Help selecting 4K TV

[illmonkey]

I am looking to get a new TV, now I've got SkyQ as well, I suppose it best be 4K! Not to mention sports, prime & Netflix all pushing in 4K. I'm assuming they're all smart these days, so the firesick can go!

We currently have a 42", and I'm unsure if we jump up to the 5* sized TV's. The current one is way old with a thick bezel, so for not much more real estate I could jump to a 50", maybe a happy medium.

Seems OLED is not possible on 50", maybe not required? Also seem to be in excess of £1k. Is QLED better to go for?

I'd like to get a sound bar too, nothing fancy but just better sound that the built in. Generally I like Samsung, always been happy with them. I see RS have deals on soundbars when bought with a TV...

I asked, last night, what the OH thought a new TV would cost and she said 4 something, so I'd say that's a £499.99 budget

TL;DR

£500 budget
~50"
4K
LED or QLED?
Thin Bezel
Soundbar


current: 970 x 610 x 100
43' : 964 x 558 x 57
50' : 1116 x 644 x 60
55' : 1231 x 707 x 60

[matt666]

LG do a 48" OLED now, but it's more expensive than the 55", about £1500. You should be able to get a 55" B9 OLED for around a grand which is a fantastic telly still.

If you can possibly stretch the budget for an OLED they are well worth the money.

QLED is better than LED, but still not as good as OLED. It's just a marketing name for Samsungs new TVs

Edited by matt666 on Wednesday 17th June 11:09

[mgv8]

For that cash QLED would be my option and quite a good one. Do shop around as older models can make real bargains.

[illmonkey]

Either of those 2 options are doubling the budget! I can't justify spending that money when I'm ok watching what I've got really. I just want a new toy!

After a bit of looking, I've found this. Seems to tick all the boxes!

https://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-ue50tu8000-2020-...

[J8 SVG]

https://www.johnlewis.com/panasonic-tx-50gx800b-20...

I have this in 58" and it's superb (Replaced an 8 year old 42" 1080p Pano) Look out for deals, I got my 58" for £650 through work so I'm sure there's other deals out there

[pmanson]

I purchased a 49" 4k Panasonic TV a couple of weeks ago to go in my office. £314 delivered from John Lewis.

It's the same model range (650) as the TV we have downstairs in 65" format (which cost significantly more when purchased four years ago).

They seem to have dumbed down some of the features but it was perfect for what we needed.


How about - https://www.johnlewis.com/panasonic-tx-50gx800b-20... and take advantage of the offered discount on the soundbar?

H65.1 x W112 x D6.2cm
with stand:
H70.8 x W112 x D23.6cm

Edited by pmanson on Wednesday 17th June 14:30

[Funk]

Not a name that usually crops up much but check out HiSense at this price-point - they consistently get good reviews:

www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/te...

That one's 50", bang on budget, has Dolby Vision, HDR10 & Hybrid Log-Gamma features too.

[illmonkey]

So, budget creep, this is PH after all..

Now trying to get a QLED, Samsung have this for £549, slightly smaller by 1" (whats 1" between mates?), but is QLED and 120Hz.

https://www.samsung.com/uk/tvs/qledtv-q67/QE49Q67R...

It also gives £200 off a soundbar, which means this is £299

https://www.samsung.com/uk/audio-video/soundbar-q6...

Any thoughts?

Edit: apparently the Q67R is the Q60R but in silver...

Edited by illmonkey on Thursday 18th June 13:40

[gizlaroc]

The Q6 is ste.

Same panel and processing as their The Frame TVs. I bought one and it is really crap.

Black level piss poor, so no depth to the image.


Buy a used Sony 49XE9005 or 49XF9005 if you can find one, Q9FN if you can afford more, or an OLED. Loads of used B7s and B8s on avforums come up for sale for around £600.

[illmonkey]

It's rated higher than the TU8000 I posted previously. Frankly, anything is going to be better than the 4 year old 37" sharp we have!

[gizlaroc]

illmonkey said:

It's rated higher than the TU8000 I posted previously. Frankly, anything is going to be better than the 4 year old 37" sharp we have!

Not sure, it was worse than the 10 year old Samsung C530 we have.

It simply couldn't do blacks properly, so just looked flat, like the brightness was cranked up.

[gizlaroc]

Things like this available.....

https://www.avforums.com/threads/lg-oled55b7-brand...

Don't know where you are based, but some bargains to be had.

[illmonkey]

I really don't want to buy second hand. I can't be bothered with the hassle.

Once again, OLED's start at a lot more than my budget. Why suggest something that just won't fit the bill?

The Q60R is going to look poor compared to a TV double it's value!

[gizlaroc]

Fair enough if you won't buy used.


Seriously, the Q60 is terrible, really bad, it just looked a washed out mess to me. Even my wife, which takes no interest in these things said it looked poor.

