Question Decisions, decisions ... advice requested

mwd too

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Hi all,

Up until recently, we've been (relatively) happy with an old TV (18-y-o Loewe), a Sky+ receiver and a DVD player/recorder (used to have a surround sound system too, but that's been in storage since I moved house 8 years back), all using SCART. Sadly, the DVD has started to act up (and I rarely used the HDD functions); the Sky box won't record any more & has issues on various channels (Sky don't care as it's old - all they're interested in doing is selling a new & expensive contract, as we're on month-to-month !), and now the TV has started to lower / totally lose sound on a random basis :eek:. We'd been thinking of replacing the Sky box for a number of months now, and in prep for this (and also because we picked up a console @ Christmas) I picked up an HDMI-to-SCART box & some cables. OK, so that's the current setup & problems ...

Since the TV began it's woes, I've started to look at the various reviews for a replacement; I had been considering the Samsung 55Q6, but the recent price drop of the 55Q7 has pushed that into contention instead. I've also had a look at the Sony 55XE9005, but my wife was upset by the sounds it makes when we had a look at options earlier today (Currys/PC World - need I say more ?) so that's one out of the window ! However ... she did see another TV I'd discounted because of price (several hundred more than I'd allocated) & she likes - the LG B7 (or C7 - not a lot of difference from what I can tell !). Given the room layout, a 55" is pretty much the largest we can happily put in, and will be a massive difference from the current 31". So we seem to be down between the 55Q7 (lovely bright colours; decent sound) and the B7 (great darks; sound seemed OK). I'm interested in hearing what people would recommend between these two, and whether the LG is worth the extra cash over the Samsung ... or whether we should consider an alternative ? :confused:

Sources will be (initially anyway) from the integral FreeSat receiver (we have no FreeView aerial; something I'll probably have to get around to), and from PVR functionality (I'm planning on adding a USB drive for this); seeing as I had broadband upgraded to fibre a while back (we get between 50-70Mbps, depending on time of day) likely to experiment with streaming more than we have done in the past; in addition, we're now thinking of a Blu-Ray player (see later). As we have no current use of HD/UHD, I can't predict future use other than we will be using them (that's part of the point of upgrading ;)). The types of programming watched are general stuff (documentaries etc, never soaps though !) and movies \ DVDs; no sports; and gaming via console only. Day watching has plenty of light (the TV is near a window, and currently catches reflections), and when we watch DVDs etc in the evening we tend to have the room darkened. We sit relatively close to the TV (say 2m) and pretty much straight-on to it.

I mentioned a Blu-Ray player ... Given the problems the current DVD player has, this seems to be the next step (maybe with the TV ...). Not thought much on this as I hadn't planned on replacing the DVD, but given the lack of SCART inputs to TVs these days & the lack of HDMI output from the DVD, maybe it's time ! A 4k/UHD player would seem to be an obvious choice - but is it worth the extra over a normal Blu-Ray player ? What are the better ones to look at, especially given the above TV choices (I don't know if there are any gotchas in mixing/matching TV/players these days :confused:) ?

And if we decide we need to get a sound-bar ... what should we look at ? Ditto with what potential connectivity issues are there to the TV and Blu-Ray ...

As I said ... decisions, decisions, and I definitely need advice :D I don't mind spending some time checking out suggested items, nor in setting up what we end up with properly (of course, I'd prefer it to all work together straight out of the boxes :rotfl:).

Mike
 
This is a lot to process but unless you explicitly want decent HDR there is good value to found in the lower-mid range TVs found in my guide here: My best value TVs, 2017 Edition

If you do value HDR looking decent and you plan to utilize HDR sources then you can also look at the mid range and above in the said guide.

Hope this helps!
 
Hi,

Not really, no :rotfl:

After having a good look in JL yesterday, SWMBO is still in two minds about these ... I suspect that we'll end up with the Samsung as we can get this, a soundbar (that we both agree would be needed) and a Blu-Ray for almost the same price (with discounts) as the LG. A shame, as we really like the LG - just the extra cost that pushes it out of contention.

