Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 02:33:09 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Lets talk about huge fucking TV's.

Started by mobias, December 27, 2016, 03:33:34 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

mobias

I'm just back from Curry's having a look at potentially getting myself a huge fuck off TV in the sales. It looks like there's some bargains to be had. I've currently got a 40 inch Samsung TV which I treated myself to shorty after I got my PS3 back in 2007. It was £800 back then and its done me really well but it is old, it was recently repaired and I was told the circuit board could go at any time, so I'm ready to get something more up to date and noticeably bigger. 

Currently £800, which is slightly more than I want to spend, will get you a truly epic television. Curry's currently have a 60 inch Samsung 4K HDR TV going for £760 in the sale. It has HDR1000, which is apparently the crappest of the HDR options available but you have to spend silly money to get HDR quality above that at that size of TV. I didn't look at its other features but it'll no doubt not have very fast processors in it meaning there will probably be a fair amount of lag if you were gaming in 4K. Not that I can game in 4K at the moment but I'd like the TV to last a while and certainly into the next generation of games consoles.

It seems a better bet to go for a smaller, say 50 inch, TV that has better processing power. Anyway I was quite pleased with myself that I didn't succumb to temptation and buy a new huge TV. The only reason I didn't was that I had no way of getting it home and I was worried buyers remorse would have well and truly set in by the time I'd have it delivered.

In the mean time I'm just going to sit closer to my 40 inch TV. Problem solved, in the short term. 

Shay Chaise

The only telly I would consider getting is the Samsung KS7000 or KS8000. They're supposedly the only ones worth it for 4K HDR gaming without input lag problems, and even that's not guaranteed. I think you're talking about a grand for a 55inch KS7000 on a good day, and the improvements are not even universally preferred to non-HDR, so I won't kill myself to get one within the next twelve months.

Dr Syntax Head

I love my huge TV cos it makes those true crime shows (that Mrs Syntax likes) even more visceral.

mobias

Quote from: Shay Chaise on December 27, 2016, 03:38:25 PM
The only telly I would consider getting is the Samsung KS7000 or KS8000. They're supposedly the only ones worth it for 4K HDR gaming without input lag problems, and even that's not guaranteed. I think you're talking about a grand for a 55inch KS7000 on a good day, and the improvements are not even universally preferred to non-HDR, so I won't kill myself to get one within the next twelve months.

I'm not massively bothered about HDR at the moment to be honest but I do want to get a TV that's going to do me for a good long while. Input lag does worry me but I refuse to believe that any input lag on a modern TV will be any worse than it is on my current 9 year old TV.


HappyTree

I've had a Samsung 40" for 6 years, use as main monitor. On several hours a day, every day. Still going strong. Next to it is 55" Philips with the LEDs up the sides. Got it specifically for the lights as it helps illuminate that corner without interfering with picture. Plus the lights are really very cool, spesh with games.

It's only 1 year old but I can tell it will fail before the Samsung. Picture quality is good enough, but not as good as the Sammy. 55 is a good size, great for gaming and being the second monitor for browsing, films, etc. But I think I could have gone maybe to 60, 65". It's not that big. When the Philips fails I'll replace it with a slightly bigger one.


wasp_f15ting

I've just updated from my LG47LE8900 FLAD LED TV to a LG OLED55E6V

The former being 6 years old. Purchased in October 2010 it has been and is a strong TV for normal content. It has moved down to the living room now.

But wow.. OLED really is the future. The E6 was a on a relatively good sale at Richersounds, I went in on Monday and it looked okay. The display model wasn't really doing it for me, and the guy in the shop was trying to sell me the B6, but I persisted and got the E6, mainly due to the SOC supporting HDR for games too.

I switched on Grand Tour 4K HDR, and then watched man in the high castle too on Amazon Video, both looked amazing, and the HDR does make a difference to video, especially outdoor shots. Then turned on Netflix to watch Luke Cage, and wow.. the oversaturated colours in that show really shine with this TV.
Started watching travellers on Netflix which is also done really well.

