I’m just getting into 4K TVs, I’m finding it terribly confusing, and I need some help. I’ll try not to make this too long.
I recently bought a 55” LG UQ8000, an entry level 4K model, for my apartment living room. (A friend has numerous TVS and buys LG exclusively these days and recommended them, but he gets high end TVs.) I didn’t particularly care for the images I was getting across the board, but I was particularly struck by the way it rendered SD; it was noticeably blurry.
I should mention it’s a small living room and I sit 9’-10’ away from the screen. I know I’ll need a sound bar, but I don’t care about surround sound or any kind of home theater experience.
My only other LED TV is a 32” Vizio D series I’ve had for several years, that I don’t watch often (I’ve had it in my bedroom on and off). I never noticed a difference between the HD and SD channels; I don’t know if it’s because it’s a small TV or because its only 1080p, but the difference wasn’t as great. I didn’t even know about the difference between the two resolutions until now; I just assumed everyone was broadcasting in HD (I’m obviously behind the curve on all of this).
I returned the LG for a number of reasons in addition to the picture - 55” was much too big for me, I found the menu system laggy and I didn’t care for the LG’s “Magic Remote”.
My friend sent me a link to Best Buy’s Black Friday offerings. They had a 48” LG A2 OLED model, which they ordinarily sell for $1300, on sale for $549. It believe it was reviewed elsewhere on this site while it was on sale; the reviewer regarded it as an entry level OLED model and I think he said it was a decent buy if you could get it on sale, but there were better options for $1300 (which I wasn’t going to spend in any case).
My friend ordered it for me (he has a Total Tech membership, which bumps the return window up to 60 days). The HD picture is noticeably better than that of the LED model, but again, I’m not liking the way it renders SD content. It’s better than the other TV, but not by a great deal.
I should mention that I don’t watch a lot of TV these days, and when I do, it’s largely PBS, and two of their channels, World and Create, are broadcast only in SD.
My friend has a salesman with whom he works at Best Buy (he buys a lot of TVs), and got him on the phone with us before I ordered this one. He told me some TVs will do a better job than others at 4K upscaling. (The 55” was so bad at it I didn’t think it had 4K upscaling; I found out it did after I returned it.)
I’m thinking of returning this one as well, as I really don’t like the way it renders the SD channels and again, I find it a little big (I don’t like big TVs, even though I realize 48” is hardly big by today’s standards) and going to a 43” model, but I don’t know what I’d get.
My friend is against my returning it, as I won’t see another TV at this level for that kind of price for a while.
I saw a Hisense LED in Costco recently I liked the picture of, but of course, that was in the warehouse and they were using looped content. Hisense also touts their 4K upscaling, so I just ordered the 43” version to compare them. It hasn’t come in yet.
I’ve avoided Samsung LEDs as in the past, I’ve frequently found their picture to be very bright (which I don’t care for) and the colors oversaturated, like cartoon colors. The Best Buy guy confirmed this.
The return window is drawing to a close, I have to make a decision and I really don’t know what to do.
My questions are:
- Are LGs just bad across the board at 4K upscaling?
- Will a cheaper model from another manufacturer render SD content more accurately than this LG model, even though it’s OLED?
- Before I saw this OLED model on sale, I was going to order a Samsung or Vizio QLED (they have them at Costco and BJs). Would I be better off with that?
- Or maybe I should just get an inexpensive 1080p model and call it a day?
Thank you for reading all of this.
I recently bought a 55” LG UQ8000, an entry level 4K model, for my apartment living room. (A friend has numerous TVS and buys LG exclusively these days and recommended them, but he gets high end TVs.) I didn’t particularly care for the images I was getting across the board, but I was particularly struck by the way it rendered SD; it was noticeably blurry.
I should mention it’s a small living room and I sit 9’-10’ away from the screen. I know I’ll need a sound bar, but I don’t care about surround sound or any kind of home theater experience.
My only other LED TV is a 32” Vizio D series I’ve had for several years, that I don’t watch often (I’ve had it in my bedroom on and off). I never noticed a difference between the HD and SD channels; I don’t know if it’s because it’s a small TV or because its only 1080p, but the difference wasn’t as great. I didn’t even know about the difference between the two resolutions until now; I just assumed everyone was broadcasting in HD (I’m obviously behind the curve on all of this).
I returned the LG for a number of reasons in addition to the picture - 55” was much too big for me, I found the menu system laggy and I didn’t care for the LG’s “Magic Remote”.
My friend sent me a link to Best Buy’s Black Friday offerings. They had a 48” LG A2 OLED model, which they ordinarily sell for $1300, on sale for $549. It believe it was reviewed elsewhere on this site while it was on sale; the reviewer regarded it as an entry level OLED model and I think he said it was a decent buy if you could get it on sale, but there were better options for $1300 (which I wasn’t going to spend in any case).
My friend ordered it for me (he has a Total Tech membership, which bumps the return window up to 60 days). The HD picture is noticeably better than that of the LED model, but again, I’m not liking the way it renders SD content. It’s better than the other TV, but not by a great deal.
I should mention that I don’t watch a lot of TV these days, and when I do, it’s largely PBS, and two of their channels, World and Create, are broadcast only in SD.
My friend has a salesman with whom he works at Best Buy (he buys a lot of TVs), and got him on the phone with us before I ordered this one. He told me some TVs will do a better job than others at 4K upscaling. (The 55” was so bad at it I didn’t think it had 4K upscaling; I found out it did after I returned it.)
I’m thinking of returning this one as well, as I really don’t like the way it renders the SD channels and again, I find it a little big (I don’t like big TVs, even though I realize 48” is hardly big by today’s standards) and going to a 43” model, but I don’t know what I’d get.
My friend is against my returning it, as I won’t see another TV at this level for that kind of price for a while.
I saw a Hisense LED in Costco recently I liked the picture of, but of course, that was in the warehouse and they were using looped content. Hisense also touts their 4K upscaling, so I just ordered the 43” version to compare them. It hasn’t come in yet.
I’ve avoided Samsung LEDs as in the past, I’ve frequently found their picture to be very bright (which I don’t care for) and the colors oversaturated, like cartoon colors. The Best Buy guy confirmed this.
The return window is drawing to a close, I have to make a decision and I really don’t know what to do.
My questions are:
- Are LGs just bad across the board at 4K upscaling?
- Will a cheaper model from another manufacturer render SD content more accurately than this LG model, even though it’s OLED?
- Before I saw this OLED model on sale, I was going to order a Samsung or Vizio QLED (they have them at Costco and BJs). Would I be better off with that?
- Or maybe I should just get an inexpensive 1080p model and call it a day?
Thank you for reading all of this.
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