New TV advice

rick_chasey

My 10 year old TV is on its last legs so I am making sure that when it does go I have a new TV lined up ready to go.

My current one is fine, HD etc, but I always regretted not getting one with a faster refresh rate; this one was 50Hz or the equivalent and occasionally you would spot it.


Now I'm browsing new TVs and they either don't seem to list the refresh rates or they have their own proprietary measurement which is next to useless, so does anyone have an idea on what is going on here?

eg. WTF is 1500 PPI in real money?

pblakeney

No comment on refresh, so not answering your question. 😉
My initial research in preparation says what you want most is HDR.
I imagine that if you get that then everything else falls into place.

surrey_commuter

I am not going to answer your question and instead ask you a question. Please post a link for me not to read.

I asked this question 8 months ago and was told to buy OLED, fark me they are expensive. You need to give us an idea of size you want and budget.

I find our cousins good https://www.techradar.com/uk/deals/cheap-4k-tv-deals-sales

rick_chasey

Size is 40-43 inch.

Picture quality and refresh rate (no blur) is most important to me.

Price? Ideally under £500.

I kept my last TV for 10 years so I am pro going for 4K, on the basis in 10 years time it will be standard.

kingstongraham

Don't think you'll really notice any difference with 4k on a 43 inch TV.

That's my only useful contribution.

pblakeney

rick_chasey said:

Size is 40-43 inch.

Picture quality and refresh rate (no blur) is most important to me.

Price? Ideally under £500.

I kept my last TV for 10 years so I am pro going for 4K, on the basis in 10 years time it will be standard.

If I was buying today then it would be this Sony.
https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/all-tvs/sony-bravia-kd43x7052pbu-black.html

If I wasn't so happy with my Sonys in the past then this Hisense.
https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/all-tvs/hisense-43ae7400ftuk.html

6wheels

here ya go...

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/best-40-inch-tv

seanoconn

Don’t buy a Sony Bravia, mine is always freezing and turning itself off whenever it feels like it.

morstar

43 inch!?

That’s a smartphone these days.

Apologies, nothing constructive to add. Was in Curry’s a few weeks back and next to the till was an absolutely stunning and enormous screen. Was something like £8K I think. You either need to have a lot of disposable income or be obsessed with TV.

As I type, I do have a useful contribution. See the picture in a store before buying. The picture quality has many elements to it.

capt_slog

I can't comment much on pictures either, I find little to choose from, but would say look at the viewing angle (which is something I didn't see when i bought my last Samsung)

Besides a reasonable picture, I look for a menu which doesn't make me want to throw the remote at the wall, especially the programme guide, but i recall you don't watch a lot of 'live tv' Whenever we go on hols in the uk; b+b, self catering hotels ect. I notice how [email protected] a lot of TVs are in this respect.

surrey_commuter

rick_chasey said:

Size is 40-43 inch.

Picture quality and refresh rate (no blur) is most important to me.

Price? Ideally under £500.

I kept my last TV for 10 years so I am pro going for 4K, on the basis in 10 years time it will be standard.

Your old TV will have a wider frame than current models, this means you can get a bigger screen size without taking up any more room

TheBigBean

surrey_commuter said:

I am not going to answer your question and instead ask you a question. Please post a link for me not to read.

I asked this question 8 months ago and was told to buy OLED, fark me they are expensive. You need to give us an idea of size you want and budget.

I find our cousins good https://www.techradar.com/uk/deals/cheap-4k-tv-deals-sales

That's still the advice, and they are still expensive and not available in small sizes. Presence of kids means I refuse to spend much money on one due to the breakage risk. I'm currently looking for an old plasma.

rick_chasey

surrey_commuter said:

rick_chasey said:

Size is 40-43 inch.

Picture quality and refresh rate (no blur) is most important to me.

Price? Ideally under £500.

I kept my last TV for 10 years so I am pro going for 4K, on the basis in 10 years time it will be standard.

Your old TV will have a wider frame than current models, this means you can get a bigger screen size without taking up any more room

This has already been taken into account

Stevo_666

seanoconn said:

Don’t buy a Sony Bravia, mine is always freezing and turning itself off whenever it feels like it.

I was going to recommend a Sony Brava as ours works just fine. But I'm not a telly 'buff'.

