Effects of next gen consoles on you to buy a new HDTV?

[Cyan]

In the US, Philips doesn't have a great following. It's usually seen as a budget TV. I've got a 6 year old Sharp 32" LCD & it has the same image as a budget TV. I might go with a 50" Vizio or Samsung LED next go round. Not top of the line or even the middle, but slightly better than Sharp or Philips.

Tommy McClain

(I had to re-write this post from scratch, typing again is a pita) Yes, from what I know after searching for the TV I wanted for about 3 months, Philips don't even sell their top of the line TVs there, not even some Philips TVs which have won quite a few awards. Other Philips' electronics such as bulbs and shaver might be better received in the US.

As for Vizio, I have barely seen them here.

Regarding Sharp, they aren't uncommon here but all the Sharp TVs I've seen here at people's homes are CRT TVs.

Samsung is quite popular these days here. I have 22" Samsung TV I purchased to play the Xbox 360 back in 2007 and also a 42" Samsung my siblings and I bought in 2008.

I was tempted to buy another Samsung at first, but I decided to look for alternatives. I am a Philips fanboy and saying otherwise would be the falsest statement of all time, although I also like other brands.

My parents had Philips TVs in the 80s and during the 90s. They weren't cheap, but they were worth it. That was one deciding factor behind my purchase, too. Sometimes one gets things wrong, but I can say that at least in this case I did the right thing. The TV has an outstanding image quality.

Philips sponsorship of the Williams F1 cars was also something I liked, because they were my favourite F1 team.

In the future I might try other brands, too, who knows. Shifty says that london boy is a Panasonic fanboy. He might well be, but I gotta admit that Panasonic always gave me that *solid* brand vibe, I can't explain why.

Finally, image quality and pixel accuracy make all the difference these days. Technology has evolved so much. If you are thinking about buying a new TV and you want to enjoy the next gen consoles and PCs to its fullest, try to choose carefully, even if you take your time.

 

[Arwin]

So, partly because our cable receiver remote stopped working, and our amp is already not controlled well with the remote, and I had some time for doing this today, and as an end result of doing so much research in prep of the PS4, I decided to get the 42" KDL W656 (probably same as 653, but EU version). In the store I was still in doubt, with the equivalent Samsung FX5500 being slightly cheaper and a sure fit for our wall bracket/tilt arm, which for some reason the Sony one isn't - you'd need some kind of adapter, which the store still didn't receive any stock of.

But reading the reviews, the 42" in particular was singled out for a) it's incredibly low lag, and b) basically being as good a picture and most everything else as the much more expensive 800 series, but minus the 3D. The Samsung was slightly worse in most of the areas I actually cared about, and I decided to go with it. I've set it up right next to the old TV, first going to just test it out for a bit and see where I'm going to want it before I mount it to the wall, may want to arrange some more things, like move the center speaker down.

First impressions first:

a) the picture quality is amazing. BluRays, apps, and games all look fantastic. Especially Rayman Origins blows my mind, so absurdly good looking!
b) convenience factor is huge, way beyond what I expected. The TV can fully control the PS3 - if I set the TV to the HDMI input for the PS3, it just turns on. I can start Netflix on the PS3 and navigate it, do everything, and turn the PS3 off again, all with the same remote, all very fast. Netflix by the way just got an update again on PS3 and is amazing, better than the TV App, and nearly indistinguishable from BluRay now - really didn't expect something like that so soon.

If I want to play a PS3 game, I switch on my BluRay controller, and the TV switches on as well, set to the PS3.

CEC and 1080p native, in other words, rock. Insanely happy so far, and really glad I did it, because with most PS4 games likely 1080p native, it's very clear this is making a big difference.

Man, 42" is big though - we sit barely 2m from the TV But with movies its still great, because they are widescreen and have black bars above and below, and for games the immersion generally really helps too.

Now going to try Pinball, to see if I notice the lag difference.

Edit: yes, a definite improvement! If I react in a reflex, I now always catch the ball, very close to the Vita experience now. Great stuff.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

The tiny bezels on that Sony are pretty nice The table stand was also the easiest install I have ever come across, not that there is any problem with them usually, but that was just really simple. It's great that they have made efforts with the low lag. I thought the mouse was very responsive on my Sony W685 just on the desktop and the new projector is doing great job on that too.

 

[Arwin]

I actually discovered that I hadn't even enabled game mode yet! I noticed that the lag was about the same as my old Samsung. Now it is really instant! My mental lag correction had to adjust, but at a second attempt I smashed my record on an old Zen Pinball 2 table right after.

It feels truly amazing now, and for gaming is definitely a really significant gameplay improvement. I got a taste for what truly low lag gaming was like from the Vita, and this feels even better! (because of the huge screen). I am also finding I am using different view angles now I have such a big screen.

I made use of having two PS3s and did some side by side comparisons. The old Samsung actually manages slightly bigger contrast with blue and red (but not necessarily better/correct), but it has always had quite good color. I haven't played with the settings much yet though, but am starting to get the hang of it. Something like Rayman which I have installed on both really brings out the difference between the two in terms of resolution, it's quite a big difference. But a very laggy game like Assassin's Creed 3 which I got from PSPlus also suddenly becomes reasonably playable again.

TV already had its first software update this morning which was effortless and fast.

One really cool feature is that side view allows me to remote the TV from anywhere. Just discovered I can turn on the TV for my son from bed (had to allow that in the settings). Also had some issues with lag/low volume from PS3, but then discovered the sync menu where I could set the audio output for the PS3 to external amp which I think bypasses the TV (have to do some more tests, otherwise I may need to switch to using optical out on the PS3).

The TV is really absurdly big to me still when full screen (we sit barely 2m from it) but it's great for movies that get black bars anyway and for games it's wonderful too, so thanks for that recommendation.

