Returning my Hisense 55N6800, what next?

djstevie

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Bought a Hisense 55N6800 from AO.com and it had horrendous vertical banding. AO have agreed to either exchange for another of the same set, or put the £ towards another model.

Options open to me are either keep the 55N6800 or:

Samsung UE55MU6100

LG 55UJ630V


Sony KD55XE7002BU

Sony KD55XE7073SU

Panasonic TX-58EX700B

Hisense H65N5300

Hisense H65N5750 (Direct LED)

and lastly the Hisense H65N6800 (which i know had an AV Best Buy award, but the 65" version Steve said had great uniformity so either i've been unlucky with the 55 version or it uses a totally different panel from the 65")

Cannot find any reviews on the other hisense models at all.

Tv mainly used for Sky, xbox One, (Scorpio pre-ordered) and the odd Blu-Ray. Clouding doesn't bother me but i detest bad screen uniformity and vertical banding on the footy.

Any advice appreciated :)
 
Uniformity can be different on any TV so likely another of the same model you might have very different results.

I'll try to summarise the differences to the N6800:


This model won't give you more saturated colours with HDR unlike the Hisense. They also can't play 24hz content without 3:2 pulldown that can result in judder. Judder-Free 24p on TVs

LG 55UJ630V
I would avoid this, uses a PLS type panel and by comparison to VA type on other TVs this will have worse uniformity.


These models are the same apart from design and colour. They won't give you more saturated colours with HDR unlike the Hisense.

Panasonic TX-58EX700B

This model is probably your best bet and does have a wide colour gamut.


These TVs don't have wide colour gamuts for better HDR colour either, the rest of the details I am not sure about but I don't really see these being any better than getting another N6800.
 
The Hisense N6800 TVs are good ones.

The 65N6800 is recommended from Avforums.

So I say go with this.


:
 
Thanks so much for the quick reply.

So that rules the sonys, the samsung and the lg's out. The judder from the sammy would drive me nuts with a 24p bluray.

In regards to the Hisense 5750 the only reason I'd looked at that was due to being direct led rather than edge lit. My thinking was surely that won't suffer from vertical banding.

HDR in my budget I'm not expecting miracles but would be nice to notice a bit of difference so i could justify to the wife the purchase of another tv
 
The Hisense N6800 TVs are good ones.

The 65N6800 is recommended from Avforums.

So I say go with this.


:
As above im returning a 55inch version due to really bad screen uniformity resulting in some of the worst vertical banding I've seen on any tv. Not sure if the 65 uses a different panel apart from the size.
 
I would suggest you forget the term vertical banding, banding is mis-used to describe dirty screen effect. Banding itself is a completely different thing from dirty screen effect and is instead related to colour gradients.

Whats important is the dirty screen effect is caused by bad screen uniformity. Usually direct lit TVs do have better uniformity yes, but this doesn't mean they aren't also part of the panel lottery, just like with edge lit models you can good and bad ones.

I'm interested in how you tested the N6800. Did it have bad screen uniformity with just SDR? Did you calibrate your TV and have the brightness at a normal level?

If you engage HDR mode or whack the brightness to full in SDR any TV, no matter if its a flagship or budget model will have bad screen uniformity..even if it comes with a very very good even panel.

HDR is very limited on all the TVs, even those with better colour. In fact many would argue it will be better to stick with SDR as these TVs may look very bad with HDR engaged without having the hardware necessary to show them.

From your shortlist I would say the Sony XE70 or Panasonic EX700 would be best.
 
I calibrated it with the avs disc I've had for ages. Used steves settings for the 65 as a starting guide.
The banding appeared over several sources but was most visible on a static colour with panning especially the football. Even a panning shot of the sky and it was right in your face.

Tried everything like lowering backlight right down etc to see if it made a difference.

No other review I've come across had mentioned issues in fact most i read commented on the good unifomity. As I'm dealing with AO who haven't made the exchange process easy, I'd considered a different model rather than having to go through the hassle again if the replacement was as bad.

Will attach a few pics of the n6800 i have to see what you think although it's difficult to aee in a static pic.
 

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That's not banding, thats dirty screen effect! Take a look at the results and pictures of the tests here: Gray Uniformity of TVs: Dirty Screen Effect (DSE)

Its hard to compare your own pictures to theirs but I think there are better and worse uniformity panels @ 50% grey. I think that that its to be expected within limits of LCD tech, to get near spotless uniformity you are looking at higher end LCDs or even OLEDs and even then you can get unlucky.

There isn't a trend really anymore of direct lit TVs have better uniformity as you can see by adding the backlight filter to the link.

Screen uniformity is always a pain in the ass because its always on a individual TV by TV basis. You can't really go out and buy a certain TV and know it will be good with uniformity, just look at the OLED owners threads on here, every time someone buys an OLED they make comments about whether they got a good panel or not. Just the way it goes.

So you may find you get better uniformity by exchanging for a different model but in general at the end of the day there is always a degree of luck.

This is why many people are still sticking to their Plasma TVs. In 2013 before Plasma TVs ceased production you could buy very good value TVs still at decent prices, now for the same price you have to go for LCD as OLED is too expensive until you hit larger budgets. Of course LCDs, even with developed LED lighting still can have these flaws.
 
Thanks for the replys. Food for though.

Loved my plasmas at the time but i remember the last sammy plasma i owned had such an aggressive abl limiter it used to drive me insane. Never happy

Think I'm going to try a replacement but go for the 65 and pay the difference.
 
Dodgexander Received the 65" N6800 today. It's got superb uniformity compared to the 55" I returned. It's like a different beast altogether. No "banding" on football whatsoever. Even the viewing angles don't distort as much when viewing off centre compared to the 55".

When I ran the uniformity test clip it shows a small line towards the middle/left side of the screen but i cannot see it in real time viewing whatsoever no matter how hard I try. Delighted with it.

Makes me think Hisense are using a cheaper panel in the 55" or maybe not as rigorous in their QC checks.

Anyway just wanted to say thank you for the help and advice.
 
Great to hear! It could well be, could also just be the panel lottery!

I saw the 50" N6800 reviewed and that seemed pretty good, maybe you were unlucky then and lucky now, no matter, glad you're happy and thanks for coming back to update!
 
Makes me think Hisense are using a cheaper panel in the 55" or maybe not as rigorous in their QC checks.
Aw don't say that. Was just giving serious thought about getting the 55" version.

Took hours of research to finally settle. Or so I thought :(
 

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