Topic: Finding the right TV for Xbox Series X

@MaccaMUFC haha I saw your username pop up on the recently posted and wondered if you had finally bought a TV!

I can't speak to the TVs you've mentioned but once you have picked one to buy, I think you should wait until Black Friday and then go to a local non-franchise AV shop to buy it. Do the research on prices from other stores and ask for a better price. TVs always have wiggle room on them with extra discounts available if you are brave enough to ask. You could probably try your hand at Currys/Richer Sounds too (particularly the latter) if you don't have a local AV shop. Should be able to get an extra 10-20% off the black Friday prices.

Apologies for the unsolicited advice but I always want to see consumers get the best deals and TVs are one of the easier products to get a deal on in retail stores through haggling for some reason so I thought I'd share!

@MaccaMUFC I've been looking at TCL sets recently. Was wondering if they as good as they look. They get good scores on the review sites and have all the new features but at a much lower price. Keeping my eye on Amazon fr4om now till black friday. I'm looking for something for gaming.

65C641K 65-inch QLED Television, 4K Ultra HD, 4K Android TV Smart TV (Game master, Dolby Atmos, Freeview Play, Motion clar...
65C641K 65-inch QLED Television
I 've been keeping my eye on this one.

@ralphdibny All advice is welcome mate. Hisense and TCL for budget and Sammy, Sony and LG if you've plenty of money.

@ralphdibny I won’t be buying a new tv until after Christmas, probably end of January or beginning of February. This years tv models usually go right down in price after then but I’m not waiting any longer which is why I’m keeping my eye on the TCL C935 which is currently £1,300 for the 65”. It’s supposedly a budget brand but that isn’t a budget price, it is packed full of features so can see why it is more expensive than their other models. I’ll probably be looking to buy a tv online from either Currys or Richer Sounds, both have stores near me. I don’t think there’s any AV shops around where I live.

@GarbonZoni That TCL C641K looks like a decent tv but depending on your budget, I’d opt for the higher model that has mini led. There’s a 65” C841K but it’s £1,050. It also depends if you care about having a tv with all the bells and whistles.

I’m just worried going with a lesser brand in TCL because I’ve always had Samsungs but TCL is actually global no.2 tv brand behind Samsung. TCL has always been know as a budget brand and I’m a believer in you get what you pay for, you buy cheap, you get cheap. But for the past couple of years they’ve been getting great review scores and have caught up with offering the latest gaming features. I’d just like to know if I’m going to have problems with their tvs like banding, dirty screen effect, poor uniformity etc because if they are know to have those issues I’d steer well clear and look elsewhere.

@MaccaMUFC fair play, still worth asking for a discount though! Currys have that little pop up in the corner of their webpage that says "Can I help?". I think you can ask for discount through that in a roundabout way and they might give you a 10 or 20% off code, especially if you umm and ahh to it for a little while!

@MaccaMUFC I've had the same worries with TCL. but like you said they are big sellers so they must be doing something right. I'm only ever gonna use mine for gaming and will use my sammy for films and tv. After sifting through a handful of trusted review sites, they do seem to score favourably for budget priced sets.
Black Friday should be interesting.

Any suggestions for a good budget tv for my Series X to look.good? I want be able to get 4k and all that but don't want to spend fortune. Links would be helpful since I don't know much about tvs.

@Tasuki on a budget means up to how much you are happy to pay and do you have any preference on minimum size for the TV?

I’m still looking at getting the TCL C935 but I’m thinking of getting the 75”. It’s £1,699 so a little over my budget but I can justify paying an extra £200 for the size, considering the likes of Samsung, LG and Sony charge an extra £1,000 to go from 65” to 75”. What I’d like to know though is there any negatives of a 75” over a 65”? Like will picture quality be better on a 65” with more pixel density? The 75” does have 1920 dimming zones compared to 1080 on the 65”.

Just found that the Sony X95L 65” is now permanently reduced to £1,699 and I know a friend who can get me a discount on it. That’s a big drop from £2,399 and making me rather go for that over the TCL C935, just need to find out if the Sony is the much better TV of the two despite having much lower local dimming zones and less HDR peak brightness.

So I finally upgraded my TV to TCL Q Series TV. It has the 2.1 HDMI ports for my Series X, question is though do.I need to buy a new HDMI cable for my Series X to get the most out of it and if so which one or can I just use my current one?