I also got a PS4 Pro to try out the HDR game effect, I get 4K gaming on the PC but wanted to see how uncharted looked in 4K(ish) and in HDR. HDR really does change the way the game looks. The increase in dynamic range fools the brain into thinking its looking at a higher resolution. Thoroughly enjoying it for now.. but looking for issues (as always).

The main headline with OLED is that Black truly really is black, and that makes a huge difference, from the colour on someones hair, to the sheen on a car, and night scenery it all just makes TV viewing a lot more pleasurable. I spent the best part of yesterday on my ass enjoying the beast. Shame I wont be able to enjoy it properly till easter now!! damn work.

hewantstolurkatad

What's a good 21-24" monitor/tv option?  Ideally under 100, ideally suitable for gaming to some extent but I'll live

mobias

Quote from: wasp_f15ting on December 28, 2016, 02:01:00 AM


But wow.. OLED really is the future.

Yeah I was looking at OLED TV's in PC World yesterday. They really are amazing but they are serious cash too, at the moment anyway. Thats what annoys me about getting a TV right now is that OLED is clearly the future and will definitely drop down in price to below the £1000 mark for a big TV in the next couple of years probably. But of course by then people will be moving on to QLED and 8K resolution for higher end TV's.

One thing that I did notice about the OLED TV's I was looking at was that although the image looked amazing it also looked almost retina burningly bright. Do you find thats a problem? Some of the standard LED TV screens I saw showing the same image on them looked not unpleasantly softer on the eye.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: mobias on December 28, 2016, 10:42:31 AM
Yeah I was looking at OLED TV's in PC World yesterday. They really are amazing but they are serious cash too, at the moment anyway. Thats what annoys me about getting a TV right now is that OLED is clearly the future and will definitely drop down in price to below the £1000 mark for a big TV in the next couple of years probably. But of course by then people will be moving on to QLED and 8K resolution for higher end TV's.

One thing that I did notice about the OLED TV's I was looking at was that although the image looked amazing it also looked almost retina burningly bright. Do you find thats a problem? Some of the standard LED TV screens I saw showing the same image on them looked not unpleasantly softer on the eye.

You'll always be playing the catch-up game with TVs.  Like cars, they're out of date the minute you unbox them.  Just update as each jump in the technology becomes affordable to you.  OLED has already tumbled in price significantly in the last year and, as you say, it won't be long before it dips below £1000 (2nd hand and ex demo sets are already there) as it becomes the standard.  Just think how much (little) you can pick up a full HD set for these days, compared to how much they cost when they first came out for the domestic market.

As for the brightness - there'll be an element of nearly all of the shops having the colour, contrast and brightness all up to the max and, as OLED is all about clarity, it will seem even more ridiculous than standard hi-def sets.  You'll be able to dial all of that down accordingly - a properly calibrated OLED screen is a thing of beauty and very easy on the eyes.

Benevolent Despot

Quote from: mobias on December 27, 2016, 06:33:47 PM
Input lag does worry me but I refuse to believe that any input lag on a modern TV will be any worse than it is on my current 9 year old TV.

Don't bet on it. It's not a typically listed specification. The LG OLED wasp just bought has double the input lag of my 2010 Samsung £300 32-inch. It wouldn't affect most games, I suspect you'd notice it only in a mouse-based game with rapid cursor movements. The LG OLED without any of its extra processing is 37ms which is about two frames at 60fps. Lay on the picture-processing and it goes >100ms, which will definitely be noticeable and I'd imagine unplayable. A friend's super-large new LG TV (not OLED) has input lag due to motion processing and other shit that made playing Halo into a constantly over-correcting nightmare. It was like playing as Master Chief in drunk-mode.

