Looking to buy a 65 inch 4k TV (1 Viewer)

[Carl David]

So after going over 6 years without a TV I am looking to buy a new 65 inch 4k TV.

I have me eyes on a LG C9 but am wondering if it would be wiser to save money and get a TCL Series 6 TV.

Does the difference in quality justify the difference in prices?

Any thoughts on the differences in these two TVs and any input on alternatives is most welcome.

Please note I live in the UK.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s a tough question to answer because a lot comes down to personal preference.

I will say this: TVs today, even budget ones, blow away what was coming out ten years ago. I have a TCL Series 6 (the 55” model) and it blows away the LG plasma that it replaced. The plasma cost nearly twice as much and was considered top quality in its day. The TCL, despite being a budget brand, looks fantastic because the technology has improved that much in recent years.

So that’s my first thought: whatever to do get today, whether LG or TCL or something else, will look amazing compared to the last TV you bought.

I have some friends who have LG OLEDs so I’ve seen them in action. They are tremendous televisions. They also cost significantly more than TCL’s LED/LCD sets. My unscientific perspective after seeing both was that the TCL gives you 90 to 95% of what the LG OLED gives you, at a fraction of the cost. The question no one but you can answer is, is a five or ten percent improvement worth paying two or three times more for? There’s no wrong answer there, just preference.

Is there either a retailer that you can visit to demo both sets, or one that has a generous return policy so that you could try the cheaper one and return it in a week if it doesn’t meet your needs?

 

[Carl David]

It’s a tough question to answer because a lot comes down to personal preference.

I will say this: TVs today, even budget ones, blow away what was coming out ten years ago. I have a TCL Series 6 (the 55” model) and it blows away the LG plasma that it replaced. The plasma cost nearly twice as much and was considered top quality in its day. The TCL, despite being a budget brand, looks fantastic because the technology has improved that much in recent years.

So that’s my first thought: whatever to do get today, whether LG or TCL or something else, will look amazing compared to the last TV you bought.

I have some friends who have LG OLEDs so I’ve seen them in action. They are tremendous televisions. They also cost significantly more than TCL’s LED/LCD sets. My unscientific perspective after seeing both was that the TCL gives you 90 to 95% of what the LG OLED gives you, at a fraction of the cost. The question no one but you can answer is, is a five or ten percent improvement worth paying two or three times more for? There’s no wrong answer there, just preference.

Is there either a retailer that you can visit to demo both sets, or one that has a generous return policy so that you could try the cheaper one and return it in a week if it doesn’t meet your needs?

That's interesting, Josh.

That is a minimal improvement for the price difference.

Do you find it performs well for watching both Blu Rays and UHD 4k contet too?

 

[Carl David]

The only thing what puts me off the TCL is the 1 year warranty.

LG OLEDs have 5 to 6 years warranty so going by that it seems the TCL models are not built to last.

Too early to tell for sure, though.

 

[xx Brian xx]

It really depends on a few factors. How bright is the room? OLED TV's have a glass screen and can be very reflective if you have lights behind you or watch during the day. Do you watch action movies or shows that have fast action? Motion rate and processing on the OLED will be better. Will you be watching or streaming 4K Dolby Vision movies? Budget TV's have lower peak brightness and can be dark in certain scenes.
Depending on the room and what you watch, there are a lot of other TVs in between an OLED and a TCL. LG has their NanoCell TVs that are really good, I really like the Sony X900 series for price and function.
I agree with Josh, go and demo TV's. Bring a memory stick with some action scenes to play on the TVs and watch for pixelation and motion rate. Have a clip with a lot of different colors and compare how the different TV's look. Have fun looking.

Brian

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That's interesting, Josh.

That is a minimal improvement for the price difference.

Do you find it performs well for watching both Blu Rays and UHD 4k contet too?

I’m using it pretty much as an HD monitor so I can’t really comment too much on its UHD performance.

But I am extremely happy at how it’s handled everything else - I’ve used it for Blu-ray, DVD and even VHS and it’s the best TV I’ve ever had.

Regarding a warranty - I got mine from Best Buy who offered a five year warranty with in home service for an extra $100. Since the TV was less than I expected when I started shopping, paying a little more to extend the warranty was an easy choice for me. Does the U.K. have a chain similar to Best Buy that offer extended warranties at reasonable prices?

 

[Carl David]

I’m using it pretty much as an HD monitor so I can’t really comment too much on its UHD performance.

But I am extremely happy at how it’s handled everything else - I’ve used it for Blu-ray, DVD and even VHS and it’s the best TV I’ve ever had.

Regarding a warranty - I got mine from Best Buy who offered a five year warranty with in home service for an extra $100. Since the TV was less than I expected when I started shopping, paying a little more to extend the warranty was an easy choice for me. Does the U.K. have a chain similar to Best Buy that offer extended warranties at reasonable prices?

Probably can get an extended warranty but they are full of caveats.

I am going to bide one's time and probably make a purchase in either April or May.

That gives me a little more time to think things over and not rush into anything.

 

[Carl David]

It really depends on a few factors. How bright is the room? OLED TV's have a glass screen and can be very reflective if you have lights behind you or watch during the day. Do you watch action movies or shows that have fast action? Motion rate and processing on the OLED will be better. Will you be watching or streaming 4K Dolby Vision movies? Budget TV's have lower peak brightness and can be dark in certain scenes.
Depending on the room and what you watch, there are a lot of other TVs in between an OLED and a TCL. LG has their NanoCell TVs that are really good, I really like the Sony X900 series for price and function.
I agree with Josh, go and demo TV's. Bring a memory stick with some action scenes to play on the TVs and watch for pixelation and motion rate. Have a clip with a lot of different colors and compare how the different TV's look. Have fun looking.