Agree btw that the construction and bevel is very nice and clever for use also for wall mounting. Downside is we already have a moveable mount and this isn't compatible. But I may try to do it without the 'official' adapter and see how far I get.

Great purchase though and it already feels a bit like I have a new console now.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Good to hear
I think also the "Graphics" mode has very low lag. It defaulted to that with my computer and imo felt very similar to game mode. I remember when I watched Blu-rays with my PS3 on it the TV remote essentially became a PS3 remote, which was great for playback functions, but I couldn't access the TV menus while the PS3 was still on. I didn't spend too much time to solve it though...

 

[Arwin]

Yeah, I had some trouble figuring that out, but that is what the sync menu button is for. This gives you a shortcut to the various presets among which game and graphics, cinema etc but you can also go to the full tv menu from here.

And yes, game and graphics have equally low lag, going by the hd TV test website I got my lag info from (which also has good hints on settings, I quite like that site)

 

[RobertR1]

meh. tried out the 65inch Sony and Samsung 4k's. Was hoping to pick up either set but lag is ridiculous on them.

Will see what CES brings. Really want to upgrade my Kuro.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Having originally decided to hang on to my trusty, rather elderly, Bravia KDL-40W2000 and upgraded my surround sound to a better system (a Sony STR-DN1020 - old model but dirt cheap). I've now changed my mind and, tomorrow, take delivery of a Bravia KDL-42W653 which I am reliably informed has just 14.6ms of lag in Game mode as measured on the Leo Bodnar lag tester and also supports 4:4:4 reproduction. I also bought a Yamaha YST-FSW100 base speaker just to add to the mix.

 

[menmau]

Probably none. I just bought a newer Bravia model with 32inch but with 768p native resolution.
For me its the best of both worlds really, as I can plug all my previous consoles, and the image still continues good.

 

[Arwin]

Having originally decided to hang on to my trusty, rather elderly, Bravia KDL-40W2000 and upgraded my surround sound to a better system (a Sony STR-DN1020 - old model but dirt cheap). I've now changed my mind and, tomorrow, take delivery of a Bravia KDL-42W653 which I am reliably informed has just 14.6ms of lag in Game mode as measured on the Leo Bodnar lag tester and also supports 4:4:4 reproduction. I also bought a Yamaha YST-FSW100 base speaker just to add to the mix.

Heh, good choice. It makes something as laggy as AC3 on PS3 almost bearable to play.

 

[Davros]

LG smart tv's have been spying on people
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/21/lg-admits-smart-tv-data-collection/

 

[Npl]

LG smart tv's have been spying on people
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/21/lg-admits-smart-tv-data-collection/

Damn, now some Korean personal might think I am watching the reality soaps my girlfriend tunes in!
How will I be able to continue with my life? I barely managed havingall those high boots ads in websites

(That is, if they manage to match the IP to my name).

More realistically, it of course needs to be optional and transparent whats going on. But its nothing compared to the information thats scavenged in the background while you browse the net.

 

[Cyan]

Congratulations to Boardbonobo and menmau for your Bravias. I definitely think it is on of those choices were you can't go wrong -except if you get a defective unit, but this seems quite rare when it comes to TVs-.

I have completed the built-in calibration test using my Xbox One and well, as much as I enjoy tweaking things all the time, the TV is easy to calibrate and get a high quality image from it.

In addition, I could buy a blue / red filter but it's not essential at all and I haven't gone to a store to buy it tbh.

 

[Arwin]

This image I just came across on GAF is a nice summary of the impact of incorrect full/limited settings:

 

[zed]

terrible designed image, should be using 5 bands (not 7)
normal
washed out
normal
crushed
normal

 

[Arwin]

Maybe but it's clearer than most explanations I think.

 

[Cyan]

This image I just came across on GAF is a nice summary of the impact of incorrect full/limited settings:

I think my TV is not compatible with Full RGB (PC). The calibration utility on the Xbox One also recommends people to use Standard RGB, which is the one used for movies.

I've been using Standard on the Xbox 360 for as long as I remember, and I left it at that on the Xbox One.

However, I tried Full RGB after reading your post -I know there might be advantages to it, I read the posts on that here in the forum-, just to test things out.

I couldn't even pass this screen. Why? Because the closed eye never appears to begin with. There is no black crush either. It's just that my TV might not accept Full RGB.

It is a modern TV, from May 2013 and has a native 36 bits colour depth, so it's just that they don't mind Full RGB or who knows.

No matter what I do, at Full RGB even if I increase the Brightness to 100 I can't see the closed eye in black. It's impossible!

Using Standard RGB it's visible from 55 Brightness -very difficult to see with that value, but still- to 100. At 54 Brightness it becomes invisible.

I tried the Computer setting on the TV -there is Game and a Computer option-. I couldn't see the closed eye either.

The calibration tool -which works very well and certainly helped me to get a great picture quality btw- does recommend the Standard RGB, and I think that TV manufacturers -or at least some of them- don't care about Full RGB.

 

[Arwin]

That is really weird. But sometimes you have to specifically enable it on your TV. What type of tv do you have? If it supports 36bit it is very unlikely it doesn't support Full RGB.

 

[Cyan]

That is really weird. But sometimes you have to specifically enable it on your TV. What type of tv do you have? If it supports 36bit it is very unlikely it doesn't support Full RGB.

This is the TV, from Philips' 2013 range of TVs.

http://www.tvstore.nl/product/305349/philips-32pfl4508h.html

It belongs to the 4500 series.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Slight addendum to my previous post about lag times on the Bravia KDL-42W653A. It's not 14ms in game mode like I was told. That, apparently, applies to regular mode; game mode actually brings that lag time down to 7ms!! Bonus