News Uh, what?! Amazon is now giving away FREE Samsung smart TVs during the Big Spring Sale

[AC News]

Amazon will give you a free 65-inch smart TV when you buy any of Samsung's 2024 TVs through their site.

Uh, what?! Amazon is now giving away FREE Samsung smart TVs during the Big Spring Sale : Read more

 

[winmod21]

All I can say is Wow ! Except that it's too bad Samsung tv's don't support Dolly Vision.

 

[Mooncatt]

All I can say is Wow ! Except that it's too bad Samsung tv's don't support Dolly Vision.

That's surprising. Even my Hisense has Dolby Vision, and they aren't as well known as Samsung (over all an awesome tv, btw).

 

[winmod21]

That's surprising. Even my Hisense has Dolby Vision, and they aren't as well known as Samsung (over all an awesome tv, btw).

Yes, great picture quality overall.
We bought a 65" Hisense U8H for a fam member, and it has a spectacular overall PQ for the price.

Although ours was running really hot (102°~106° w\digital surface thermometer) when we had the Backlight set to 100%, and really radiating a lot of heat. So had to turn that down to 50~60ish%. Just hope being @ 100%, for awhile, didn't cook the board & processor &c, to point of shortening their life spans. Those tv's should really be manufactured with fans mounted on their backsides, directly over the mainboard & processor!

I haven't messed with other settings very much; basically just followed the settings recommendations– of Digital Trends & FOMO's pro reviews on youtube, as well as the typ consensus/recommended settings @ avsforum dot com.

I see that AVS has a thread about bigger & brighter 2024 Hisense models.

Our main tv's are all Sony's, of which we could not be more pleased with.

 

[Mooncatt]

Although ours was running really hot (102°~106° w\digital surface thermometer) when we had the Backlight set to 100%

Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius? I suspect that's Fahrenheit, which is barely even warm when it comes to electronics. If it's Celsius, that would be over the boiling temp of water and physically impossible to touch. For reference, modern high performance electronics in computers run at about 176°F/80°C before they even begin to throttle due to temps.

We have the 65" U8G (the year prior to yours), and I've seen similar temp complaints, but nothing like that on ours. Our only complaint is the sound sometimes gets out of sync with the sound bar. What's odd is it's the audio that is delayed, but the built in delay adjustment on the tv only delays the audio and would only make it worse. At least we can usually fix it by resetting the eARC connection. It would be nice if the delay feature could also delay video/advanced also, but I've heard that's not a common feature.

 

[winmod21]

Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius? I suspect that's Fahrenheit, which is barely even warm when it comes to electronics. If it's Celsius, that would be over the boiling temp of water and physically impossible to touch. For reference, modern high performance electronics in computers run at about 176°F/80°C before they even begin to throttle due to temps.
~

Yeah F. Though you are mistaken, I wasn't talking about the inner 'electronics', but rather the surface temps, which at those temps... were really really incredibly hot! In fact, exceptionally hot. So exceptionally hot that you could feel the heat radiating from the tv at 4~5+ ft (feet) away from it! So exceptionally hot, that when you walked by or past the tv... it felt like you were walking next to a giant radiant heater!

Our Sony's, by comparison, typ run at only 75°~81° F on their panel surfaces, and at only 65°~69° F on their backsides, and that's with the Sony's Backlight (Brightness) set to 100%!
In fact, when I put my hand up to our Sony's... I can't even feel any heat, whatsoever, until my hand is only 1/2" (inch) off the panel surface, and at that, only a faint warmth.
And I would suspect those temps are typ of most tv's, as our older (bedrm) Samsung smart tv's & monitors run at similar temps.

So again, 102°~106° F (with some spots actually up to 110°), was actually very, very exceptionally hot! Enough so that it was actually raising the room temperature @ the T-Stat!
And so much so, that it felt pretty obvious that it would've surely cooked the board & processor & etc, if the Backlight setting would've been left at 100%. So that's why we had to turn the Backlight way down, with hopes that that excessive amount of heat hadn't already shortened any of the board components lifespans. Thence, lowering the Backlight to 50~60ish% did lower the panel surface temps—on our U8H—back down into the 80°+ F's.

Hisense tv's running exceptionally hot... have been reported, for years, throughout multiple avsforum forum threads (where I've been a member for 15+ years).

We haven't had any audio sync issues. So Hisense updates haven't fixed your audio sync issue?

 

[Mooncatt]

So Hisense updates haven't fixed your audio sync issue?

