The best current picture on any new TV.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Within reason, IE not something £10k!

We have 2x Samsung D8000 currently, bought 6 years ago, a 46" out the front and a 55" out the back.

New the 46" was £2000, and the 55 £2500. A lot of money, but at the time, IMO, the best picture you could get.
This is the model - https://www.cnet.com/reviews/samsung-d8000-ue55d80...

Whilst pricey, I have always applied a logic of buying the very best picture I can, and then keep it 8-10 years, to get my moneys worth. I watch a seriously high amount of films, so the best picture I can get is key.

Sound quality matters not one jot, as this goes through a Tag McLaren home cinema set up.

It's been bugging me for a while now what to replace them with when the time comes. £4500 is just too much to spend in one hit for TV's, so my thinking has been to, within a few years, to allow for depreciation, to replace them with a couple of year old second hand sets.

So what TV on sale today has the best picture?

I've taken a trip to Currys, and identified an LG and a Samsung (can't remember the models) which had the best pictures (Samsung was sharper, more detailed, LG had better blacks) I am conscious though that these could easily be in showroom mode, with ultra high def sources, IE not always real world.

It's worth noting that the inlaws are having the same dilemma, replacing their D8000 55", as they too deem it so good.

Thanks in advance for ideas.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Thanks, we can look in to that one. Whilst it may better our 8000's, is it the best real world money picture out there? It took some years IMO for ours to be bettered, which I would want to also apply to our next purchase.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Integroo said:

LG Oled C8. I researched heavily and the LG OLED's appear to be as good as it gets sub 2k (and even above).

I picked up a 55" LG Oled B8 for 978.

It does appear to be a class leader from this first read - https://www.t3.com/reviews/lg-c8-oled65c8-review

It also meets the wish of being stylish, our 8000's were as nice looking as anything out at the time, and IIRC also the slimmest.

Just a shame the smallest they do is 55", we've tried 55 in the front, but 46" is much better suited.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Lemming Train said:

Save your money Rob. From what I've heard you'll be able to watch your neighbour's telly for free soon just by looking out of your front window. Think of the money you'll be saving and you won't need a telly licence either.

Boom tish!

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

RammyMP said:

I’m thinking of replacing my 50” Pioneer but I don’t know what to get. The current one was over £2k 10 years ago and still works fine so I might have to get one without telling her in doors!

Are Pioneers any good? Seen them and always wondered?

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

chris116 said:

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

It does appear to be a class leader from this first read - https://www.t3.com/reviews/lg-c8-oled65c8-review

It also meets the wish of being stylish, our 8000's were as nice looking as anything out at the time, and IIRC also the slimmest.

Just a shame the smallest they do is 55", we've tried 55 in the front, but 46" is much better suited.

Same issue here, really want to upgrade to a LG OELD but every time I measure up a 55" it just seems too big for the room. Really hoping they go down in size in the future.

I did have a wonder if I'd remembered correctly that there aren't OELD's below 55", is this the case? And if so, any suggestions for the best picture quality 46"?

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Sheepshanks said:

chris116 said:

Same issue here, really want to upgrade to a LG OELD but every time I measure up a 55" it just seems too big for the room. Really hoping they go down in size in the future.

LG have recently said they'll be doing 48" OLEDs - I think they were talking about next year.

That would work. And as my wife has always said, the extra 2 inches really does make a difference.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I don't know the dimensions, but as a visual this is the room the 46" lives. We tried the 55" in here (as it's where I watch my films, with the hi-fi set up) but it just took over the room. When we swapped it back to the 46" it was immediately apparent that it is a better fit. NB, it's the 46" in the photo.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

RammyMP said:

crmcatee said:

RammyMP said:

I’m thinking of replacing my 50” Pioneer but I don’t know what to get. The current one was over £2k 10 years ago and still works fine so I might have to get one without telling her in doors!

Still got my plasma here. Picture is excellent so why change. I think mines is 13 years old.

I’ve not got the speakers fitted to it, the sound comes through surround sound speakers with the amp in another room. Recently the remote to change the volume has stopped working so instead of a short walk to adjust the volume or fix the remote, a new tv with speakers is in order!

Wouldn't buying a second hand or universal remote off ebay be easier?

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

gizlaroc said:

There are no really good 46" sets to be honest.