Wheelspinner

morstar said:

43 inch!?

That’s a smartphone these days.

Apologies, nothing constructive to add. Was in Curry’s a few weeks back and next to the till was an absolutely stunning and enormous screen. Was something like £8K I think. You either need to have a lot of disposable income or be obsessed with TV.

As I type, I do have a useful contribution. See the picture in a store before buying. The picture quality has many elements to it.

Actually this is something to beware of. Most retailers have the demo model on the floor set to be extra bright and heavily saturated colour profile especially for the brands they really want to sell. That’s partly because the lighting in the showroom will be harsh compared to your lounge room, but mainly so when punters walk in the screen really stands out in a sea of them. All those 4k (and 8k) demo loops of tropical fish and drone footage of volcanoes are classic examples.

Ask the sales guy/girl to show you the screens in “standard” profile to give a better comparison.

drhaggis

TL;DR: Go to rtings.com, and see whether they liked a TV within your budget.

First, it will be hard to find a TV under £500 bright enough to do proper HDR, even if it is advertised as 4k HDR. For the reference, measurebators recommend 1000 nits for HDR, and the Samsung TU8000 does 300. Second, at the "cheaper end" (anything not OLED) is that you pretty much have to choose between colour, viewing angles and contrast.

LED panels are likely going to be either IPS or VA, and extremely cheap ones (and what cheap laptops have/had) are going to be TN. The acronyms reference the liquid crystal arrangement. TN is utter tosh; avoid it at all costs*. VA displays (almost all Samsung, I believe) have substantially better contrast than IPS (e.g. on otherwise comparable tellys, VA's may have contrast ratios of 6000:1 vs 1000:1 on IPS), while IPS ones have wider viewing angles (colur & brightness is essentially unaffected by your viewpoint) and traditionally better colour coverage.

If your kid lets you watch the TV at night, and you will be watching it in a mostly dark room, you are likely to gain more from better contrast than from better viewing angles, but YMMV. Conversely, at weird angles or in well lit rooms the additional contrast won't be felt.

In order to better match OLED for its contrast, non-entry LED TV's now have "Local dimming" (sometimes abbreviated as FALD). Essentially, there's an extra array of small lights between the panels that light up parts of the display independently, based on their content. Cheaper FALD's will have fewer zones with larger lamps and cause blooming around bright areas, so be aware of that even though I don't think there are (m)any FALD TV's available under £500.

You may be tempted to go to John Lewis/Curry's/wherever to view them in person. Be aware TV's there may be on "showcase mode", on saturation/brightness/consumption override, so not really a fair depiction. Add to that different source material, and direct comparisons become difficult.

* Remember old laptops where the colours used to flip by tilting the display only a few degrees? TN, or twisted nematic. Know what it means so you know what to avoid.

EDIT: Regading the refresh rate, most will do 60 Hz. The fancier ones may do interpolation to smoothen out motion, but don't expect miracles in the lower end. There are now TV's doing 120 Hz, and even variable refresh rate, but are expensive. Right now, hardly anything outside a PS5 or an Xbox One Series X will take advantage of that.

blazing_saddles

Stevo_666 said:

seanoconn said:

Don’t buy a Sony Bravia, mine is always freezing and turning itself off whenever it feels like it.

I was going to recommend a Sony Brava as ours works just fine. But I'm not a telly 'buff'.

Me too as I have always found Sony's the be very reliable, user friendly and long lasting.
Mine has had heavy use, so like Rick, I am thinking it's time to change, as it is one of those early, large framed, full HD models.
However, the picture is still great.
Thinking up to 50" but want to keep the unit the current tv sits upon.

There are a lot of deals around that come in at £400-£500 for that size screen, but reading the post above, the message seems to be buy the best available at maximum budget.

I guess that's another Sony then....

Stevo_666

blazing_saddles said:

Stevo_666 said:

seanoconn said:

Don’t buy a Sony Bravia, mine is always freezing and turning itself off whenever it feels like it.

I was going to recommend a Sony Brava as ours works just fine. But I'm not a telly 'buff'.