They haven't, but it's not consistent enough to raise a big stink about it. It's been a fantastic tv, and it's picking nits finding something to complain about. The other being the persistent and distracting indicator light telling you the mic is turned off in the general settings (no spy, thank you). I worked around that by going into the app manager like with an android phone, viewing system apps, and turning the mic permission off in every Google app that had it as an option. No more erroneous responses anytime it thinks it hears something remotely like "ok Google."

 

[winmod21]

They haven't, but it's not consistent enough to raise a big stink about it. It's been a fantastic tv, and it's picking nits finding something to complain about. The other being the persistent and distracting indicator light telling you the mic is turned off in the general settings (no spy, thank you). I worked around that by going into the app manager like with an android phone, viewing system apps, and turning the mic permission off in every Google app that had it as an option. No more erroneous responses anytime it thinks it hears something remotely like "ok Google."

Yeah our U8H has been fabulous so far too, in most respects.
I don't recall an indicator light signaling the turned-off mic, in the general settings. I guess I didn't notice it.

With respects to audio, when we switched from DirecTV to Dish TV, last Sept, (which I wish we would've done many years ago), we agreed to let the installation Tech person demo their (specially packaged for Dish TV customers) Polk DBRX1 5.1 'Cinema Soundbar' — 'High-Performance True 5.1 Home Theater System' w/ DSW2 wireless subwoofer w/ DSR3 wireless surrounds; which at the time, were on a special offer from Dish TV – during installations of their DVR 'Hopper' & 'Joey' room-satellite/clients.

We had no previous experience with Polk's. But right away we noticed that it sounded much better than our more expensive Sony soundbars! And, we've had zero sync and/or eArc or HDMI connection problems - since setting it up last Sept.

The price for the Polk DBRX1 5.1 'Cinema Soundbar' was $225, and the DSW2 wireless subwoofer + DSR3 wireless surrounds were only $200 additional, totaling approx $450 . . (we wouldn't typically have gone for something being offered on the spot, like that, but the low $225 price for the soundbar + $200 for the sub & wireless surrounds swayed us to go ).

Moreover, the overall sound quality is fabulous, at least by our opinions, with both the voice/dialogue clarity & music soundstage greatly improved, with music sounding full and rich and deep & penetrating, and blah, blah, blah. Cuz all that really matters . . . is that it sounds phenomenal to us !=)) So much so, that if I could remember a bunch of other audioholic lingo or phrases, I'd probably use them too!

 

[Mooncatt]

Yeah our U8H has been fabulous so far too, in most respects.
I don't recall an indicator light signaling the turned-off mic, in the general settings. I guess I didn't notice it.

Not sure if your model has the lights, but this is what I'm talking about.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hisense/comments/117b5te/u8h_lights_stay_on

If you turn off the mic, the lights turn on. There isn't a setting to turn the lights off/on specifically, which is why I had to use the workaround I mentioned. Basically tricking the TV into thinking the mic is still on while denying it permission for apps to use it.

Sounds good on your surround sound. We have a basic Samsung Dolby Atmos surround system. It's a sound bar with built in up-firing speakers, plus wireless rear surround and sub. Our living room isn't set up to be favorable to excellent sound, so we didn't bother investing a ton. Still a massive improvement over the TV speakers.

 

[winmod21]

Not sure if your model has the lights, but this is what I'm talking about.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hisense/comments/117b5te/u8h_lights_stay_on

If you turn off the mic, the lights turn on. There isn't a setting to turn the lights off/on specifically, which is why I had to use the workaround I mentioned. Basically tricking the TV into thinking the mic is still on while denying it permission for apps to use it.

Sounds good on your surround sound. We have a basic Samsung Dolby Atmos surround system. It's a sound bar with built in up-firing speakers, plus wireless rear surround and sub. Our living room isn't set up to be favorable to excellent sound, so we didn't bother investing a ton. Still a massive improvement over the TV speakers.

I've seen and read a little re those Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbar systems; they sound really nice.
Our U8H is in a large bedrm w/sitting area, for an elderly fam member we care for, so of course not an adequate or favorable enough environment for a deluxe DA system like yours.

@Mooncatt —
Aww, now I see it; I had forgot about that mic switch at the bottom cntr of tv. I guess we never turned it off, all this time. As we were using the Google Assistant function for 4K & 8K & misc YT searches, as well as volume & channel changes &c. And yes, our four lights stay on when the mic is turned off. Did you want your mic turned-off due to concerns re google listening/recording?