Upgrading from Panasonic TX-P42X10B and/or LG 43UH610V

JDXAV

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We bought the Panasonic TX-P42X10B as our first good TV a few years after getting married, for £600 in 2009... this was a big expense back then. It's now our main living-room TV and going strong but is HD-Ready not FHD, a sacrifice we had to make back then. Has a Philips sound-bar attached.

In 2017 we bought the LG 43UH610V on offer for £330, for a dedicated TV room with a surround-sound setup, relegating the TX to every-day 'eating dinner' use. Its UHD and I think HDR but at the time we had no idea about how big a deal HDR was, just bought a well-known brand on deal-of-the-day. No clue how good this TV is/was.

We're finding the TX is not happy with Roku and have anyway been wondering for a while about upgrading it, but the guides on this forum suggest caution when 'upgrading'. I had 2 possible thoughts:
  1. Shuffle the LG to replace the Panasonic as everyday TV, and get something nicer for dedicated TV room
  2. Simply replace the Panasonic with something new
Viewing distance in the living room is probably 3m, 2m in the TV room. In the living room we don't want anything bigger than 45" so it doesn't dominate the room and because it lives in an alcove, in the TV room there is no restriction but we sit much closer anyway. The living room we typically watch with lights on much more casually, in the TV room it's often dimmer or just small side-lights.

Can anyone help me start to figure out some good options?
 
43” TVs are all low tier in terms of handling hdr material, so if you want a good tv for HDR, get something bigger - 55” plus for the tv room. What’s the budget?

This will give you ideas **New** My best value TVs, 2020-2021 Edition
 
Indeed, under 55" you can hardly find any quality anymore. We also switched from 43" to a 55" Sony A8 and we were also at a distance of 2.5 meters. The Sony A8 is really a nice TV with a beautiful picture.
 
43” TVs are all low tier in terms of handling hdr material, so if you want a good tv for HDR, get something bigger - 55” plus for the tv room. What’s the budget?

This will give you ideas New My best value TVs, 2020-2021 Edition
Thanks, it's actually from that thread I've come. Are you saying nobody puts good chips in smaller TVs (I still find it odd <55 is considered small?) So my hands are tied really for the TV room.
For the living room, I'm not sure HDR is really desirable or even UHD so I might just be after decent FHD and nice blacks... Did I understand the guide is saying I might as well just buy ANY TV and they'll all do a good job in this role? E.g move my cheap LG to the living room and turn off HDR, get a new TV for the TV room?
 
Sub 48/49" and you sacrifice quality, HDR is basically a no go on cheaper TVs.
48" OLED would be the best compromise between size and great quality, but expensive.
49" LCD TV like the popular Sony 49XH9505 would be the best compromise without spending too much money.
50" Hisense U7Q is the best budget TV with HDR, but still falls short. Not as good as larger TVs, but better than most other budget models.

All in the guide here:
Thanks, it's actually from that thread I've come. Are you saying nobody puts good chips in smaller TVs (I still find it odd <55 is considered small?) So my hands are tied really for the TV room.
For the living room, I'm not sure HDR is really desirable or even UHD so I might just be after decent FHD and nice blacks... Did I understand the guide is saying I might as well just buy ANY TV and they'll all do a good job in this role? E.g move my cheap LG to the living room and turn off HDR, get a new TV for the TV room?
See my reply about it to another user here: **New** My best value TVs, 2020-2021 Edition

Take some time if you can to read up about HDR, how you are reliant on an external device to disable it. If you want the luxury of using built in smart TV, you'll want to invest in something bigger/more expensive to avoid picture quality problems.
 
Cheers @Dodgexander yeah I'm read up on the benefits of being able to force HDR off by using an external source. We're probably going to go the Roku route for streaming, after finding the Fire TV stick increasingly problematic.
For our living room TV I think I might just turn HDR off from day 1, although it looks like the 43" LG we've got would be fine moved into this role and then we maybe get something nicer for dedicated TV watching.
 

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