Home ›
Site Links
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
In this Discussion
Please review the site Rules, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy at your convenience. Rules, TOS, Privacy
Get familiar with the reaction system: Introducing the Reaction System
Need new TV....
Looks like the 7 yr old LG LED backlighting bit the dust. The repair looks to be more involved than I am likely able to manage.
Anybody got a new set recently and have info to offer on newer units for 2020? I think the OLED is not for me, as burn-in is a problem, but LED looks to be the larger chance for backlighting failure and such down the road. I have not liked the picture on the VIZIO units in the past, and tend to like the picture on LG models.
So- anybody know something I should inform myself of?
Thanks,
Comments
I have a lot of thoughts. I've used projectors for the last... seven years or so? But at the end of last year my bulb was going again and after looking at the 275$ cost to replace it, I saw a budget 80" LG TV at the local Microcenter, 799$ I think and I grabbed it.
Ok, so right, I wouldn't recommend an LG budget model. While I don't hate this TV, I have lots to say about it that are clear issues. It is 4k, HDR. 4K is flawless, and it has great scaling. 1080p looks amazing scaled internally, can barely tell any difference between that and native 4k.
HDR, well that is a whole 'nother ball game there. The TV can project super-bright, but has no fancy dimming features and black levels gets washed out into joke land very easily. I noticed that a lot watching The Witcher (lots of dark scenes) in 4k HDR.
It comes by default with a lot of "effects" turned on to improve things. They work, but well, they also drop frames. You read that right. The TV f**ing drops frames when the limited power hardware can't keep up, PAN SHOTS (like, when you would notice chunk!), etc etc. Ugh, well you can go in and turn that all off *whew. Then you lose all the quality boost it gives you and are left with an image that went from Great to Ok!
Yea, I have thoughts... but basically, read reviews and don't skimp. I'll probably sink a lot more into a model this coming year and hand this one off to someone.
The one I have from LG was a 47" LED 1080P, and has a 120Hz refresh rate. All of the 240Hz models I looked at back then made the image look fake. I set the dejudder to the lowest setting and adjusted my levels as I always do with a setup disc. I was actually pretty happy with this set. I think it was about $750 back then, and it was a 47". Then TV prices fell immensely, and the whole hierarchy changed. So- $100/year I guess isn't too bad. The Slim-fit Tube 1080P Samsung I had before that was about that age when I swapped it for this one.
I don't have a 4k player yet, but when the Sony (2009) dies eventually, I'll likely get one of those. I really like this player too. Full decoding if needed, and all of the bells and whistles I could get back then except SACD. I have a Denon for that.
InDIYana Event Website
I have the lg oled, excellent tv, especially the contrast, but I would stay away from the vizio. I also have a vizio with the full array backlighting that I have fixed once, and the sound will not sync up when I run the dish network through it, so I have to run the sound directly from the dish box into an amplifier with remote control, otherwise the delay is just ridiculous.
The Sony sets are really good and they have a full array dimming LED option for a reasonable price now that they switched the top of line stuff to OLED
TCL 6 series is objectively excellent, even more so within its price range. Ive been watching the 65" model off an on (it is in the basement and I am still a little wary around stairs for the most part so I limit the amount of times I go down there). It is very, very nice. The upscaling to 4K isn't anything to write home about, but I let the big Marantz and the Oppo handle that heavy lifting. Native 4K streamed is sublime even considering the compression streaming services use.
Plenty of reviews out there to show you how to make sure you have the color set up correctly. Most negative impressions of displays at any price are related to all of the "betterers" that are turned on by default plus the color/brightness is generally skewed out of the box to make it pop in a Costco or Best Buy.
My 12 year old Philips 47" is still going strong - not a single dead pixel. I hacked it with a LG firmware to get a little more in-depth access in the service menu and had it professionally calibrated. My wifes cousin used to work for a company here in town that makes video calibration tools so that worked out pretty well.
I looked at the sony led, I think it was the 900, and the picture was very good, just not up to the oled sets. It would be my choice in a led set.
My 10 year old 50" Panasonic Plasma is still going strong, my 5 year old 65" Samsung 4K UHD looks great
For the price, I'm looking at the Samsung UHD, Sony X1 HDR, and LG UHD 55" models. At least I know where I'm headed initially. I'll head out Saturday for a looksee.
