@hdmi wrote:
looks like we have consensus on this forum, if you want to be future proof then nevre buy any samsung product, My next TV will be LG or Panasonic and I will go for panasoinc UHD player instead of Samsung as I had originally planned
Its not just us ***** but I bet many of us have some 'influence' to others. I know I am regularly asked about which TV to buy for 'gaming' with both an Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. I am a regular contributor to sites like AV Forums and recommended the KS series to MANY people - even citing Samsungs apparent support for HLG and HDR10+ as reasons to buy as it appeared that Samsung would support the TV for its life-time. I can understand to a degree why my HU7500 was dropped and that Samsung would no longer be bringing out SEK's - after all these can't suddenly make the TV 'HDR' as the Hardware wasn't built to deliver the peak Brightness and REC2020 colour gamut.
What I can't understand though is why the 2016 models cannot be updated to play BBC iPlayer in 4k HLG. If its 'Tizen' then why not update Tizen? If I bought a Win8 PC, I could update to Win10 and get all the features/functionality that offered. Even if that's not possible, I am sure adding support for say HEVC is. As others have pointed out, ALL the big TV manufacturers as well as many of the 'smaller' and 'budget' 2016 (and some 2015) TV's are capable of playing HLG via iPlayer yet the company that had over 50% share in 2016 cannot. There share dropped in 2017 and I can see that share declining as many of us jump to alternative manufacturers as well as recommend that people do NOT buy Samsung.
As I said its not 'just' the iPlayer issue - although this does highlight the 'bigger' issue of long term support. Its the lies, the customer service (or lack of), the quality control (not just TV's with back's falling off, terrible consistency with backlights etc - read RTINGs review of the Q7 and the reason why they couldn't achieve over 1000nits on not one but several independently purchased (not review models) Q7 TV's, Read AVForums owners threads with regards to issues - some having to swap multiple times to get an acceptible TV, some having to have multiple new panels fitted with repairers rushed off their feet to deal with KS panel replacements etc but also exploding phones too) Maybe its the cost of damage control, the cost of all those returns, repairs, replacements etc that they are not going to support their TV's.
Another thing that Samsung were looking to do was a similar to purchasing a new car where you pay a certain fee and after 2-3yrs, you pay off the balance and keep it OR upgrade and start again. If Samsung were looking to implement this, it would stand to reason its in their 'interest' to make their TV's out of date very quickly.
I really don't feel I can recommend Samsung anymore and I don't feel I want to purchase another Samsung in the future. LG have been much more supportive and listening to their community. I am sure if an independent study was conducted, Samsung would rank very low on Customer satisfaction - particularly on TV's
