HDTVs

Denamian

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New TCL 5- and 6-series TVs are trickling out today, ahead of the official release date (May 1). I've been planning to buy one since it seems like by far the best bang for the buck, but now I'm torn on whether to get the 5 or the 6. I really only care about it as a PS4 display; it will see some use for Netflix/Prime Video/Kodi but that's not the priority at all. Not interested in spending serious money on a TV until HDMI 2.1 features become reality, specifically adaptive sync, and that's still years away if it ever happens at all.

My dilemma is that the only apparent difference between the two sets is that the 55R615 is $150 more because it has local dimming. I'm not really convinced that a low-end local dimming implementation is worth getting at all though. Anyone with a P605/607 have thoughts on how well it works for gaming? The new model has 96 zones compared to 72 zones last year so it should be somewhat better at least.

If you pull the trigger on one of those I'd love to hear how it turns out. I'm pretty much in the same boat as it's primary use would be for my PS4 and would be replacing a 10 year old 720p Sony. Unfortunately I'll have to wait a few months as my car decided it wanted a bunch of attention this month.
 

Vorph

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If you pull the trigger on one of those I'd love to hear how it turns out. I'm pretty much in the same boat as it's primary use would be for my PS4 and would be replacing a 10 year old 720p Sony. Unfortunately I'll have to wait a few months as my car decided it wanted a bunch of attention this month.
I had the 6 series in my Amazon cart but didn't pull the trigger because Amazon charges $50 more for some stupid voice remote and the Best Buy version is exactly the same except for the basic remote. And now it's sold out on Amazon anyway.

Both the 5 and 6 series just became available on BB, but only for home delivery next week and I would much prefer to drive to a store and pick it up myself so I'm going to gamble on that happening sooner than the delivery would get here. Probably a dumb idea, but I really want to see God of War on a new TV before I finish it.

Edit: Apparently there's no way to connect to the TV dept of a local Best Buy to ask them about when they might be stocking it so I said fuck it and just ordered a 6-series online. Won't have it until next Thurs but I guess GoW will keep.
 
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Vorph

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If you pull the trigger on one of those I'd love to hear how it turns out. I'm pretty much in the same boat as it's primary use would be for my PS4 and would be replacing a 10 year old 720p Sony. Unfortunately I'll have to wait a few months as my car decided it wanted a bunch of attention this month.
Best Buy dropped it off yesterday. Saw some horror stories over on avsforum, but I lucked out and have zero dead pixels, no banding, and very minor DSE. Some people have gotten shattered panels too, so I would advise that anyone buying one go get it from a local Best Buy or BB warehouse for easy returns. You do lose the voice search remote (which costs $50 extra on the 55") at BB though, but if you really want voice search you can just use a cell phone or tablet as your TV remote via the Roku app--which you need anyway to adjust a couple settings like gamma and noise reduction that aren't in the actual TV settings for some reason.

I set it up the same as their reviewer did and have to agree with his assessment that even without calibration or fine tuning with a setup disc the picture is fantastic and at $600 for the 55" or $1000 for the 65" you're looking at spending around twice the price for any other comparable TV. My only complaint is that the Roku UI looks like it's upscaled from 720p (or worse), and you have to use the built in Netflix and Amazon Prime channels in order to watch stuff with Dolby Vision. DV is on a chip, so PS4, Xbone, etc. will never support it. So far I've watched a few episodes of Lost in Space in 4K/DV and played God of War and couldn't be happier with how it looks.

Edit: Also worth mentioning is that it has basically the lowest response time you can get on a TV. 14-16ms for SDR and 16-18ms for HDR. Last year's P6 was slightly faster, but this is still more or less undetectable.
 
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Oldbased

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So I have the option of getting this - LG 43UJ6300: 43 Inch Class 4K UHD HDR Smart LED TV | LG USA
When I currently have this( with dead pixels starting to happen since it is 3 years old) -
LG 42LN5300: 42 Class (41.9 Diagonal) 1080p LED TV | LG USA

All this without changing the payment amount on one of my credit cards.
I keep the TV on and am home 20 hours or so a day so I spend quite a bit of time around TVs.
Should I pull this trigger?
I thought about going larger but since I have 2 viewing distances, one is 2.5 feet away when at the PC and the other 14 feet away when in bed, I am thinking 43" is fine.
 

Vorph

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14' to a 43" seems super far.

I'm pretty sure the new TCL 5-series would beat that 2017 LG hands down too. The only major difference between the TCL 5 and 6 is local dimming, which the LG doesn't have either. Same price too for the 43". That said, the LG is an IPS panel so if viewing angle is a concern at all (and gaming is not) you may be better off with the LG.
 

