TV's Do you get what you pay for ?

[catseye]

Not fellas into stockings & suspenders ......

Are these cheap tele's such as Hisense good value or just money down the drain

[Barney]

Hisense , Nordmende , TCL Technology are all Brands that i'd stay well away from regardless how cheap ,
end of the day your ending up buying a proper TV , even SamSung is an expensive waste of money too IMHO . Sorry to all the Samsung lovers i know there is many fans but i give my honest opinions as far as value for money and reliablity goes .

LG would be quality every time and proven to last very long time ,
Sony is okay but pic quality is not really that great for such a huge company ,
JVC is pretty good as far as Android TVs are concerned just interface is kinda awkward and bit frustrating but does what it should ,
Philips is very good nothing wrong with this TV Brand that i can think of ,
Sharp and Toshiba and Panasonic and BUSH been around for long time and are decent quality and value for money .

Every time i'd put LG very top of the list and others i listed are well priced and worth buying IMHO .

hope that helps ??

[JOE.MADDISON]

bought 50 inch smart hisense a year and a half ago ,find the program guide locks up quite a lot,now noticing a few darker patches on screen .think some of the back light leds are failing or failed,good picture ,sound good ,have had samungs in past but last 4 k model i had got same patchy led back lights fail two weeks after the 12 g/tee end then 4 weeks of emails and visit to currys and phone calls to samsung resulted in pay £99 and we will pick up set and give estimate for repair cost,i said no then £50 ,put my case on trust pilot, then got some result,we will pick up set and test,if it is faulty ? we will repair, set was collected and came back 2/3 weeks later with new screen fitted f.o.c.but was a struggle to get a repair,kept getting out of g/tee so pricy sets have 1 year g/tee ,hisense 2 year g/tee

[mrdude]

I'll probably get beaten up for saying this -

The smart part of a TV: You are better buying an Nvidia Shield TV pro rather than a smart TV, that way you can put as many cracked apps on as you want and use it for various streaming apps. So that's the smart bit taken care off.

The screen: I like LED TV's over OLED - because they are cheap and easy to fix if you know how. For example in the last 2 years I have fixed 3 LG TV's by just replacing the LED strips which for entire new strips cost £8 for a set + £4 for postage (ali express). Most of the time it's just a couple of leds blown over time which causes a black screen and a reboot loop due to the power board cutting out when not enough amps are drawn from the leds. As for the power board on these TV's - usually it's just a blown capacitor on the 220v side that needs replaced.

Sound: I use surround sound, so this is a non issue.

Pretty much A TV is just a screen with lots of hdmi inputs (most also have a built in sat decoder and can be hooked straight up to a dish).

[TonyO]

Smart TV's are mostly just junk, they are neither a good TV or a good means of watching via streaming, they are all different in there layout and have loads of restrictions for their operation.

They have been designed by the android generation who like pressing endless buttons and menus while getting nowhere fast, I recently stayed in a hotel and the Phillips smart TV didn't even give channel numbers, hundreds of channels and radio stations that had no numbers so you could not even short cut the whole list in the EPG which took ages to load and showed about four channels at a time.

Its as if someone said to the developers make this TV as awkward and slow to use as possible and hide most of the useful functions, the wheel has been uninvented in the TV world, the wheels are now hexagonal and they have done away with the axle, what progress !

[CokeAddict]

Short answer is generally yes, you do get what you pay for, but there are some things to take into account.

LG makes the OLED panels for most other manufacturers, including Sony, Panasonic and Philips.

Philips tv's are made by TP Vision.

Alot of cheaper tv's (even some Panasonics) are made by Vestal, they also make tv's for Bush, JVC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Polaroid amounst others.

Hisense are not that cheap anymore, when compared to similar spec LG's so I would avoid them as from what I have heard the software tends to let them down, even if the hardware is good.

Samsung, now make there own OLED panels (Quantom Dot OLED), but the price of them imo makes the LG seem amazing value for money.

But it really depends if your looking for a "main tv for the living room" or a tv for the bedroom.

[catseye]

Not interested in smart tvs even though they are standard these days
Bought a cheap firestick which means can access all apps need

Smart TV tend to become bloated by them & once engineers stop supporting them waste of time

Current TV in lounge is Panasonic
Had around 10 years & works fine

But thinking to upgrade to 4K & saw those Hisense boxes are cheap

Also on look out for 4K sat box

[mrdude]

Not interested in smart tvs even though they are standard these days
Bought a cheap firestick which means can access all apps need

Smart TV tend to become bloated by them & once engineers stop supporting them waste of time

Current TV in lounge is Panasonic
Had around 10 years & works fine

But thinking to upgrade to 4K & saw those Hisense boxes are cheap

Also on look out for 4K sat box

4K is a hype, there's hardly any content to watch in 4k that's broadcast and even streaming 4k demands huge amounts of bandwidth so most streaming sites don't go over 1080p. Unless you're an avid gamer with a 4K console/computer rigged up to your TV you won't be watching much 4K at all. The fact you have a TV that is working for now is good and you should probably just keep using it until it dies, then these 4K TV's that are current will be replaced by something better and cheaper with a higher refresh rate (as chips get better all the time). Still I get how easy it is to fall into the 4k hype - especially as all the wifes freinds have 4k etc, but to me it just seems silly to buy a 4K TV if you're watching content that is mostly never going to be over 1080p.

[ian]

I completely agree there, I still have just a 1080 TV, but I am tempted to get a 4K just to see my 4K box work on it and to see what all the hype is about lol.

Ian.

