Question Panel confused I am are you too?

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Easy bit, I dont want to spend Oled prices so I can park that.

Never really considered what type of panel my tv had, bought a Samsung previous years well rated last years model. My 6670 is showing its age and may or may not last too much longer (LED diffuser issue).

As I understand it there are 2 panels for me to consider VA, includes LED and QLED or IPS LED or Nano.

My TV lives in the lounge in left hand corner of a typical oblong shaped room. We have a single seat chair in right hand corner same wall as TV and 3 seat sofa along opposite wall. TV angled to those 2 seating positions about 20 degrees viewing angle from sofa and 35 degrees viewing angle. To the left hand side of the TV is a square bay window with a rarely used 2 seat sofa ( used when we have visitors ). We tend to watch TV in daylight and or a well lit lounge, rarely if ever in the dark. We watch broadcast TV and BlueRay DVD and occasional NowTV if we can source discounted passes.

I have a limited budget of £600, which is what I want to limit TV spending to.

Does my viewing habits and room set up suggest one panel type over another? I was looking at TCL or Hisense 55 " QLED if I can make it to Black Friday or Hisense Roku 55" if the Sammy dies before then. These are VA panels. Reading on here I an now thinking IPS would be a better option which suggests LG. I and not sure that my budget would stretch to IPS Nano.
Am I thinking along the right lines?
 

From ratings.com:
Based on viewing angle IPS is the clear winner
Read last sentence of Contrast Section in the article above. Not a substantial difference for your viewing habits. In a bright room the difference in contrast between a VA and IPS is hard to notice.
Black Uniformity practically equal.

" Neither technology is inherently superior to the other, they both serve different purposes. In general, IPS TVs will have a wide viewing angle suitable for use in a bright living room for sports or TV shows. They also benefit PC monitor use, since edges darken with a low viewing angle. VA TVs will instead have better contrast rendering them better for use in a dark, ..... environment. Choosing between the two is a series of trade-offs and qualities, so pick depending on your usage, as neither are the absolute best. "
 
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Thank you Unopinionated the comparison article is very interesting. Given our TV viewing habits and the last sentence mentioned I think my next job is to look at our Sammy and see if I can find out the type of panel we currently have and use that as a guide. After all for over 5 years we have not had cause to be unhappy with our TV viewing and as the saying goes if its not broke etc.
 
Thank you Unopinionated the comparison article is very interesting. Given our TV viewing habits and the last sentence mentioned I think my next job is to look at our Sammy and see if I can find out the type of panel we currently have and use that as a guide. After all for over 5 years we have not had cause to be unhappy with our TV viewing and as the saying goes if its not broke etc.
I may be wrong but i believe that until recently Samsung used panels made in their own factories and were always VA. However I am beginning to think that since the switch to 4K panels viewing angles on VA are reduced and backlight bleed on IPS panels is now a significant problem! (I do not have this problem on my 12 year old IPS Panasonic!)
 
I may be wrong but i believe that until recently Samsung used panels made in their own factories and were always VA. However I am beginning to think that since the switch to 4K panels viewing angles on VA are reduced and backlight bleed on IPS panels is now a significant problem! (I do not have this problem on my 12 year old IPS Panasonic!)
Backlight bleed isn't and issue to be concerned with if you don't watch your TV in a dark room.

When picking a new TV you want to ask yourself what is my viewing angle and am I going to be watching my TV in a dim or dark room.

If you don't watch your TV in a dark room then there are many cheap TVs that will perform as well as the higher end models, with the exception of HDR performance.

If you don't watch your TV in a dim or dark room I would suggest buying an IPS TV. If you watch your TV in a bright room there is no benefit in buying a VA panel, you just sacrifice the wide viewing angle.
 
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I guess the model number of your TV is F6670? If so its a 2013 model and uses a VA panel. Samsung have dabbled in IPS panels but at this time, were fitting most of there TVs with VA panels...in fact it was Samsung who created the tech to begin with.

