Is this TV worth having?
Discussion
I’ve been thinking of replacing my 15year old Panasonic 50inch plasma TV and received a marketing mail shot from ao today.
The TV is wall hung on a swivel arm bracket in the corner of a room 6.5m x 7.5m
Will this be a decent replacement, or will I be disappointed?
https://ao.com/product/ue65tu8300-samsung-tv-grey-...
The TV is wall hung on a swivel arm bracket in the corner of a room 6.5m x 7.5m
Will this be a decent replacement, or will I be disappointed?
https://ao.com/product/ue65tu8300-samsung-tv-grey-...
No.
You'll need to spend c.£1,300 to get close to your old plasma. How do Iknow? that's what it cost me to replace an old Pioneer plasma with OLED a few years back.
You'll be needing either OLED or QLED. OLED (good contrast) is great so long as the room isn't too bright. Samsung QLEDs are very fine TVs at relatively modest cost. I have a 65" which works nicely.
You'll need to spend c.£1,300 to get close to your old plasma. How do Iknow? that's what it cost me to replace an old Pioneer plasma with OLED a few years back.
You'll be needing either OLED or QLED. OLED (good contrast) is great so long as the room isn't too bright. Samsung QLEDs are very fine TVs at relatively modest cost. I have a 65" which works nicely.
I’m not set on a 65inch screen, but wouldn’t want to go smaller than the 50inch I’ve got used to.
I was hoping to keep the budget, well below £1k, so am disappointed to be told that I need to spend £1300 to get something better than my old plasma.
The room is very bright, so I don’t think oled would be the best choice.
I was hoping to keep the budget, well below £1k, so am disappointed to be told that I need to spend £1300 to get something better than my old plasma.
The room is very bright, so I don’t think oled would be the best choice.
sparkythecat said:
I’m not set on a 65inch screen, but wouldn’t want to go smaller than the 50inch I’ve got used to.
I was hoping to keep the budget, well below £1k, so am disappointed to be told that I need to spend £1300 to get something better than my old plasma.
The room is very bright, so I don’t think oled would be the best choice.
Can u remember how much your old TV cost?I was hoping to keep the budget, well below £1k, so am disappointed to be told that I need to spend £1300 to get something better than my old plasma.
The room is very bright, so I don’t think oled would be the best choice.
sparkythecat said:
RUSTILLDOWN said:
Can u remember how much your old TV cost?
Yes I can. How does that help?
If you pay significantly less (when factoring in 15 years of inflation) your new TV will be a bright lamp with a lot of motion blur.
(I have a 10 year old 50 inch Panny Neo Plasma)
sparkythecat said:
RUSTILLDOWN said:
Can u remember how much your old TV cost?
Yes I can. How does that help?
The crap TVs have got a lot cheaper, but the decent ones are expensive. OLED is very bright, don't be put off thinking they're somehow not suitable for bright rooms.
RUSTILLDOWN said:
sparkythecat said:
RUSTILLDOWN said:
Can u remember how much your old TV cost?
Yes I can. How does that help?
If you pay significantly less (when factoring in 15 years of inflation) your new TV will be a bright lamp with a lot of motion blur.
(I have a 10 year old 50 inch Panny Neo Plasma)
.
A microwave oven similar to the one I bought for £280 in 1987 can now be had for less than £80
A £60 mobile phone now has more memory and storage than the PC I bought for £550 in 1998
I'm also old enough to remember when a 26in CRT telly was as good as it got.
Looking at the retailers headline prices I honestly thought the price of big screen TVs had tumbled
sparkythecat said:
RUSTILLDOWN said:
sparkythecat said:
RUSTILLDOWN said:
Can u remember how much your old TV cost?
Yes I can. How does that help?
If you pay significantly less (when factoring in 15 years of inflation) your new TV will be a bright lamp with a lot of motion blur.
(I have a 10 year old 50 inch Panny Neo Plasma)
.
A microwave oven similar to the one I bought for £280 in 1987 can now be had for less than £80
A £60 mobile phone now has more memory and storage than the PC I bought for £550 in 1998
I'm also old enough to remember when a 26in CRT telly was as good as it got.
Looking at the retailers headline prices I honestly thought the price of big screen TVs had tumbled
But comparing current state of the art options suggested OLED or QLES 4k was where its at.
In my case I plumped for a 55" Sony Bravia - £1200 near as damn it and its fabulous, makes the old one look as dated as it should. But I'm a firm believer in paying for the best for your TV or Bed. The 2 things we spend most time with
If your plasma is 15 years old then winding the clock back puts you around 2007/2008. The Panny plasma models at that time were split between 720p HD-Ready sets such as the PZ80/81/85 and the Full HD 1080p models PZ700/PZ800. The later PZ800 was the first in the PZ range to handle 1080p 24Hz correctly. It wasn't a feature o the PZ700.