Denamian

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Best Buy dropped it off yesterday. Saw some horror stories over on avsforum, but I lucked out and have zero dead pixels, no banding, and very minor DSE. Some people have gotten shattered panels too, so I would advise that anyone buying one go get it from a local Best Buy or BB warehouse for easy returns. You do lose the voice search remote (which costs $50 extra on the 55") at BB though, but if you really want voice search you can just use a cell phone or tablet as your TV remote via the Roku app--which you need anyway to adjust a couple settings like gamma and noise reduction that aren't in the actual TV settings for some reason.

I set it up the same as their reviewer did and have to agree with his assessment that even without calibration or fine tuning with a setup disc the picture is fantastic and at $600 for the 55" or $1000 for the 65" you're looking at spending around twice the price for any other comparable TV. My only complaint is that the Roku UI looks like it's upscaled from 720p (or worse), and you have to use the built in Netflix and Amazon Prime channels in order to watch stuff with Dolby Vision. DV is on a chip, so PS4, Xbone, etc. will never support it. So far I've watched a few episodes of Lost in Space in 4K/DV and played God of War and couldn't be happier with how it looks.

Edit: Also worth mentioning is that it has basically the lowest response time you can get on a TV. 14-16ms for SDR and 16-18ms for HDR. Last year's P6 was slightly faster, but this is still more or less undetectable.

They're all sold out locally, so I'm tempted to just order one off Amazon and hope for the best, but I think I'll wait a bit for the local Best Buy to get them in stock. Will definitely make sure to check with them what their policy on dead pixels is.
 

Vorph

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Vorph Vorph You got the 55" one right? How far apart are the feet on it? I may have to get a new tv stand.
48", pretty much the exact same width as the TV itself. You can invert the legs inward on the 65" and still have it be stable but I saw some people on avsforum saying they weren't able to attach them that way on the 55", at least not without taking a Dremel to the legs to grind down whatever blocks it. I haven't messed with them much since the legs are only on temporarily until I can get the VESA mounts attached and hang it from my stand. It damn near didn't fit on the dresser it's sitting on now though.
 
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OU Ariakas

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Best Buy dropped it off yesterday. Saw some horror stories over on avsforum, but I lucked out and have zero dead pixels, no banding, and very minor DSE. Some people have gotten shattered panels too, so I would advise that anyone buying one go get it from a local Best Buy or BB warehouse for easy returns. You do lose the voice search remote (which costs $50 extra on the 55") at BB though, but if you really want voice search you can just use a cell phone or tablet as your TV remote via the Roku app--which you need anyway to adjust a couple settings like gamma and noise reduction that aren't in the actual TV settings for some reason.

I set it up the same as their reviewer did and have to agree with his assessment that even without calibration or fine tuning with a setup disc the picture is fantastic and at $600 for the 55" or $1000 for the 65" you're looking at spending around twice the price for any other comparable TV. My only complaint is that the Roku UI looks like it's upscaled from 720p (or worse), and you have to use the built in Netflix and Amazon Prime channels in order to watch stuff with Dolby Vision. DV is on a chip, so PS4, Xbone, etc. will never support it. So far I've watched a few episodes of Lost in Space in 4K/DV and played God of War and couldn't be happier with how it looks.

Edit: Also worth mentioning is that it has basically the lowest response time you can get on a TV. 14-16ms for SDR and 16-18ms for HDR. Last year's P6 was slightly faster, but this is still more or less undetectable.

The only reason I haven't pulled the trigger on the new TCL 65' yet is that last time I ordered the 55' 5-Series from Amazon the first one came out DOA and the replacement had a huge crack down the screen. It's made me really gun shy about ordering online but I doubt the 65' in box will fit in my SUV.

It doesn't help that the 55' Vizio M that I've had for 7 years still has a fantastic picture and refresh rate that is really hard to beat by even their newer models.
 

Denamian

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48", pretty much the exact same width as the TV itself. You can invert the legs inward on the 65" and still have it be stable but I saw some people on avsforum saying they weren't able to attach them that way on the 55", at least not without taking a Dremel to the legs to grind down whatever blocks it. I haven't messed with them much since the legs are only on temporarily until I can get the VESA mounts attached and hang it from my stand. It damn near didn't fit on the dresser it's sitting on now though.

Shit. I'm going to need a new TV stand, as it's only 32" wide. May look in to getting one with a vesa mount.
 

Brodhi

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Just picked up a LG OLED B7 from beachcamera for 1200 a week or so ago (deal might still be going on). First time I've seen an OLED in person, man this tech is good...fantastic TV so far. Got a really good deal on the LG sk9y soundbar, picked that up as well...the internal TV sound wasn't that bad, certainly not as bad as some reports made it sound, but the soundbar does seem nice. I wouldn't ever pay the retail asking price for it though.
 