Brian

Yes. I might do that.

I plan on using the TV for watching DVDs, Blu Rays & eventually UHDs. Streaming is not a consideration although I will probably do that sometime in the future but that is certainly not a priority for me.

I will probably use the TV during the night predominantly as opposed to during the day and with the lights turned off.

The seating position will be around 5ft away and directly in front of the TV so no wide viewing angle will be necessary.

 

[Peter Trent]

We just graduated to a flat screen. We had a Hatchi ultra vision. We went with Samsung, 3 year warranty and we are very happy.
The rear projection was in our living room for 21 years, With this new TV it puts the rear projection to shame. And the prices for them came down big time.

 

[Worth]

One thing to be aware of, if you're watching a 65" screen from 5 feet away, everything but the most pristine content is going to look terrible. If it's primarily for UHD discs, blu-rays and the best streaming platforms, it will be fine, but cable, satellite, some streaming options and DVD are going to be hard to watch. I have a 60" plasma about 6-7 feet away, which I only use to watch blu-rays and some streaming content. I can't enjoy watching anything else on it because it looks so bad. The rest I view on a 42" set.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

One thing to be aware of, if you're watching a 65" screen from 5 feet away, everything but the most pristine content is going to look terrible.

Quite. When I went TV shopping several years ago (it was when the Oppo BDP-83 was a current blu-ray model), I found that I needed to be about 10-12 feet away from larger screen sizes for DVD to look okay. On a 47-inch screen, DVD compression noise started to be very noticeable at the same viewing distance that was fine for a 42-inch.

I want to think I determined about 9 feet was fine for our 52-inch screen, and we sit about 10-12 feet away from our 60-inch one. There are calculators online (or, at least, there were) that tell you about how much viewing distance to allow given the type of content you plan to watch (standard def, 1080 HD, etc.) versus screen size.

To the OP: you say you're in the UK. I assume you're planning on buying a UK set rather than importing a US one? The reason I ask is if you're going the import route, the TV being compatible with 50hz video signals will be hugely important to you. Although most worldwide TVs are multi-system out of the box, many US sets still are not, and the ones that are are almost never advertised as such.

 

[JohnRice]

That was my first thought. A 65" TV from 5'? Not a good idea.

 

[Carl David]

One thing to be aware of, if you're watching a 65" screen from 5 feet away, everything but the most pristine content is going to look terrible. If it's primarily for UHD discs, blu-rays and the best streaming platforms, it will be fine, but cable, satellite, some streaming options and DVD are going to be hard to watch. I have a 60" plasma about 6-7 feet away, which I only use to watch blu-rays and some streaming content. I can't enjoy watching anything else on it because it looks so bad. The rest I view on a 42" set.

Thanks for that.

The only DVDs I have and buy are movies not on Blu Ray or UHD.

I am intrigued to see how the DVDs will look when I get the TV.

 

[Carl David]

That was my first thought. A 65" TV from 5'? Not a good idea.

I don't have the calculations on me but I checked many leading professionals in the field including THX and the calculations were 5ft and a half to around 7 ft or so for a 4k 65 inch screen.

When I get home I will check my notes.

 

[JohnRice]

It's your decision, but I was thinking about it in real world terms. I'm 6'6", so when I'm reclined watching a movie, my feet are pretty close to 5' away from my eyes. I would never want a 65" TV at that distance. No way.

 

[Robert Crawford]

One thing to be aware of, if you're watching a 65" screen from 5 feet away, everything but the most pristine content is going to look terrible. If it's primarily for UHD discs, blu-rays and the best streaming platforms, it will be fine, but cable, satellite, some streaming options and DVD are going to be hard to watch. I have a 60" plasma about 6-7 feet away, which I only use to watch blu-rays and some streaming content. I can't enjoy watching anything else on it because it looks so bad. The rest I view on a 42" set.

Yeah, I have two LG OLEDs and my smallest screen at 55" is the OLED55C9PUA and my sitting position is about 5 feet away from it. At that distance I can tell the difference between my satellite feed and iTunes/BD/UHD.

 

[xx Brian xx]

The minimum distance from the screen is one foot for every 10 inches of screen size. So for a 65" TV you should be at least 6.5' away.

Brian

 

[DaveF]

The seating position will be around 5ft away and directly in front of the TV so no wide viewing angle will be necessary.

You should consider a 50" display. Which will save you $$.

The old THX standard was maximum 40º angle for viewing. That leads to:
Minimum Viewing Distance = 1.2 * Diagonal Screen Size

65" => 6.5' min distance
50" => 5' min distance

This isn't an absolute of course, and you should go with what looks good to you.

 

[Carl David]

You should consider a 50" display. Which will save you $$.

The old THX standard was maximum 40º angle for viewing. That leads to:
Minimum Viewing Distance = 1.2 * Diagonal Screen Size

65" => 6.5' min distance
50" => 5' min distance

This isn't an absolute of course, and you should go with what looks good to you.

As I intend to use the TV to watch films mainly it makes sense to me to get the biggest my environment can accomodate.

Isn't this the point of home theatre? To watch the films on a bigger screen as possible as the filmakers intended us to?

Having checked my notes the information I have derived from THX is that a distance of between 4.25ft – 6.5ft for a 65 inch 4k TV is most suitable.

I can move the seating to the furthest (6.5ft) distance away in those recommendations if need be but my thinking was it might be preferable to be more closer to experience a more "cinematic" effect/environment.

 

[JohnRice]

Then get an 85". That's bigger than a 65", after all.