Question John Lewis JL9100

lharoon

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I bought one from the Tamworth store. The guy in the store was very helpful and said they had been waiting for them for months. There was only the 40 inch model on display. It looked tiny amongst the home cinema giant screens but the picture was good!

It was delivered this week. I had difficulty following the assembly instructions for the stand. Well, I couldn't follow them, so I figured it out for myself. Other than that, "I" got it connected to my WiFi (PlusNet router with a 70Mbps Unlimited fibre connection from BT over the phone wire), downloaded some updates and tuned in the Freeview and HD channels without too much difficulty. I am not used to the Magic Remote so had a lot of arm waving to get over...

I'm new to HD, not to mention 4K, and haven't set up anything fancy like NetFlix. I did get a 1TB WD Elements external USB 2.0 drive connected today for the Time Machine to use. There were no accurate instructions that I could find, so it's just as well the TV managed all by itself. The drive had been used for Windows 7 backups and was formatted as NTFS. Still is, as far as I can tell. I used the WD Data Lifeguard to check it for errors (none) and the Quick Formatter to "clear" the files off it. Now there are recordings. Some tennis, dead easy to start an instant recording with a bit of arm waving, plus some scheduled children's programmes, must have the Clangers, and maybe the British GP this weekend...

The biggest problem so far is getting used to the Magic Remote. You should have seen me to start with. Like I was playing Twister!

Hope that helps,

David
 
Thanks for your thoughts David. Since you're new to HD TVs, what made you go for this particular model? Was it the picture quality? And how did it compare to the other 4Ks in store alongside it? I'd like to see it myself in store, but won't get a chance for a couple of weeks; just in time for JL's soundbar offer—on that note, did you pick one up?
 
My initial thoughts were that it ticked boxes: It was made by LG, so had a good chance at being top quality and reliable; and it was being badged and sold by John Lewis, so there was a good customer service resource behind it.

Having waited for a few weeks until it was actually in store, I went to have a look at the smallest, 40 inch model. It was standing at the end of a row of much bigger home cinema TVs so it looked tiny. However, the picture looked good and the sound was reasonable, too. I don't think that any of the sets had 4K content available. I wanted to avoid the upscaling artefacts I have seen on some of the big Samsung 3D LED TVs and thought going for a 4K set and then watching HD should eliminate that. Indeed, I have not had any negative feelings about the display since setting it up at home. I bought a 3.5mm stereo jack to dual phonos to connect the sound output to my old-style HiFi, but didn't realise at the time that I had to plug it into the headphone output, so that's an either/or but not both.

Another feature I wanted was the Smart TV webOS2 user interface. The main thing for me is the ability to record HD off-air using just the TV (and an external USB drive). The recordings are brilliant, using either the old USB 2.0 drive and the new USB 3.0 AV/TV drive, but both suffer from picture break-up if I try chase play. That may be down to the speed of the TV?

That's enough for now or it will start to sound like a review. I hope it helps.
 
Hi, I am awaiting the delivery of the 49JL9100 and saw your post above. How is the TV now you've had it a while?

I saw a review of the 55 inch model which criticised the viewing of dark scnenes/contrast. It's alway hard to tell if this is a reviewer being g picky or a genuine problem? What's youd experience been please?

Also do you have access to the you tube app?

Thanks.
 
I am still very pleased with the 40-inch version as a TV. I am using Eco mode for the display, which may make it a bit less than bright and fast in sporty modes, but it is OK. Where it falls down, or rather stumbles a bit, is in the software capabilities. There have been a few updates, but the Time Machine is still starting and stopping recordings according to the times in the EPG rather than the actual broadcast programmes. As an example, the Queen's Christmas broadcast (repeat on BBC2) started about 5 minutes after the EPG time, so I lost the second half of it. Most programmed recordings are adequate, though, and I have already built up rather too many on the WD 2TB USB3 drive.

I have also tried some 4K content from Netflix, courtesy of the free 6 months' subscription, Sense8 episodes mostly. They have been very clear and sharp with no download/buffering glitches, but I am on a 70Mbps fibre connection. But I don't think there's enough of the sort of things I want to watch to justify the £14.99 a month (IIRC), while Freview HD and iPlayer are fine, with the likes of Luther and Sherlock, and loads more series coming up in the New Year.

I noticed that YouTube has a test page and tried that using the web browser on the TV. That worked perfectly, so I have been able to show that off as well. The only problem with the browser has been the size of text on some sites, like Google search results, but maybe I'll find a way to change that.

I got a cheapo recon LG BluRay player and have actually used that to watch a BluRay film (as well as several DVDs) using SimpLink over an HDMI connection. It was Ex Machina and that was really sharp too, but this TV is good at upscaling lower resolution content, so it was difficult to tell the difference between that and a good HD DVD. You will probably notice more with the larger screen.

Neither John Lewis nor LG support have been any use. The JL guys are very keen to help, but can't, and the LG guys make stupid suggestions and then put too many barriers in the way of getting a satisfactory resolution (like not being able to attach a phone problem report to my online JL or LG accounts, so I had to write down a 20-digit call number, I ask you). I guess the instructions I got for sending back updates must have been wrong, because I never got a reply despite doing that twice.

I hope that helps, and good luck.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!
 
Thanks that's useful, you say that you used You Tube via the web browser. Doesn't the TV have a specific You Tube App?

Thanks.
 
I don't think so. I've looked in the LG App Store a few times, but that seems to be mostly full of games.

The web browser is pretty good with the Magic Remote. I haven't needed to look for more.

Hope that helps,

David
 
I have this TV and it definitely has a YouTube app. If I load a video up on my phone and press a button at the top of the screen it then sends it to the TV and opens the YouTube app which shows the videos through TV rather than the phone.

I've had the TV for about 3 months now and I've been really impressed with it so far.
4K content on Netflix looks ok but it's highly compressed to reduce file size etc. Playing a full 4K video on it looks stunning.
 
Are you sure it's a YouTube app on the TV as opposed to an image of the app on your phone? I didn't find one when I looked, but the web browser is fine for YouTube direct to the TV.

I have watched Netflix 4K (see above) but don't know where to get a 4K video? Any hints?
 
It's definitely a YouTube app on the TV. Doesn't yours look like this or very similar?
lg-web-os-v2.jpg
 
I found the YouTube app in the LG Store. It was listed under Premium but marked as Free. I installed it and played a few 4K clips with no obvious problems apart from that annoying click click.

Thanks. That's another little step forward!
 
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I'm buying this TV on the 15th of April. It seems to be the best bang for my buck. It was this or the hisense k700. The John Lewis 5 year warranty was the winner. I went to Richer sounds to see a hisense, but they had none on display. The salesman in Richer sounds was quite unhelpful tbh. All he wanted to do was up sell a Panasonic TV for £200 more. His words were " the hisense is rubbish, the rebranded John Lewis LG was poor also", but at every opportunity he steered the conversation to the £200 more expensive Panasonic. This was despite me telling him I had a stiff £700 budget. After reading the comments hear, I'll get the JL9100. The lip sync and USB only updates for the hisense pushes me towards the JL9100
 
I'm still very pleased with mine and the 4K YouTube clips are stunning, like counting the stars in the Pleiades... Software is still annoying in the Time Machine. For example, we just changed to Summer Time. No big surprise, but all my scheduled recordings were an hour out and I had to re-schedule them.

My brother went to Richer Sounds to see the LG version of this TV and he chose a Samsung. Curved screen, a bit bigger, I'm not convinced the picture is as good. He said he had poor reliability with his previous Samsung. That was one reason I went to John Lewis...
 

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