Denamian

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Goddamn impulse control failed and I ordered the 55" TCL 6 series from Amazon. I justified this to myself by buying what amounts to replacement feet for the TV that attach to the VESA mount for $17, allowing me to use my current TV stand.
 

Oldbased

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14' to a 43" seems super far.

I'm pretty sure the new TCL 5-series would beat that 2017 LG hands down too. The only major difference between the TCL 5 and 6 is local dimming, which the LG doesn't have either. Same price too for the 43". That said, the LG is an IPS panel so if viewing angle is a concern at all (and gaming is not) you may be better off with the LG.
I ended up pulling the trigger on it. It is a store credit thing so my choices were limited. The room is 14' long and TV is one end bed on other so it is more like 12.5 from eyes to TV but the problem going bigger is most of the time I am just 3 feet away from it as the TV is mounted above the monitors. Any bigger that close and I think my neck would kill me. Oh well. Here is to hoping it is noticeably better than my basic 2015 1080 LG model with no smart features/software. Also no gaming on the TV. Got 2 24 and a 26 inch monitor under the TV I use for the PC/Gaming stuff.
 

gak

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p.jpg

The old dying plasma got another line, this time vertical, so I didn't wait to see if Sony refreshes their Z9D flagship for 2018 and just pulled the trigger on the Samsung 2018 Q9FN since we finally got a few up here in canuckistan:
65" Class Q9F 4K Smart QLED TV (2018) TVs - QN65Q9FNAFXZA | Samsung US

As I said the wife falls asleep in front of the TV often, so I'm done with burn-in and will make do with LED instead of OLED.
If it was for a man cave I would've loved to try OLED.

Immediately I could tell the upscaled 1080p cable signal isn't as good as the old native 1080p plasma, but tested a few of our downloaded high bitrate shows and movies as well as blu-rays and was very impressed, so I won't miss the plasma thank god.

The blacks are good, didn't see any crushing once I copied the settings recommended on some reviews, and man they don't fuck around with the brightness, even with the backlight set low I was squinting at some explosions and almost screamed allahu-akbar.
g.jpg

s.jpg
 

Oldbased

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I legit thought something was wrong with the TV when I hooked it up yesterday because of the weird motion effect. I got to thinking about it and I guess I haven't really seen 4k in person yet and it was just my eyes freaking out and adjusting to it. It took me an hour to get the sound decent due to the 1000 options of various features on the TV speaker.

It's amazing how many shows 4k almost ruins. I am hoping that passes. I just watched Black Sails, a series I enjoyed a few times through and the amount of detail being upscaled is enough to make you realize it is a set whereas before you could almost believe it.
 

Malakriss

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I legit thought something was wrong with the TV when I hooked it up yesterday because of the weird motion effect.
Have you never had to disable Auto Motion Plus before? I thought that was like Step 1 of every TV for the past decade <Turn this shit off immediately>. Pretty sure the high frame rate Hobbit theater version would have looked 10x better if they didn't use that crap either.
 

Oldbased

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Have you never had to disable Auto Motion Plus before? I thought that was like Step 1 of every TV for the past decade <Turn this shit off immediately>. Pretty sure the high frame rate Hobbit theater version would have looked 10x better if they didn't use that crap either.
No. All the rest of our TVs are standard 1080s. We have a 39" Spectre ( which has a decent picture although 3 years old now ) and a 32" 1080 smart Vizio. This 43 in 4k smart LG replaced a 2015 1080 LG. Our Tv's are small because we mostly watch in bedrooms/by the computers. The smallest one is in the living room which plays music only 99.9999% of the year. I can't speak about exact features of the other 2 but I don't recall much in the way of motion options on them.

I see an option for eye motion and Trumotion but those are off.

Found a site for my TV and applied these settings. Will see if it helps.
LG UJ6300 LED TV Calibration Settings

I think you are confused or rather mislead by what I mean on motion. I guess the better way to describe it is that things are so clear that you can almost sense the acting. Most things seem artificial to me where before small details faded enough to make you think you were watching people on a ship in a rough sea instead of standing on a wooden deck saying lines. That picnic table seemed before like it had been there for 10 years instead of made 3 days ago and roughed up a bit and so forth and when the camera moves you can tell it is a camera panning instead of the scene blending. It's hard to describe what I mean but my eyes are starting to notice it less already.
 
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Utnayan

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What you describe still sounds like TruMotion/Eye Motion settings (Even though you say those are off, you may want to check input by input to be sure)

Mostly this happened as a result of more and more sets shipping 60 hz native. Back with other 1080p we saw a lot of 120hz native with 240hz "Tru-Motion" which gives the soap opera effect you are describing. I haven't noticed anything you describe on my OLED. Only thing I wish I could change is Watching Hockey on this thing sucks :(