The problem is, if you're going to go LCD you need a VA panel, and they all seem to be IPS these days, with the exception of a couple.

Sony 49XF9005 is probably you're best bet.

I don't want to sound rude, but I never thought the D8000 was any good, so far behind Sony 46" W90 I had at the time, and that was behind the Pioneer 500M I also had and was already 4 years old.

OLED will wipe the floor with what you have now, but too big.

The LCD based units I would buy is as I said the Sony XF9005 or a used B&0 Beovision 11, but that wouldn't suit your current layout because of the design.

The industry is simply not interested in putting the best tech into 'small' screens. By small I mean less than 55".


I'm a massive fan of Sony LCD tech, their colours and motion are superb, I have the 49XE9005 and it is a cracking set, I tried a few LCDs recently as I wanted a smaller set, ideally 43", but in the end none did it for me so went back to the Sony and lived with 49".

I run an LG B7 OLED as well, the Sony is not as good overall, but it does do some things better.
The colours can look more natural (both calibrated) the motion is better, the image is sharper and wows more often, however it is still a backlit tech and therefore darker scenes are not as good and there isn't that 3D depth to an image you get when a display can do true blacks. But to get that into perspective it does black very, very well for an LCD and I never feel I'm missing out compared to the OLED, if you don't live with both you wouldn't really know what is missing.

The XE and XF 9005 are zoned backlit models, so they can turn off the backlight when needed.

There is probably an XG90 now too?

Having said all that, I have been so impressed with the XE9005 that I am actually considering swapping my OLED for a Sony 55XE9305, which does blacks and scenes with dark and light areas, I had one before for a while. Main reason is it would probably suit my room better and I watch Sky News for hours and that bloody yellow ticker tape is not good for screen burn on OLEDs.


I paid £600 for my XE9005 from Hughes outlet on eBay by the way.

IMHO there is no better sub 50" TV you can buy still, the XF is a small change, not read reviews of the 2019 models.

The D8000 no good?! It wiped the floor with anything at the time, and I spent a long time looking and trying to convince myself that a cheaper model would be good enough. Even today the sheer clarity on a decent Blu Ray will impress me. The biggest (unforgivable) failing is its sound quality, it's as thin as paper, but irrelevant in our set up.

I think anything sub 50" could work in the front. The 55" was just that tad bit too big, not massively over sized. I'll take a gander at the Sony.

Edit - it seems What Hi-Fi agree with you - https://www.whathifi.com/sony/kd-49xf9005/review

There's one on the bay at £928, so given a year or two we could hope that would come down to about £500.

Edited by Fermit and Sexy Sarah on Sunday 19th May 13:25

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

gizlaroc said:

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

The D8000 no good?! It wiped the floor with anything at the time, and I spent a long time looking and trying to convince myself that a cheaper model would be good enough. Even today the sheer clarity on a decent Blu Ray will impress me. The biggest (unforgivable) failing is its sound quality, it's as thin as paper, but irrelevant in our set up.

I think anything sub 50" could work in the front. The 55" was just that tad bit too big, not massively over sized. I'll take a gander at the Sony.

Edit - it seems What Hi-Fi agree with you - https://www.whathifi.com/sony/kd-49xf9005/review

There's one on the bay at £928, so given a year or two we could hope that would come down to about £500.

The D8000 just didn't impress me at all, I calibrated one and the black levels were poor and at that point I lost interest.
It was nice and bright, colours good when the blue push was dialled out of it, and it was nice and sharp, but compared to the Sony 46W90 I was running it didn't come close, and that was quite a way behind the Pioneer Kuro I has as my main set.

What I'm trying to say is sets like the 49XE9005 or XF9005 will be on another level.

They are £850 new at the moment, but will probably run out soon, the XG9005 has dropped the 49" from the look of things.

The XF maybe the one to keep an eye out for down the line then. I concede that some others to blacks better than ours.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Evolved said:

I run a VT65, had it calibrated and it still amazes with the quality and black levels. There’s a reason it had the crown for so long after the KURO’s were pulled from market.

If I were to buy today, it’s be the Pany OLED or the LG. I’d probably opt for the Panasonic though.

