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Just a couple of basic questions. (1 Viewer)

Jack Briggs

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For a few years I have been out of the loop, so to speak, on matters of home theater (among them, lack of a home in which to put said theater). Things are changing, however, and I just have a question or two about current display technology.

I am eschewing anything exotic, such as OLED technology. Rather, I am going for a basic LCD screen with 4K resolution.

My question is this: Broadly speaking, what is the general accuracy of LCD-based sets? How badly -- if at all -- do they need to be calibrated? Many of the screens I have seen have seemed remarkably good, colorwise, and I do not believe I am being misled by the high resolution (I had already been enjoying 1080p before my Personal Disaster struck).

Are there any other issues regarding modern displays of which I should be aware?
 

JohnRice

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My experience is they are remarkably good. Some experienced eyeballing and basic adjustment of levels, color, hue, so on seems to produce much better results than it used to. What I have learned from buying a couple sets in the last several months, is to beware if you want something that can actually do HDR. Basically everything today can accept an HDR signal, but the lower end ones can produce a much worse picture when fed HDR. For instance, last year I got a 43" TCL 5 Series for my living room. At only $210, it was unbelievably cheap and the picture is quite good. Better than the seven year old Samsung that cost twice as much that it replaced. However, it is total crap for HDR. I mean, an HDR image looks awful, not matter what you do.

So, don't believe that just because a TV says it "does" HDR, that it can do it justice. A few weeks ago I replaced that TV with a 55" Vizio M Series, and it does an excellent job with HDR. Not as good as higher models will, but I mean it's probably 90% of the way there for 1/3-1/4 the price of the cheapest OLED of the same size. You have to be careful with the Vizio M Series though. There are actually 2 levels of the same series, even the same size models.
 

Jim517

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I haven't bought a 4k TV yet, but my concern is how are DVDs going to look on it. Yes, we still watch DVDs sometimes, especially my wife. Also, how is 720p and 1080i from our antenna going to look.
 

Matt Hough

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I watch lots of DVDs (most of the classic MGM musicals haven't been ported over to HD yet), and they look very good with a decent upconverting player AND if the disc was mastered well to start with. Just recently watched Ziegfeld Girl, and it looked terrific on my OLED.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I have a TCL Series 6 TV, which is their “top of the line” series and it’s fantastic. It replaced a plasma that had cost nearly twice as much and it’s better - it’s the best TV I ever owned. It gives about 90-95% of the performance of an OLED at a fraction of the price. The black levels on it are just unbelievable. I never imagined a “budget” TV could look so good.
 

Gregg Loewen

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hi Jack!
I hope you are doing well.
Lots of options out there now for displays.
The 55" OLEDs will soon be on sale for $900-$995 (or they were last year in the May - July time frame). Not sure you can wait though.
what price point are you looking at ?

Gregg
 

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