InDIYana Event Website
Good luck! Like JR & others have said, most sets on the showroom floor have too many "enhancements" turned on and they look pretty awful. I bought a 55" Samsung budget model for my wife earlier this year and it had the famed Soap Opera look. I think I turned off 4 separate things buried in the menus before it started looking decent. I think it still needs some tweaking, but she's happy with it as is. It still looks better than my 5-6 year old Vizio down in the man-cave.
Hisense h9g or cheaper h8g look good for the price. I got a h8g and like it so far.
I have 3 LG TV's and haven't had any trouble with any of them except for one I took back because the back-light was messed up out of the box. The oldest is 12 years old. I bought a 60" 4K LED last fall and I like it.
Ron
Now I heard there were some recent issues with the Quantum OLED, but I have had an OLED for the last 5 years with no burn in. Today (if no OLED), I would go with Sony or Vizio P series with local dimming. Check out Rtings for TV reviews. I would pay for screen tech only. Built in "smart functions" generally suck compared to nvidia shield or the like. One thing to note is only 3 companies or so make ALL of the panels; it's all in implementation.
One last idea, projectors continue to drop... Depending upon viewing habits, it could be an option. Good luck!
I vote Sony or LG. I have a 55 Sony LED, model 850? It's nice. The LG is an 65" OLED, it's fucking awesome.🤷🏻♂️
6th- you are reading my mind. I'll look at the Samsung, but after having a warranty replacement on one of theirs years ago, I don't hold reliability in their wheelhouse. I'll likely go strictly LED, no OLED or QLED mainly due to cost.
Thanks for the comments, guys! Wanted to make sure I wasn't all wet in my own thinking.
InDIYana Event Website
I have been happy with my Sony that I bought last year. I can't remember the model, maybe X900 or 950, 55" HDR. The picture quality is amazing with streaming, antenna, 4k UHD disc, or even DVD (kids). I highly recommend Sony over Samsung, Vizio, or Lg. Like they say, you get what you pay for. Good luck shopping and trust your gut.
We've really loved our Samsung, Sony, and Panasonic LED TV's. Everything from 40" to 55". We got my Dad's 55" LG LED (not 4k) when he died. We all think it has the worst picture quality of everything we've had. Being a Swede I'm sure he bought the lowest model 55" LG had to offer at the time lol
Yup, the entry level LG, like others in that range, are hard to watch once your 4K bound. Ive had good luck with Sony, and would have ended up with an OLED one had the open box LG not been sitting on top of the entertainment center I was there to buy. Not unhappy by any means with the LG. The only thing I don't like about Sony is Hulu doesn't seem to work well with it.
The fact that I've had failures in Samsung and LG units now leads me to lean toward the Sony a bit anyway. Matt had a Sony LCD for what seems like the whole time we hung out in his loft- and it never had any issues, and had a really good picture.
InDIYana Event Website
I had a 50" Sony WEGA LCD projection set for years. I bought the warranty package with it, so a tech came out after 3 years to give it a free checkup. He said it looked and measured like it was still brand new! I gave it to our daughter when she went to college 5 or 6 years ago. She finally pitched it when the lamp died.
I had the old school 36" Wega flat tube TV forever. I was basically forced to get rid of it when everything went to HDMI. Loved all 220lbs of that thing🤘🏼Funny story: I replaced it with the 55" Sony LED, only one guy showed up to deliver and remove the old TV. I laughed when he attempted to move it himself. He called for back up😁
I had that TV, too. The 16:9 "squish" feature brought anamorphic DVD to a new level.
OKAY-
So- I didn't want to lose the 120Hz refresh rate I had with the LG. Back 7 years ago, that was the thing- 60/120/240 were your choices, and the 240 looked fake. Turns out with 4k, 240Hz no longer exists and 60/120 are your options. It was a clear advantage when I bought the last one, and was still a clear advantage this time around. 60Hz looked like poop and 'glitchy'. I'm glad for the 4k, as now you don't get the 'inherently deep pored people faces' that were prominent last time I was looking.
I learned a bit more- There are 3 tiers of 4k HDR; Standard, Pro and True (IIRC). The Standard does not upscale, but the Pro does and presents a simulated 4k, whereas the True presents in true 4k resolution.
