting, the fastest camera pans still bear some shortcomings: While the picture doesn't blur, fast movement judders in TV material in a way that we're only used to seeing with film-based content. The 40-inch model's additional "Blur Reduction" mode is no help: Object edges now simply look distorted. Apart from this, the TV processes video signals faultlessly, and the Scart-RGB input produces a detail-rich, accurate picture - good news for DVD players and satellite-TV receivers.

The UE 55 B 7000's little brother also renders HDTV-resolution images excellently. With test patterns from a Blu-ray disc, the TV reproduced fine details perfectly. Motion also appears correctly in Blu-ray movies, which display without 60-Hz-pulldown judder, regardless of whether the signal arrives in 24p, 60i, or 60p format.

The picture always looks a little exaggerated, for all types of source device - the TV's non-standard gamma curve is at fault here. The gamma curve determines how bright different grayscales will appear on the screen. On the UE 40 B 7090, the curve is bent into an S-shape, causing the brightness distribution within an image to deviate from the original. The gamma controls allow the user to set darker or lighter curves, but not to alter the contrast distortion.

The UE 40 B 7090 model also gives black-and-white movies, such as the classic "Casablanca", a slightly sterile look, and the darkest grayscales a blue tint. Nevertheless, in dark scenes, the Samsung cuts excellent form for an LCD. The automatic LED-adjustment, which you cannot deactivate, dims the brightness quickly and effectively, leading the UE 40 B 7090 to achieve a dynamic contrast ratio of over 10,000:1, without producing irritating pumping effects. The overall impression of the smaller 7000-series model: The picture isn't totally honest, but it's vivid and by no means unpleasant to watch.

Additional Features

The most outstanding extra feature on the UE 55 B 7000 is the network functionality: You can connect the TVs to a PC network using a standard Ethernet cable. Alternatively, Samsung makes a WIS 08 wireless adapter (WLAN, Draft-N, 300 megabits per second, around 20 GBP online), which connects the TV's USB port. According to Samsung, other WLAN adapters will not work with this TV. Network functions require a network router, and Internet functions require an additional broadband Internet connection.

Within the home network, the TV can play back pictures and audio stored, for example, on a PC in the home office. For this, your PC has to be running DLNA server software. Samsung supplies a suitable program (PC Share Manager 2.0) for Windows PCs with the TV as standard.

Alternatives: The latest version of the free Windows software Windows Media Player. Programs such as "TwonkyMedia Server" (about 18 GBP), for example, offer more convenience and more flexibility in terms of operating system. The Samsung UE 55 B 7000 supports the following file-container formats: .avi, .mkv and .asf. These container formats in turn support various codecs: DivX 3.11, 4.x, 5.1, and 6.0, XviD, H.264 (BP/MP/SP), MPEG-4 ASP, and Motion JPEG.

The 7000 series only supports DivX up to a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. They'll also play back Windows Media Video (.wmv), .mp4, .3gp, .vro, and .mpg files. Last but not least, the TVs can handle MPEG program and transport streams (.ps/.ts) - these can use MPEG-2, H.264, or VC1 encoding. For audio formats, this Samsung accepts AAC, HE-AAC, AC3 (Dolby Digital), Dolby Digital Plus, LPCM, MP3, and ADPCM (μ-law, A-law). JPEG photos with up to 15,360 x 8,640 pixels should also display correctly.

The 7000-series TVs can also access certain types of Internet content. These appear on a portal, either from Samsung itself or from Yahoo. Currently available offers include the video portal YouTube, as well as the photo service Flickr.

This Samsung TV not only plays back multimedia files over the network; it also accepts videos, music, and photos via storage media connected to one of its two USB sockets - according to the manufacturer, it will even access hard disks. The TV also has a two-gigabyte built-in memory in order to hold a "Content Library". This means you can save Samsung's Internet content, such as cooking recipes, on the TV for future reference; attractive Flash animations adorn the "Content Library" management menu.

Tuner/Video-processing

As well as analog cable TV and analog terrestrial TV (where still in use), the UE 55 B 7000 receives both digital terrestrial (DVB-T) and digital cable (DVB-C) signals. Both tuners are able to receive HDTV signals, although these remain in an early stage of adoption in the UK.

The TV does not support the new CI Plus access system for pay-TV channels, so cable customers in some countries will still have to rely on a set-top box. In countries that still use CI access systems (as opposed to CI Plus) for cable or DVB-T, Samsung's 7000-series models should be able to display encrypted channels correctly.

A digital satellite tuner is missing altogether - if you're using a dish to receive your TV signals, you're still going to need a separate satellite set-top box. Models destined for the UK market offer an analog cable tuner, including NICAM sound for the common PAL-I standard, as well as digital tuners for DVB-T and DVB-C. Regardless of which country-specific model you buy, the analog inputs accept video signals in the formats PAL, SECAM, and NSTC.

Connections

You pay the price for the TV's flat construction - the UE 55 B 7000 has no Scart sockets. Instead there's only a special type of socket that can connect to a Scart cable with the help of a supplied adapter. This seems like a bit of a shaky solution. And those hoping to use older devices - satellite TV receivers, pay-TV access boxes, VHS recorders, DVD players - will quickly hit problems with the 7000 series, since a single Scart socket really doesn't suffice. What's more, the Scart socket only accepts RGB and composite video signals - S-Video, from a camcorder, for example, is simply not welcome.

For the remaining analog connections, Samsung uses two 3.5-millimeter jack sockets. One accepts YUV signals, the other composite video signals and stereo sound. Both of the supplied adapter cables have cinch sockets on the other end. In our tests of the smaller brother, the UE 40 B 7090, these connections were sufficient to display YUV signals from DVD players accurately in PAL or NTSC resolution; with HD signals, however, the quality suffered.