Before then, there TVs used IPS type, and even today they play silly games with their TVs putting VA on some, and IPS type on others.

TVs using VA panels tend to have a viewing angle range of between 20-30 degrees before they start to show degradation in picture quality. Some are worse than others. Certainly its a recent trend for TVs using this type of panel to be worse, rather than on the better end of the scale.

Ask yourself how important the viewing position of 35 degrees is compared to the main position. If the person who views the TV from that angle isn't critical of picture quality, then you likely don't need to worry. (my wife will happily view my TV with awful viewing angles at a 40-50 degree angle). Also consider that whilst viewing angles are bad on TVs using VA panels, that doesn't mean you will notice it. If you view your current TV at an angle do you notice the picture gets worse? If the answer is no, then you are probably worrying about nothing.

If it is important and you feel you will notice it, and if you have a limited budget you will have to instead choose a TV using an IPS type panel. TVs with IPS panels have different strengths and weaknesses compared to VA. You can read about all of them here:

As for other terms:
OLED - A new display technology, viewing angles are almost perfect.
LED - This is an incorrect term used to describe LCD TVs. If a TV is sold as 'LED' then its just an LCD TV.
QLED - This is just marketing, its not a rival display technology like OLED. Its just a marketing term for how certain LCD TVs display colours.

In the higher end of the market there are some LCD TVs that use special filters that allow better viewing angles despite using VA panels. These TVs tend to start at around £1000+ and are 55" or larger though.
 
Dodgexander, thank you.
Both my wife and I are motivated by the quality of what we watch as opposed to the merits of the actual TV set. As such so long as we are enjoying the program we can forgive many misgiving in the TV delivering the program. Black and White TV in the 50's and early mid 60's gave the same memories at the time as does/will todays tech. Our eyes are not what they once were and indeed our son will go on about HD this and UHD that and to be honest we cant really see the difference.
Life experience has taught us that budget is not a place to be nor is high end, best bank for buck we find is on the high end of the middle ground and for many years we have steered towards last years higher end models in most of our consumer products. Having read some of your posts this seems to be more or less where you are at. Money cannot be ignored otherwise I would be driving a high end German something of a car as apposed to the gets me from A to B in comfort low mileage second hand 6 month old car supermarket one we bought...and really enjoy and like.

To all that have contributed to this and indeed may posts in the forums I thank you all, knowledge is key to making correct decisions, as individuals the correct decision is variable. I do not suffer FOMO and it is many many years since I suffered buyers remorse as a result of listening to and filtering opinions of folks like all of us i.e. actual consumers.
 
Given the info you have given already you'll be fine using a TV with an IPS panel, the disadvantages to it are to be found if you use the TV in darker conditions.

You should therefore discount Chinese manufacturers like Hisense or TCL that exclusively use VA type panels and instead focus on the likes of LG or Sony. Philips and Samsung have some TVs using IPS panels too, but its hard to know exactly which model will come with which panel.

Panasonic have TVs using IPS panels, but not TVs in your budget I'd recommend.

Come Black Friday I'll have my latest best buy guide which is the first time I'd recommend buying a 2020 model. It's certainly the best idea right now if you can still find one, to buy a 2019 model instead as you'll get a healthy discount if you can still find one. However its also very hard now to find stock. Usually those kind of deals are found each spring, so we are a bit past that now.

You could consider shopping refurbished:

They may have some refurbished models. There stock goes fast when it arrives, so there probably won't be TVs you can browse now, but when stock does appear (usually each friday) you can look out for:

55XG70xx models are the basic TVs, they have a basic smart system and offer the most basic forms of motion enhancements, upscaling and picture processing.
55XG80xx or 55XG81xx models are a step up with both smart TV, motion enhancements, upscaling and picture processing. They are the first in their lineup to come with Android TV.
55XG85xx or 55XG87xx models are a step up again. The first models that are very good with motion. They have even better picture processing and motion. Smart TV is the same.

Any Sony models with a model number including XH, for example 55XHxxxx are 2020 models, and are best bought Black Friday 2020 or later.
 

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