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Possibly changing our getting-on-for 10 year Sony Bravia 32" TV.
The sound quality is going and it does look apologetically small by today's standards.
Not really sure what features to be looking for TBH. A mate has just bought one of these - done all the ground work researching it and is well happy with it.
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/televisions/televisions/lg-43um7000pla-43-smart-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-led-tv-10199301-pdt.html
I know it's at the budget end of the spectrum but any reason not to get this, or anything similar price range that is better? Cheers
Some of those cheap LGs are not really 4K. More like 2.8K.
Look up RGBW. https://www.techhive.com/article/3240976/some-lg-4k-lcd-tvs-deliver-only-28k-resolution.html
Will probably be fine, we've got a Panasonic one that's very nice and a £199 Sharp one that's bloody good for the money.
Unless you're some kind of audio visual diosas (no-doubt there are some on here) who can tell black from black it'll do for watching box sets and streaming films no doubt
I bought a cheap LG telly earlier this year (28" for the kitchen) and hate pretty much everything about it.
The UI is painfully slow, the worst example is When you press the guide button - the audio and video of what you were watching is cut and it shows a loading screen for 10-20 seconds before it loads the guide. Navigating the guide is slow, unintuitive and clunky, then when you select a program from the guide you have to answer several questions before it changes to the program, which it takes another 10 seconds or so to do.
I have an LG.
I like it a lot. Picture, sound, OS and built in apps all good.
The wifi board went mental in it. LG sorted it out with no dramas under warranty in under a week.
The one thing to remember is that, no matter how much money you spend on the TV in the end, the thing will become slow, out of date and unsupported in a much faster time than you would think possible.
If the manufacturers do keep maintaining the smart bit, third parties will just not see the point in maintaining the apps that run on it, so will either stop working or work less well. On my older Samsung, that meant the YouTube app just disappeared.
Adding features to the smart bit _will_ make it slower. Making the existing smart bit more secure after a disclosure _may_ make it slower. Updating it to a newer version that is shinier _could also_ make it slower. Very few things will make it feel as fast as the first time you use it.
If you expect it to last a lifetime, prepare to be shocked. I fully expect five years out of something brand new before it is no longer supported or maintained.
Choose size, set budget, go in shop, ask for demos. Buy a Samsung 🙂
Set your budget, go as big as you dare, buy from Richer Sounds. We went LG.
Our 43" 2012 Samsung Smart TV is still working just fine. I don't think the UI is particulalry slow - ok. it's not 'latest iPhone' fast, but it never was.
It still supports YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Video etc. It would be nice if it had the NowTV app (which our small 2017 Samsung telly has), but other than that zero complaints.
The highest quality source we have are HD channels from Virgin Media. Absolutely no point in going 4k and at our viewing distance, the size is ample.
Techology moves on, but as willard alludes to I wouldn't put too much faith in any TV "smarts." If that's something you're bothered about then either now or at some point down the line you'll be wanting to have a separate box to handle this. (I have a Chromecast and an Xbox which covers most bases).
Unless you’re some kind of audio visual diosas (no-doubt there are some on here) who can tell black from black it’ll do for watching box sets and streaming films no doubt
Can't say I agree with this, there is a huge and noticeable difference between budget, mid and high end "4k HDR" TVs. I'm not saying everyone needs to go out and blow £2k+ on an OLED but at the budget end you need to be very careful when selecting models. I've watched reviews of the some budget 4k TVs and the conclusion was they're almost unwatchable, equally others get decent reviews (as in perfectly watchable but with a few compromises, such as slow UI).
For the OP if your mate is happy with that model and if you can go around and watch it for a bit and are happy then I'd get that same model. Preferably view it at your mate's with the sort of content you'd usually watch (there's a fair difference in TV demands between watching a say a UHD football match and a nature documentary like Seven Worlds, One Planet), a TV might handle one of those really well but not the other. If you're planning to watch a lot of UHD football you don't want to end up with a model that's known to be crap at that.
I'd echo the stuff about the smarts going obsolete. Go for picture quality & UI, you can always add a Chromecast, Roku box or similar for more smarts if needed.
I just blew £354 on a 4k ultra hdr 40” Panasonic
saved over the £600 rrp and admittedly is the first new tv I’ve ever purchased but WOW simply WOW!
unreal !
does anyone happen to know if the TX40GX700B is decent ?
😂
just ordered an xbox one x hyperspace to do it justice
Another vote for not bothering to much with the inbuilt smarts as they will stop working long before the tv breaks,
Get the tv with the best screen the pick the smart box (fire,chrome cast,AppleTV) that best fits in with the rest of your gadget ecosystem
the thing will become slow, out of date and unsupported in a much faster time than you would think possible.
Out of interest, what some of timescale are you talking here? Asking as the owner of a four year old Samsung that relies entirely on the built-in smart controls over wifi and has been faultless in that time.
I did find some apps disappeared from my Samsung TV over the time (several years) I had it and not had anything disappear from my LG set yet in the couple of years I've owned it so I would say apps are pretty stable but still I think it's valid advice not to put a huge amount of weight on the apps available natively on any TV you buy as long as there's other options to get them (and on a budget set you might be better off using non-native apps anyhow as I'd expect their UI would run faster, might be wrong on that though).
