Help me choose on TV

[El Cid 214]

What did you notice when you upgraded your TV?

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ArgosProductComparison?tx=true&returnToURL=%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FBrowse%3FstoreId%3D10151%26langId%3D110%26catalogId%3D25051%26ID72%3D33017148%26c_1%3D1%7Ccategory_root%7CTechnology%7C33006169%26c_2%3D2%7C33006169%7CTelevisions%2Band%2Baccessories%7C33008651%26c_3%3D3%7Ccat_33008651%7CTelevisions%7C33017148%26r_1%3D1%7CTelevisions-Internet%2Bconnection%7CBuilt-in%2BWiFi%7C1&langId=110&catalogId=25051&DM_PersistentCookieCreated=true&categoryId=109052&catentryIds=1494847&catentryIds=1461523&catentryIds=1507352&storeId=10151&ratingPresent=true

 

I am looking for a new TV to get a internet TV, maybe I will like it.

They are all very similar except for a few things. Same 6 watts sound, one has NICAM stereo, some have no scart soctets for the old equipment.

I did notice 2 were 50Hz and one was 200Hz, the 200Hz TV using almost twice as much power @60 watts compared to 31/35 watts.

The 200Hz also has a Quad core processor, the Hisense; maybe that is the best buy?

[samssong 10]

Tesco smart TV 42inch got all the same goodies as sets costing six times as much and more than some . £210

[fredsredhat 10]

You can pick up a good 32" for a lot less than £50 second hand.....

[alembic 10]

We bought our 42 inch Panasonic plasma TV in 2011. It cost £500

 

The pciture was superb, the sound was great. It weighed 20 kg and was built like a tank. A few weeks ago and after many years of service the plasma screen panel started to fail.

 

We bought an LG 43" Smart LED (LCD edge lit TV) for £299

 

The picture and sound are no where near as good as the Panasonic plasma TV. It's really flimsy and cheap feeling.

 

The viewing angle as quite narrow.

 

There is quite a lot of motion blur on fast moving pictures.

 

I would have bought another plasma, but they're not made anymore.

 

The OLED tv's look better, but cost quite a bit more.

 

My brother has a 43" Sony Bravia Smart TV. The Sony is better than the LG but not as good as the benchmark plasma. The Sony cost £499.

 

I think the Sony and Panasonic are the best LED (edge lit LCD panel) TVs at the moment.

 

If you wan the best picture and need a wide viewing angle the OLED TVs are about as near to the plasma as you're going to get.

[L00b 441]

Out of these 3, I'd go Hisense.

 

Hitachi at the low to medium end of the market are rebadged Turkish-made Vestel TVs. And I say this as the new owner of an (eBay-bought) Hitachi 50" smart TV. As suggested by fredsredhat, I bought it off eBay recently, 2nd hand, £130-odd collected, to put us on for a few months while we save for a higher end OLED or QLED set. Nowt wrong with that Hitachi that I can see, other than the very sub-par picture compared to our old LG set (full LED model, see my ad today in the classifieds) and to current medium to high end sets. But well, it's a "spare wheel" and, at £130, it's actually a steal.

 

I'd expect Bush to be bottom of the ladder in the price/performance/features/durability stakes. Or they might be same Turkish-made Vestel TVs, with a slightly different bezel and a Bush badge instead of a Hitachi one.

 

Hisense have been making Tvs for others for a long time (I heard somewhere that they are the 3rd largest TV manufacturer globally?), but are the "new kids on the TV block" in that they have only recently started selling direct to the public. They are keenly priced for that reason (they're selling cheap to build up market share at the expense of the more established competitors like Samsung, LG, Sony, Philips, Sharp, <etc.>) and are consistently getting good reviews, so if it was my money, I'd go Hisense.

 

But only after going to an Argos or Currys or <...> and looking at all 3 sets in action.

 

Speaking generally now:

 

6watt sound is going to sound very low/tinny (20watt is nowt to shout about, and more is better), so I suggest you consider a sound bar or at least connecting the TV to some external audio equipment.

 

The 200Hz thing is to help reduce motion blur on medium- to fast-moving parts of the image onscreen: this is the speed at which the image is refreshed onscreen (or processed in the background), and the faster the refresh rate, the clearer and artefact-free the picture (you mileage may vary, the efficiency is manufacturer- and tech-dependent).

 

A quad-core CPU is better if you want to use smart (mostly internet-connecting-) features of your TV. Modern TVs are basically computers with a built-in screen (...or the reverse ), so the more you ask you TV to 'do' (connect to Youtube, suck and decode an HD video, record Freeview or Freeview HD source at the same time <...>), the more multi-cores is beneficial.

Edited August 14, 2017 by L00b

[apelike 10]

Personally I would not get a smart TV but a normal one and use it with an Android TV box. Smart TV's can be limited and don't have a good lifespan before they are outdated by new CPU's and memory.

 

With a TV box you can get an 8 core CPU with a decent GPU which is more superior to a Smart TV. You can use a full-on browser of your choice such as Chrome/Firefox, are able to install most Android apps and not just the ones chosen by the TV make, and not limited in playback codecs either. A decent TV box will set you back £40-60 and is much more versatile than a Smart TV. My TV box also outputs up to 7:1 surround sound in various formats and is great with an AV amp and decent speakers.

Edited August 14, 2017 by apelike

[El Cid 214]

Personally I would not get a smart TV but a normal one and use it with an Android TV box. Smart TV's can be limited and don't have a good lifespan before they are outdated by new CPU's and memory.

 

 

That is a very good suggestion, as I don't like wasting my old TV. I guess its ok, if not very trendy.

 

---------- Post added 14-08-2017 at 17:20 ----------

 

How do they work, a lot of them seem to be tied into Sky or something.

[apelike 10]

That is a very good suggestion, as I don't like wasting my old TV. I guess its ok, if not very trendy.

 

---------- Post added 14-08-2017 at 17:20 ----------

 

How do they work, a lot of them seem to be tied into Sky or something.

 

I think the ones you are talking about are the now TV boxes that also can have sky subscription to some sky channels.

 

I'm suggesting something like this which is actually the one I have:

 

http://www.tronsmart.com/products/tronsmart-mxiii-plus-2g/8g-quad-core-android-tv-box

 

Basically its an Android tablet but in a TV box format that uses the TV screen instead of a tablet screen. Plenty of apps for playing video and music available and you could also install Kodi on it for that as well. You will need the TV to have an HDMI port though.

[Cyclone 10]

I'd suggest going into John Lewis and having a look, more expensive TVs give you much better quality images, and I'd ignore the speakers and add a surround sound system, even a 2nd hand one will be incomparably better than built in speakers.

[geared 303]

Speakers in most TV's are rubbish, don't bother looking at which one might be best.

 

Hisense make pretty good value stuff, their HDR TV's are very reasonable.

I prefer Samsung smart sets, the user interface is abit easier to use.

[1295galaxy 20]

Go onto techradar website and they always give good reviews on any tv released and help you choose the right on for you,Soundbars are superb for any tv

[Love2print 10]

As TVs have got smaller so have the speakers. Bought a soundbar with the last TV. Would recommend it. I like to play music it through it too. I play a lot through YouTube via my phone but also I play music from my NAS drive through the TV itself.

 

I like having a Smart TV, it plays some videos better than our Kodi box and also plays at least one video fornat that the Kodi box won't.