Samsung Showcases Smart TV's

At a recently held product demo, Samsung showcased its D8000 (55 inch) and D7000 (46 inch) Smart LED TV's. Samsung's Smart TV line-up includes the D5500, 6000, D7000, D8000 as well the D8000 Plasma series.

Samsung Smart TV’s allows you to search for movies, TV shows and browse the web, all through your TV. The Smart TV has an inbuilt Wi-Fi allowing it to connect to the Internet. We were shown the Smart Hub interface, through which you see the Smart's TV's various features. The Samsung official stated that there were 400 Samsung apps available that can be used on their Smart TV series. The smart Hub includes the following functions: Search All - to search for the desired content on your TV, Your Video – that provides videos based on recommendations of user preferences, Web Browser - a Samsung's proprietary web browser, Social TV -which allows you to interact with your social network friends while viewing TV.

The TV can be accessed either by the remote that comes along with the TV set, or through an Android based phone (you will need to have the associated Samsung app for allowing the phone to imitate the functions of the TV remote). The use of the remote control to browse the internet was rather cumbersome.

The Samsung official demonstrated the use of Samsung's proprietary browser to check various websites. The official also demonstrated how, through the PIP function in the 'options' menu you could simultaneously view your TV show while browsing the Web. There was also a provision for a child lock feature when browsing the internet through the 'Clean Site' option.

We were also shown how to connect other devices such as mobiles and phones to the T.V. The official demonstrated connecting a laptop (through the PC Share Manager app) and an external hard disk to the Smart TV.

The Samsung official had claimed that the smart TV's can read a wide variety of video file formats including avi, mpeg, mpg4. We were told that while we can browse the web, we can’t download any attachments. The official claimed that in case we receive an email with an attachment, we wont be able to download it, although we will be able to view it- with certain mail services such as Gmail. Samsung claimed that the smart TV can detect malware (that might enter either through the net or through a connected external device, although they didn’t elaborate on how this feature might work).

The TV comes with 3D Bluetooth-enabled glasses, and we were shown a promo of the 3D capabilities of the TV, with the official demonstrating how features such as the depth is perceived with these 3D glasses.

We were told that the 3D hyper real engine that is used for the 3D imaging runs on the Genova P processors. We were also told that the TV features a 1 GB memory.

The official stated that with the 'Schedule Manager' feature on the smart TV, one will be able to program your TV to alert you when your favourite TV program is showing. This will be especially helpful if you have a non-DTH TV service.

The 12 Smart TV models come in screen sizes between 40 inches to 60 inches across the D5500, 6000, D7000, D8000 series with prices starting between INR 68, 900 to INR 400,000. The D8000 Plasma is available in the 64 inch screen size and i9s priced at 230,000.