Which 43" TV?

gritter

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I currently have an older Vestel made Toshiba TV. It's a 32" HD.

It's adequate enough, blacks aren't great at all, but when you watch TV, you don't have another TV to compare to!

The key problems with it are:
  • It doesn't play nicely with our Humax HDR 1800T - if you turn the TV and then the Humax, everything is fine, but if you turn the Humax on first, you don't get any sound.
  • It only has 2x HDMI sockets, which is a pain.
External devices:
  • Humax HDR 1800T - this may be due for replacement with a newer Freeview / Freeview + box.
  • Chromecast - this may become less of a requirement if we have a decent smart TV or Freeview + box.
  • Portal TV
  • SNES mini
  • Xbox 360
  • Pioneer DVD player - this pre-dates HDMI. It has composite, SCART and S-video.
Content:
  • Mostly Freeview & iPlayer. BBC, Cbeebies, Channel 4 etc.
  • Occasional Amazon Prime
  • Occasional DVDs
  • Occasional Red Bull TV
  • Most of this will be watching comedies, documentaries, Top Gear, dramas etc.
  • It's pretty rare that the SNES or the X-box will get used to play games.
  • We're busy, so it's rare that we'll watch a film. When we do it tends to either be from DVD or the Freeview recorder.
Other info:
  • I'd prefer a TV I can set up and leave alone.
  • 42" / 43" is preferred. We could fit a larger TV, but I'd rather not.
  • Simple to use would be great - Freeview + looks ideal for this.
  • We really need 4x HDMI + S-video or Composite
  • Built in Chromecast or similar would be great.
  • Having re-nameable inputs would be great.
  • Viewing distance is 3-5 meters depending where you're sat. Wide viewing angles are important.
  • The room is fairly bright but the TV won't be in direct sunlight. We always have a lamp on in the evening.
  • Ideally cost < £500. Young kids and nice electronics don't mix well.
  • I'd prefer to avoid anything that's got a built in microphone if possible.
  • I'd prefer to avoid anything that's got built in ads if possible.
  • If there's a smart TV element, it needs to be snappy - navigating iPlayer via the Humax is pretty laggy.
  • The TV sound doesn't need to be great as I won't be using the TV to listen to music, but I really don't like TVs with cabinet resonance / distortion.
At the moment I'm pretty baffled by the range of the TVs on offer, the many differing smart systems, support / updates for the smart system, and keeping things simple to use. My ideal would be a Sky style system with one remote for 95% of viewing.

I suspect the answer for a simple life would be to get a TV with the right inputs, ignore the smart functions, and find a Freeview+ replacement for the Humax. That way we have the PVR and smart TV running on one device and with one remote.

What fits the bill?
 
I used quidco to look to get £75 cashback against TVs over £350 from Argos, which had 10% off TVs code (TV10, which is also listed on quidco).

I bought the LG 43UP81006 that has 3 HDMI and good smart TV functionality, plus it comes with the magic remote.

With the 10% discount and £75 cashback it should cost me about £285.

You should be able to ditch chrome cast and I'd drop the old dvd player and just use the xbox 360 for that purpose.

The LG magic remote controls basic functionality of my YouView box and PS3 so might do the same for your freeview box.
 
Since you want 4x HDMI your options are going to be severely with a size restriction of 43" and a limited budget. This is only made worse by the want of legacy connections, which are also being phased out.

Some of the other points are also next to impossible to avoid, most TVs have mics built in, many have advertisements on content to watch next. Android models have a conflict of interest for you since they have Chromecast built in, but also are the most difficult to setup and navigate. Sony Android models this year are also lacking UK catchup apps at the moment, but should get them later.

PVR use direct on TVs is very poor, rudimentary feature support and single tuners makes using an external box still a requirement unless you give up on recordings and rely solely on catchup TV streams.

I'd think about what compromises you can make first, narrow down which ones are more important than others which will make choosing easier. There are choices that constitute to picture quality that you may feel is more important, for example in my opinion the most important to decision to make when buying a TV is the type of panel it uses, so that can immediately cut your choices in half.

As long as your expectations are low and you don't mind having problems with the picture when using HDR, no problem, otherwise it's really hard to recommend any smaller/cheaper TV nowadays for any kind of future proofing or streaming use.
 
Picked up the Samsung AU8000 and having loads of issues with it. From my reading it seems HDR mostly sucks on 43 inch sets which is a bit gutting. On the 8000, standar HD looks great but as soon as hdr comes in its a horror show. And I can’t find a way to disable it.
 
Picked up the Samsung AU8000 and having loads of issues with it. From my reading it seems HDR mostly sucks on 43 inch sets which is a bit gutting. On the 8000, standar HD looks great but as soon as hdr comes in its a horror show. And I can’t find a way to disable it.
You can't disable it on internal apps. You either choose HD and SDR or UHD and HDR.
With Netflix, this means keeping the quality lower in your account control panel, or keeping your plan non-premium.
On Amazon they have two sets of programs sometimes. One HD and SDR, one UHD and HDR.

You can use the TV with an external device like an Apple TV which has a toggle to turn HDR on and off. That way you can enjoy UHD+SDR no problem. Otherwise, you can use an external device like a Roku and set the TVs HDMI port to standard instead of enhanced. That will downgrade the ports to HDMI 1.4 and should also disable HDR. The caveat of this is that you then won't be able to stream sports in 4k since it will be limited to 4k 30fps or 1080p 60fps.

This is why I try to explain to OP (and many others) do not plan on using HDR on cheaper/smaller TVs, and expect problems if you do.
It's for these reasons it's hard to recommend smaller and cheaper TVs nowadays.

Unfortunately, HDR is a mess, and wasn't thought through when they bought it into the market, every TV and their dogs accept the signal, but few can display it without problems.
 
Thanks all, I went for an LG in the end.

As for HDR, I don't expect I'll be watching much of it. HD came in 10 years ago but most TV channels are still SD.
 
Thanks all, I went for an LG in the end.

As for HDR, I don't expect I'll be watching much of it. HD came in 10 years ago but most TV channels are still SD.
what model, IPS or VA?
 

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