Me too as I have always found Sony's the be very reliable, user friendly and long lasting.
Mine has had heavy use, so like Rick, I am thinking it's time to change, as it is one of those early, large framed, full HD models.
However, the picture is still great.
Thinking up to 50" but want to keep the unit the current tv sits upon.

There are a lot of deals around that come in at £400-£500 for that size screen, but reading the post above, the message seems to be buy the best available at maximum budget.

I guess that's another Sony then....

Yep, our last Bravia lasted for bloody ages; we got shot of it because we wanted wanted a bigger TV and some internet functionality, not because it broke or was unreliable.

rick_chasey

Ugh the brother in law (with absofuckingnotaste) just spent £200 on one (because he has this weird thing for only having new things so turns over his entire house contents every 3 years) so my wife is already having to be negotiated up to £500 so anything beyond that is a non-starter

blazing_saddles

rick_chasey said:

Ugh the brother in law (with absofuckingnotaste) just spent £200 on one (because he has this weird thing for only having new things so turns over his entire house contents every 3 years) so my wife is already having to be negotiated up to £500 so anything beyond that is a non-starter

Well, you won't get a Sony then.

How about a Samsung for £319? That's about the base price.

https://www.very.co.uk/samsung-ue43tu7100-43-inch-crystal-view-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-smart-tv/1600463101.prd

Folks tend to review the Sam's picture quality as very good. Main criticism used to be the sound quality because of the small speakers.

ballysmate

Are there only a few screen producers, I think LG being the biggest.
Do people pay the Sony price premium for 'lesser regarded' manufacturers products.
Don't bother spunking a grand on a telly that will be old hat and 500 notes in 6 months would be my take.
Certainly not a Sony whose products I have found to be no better than their competitors over the years.

pblakeney

blazing_saddles said:

Well, you won't get a Sony then.

You didn't click on my link above then did you? 😉 Theme of the day. 🤣🤣🤣

As an aside, we have 2 Sony 36" TVs both old enough to be only 720P, both won't break (darn it!). The newest one is 14 years old.

blazing_saddles

pblakeney said:

blazing_saddles said:

Well, you won't get a Sony then.

You didn't click on my link above then did you? 😉 Theme of the day. 🤣🤣🤣

As an aside, we have 2 Sony 36" TVs both old enough to be only 720P, both won't break (darn it!). The newest one is 14 years old.

A 14 year old Sony is middle aged!

That linked one would probably fit my bill if I was set on a 43" screen, but I may go a little larger.

The Hisense is interesting as it's Argos of all places seems to be the place to shop.

Rick could pick up a 40" job for just £239, or that 43" you linked above for £279

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4167231

They also make the only Roku tv in the UK. 50" for £349.

pblakeney

blazing_saddles said:

That linked one would probably fit my bill if I was set on a 43" screen, but I may go a little larger.

My EPO says otherwise. 😉
Ironically, she is the one that watches TV the most. By far. 🤔🤣

Jezyboy

blazing_saddles said:

rick_chasey said:

Ugh the brother in law (with absofuckingnotaste) just spent £200 on one (because he has this weird thing for only having new things so turns over his entire house contents every 3 years) so my wife is already having to be negotiated up to £500 so anything beyond that is a non-starter

Well, you won't get a Sony then.

How about a Samsung for £319? That's about the base price.

https://www.very.co.uk/samsung-ue43tu7100-43-inch-crystal-view-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-smart-tv/1600463101.prd

Folks tend to review the Sam's picture quality as very good. Main criticism used to be the sound quality because of the small speakers.

To be fair, pretty much all modern TVs have to cram very small speakers in, and physics dictates that's not the best for sound quality.

My fairly old Samsung rattles, which was solved with the addition of a soundbar.

Ben6899

Watch telly on your laptop and buy a powermeter instead.

escher303eWmiQTuJ

I was in the same position as you a couple of months ago, 10+ years old telly needing replacing, didn't want to spend much, didn't know much about latest tech.

Took 1 month Which magazine sub for £1 to read their tests and bought a best buy 55" LG TV under £500. Really pleased I did, its a great TV.

Seemed going bigger was better, we went from a 37" HD to 55" 4k after reading articles about viewing angle and optimum size. Very glad I did that too, the missus didn't want a big TV but she agrees it was the best way too.

