Close

What are you looking for?

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Thoughts on the new 2018 QLED TV?

(Topic created on: 28-07-2018 10:44 AM)
3695 Views
AntS
Moderator
Moderator
Options

I had the opportunity to learn more about and see the insides of one these: http://www.samsung.com/uk/tvs/qled-tv/highlights/ at one of the Samsung factories the other week. (The whole factory visit was genuinely a fascinating experience.) I spent much of the time feeling wowed – but then again I still vividly remember CRT tellies and that noise they made when they were turned on...

 

Anyone else seen one of the 2018 QLED’s in person? And any thoughts on features like Ambient Mode, the Near-Invisible cable, One Remote Control , SmartThings connectivity etc?

115 REPLIES 115
tranx
Pioneer
Options

Part 1

We got Q9FN to replace F8000, which was only 5 years old, for the TV recording features while watching another channel, and for its Terrestrial and Satellite tuners. The F8000 was no end of trouble but seemed somehow eventually to settle down. However it still put up messages which would not go away, e.g. "Do you want to stop recording BBC2, and start recording BBC2 instead?" ( ...why would I? ...and, even if 'yes', it didn't... )  Anyway I had run out of steam and finally made the change to a new TV, hoping against hope that the systems had been improved. After all F8000 and Q9FN were the only TVs with the functions we wanted.

 

For the Q9FN we were advised that TVPlus was the provider of the FTA EPG and the Sat EPG but note that, in the List screen's Aerial options, the choice is between Terrestrial and "FreeSat", which was puzzling but may be ok because that proprietory term here refers to the satellite broadcast itself.

 

First installation was indeed very quick and easy but at first sight the Permissions screen was both ambiguous, because it could be 'skipped', and obscure as to the effects of doing this, which put me on guard. Then the Hub first opened with the TVPlus logo button highlighted, which showed the prominent Recommendations panel of videos for rent :shocked-face-with-exploding-head:

 

It was not until the third total reset had been performed that the meaning and value of the options for Recommendations became clear, when Satellite/Terrestrial channels could be chosen sensibly, instead of TVPlus channels.

 

  • From comments elsewhere in the forum I guess that a few more notes on setup screen ( or even a proper detailed user manual specifically for the Q9FN?? ) might save a lot of angst and, unless I missed something, it would not hurt to provide these options in the Settings menu too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

tranx
Pioneer
Options

Part2

In reviews a lot of different Picture tweaks have been suggested, but after much fiddling we found the vanilla settings just fine, with Ambient Light Detection on  in General Eco Solution. 

 

It might be because navigation is very similar to that of our last tele, but straight away the menus seemed natural. In the hub I would have chosen a different arrangement of the primary buttons so it would have been nice to have greater scope for moving them around, especially since returning to the hub always first highlights the TVPlus button, giving grounds for adverse user reaction.

 

  • We have long used a universal remote, which does recognise all our set top boxes, but if you have plenty of devices the functions connected to the 'smart' Remote (and presumably also 'smart things') may not be much use. Pity.

 

So far, and on the whole, the Q9FN has proved to be excellent. At least on Freesat it can even record two programmes (as long as they are on the same 'transponder'?/'multiplex'? such as BBC)  while you can watch a third - may it long continue :hand-with-index-and-middle-fingers-crossed:

tranx
Pioneer
Options

Part3

As long as you don't fiddle, on HD the picture is truly wonderful!

 

Sound is adequate but a bit muffled

Stu101
Apprentice
Options
Mine is switching itself off. Only theee weeks old. This was noted as a serious problem on 2017 sets. Hope this doesn’t get worse.
0 Likes
blackvikin
Apprentice
Options

@Stu101 wrote:
Mine is switching itself off. Only theee weeks old. This was noted as a serious problem on 2017 sets. Hope this doesn’t get worse.

Such a shame that Samsung's standard seems to be dropping well below standard. I am having all sorts of problems with my Q8 tv. It's 2018, picture's immaculate but just won't do scheduling viewing or scheduling recording, screen keeps going blank, the one connect box's very temperamental, sometimes it recognises other connected devices without sound and other times wont recognise at all until switched off from main. I don't think samsung cares much these days about QUALITY. More like QUANTITY & PROFIT. It saddens me because I am fanatical and passionate about samsung products like one is their football club. So many patches and updates are long overdue for the SAMSUNG QLED TVs. Am in two minds whether to return mine and ask for a full refund

 

paul1277
Black Belt 
Options

@blackvikin wrote:

@Stu101 wrote:
Mine is switching itself off. Only theee weeks old. This was noted as a serious problem on 2017 sets. Hope this doesn’t get worse.