@Tasuki The HDMI that comes with the Series X is suitable for HDMI 2.1

Does it matter what OLED TV to buy? I know the LG C series is the most popular but wouldn’t any OLED look just as good and all pretty much have the same features? I only ask as there’s a 65” LG CS6LA at Curry’s for £1,549. I’m considering a OLED because I’m sick of going back and forth between different brands of mini-led tvs. I recently found that the Sony X95L I was interested in doesn’t have Dolby Vision for gaming and that its local dimming doesn’t work when VRR is enabled.

Then there’s Samsung who are stubborn not to include Dolby Vision and their latest TVs have an inferior panel compared to VA.

Lastly the TCL and Hisense TVs are not great TVs to wall mount due to them being very chunky, I can’t be having a big gap between the wall and tv.

I know I had my concerns with OLED TVs with burn-in, image retention and the fact they have a significantly shorter lifespan compared to LCDs but I’m more at ease after reading about the safety features like a screen saver coming on after 2 minutes of inactivity, the tv automatically reducing the brightness on certain parts of the screen where there is static logos and automatic pixel cleaning after certain amount of hours in use. I’m certainly warming to the idea of getting the 65” C3 for £1,699 but would like to know the differences between others. The wife wants a Philips for the Ambilight but the OLED model prices are astronomical, almost a grand more than the C3!

Would anyone recommend buying from Crampton & Moore? They offer a pre-calibration service in conjunction with HDTVtest and their calibrator being trained by HDTVtest’s own Vincent Teoh. The calibration is £199.99 which I think is a good price.

This is the link to the site where they offer the pre-calibration service https://www.cramptonandmoore.co.uk/tv-calibration-service

It says Vincent Teoh himself actually takes his time to oversee the calibration of my TV before approving and signing off on it. Maybe he does but I’m sceptical about that as I’m sure Vincent makes better use of his time than making sure my TV is looking at its best.

@MaccaMUFC Not gonna tell you how to spend your money mate, but I'd save yourself 200 squid and go on Youtube or have a search elsewhere online. There's plenty of folks that can help.
What did you end up getting?
Happy new year

@GarbonZoni I’m not buying a new TV until the beginning of February but I’ve decided that I don’t want an OLED anymore. I use the TV too much to have an OLED, it won’t last as long as I’d want it to with its limited lifespan and the fact I’d be using the TV for many hours on a daily basis.

I’m torn between the Hisense U8K, and both the TCL C845K and C935K. The C935K is a 2022 model and the most expensive at £1,399. The Hisense seems more equipped for the Series X that it can even do 4K/120fps with Dolby Vision enabled, although I’m more interested in picture quality, contrast, black levels etc. I’d always opt for 4K/60fps anyway over 120fps. I just can’t find any comparisons between the C935K and the other two TVs.

@MaccaMUFC I held off too. Just gonna stay with what I have. I haven't been on my consoles in a while, so didn't see the point of splashing the cash. I may have a browse of the Jan sales but not holding out much hope. Sales have been pretty crap last few months.

@MaccaMUFC I still feel in the same boat. My TV is generally on 12hrs+ a day - not just for gaming of course, but I do watch HDR Football/F1 on Sky with bright Logo's on screen for several hours at a time - albeit not every day of course, but it does concern me.

4hrs a day equates to nearly 1500hrs a year - which is the UK average, yet I would use up 3yrs worth of 'life' per year compared to the average OLED user by comparison. There can be days when my TV is on for 14 or more hours too. So if you are 'approaching' 5000hrs a year, I feel I'd use up its '10yr' average life in a few years or end up with issues far sooner than the 'average' OLED owner.

I still have my KS8000 as I have 'no' real issues with it - other than its a 2016 TV without 120hz VRR HDMI 2.1 ports but it still handles the majority of Content so haven't felt 'pressured' to upgrade until I find the 'right' TV to upgrade to. I'd love an LG 'C' series OLED and think I would be impressed for a year or two, until the degradation due to wear/use would show - which is why I've held off for now.

I am not really bothered about Dolby Vision - its like Dolby Stereo or Dolby Surround sound - its not 'essential' as you can still get Stereo, Surround Sound or HDR in the exact same content. Its a licenced version of these that's still 'limited' by the Hardware - it may help with 'dynamically' tone-mapping 4000+ nit mastered content down to the limited Range of current TV's to maximise each scene - especially with OLEDs barely hitting 1000nits peak brightness.

I'm interested to see what CES will bring us from the 2024 TV manufacturers - but with micro-LEDs allowing for much better Full Array Back lighting creating more and more 'dimming zones', these could surpass OLEDs. imagine a 1080p Array (1920x1080 micro-LED array) on a 4k TV - every 2x2 (or 4) pixels have their own 'backlight' - even a 1280x720 full array on a 4k TV would have every 3x3 block of pixels with their own Backlight' to prevent or at least significantly reduce 'Bleed' and ensure Blacks remain very 'Black' as no backlight is on behind...

