Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Jimmydeicide »

Yes mine is the same but white. off when its on , on when its off.
Just an over sized standby light i guess.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Pete1210 »

Bestbuy has the TCL 65 on sale this week for 800. So I bought one :D

Did the TV shuffle today.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by J_Cauthen »

Pete1210 wrote:Bestbuy has the TCL 65 on sale this week for 800. So I bought one :D

Did the TV shuffle today.
Tremendous deal on that set Pete! I bought one three weeks ago when it was on sale for $900, and once I got the replacement set to replace the original one that was delivered with a cracked screen, it has surpassed all expectations! We were watching the NFL playoff games yesterday afternoon on it and my wife commented on how good the picture looked. She's even commented about how much better her favorite game - Bejeweled 3 - as pedestrian as it is graphically looks on this set.

I can't get over the fact that a 65" set can deliver an image of that quality, with only a 17ms input lag in game mode, for that price 8O I think it might be an even better gaming monitor than it is an HDTV, streaming media display!

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by DChaps »

I have had the TCL 65R617 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2018 Model) for almost a year now and still love it. However, recently I am noticing some weird lighting issues, maybe HDR, on some games particularly Forza Motorsport 7. For the most part I have left my settings for the TV by default and have not messed much with any of the custom settings you can do, particularly for gaming. There a loads of threads in different AV forums on the best settings for TCL, but I trust you all first and I think a few of you have the same model or similar. Would any of you mind sharing your settings, particularly for Xbox One X. Thanks!

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Rodster »

DChaps wrote:I have had the TCL 65R617 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2018 Model) for almost a year now and still love it. However, recently I am noticing some weird lighting issues, maybe HDR, on some games particularly Forza Motorsport 7. For the most part I have left my settings for the TV by default and have not messed much with any of the custom settings you can do, particularly for gaming. There a loads of threads in different AV forums on the best settings for TCL, but I trust you all first and I think a few of you have the same model or similar. Would any of you mind sharing your settings, particularly for Xbox One X. Thanks!
I was reading some of the Amazon TCL reviews and there were several complaints about HDR 10 I don't know if that's where you were having your problem. Best Buy recently had the 2018 model TCL 43s515 on sale for $199 so I was checking out the reviews.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Zeppo »

Does anyone have a Sony X900F model TV? It’s a 2018 model, and I’m pretty sure that’s the one I’m going to get as we get settled here in Munich (the European name of it is the XF9005). It gets a very good review over at rtings.com, at one point they considered it the best “midrange” 4K TV to get and they still may. As the new 2019 models are coming in the prices are not so bad for the 2018 units. I’m curious to hear about pros and cons from anyone here who has one.

I’ve been a plasma guy since the start of HD, but I’m feeling like HDR should be making LEDs more acceptable to my “deep blacks” obsessed eyes when watching movies. I’ve never really watched a 4K HDR TV in a proper setting, so I’m not sure what to expect. The only real drawback rtings.com mentions is the poor off-angle image quality, but that’s universal and unavoidable for these types of LED panels.

I’m too afraid of burn in problems with OLED, and the cost difference is not negligible, either.

Just wondering if anyone has any feedback. Thanks fellas!

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by J_Cauthen »

DChaps wrote:I have had the TCL 65R617 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2018 Model) for almost a year now and still love it. However, recently I am noticing some weird lighting issues, maybe HDR, on some games particularly Forza Motorsport 7. For the most part I have left my settings for the TV by default and have not messed much with any of the custom settings you can do, particularly for gaming. There a loads of threads in different AV forums on the best settings for TCL, but I trust you all first and I think a few of you have the same model or similar. Would any of you mind sharing your settings, particularly for Xbox One X. Thanks!
I missed seeing this post last week Don, sorry. Anyway, I have the TCL 65R617 in my living room and I haven't noticed any issues with it (or the 55" version of the same set in my rec room, for that matter). I've had it for six months now, and I've had the 55" version for a year. Here's how I have the picture settings for each:

Rec Room (55") / Living Room (65")

Backlight: 62 / 64
Brightness: 48 / 49
Contrast: 82 / 83
Sharpness: 18 / 20
Color 48 / 51
Tint 0 / -1

I also have both sets in "Game" mode, naturally and I turn all motion enhancement off.

I have the XBox One X set to 4K HDR, most of the time, but occasionally experiment with 1080p output to see how it affects frame rate in a few games. Any other settings you have a question about in particular? I can't recall all of the options on the XBox One X currently, I'll have to boot it up and see, but it'll be no trouble if you have any other questions.