Can you stretch to the Q70?

Not sure what sort of price difference that is?

That has some local dimming which helps greatly.


I know you don't want to buy used, but I bought my Sony XF9005 from here......

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-KD49XG9005BU-49-4K...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-KD49XG9005BU-49-4K...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-KD49XG9005BU-49-4K...

It was a grade B, to be honest it was like new, just the remote had been used so probably been on demo. That set ha only been out a few months and in lockdown for most.

I bought a XF8005 from them at first for £400, again no decent local dimming and so just didn't cut it regarding black levels and they were fine taking it back for a refund. I actually asked them if they would do a deal on the XF9005 they had, which was £750 used, I said rather than a refund could they do that for £650 and and I would pay the £250 difference. They did.

They have not reopened their store in my town, I wonder if these sets are the ones they put in as demo screens before lockdown and now they are clearing them out? Anyway....

Those Sonys are in a completely different league to the Samsungs, I actually prefer the Sony to my OLED 99% of the time.

The problem is, very, very few LCD based panels these days use a VA screen or proper local dimming, IPS panels are great for monitors where viewing angle is everything, but not for TVs, they are worse than CRTs which we have not used for 15 years.

My XE9005 is pretty much the same as the new XG9005, which is the same as the XH9005 coming, in fact I think you can flash the XH9005 firmware onto the XG, the XE9005 is now 4 years old and still not a set out there that betters it, if it had to be replaced tomorrow up to £1500 I would replace it with the same. And that is really the point, you can get one of the best TVs ever made for your budget, so why buy something that is poor and gets so much wrong?

[Adrian E]

We've just bought the 48" LG OLED and the picture quality is stunning - got £100 off using workplace vouchers to knock 6% off, plus topcashback link to knock another £12 off. I know it's way over your budget, but you pays your money etc....

More helpfully (I hope!) I'd have a measure up of your viewing distance and see if a 55" makes more sense (basically if you're seated 3m or over from the screen then 55" is where you want to be - Which? have a good size guide based on viewing distance) and you can get last year's OLED in 55" for under £1k. The bezel sizes now are so small that a bigger screen can be easily accommodated in the same physical space. Most manufacturers will quote the physical dimensions of their sets as well as the screen size. There is very little choice below 55" for quality TVs. The manufacturers are mainly making 55-65-77" sizes now.

LED just looks horrid to me - but then I'm used to the smoothness of plasma. Possible the Mrs might accept some scope creep once you've been to view an LED in a shop and seen how horrid they look dealing with motion? Don't be taken in by all the vivid picture modes the shops stick them in, and all the slow mo content they insist on playing because it hides the flaws. Get some sport or an action film showing and you'll very quickly see the differences exposed. The motion issues give me a headache after about 10 minutes, so just can't tolerate it.

[gizlaroc]

Adrian E said:

We've just bought the 48" LG OLED and the picture quality is stunning - got £100 off using workplace vouchers to knock 6% off, plus topcashback link to knock another £12 off. I know it's way over your budget, but you pays your money etc....

More helpfully (I hope!) I'd have a measure up of your viewing distance and see if a 55" makes more sense (basically if you're seated 3m or over from the screen then 55" is where you want to be - Which? have a good size guide based on viewing distance) and you can get last year's OLED in 55" for under £1k. The bezel sizes now are so small that a bigger screen can be easily accommodated in the same physical space. Most manufacturers will quote the physical dimensions of their sets as well as the screen size. There is very little choice below 55" for quality TVs. The manufacturers are mainly making 55-65-77" sizes now.

LED just looks horrid to me - but then I'm used to the smoothness of plasma. Possible the Mrs might accept some scope creep once you've been to view an LED in a shop and seen how horrid they look dealing with motion? Don't be taken in by all the vivid picture modes the shops stick them in, and all the slow mo content they insist on playing because it hides the flaws. Get some sport or an action film showing and you'll very quickly see the differences exposed. The motion issues give me a headache after about 10 minutes, so just can't tolerate it.

LED is fine, but it needs to have really good processing, really good.

Motion on Sonys is second to none, even their OLEDs ca';t compete with their LCDs for motion.

Problem is most displays have the settings to try and make them look ultra sharp, which also make the motion horrid.

Football on the Sony LCDs using their Clear+ is just a joy, however, put this on in a store next to the displays on ultra bright and no one would even consider the set because it uses black frame insertion and so dulls the image, but only dulls it down to where you would have it anyway during normal viewing.


A well calibrated, high end LCD can be amazing, however, I have only ever come across 10 or so sets that are capable of being calibrated well enough for me to live with though, where as I could live with every OLED ever made. But don't write off decent LCDs, they can look far more natural and have better motion than plasma or OLED, but, it needs to be a good 'un.

