Looking for recommendations for a new television

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi all, posting this in IMHO as I’m looking for advice.

We’ve got a 42" 720p TV at the moment. I don’t actually know how old it is, because it came included when we bought the house (it’s bolted to the wall and the sellers didn’t want the hassle of removing it). It can’t be any younger than eight years old, and I suspect it’s quite a bit older than that.

It’s served us well, but it’s time for a replacement. It’s getting a touch flaky now, and Virgin TV have just thoughtfully sent us a new 4K-capable Tivo box. We also have Netflix, which I believe can stream some stuff in 4K, a Fire TV Stick, and a Blu-Ray player.

Given that it has been well over a decade (actually, getting on for two) since I bought a TV, I’m a little out of practice. Here’s what I know:

[ol]
[li]After some negotiation, we’ve settled on 50-55 inches as being the target screen size.[/li][li]I want 4K - this TV is going to have to last for a while, so I’d like it to be reasonably future-proof.[/li][li]I’m curious about HDR. I don’t know much about it, but what I’ve read makes it sound desirable.[/li][li]I haven’t measured the distance, but I’d guess that we’ll be sitting about twelve feet from the TV most of the time.[/li][li]I might follow this up with the purchase of a Sonos PlayBase (I’ve already got a Play:One), but that won’t be immediate. So in-built sound quality has to be OK out of the box.[/li][li]This TV will be sat on a stand, not wall-mounted (unlike the one it’s replacing).[/li][/ol]

I’m assuming that whatever I get will be a massive improvement on my old TV, but I turn to the Dope - what should I be thinking about? Budget isn’t fixed, but I’d say probably £800 (UK) or so.

Cheers,

Rich

2

Well, first off, in my opinion, 50-55 inches is too small for a 12’ viewing distance. I’d go with 65" at a minimum. Rtings actually recommends a 75", but that’s likely prohibitively expensive.

I definitely agree with 4K. With regard to HDR, industry battles over video standards are as certain as death and taxes, and indeed, there are now two types of competing HDR technology: HDR10 and Dolby Vision. For future-proofing purposes, if possible, buy a set that supports both, and then you don’t have to care about which format wins. HDR10 is more widely supported at the moment, but Dolby Vision is considered to be better, though proprietary, and generally you’ll find the latter in more expensive sets.

In terms of panel technology, you basically have two choices: LCD and OLED. If you can afford it, OLED is superior to LCD in just about every way (deepest possible blacks, more vivid color, great contrast, etc.). About the only ways OLED is worse is that it might be a little more prone to ghosting and is certainly MUCH more expensive. That said, I’d shop for screen size first (i.e., I’d buy a 65" LCD over a similarly priced 50" OLED). LCDs look pretty good nowadays; look for one with local dimming if possible.

3

Thanks.

Regarding screen-size, the 42" one we already have seems fine to us in terms of size, so I can’t see us going bigger than 55". We don’t want something that will absolutely dominate the room - it’s a living room, not a cinema. :slight_smile: