Televisions

[Sisemen]

4K, 8K, ULED, OLED, QLED, UHD, LED, C9, HD, Smart .... just WTF does it all mean?

As I’m in the market for a new telly I obviously want as big a bang for my buck as possible but don’t want to be smart-talked by some commission-hungry spotty yoof into getting the wrong thing.

About the only thing I understand is the 8K is twice as good on definition as 4K but, as it’s new technology, it costs squillions more?

All advice gratefully received.

[4mastacker]

Get hold of one of your local unemployed, professional benefits scroungers and ask them - they're sure to have the latest gear. At least that's how it seems to work in the UK.

[John Hill]

There would seem to be no point in paying for a TV with greater resolution than your local TV channels produce.


BTW, it is sometimes better to get an old TV as I remember they had the better programmes.

[Pontius Navigator]

John Lewis has just the job me boy. To you it has 8k and all the rest, certainly the biggest bang. A mere 85 inch screen. Give you the real cinema experience. Mrs Side can look at one half and you the other and compare notes.

To you, just a shade over £13,000.

Remember though, old programmes aren't in high definition. Modern programmes are crap, and they don't make many films in 3D. A Philips Hue TV is A gimic. A curved screen might be an advantage.

Now the next TV I want is a picture TV. It is very thin, hangs on the wall, displays art work from a good selection of for a subscription even more. You can get a selection of frames to match your decor and the pictures can be mounted with colours to suit. When you are not in the room the screen switches off.

Not cheap but the pictures are far better than broadcast TV.

[Rwy in Sight]

John Hill has a point about not over-buying in relation to the local TV stations - however the stations may be upgraded in the future and then there are the High Definition movies. My plan for majorish electronic buys is to wait for the sales and I buy a heavily discounted model.

[Ex-Ascot]

What is a television?

[Slasher]

Simply put Sah it is a large visual/aural gadget at my home that has its selector button welded and permanently padlocked to the cable Thai Channel - and a remote that can’t be found anywhere at all.

Similarly the one upstairs is duct taped to the Asian Food Channel.

[ian16th]

Don't forget connectivity and Bluetooth capability for your hearing aids.

[Sisemen]

At least my current TV can pronounce the word “nigger” when I watch my Dambusters DVD

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I have been planning on getting a top TV purely to play Blurays.
rtings.com is an excellent website with everything you could need in straightforward detail. They do their own realistic testing.

Here's the very short version.
The first determinant is your viewing distance, which will generally be controlled by your furnishings
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-si ... lationship
This will help you choose the correct size screen, and/or move your couch.
There's also a clear graph showing what resolutions are "worth it".
HD=1080P, UHD=4k

For example, my viewing distance is 8.5 feet, so for a 58" TV, which I have, only 1080P is worth having, not 4k. So, that's what I got. It's great.
In a while, I want to get the optimum THX movie theatre experience. The chart shows me it's only worth getting 4k resolution if I get a 75" or bigger screen, and for an 8.5 foot viewing distance an 85" screen will give me the optimum 40 degree angular coverage. So, that's my dream TV.

Quite a number of movies are now available in 4k, but almost all TV is in 1080P, so is 4k worth it in a source sense as well as the resolution sense? Based on my viewings at a high end AV shop, the answer is - depends on the upscaling engine. The top end TVs - Samsung, LG and Sony are the top 3 - have clever upscaling chips which makes the filling in of the extra pixels add to the apparent realism. The cheaper ones, no. Roughly speaking, if you are spending more than $2,000 on a top name TV, the upscaling will make a 4k TV worth it even if you only ever use 1080P source material, assuming you can actually see the higher resolution from the first section.

OLED is LG and Sony's way of getting better colour and contrast, and it's fabulous. And very expensive. The downside is burn-in, where logos can cause a permanent fault in the screen. It depends on what you watch. Here's an excellent test of that problem; it may not affect you.

All the others, QLED, ULED, LED have a different basic technology with assorted patented add-ons
QLED is Samsung's competing technology. To my eyes, the difference from OLED is minimal, and QLED doesn't suffer from burn-in. However, QLED doesn't look good with off-centre viewing, or as good in a well lit room.
As a rough guide to the off-centre problem, then more than about 20 degrees it's going to be obvious, with colour washout and less definition. At 8.5 feet away, if two viewers sit on a couch in front of the screen, off-centre isn't a problem. If two viewers sit on separate armchairs, it is. I have a well darkened room, so OLED's better contrast difference is minimal.
Sony's LED seems better to me than QLED, as the colours are better - they have almost a 3D effect.

What makes the biggest difference with LEDs vs OLED is whether the LED has local dimming or not.
OLED has effectively individual pixel dimming, giving much deeper blacks and better contrast. LED TVs can have local dimming, which makes the backlighting much better at showing black areas on the screen. To my eyes it's definitely better than LEDs that don't have it.

You must go look at the different TVs to find which features stand out to your eyes.

Overall, I found by looking at the images side by side, a Sony with local dimming's better colour handling was a bigger difference and more important to me than the OLED's slightly better contrast. The off-centre and bright room issues don't apply to me. So, my ideal TV is a Sony X900F, 4k, with local dimming. The 85" is currently $4,000. I reckon it'll be about $3,000 in next year's sales so I'll get it then. An equivalent OLED is twice the price, and I can't tell enough of a difference to justify another $1,000, never mind double. OTOH, there is that big a difference between the Sony and the $2,000 TVs. I will happily stick with my 58" Sharp HD that I got for under $500 in the sale last year until I can get the Sony X900F for $3,000.