Such a shame that Samsung's standard seems to be dropping well below standard. I am having all sorts of problems with my Q8 tv. It's 2018, picture's immaculate but just won't do scheduling viewing or scheduling recording, screen keeps going blank, the one connect box's very temperamental, sometimes it recognises other connected devices without sound and other times wont recognise at all until switched off from main. I don't think samsung cares much these days about QUALITY. More like QUANTITY & PROFIT. It saddens me because I am fanatical and passionate about samsung products like one is their football club. So many patches and updates are long overdue for the SAMSUNG QLED TVs. Am in two minds whether to return mine and ask for a full refund

 


You both need to report this to your retailers as soon as possible as they are responsible for replacement and refunds. As per this TV switching off,  it is not normal for a TV to do this therefore faulty and send it back. 

As for scheduled recording it is known unfixable fault with the Samsung smart TVs. The customer support will not tell you this,  but the Samsung CEO office did and refunded me for my TV eventually. 

Paul

0 Likes
tranx
Pioneer
Options

Sorry to hear about it and it does seem inexplicable again that any Q9FNs should seem to work ok, when others don't.

 

Our Q9FN replaces a series of two F8000s which, over a period of 5 years, would not record reliably. That was in spite of 2 new motherboards etc. but after a saga of investigation, when everything possible had been tried and failed, the Samsung's appointed engineers could only conclude that there was a problem

with the reception in this area, or with faulty aerial connections. However our 3 Humax boxes have always worked faultlessly here and we had employed an aerial expert who said it was clearly a fault with the F8000. In the end we still liked the TV so just gave up.

 

Now it seems most odd that so far the new Q9FN has been ok,  when it uses exactly the same Hdmi Leads, the same external HDD, and the same terrestrial and satellite connections, as the F8000 which would not work properly. Perhaps it should be called 'QED' instead.

 

 

paul1277
Black Belt 
Options

@tranx wrote:

Sorry to hear about it and it does seem inexplicable again that any Q9FNs should seem to work ok, when others don't.

 

Our Q9FN replaces a series of two F8000s which, over a period of 5 years, would not record reliably. That was in spite of 2 new motherboards etc. but after a saga of investigation, when everything possible had been tried and failed, the Samsung's appointed engineers could only conclude that there was a problem

with the reception in this area, or with faulty aerial connections. However our 3 Humax boxes have always worked faultlessly here and we had employed an aerial expert who said it was clearly a fault with the F8000. In the end we still liked the TV so just gave up.

 

Now it seems most odd that so far the new Q9FN has been ok,  when it uses exactly the same Hdmi Leads, the same external HDD, and the same terrestrial and satellite connections, as the F8000 which would not work properly. Perhaps it should be called 'QED' instead.

 

 


I had a ks9500 which worked for the first 2 weeks then stopped scheduled recording. With both freeveiw and freesat.  Time shift worked so it was not the drive. They also tried to blame everything else,  but I also had a Samsung freesat recorded and an older 32 Samsung smart TV. Both of these work fine. I had a new one connect and main board. It would work for a couple of weeks then stop. Samsung agreed vie the CEO office,  to replace with a q9f and it was at this point the CEO office told me they had an unrepairable issue with scheduled recording. The Q9F did have the same issues and was also so dull it was awful. Samsung then gave me a full refund. They know about it but fob you off hoping you will give up. I have put the email in the ks owners refund more info thread if you want to look. 

Paul

0 Likes
tranx
Pioneer
Options

Thanks Paul but hope you might be wrong about Q9FN :thinking-face:

 

Today we had two consecutive and novel pops up which asked for the region and secondary region to be re-selected, and guess this just might be a clue as to what part of the software could be having trouble...

0 Likes
paul1277
Black Belt 
Options

@tranx wrote:

Thanks Paul but hope you might be wrong about Q9FN :thinking-face:

 

Today we had two consecutive and novel pops up which asked for the region and secondary region to be re-selected, and guess this just might be a clue as to what part of the software could be having trouble...

 

It still worth while informing your retailer just in case it does not fix and then its logged,  especially in the first 4 weeks. 

Paul

 


0 Likes