£500 - New TV - No idea where to start

[Tom_Spotley_When]

Morning PH collective.

My current TV (an LG one I bought in 2012 before the Euro's) has got a load of small black lines across it. I've turned it off and on again and they're still there. I assume this means it's knackered.

As such, I think I need a new TV.

I've got about £500 to spend. I don't want anything massive (50" is probably too big, but everything seems to be that size these days, so I'll probably go with it) and it will be used to watch nonsense on the Discovery channel, SD on Sky Sports and whatever the missus has on in the background when she's working from home/playing on her phone and the month or two in winter that I play on the PS4. I'm too tight to pay for an HD Sky subscription so not bothered about super mega 4K HD as I have no device that plays it.


I know next to nothing about TV's. Is this a good deal from Costco or is there anything else I should get that can be available on Amazon Prime?

http://www.costco.co.uk/view/p/lg-49uj630v-49-inch...

I can probably live with it for the next 48 hours, but want to get something sorted by the weekend ideally.

[B17NNS]

£500 will get you 4K and HDR.

Get yourself down to Richer Sounds and see what your eyes like the best for your budget.

This looks worthy of an audition.

https://www.whathifi.com/samsung/ue40mu6400/review

https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/all-tvs...

[Blink982]

SD will look pretty poor on a 4K TV. It might be an idea to seek out an HD set or bite the bullet and get HD sky and future proof yourself for a while and get a 4K set. I don't think I could watch SD now.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/uhd-vs-fhd.205870...

I would have a look in John Lewis as you get a 5year warranty and they know their onions.

[B17NNS]

Blink982 said:

I would have a look in John Lewis as you get a 5year warranty and they know their onions.

6 years at Richer Sounds.

[parabolica]

If you could fix your current TV would you keep it? Or have you talked yourself into getting a new TV? Only ask because I happened to watch a youtube video the other day of a guy who collects modern electronics that people seemingly throw away assuming they are broken, but are easily fixed. The clip was a TV screen that had vertical lines on it and he managed to fix it for nearly nothing; might be worth looking up if you're keen on your old/current TV.

[Troubleatmill]

Richer Sounds again. - Excellent customer service also.

[mattyn1]

If the OP wanted a 55+ incher 4K and HDR TV, what would you suggest?

Reason I ask - my 50" plasma Samsung has a two inch surround - my Mrs in unconvinced a bigger TV (55 inch ) may not actually be any bigger.

Edited by mattyn1 on Monday 23 October 13:23

[B17NNS]

mattyn1 said:

If the OP wanted a 55+ incher 4K and HDR TV, what would you suggest?

https://www.richersounds.com/lg-oled55b7v.html

https://www.whathifi.com/lg/oled55b7v/review

[Tom_Spotley_When]

Thanks for the responses.

Went to Richer Sounds. Didn't have anything less than £600. Said that was more than I wanted to spend, he recommended not spending less, I thanked him for his time and walked out.

Went to John Lewis, asked to buy the LG on the wall, they didn't have it in stock. Bought a Samsung that was a shop return. Got it home and it's got a black mark on the screen (about 10mm long, 2 wide, top right quarter of the screen). Taking it back tonight for a refund/buy a new one as a replacement.

Fingers crossed the next one works well enough.

[RTaylor2208]

I just bought this one last week from Amazon for slightly less its back to £499 and whilst I was skeptical that it would have a decent picture on SD sources like free view its so far very good.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XVMKXZY/ref...

Nice picture on full 4K sources and all the integrated apps work well like amazon prime, netflix etc.

[kmpowell]

Blink982 said:

SD will look pretty poor on a 4K TV.

Not necessarily. It depends on the up-scaling engine in the panel, and/or the size of the panel. At £500 i'd personally be looking at a small panel (sub 50") to make sure up-scaling was decent. My 55" Sony has superb up-scaling, but the lower models in the same size aren't as good.

Get the balance between where in model (and price) range the panel sits and also the screen size, and up-scaling isn't an issue.

[kmpowell]

mattyn1 said:

Reason I ask - my 50" plasma Samsung has a two inch surround - my Mrs in unconvinced a bigger TV (55 inch ) may not actually be any bigger.

If it helps you out, I went from a 2007 46" Sony, to a 2016 55" Sony, and the physical size is marginal. I was really surprised!