However, I too think that OLED is the future, with some wrinkles to be ironed-out. To further denigrate wasp's massively pricey new purchase (but only to educate!), the TV also seems to have LCD-levels of motion blur. I thought this was completely gone due to the instant pixel-response times of OLED. Apparently not for some technical reason I CBA to research right now.

mobias

Is it not the case though that most of these big TV's have a 'game mode' where by they turn off or reduce to an absolute minimum all image processing to reduce lag?

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: mobias on December 28, 2016, 12:08:19 PM
Is it not the case though that most of these big TV's have a 'game mode' where by they turn off or reduce to an absolute minimum all image processing to reduce lag?

They do indeed have game mode, but some work better than others.  I think Panasonic still holds the crown for that one, but in terms of general picture quality they are being bested by LG (although LG still don't seem to have completely solved their dialogue syncing issues across all their models).

Until OLED is the standard, we're in the position of having to choose which part of a TV's abilities we want and/or need the most.

mobias

Yeah LG do seem to have some nice TV's. Samsung have always been good value for money. From an aesthetic point of view I didn't think much of Panasonic's offerings, they looked rather cheap and plasticy with overly elaborate stands, important for me because I don't like wall mounted TV's. Interesting that Sony seem to be almost out of the game entirely. I think I spotted one Sony TV yesterday out of all of them and it looked like a really over priced 40 inch model.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: mobias on December 28, 2016, 12:20:53 PM
Yeah LG do seem to have some nice TV's. Samsung have always been good value for money. From an aesthetic point of view I didn't think much of Panasonic's offerings, they looked rather cheap and plasticy with overly elaborate stands, important for me because I don't like wall mounted TV's. Interesting that Sony seem to be almost out of the game entirely. I think I spotted one Sony TV yesterday out of all of them and it looked like a really over priced 40 inch model.

Don't write Sony off completely.  Whilst it's true that, of the big 4 (Panasonic, LG, Samsung, Sony), they are now at the bottom, you can still rely on a Sony TV being, at worst, adequate across the board.  That might sound a bit shit, but when you consider the big problems associated with the others - Panasonic's poor Smart offerings and ever increasing anti-piracy magic, LG's audio syncing issues and dreadful sound direct from the set, Samsung's inability to address firmware issues quickly and most models still struggling with blacks[nb]racist[/nb], etc - a TV that manages to do everything quite well all of a sudden becomes a serious contender.

It's cyclical, anyway - if someone told you two years ago that LG would be making sets with better picture than Panasonic, you'd laugh at their face and call it a cunt.  Sony will come up with something that puts them back in the game sooner or later.  They always do.

Benevolent Despot

Quote from: mobias on December 28, 2016, 12:08:19 PM
Is it not the case though that most of these big TV's have a 'game mode' where by they turn off or reduce to an absolute minimum all image processing to reduce lag?

Yeah, but check with the specific TV you are looking at. They're sometimes just cons and don't reduce input lag at all, but rather do some different image-fudging. My TV has a game mode but all it does is boost contrast and colour to garish levels - it doesn't reduce lag (but that's ok since the TV is natively low-lag).

The reviews here - http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/ - are good for detailing whichever technical attribute concerns you the most.

Dr Syntax Head

Quote from: HappyTree on December 27, 2016, 07:21:05 PM
I've had a Samsung 40" for 6 years, use as main monitor. On several hours a day, every day. Still going strong. Next to it is 55" Philips with the LEDs up the sides. Got it specifically for the lights as it helps illuminate that corner without interfering with picture. Plus the lights are really very cool, spesh with games.

It's only 1 year old but I can tell it will fail before the Samsung. Picture quality is good enough, but not as good as the Sammy. 55 is a good size, great for gaming and being the second monitor for browsing, films, etc. But I think I could have gone maybe to 60, 65". It's not that big. When the Philips fails I'll replace it with a slightly bigger one.



CAT!

mobias

Quote from: Benevolent Despot on December 28, 2016, 12:46:37 PM

The reviews here - http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/ - are good for detailing whichever technical attribute concerns you the most.

