New TV recommendations

doodah

doodah

doodah

Caporegime
Joined
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London
My hotel room LG 1080p TV I bought for £35 has met its maker (crappy stand + mother-in-law accidentally knocking it over :p) so it's finally time to get a 4K TV. Questions.....
  • Is there a significance in panel types for TVs (VA, IPS etc)? I have seen a number of comments suggest IPS isn't good for TVs.
  • I take it for my budget range - little point in bothering with HDR? As you're not going to get one that does ~1,000 (supposed minimum for proper implementation) nits at this price range.
  • I take it a TV that can support H.265 is a better preference compared to H.264?
  • Any considerations regarding refresh rate - a lot seem to be 50Hz but then have some marketing terminology that brings that number into the hundreds.
  • A common issue I have seen (again in comments) and through some of my own experience - menus and how laggy they are. Any brand/model known for having a good/fast menu system?
  • Any considerations regarding upscaling - I would think this is an important feature for me as most of the content on my HTPC is 720-1080p.
An early contender was the Hisense H8F or soon to be released H8G but neither of these TVs are sold in the UK. We're looking in the £300-400 but can go up to ~£650 if needed and I think the LG was 42" so a screen size around that or no larger than 50" would be ideal. We mainly watch TV/HTPC and I will game on it eventually (likely to get a next gen console).

Thanks :).
 
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IPS vs VS comes down to a simple trade off: wider viewing angles (IPS) OR better contrast (VA). Almost all TVs for this price range will not have local dimming, so no big differences arise otherwise.
Indeed, little point to HDR for anything less than an XF90, which is closer to £900. Maybe Q70R, which is a little cheaper but still £800. It's not really so much the peak brightness that's most important but rather local dimming capability. It's first and foremost about lighting control.
H264 is a given on every TV by now, so you'd definitely want H265 as well if you can imo.
Usually when it says 50hz, it just means for compatibility with European broadcasts in general, but the panels themselves are still 60 hz (so if you were to use it with a PC eg then it would go to 60hz).
Usually LG has the snappiest menus, with Android TVs doing the slowest. That used to be a bigger problem but it has rectified itself since the XF models from Sony for the most part. May or may not make a difference, but it also depends on if you use an additional box (eg Nvidia Shield, Apple TV, Firestick, etc.)

Give this a look, seems to go for £450 for the 50 inch model. Sadly I don't know the input lag numbers, but maybe you can find it.

 
Sweet thanks for the quick reply! I just came across that Hisense model after finding this thread on AV Forums. I think have seen a few models in our price range mention local dimming so will keep that in mind. Wonder if any in that range will have HDMI 2.1 as well. Will do more research at lunch.
 
LCD for games and desktop, oled for movies.

If you decide to go LCD there are few differences between them, TN, IPS, Va. Fald or edge lit. Regular or quantum dot. Or nano led.

As for.media playback my LG oled is good enough but some filesdo not play so a dedicated video player is better.
 
doodah said:
Always IPS for me when it comes to PC monitors but it seems that's not always the case for TVs.
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I'm happy with my va for games, it doesn't suffer lag like some others. Better colour and angles than TN. If I were a pure FPS gamer I'd probably get curved TN. Video is good on my va. It does have slightly uneven backlight
 
Looked more into Hisense and the U7A is looking like a good contender for £450 (faster panel than the U7B). Also the Panasonic GX700.
 
doodah said:
Always IPS for me when it comes to PC monitors but it seems that's not always the case for TVs.
Click to expand...
The problem with IPS PC monitors are the blacks are normally crap and they suffer back light bleed/leaks
I would hate to use any of my own IPS PC monitors as a TV due to this
 
billysielu said:
TV prices drop a lot around march/april when new models come out, check out price tracker sites and save a load of money.
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Thanks, that's useful to know though I am not sure my wife can wait that long :p.

Edit- shame I can't find stock of the Hisense 55U7A other than a website that does not rate well at all on Trust Pilot.
 
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Decided to go with the LG UM7400PLB 55", picking it up tonight. **** knows what going from a 42" 1080p to a 55" 4K will be like, but I can't wait :D.
 
hornetstinger said:
Should have bought the LG 8k oled. About £30,000
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I'll keep that in mind ;):p.

Newb question, under what circumstances would I need to get HDMI 2.0 leads? I think our cables are old/cheap but they obviously still work for the Virgin box and HTPC but unsure if I need to get more up to date cables.
 
The 55" recommended on the avforums post, the Hisense 55U7B, is the same price as the recommended 65" tv, the Hisense 65B7100. Both are £500.

In the absence of any better information (most online reviews appear biased to me) I will go for one of these i think.
 
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