My rules for buying a telly...
1) Go to John Lewis
2) Find all the tellies that are the right size and budget
3) Turn them all fully off.
4) Time them from power on to being properly usable. Also check how quickly they change channels, inputs and navigate the TV guide once powered on.
5) Buy whichever is the fastest.
Seems to have a lot of time spent checking things these days. Check picture quality, if good and can afford buy and get on with other stuff.
If you spend a lot of time sitting watching TV then spending money on the right stuff is likely to help, but in most cases it just has to work.
easy.
work out how big you want and how much you want to spend.
go into currys or somewhere and just look, make your choice on the picture you see by colour, sharpness etc. make a note of your favourite.
do consider how many hdmi ports you need and if its got l/r audio output if you need that.
then go home and see what it costs on amazon etc.
then look to see if john lewis do it as they offer a 5 year warranty of TVs.
ive just done the above myself an the best pic i saw for my budget was a 50" LG at 399 from JL.
Adding features to the smart bit _will_ make it slower. Making the existing smart bit more secure after a disclosure _may_ make it slower. Updating it to a newer version that is shinier _could also_ make it slower. Very few things will make it feel as fast as the first time you use it.
If you expect it to last a lifetime, prepare to be shocked. I fully expect five years out of something brand new before it is no longer supported or maintained.
This is easily dealt with by plugging in a smart stick or box, eg an Amazon fire stick, Apple TV, a Kodi box etc.
go into currys or somewhere and just look, make your choice on the picture you see by colour, sharpness
Would be a good idea if they displayed the same source on all tvs... but they use far better source on the ones they want to sell you the most ie. the most expensive.
Would be a good idea if they displayed the same source on all tvs… but they use far better source on the ones they want to sell you the most ie. the most expensive.
Rather, they tweak the display settings to make them appear better against the competition. The interim step there is to go into the menu and set everything to normal / default. (This won't give you the best picture, but it should help level the playing field.)
Also, bensales ^^ is wise.
slight hijack - any good deals on small (think teenager's bedroom sized) one that can be wall mounted?
And following on from the above - the TV man at PCWorld - Currys was pushing a smart one; we are Sky'ed up and I don't really want to have to upgrade that to get Sky in their room, so they'll have to make do for now at least with some sort of smart or smart stick (fortunately our wireless is pretty good) but the above says that Smart dies pretty quickly - in which case what do you reckon is the best / cheapest way to get a decent range of channels?
Ta!
LG Oled - like looking out the window. The recent BBC One World in UHD is incredible.
@cougar - Also, bensales ^^ is wise.
Can you tell my wife that?
@theotherjonv - slight hijack – any good deals on small (think teenager’s bedroom sized) one that can be wall mounted?
And following on from the above – the TV man at PCWorld – Currys was pushing a smart one; we are Sky’ed up and I don’t really want to have to upgrade that to get Sky in their room
Sky Go app on a pc with a wall-mounted monitor?
Another way of doing it is to wait for sales. Within the budget you have, pick the one that has the greatest discount. Then check for online reviews and what not. It might not be the best in its segment, but a £1000 tv will always be better than a £500 one.
Buy the TV with the best picture quality, don't be too concerned about audio as you can always add a soundbar / AV amp later if needed.
Smart? Again, don't be worried about this as the best way to make your TV "smart" is either giving it the complete works of Shakespear or buying a Raspberry Pi/NowTV/Amazon Fire/etc.
Bensales / Cougar
So does John Lewis pay a TV licence? I asked to experience channel menu UI speeds in Currys and they said not possible because they dont have a TV licence.
No idea, but I’ve never had a problem with the request in JL before. I suspect you experienced Curry’s ‘Customer Service’.
We were in exactly the same position last month and we went for the Samsung that came runnerup in What Hifi's 10 best TV's review published in October.
£399 in Richer Sounds plus they have a 6 year guarantee and most importantly they had it in stock. And no we didn't go for the winner because it was HUGE money!
Just get the TV with the picture you like best and then get a Firestick so you can actually watch all the OD channels and it also works fast and flawlessly, unlike pretty much all the Smart TVs I have used.
^^^ would be my advice as well. HDMI is pretty much going to stay around for the life of the TV (the hardware), so it makes a lot more sense to change the small dongle plugged in that than the whole TV. Just make sure you have enough HDMI and power sockets for the AppleTV, Roku, FireHD stick, RaspberryPi,PS5,X-Box, etc, etc
My old boss wanted a new TV, so went out and bought just an LCD panel, not a complete TV. It was cheaper and has enough inputs that he can do all the things he wants. I only went for a TV on my last one because the flat panels I saw were too big for the hole the TV had to fit in.
getting a wireless usb dongle mouse makes using a smart tv much more enjoyable experience btw
Whatever TV one chooses, it’s certain that looking on AVForums for that particular set will get you some good ideas for properly setting up the display in the menus.
It will usually take some time, but the hints given will get a much better picture than you’ll see in the shop, and can often be tweaked further for personal preferences depending on ambient room light, etc.
The very best sources for checking colours is something that’s filmed out of doors, preferably with people in regular dress, for flesh tones, sky colours and general all-round neutrality.