[CokeAddict]

4K is a hype, there's hardly any content to watch in 4k that's broadcast and even streaming 4k demands huge amounts of bandwidth so most streaming sites don't go over 1080p. Unless you're an avid gamer with a 4K console/computer rigged up to your TV you won't be watching much 4K at all. The fact you have a TV that is working for now is good and you should probably just keep using it until it dies, then these 4K TV's that are current will be replaced by something better and cheaper with a higher refresh rate (as chips get better all the time). Still I get how easy it is to fall into the 4k hype - especially as all the wifes freinds have 4k etc, but to me it just seems silly to buy a 4K TV if you're watching content that is mostly never going to be over 1080p.

Sorry can't agree with that at all.

Plenty of 4K content out there, maybe not broadcast, but Blu-ray, Netflix, Prime Video, Plex, even iPlayer.

Also 4K stb's will upscale SD and HD to 4K (not as good as real 4K, but still better than normal SD and HD).

[TonyO]

My Hisence 4K tv has a worse HD 1020 performance than my old HD 1020 Panosonic, first the UHF tuner went on the Panny then the screen died so that was the end of that, it lasted nearly 20 years.

The live 4K i've tried to watch on my crappy full fire BT connection is woeful, it buffers all the time making viewing unwatchable on sport and docco's, the full fibre is worse than the old copper wire connection, it also has regular interupts which interfere with streaming, unless its incrypted or has a VPN.

[mrdude]

Sorry can't agree with that at all.

Plenty of 4K content out there, maybe not broadcast, but Blu-ray, Netflix, Prime Video, Plex, even iPlayer.

Also 4K stb's will upscale SD and HD to 4K (not as good as real 4K, but still better than normal SD and HD).

Fair enough, Personally I have never watched or downloaded a blueray movie and the PS4 I have doesn't play blueray above 1080p, so I guess you need a 4K Blueray player to watch those. I also have a 4K stb and Nvidia Shield does 4K AI upscaling, however even on a 1080p TV upscaling a SD signal still looks crap. Most of the apps I use buffer like crazy on anything over 1080p. I don't pay for netflix or prime (but I use my friends prime account) as for BBC Iplayer. I don't watch anything from the BBC and don't have that installed as I can't be arsed with the woke nonsense/gay agenda/blackwashing history and biased crap that comes out of the BBC. For me 4K is an overkill but if you already have a 4K TV it makes sense to watch stuff in 4K. For me I just couldn't justify scrapping my perfectly good and easy to fix TV to buy a 4K TV that can't be fixed by me cheaply.

If however I bought a PS5 or Switch 2(when it's released) and some really good games came out that were displayed in 4K with a high refresh rate, well I might be tempted to spend the money on one and keep the LCD TV as a spare. But for now I'm good. However as Catseye is thinking of getting a new TV it makes sense to buy a 4K or 8K TV. PS currys has £800 off ths 8K TV for now:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/samsung-qe55qn700ctxxu-55-smart-8k-hdr-neo-qled-tv-with-bixby-and-alexa-10248640.html

Maybe take a trip to currys and check out the TV's in real life, then get the make and model number and buy it cheaper online.

[CokeAddict]

Not interested in smart tvs even though they are standard these days
Bought a cheap firestick which means can access all apps need

Smart TV tend to become bloated by them & once engineers stop supporting them waste of time

Current TV in lounge is Panasonic
Had around 10 years & works fine

But thinking to upgrade to 4K & saw those Hisense boxes are cheap

Also on look out for 4K sat box

So what are you looking for from the tv, what size and what is the budget, maybe we can recommend something for you to look at ?

[catseye]

So what are you looking for from the tv, what size and what is the budget, maybe we can recommend something for you to look at ?

Around 65 screen not into gaming picture quality important

[Barney]

What is Your Budget ???

This was best i could find if you are on tight Budget And it is what you are looking for if Budget is real tight ....

www.argos.co.uk/product/3285372?clickSR=slp:term:65%204k%20tv:2:213:1

Good TV with USB And 3 HDMI slots and Built in Freeview
doubt you'll see much cheaper that is Not Nordmende or some very sh1t cheapo branded crap .

[Barney]

i forget now how to properly code links as i never use 'em so perhaps a mod will kindly do that for me ?
Thnx

[CokeAddict]

Around 65 screen not into gaming picture quality important

Need to know the budget mate.

[bonovox]

Yeah wouldn't buy a Hisense again. Just bought a cheapie Hisense and its gone wrong after 6 months. The wifi stopped working after 2 months after working perfectly when new so I bought a wifi extender and connected to the ethernet port which cured that problem. Now it won't start properly. Just hangs on the Vidaa start up screen and freezes up. Sometimes if you unplug it and retry it will work but then next tine it will not start again. There supposed to be coming to look at it but if I got the chance I would take a refund and pay a bit more and buy another LG. Had LG's for the past 16 years and they've always been solid performers. You pay for what you get. The Hisense does have a decent picture by the way.

[crabber]

I suppose it comes down to what you need a smart TV for, my priorities are being able to side load apps such as smart tube beta as I use the TV mostly for you tube and cannot stand any adverts. I think that LG and Samsung have their own O/S so not sure if you can side load whatever apps you want onto them?
I bought a Sony a few years ago mainly as friends had recommended one and it was android. However I soon found that if you used Freeview it deleted the satellite channel list. A bit of research revealed that this was a known problem which had existed for years. I just couldn't believe that a company like Sony could get away with it and the TV was returned to be swapped for a Philips. It came from Richer Sounds and they changed it without any fuss, I think they were appalled as well. I don't know if this problem has ever been fixed, perhaps someone can let me know?
I have also tried a smaller TCL which was bought because it was cheap and although it does work there are issues with using apps like the one which lets you re-program the remote buttons where as the Philips does not have any such issues.

[catseye]

Need to know the budget mate.

Around £500 ish