Upgrading my 8 year old 40" LCD

georgeb

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I have a Toshiba 40" LCD TV which I'm now looking to upgrade. Ideally I'd like something that can offer a better picture and with a better smart os. I use Virgin Tivo box, Netflix, Iplayer, USB movies from a hard drive and my firestick for various such as IPTV. Plus XBOX One occasionally. I connect to a Maxell soundbase.
My budget is £400 to £450 and after doing the relevant research I understand that I need at least a 49/50" to gain anything near 4k/HDR.
50" is my limit for my room size. I think either IPS or VA will suffice as although the TV is in the corner of the room the viewing position is almost straight on (maybe a slight angle for some seats).
At my budget I've been looking at LG 49UM7100PLB (&7400), Samsung UE50RU7020/7400 and a couple of Sony's including KD49XG7003BU.

After reading some comments on hear I'm concerned that this upgrade might end up giving me a worse picture as upscaling may not be as good - we do occasionally watch some SD channels on Virgin. Perhaps I should hang on for a bit until OLED comes down to £450 ish??
Any advice / comments would be appreciated.
thanks in advance
 
By changing to an UHD model you open up the ability to enjoy higher quality content from sources that offer UHD resolution content like Netflix, or the Xbox One X. But you lose quality due to upscaling with sources that aren't UHD yet like regular TV, iPlayer, Xbox One non X. Watching HD stuff on an UHD TV is a bit like watching 720p on a 1080p TV. Its okay, but since its not native resolution content you'll notice more imperfections. Certainly with a larger model too.

So a balance has to be struck, don't go into the purchase thinking everything will look better than your current TV, it won't. Once you spend more money on higher end TVs that can display HDR without problems you start to get more value in an upgrade, but budget TVs cannot display HDR very well, so overall I doubt it would be worth changing your current TV for another costing around £450 and I'd advise upgrading only until you can spend around £800, perhaps more on a TV that has ample HDR capability. At least then you'll see a nice boost in quality with Netflix shows in UHD and HDR (with an premium Netflix plan).

My budget is £400 to £450 and after doing the relevant research I understand that I need at least a 49/50" to gain anything near 4k/HDR.
This tells me you have done some reading on the topic, but its really only half the story. TVs that can display HDR without problems start at 49" and up, but at the same time they also tend to cost more money. Really you'd be looking at the Sony XG9005 or Samsung Q70R minimum to enjoy HDR without problems on a new TV.

Perhaps you would consider a refurbished XG9005?
 
Thanks for your reply. The XG9005 looks like a great set so I'll keep an eye out for that on the refurbished site.
One last question... just to clear it up in my head! - on the cheaper budget range of sets that I mentioned in my original post am I correct in thinking that you'd notice less imperfections on a smaller screen such as 43" compared to 49"?
 
One last question... just to clear it up in my head! - on the cheaper budget range of sets that I mentioned in my original post am I correct in thinking that you'd notice less imperfections on a smaller screen such as 43" compared to 49"?
Yes, the smaller the TV the less contrast there will be between good and bad sources. So going for a smaller TV isn't a bad idea if you are still watching older quality material. Problem is, then you start to see less gains compared to your current TV, so the purchase also because less impressive, so I'd consider keeping with what you have until you can afford the XG9005 or similar because that way when you do upgrade, despite older stuff not looking as good, you'll get a nice boost in quality when you do watch new stuff.

For the record there are good and bad quality sources of all content. Things like HD Blu-Rays are still very high quality today and will not look as bad as say; broadcast TV in HD. The same is true with SD quality material, a DVD will look a lot better than broadcast TV in SD. So really it doesn't just depend on how recent the content is that you view, but also how compressed it is. Your Xbox one will look a lot better on a new TV than your virgin TV box for example.
 

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