Oh, do you have your TCL set up for automatic firmeware updates? I do and I know on one of them, it missed the update and I had to do it manually. That has helped a few minor issues for me.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

Fellas:

Need some advice from the AV gurus here. Just bought my first 4K TV -- 2019 Vizio M Series Quantum M558-G1. 55-inch.

The picture is gorgeous at 4K and with native 1080p content. But I have two quibbles, one I can work around and one for which I need your advice. The quibble I can work around is the Smartcast software -- it's terrible. But I can stream through the built-in Chromecast for all sources or use my OG Xbox One for YouTube TV and non-4K sources.

Still, I'm not wild about the upscaling with this TV. 720p and 1080p sources through YouTube TV don't look that much clearer or sharper than my 2009 Panasonic Plasma that I just sold, other than much richer colors. I know plasma always handles motion better than LED -- that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make, and the motion isn't that bad on the Vizio. But I want the graphics and picture to POP, and this just looks a little soft when upscaled.

My budget remains $600 or less, so I know I get what I pay for. So, please don't recommend that I buy a $1,000 or $1,200 Sony or Samsung or to fulfill the post-college tuitions dream of an OLED set. That day will come, but it's not now.

Should I consider another set-top box/stick for better upscaling, such as a Roku Premiere, Ultra or Streaming Stick+ or an Apple TV?

I have about a week left in my Best Buy return window, so I'm going to take a peek at the Hisense H9F and get control of one at Best Buy so I can stream from my phone to it to check upscaling from 720p (ESPN's resolution) and 1080p. The comparison photos at Rtings.com show considerably better upscaling at 720p and 1080p on the Hisense than my Vizio.

But I'm leery of Hisense's quality control and reports of bad screen uniformity amid the otherwise glowing reviews. I'm also not interested in the TCL 2018 6 Series, as that set has not impressed me any time I've seen it. Looks washed out, with considerably grayer blacks than my new Vizio M Series Quantum. Plus I don't want to play the TCL panel lottery, even with the new 625 sets.

Appreciate any and all advice. Native 1080p and 4K content looks fantastic on this Vizio. Would just like to get streamed and upscaled 720p and 1080p content from YouTube TV looking as good as possible, whether through a different set-top box/stick or switching to the Hisense.

Thanks!
Last edited by pk500 on Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by wco81 »

Could be that the TV better exposes a lousy signal from cable TV.

Or low bitrate streams.

You may read AVS. WOuldn't doubt it if there are owner threads for that model.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

wco81 wrote:Could be that the TV better exposes a lousy signal from cable TV.

Or low bitrate streams.

You may read AVS. WOuldn't doubt it if there are owner threads for that model.
Sorry, I should have been more specific: I use YouTube TV for television. No compressed cable signal. I think the bitrate of my stream is solid, considering I have 100 MB download speed for Internet through a Google Wifi mesh system.

Have checked AVS and will continue.

Thanks for the advice. Keep it coming, DSP A/V experts! :)
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by J_Cauthen »

pk500 wrote:Fellas:

Need some advice from the AV gurus here. Just bought my first 4K TV -- 2019 Vizio M Series Quantum M558-G1. 55-inch.

The picture is gorgeous at 4K and with native 1080p content. But I have two quibbles, one I can work around and one for which I need your advice. The quibble I can work around is the Smartcast software -- it's terrible. But I can stream through the built-in Chromecast for all sources or use my OG Xbox One for YouTube TV and non-4K sources.

Still, I'm not wild about the upscaling with this TV. 720p and 1080p sources through YouTube TV don't look that much clearer or sharper than my 2009 Panasonic Plasma that I just sold, other than much richer colors. I know plasma always handles motion better than LED -- that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make, and the motion isn't that bad on the Vizio. But I want the graphics and picture to POP, and this just looks a little soft when upscaled.

My budget remains $600 or less, so I know I get what I pay for. So, please don't recommend that I buy a $1,000 or $1,200 Sony or Samsung or to fulfill the post-college tuitions dream of an OLED set. That day will come, but it's not now.

Should I consider another set-top box/stick for better upscaling, such as a Roku Premiere, Ultra or Streaming Stick+ or an Apple TV?

I have about a week left in my Best Buy return window, so I'm going to take a peek at the Hisense H9F and get control of one at Best Buy so I can stream from my phone to it to check upscaling from 720p (ESPN's resolution) and 1080p. The comparison photos at Rtings.com show considerably better upscaling at 720p and 1080p on the Hisense than my Vizio.

