Samsung UE32EH5300 Smart LED TV £259.27 @ Amazon

bromley52

Samsung UE32EH5300 Smart LED TV £259.27 @ Amazon

Oracle

Looks like a good deal, now showing priced slightly lower at £252.95, or about €300.

• Free Super Saver Delivery to Ireland
• Saorview Approved
• Genuine Saving- the same TV is over €400 at Argos.

bromley52

Oracle wrote: »

Looks like a good deal, now showing priced slightly lower at £252.95, or about €300.

• Free Super Saver Delivery to Ireland
• Saorview Approved
• Genuine Saving- the same TV is over €400 at Argos.

£259.27 is including Irish VAT.

Oracle

bromley52 wrote: »

£259.27 is including Irish VAT.

OK thanks, looks like its gone now anyway ....

PyeContinental

Oracle wrote: »

OK thanks, looks like its gone now anyway ....

I tried to buy this for someone but could not confirm the address in time.
There didn't seem to be any indication that stock was low or that it was selling out so fast. Feel like i missed out on this!

Oracle

PyeContinental wrote: »

I tried to buy this for someone but could not confirm the address in time.
There didn't seem to be any indication that stock was low or that it was selling out so fast. Feel like i missed out on this!

There's one "Like New" from Amazon Warehouse for £240. I think you could use Parcel Motel then collect from a depot for €3.50, or get home delivery for €14.

PyeContinental

Thanks, I appreciate it, but second hand/refurb would have to be the price of a pub lunch to feel like a bargain.

Oracle

PyeContinental wrote: »

Thanks, I appreciate it, but second hand/refurb would have to be the price of a pub lunch to feel like a bargain.

No probs each to their own ... I suspect Warehouse items like this is just the last few stock Amazon want rid of, not second-hand or refurbished. Thats why they say "Like New" ... I'm very surprised its still available ...

PyeContinental

Even if the box was battered it would look no good as a present, and could make it seem like I was trying to pass something off as something it wasn't (old for new). Plus, it would eat me up inside to know that I had paid more for a refurb item (or at least an unknown entity) when including the parcel motel cost than the new item would have done. The gesture is not as good when you can't have it delivered directly to the recipient either.

PyeContinental

Hey, you know what, I had a change of heart.
I realised it was going to be less than the cost of new even if Parcel Motel is another €15. It will be only slightly cheaper - but it was important to me that it should be.
So I took a punt on it.

Total: GBP 240.25 (would be approx 295.47 with Amazon conversion) but I left it in GBP to experience the further thrill of potentially shaving another few half crowns off the price in exchange rate.

If it doesn't look like new I'll find some use for it.
If it's actually faulty I may have difficulty returning it as it came via Parel Motel, but hopefully your hypothesis will be right that this is really new and won't have been rejected due to some fault that hasn't been properly fixed.

Oracle

Good for you. I hope all goes well.

bromley52

Back in stock

Oracle

... and back out of stock again .... and this time the Warehouse deal is gone too!

Oracle

... and the Warehouse price is back!

fryup

exactly how much is p&p to ireland for TVs with amazon?

Yamanoto

fryup wrote: »

exactly how much is p&p to ireland for TVs with amazon?

I've ordered 2 TV's from them & free super saver delivery applied to both.

If your looking at an Amazon Warehouse product, you'd have to go via the Parcel Motel route.

Zardoz

A pity Amazon dont deliver larger screen sets to Ireland ,I have seen a good few 40 and 42 inch sets but they wont deliver them .

Yamanoto

Zardoz wrote: »

A pity Amazon dont deliver larger screen sets to Ireland ,I have seen a good few 40 and 42 inch sets but they wont deliver them

It can be very fluid what they do and don't choose to ship tbh and there doesn't seem to be an easily discernible pattern to it.

As late as March this year, they were shipping several 42" models to ROI without issue, having previously held off doing so. If there's a 40 or 42" model you're interested in, it's worth adding to your basket periodically, to see if it'll ship.

Zardoz

Yamanoto wrote: »

It can be very fluid what they do and don't choose to ship tbh and there doesn't seem to be an easily discernible pattern to it.

As late as March this year, they were shipping several 42" models to ROI without issue, having previously held off doing so. If there's a 40 or 42" model you're interested in, it's worth adding to your basket periodically, to see if it'll ship.

Thanks Yamanoto,I do try what you say ,adding a set to the basket every so often but it seems any set I am interested in isn't deliverable here.
I will keep trying every so often.

PyeContinental

I thought people might be interested to hearing a follow up on my experience of buying this TV from Amazon Marketplace with delivery via Parcel Motel.

It was ordered on Friday the 10th.
The TV cost £240.25
I opted to let Visa take care of the currency conversion, and this worked out to be €290.05 (an exchange rate of £0.82831 to the euro)
It was delivered quickly, because I got notification from Parcel Motel early on Tuesday May 14th. For this they charged €21, which I think is excessive. €12 to €15 would seem fairer. Even if they do exist, their email notification does not mention any forwarding or redelivery options.

