UHD TV

[Dave-G]

Needing a replacement TV, about 40/42" I've often seen references on here and other sites about avoiding LG, whats that all about?

 

Toshiba one's have lots of interesting things written about them, most of them are way over my head, any thoughts welcome.

Edited July 5, 2019 by Dave-G

[Dougy]

I was a Samsung follower for years and recently changed to a Sony, the image is far better that Samsung. With all the added extras. 

[Ultrastu]

Panasonic oled for me .

Awesome 

[ShootingEgg]

2 hours ago, Dave-G said:

Needing a replacement TV, about 40/42" I've often seen references on here and other sites about avoiding LG, whats that all about?

 

Toshiba one's have lots of interesting things written about them, most of them are way over my head, any thoughts welcome.

I have a 55 LG, no complaints with it from me. 

[The Mighty Prawn]

LG make the large majority of modern flatscreens for the rest of the market so it’s pretty hard to not buy one albeit with a different name on them. That said they are perfectly good. Sony and Panasonic really the two best in pure picture terms, sound is largely dependent on if you want a separate sound bar or the onboard speakers?

[grrclark]

UHD 4K really isn’t worth it in a 40”-42” set unless you’re sitting 3-4ft from it, your eyes simply cannot resolve the level of resolution in a 4K set of that screen size beyond that distance.

For top quality UHD which covers deep black to bright white and a bazillion colours you need an OLED TV and will be spending very close to or into 4 figures to get the dynamic range with sufficient brightness to actually begin to notice and on a small screen size it’s just not worth it, unless you’re sitting really close.

Whether you buy Samsung, LG, Philips, Panasonic or Sony you wont go wrong, so decide how much you want to spend and buy something that looks good to you.

If you’re planning on spending north of £1k then buy a bigger screen size to make it worthwhile.

The Philips ambilight feature is surprisingly good and really does enhance the experience.

Edit to add:  Toshiba are as good as any of the rest above too.

 

Edited July 5, 2019 by grrclark

[Dave-G]

Thanks for your input chaps. My younger brother thinks nothing of spending £1500+ on his TV so he gave me a rundown on what to look for near my budget preference of £300. OLED is way out of my price range.

I'd told him how fast panning scenes screw my eyes up so he advised to skip the 50Hz one I was looking at and suggested I go with the one below which supposedly has 1200Hz - over 20x faster lol

As I occasionally get weird noises and pixelation he suggests I might need to replace the 30+ years old rather small aerial to feed the 4K resolution better. I should be able to swap it myself as its mounted at the side of the house rather than a chimney.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/televisions/televisions/panasonic-tx-43fx555b-43-smart-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-led-tv-10186302-pdt.html

 

However, considering the last post I might look into a 49" one.

 

[Muddy Funker]

Another thing worth bearing in mind is what are you going to watch? 

Have you got a Netflix account or uhd player to supply the content? If you're streaming 4k you need a very solid internet connection. 

You'll see zero benefit in getting a 4k TV if you're watching anything coming through an aerial. 

Avforums is a wealth of info on this subject, worth popping in there. 

[Dave-G]

3 minutes ago, Muddy Funker said:

Another thing worth bearing in mind is what are you going to watch? 

Have you got a Netflix account or uhd player to supply the content? If you're streaming 4k you need a very solid internet connection. 

You'll see zero benefit in getting a 4k TV if you're watching anything coming through an aerial. 

Avforums is a wealth of info on this subject, worth popping in there. 

Ugh,  I probably won't be connecting anything like tinternet nor players to it nor subscribing to anything - just a regular tv aerial. Internet isn't too brilliant speedwise anyway.

I guess I can save some cash and just get another HD TV then? So that's two people suggesting I'm on a wrong track - if I keep to a modest size screen and only watch regular TV via an aerial.

Won't have time to do much more research - missis will go more nuts if I don't sort it tomorrow. 

[Muddy Funker]

Thing is you might not be able to find a non 4k tv anyway. 

Remember when 3d was all the rage a good few years ago, every new set had it. Similar thing now with 4k, they even have 8k sets now don't get me started haha. 

So it's likely you'll end up with a 4k set you just won't really see the best of it 👍🏻

[Dave-G]

Hmm, seems to still be a good few 1080 TV's about but it seems a good idea to think of the future.

 

[Dougy]

Dave, as the posts have pointed out, its all about budgets. I don't agree though about sitting on top of a UHD TV to get the benefit. The difference between bog standard TV and UHD is more than noticeable on even Cory, but paying 1k to watch a load of rubbish is in my opinion a waste of money. Then compare things like "the blue planet" and some of the new films out you see the reason why you pay 1k+.

[Dave-G]

Thanks very much all. 

I pushed the boat out slightly further and ordered a 49" one with a few better bits than my HD LED one. We don't watch a lot of telly so this should future proof us nicely for the next few years. Seems the pixelation and screeching noises we sometimes get is 4G mobile interference so I might upgrade the aerial with one that has a more elements and a 4G filter.

 

Its refresh rate is a massive 1200 HZ so it should be better for my old eyes too because I currently have to look away when fast panning scenes  are shown. And I'd imagine the HDR is going to make for a better contrast too. The old one is really pants at showing what's happening in a dark scene in an unlit park for example - thinking of one of the old Dirty Harry scenes where I have to lose any image for at least a minute that my old Sony 32" flat CRT screen would easily display.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/televisions/televisions/panasonic-tx-49fx555b-49-smart-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-led-tv-10186303-pdt.html

Edited July 6, 2019 by Dave-G

[Lord O War]

It makes me laugh that 40 inch is now a small tv. My old tv was a 32 inch crt and I thought it was big but then I got my 46 inch flat panel and ooh big. Now when I walk around costco the really big tv screens do look big but anything up to 55 inch just looks normal now and 32 inch is just a pc screen lol.

