40” TV shopping: Panasonic JX800 vs Sharp BJ5K?

[Cakefish]

I would like a 40” UHD TV to use with Xbox Series X and Switch consoles. It’s to directly replace a 40” FHD TV from circa 2015 (which only cost me £179 at the time!) that I have wall mounted. Just looking for something with better colours and resolution, I figure anything on the market today would be an improvement. Unfortunately a 43” TV would be too large to fit in place, so I’m strictly limited on size here. I searched for PC monitors too but they all cost a lot more for an equivalent size panel. Not looking to spend a fortune here, as it’s merely a secondary TV that’ll be used almost exclusively for gaming.

The two options I have found online are the Sharp BJ5K and the Panasonic JX800.

1) Sharp C40BJ5KF2FB - £279, direct lit LED backlight, HDR10, Aquos Net+ OS (Argos has the seemingly identical C40BJ4KF2FB for £300)

2) Panasonic TX40JX800B - £400, edge lit LED backlight, VA panel, HDR10+ Adaptive, Dolby Vision, ALLM, Android TV OS

To me it looks like the Panasonic is the better bet, despite costing a bit more, as it supports ALLM and is a guaranteed VA panel? I can’t find the panel type of the Sharp anywhere online and it doesn’t appear to support ALLM. Would the direct lit panel tech that the Sharp uses offer any meaningful benefit over the edge lit Panasonic?

 

[Dodgexander]

The new Sharp (owned by Chinese company: UMC) are a bit of an unknown still. Typically, their TVs have been cheaply made and not recommended, but I have heard they are making an attempt to boost the reputation of the brand, so it may be worth a shout.

The Panasonic is probably the best TV you can buy at this size but is also very expensive for what you're buying.

TVs at this size have some serious shortfalls, some of which may be integral in your use case. First all 40" models are using VA type panels with narrow viewing angles. This means you need to view the TV head on, and not too close otherwise the tighter angles will look darker, and a washed out colour.

The second is also related to the panel. These TVs are running 60hz VA panels which tend to have very slow response times, especially close to black. Expect quite a bit of motion blur when you play fast paced games, especially in areas where light meets dark or vice versa. You won't find computer monitors designed for gaming using a 60hz VA panel for this reason.

The third thing applies to all cheaper TVs today (and all smaller TVs, since no higher end TV is now sold smaller than 48") and that's that they will not be suited for HDR use. For this reason, you'll want to use the TV for SDR only.

So really, I'd probably buy the cheaper Sharp on the premise you're going to have drawbacks anyway.

 

[ab12]

Sharp is a subsidiary of the Hon Hai Group, the owner of Foxconn. They jointly operate manufacturing plants also under the name Sakai Display Products (SDP). You probably refer to United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) which isn't the same as Universal Media Corporation (Skytec UMC). The latter is registered in Cyprus with headquarters in Slovakia and a manufacturing base in Poland. Skytec UMC was a subsidiary of Sharp but is now completely acquired by them. So Sharp (EU) TVs are actually made in Poland, Europe by UMC which also manufacturer for Blaupunkt. Quality is decent and better than Vestel rebrands in my opinion.

Normally the JX800 would be way too pricey, but it's worth the price difference now. You'll get the HCX processor, better smartOS, Dolby Vision, WCG, accurate colors out of the box, Filmmaker mode and their Dynamic HDR Effect feature actually works pretty well especially with hardware which isn't really suited for HDR.

 

[Boostrail]

Full agree that UMC has usually been a bit better than Vestel and should be better stil now that they have been acquired by Sharp and thus Foxconn. But AFAIK their headquarters and manufacturing is in Slovenia. The Foxconn plant in Slovakia manufactures TV'S for Sony.
Also aren't cheaper Panasonic TV'S made by Vestel?

 

[Dodgexander]

Yeah, maybe the Panasonic is worth it at smaller sizes. Just beware that it still comes with the same shortfalls as other cheaper TVs, so in particular HDR won't be impressive, and may be too dark or washed out.

Even with the best tone mapping in the world, it's still a low nit display without a FALD system.

 

[ab12]

Full agree that UMC has usually been a bit better than Vestel and should be better stil now that they have been acquired by Sharp and thus Foxconn. But AFAIK their headquarters and manufacturing is in Slovenia. The Foxconn plant in Slovakia manufactures TV'S for Sony.
Also aren't cheaper Panasonic TV'S made by Vestel?

UMC started in Slovakia but they have a much larger Sharp factory in Poland and also a logistics center near it. UMC's production plant isn't the same as Foxconn Slovakia to which you refer.

Cheaper Panasonic sets are indeed made by Vestel. The JX800 (or 8-series) and-up are still 'true' Panasonic's and thus use their own HCX processor. Same goes for FHD models with My Home Screen as OS. That said Panasonic will scale back significantly and outsource the majority of their production to TCL. AFAIK only OLEDs for the Japanese market will remain in-house.

 

[Cakefish]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I decided to splurge (it’s Christmas season after all) and go with the Panasonic in the end. I was able to find the user manual for the Sharp TV online and saw that the picture settings seem a lot more limited (no Filmmaker mode, Game mode, and other options missing suggesting less advanced image processing). Combined with the ALLM support and Android TV OS I decided it was worth a bit extra money. Bit annoyed to see 43” TVs being discounted below the price of this TV in Boxing Day sales but there’s nothing I can do about lack of physical space!

So I quite like this new TV. It’s a big improvement over what I already had in terms of colours, resolution, brightness, contrast etc. The screen uniformity is perfectly acceptable as well, there was no need to worry about it being edge lit. So it’s definitely a win in my books!

 

[Woodsie]

Hi Cakefish
whats your thoughts on the panasonic jx 800, im thinking of buying one for the kitchen, buy would like and unbiased review of a fellow AVF member
thanks
Al