Samsung Crystal UHD 4K CU8000 TV UN43CU8000

I loved everything about this TV, except for the remote control. Besides the fact that it needs to be exposed to the sun for its solar power, I would have preferred the remote control to simply be battery powered. I never know when to actually set it to get sun exposure to keep its power working.

Eighteen days ago a new Samsung television arrived…my third from Samsung in ten years, so usually I am pleased with their product.
UPDATE: Samsung finally delivered a replacement tv, almost a month after it was initially ordered from Amazon. My mistake was in calling Samsung Support, thinking that I was the reason I couldn’t get it to work.
Well, now 30 days later, I’m once again attaching my unit to a stand, hooking it up, and attempting to connect a soundbar. Wait, there doesn’t seem to be a Digital Optical Cable port. What gives? Maybe it’s there, somewhere. I’ll deal with Samsung Support tomorrow. Arrgh.
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But when I turned this one on, the screen offered two options, 1) the Samsung Remote, or 2) a Samsung app (which I downloaded, etc.). Trouble was, neither would start the set. So I went online, was provided a Service Ticket Number, and a couple days later a technician came to the house, tried starting it up, and reported that it wasn’t me, there really was a problem with the set.
So he reported it, and via texts I was told that:
a) someone would come to reclaim the non-functioning set (in 2 to 4 business days), and
b) approximately a week later I would receive a replacement unit.
That was 19 days ago (and counting).
In the meantime, I have texted Samsung Service for hours. Their initial email included an icon that would supposedly take me directly to service when clicked, but hard to believe in 2023, that link led to “404, file not found.”
And since there is no direct phone number for Samsung Service, I was forced to go through a maddening routing tree (e..g. press 1 for telephone sales, 2 for television sales, 3 for refrigerators…etc.) until I somehow got an AI Chat to direct my inquiry to what was supposed to be a human. This past week I have spent over ten hours three consecutive nights getting sympathetic rhetoric… and misinformation.
Mid-week I was surprisingly provided with a UPS “trucking” (sic) number and told the new unit would be delivered the following day. So I “trucked” the package to learn it was delivered, only to some warehouse 300 miles away.
Thus ensued another frustrating round with various incompetents, until one of them finally explained that the “trucking” number was for the company that will contact me (when?) to arrange to repossess the non-functional unit, and present me with a new one, which we hope will work.
At this point I am still within my Amazon Return window, and if I don’t get an actual exchange date in the next two days, I will by-pass Samsung and return the non-functional set. And consider purchasing a different brand.
By the way, a Google search led me to a Reddit page that shows my experience is not unique. Literally thousands of others rank Samsung Service among the worse ever. Reminds me of a Lily Tomlin routine as Ernestine the telephone operator, prior to the break-up of the Bell Telephone System: “We’re the phone company, we don’t have to care. We’re a monopoly.” Perhaps the service technicians from the Bell system are responsible for Samsung now.
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Thirty days after my initial order a new, seemingly function tv was delivered, and I am in the midst of the process of setting it up. It helps that my previous tv was also a Samsung, since many of the necessary How To items are buried in the eManual that you must view on the screen.
Attached is a photo of the connection ports on the rear of the screen. They may look readily visible but understand, this is what they look like when Flash was used. Without the aid of Flash, they all blend in, dull and black. Need to reconnect a cord to different port, have fun!
My previous Samsung tv had a soundbar, which I attached to this set. However, I must have done something wrong, because thus far it doesn’t appear in my Sound Options. I don’t have the patience to deal with Support today, so that will be the project for another day. But check out the helpful online page Samsung provides. Do you have a clue as to which letter of the alphabet your set might be?
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BTW, the rear of my television did not have white lettering, like what is shown in the photo that Amazon has accompanying this offering. As a result, it was two days of frustrating searching before I was able to locate the Optical port for the cable. Hint: it is NOT on the side along with the others, but rather about two inches to the right of the other ports, just below an HDMI port.

Nice picture quality, and it wasn’t too hard to set up. We purchased it because we’d just subscribed to paramount plus, and it wasn’t working well with our older “dumb” TV. I don’t regret using it, but there is this frustrating thing where it occasionally stops “seeing” paramount plus, and we have to search it or even reboot the system to get that service to work again. So far the TV has been good with apple TV, netflix, Disney, and other streaming services we use. I do find it a bit klunky getting back to the “apps” screen after accessing our Xfinity service channel list to watch one of those directly.

One issue is that it doesn’t seem to “see” our blu ray player when we attempt to hook it up, so we can’t access the blu ray discs we have and occasionally wish to watch. I haven’t researched this issue yet to see if there is a workaround.

Don’t need a big expensive TV. This one is great for us. Very easy to install. Happy with the sound. We are not gamers….just watching simple programing.