Cheers. Useful to know.

wasp_f15ting

The gaming lag is an issue, but I have a 32" (ACER Predator XB321HK ) G-Sync monitor just for 4K gaming, so PC games and intense games will take their place on there. The fidelity of the Titan X pascal is not equalled most games on the PS4 Pro.

However I do like variety and laziness, so PS4 Pro is perfect for Uncharted, Last Guardian and other less taxing games. I hope they patch Bloodborne for HDR.. LOVE THAT GAME.

It is annoying that you need an array of goods to get the most out of gaming.. like that Acer Monitor is limited to 60hz so I needed a 144hz G-sync 1440p for faster games like Doom and Overwatch. They have added HDR to Shadow Warriors 2 on the PC, so will try that on the LG and see what the difference is like between that and the Asus 27" high refresh rate monitor.


Bhazor

Parents recently got a 55 inch Samsung curved 4k tv which is seemingly used primarily for Coranation Street. Bit of a mare to set up. Samsung's Smart OS is utter crap with no Flash player and a graveyard for an app store. But as a display its top notch with beautiful colours and refresh rate.

Just be prepared to spend an extra 40 notes on an android box if you want to use it for internet stuff.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Bhazor on December 28, 2016, 04:24:09 PM
Parents recently got a 55 inch Samsung curved 4k tv which is seemingly used primarily for Coranation Street. Bit of a mare to set up. Samsung's Smart OS is utter crap with no Flash player and a graveyard for an app store. But as a display its top notch with beautiful colours and refresh rate.

Just be prepared to spend an extra 40 notes on an android box if you want to use it for internet stuff.

Also NEVER buy a curved set unless you are going to be watching it straight on with your head roughly at the same height as the middle of the screen, and you never need to pivot it to watch from a different angle.

A curved set should be your absolute last option and, like 3D, a bit of a gimmick.

mook

don't listen to him. if you really must have telly get a curved one.

imitationleather

Quote from: Dr Syntax Head on December 27, 2016, 04:05:28 PM
I love my huge TV cos it makes those true crime shows (that Mrs Syntax likes) even more visceral.

Mate I spend probably a good third of my life watching those shows and the channels they're on broadcast at such a low bit-rate that if you have a telly bigger than 17" you can barely make out the wooden acting.

My favourite is Corrupt Crimes. Firstly because of the title which screams "We are not even fucking trying, if you watch this it is your own fault" and then that the show itself has no core theme and covers absolutely everything, meaning one episode will be about a serial killer then the next will be about a bank heist. In the one about the Madrid train bombs they kept using pictures of British ambulances and the Old Bailey because clearly they just asked for royalty free footage of european stuff and only got sent film of the UK and they either didn't check to see if it was correct or couldn't be bothered to change it. It is true quality programming.

The worst are the ones with far too narrow a theme that they try to stretch in to a series when there just aren't enough cases to justify it. Wives With Knives, Killer Couples (they have done three episodes about Brady and Hindley now), Nurses Who Kill... The one that is just about murders involving water that even I thought was too much of a stretch to actually watch. There's loads of them.

Well... I wasn't bullshitting when I said I spend a lot of time watching them.

Mr_Simnock

QuoteTo further denigrate wasp's massively pricey new purchase (but only to educate!), the TV also seems to have LCD-levels of motion blur.

I have owned my LG 55 B6 for 6 months now and this has never been an issue, seems to be brought up by either non owners or pissed off plasma owners who now have to accept they no longer have the best tv's, I am totally baffled why this motion issue myth persists.

mobias

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on December 28, 2016, 05:20:27 PM
Also NEVER buy a curved set unless you are going to be watching it straight on with your head roughly at the same height as the middle of the screen, and you never need to pivot it to watch from a different angle.

A curved set should be your absolute last option and, like 3D, a bit of a gimmick.