Although I went to their Finglas Depot in Mygan Park to collect, the cost of this TV excluding the cost of Petrol and my time was therefore €311.05. The cost of the new TV from Amazon direct would have been €313.01 at the same exchange rate. So, the "like new" item from Amazon Marketplace barely scrapes in at cheaper if I pretend I spent nothing on Petrol to collect it.

Just as well then that the TV came very well packaged, and it is indeed like new. Otherwise, I'd feel pretty sour about the whole thing.



I was actually really impressed with the packaging. The TV did not come in its original box. They used a really large box with custom-formed foam packing around the corners of the TV. This meant that it would have been protected from even quite rough handling.



Although the base had already been fitted to the TV (some might consider this a bonus), it was wrapped in plastic, and the branding stickers were still attached to it.



There was no dust on the TV, and no marks or smudges on the screen. There was evidence of its previous packaging, in that there were a few grains of polystyrene caught in some of the grooves at the back of the TV. The batteries had never been inserted into the remote, and the TV never seemed to have been tuned in or configured, if it had been switched on at all.



As for the TV itself, I was impressed with the picture quality. Setup and menu features were well designed, as was the remote.







What about the "Smart TV" aspect of the Samsung? Well I tried the youtube and TED apps. The Youtube one appeared to hang while buffering in the middle of playback of a video (the whole set became unresponsive for several minutes, until the TV rebooted). I gave it three goes and then gave up on it. The TED one played well for about 10 mins or so, and then the TV must have got bored with the topic, because the video just exited from smart apps and it went back to the standard broadcast channels. I tested RTE Player as well, but after about 17 mins of the Late Late Show, I could stand it no longer and had to exit that one myself.

The TV seemed to be able to play perfectly any of the AVI, MP4, and MKV files I tested it with. I have a few MKVs and MP4s (either extremely large or slightly unusual encoding) which other sets and various boxes either struggle to play or can't play at all. This played them all, and has the simple but very useful option to skip 20 secs in either direction with the cursor buttons or scan with the fwd and rew buttons (I would change the skip time to 30secs or more, although I didn't see an option to set the skip interval). Many sets and boxes don't give you the skip through option which can mean it's very difficult and slow to scan through a file to a particular point, and can often cause the system to hang or crash.

One big gripe I have with playback of media files is that subtitles are on by default, and this can't be changed. Every time you start playback of a file, if it has external or internal subtitles, they will appear. Each time, the only way you can switch them off is by going into a nested menu to select subtitles "off" instead of "track 1". There is a subtitle button right on the remote, but that only applies to broadcast channels, and doesn't remap the function when in media playback mode. This to me is a huge annoyance. It's a small oversight, and is the kind of thing that could easily be fixed by a firmware update but is unlikely to be. This isn't just a problem with this Samsung by the way, I've notice the same behaviour on TVs from other manufacturers too.

Anyway, here are some pics of the connections on the TV, in case it might be useful to anyone:

CH3OH

PyeContinental wrote: »

Great post .


Very informative.

BostonB

Thanks for that post. Very useful. Would Amazon direct have delivered to here? I've not tried any large items.

I have the opposite problems with subtitles on a LG. No subtitles and no control for subtitles media files. Works for TV and DVD/BluRay. Just not with media files. Not fixed in the 3 or 4 firmware updates so far. Files play fine though a computer.

Yamanoto

Good post Pye, thanks for that.

Sort of reinforces my belief to hold off on a Smart TV purchase, until such time as manufacturers and content providers implement something which functions as it truly should.

I've used parcel Motel for a few things and found 'em great, though for fragile items such as TV's, a small insurance opt-in would be attractive to buyers wary of routing more costly items via their depots.

Oracle

Thanks for the detailed and informative post PyeContinental. I'm glad its worked out so well for you. You've cleared up the mystery of what Amazon Warehouse "Like New" really means. Plus you've bagged yourself about a €100 saving too, this TV is still €410 at Argos.

dodzy

Great post, but I think that 21 quid for postage for a large box across the water is pretty good

BostonB

Yamanoto wrote: »

...
Sort of reinforces my belief to hold off on a Smart TV purchase, until such time as manufacturers and content providers implement something which functions as it truly should....

A smart TV is still useful, even with these limitations. You could get something like a Rasberry Pi with raspbmc to get something thats has better compatibility. I was thinking of doing this for a monitor or older TV's.

http://www.raspbmc.com/

Oracle

Just noticed what Parcel Motel charged you. The Amazon descripton says the package is under 10Kg. According to the ParcelMotel website, if you picked it up from their depot, the charge should have been €3.50. If they re-direct it to another address (ie. your home) it should be €14 in total. I'm not sure where the €21 is coming from:

Eoin

I bought a WD TV Live box and a NAS a couple of months ago . There's cheaper options out there, but I'm really happy with the set-up. I suppose it's not ideal having yet another remote, but apart from that I don't feel like I'm missing out by not having the smart stuff directly integrated into the telly.