But I'm leery of Hisense's quality control and reports of bad screen uniformity amid the otherwise glowing reviews. I'm also not interested in the TCL 2018 6 Series, as that set has not impressed me any time I've seen it. Looks washed out, with considerably grayer blacks than my new Vizio M Series Quantum. Plus I don't want to play the TCL panel lottery, even with the new 625 sets.

Appreciate any and all advice. Native 1080p and 4K content looks fantastic on this Vizio. Would just like to get streamed and upscaled 720p and 1080p content from YouTube TV looking as good as possible, whether through a different set-top box/stick or switching to the Hisense.

Thanks!
I've been happy with my TCL Series 6 55 and 65" sets. I did compare them to the Vizio P series and gave the nod to the Vizio P for image quality, but I didn't see what was at the time I bought my first TCL, a 55" 617, a $400 improvement in the Vizio over the TCL. I wasn't even aware there was a 625 from them until I saw this post.

I've gotten good service out of both of my sets, but I must admit that for gaming, I have to be no greater than 10 degrees of axis or I do see unacceptable washout. I can see your point on the grayish blacks on the TCL, in comparison. You might find this rundown of the top 10 affordable 65" 4K HDTVs at the Audio Video Sciences website helpful:

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/301-avs- ... st58604690

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

Thanks, John. Deep blacks are VERY important to me, coming from a plasma.

My biggest wish in this journey over the last few weeks is that a major manufacturer said: "F*ck the industry trends. We're making plasmas again, baby!"

No type of TV delivered deep blacks, great motion, solid upscaling and rich color like plasmas, even at lower price points. I would take a 4K plasma over almost any other TV at the same price point eight days a week.

That said, my son and I watched a ton of 4K videos from YouTube tonight on my Vizio, and the picture is stunning. So I know the panel is solid. I just need to find a way to upscale better since Vizio's SmartCast is garbage.

Keep the helpful, good info. coming, boys! Thanks.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by wco81 »

Plasmas couldn't' be made for 4k and higher resolution and still comply with Energy Saver and other power-efficiency standards.

People want like 4000 nits from a 80 inch or greater TV but it would consume something like 1100 watts.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Danimal »

PK,

I have no experience with Vizio but I have 3 Samsung 4k TV's in my house that I love and 1 TCL which I picked up for my board gaming room. Let me stress I love, love, love my Samsungs but when the next major purchase comes (ie one goes down) I'm going TCL that set and what comes with it is second to none in my opinion and the cost is always lower then the bigger brands. I would suggest checking one of those out.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

Thanks, Dan. I've seen the TCL's in the store, and I'm not that impressed. The blacks are underwhelming and motion handling is so-so, coming from a plasma. But I also understand a store display is perhaps the worst place to analyze pictures.

The other thing that scares me about TCL are the rampant reports of the panel lottery. Sounds like you and John got a good one. That's cool. But I'm leery of a merry-go-round of trips to Best Buy to return and get new sets until I get a good screen. Paranoid? Probably.

I'll definitely give TCL a second look. Thanks.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by dbdynsty25 »

PK,

If you've got a lot of Apple products in the house, it makes sense to go AppleTV...let the box do the up-scaling before sending it to your tv. It's got the horsepower to do it...whereas the processor inside the tv doesn't. If you're an android shop, get an NVIDIA Shield TV. Both run you about 180 bucks but will give you significantly better performance. Not to mention the hacking possibilities. haha So yeah, it's a significant investment on top of your tv purchase, but it may be worth it if your content isn't cutting it currently.

One thing to note is if you get NVIDIA Shield TV, it doesn't do Dolby 5.1 through Sonos Beam/Playbars for Netflix...one thing I've found to be a significant disadvantage. So had to end up w/ a FireTV 4K stick which does sound properly to Sonos systems. But I doubt you've broken open the wallet that far for a Sonos surround system, but thought I'd mention it for others too. ;)

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

Thanks, DB. Appreciated.

Yeah, no Sonos here. But does Apple TV upscale THAT much better than a Roku Ultra or Streaming Stick +? Shelling out $180 for a streaming device drives an ice pick into my nuts, but I could grin and accept that pain if it really makes that much of a difference.

Thanks.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by J_Cauthen »

pk500 wrote:The other thing that scares me about TCL are the rampant reports of the panel lottery. Sounds like you and John got a good one. That's cool. But I'm leery of a merry-go-round of trips to Best Buy to return and get new sets until I get a good screen. Paranoid? Probably.