As a further consideration, don't forget the audio. A proper 5.1 surround sound system makes a bigger difference than 4k to movie enjoyment. I now have a 5.1.2 (that's with Dolby Atmos overhead speakers too) which gives a very immersive experience.

Hope this helps. Let me know what you decide.

[Sisemen]

Exactly the gen I was after. I currently have a 55” flat screen about 10 years old and there’s the odd glitch happening. I’m not in any desperate rush at this stage but doing the research early.

[Capetonian]

That's all very helpful. I am also in the market for a new TV but I'm not prepared to set foot in one of those places staffed by autistic spotty teenagers plastic shirts and lanyards dangling round their necks who try to blind you with 50,000 acronyms and when you ask what it means: "well its got like the 16k 57meg 286ZF ultra mega tangential multiple sequenced 907 featured K27 ...... and we sell more of these than any other model". It's when they say "What's your budget?" that I walk out or ask them to let me blunder around on my own.

We used to have a local hifi place staffed by a Jewish chap and a Latvian, between them there was nothing they didn't know and they could sell you cables to connect a 1978 Sony WX4UT record player to a 2017 Philips 4W52W TV via a 2003 Harmon Kardon HK614RT amplifier, without batting an eyelid. And when you got home, it worked. They sold everything from TVs to batteries, electronic clocks to key fobs, surveillance systems .... and no more expensive than Sharkus or Currys PCWankers.

I talked to them about a new TV and I remember one of them saying that the newer the films and the higher definition it is the more likely it is to be bilge, and that all this 24K stuff is literally window dressing and serves no useful purpose, and 8K is more than enough for most people.

Needless to say that useful shop, which was almost part of the community, is now yet another **** nail bar for laundering Vietnamese Triad money.

[OFSO]

LG. Easy OS, good picture, good remote. Don't think that they, or any other make, will have SCART sockets: vanished for cost reasons, so if like me you have SCART cables carrying signals you are SOL. All but the no-name cheapest flat screen TV's at our local Carrefour have satellite receivers integrated. 32" prices start at €109.
Check round the back that whatever you chose has enough connections for other inputs and to connect loudspeakers and that Bluetooth and WiFi are integrated.

[Boac]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=scart+to+h ... 8oqcq3md_e

[Woody]

Cape, Richer Sounds usually have well informed staff and reasonably priced I find

[Pontius Navigator]

Fox, thank you for the detail. There are two other factors often overlooked when buying the 'best'. The first is regarding vision. How good is your eyesight? If you wear glasses they must be compatible with your TV regarding viewing distance. Then there is your hearing. Volume controls may enable you to hear but not at HiFi.

As Ian says, blue tooth hearing aids may make a huge improvement but if you are high tone deaf you are still deaf.

[Pontius Navigator]

Woody, not to mention a 5 or 6 year guarantee. Our present replacement, after the previous one failed at 4.5 years is now nearing the end of its 5 year guarantee. In a perfect world it will fail before 5 years, be irreparable, and replaced once again.

Unfortunately Sise probably can't use Richer.

[Capetonian]

Yes, we have a Richer Sounds near us and you are right. They are excellent and don't automatically sell you stuff that gives them the best profit. They listen to what you want and they do their best to sell you that.

The company was founded by Julian Richer, who lives in Yorkshire, one of my friends knows him very well. He seems to be a most admirable character, the world needs more folk like him.

Richer donates 15% of the profits from Richer Sounds to his charitable trust, whose main areas of support include human rights and animal welfare.[38][39][40] He also founded the charities ASBhelp, which supports victims of anti-social behaviour and ACTS435, which allows people to donate directly to those in need.[41]

He also founded Richer Unsigned, a not-for-profit designed to promote the best undiscovered music the UK has to offer. Richer Unsigned supports and promotes musicians who may just be getting started, who have been in the industry a while or simply don’t have a great label deal. It currently has over 3,000 artists featured on its website.

In 2018 he funded TaxWatch which launched in October, dedicated to the research and exposure of aggressive tax avoiding corporations.[42][43] Richer was appointed as a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) in 2007.[44]

He is a vice president of the RSPCA.[45]

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Another vote for Richer Sounds - only place I ever shopped in the UK for audio/TV. I think the Nottingham branch is your nearest PN. The staff know exactly what they are talking about and are very practical. Got my mum's latest TV from there 9 years ago. Got it home and found it DOA due to a chip problem, wouldn't cycle out of startup. They swapped it out next day without a qualm, and the replacement is still working fine 9 years later (Samsung). Only problem I've ever had and it was good to find they gave great service. They now do nationwide free delivery, but it's well worth going into a shop to ask them about your needs. Personally I've only bought 1 TV and one video recorder from them because they both lasted 22 years!

[ricardian]

When we moved up here in April 2004 we bought the largest TV we could find, a massive, bone-crushingly heavy thing that required two strong lads to lift it into place. We then got Sky TV installed and for the first month we had access to thousands of channels of drivel. At the end of the month's trial we opted for Discovery & History channels. A year later we cancelled the Sky contract and the TV was turned off apart from the times that the late Mrs R wanted to watch a VHS film (Olivier's Richard III & Henry V being her favourites). Mrs R passed away in 2014 so the monster TV sits in the corner and has not been switched on for over five years and I will have to pay the council to take it away next year.