Emmsys
Novice Member
Hi Folks,
I can't find any threads on this new panel from Hisense so I figured I would start a thread since I picked one up a couple of weeks ago. I picked up the 55Q7809 (55 inch) from Walmart (with employee discount) but they also have the 65 inch version. I will give my thoughts about this new panel below but it's best to know where I am coming from. I've been out of the loop of the latest home theater trends since I got my LG 50PV450 in 2011. I loved plasma at the time because of the color reproduction despite LGs having less than stellar black levels. I never really set up a "true" home theater room. This Hisense is replacing the LG in our main-floor family room (mini-living room). I never had a single issue with the LG and it still works perfectly well, especially using an Amazon Fire stick. My dream is still a home theater room with some kind of LG OLED.
So, having said all that, here are my impressions of the Hisense after having it for a couple of weeks.
Absolute first initial impressions when taking it out of the box:
The Hisense runs on AndroidTV 8.0.0 which is pretty cool coming from a "dumb" LG plasma. Similar feel to Amazon's Fire TV. The menus are pretty responsive and the apps load in a few seconds. Not instant-loading, but not unbearable either. Connecting to my Wifi network (5GHz or 2.4GHz) is straightforward. There are tons of picture settings from basic modes to very fine configuration of color settings for the calibrators in the house.
Issues experienced:
Now for the important stuff, picture quality. Aside from choosing "Home" instead of "Store" mode, I haven't played with the color settings yet. I find the HDR/Dolby Vision feeds from Netflix, Disney+ and Youtube are freakin' beautiful. Clearly the contrast is much better than my old plasma. Now black is a nice inky black while all of the other colors pop nicely without blooming. I haven't been this excited to watch TV since the first Blurays came out. I imagine I will need to adjust the colors once I run some calibration stuff but even as is, I think it looks spectacular. However, for 1080p or lower viewing (like Bell FibeTV) I will definitely need to adjust the settings. Red is blooming, skin tones are reddish and every other color feels too punchy. It doesn't look like the TV has separate settings for HDR/Vision and 1080p viewing so I will see if adjusting the colors for 1080p stuff impacts 4K.
I find Netflix has the best quality, and the most 4K/60fps movies. Actually, I haven't viewed a 4K/60fps movie on Disney+ yet. At 60fps, I find there's the (very) occasional framerate stutter when scenes pan really fast but you will have to tell me if it's just because it's a cheap TV or if it is the source material. Honestly, I only notice it because I am picky. My wife doesn't notice it at all.
Here's the biggest downfall compared to my old plasma: viewing angle. I am lucky that viewing angle is not a problem (for all but 1 sofa seat) but you really have a small window in front of the TV to get the best colors/contrast. Same for the vertical axis. I would be curious how this looks if it was sitting higher on the wall instead of a HT unit but for those used to a plasma TV, be wary of the huge loss of color fidelity because of the viewing angle on this QLED.
The TV supports Alexa and talking into the remove control but I never tried these features yet. For now sound is being output through the optical out of the TV to a DAC, then to a Marantz M-CR612. Nothing fancy but the DAC really improves stereo sound quality.
Oh and for now I've been gaming with a PS Classic (couldn't resist picking one up for $36 CAD) and it runs well. Will eventually get back to my PS4 once I am out of this retro-gaming phase. There might be the slightest of motion blur when playing video games or watching hockey, but it's nothing like LCD TVs of the past. I tried adjusting some of the motion-related settings but I like how it was by default ("normal") and it runs fine.
TLDR; Really amazing picture quality with deep inky blacks and incredible contrast (especially compared to LG plasma), cheap remote, poor (but useable) viewing angle compared to plasma, slightly glitchy Wifi in the first week. Consider the price I paid, it's a massive upgrade from my LG plasma (which says a lot to me since the LG still looks great!).
I will keep updating this thread with new things that I discover or experiment with.
Emmsys
I can't find any threads on this new panel from Hisense so I figured I would start a thread since I picked one up a couple of weeks ago. I picked up the 55Q7809 (55 inch) from Walmart (with employee discount) but they also have the 65 inch version. I will give my thoughts about this new panel below but it's best to know where I am coming from. I've been out of the loop of the latest home theater trends since I got my LG 50PV450 in 2011. I loved plasma at the time because of the color reproduction despite LGs having less than stellar black levels. I never really set up a "true" home theater room. This Hisense is replacing the LG in our main-floor family room (mini-living room). I never had a single issue with the LG and it still works perfectly well, especially using an Amazon Fire stick. My dream is still a home theater room with some kind of LG OLED.
