My TCL 4K TV is showing up as "1080p" in the settings and in those Android screen resolution checker apps.

aweir14150

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I purchased an open box TCL 43S434 4K TV from Bestbuy. I have it set up and it seems to work fine except for one peculiar issue. The TV shows as 1080p in all the apps I have downloaded from Google Play. The apps that I have used to verify if the screen is in fact 4K are ResCheck and AIDA64. Both apps are reporting 1080p. I was beginning to think that someone bought this TV and returned a cheaper 1080p model however the model number on the side of the TV checks out. The model is indeed a 43S434 series.

The image definitely looks 4k in all the menus however I am concerned that shows will only stream in 1080p if they don't see the TV as 4K. What could the issue be? I am using the ethernet connection on the back of the TV and not through an HDMI input if that helps.
 
It could be that the tv will only accept 4k external sources and that internal apps are limited to 1080p.

Don't forget this is a budget tv running an embedded Android device, so it may not perform as well as more premium brands.
 
Thanks. I'll look into it more. I was also considering returning this TV and buying a Fire TV instead since they now support Amazon Music HD natively which I can output into my receiver. What I like about the TCL is it is a direct lit VA panel. There are not many options for 43" full array with local dimming or QLED without breaking the bank. Other ones are edge lit or IPS which I want to stay away from, such as Hisense.
 
QLED only affects the colour spectrum of the backlight, and for LCDs colour filters are a big limiting factor anyway so I wouldn't be bothered about it on a cheap TV - if you want good colour space coverage look for that specifically rather than the backlight tech.

On TVs without a local dimming system like the S434 I wouldn't be too bothered about edge vs. direct lit backlights. The idea that direct lit screens have better quality control resulting in better uniformity doesn't seem to hold true any more.

If you look at rtings tests for uniformity than the best models are almost all edge lit (the entire top 5 for black, 4/5 for grey):

And the worst models? four out at the bottom five in both categories are direct lit (and all five for worst grey uniformity are made by TCL or Hisense).
 

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