50" under 500EUR (Plex use)

jazzcarnival

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Dear all,

I have been reading your forum for a while and today I decided to join your community.

I'm currently looking to buy a 50" TV for Plex use (I'm not watching regular TV at all). Could you please give me suggestions? I'm considering the Philips 50PUS7805 and the Hisense 50U7QF, after reading good reviews about both of them.

Most of my media files are in 1080p and therefore I'm interested in a TV with good upscaling capabilities, as both TV's are 4K.

The Philips as far as I understood has good capabilities as long as you use the apps from the TV, but there is no Plex available for Saphi. The Hisense has Plex app available for Vidaa and it seems to be better if you use lower quality media like 1080p.

On another note has anyone of you experience with the Chromecast Ultra? Are the upscaling capabilities good?

I would really appreciate your feedback as it's really difficult to find information online, most people use the TV for other purposes.

Thanks!

Jazz Carnival
 
Welcome to the forum!
TVs and streaming sticks/boxes use the same method of upscaling using their built in processors. Its only when you compare higher end TVs with dedicated picture processors where you start to see a big difference between one TV and another with upscaling.

Having said that, there are small differences, with manufacturers who've been in the business longer like Philips having better upscaling than newcomers like Hisense...there's not much in it and you'd need the TVs side by side to compare (and view up close) but its there.

1080p itself is usually not a problem at all, and upscales well on even the very worse TVs for upscaling. I personally wouldn't place upscaling high on my list of priorities because the difference between best and worse is small, whereas the difference other areas of a TV can make to the picture are greater.

For example, the Hisense U7Q has local dimming, and can get much brighter than other budget TVs which immediately makes it a better acquisition. If it has slightly poorer upscaling, its worth living with that for the sake of having a better overall TV.

I'd suggest if you're going to use Plex to use an external smart stick or similar (like the Chromecast TV) by using that you bypass the TVs upscaling anyway, so it makes no difference which TV you choose from an upscaling perspective then. Its upscaling is nothing fantastic, as like TVs it uses a basic built in chip similar to smartphones do.
 
Hi Dodgexander,

Thanks for your advice. I was only interested in the Philips because of the Ambilight.

Do I need to get the Chromecast Ultra or is the regular enough? In case the upscaling needs to happen from the Chromecast it should be 4K capable, right?

Best regards

Jazz Carnival
 
The regular one is limited to 1080p no? In that case it will handle upscaling to 1080p and the TV the rest. The 4k one will handle it all in one step.

Both the 1080p and 4k one are being discontinued in favor of the new Chromecast TV, so probably that's the best to go for for future proofing.
 
Have you considered the Roku instead of the Chromecast.
The 4k version isn't expensive and the Plex app runs well on it.
We have 3 in regular use, one is the basic 1080p which isn't quite as snappy in the menus as the two 4k models. Not that it's an issue just slightly noticable back to back.

The remote makes the navigation nice and easy and is family friendly, I never really got on with using phone interfaces, having to unlock etc.
 
Hi Decto,

Thank you for your suggestion. I didn't thought about the Roku option.

I'm living in Spain, do you have any ideas about the limitations here?

Should I go for the 1080p or the 4K model? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it should be the 4K, in order that the box takes care of the upscaling and not the TV.
 
Looks like Plex has now been added to Philips Saphi platform!

I was looking for another app over the weekend and I was very surprised to see Plex was available in the Saphi App store on my 65PUS6754.

Installed and connected to my own Plex server with no issues. I haven't used it for playback as I use a Firecube day to day for Plex playback so can't comment on supported output etc...
 

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