This means my starting price at the lowest was $899 on currently running sale to get the 120Hz refresh rate. Only QLED/OLED TVs are available with that option. That also was the price on only ONE TV with that feature- The Samsung QN55Q70TAFXZA. Everything else was over $1k. This left me only one option as far as I was concerned. I could not swing the cost of a Sony with the same features, and I didn't like the Nano models from LG. The sale left enough to be able to swing the 2 year protection fee, and that left piece of mind for my Samsung woes of the past. It just so happens that the set I bought is also a True 4K UHD TV.
More background- Best Buy places all of their TVs on ViVid setting, and shuts off the dejudder and soap-opera effects. They do this company wide. He even went through the menu on a Sony set and showed me.
When I drove up to load up, I had the Zingers in the rear from a recent thing. I told him I had to move them quick, and he asked what brand they were. I told them I built them, and he (stunned) said "What!? The cabinets?" I said the cabs, the xovers, and the design were mine. He asked the brand of the drivers, I said 'Dayton and Peerless', and don't recall anything else in that exchange. I think his mind was just blown.
I'll get it hooked up and in place, dial it in, and let you all know what I think...
InDIYana Event Website
forgot link:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-55-class-qled-q70t-series-4k-uhd-tv-smart-led-with-hdr/6402398.p?skuId=6402398
InDIYana Event Website
Bear in mind anything over 29.97fps (barring native 60fps stuff) is derived, so don't let the fast refresh rates sway you. Most displays won't actually do better than duplicate or quadricate 30hz frames and call it 120/240. Worst case, the DSP "extrapolates" between frames and generates a transition. There is a reason 27-30" gaming monitors cost close to what 65" TV's cost.
JR is right, barring you have a source actually sending 60/120 fps. I run everything through my computer, and it has no problems sending honest direct 60 and 120 hz refresh rates to my cheapie LG.
Noted! I still don't think I would have picked a different TV. The picture was that good.
InDIYana Event Website
Looks like a nice one Ben!
Remember when a TV so light & thin that you could hang it on the wall seemed like something out of science fiction?
Thanks!
I also remember when tablets like on Star Trek were too far to think practical.
Okay, this was frustrating! I would think I would get it dialed in, and then it wouldn't look right, or I could only get too bright or not bright enough, or the lesser broadcasts were pasty thin and fuzzy. The manual was nonexistent in paper form. The TV wanted me to hook it to the network and register and agree to the T&C, but I am not even going to use the network smart features anyway. We don't use cable, netflix, etc. I shut off the 'listening lady' manual switch. Apparently, since we still use dumb-phones, we can't even scan the image code and look through the on-line manual. This meant it was more of a try-it and find it endeavor.
The DVD picture setup disc I've had forever was almost useless this time around, as the settings really never looked BAD no matter where you set them individually. The Sharpness was about the only thing worth looking at. I guess TVs have improved enough where it's the mix that is problematic, and not the individual parts.
It turns out the Eco-functions were the ones wreaking havoc. I'd get it close, and the display would dim/change because it was analyzing the level of room light. I really had to look to find them!
I really dislike the remote cuz it's usefulness is limited. No number pad for direct-entering stations. There does not seem to be an easy way to access the menus without going via 'accessibility' functions and diving 5-level deep into them. I just want a one-button-menu access! I'm hopeful my Harmony remote will still access this TV's functions with a reprogram.
I can't seem to delete unwanted stations yet. I don't need the Spanish channel or the one that is never being received.
So- I dialed both the 'Natural' and 'Standard' in bright and clear, but the Standard has more adjustment access whereas the Natural does not. Vivid is just too much, and likely cuts the life short. I can see me using both, but Standard looks better to me for most purposes:
Bright 38
Contrast 29
Sharpness 13
Color 27
Blur 5
Judder 2
Contrast Enhance High
Color Cool
Gamma BT 0
White Balance I turned the red offset down to -1, and B-Gain up 6, as this set tends to redden faces without adjustment.
We'll see how a Blu-Ray goes...
InDIYana Event Website
Would it make sense to start looking in to vr glasses instead of TVs? Like oculus?
Wolf,
Here's a review with recommended settings which should be a great starting point for your TV.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/q70t-qled/settings
FWIW, I bought a Vizio PQ 65" in 2018 that has the most accurate and detailed picture and color of anything in price range I could afford. I always do custom setting adjustments. As you mentioned what you see at the store are gross exaggerations of what it should be and designed to catch the buyers eye for brightest, sharpest etc.
Good luck with the new TV!
Jim