Conundrum - three contenders for TV - please help!

[hazar]

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

I would be grateful if you could kindly spare the time to offer some advice on the purchase of my new TV. I joined this forum specifically to seek your wisdom regarding this issue.

I have just moved house and my TV room is going to be my main chill out/social area. Given the TV is the main focal point I want to make sure I get this right!

After much research I have come up with three contenders


The Contenders

1) Samsung UE65MU7000 65" MU7000 Dynamic Crystal Colour Ultra HD HDR Smart TV

2) Samsung UE65KS8000 Samsung TV KS8000: SUHD Quantum Dot, Smart TV | Samsung UK

3) LG OLED65B6V LG 65 LG OLED TV - B6 | LG UK


Factors to Consider

1) My TV Room

Room dimensions are 4 metres x 4.5 metres (approximately 13 x 15 feet)

I plan to have a corner sofa in the room. People will usually be sat on the part of the sofa directly facing the TV. The back of the sofa seat will be 4.5 metres form the TV screen.

I understand the LG OLED viewing angle is better than the Samsung LEDs for those who will be sitting on the part of the corner sofa 90 degrees to the TV screen. That being said, in practice this part of the sofa will rarely be full, so these people would usually be quite far back from the screen.

2) The Price

Both Samsung TVs are circa £1500 (I will get cash back off the MU700 by trading in an old TV bringing the price down from the RRP) whilst the LG is circa £2500.

Is the MU7000 better or worse than KS8000? A year newer but also the 7 series rather than the 8 series.

I have been told that OLEDs are the future and better than LEDs (and before you ask I have read the comparisons article in the forum sticky!) and the OLED was certainly the most impressive in the store - but for those more familiar with the two technologies, is it £1000 better? A big jump, though I can be swayed if you try hard enough...

3) The Content

At the moment all I have is Freeview (UK non satellite/cable television) which is primarily in standard definition. I have games consoles but these aren't 4K. I also use streaming services but my internet is pretty slow (all there is at the moment), so will be a while before I will be able to get the best content. So in practice I will not be utilising the full features of any of these TVs for a good while.

That being said I plan to keep my TV for at least 5 years and will be getting satellite TV, faster internet etc so will make more out of the TV set over time.


Curved

Before you ask I have considered curved (as its supposed to be good for viewing angle) but from viewing this in store am not fully convinced of the shape, image distortion or how it would look for more retro gaming that I sometimes do. So personal preference - don't think I would want curved.


Conclusion

So there you have it. Three contenders, some variables at play and a confused individual who knows little about the TV world. Which one would you back? Any thoughts would be greatly appreicated!

 

[Dodgexander]

Do not buy now with the future in mind, the trick is to buy cheap and more often. Take a read: UHD vs FHD

You need to view a lot closer to notice UHD.
You can't view an LCD at a 90° angle, especially the best LCDs that use VA type panels. You may get away with an LCD with an IPS panel if you don't mind colour loss but these are inferior quality LCDs.
You watch SD content which will look bad upscaled to UHD.

The best option for you I think would be to look at a second hand plasma from a few years ago.

The MU series samsungs are this years budget range, they are not as good as last years KS higher range.

 

[hazar]

Thanks for your feedback, really helpful.

Will rarely be at a 90 degree angle to the TV due to the distance if these seats for the TV and how infrequently they will be utilised, so hopefully this won't be an issue.

Interesting about the M vs K range - I thought the MUs were just replacing the Ks as all the numbers are in parallel (6100, 6400, 700, 8000 etc)...I see now that KS sits above KU! A significant oversight. So the old KS range now sits at the bottom end of the new QLEDs?

From your logic I imagine that LG OLED would be out of the question as a sensible buy?

Will probably get new games consoles and Sky Q in next couple of years, so would probably regret getting a plasma over a new LED, though I appreciate your logic.

 

[Dodgexander]

How close will you view? For most people UHD is pointless and if you don't view close enough it will be now or in a couple of years time anyway.

You are much better off spending less now and then more in a couple of years..or just keeping what you have got.

There is no such thing as future proofing. Whilst you may be able to afford a TV that works decently with HDR now, there is very little point given you aren't going to benefit much from it if at all.

I disagree that you will regret something like that, in my eyes you would regret it more when you see what you can get for your money then compared to now.

 

[hazar]

Viewing distance would be round 4 metres, though closer if gaming. Agree it will be probably a year before I use it much for 4K TV/gaming so I get your point, though I got a good run out of an old TV as an early HD adopter, so would hope for similar now. Reluctant to buy second hand or plasma - anything you would recommend if looking below the above Samsung models?

 

[Dodgexander]

1.2m is optimum distance for a 65" UHD TV. 2.5m and you likely won't see a difference between that and 1080p. No I can't really recommend any UHD TV for standard definition. Some people seem to be happy with them them but its a risk to take when I don't know how much you are going to notice how bad it is. Best demo some if you can with SD, this was another recent thread created on here but it isn't the first, nor the last where someone has been disappointed with SD upscaling: 49/50" tv. Can anyone recommend a tv49" looking at Panasonic 50dx750b,Samsung or other. Help needed.

UHD isn't going to be similar to HD. When HD came out there was promise of broadcast tv supporting it, it didn't take long for their to be a few HD channels. It also didn't matter about getting a HD TV because everything that was standard definition still looked OK. With UHD now we are in the same position we were when HD came out years a go, there is very limited UHD content, especially in broadcast tv and SD upscaled to UHD looks bad.

The only time its worth getting an UHD TV if you don't view close enough is if you are planning to utilize decent HDR on it. In which case I would look at TVs like the Samsung KS series LG 2016 OLEDs like the B6/C6. Buy 2016 if you can as 2017 models are overpriced.- The MU series for example is a budget TV compared to the mid range 2016 KS model.

But get a demo before you buy, I still think you are better off even getting a new cheap FHD model. Given they are rare in larger sizes you might be better off buying cheap with something like a Hisense K5510/M5500/M7000 instead. It will save you a lot of money and perform on par with SDR for the most part.

 

[hazar]

Thanks for the advice. Can I ask whether you think 65 inch is the right size for my viewing distance or should I think about 75 inch? Could perhaps go for a for a more basic model with bigger size if needed.

Will have a look at the Hisense models.

Interestingly I emailed a seller of the KS8000 who informed me that the TV was not full HDR compliant due to its Tizen software being out of date for developing HDR formats. He mentioned that next year's World Cup will be broadcast by BBC using 4K HLG HDR but Samsung TV could only offer simulated upscale to this, rather than Sony which would be able to show this in native 4K HLG HDR. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Dodgexander]

I don't think thats true, in fact people have already been playing HLG videos on the KS series tv's. Just a quick google comes up with plenty of results, like this: To those with 2016 Samsung 4K TVs - you now have support for Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) • r/PS4Pro

If you can get a 75" go for it, its always better to have a bigger TV anyway and with UHD it makes it even more worth it. Provided of course you take advantage of UHD content!

Likely though you will have to sacrifice HDR performance, unless you can get at least the Samsung 75KS8000 or Sony 75XE9005 but to be honest right now HDR isn't that important, whether its worth to you spending extra for decent HDR is up to you. Some people like having the very latest stuff but in all honesty the price premium isn't really worth it yet at that size. If you can find a Hisense M7900 you can probably get it for a lot less and still get decent SDR performance.

 

[sidechained]

Great insight on Samsung's 2016 vs 2017. Has helped me too.