HD vs UHD TV for SD Material

[MrUnderhill]

As some of you may remember I have been cogitating about upgrading my main TV, but have had concerns about my SD material being rendered unwatchable.

I have spent the last couple of months upgrading my business IT and decided to include a new monitor, one thing that always attracts is screen real estate, and so I decided to look at TVs, I have been using an LED 24" for the past six years or so.

I wanted UHD, which means 40"+. Having done some research I have bought a 43" LG UM7400 LED for the grand sum of £299, including a 5 year guarantee.

Why the LG?

1. Price, obviously;
2. The screen is IPS and so unlikely to suffer burn in;
3. The response time is 5ms, so no annoying lag; and
4. It does chroma 4:4:4, which I need for clear text.

My primary use is for programming and office uses, but as it is a Smart TV with streaming clients built in, as well as Netflix and Prime, I decided to have a quick shufty at some SD and 4k content through it.

As I only received the TV yesterday I haven’t finished setting things up, but I will post my thoughts in due course.

M

[MrUnderhill]

With the current issues I decided to upgrade my work infrastructure, which is at home where I work. This included:

1. A more modern and capable NAS, retaining the older one as a file server;
2. Upgrading my network to Gigabit;
3. Setting up a spare bedroom as my office; and
4. Getting myself a new monitor …hence the 43" TV.

And …I am pretty pleased.

The TV is for use primarily as my monitor, but as my eldest is livinh back at home having a third TV may also reduce some friction when I am listening to my HiFi and the two ladies of the house start disputing what should be played on the alternative TV.

So, is the cheap LG any good, either as a monitor OR as a TV?

Yes.

It is a cheap LED IPS screen with 10 bit colour and claiming to be HDR. The latter is unlikely from what I have read as it isn’t bright enough, 400 nits.

For the movie comparisons I have the screen in ‘cinema’ mode, and turned off Eco. Otherwise as it is out of the box.

I dragged my wife upstairs and played the BR rip of Fellowship of the Ring, followed by the DVD rip of The Return of the King. As soon as we put on TFOTR she was impressed by the detail and brightness compared to our aged Phillips 21:9 screen. Playing a bit of TROTK the picture was obviously softer, but still good.

To test SR media I chose to play the first episode of my DVD rip of Buffy. This was originally 4:3. Here this TV can play an inbuilt advantage against the Phillips, it is 16:9. The 21:9 Phillips is set up to expand the picture over the available screen, and it suffers.

I then registered it with Amazon and played the re-mastered 16:9 version, which looks much better, on both screens. I am aware of the criticisms of the remastered series.

The software built into the TV includes iPlayer, Netflix and Amazon - which saves me the cost of ANOTHER Firestick.

Here I will upset true videphiles, i could happily use this as my main TV. I know OLED will give better blacks, contrast etc.

I suppose the main thing I would like to do is get a more modern 21:9 TV …in due course. Certainly my concerns about SD material are no more.

M

[perttu]

Sounds like you have made the right choise. It’s not always about specs. It’s about the feeling that follows.
I chose to buy a mobile phone worth half the price of my previous ones and I have been very happy with my decicion.
Atm I’m watching Jurassic Park through OLED and yes it does look fine but I think my earlier LED Samsung managed well too even though it is 10 years older product. I gave it to my parents and they enjoy their “new” TV.

[MrUnderhill]

Thanks.

In due course, when the Phillips dies, assuming that things continue on course and civilisation isn’t derailed, then I will look for a large 21:9 OLED …although by then Quantum Dot and other technologies will be in!

My parents used to benefit from my HiFi cast offs, ending in: STD305S/Rega Arm/Rega R100 >> Hafler DH101 >> Sony Power Amp >> Wharfdale Diamonds.

Out of interest what phone did you get? I have just gone on a similar upgrade round with my phone and decided to just stick with my Xperia.

M

[perttu]

I bit the bullet and bought notorious Huawei. Their mid range model at the time was Nova 3. Before that I had LG’s flagship model and before that I had the latest Apple or similar.
My phones’ lifecycles have been around 4 years. Nova 3 has one year on it’s belt now. So far no hiccups.
My Mrs bought the flagship Samsung. It is 3 times the price of mine, haha!

[perttu]

And when you are considering new TV options. I can say that my LG OLED has enough brightness and colours to give my Mrs. sleeping problems when I play HDR games on the next room. Qled as far as I know has even deeper colourscale and brightness (or contrast). So bigger screen can cause you some strange challenges.