I was wondering about curved TV's. It does seem to be only Samsung that make them, or at least its only them that are seriously pushing them. A bit like Sony with 3D. I don't really see the point in them. Are they trying to recreate having an IMAX cinema at home? It does indeed seem a bit gimmicky.

Bhazor

If you stake out the sweet spot it does look great. A real panoramic view. Unfortunately if you're even a couple feet off from that point it starts to distort. Even sitting at the far end of the sofa can throw the colours off. Worst though is the sound. Thin screens already have naff speakers but throw in the 3d gimmick where the sound is all projected in to the curve and any acoustic quality goes out the window unless you're again in the precise sweet spot. Fortunately my parents have a little 2 seater sofa situated right dab in the sweet spot so they can fully appreciate the sweeping majesty of the Emmerdale opening.

ollyboro

Quote from: HappyTree on December 27, 2016, 07:21:05 PM
I've had a Samsung 40" for 6 years, use as main monitor. On several hours a day, every day. Still going strong. Next to it is 55" Philips with the LEDs up the sides. Got it specifically for the lights as it helps illuminate that corner without interfering with picture. Plus the lights are really very cool, spesh with games.

It's only 1 year old but I can tell it will fail before the Samsung. Picture quality is good enough, but not as good as the Sammy. 55 is a good size, great for gaming and being the second monitor for browsing, films, etc. But I think I could have gone maybe to 60, 65". It's not that big. When the Philips fails I'll replace it with a slightly bigger one.


Your porn cabinet and tellies are blocking the radiator. Schoolboy error. No wonder the cat can't bear to look.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: mobias on December 28, 2016, 07:44:24 PM
I was wondering about curved TV's. It does seem to be only Samsung that make them, or at least its only them that are seriously pushing them. A bit like Sony with 3D. I don't really see the point in them. Are they trying to recreate having an IMAX cinema at home? It does indeed seem a bit gimmicky.

Exactly as Bhazor says, curved sets have a VERY specific viewing position, plus the smaller the set the more noticeable the curve is.  So, unless you have a fixed viewing position that never moves and a set no smaller than 55 inches, you'll be grand.  Deviate from that and you've wasted your money.

Having demoed large screen flat and curved sets in both pro set-up and domestic settings, I honestly can't see any benefit a curved screen has over a decent flat screen.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

wasp_f15ting

So.. I was always been a BD3D hater through and through, was always standing in the sidelines saying how crap it was.. I re-read some of the reviews of my TV and it said the 3D was really good, and they kept going on about it. So I got Finding Dory 3D Blu-Ray for my daughter.. wow. Dim the lights, flick it on and it was as my daughter described it "far better than the cinema"

It might be the case that only Pixar films are good with this kind of stuff, but I was very impressed by the subtle nature of the 3D. The colour gradients and the motion all looked gorgeous. I'll try and fish a few more titles from CEX to see if it is a one off or not. As it is passive 3D I won't need to shell out on expensive glasses at least!

I got myself an Xbox one S to play 4K BDs.. the selection is dire... I'll give Dead Pool a try tomorrow evening and report back.

Thus far this TV has been nothing but joy... digital foundry did a good review of PS4 Pro titles and thankfully I have all of them, so this will be a fun weekend ahead. My game room is soon turning into a room I'll never want to leave :S

HappyTree

Quote from: ollyboro on December 28, 2016, 08:40:53 PM
Your porn cabinet and tellies are blocking the radiator. Schoolboy error. No wonder the cat can't bear to look.
She saw it was mobias on the screen and went all coy. I think she likes Gunther. Shhhh! What's that Tabs? Oh nothing, didn't say a thing.

Mr_Simnock

QuoteSo I got Finding Dory 3D Blu-Ray for my daughter.. wow. Dim the lights, flick it on and it was as my daughter described it "far better than the cinema"

the current oleds from lg do 3D better than any other TV's by some margin if you believe all the owner threads on a certain popular TV forum, it's a shame they only got 3D right for tv's now, now all the big companies are axing it from all future models :(