New TV recommendations - 55"

[Cal175]

Need some advice to stop me spending £££ unnecessarily.

Currently looking to buy a new TV - currently have a 32" Toshiba LCD which was fine in my old house but I now have a much bigger living room. Any new TV is going to be a huge improvement.
The plan is to make a fake fireplace and wall mount this new TV. Something around 55" will be perfect, ideally with a wide viewing angle.

Initially i thought I would spend £700 maximum, but I've started to look at various features available and found myself looking at increasingly expensive TV's but nothing checks every box. Think i'm afraid of splashing out then realising I should have got something with X or Y feature.

Uses:
Mainly Netflix, Prime Video, freeview.
I may use my PC with it for gaming. This is not essential though.

Requirements:
- 55"
- eARC, or at a minimum ARC (I will be buying a Sonos Arc sound bar)
- Budget - up to £1200 for the right TV but i'd rather spend £900 or less.

Have read through some of the guides but I feel like i'm going around in circles.

Been eyeing up the Philips 55OLED754. I can get it for £910.. but how different is the OLED to a high quality LCD.. is it worth the money for my uses?
I'm trying to get the most for my money, but find something is always a compromise. This Philips is 120hz, OLED, but only has ARC (not eARC) and seems to lack a lot of features get on plenty of other tv's in the price range (Do I REALLY need bluetooth, miracast etc??).
But then if I look at other TV's they're not OLED and have a slower refresh rate - so are they not as good or will I never ever notice?

Good god, someone slap some sense in to me PLEASE.
Taking suggestions, and any tips on things I should look for which would be useful.

 

[Dodgexander]

Does this help you decide between display technology?

LCD versus OLED

Which is better; An OLED or a LCD? Often there are many questions in this section of the forum such as: Which is better, Samsung Q90R or LG C9? Which is better LG B9 or Sony XG9505? Should I buy a larger, lower range LCD TV or a smaller more expensive OLED/LCD? The answer isn't always the same...

www.avforums.com

Why do you have a specific need for eARC? Sonos ARC works fine with ARC as long as you aren't planning to use any HD audio sources connected to the TV.

For example, a lot of people think they need eARC but they may not realise that streaming services like Netflix don't use HD audio, and therefore its useless.

Regarding features like Bluetooth or casting, it depends what you want to use with the TV. Bluetooth is for connecting an external keyboard or wireless headphones/speakers whilst casting is if you want to cast specific content from your phone or tablet to the TV. Most TVs support casting on Youtube, so that is never a problem on any TV but if you want to share your screen or cast something else then you may need a TV with a more robust OS than the Philips OLED754.

Regarding value for money though, you'd be looking at waiting for spring 2020 to find a 2020 OLED for a similar price to the Philips OLED754.

Refresh rate: Explanation and Best Buys for the Motion sensitive 2018 Edition

 

[Cal175]

Im not sure I do need eArc then. As long as the audio quality isn’t noticeably worse for general use.
I’ll be using the Sonos Arc as part of my existing speaker setup (Spotify etc) and then with the TV for Netflix etc. I can’t think of any HD sources I would use?

Had a quick look at the guide and I think OLED is the way to go.

Am still a bit confused about the refresh rates so will do a bit of reading on it. Just wondering - do I have to be careful about what TV I pick if I’m going to be watching things in standard definition/old content?

 

[Dodgexander]

HD audio is only used in physical disk media, not streaming services.
So you only need eARC if you plan on plugging something into the TV and using HD audio via that device. An example would be Blu-Rays, or UHD Blu-Rays via a disc spinner. Or a games console.

Am still a bit confused about the refresh rates so will do a bit of reading on it. Just wondering - do I have to be careful about what TV I pick if I’m going to be watching things in standard definition/old content?

Once you get to the budget of OLEDs, every TV you can consider comes with a 120hz refresh rate, so it doesn't really matter.

Deciding between 60hz and 120hz is something to do when considering spending £500 compared to say £800.

 

[Cal175]

Thanks for the advice.

Eventually narrowed it down to the LG B9 and Philips oled754. Picked the Philips. Slightly cheaper and Ambilight. Don’t think I’ll miss the things the LG had and when I thought about it there’s very little chance I’d actually use my PC with the tv