Question Will good 4k hdr tvs become more affordable?

wohnjick

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I'd love to make the jump from 1080p to experience 4k hdr, but I just find the tvs too expensive in general, even when the prices are reduced. The most I'd be willing to pay is £700 for a 55" brand new hdr capable lcd tv with 5/6 years warranty. I've had my eyes on the xh9505 on a while, but if the prices for the xg9505, brand new or refurbished is anything to go by, then it's beyond my budget. I find it hard to justify paying more than £700 when I consider that my 47" 1080p tv from 10 years ago only cost £550 and the quality was a significant upgrade from our crt tv.

With that being said, do you guys think I'll find a great tv within my budget next year, or will I have to keep waiting a few more years?
 
Hisense U8Q should be in reach with a reduction. Prices are high right now since its just been released, although I read in another thread Costco have recently already reduced there prices on this TV.

Consider searching for a TV at a better time, possibly Black Friday, or buying clearance/refurbished in spring.
 
Do you think I'd be happy with the hisense given that I've been looking at the sony lcd tvs which are better overall?
 
Do you think I'd be happy with the hisense given that I've been looking at the sony lcd tvs which are better overall?
The Hisense is rough around the edges but does what a lot more expensive TVs charge for. If its HDR video playback you are interested in, it will be brilliant.

With a limited budget if you shop from other manufacturers you won't get a capable HDR TV. You'd have to consider buying refurbished, and at a time of year when the TVs are priced better. Even refurbished TVs comparable to the Hisense U8Q like the Sony XG9505 have been north of £700.

The Hisense isn't without its problems, but every TV has problems to a degree. The biggest drawback is its picture processing, which has a few problems at the moment. If you send a 4k signal already to the display though, this isn't an issue.
 
I don't mind waiting for the prices to come down, I just want to make sure that I get a really good upgrade for my money. Based on the reviews, I'm worried that the hisense won't have the most accurate hdr image out of the box and I don't wanna pay for professional calibration. I'll still be watching 1080p content and sports, so I worry about motion and processing.
 
I don't mind waiting for the prices to come down, I just want to make sure that I get a really good upgrade for my money. Based on the reviews, I'm worried that the hisense won't have the most accurate hdr image out of the box and I don't wanna pay for professional calibration. I'll still be watching 1080p content and sports, so I worry about motion and processing.

The Hisense is great for the money but make no mistake it's a mid range television masquerading as something more.

It sounds like you keep your television for a long time so why not bump the budget and get the 55" XH95 when it drops further. Have a watch of Vincent's review regarding the Hisense
 
The Hisense is great for the money but make no mistake it's a mid range television masquerading as something more.

It sounds like you keep your television for a long time so why not bump the budget and get the 55" XH95 when it drops further. Have a watch of Vincent's review regarding the Hisense


In all honesty, as much as I love a quality experience, I think 1080p blu ray is still impressive on older tvs, so if I was able to get a good 47" set for £550 a decade ago, why would I have to pay hundreds more for the next step when the technology has been sold for consumers for several years now? The only reason I even stated £700 as max budget is because I acknowledge the size difference. Other than that, I don't see it as a materialistic pleasure that's worth more money.

Of course, I'd be more than happy to consider changing my thought process, so I'd appreciate a different point of view. Perhaps I haven't taken something into consideration.
 
Good HDR tvs are already affordable...

Coming to this place will only lead you to believe that nothing under 1k is worth buying when it comes to HDR - and lets be fair here, you haven't actually exp HDR, so how do you know their opinion lines up with yours? You may well find that a mid range Samsung is more then good enough for you, while some TV nerd writes it off because someone on youtube said the colours were out a little...

Spend a few hours browsing local shops and product test with your own eyes. You may well be surprised.
 
Good HDR tvs are already affordable...

Coming to this place will only lead you to believe that nothing under 1k is worth buying when it comes to HDR - and lets be fair here, you haven't actually exp HDR, so how do you know their opinion lines up with yours? You may well find that a mid range Samsung is more then good enough for you, while some TV nerd writes it off because someone on youtube said the colours were out a little...

Spend a few hours browsing local shops and product test with your own eyes. You may well be surprised.

While it's true that I haven't experienced 4k hdr myself, I do generally know which TVs have the best performance based on expert and consumer reviews. The problem is I just don't think an upgrade is worth such an investment considering how much I paid for my previous TV and how long 4k hdr has been around for. I'd only be interested in getting a new TV if it provides a significant upgrade in quality and the cheapest TV which may come close to doing that, within my budget is the hisense u7q. Other than that, I wouldn't know what else to go for given the prices.
 
Good HDR tvs are already affordable...

I can't quite agree with that.

For decent HDR you need a panel with enough brightness to show HDR and good local dimming for contrast. You won't get that in a mid-range TV under £1000 generally unless you buy the runout models in Spring or you go for a budget brand like Hisense.

Buying a £700 Sony or Samsung just now isn't going to get you decent HDR to the extent you'd be as well just putting 1080p through it and it will look very good at doing that.
 
While it's true that I haven't experienced 4k hdr myself, I do generally know which TVs have the best performance based on expert and consumer reviews. The problem is I just don't think an upgrade is worth such an investment considering how much I paid for my previous TV and how long 4k hdr has been around for. I'd only be interested in getting a new TV if it provides a significant upgrade in quality and the cheapest TV which may come close to doing that, within my budget is the hisense u7q. Other than that, I wouldn't know what else to go for given the prices.