So, having said all that, here are my impressions of the Hisense after having it for a couple of weeks.
Absolute first initial impressions when taking it out of the box:
- Weighs significantly less than the ol'plasma TV
- Very thin border around the panel (This 55" panel is almost the same dimensions as the 50" plasma because the plasma had a very thick border)
- The TV gets pretty thick where you need to plug in the power cable, HDMI connections etc. I imagine there are much thinner panels out there
- Remote is small with only a few buttons and a 4-way pad that does not have enough depth to easily know which button you are pressing. I got used to it now but I would press the wrong directional-button or hit the Home button by mistake. Not the best remote control.
- My TV is not on a wall so the base itself work well. The feet have a small rubber padding but I find it's almost too "plasticky". I put some felt pads underneath to avoid scratching the glass top that it is sitting on.
The Hisense runs on AndroidTV 8.0.0 which is pretty cool coming from a "dumb" LG plasma. Similar feel to Amazon's Fire TV. The menus are pretty responsive and the apps load in a few seconds. Not instant-loading, but not unbearable either. Connecting to my Wifi network (5GHz or 2.4GHz) is straightforward. There are tons of picture settings from basic modes to very fine configuration of color settings for the calibrators in the house.
Issues experienced:
- Wifi-Internet connectivity issues were happening where the TV showed Wifi was connected but no Internet detected. This would only happen when power-on the TV. I would need to just turn off Wifi, then re-enable it to fix it. It hasn't happened in the second week. Strange. Also do a "real" power off instead of a standby power off fixes it as well.
Now for the important stuff, picture quality. Aside from choosing "Home" instead of "Store" mode, I haven't played with the color settings yet. I find the HDR/Dolby Vision feeds from Netflix, Disney+ and Youtube are freakin' beautiful. Clearly the contrast is much better than my old plasma. Now black is a nice inky black while all of the other colors pop nicely without blooming. I haven't been this excited to watch TV since the first Blurays came out. I imagine I will need to adjust the colors once I run some calibration stuff but even as is, I think it looks spectacular. However, for 1080p or lower viewing (like Bell FibeTV) I will definitely need to adjust the settings. Red is blooming, skin tones are reddish and every other color feels too punchy. It doesn't look like the TV has separate settings for HDR/Vision and 1080p viewing so I will see if adjusting the colors for 1080p stuff impacts 4K.
I find Netflix has the best quality, and the most 4K/60fps movies. Actually, I haven't viewed a 4K/60fps movie on Disney+ yet. At 60fps, I find there's the (very) occasional framerate stutter when scenes pan really fast but you will have to tell me if it's just because it's a cheap TV or if it is the source material. Honestly, I only notice it because I am picky. My wife doesn't notice it at all.
Here's the biggest downfall compared to my old plasma: viewing angle. I am lucky that viewing angle is not a problem (for all but 1 sofa seat) but you really have a small window in front of the TV to get the best colors/contrast. Same for the vertical axis. I would be curious how this looks if it was sitting higher on the wall instead of a HT unit but for those used to a plasma TV, be wary of the huge loss of color fidelity because of the viewing angle on this QLED.
The TV supports Alexa and talking into the remove control but I never tried these features yet. For now sound is being output through the optical out of the TV to a DAC, then to a Marantz M-CR612. Nothing fancy but the DAC really improves stereo sound quality.
Oh and for now I've been gaming with a PS Classic (couldn't resist picking one up for $36 CAD) and it runs well. Will eventually get back to my PS4 once I am out of this retro-gaming phase. There might be the slightest of motion blur when playing video games or watching hockey, but it's nothing like LCD TVs of the past. I tried adjusting some of the motion-related settings but I like how it was by default ("normal") and it runs fine.
TLDR; Really amazing picture quality with deep inky blacks and incredible contrast (especially compared to LG plasma), cheap remote, poor (but useable) viewing angle compared to plasma, slightly glitchy Wifi in the first week. Consider the price I paid, it's a massive upgrade from my LG plasma (which says a lot to me since the LG still looks great!).
I will keep updating this thread with new things that I discover or experiment with.
Emmsys
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