[Adrian E]

gizlaroc said:

A well calibrated, high end LCD can be amazing, however, I have only ever come across 10 or so sets that are capable of being calibrated well enough for me to live with though, where as I could live with every OLED ever made. But don't write off decent LCDs, they can look far more natural and have better motion than plasma or OLED, but, it needs to be a good 'un.

I'm sure you are right - I had my plasma pro calibrated after a few weeks of use, and it was a noticeable improvement. Contemplating a repeat with the OLED, but not sure it'll be worth the cost and effort?

For every one decent LED set with the potential to be ace, I presume they must be drowned out by literally hundreds of thousands of nasty tat?

[gizlaroc]

Adrian E said:

I'm sure you are right - I had my plasma pro calibrated after a few weeks of use, and it was a noticeable improvement. Contemplating a repeat with the OLED, but not sure it'll be worth the cost and effort?

For every one decent LED set with the potential to be ace, I presume they must be drowned out by literally hundreds of thousands of nasty tat?

Yeah, that is the problem.

There is a very fine line between a set that gets it right and doesn't.

99% of LCD TVs don't.


Until someone has lived with a set that truly delivers on the things that we truly notice, colour accuracy, black levels, and thus a realistic contrast ratio, and finally motion, then they are just 'making do'.

I had a fully calibrated Panny plasma 17 years ago, most LCDs still can't match the quality of that display even today. Put it like this, I have it in our outhouse running Gamecube, PS2, Dreamcast etc. and a Sky Q mini box and it was better than the Panny Q60.
You can pick them up for £50 used now.

That is a 480p display, but feed it a 4k signal with the player converting it to 1080 and the screen downscaling to 480 and it will still blow away most 4k sets.

That is the problem, people are getting caught up with things that don't matter, more resolution is great, but you need to get everything else right first, and on a 50" set in a normal UK room bit rate, colour accuracy, greyscale and motion is far more important.
And HDR on a cheap LCD is fking horrific.

I must admit I am not a fan of HDR on any LCD, great on OLED, but LCDs inability to show say a bright star on a black background without blooming just makes it pointless for me, I notice it and it takes me away from being immersed.

Unfortunately, manufacturers have all moved to OLED for decent sets or if you want a decent LCD it is expensive and usually 55" or larger to get the tech to make them good.
Sony is pretty much the only one making decent LCDs that are 49" and still a reasonable price.
I have had my Sony 49XF9005 and the Samsung Q90R 55" next to each other, and the Samsung is good, I would happily have that, but I still preferred the Sony for my room. The Sony had slightly better blacks, so felt more realistic and had more depth to the image, motion was better on the Sony, but the Samsung did have excellent viewing angles, but that is not something I need.

Oh, and the Samsung is £1500 vs the £550 I picked up the Sony for ex-demo. The Sony stayed no surprise.


It is very difficult to try and explain just how much better a decent set is, one that can do the things it needs to do to turn it from a nice TV into a window, we know what things should look like in life, not many TVs can show us what we expect, when you get one that does you will never make do again.

[dave_s13]

I got one of these a few months ago.

https://www.richersounds.com/lg-55sm8600pla.html

It looks fantastic to me. Used for Freesat, Prime, Netflix, Disney+....

Also got a 55" Samsung of similar price/spec and that's also great....can't remember the exact model.

The LG user interface and remote are a touch better than the Samsung version as well.

Despite being able to break them down to a granular level of spec, features and gizmos, TVs remain largely subjective. I'm more than happy with my sub £700 screens. Could've spent 3x that but doubt I'd be 3x as happy. And I'm not someone that will tolerate a stty picture or sound (granted you can do bugger all about SD channels on broadcast telly).

There's nothing on anyway, everything they make nowadays is ste

[gizlaroc]

dave_s13 said:

Despite being able to break them down to a granular level of spec, features and gizmos, TVs remain largely subjective.

Sorry, completely disagree with that.

TVs may be subjective, picture quality is not.

Get 100 people in a room and show them a few scenes with a calibrated IPS LCD vs VA LCD vs Local backlight zoned dimming LCD vs OLED and ask them to rank them in order of picture quality and you would get 100% same answers.


There are certain things a TV has to be able to do to make the picture truly pop, black level is one of those, to be fair, colour accuracy, greyscale, gradiation of colour, resolution etc. is pretty much there on all TVs now regardless of price, what you are paying for now is the ability to show black as.......well.......black, and the ability to go from black to bright white and everything in-between on a per pixel basis without effecting the pixel next to it.

That once again sounds techy, but it really isn't in how we see the image.

Show anyone any scene that is not a bright outdoor scene or brightly lit studio scene on the 4 TVs as listed above and ask them which one they would choose and I bet the answer is 100% the same.