But power (at least consumption), weight and cost is perhaps prohibitive of this at the moment.

@MaccaMUFC I can't give you any idea about comparison to TCL but I did buy a Hisense U8K and have a 2019 LG oled b9 so have some sense of performance comparison there. I'll be upfront, oled panels deliver a better picture for non-gaming content at the high end. I think my 4 Yr old oled performs better with 4k dolby vision streaming for prestige tv/movies than the U8K but there is not much in it. The 8UK does a better job of upscaling 1080p content though. For games, they both are great but the U8k is brighter and has a frame counter in game mode if your that into it (I'm not). The U8K has better sound also. It definitely has narrower viewing angles though so if that's a big consideration, I wouldn't get the U8K. It's not for our dining/family room but I can really notice details dissappear when you stand to the side. I find the U8K menu's slightly harder to navigate when you want to drill into stuff for settings but you can go fiddle with all of the minute colour balance details still. I did a little bit of RTINGS research but mainly stood in front of it a bunch of TVs at currys, then ordered it off Hughes at black Friday cos it was cheaper!! Ive been pretty happy with it and looking forward to trying Alan Wake 2 out on it once ive finished yakuza 7. I watched some of the footie on Amazon over the break on it (including the man u come back against villa) and it looked good in motion in sports mode. If money was no object, I barely get 2-3 hrs tv time a day so I would have gone for another oled but until I win the lottery, price very much is still an issue!! Hope this helps in some small way (apologies for the novel lol), though it's such a lot of cash and it's such a personal taste thing, I think you probably need to see it yourself.

@BAMozzy I share your concerns in regards to OLED and the fact that I use the TV for about the same amount of daily hours as you. I’d love the LG C3 as it has it all for gaming features and probably has the best picture quality of all TVs but I’m not paying over a grand for a tv that would most likely start having problems within the first couple of years.

As you know I also have the KS8000 and it’s still going strong to this day despite some light bleed across the bottom of the screen which is barely noticeable unless I’m looking for it. I’m wanting to upgrade mainly to take advantage of VRR, better picture quality with deep blacks, other features like ALLM will be handy to have. I’m not bothered about 120Hz as I would always go for 4K/60fps instead, playing in 120Hz the game’s fidelity will be significantly reduced but I would probably use it for certain fast paced multiplayer games.

I’m also looking forward to seeing what new TV models will be unveiled at CES 2024 but we’re heading towards the Series X/S and PS5’s fourth year, I’ve already been putting off on getting a TV for nearly 4 years. I’m 100% getting a new TV next month and putting the KS8000 in the bedroom.

I’ve still not decided on what TV I want. I was considering the TCL C845 and Hisense U8K but both have a depth of 78mm and 77mm respectively. Those measurements mean both TVs will really stick out when wall mounted, the KS8000 is fairly flat against the wall with no obvious big gap. That’s the only reason I’m holding back with both TV models. The TCL C935 has a slim design like the KS8000 which I’m happy with but it’s a 2022 model, £1,399 and I’m not even sure if it will be available to buy next month at Curry’s or Hughes which are the only places that I can find where it’s still available. I’m concerned about the lack of reviews it’s had despite it being TCL’s flagship TV in 2022, their last year’s flagship TV, the C845, had loads of reviews.

So I’m hedging my bet on a TV I hardly know anything about but what other alternative is there when both TCL and Hisense 2023 TV range all have chunky/bulky rears that stick out when wall mounted? There’s the LG QNED866RE but for some reason the majority of people urge against an LG LED saying they are awful. Then there’s the Samsung QN90C but doesn’t have Dolby Vision and uses an inferior panel other than VA.

I’m not sure what to do and I only have a month to decide which to get before all of last years models are discontinued and out of stock and this year’s models being too expensive until close to the end of the year but like I said I’m not waiting another year for TVs to be discounted.

@R1spam Thanks for your info on the U8K but like I said in my previous post, if it’s got a bulky rear where it’ll stick out when wall mounted then no matter how good it is, it’s not going to be an option. I can’t have a TV that has an obvious gap, my wife explicitly said she wants another slim TV like the KS8000 I currently have, she won’t have a TV that’s sticking out from the wall and I don’t blame her because it would be an eye sore. I’ve had people on a forum showing me pictures of their TCL C845 wall mounted and was shocked with the gap between the TV and wall, one of them was even tilted. That TV is 1mm more in depth compared to the Hisense U8K so even that will look horrendous wall mounted.