High-defintion signals are better served by the more modern HDMI connection: All of the models and country-specific versions in the series provide four such inputs, all of which use the latest HDMI version, 1.3. The 7000 series also offers a VGA input for analog computer signals, joined by a mini-jack audio input, which is also useful for connecting PCs to the TV digitally using a DVI-HDMI adapter. This is because although DVI and HDMI are fundamentally compatible, DVI doesn't carry sound.

In this respect, the Samsung TVs are very practical. The UE 55 B 7000 can use its optical "TosLink" connector to relay digital sound from an HDMI device or from one of the digital tuners to an external AV receiver. None of the 7000-series models have a headphone socket.

Operation

The Samsung comes with two remote controls: One covers the full range of functions; the other compact handset controls just the volume and channel changing. The user can use the TV's remote to control any CEC-compatible devices connected by HDMI. Samsung markets this function as "Anynet+".

The on-screen menu is the same in all TVs in the series, so our impressions from the UE 40 B 7090 also apply to the 55-inch version. The menu is attractive, but the numerous extended setup options confuse even TV-experts.

Operation is also tricky during TV viewing: You can only access the aspect ratio setting indirectly, via the "Tools" button, and we found navigating though the cable TV channels awkward. Also, the TV neglects to sort the channels into a sensible sequence (important channels first) or separate them into free and pay-TV channels. The side navigation buttons are also badly positioned.

Design / Model Variants and Pricing

Samsung offers these TVs with an either black-transparent or red-transparent frame; both models are 2.99 centimeters (1.2 inches) deep.

Recommended pricing for the UK:

UE 55 B 7000 WW
red-transparent, 2,800 GBP, 139.7 centimeters (55 inches) screen diagonal.

UE 55 B 7020 WW
black-transparent, 2,800 GBP, 139.7 centimeters (55 inches) screen diagonal.

Optional Accessories

Samsung offers a wall-bracket by the name of WMN 1000 B (from 115 GBP). For around 250 GBP, there's also a sound bar by the name of HT-WS 1 G - this system attempts to produce Dolby surround sound from just one unit.

A brief comparison of alternative models
to the Samsung 55 UE B 7000

as of: 06.05.2009

Competitors are few and far between in this size and price class. The few potential rivals are almost all significantly more expensive. Only two Toshiba models come into question.

Toshiba 55 ZV 635 D, available from May 2009, price not yet confirmed.

Toshiba offers an attractive alternative with its brand-new 55 ZV 635 D. The 55 ZV 635 D aims to optimize moving pictures using 200-Hertz technology. The so-called "Resolution +" technology is supposed to optimize up-scaling of pictures from traditional PAL resolution to the screen's HD resolution. Unlike the Samsung LED TVs, this TV still uses fluorescent tubes as a backlight. The tuner is comparable with the Samsung's - it displays analog cable TV pictures, DVB-T, and DVB-C. Like the Samsung UE 55 B 7000, this Toshiba does not support CI Plus.

On the other hand, the sound setup definitely comes up trumps: With the new "Dolby Volume" technology, the TV tries to iron out the irritating volume changes between movies and ad breaks, as well as the volume differences between TV channels. The Audyssey equalizer, well-renowned by home-theater fans, hopes to produce optimal sound from this flat-panel TV.

Using "Quick HDMI", the ZV 635 D aims to halve the time taken to switch between HDMI sources - the corresponding source (the Blu-ray player or satellite-TV receiver, for example) must, however, already be switched on. With four HDMI inputs, two Scart sockets, an S-Video-capable camcorder input, and a mini-jack headphone output, the 55 ZV 635 offers significantly more connectivity than the Samsung.

On the other hand, this Toshiba is much weaker when it comes to multimedia: Digital photos play back from an SD memory card, and the USB port allows you to access JPEG photos, MP3 music files, and DivX videos. But that's where the list ends, and the TV can't connect to a PC network.

Toshiba 55 SV 635 D, available from August 2009, price not yet confirmed.

Available from Summer onwards, Toshiba's SV 635 D is essentially identical identical to the ZV 635 mentioned above, but includes some advanced technologies that will be a warning shot for Samsung. For example, the 55 SV 635 D aims to optimize moving pictures using 200-Hertz technology. This Toshiba TV's screen also uses selectively adjustable LEDs as its backlight - this "local dimming" promises even deeper blacks than the Samsung UE 55 B 7000 can offer.

In terms of multimedia, too, the SV 635 will largely level up with the previewed Samsung model: If your home PC network includes a DLNA server, the 55 SV 635 D will play back multimedia files over the network. The TV should also be able to access content from the Internet - further details were unavailable at the time of publishing. As with the ZV 635 model, digital photos play back from an SD memory card, and the USB port allows you to access JPEG photos, MP3 music files, and DivX videos.

About our product previews

Experienced experts produce these product preview pages using manufacturers' specifications, along with test data we've produced for other models and subjective assessments of the product's market chances.

We comprehensively research the information we use, but data of this kind quickly becomes out of date as a result of day-to-day variations in the market and the appearance of new products.

The information in our own tests is more reliable, especially statements relating to quality or comparisons with other TVs. Since we cannot test every single device, however, and because we're interested in your opinion, we're grateful to receive any user ratings or user opinions for this TV - especially if you own the model yourself, but also if this preview provided enough information for you to form your own judgment.

Many thanks in advance!

The team behind this product preview:

People involved in producing this article on the Samsung UE 55 B 7000:

Author(s): Karl-Gerhard Haas
Editor in Chief: Florian Friedrich

Photos: Manufacturers

Last updated: May 6, 2009