One thing to watch for that drives me and the wife potty is the phenomenon known as the soap opera effect you get when motion smoothing is on, it horrible. It makes the picture look too real, it's hard to describe but you will know it when you see it.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Lord O War

[figgy]

Best advice I got from a TV fella in Curry's was sit at the distance or hunker down and pick the one you like looking at the most. Forget all the numbers that get bench tested. Just look at the picture for type of content you watch.

Plenty of TVs in your budget too,check out hisense as they get good reviews.

[samboy]

My tv died Sunday night and after driving myself mad looking at a million telly's iv'e decided to get a Panasonic gx 700.

In saying that i will probally come back with another brand. Its a tv jungle out there.

[Dave-G]

Well after the first night of using the UHD TV I'm nonplussed? with a mild headache and a feeling the 49" screen is slightly too big for our small living room. I felt the image quality of older SD material was marginally worse in some cases possibly due to it being enlarged, and dark scenes are still dark scenes that hide what used to be seen on an old CRT tube. No doubt I'll come round to it. Fast moving panning images still jumped along but at what seemed to be faster intervals with less distance shifted between the jerks than the old one so I didn't have to look away like I normally do.

 

I had no interference issues of any kind which surprised me because, after reading loads of online stuff I suspect my antenna (which has a flat 'slotted vents' oblong plate type reflector) is about 30 years old and I've read that freeview ought to be using antennas not much more than 10 years old. I'm considering putting a new high gain one in the loft to compare performance but that can wait for a while.

[Harnser]

Recently bought a 55 inch Samsung uhd tv . Had some very good advice from a member on hear about what to buy . When the the tv was set up in the shop the picture and sound was fabulous. Got the tv home and the picture was brilliant but the sound was carp . Realised after a phone call or two that the tv demo in the shop was being played through a sound bar . Was explained to me that these TVs are made so slim that decent speakers cannot be fitted to them . So I splashed out on a good quality Samsung sound bar which cost 400 Jim ,what a difference . The sound from the tv played through the sound bar is incredible it fills the room with sound you can hear the sound going around the room from speaker to speaker . The only way to to get the best out of these super slim TVs is to play it through a sound bar .will cost more but believe me it’s well worth it .

harnser

[Mr gen]

Being a tight wad I use PC speakers, they just plug into the headphone socket on the TV and only cost about £25

[Nial]

On 06/07/2019 at 17:32, Dougy said:

Dave, as the posts have pointed out, its all about budgets. I don't agree though about sitting on top of a UHD TV to get the benefit. The difference between bog standard TV and UHD is more than noticeable on even Cory

How do you get your TV, because there's no 4K freeview transmission in the UK.

Or is it just a better TV with 'real' HD?

23 hours ago, Dave-G said:

I had no interference issues of any kind which surprised me because, after reading loads of online stuff I suspect my antenna (which has a flat 'slotted vents' oblong plate type reflector) is about 30 years old and I've read that freeview ought to be using antennas not much more than 10 years old. I'm considering putting a new high gain one in the loft to compare performance but that can wait for a while.

It might be that the RF front end of the newer TV is a better design and it can cope with a weaker signal better ?

[humperdingle]

We’ve just changed our 42” LG TV after 7 years... absolutely nothing wrong with it, but we wanted a larger ‘Smart’ TV.

 

So we bought another LG

 

£299 for a 49” 4k UHD Smart TV is pretty cheap, compared to a chap at work, who paid almost £2000 for a TV with all the bells and whistles, only for it to develop a very costly fault after 2 years 😮

[MrPhantom]

2 hours ago, Nial said:

How do you get your TV, because there's no 4K freeview transmission in the UK.

BBC are just getting on board with this. Just been watching Wimbledon live in UHD (I know not strictly 4K) via iPlayer app on my tv and the picture is very impressive. I don’t remember this being available last year.

[clakk]

Had a 60" LG smart tv for ten years now no issues at all ,internet on the telly all the katchups ,cinema or normal surround sound or whatever does it all at a grand ten years ago .So 100 quid a year and still going ,Lg are very very good ,dont know who told u otherwise Dave.

Currys in brummigum used to have a pitch black telly room with all the different brands on so you could decide what your eyes thought gave the best picture and yes the further back u are the better .Ours is on the wall 14ft from the sofa so no headaches etc atb 

[Dave-G]

Watched it again last night - with no effect on my eyes. Had to re-tune because all the channels except BBC1 had disappeared but I think that was down to her indoors being even more of a technophobe than me. 

Edited July 11, 2019 by Dave-G

[old'un]

On 10/07/2019 at 12:41, Dave-G said:

Well after the first night of using the UHD TV I'm nonplussed? with a mild headache and a feeling the 49" screen is slightly too big for our small living room. I felt the image quality of older SD material was marginally worse in some cases possibly due to it being enlarged, and dark scenes are still dark scenes that hide what used to be seen on an old CRT tube. No doubt I'll come round to it. Fast moving panning images still jumped along but at what seemed to be faster intervals with less distance shifted between the jerks than the old one so I didn't have to look away like I normally do.

 

I had no interference issues of any kind which surprised me because, after reading loads of online stuff I suspect my antenna (which has a flat 'slotted vents' oblong plate type reflector) is about 30 years old and I've read that freeview ought to be using antennas not much more than 10 years old. I'm considering putting a new high gain one in the loft to compare performance but that can wait for a while.

Our lounge is 27 feet long and 12 feet wide, we sit approximately 9 feet from a 40 inch and that seems big to me.