Televisons

You’re absolutely loving this stuff, aren’t you :grinning:

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If I’m buying a new thing, I have to research EVERYTHING about it, so I know that I’m getting the right one.

I could easily spend my life looking into this kind of thing.

EDIT: I didn’t make that graph, by the way, I nabbed it from RTings:

I know. I know.

This is great.

The size of my lounge means a massive tv and 8k is the way forward then!

48" Panasonic - one in the living room, one in the bedroom. The one in the bedroom is also linked to the computer so we can use it as a screen. (Great for watching porn, so I am told. Not that I would ever do that myself, of course.)

55" Sony A1. Proper dece.

Got a 42” LG at the minute. Have had it for about 4 years, so reckon it’s due for replacement.

Got my eye on a 49-incher, HDR UHD job for when we’ve moved in. The folks we’ve bought the house from have left the wall mount from their 49” box, so it’d be a shame not to put that to use.

Got a Samsung 49 incher downstairs (curved, I’m not fussed about the curve though). And a Samsung 30 incher in the bedroom.

The 30incher Smart functionality is shite. So is the sound. And we only use it once a month so fuck knows why we got it.

Is this how long people keep TVs for these days?

I don’t know. I want a new one though.

The former bedroom TV is knackered - the power button on the set and remote broke about 18 months ago, so we were poking a hairpin in the button hole to turn it on - so the (former) living room TV will live on in the bedroom until it gives up the ghost.

Got a 40" Sony LCD as part of a promo for the World Cup in 2010 maybe? Mainly use it as a monitor for my PC but it’s connected to a PS3. It’s fine.

I do have an Optoma projector in the lounge too, but thinking of swapping the two, as nobody ever uses the PJ and I have a big white wall that would be perfect to beam onto.

Panasonic plasma which is quite elderly and an irresponsible use of electricity, but I’m reluctant to replace it until I have to (or they sort out OLED burn in issues).

spinal-tap-none-more-black

I’ll keep on saying it until I’m blue in the face

4k isn’t just about higher pixel count and sharper image, it means more can be done with the image, it can allow for more accurate contrast and color reproduction. 4k displays allow HDR which is by far the single biggest display upgrade since the jump to HD as it produces far far far more realsitc colours and a less washed out image.

HDR is now starting to become standard with video games and Netflix and if you have a capable TV the picture quality is far superior. Especially if it supports Dolby Vision. But if you got a TV before the UHD standard got established a couple of years ago then unfortunately you wont get the most out of the resolution bump. If you buy a 4k tv make sure its Full UHD compatible, most 4k displays by the major manufactures are now.

Plasma and OLEDs handle blacks so well that its kind of hard going to standard LCD with backlight, even if they do have amazing local dimming. But I fear for your electricity bill!

At least OLEDs cost next to nothing to run (but they can burn in which is fucking shitty, though they’ve implemented a lot of fancy pixel shifting tech which makes it far less likely)

HDR is independent of pixel count - from a technological point of view, HDR doesn’t need
to be 4K. It’s commercial reasons that have meant that it’s rarely found on non-4K sets.

Unless manufacturers bring in other features and make them 8K-only (like they have done with HDR and 4K), you will not be able to see the difference between 8K and 4K in a set in a living room.

Keeping an eye out for any good 4K HDR lads in Black Friday sales. At a loss for what you get for paying more though. Samsung and Sony both seem to have 48-50" models at around the £400-500 mark and then way more expensive ones. What should I be looking out for? @marckee?

It depends what you want the TV for.

Some screens are better for gaming, some have wider viewing angles. The variation comes in with the type of screen. Some are OLED, some are edge-lit, some are FALD/local dimming, some have better processors for upscaling, some have a faster refresh rate, some have more input and output sockets etc etc.

I’d have a read through some of these threads and see which one looks to be the most applicable to you:

Personally, I’d steer clear of OLED for now (it’s very expensive and the creases in the technology haven’t been ironed out yet), but aim for a good 4K HDR screen with local dimming.

Be prepared to put some money aside for a soundbar or other speakers if you’ve not got those already.

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Keep hearing Vizio being recommended.

Sweet that’s really helpful, thanks! Will be mostly for gaming yeah. And I have a soundbar already so all good there. I’ll have a look through that forum.

They’re meant to be good screens if you are watching 4K stuff, but the upscaling isn’t as good as other brands. They didn’t used to include a tuner either, but most of their models do now (I think)

Also, the firmware and interface is really clunky.

Super good value if you use something like Apple TV for all your viewing though.