I'll definitely give TCL a second look. Thanks.
I fared well with my first TCL Series 6 set, the 55" model. Six months later, I bought at 65" Series 6 set from Best Buy (I had to order it), and its screen was pretty badly damaged/warped & cracked at the bottom and produced a kaleidoscopic image. I had a replacement delivered within 3 days and it was flawless. I've had no issues with either set since and I can't detect any loss of vibrancy or image quality.

I've been binge watching Designated Survivor on Netflix this week, and now I find myself looking for examples of where the 'blacks could be less grayish'... I'm seeing them now that you've pointed them out, so thanks :P No, seriously I'm very happy with both sets and I haven't really brought up the property of a TCL Series 6 that really tipped the scales its way over the Vizio I was comparing it to... input lag. The Series 6 has a 17.5 ms input lag in Game mode, which makes a huge difference in the feel of some of my favorite games.

I'm curious, have you been able to do a side by side comparison of the Vizio P and M series? I looked at the P, and was impressed, but for some reason never gave the M series a chance, thinking its number of local dimming zones was too small, at least compared to the Series 6. I got too fixated with specs during that phase and didn't rely on the eye test as much as I should.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

John:

The P Series is more than I want to spend. If I was spending that much, I'd probably just get a Sony for its widely acknowledged industry-leading upscaling.

Input lag is better on the TCL than the Vizio, but it's acceptable enough to me on the Vizio when set to Game mode. Doesn't affect my play, as my 54-year-old reflexes f*ck me over far more than input lag. :)

Thanks.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by wco81 »

pk500 wrote:Thanks, DB. Appreciated.

Yeah, no Sonos here. But does Apple TV upscale THAT much better than a Roku Ultra or Streaming Stick +? Shelling out $180 for a streaming device drives an ice pick into my nuts, but I could grin and accept that pain if it really makes that much of a difference.

Thanks.

Apple TV has a more powerful processor but it doesn't support the codecs that Google uses for Youtube so no 4K Youtube.

I don't know about Youtube TV but that's only 1080p? Maybe that will change some day.


If you do decide to look at the Apple TV or the Shield, be aware that there are rumors of both being upgraded this fall. Nvidia may use the updated processor that the Switch just got. I believe the current one doesn't support Dolby Vision.

Neither do Samsung TVs.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

Thanks, WCO. Appreciate the advice.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

I bought an Amazon Fire Stick 4K and Apple TV. Both upscale better than the Vizio onboard software, but oddly enough, the $170 Apple TV upscales 720p and 1080p content no better than the $50 Fire Stick 4K. Not at least to my eyes and extensive testing on my new Vizio M558-G1 set. Plus I HATED the Apple TV remote. That touchpad is way too finicky, and I'm usually comfortable with all sorts of tech and touchpads.

Maybe I'll try a Roku Streaming Stick + for comparison to the Fire Stick 4K. But right now, Bezos and Co. are giving me the best performance at the best price.

Thanks again to everyone for their advice.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by wco81 »

How do the streaming apps. compare? How responsive if you skip ahead or back or FF?

You may want to return the Apple TV and wait to see if they announce new models at end of month. If nothing else, current one may have price lowered.

Also you can use the Remote app. To control Apple TV from iPhone instead.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

wco81 wrote:How do the streaming apps. compare? How responsive if you skip ahead or back or FF?

You may want to return the Apple TV and wait to see if they announce new models at end of month. If nothing else, current one may have price lowered.

Also you can use the Remote app. To control Apple TV from iPhone instead.
Already returned the Apple TV last night. Probably returning my Fire Stick 4K to Best Buy, too, because Amazon just dropped the price to $24.99 for Prime members. I'll just order another one from Amazon and save $25. BB won't match because it's a deal for Prime members only. Trust me: I checked at the customer service desk at my local BB. :)

Apps load more quickly on ATV compared to the Fire Stick. But once loaded, the performance gap narrows considerably. The ATV remote is too slippery, too responsive. It's far too easy to race past stuff when FF or REW, and even in the menus, although I find I'm using voice commands more than ever with Alexa with this new TV and the Fire Stick and my Google Mini with YouTube TV and Chromecast on my old upstairs dumb TV. It's also far easier to set up control of my sound bar with the Fire Stick remote than the ATV remote, even with CEC turned off.

I'll take a peek at the rumored new ATV when it's released. But there's no way in hell that the rumored ATV stick will be as inexpensive as the Fire Stick 4K. ATV already has a more powerful processor than the Fire Stick 4K yet it doesn't upscale any better, so I find it hard to believe that even a $90 (guesstimate) ATV stick will upscale so much better than the Fire Stick 4K to justify the extra cost.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Danimal »

dumb question but what does a firestick allow me to do that built in apps on the Samsung don't?
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