I do like Panasonic sets, a Panasonic holds the title of the longest I've owned one set, 11 years. One of these -



IIRC the first CRT with a 100% flat screen, and 100hz, which was good back then! £849 some 20 years ago, I really liked that set.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Badda said:

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

I don't know the dimensions, but as a visual this is the room the 46" lives. We tried the 55" in here (as it's where I watch my films, with the hi-fi set up) but it just took over the room. When we swapped it back to the 46" it was immediately apparent that it is a better fit. NB, it's the 46" in the photo.

That is a tiny room! Off topic but I've always wondered the point of hifi in a house like yours? Surely it's like having a fast car on average speed limit roads.

I wouldn't say tiny, but it is on the small side. It does get used, and in fairness the neighbour is also a hi-fi junkie with Cyrus set up, so we both tolerate each other when we have a session with our hi-fi's. Never full whack, but plenty loud enough to enjoy. It is a bit of an overkill, the amps have a combined 1200watts RMS, but I've always wanted a Tag McLaren set up, and the 7 channel amp (the big silver one) lends itself beautifully to the Pro-Logic.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

crmcatee said:

RammyMP said:

I’ve not got the speakers fitted to it, the sound comes through surround sound speakers with the amp in another room. Recently the remote to change the volume has stopped working so instead of a short walk to adjust the volume or fix the remote, a new tv with speakers is in order!

Is it the Pioneer remote that's broke ? I might have one in the loft - can't remember what I did with it.

I may be wrong, but I read it as the remote for the surround amp?

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Evolved said:

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

Evolved said:

I run a VT65, had it calibrated and it still amazes with the quality and black levels. There’s a reason it had the crown for so long after the KURO’s were pulled from market.

If I were to buy today, it’s be the Pany OLED or the LG. I’d probably opt for the Panasonic though.

I do like Panasonic sets, a Panasonic holds the title of the longest I've owned one set, 11 years. One of these -



IIRC the first CRT with a 100% flat screen, and 100hz, which was good back then! £849 some 20 years ago, I really liked that set.

100hz was the holy grail along with the flat panel.

I have been following various threads for a while to get upto speed and I do think the Pany would win out still. It’s more expensive but they just make things that last and work very well.

I may have missed, but any model for the Pany, and as a 46 or 55"?

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

gizlaroc said:

All OLEDs are 55, 65, 77 currently.

LG have said they are going to start producing 44" panels, design for commercial multiscreen really but is a demand for a smaller screen.

Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I'll keep an eye out for the hinted arrival on the LG 49, as that size would work, and also have some good info/models from the rest of you so thanks for that.

One other question. Armed with a list of model numbers suggested, if I headed to (say) Dixons to view them, should I trust my eyes if I think any others are better, or could they be run from a certain source or setting which could skew the result?

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

RammyMP said:

gizlaroc said:

As good as the Pioneer and Panasonic TVs were back in the day, some of the current stuff is another level.

Don’t say that!

If you're still enjoying it then no sweat I'd say. I still enjoy our sets, whilst I am aware that they are no longer the best. I'm just conscious that the time will come within a few years that I'll hanker for better.

It's nice that the best real world picture quality has tumbled in price too, I wasn't fancying spending £4500 on two TV's! (hence the second hand 1-2 years rational)

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Thanks Carl.

The only specific model mention of a Pany was on page one, namely the TX-55FZ802B. Does anyone have any thoughts RE if this is the current Pany to have?

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Herbs said:

If you watch a lot of films then I wouldn't rule out a 55" OLED - the LG ones are mm thick and have a minimal bezel - mount them with their specialist bracket and they hardly protrude into the room at all so you can get away with a larger screen.

The Samsung we have is very thin (for its age) as in a CM thin. The TV wont be wall mounted, which would make it a viable size/distance. The cabinet it's on houses all the vast amounts of hi-fi, and would look silly without something atop it. I'd say 50", or thereabouts, is the max, without feeling like you're in the lower half of the cinema!

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

HM-2 said:

If you're looking at the KD-49XF9005, I'd also take a look at the Panasonic TX49FX750b. I was between these two (Panasonic at about £800, Sony at around £1000) back in February and I didn't think the Sony was worth the extra money when comparing the two. At roughly the same cost it might edge the Panasonic out, but worth a look- I've been really impressed by it.

I think these two, and probably the 55" LG are the ones which will be in the running for us.