I searched high and low through the various LED LCDs available – I hit the AV forums, looked for photos and compared prices before purchasing. I feel that the effort was worth it when I finally decided on the Samsung UN55D8000. The price is a bit steep for my liking but this piece is impressive. There’s tons of tech data available online so I’ll skip reiterating all of that. I’m quite discerning in the items I purchase and this set has the following highlights:

• image is both crisp & vibrant with no flashlighting
• impressive sound (for built in speakers)
• form is impressively thin (Not the thinnest on the market but noteworthy)
• from the back, the inputs are located on the left side, set in and feed to the bottom and left edges
• the thin bezel puts the focus on what you’re watching
• user interface is very nice – an advance just as important as the thinness of these televisions
• unique two sided remote makes the interactive functions much more enjoyable
• one of the best looking sets available

The one thing I could not seem to get any info on was the component / composite connections. I have a few old AV components that would require the analog connections. So, for anyone else in similar circumstances, the set comes with a mini-jack connector (two prong 1/8″) that allows for one component and one composite connection. This will work fine until I am able to update these older components.

Also, the manual does not provide the full details in pairing the remote. I had to get in touch with Samsung Customer Service which was very helpful but still took some time to track down the missing details. When pairing the remote – the remote *** MUST BE LESS THAN EIGHT INCHES AWAY FROM THE TELEVISION *** Hopefully, future manuals will be updated to reflect this missing detail.

UN55D8000 TV review by Jason Hellmann

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List Price: $2,099.98

Samsung 55-Inch LED TV UN55D8000 Now on Sale at Amazon.com