I read lots of reviews online before going to Which and found some sites like Techradar were recommending TVs that were slated elsewhere and came in the avoid section on Which. Perhaps they are being paid for their reviews. Which on the other hand deserve their independent reputation.

Thoroughly recommend spending a pound with them and going with trusted independent reviews of all the latest models as opposed to "my telly is great". I have no regrets.

rick_chasey

drhaggis said:

TL;DR: Go to rtings.com, and see whether they liked a TV within your budget.

First, it will be hard to find a TV under £500 bright enough to do proper HDR, even if it is advertised as 4k HDR. For the reference, measurebators recommend 1000 nits for HDR, and the Samsung TU8000 does 300. Second, at the "cheaper end" (anything not OLED) is that you pretty much have to choose between colour, viewing angles and contrast.

LED panels are likely going to be either IPS or VA, and extremely cheap ones (and what cheap laptops have/had) are going to be TN. The acronyms reference the liquid crystal arrangement. TN is utter tosh; avoid it at all costs*. VA displays (almost all Samsung, I believe) have substantially better contrast than IPS (e.g. on otherwise comparable tellys, VA's may have contrast ratios of 6000:1 vs 1000:1 on IPS), while IPS ones have wider viewing angles (colur & brightness is essentially unaffected by your viewpoint) and traditionally better colour coverage.

If your kid lets you watch the TV at night, and you will be watching it in a mostly dark room, you are likely to gain more from better contrast than from better viewing angles, but YMMV. Conversely, at weird angles or in well lit rooms the additional contrast won't be felt.

In order to better match OLED for its contrast, non-entry LED TV's now have "Local dimming" (sometimes abbreviated as FALD). Essentially, there's an extra array of small lights between the panels that light up parts of the display independently, based on their content. Cheaper FALD's will have fewer zones with larger lamps and cause blooming around bright areas, so be aware of that even though I don't think there are (m)any FALD TV's available under £500.

You may be tempted to go to John Lewis/Curry's/wherever to view them in person. Be aware TV's there may be on "showcase mode", on saturation/brightness/consumption override, so not really a fair depiction. Add to that different source material, and direct comparisons become difficult.

* Remember old laptops where the colours used to flip by tilting the display only a few degrees? TN, or twisted nematic. Know what it means so you know what to avoid.

EDIT: Regading the refresh rate, most will do 60 Hz. The fancier ones may do interpolation to smoothen out motion, but don't expect miracles in the lower end. There are now TV's doing 120 Hz, and even variable refresh rate, but are expensive. Right now, hardly anything outside a PS5 or an Xbox One Series X will take advantage of that.

This is helpful.

So ultimately I have been living with a telly for 10 years so anything will be an upgrade. It cost what, £300 odd at the time so I would like to think it's moved on.

What I struggle with with this TV is when you have dark scenes where people don't move too much there's a noticable lag.

When you go into TV shops you see those sample clips where the movement is so smooth it looks like you're there - hence my figuring you want a faster refresh rate.

I went to RTings.com as suggested but it looks like they only rate the large TVs as they're the ones that get all the latest tech.

The size is fairly set for various reasons.

So a bit of research has dug this one up as potential option which looks good for the price - if you have a view, what would it be on this?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-TX-43HX600BZ-Multi-Smart-Vision/dp/B089WBFCR7?tag=georiot-trd-21&ascsubtag=trd-gb-1101828025845302900-21&th=1

rolf_f

My 20 year old JVC still seems to be mostly fine. If it lasts another ten I'll be happy that I got a decent mileage out if it and unhappy that the replacement will probably last a fraction of the time!

darkhairedlord

buy it from richer sounds or john lewis for the warranty.
The only discerable difference will the Apps (which might not be supported after a few years, thanks samsung y'bstard) and the audio.
Go and put the sound on in the showroom, that's what will really annoy you when your try to watch something and all the dialog sounds like a nagging wife. The Screens are all pretty much the same.

TheBigBean

rick_chasey said:

What I struggle with with this TV is when you have dark scenes where people don't move too much there's a noticable lag.

LCDs have really bad contrast ratios, so anything dark looks terrible. That generally just means it all looks grey and it is hard to see. I suspect this is your problem.

Unfortunately, LCDs won the market, because they are bright and shiny.