I've got to be honest and say don't bother. If you want to see a significant improvement then you need to spend the money. I think this video might help consolidate your decision although it sounds like you've decided already.
 
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I don't mind waiting for the prices to come down, I just want to make sure that I get a really good upgrade for my money. Based on the reviews, I'm worried that the hisense won't have the most accurate hdr image out of the box and I don't wanna pay for professional calibration. I'll still be watching 1080p content and sports, so I worry about motion and processing.
HDR picture accuracy is common problem with TVs, Samsung models are actually less accurate at tracking brightness than the Hisense is. Many TVs don't even make it possible to properly calibrate HDR mode at all.

HDR would be the least of my worries if buying this TV. I would worry more if I was using the built in tuner, or that the judder in movies didn't get resolved. The motion issues should all be sorted in the latest update.

But if you want a better all round TV then you should keep an eye out for refurbs?
Good HDR tvs are already affordable...

Coming to this place will only lead you to believe that nothing under 1k is worth buying when it comes to HDR - and lets be fair here, you haven't actually exp HDR, so how do you know their opinion lines up with yours? You may well find that a mid range Samsung is more then good enough for you, while some TV nerd writes it off because someone on youtube said the colours were out a little...

Spend a few hours browsing local shops and product test with your own eyes. You may well be surprised.
I think you're way off the mark here. If someone thinks HDR looks good on a cheaper TV its only because people don't know better. Someone may well buy a cheaper TV and use HDR and think its impressive, but that isn't because they are viewing it as its intended to be, its because they notice the colours are better without noticing problems in other areas of the image...or its because the content they are watching is already such a big improvement compared to their old TV.

Very few people in this situation are going to choose to watch the SDR version instead, and discover quite what they are missing. When using built in apps in many cases you don't even have the option of choosing.

Most people would agree that HDR requires a baseline of specifications, and that is something that is generally accepted by both users and professionals in the industry. I've experienced first hand the difference between how a cheaper TV displays HDR compared to a more expensive one, and the difference is night and day.

Definitely don't want to visit any shops to view TVs and make your own conclusion. That is one of the number one rules when shopping for a TV. Never judge on what you see in the shop.

I wrote more on HDR here: All about HDR (High Dynamic Range)

Frankly its complete nonsense that manufacturers are even making cheaper TVs and advertising HDR is a feature on them. It's nothing more than false advertising. It would be different if they were able to compress HDR down with minimal side effects, but they can't, and it creates too many issues with the picture.
 
What sources would you use? How much hdr would you watch?

Netflix? Prime? Sky? Uhd discs?

What’s your main usage likely to be?
 
Frankly its complete nonsense that manufacturers are even making cheaper TVs and advertising HDR is a feature on them. It's nothing more than false advertising. It would be different if they were able to compress HDR down with minimal side effects, but they can't, and it creates too many issues with the picture.

You're spot on, the only thing I'd add is it's there purely for compatibility. Early non-HDR 4K TVs and displays, when viewing HDR material, looked awful with colours all washed out and an odd green/grey tint to them. Making the TVs HDR "compatible" does away with that issue but still doesn't make the TV in any way HDR capable.
It's even more ridiculous when they advertise it as having Dolby Vision and HDR10+ when it's not capable of showing basic HDR.
 
Early non-HDR 4K TVs and displays, when viewing HDR material, looked awful with colours all washed out and an odd green/grey tint to them.
I don't think this has really improved with the budget TVs. There are some that have better tone mapping like Panasonic models, but those are so expensive they aren't really cheap TVs any more.

But yeah, for compatibility and its a lot more compatible with dynamic HDR than static, but its still really messy.
 
Thanks for the clarification guys, I'll just be patient enough to wait for the hisense to become cheaper, or perhaps I'll get lucky with a deal from Sony.

As for Zeppelino's question - My main usage would be 4k hdr through streaming services and uhd blu ray. This brings another question to mind. I know that streaming is inferior to blu ray discs, so does that mean the hdr quality of a 4k blu ray movie would be significantly superior to the digital version in 4k?
 
I know that streaming is inferior to blu ray discs, so does that mean the hdr quality of a 4k blu ray movie would be significantly superior to the digital version in 4k?
Short answer is yes. Long answer depends on the title and the platform.
This is an interesting video comparing Apple TV to UHD Blu-Ray:


But Apple is higher quality than the likes of Netflix/Amazon, so we haven't quite got to the stage where physical media is beaten in quality yet.

The other factor is also sound. Perhaps not noticeable with a soundbar, and certainly not with TV speakers. But Blu-Rays have uncompressed sound which will sound a lot better on a decent AVR and speaker package than the compressed audio of streams.
 
I think there is better value now than we ever had considering the size and quality of tv you can get for a grand compared to the price plasma was or even high end crt
 

12 months guarantee from a reputable seller.
 
Thanks again for the replies guys. I'm gonna wait until I can get a good deal for £700 or less.
 

12 months guarantee from a reputable seller.

I think they do warranty extensions as well. That's alot of television for the money.
 
I called richer sounds and we agreed that it would be a good idea to call them back after the 20th of October at the earliest to see if I can go to their stores and demo some 4k footage from my usb.
 
Guys, I can potentially get the 55xg9505 used with 4 years warranty for £700 off eBay. The warranty is with Currys. Is this a good idea?

I've asked for more photos Sony BRAVIA XG9505 55 inch QLED TV | eBay
 
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
Confirm the warranty is transferable (ie in writing from Curry’s)

Should I request for that to be done by the seller before buying? Or do you mean that I should contact Currys and ask them?
 

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