Now I need to work out which player & soundbar ! :facepalm:

Mike
 
I have to say, the Q series are not TVs I recommend for a reason. If you do want good value and don't want to reach as far as the LG B7 then I would be looking at both the Sony XE93 and XE90 series before the Q series personally.

Its not that they are bad TVs or anything, they are just very overpriced for what they are. There are better features and more pleasing image quality to be found from Sony, for less.

Wasn't the same last year with Samsung, but this year it is.
 
Yeah - unfortunately, Sony is not an option; I had been considering the XE90 but ...

In Currys, SWMBO couldn't bear going near the Sony corner; something was screwy over there (probably some misconfiguration somehow, I thought), as heading there gave her an immediate headache that decreased as soon as she left the area ... And unfortunately, the same thing happened in JL yesterday; not as bad as in Currys, but as soon as she walked through the Sony section - the headache started ... She has always been electro-sensitive (don't ask how many irons she's blown up :facepalm:); and it seems that Sony TVs these days set it off for her ... a shame, as we had one years ago that was decent.
 
Very strange, viewing TVs with black frame insertion can introduce more flicker than usual and some TVs flicker differently out the box or not at all. Some even flicker more the lower the brightness is set.

No idea if its your problem, but it could have just been that they had these enabled in the store in the demo mode whilst the Samsungs didn't.

They both have the tech.

See: Image Flicker of TVs: Black Frame Insertion - most of the info is at the bottom of the page.
 
I'm surprised as the Sony's don't have any image flicker, all are scored at maximum 10 for image flicker over on rtings.com, however the Samsung's have pretty average scores.

I also put Sony's image processing above Samsung's as well, Samsung do suffer from micro stutter more, the MU7000 is one example.

We have been discussing this over on another thread.
 
I think it just depends on which settings they choose for motionflow in their shop demo mode. If they have motionflow on with black frame insertion by default the Sony's actually flicker visibly worse than Samsung. Samsungs frame insertion is actually better than Sony's in this respect, although some people think Sony's interpolation is better than Samsung's.

So basically;

The Samsung flicker by default, but without BFI probably not enough to cause a headache for sensitive people.
The Sony's don't flicker at all by default but flicker more visibly if motionflow is used with BFI.

I don't know for sure if this is what your wife was noticing or not, it could be something else but certainly whichever TV you want if she's sensitive to that kind of thing you probably don't wanna be using BFI.

Be interesting if that is what is causing it though, would make sense.

In terms of overall picture processing I really don't think there is any difference between all TVs now, they are all very good and they all have their caveats...Samsung with microstutter, Sony with frame repeats, Panasonic with judder with 50hz material. Some of these have been there for years and years and tend to just be part of the software implementation they use and for some reason they never can get rid of it.
 
Well,

Had a browse on t'intertubes this morning, and found all the kit we were looking at & agonising over was cheaper from different sources than going to JL or RS ! On the thoughts of "nothing ventured, nothing gained", had a chat with the guys @ RS (seeing as they give 6 years instead of 5 @ JL - no other reason) & got offered a decent price for the lot; add on the Samsung money-back & I get the TV, BluRay (9500) & soundbar (650) for less than the LG B7 is on sale at ...

I've just stopped using this last week for the first time in 28 years!:laugh:
Looks like I'll be doing the same shortly ! And a similar time too :rotfl:

I don't know for sure if this is what your wife was noticing or not, it could be something else but certainly whichever TV you want if she's sensitive to that kind of thing you probably don't wanna be using BFI.

In terms of overall picture processing I really don't think there is any difference between all TVs now, they are all very good and they all have their caveats...
Ayup ... will start at defaults & then fine-tune bit by bit; see if anything kicks off the headaches & unset it.

If only the B7 had been at the same (or similar) pricing as the Q7F, I reckon we would have gone for that; but given the offer (both RS & the money-back), it turned into a simple decision in the end ...

Cheers for all the advice though !

Mike
 

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