Yamanoto

BostonB wrote: »

A smart TV is still useful, even with these limitations. You could get something like a Rasberry Pi with raspbmc to get something thats has better compatibility. I was thinking of doing this for a monitor or older TV's.

http://www.raspbmc.com/

It may be useful, but the limitations would frustrate me tbh. I've held off Apple, WDTV and various XBMC configs precisely because I want a built-in solution, with as little faffing about as possible.

Perhaps the tech has moved beyond where I perceive it to be, but Smart fuctionality still strikes me as a bolted-on gimmick, which has yet to really wow.

BostonB

Well they are simply computers and as such they'll always need updating and will eventually go obsolete. If its all built in, it will go obsolete quicker. If its modular it can be upgrade as you go.

It wows my lot. They watch their media files, to full HD at a click. They can what streaming services like Netflix and Youtube very easily. And even control them from a tablet or phone.

Check out techmoan youtube vid on the raspbmc. Shows how simple it is.

PyeContinental

Thanks a lot guys. I'm really pleased you found the post useful, especially for a TV set that looks to be a model that has been superseded. However, a lot of the aspects of this model are common to all modern TVs, and inferences can likely be drawn about the ability of other Samsung models to play media files.

I forgot to mention that I was also impressed with the sound quality of the TV. It really was quite good. There was nothing tinny or distorted about it. For reference, I consider sound quality to be as important as picture quality for watching films myself, and use a separate amp and speakers for watching Blu-ray discs with great digital surround sound.

As for whether Smart TV functions and apps have reached a level of maturity yet where we can assume that they will work flawlessly, I'm not sure. I think based on this tv alone, it is not enough to make a judgement about all of them. I think it is right to be sceptical about them though, because they will be marketed to you as being something that will change your life and which you simply cannot live without.

A raspberry pi or any kind of home built media centre is really only for someone like me who likes to tinker with stuff, and is prepared to put in a bit of time configuring it and figuring out ways to make it work if it doesn't all work at first.

I bought an Asus Oplay (an equivalent to a Western Digital WDTV) box for someone else a couple of years ago, and it's been great at playing all media files. The only time it had trouble with an MKV, I downloaded a firmware update which resolved the issue and it has since never had a problem with any other file.

This kind of firmware update which might fix issues with certain file formats or codecs that weren't fully evolved at the time of manufacture are fair enough. Other updates that add functionality to cater for phenomena which become popular after release of the product to the market is legitimate and a really good thing too. Unfortunately there seems to be an acceptance these days that things will be rushed to the market in an incomplete or not fully tested state, with the attitude that if something doesn't work properly, we'll see if enough people complain about it and maybe we'll release an update that'll be able to fix it. This kind of thing is reprehensible, and it's driven by the system which demands product releases on set dates due to consumer demand and stock market pressures. It's all part of the race to the bottom which priorities short term gain over quality and long term reputation.

Boxes like the Oplay and the WDTV are a great alternative for someone who doesn't want to have to mess about with making their own plug-in media centre, and I don't think that anyone with one of these who hasn't got it built into their TV is missing out on anything much really. If the TV is still giving a good quality picture, maybe it is better to add features to it in a modular way and keep a TV which has a good quality screen for longer. For many people with a Satellite or Cable box, a screen is all a TV is anyway.

Most Blu-ray players come with many of these so called smart apps too, and should be capable of playing media files as well. One of these may be an option for someone who is looking to add these features to a TV which is still good, but just doesn't have smart features. You'd need to read a few reviews first of course to see if there are any known issues with whatever model you're thinking of going with.

I bought a Panasonic DMP-BDT120, which has been able to play most AVIs, had trouble with one or two MP4s out of my entire collection, and has been able to play all MKVs. I found it interesting that it wouldn't play the sound of one particular MP4 file, but when the audio and video streams were put unchanged into a MKV, it played fine. It can do this via USB, SD, or network. It does however hang when scanning through some MKV files. Annoyingly, it seems to be mostly the ones which I have transcoded from Windows TV format to MKV files with Handbrake, and subsequently trimmed with Solveig trimmer. I haven't figured out the root cause yet though, so it may not be all the unit's fault.

Anyway, I've gone way off topic and have kind of forgotten the question, if indeed there was one, so I'll leave it at that for now

PyeContinental

I forgot to mention the €21 charge from Parcel Motel. I was thinking that it may be that they charge the maximum possible and reimburse the difference if a pickup is done instead of a follow-on delivery. I will wait a day or two more to see if I am reimbursed anything. If not, I will try to find the time to call them to query it.

Also forgot to mention that the Samsung TV set felt lighter than a 22" Grundig (non-Saorview) flat panel screen which it replaced. So much so, that I felt confident using the existing wall bracket, with a custom modification to join the mounting points of the larger TV to the smaller bracket.