For pricing, the TH-50PZ800 launched at £2,200rrp but was quickly discounted to around £1,600
Rewinding inflation, your current budget of £1,000 today would have been the equivalent of about £700 in 2008 according to the Bank of England inflation calculator. That would have put you quite a bit off the pace for a 50" plasma. In 2009 as the 50PZ800 was going end-of-life the prices fell but not by much. People were paying £1,200-£1,300 for 50PZ800s when they could find them.
It's probably more useful to think of where your Panny plasma was pitched rather than about price. If it was the PZ800 or equivalent then it was aimed squarely at the AV enthusiast/connoisseur market. In today's world that niche is filled by OLED. It overcomes the problems inherent with the various forms of LCD TV (standard LED, mini-LED, NanoCell, QLED etc).
Every type of LCD-based TV ends up being a compromise between choosing a wide viewing angle but low contrasts with poor black level and patchy backlighting or the inverse of good blacks and excellent contrast but crap viewing angles that wash-out the colour and contrast. The reason for this is the two competing LCD panel technologies. IPS type panels have consistent picture performance over a wide viewing arc but that picture looks mediocre. VA panels look great when viewed at no more than 10 degrees off axis. Go further though and the picture degrades very noticeably.
There are some other issues too with LCD-based TVs. The reasons plasma looked good were the way the pixels were lit, and how the panel handled motion, and the real world contrast ratios. To try to replicate some of this with LCD you need a 100Hz native refresh rate panel, and the backlighting needs to be something called Full Array Local Dimming. This means that the lights (the LEDs) are placed behind the picture and each individual LED can be dimmed independently of its neighbours. When you start digging in to the LCD TV specs you'll find that ticking both boxes gets expensive.
There's something else that a lot of LCD TVs miss out on too. Proper 10-bit colour. You don't have this with plasma because UHD resolution with HDR and wide colour gamut wasn't ever available as a source, but with streaming and UHD BD players these signals are now widespread. Watch something from Amazon Prime or Disney Plus or a premium Netflix package or Sky's UHD download service then you'll come across HDR10 / HDR10+ / Dolby Vision quite frequently.
OLED has all this and a lot more besides.
You can hit your "under £1,000" price point with the LG OLED55B16LA at £899. Yes, 55 means it's a 55" screen. The nearest eqivalent in an LCD set is the Samsung QE55QN85A. It has the 100Hz 10-bit panel, but you don't get the multizone dimming and you miss out on the support for Dolby Vision. The Samsung is more money too; £959, so more money and not as good.
A word on brightness. Both OLED and QLED are brighter than your current plasma TV. If you have been happily watching that plasma in your bright room then either new TV will be brighter than that.
For pricing, the TH-50PZ800 launched at £2,200rrp but was quickly discounted to around £1,600
Rewinding inflation, your current budget of £1,000 today would have been the equivalent of about £700 in 2008 according to the Bank of England inflation calculator. That would have put you quite a bit off the pace for a 50" plasma. In 2009 as the 50PZ800 was going end-of-life the prices fell but not by much. People were paying £1,200-£1,300 for 50PZ800s when they could find them.
It's probably more useful to think of where your Panny plasma was pitched rather than about price. If it was the PZ800 or equivalent then it was aimed squarely at the AV enthusiast/connoisseur market. In today's world that niche is filled by OLED. It overcomes the problems inherent with the various forms of LCD TV (standard LED, mini-LED, NanoCell, QLED etc).
Every type of LCD-based TV ends up being a compromise between choosing a wide viewing angle but low contrasts with poor black level and patchy backlighting or the inverse of good blacks and excellent contrast but crap viewing angles that wash-out the colour and contrast. The reason for this is the two competing LCD panel technologies. IPS type panels have consistent picture performance over a wide viewing arc but that picture looks mediocre. VA panels look great when viewed at no more than 10 degrees off axis. Go further though and the picture degrades very noticeably.
There are some other issues too with LCD-based TVs. The reasons plasma looked good were the way the pixels were lit, and how the panel handled motion, and the real world contrast ratios. To try to replicate some of this with LCD you need a 100Hz native refresh rate panel, and the backlighting needs to be something called Full Array Local Dimming. This means that the lights (the LEDs) are placed behind the picture and each individual LED can be dimmed independently of its neighbours. When you start digging in to the LCD TV specs you'll find that ticking both boxes gets expensive.
There's something else that a lot of LCD TVs miss out on too. Proper 10-bit colour. You don't have this with plasma because UHD resolution with HDR and wide colour gamut wasn't ever available as a source, but with streaming and UHD BD players these signals are now widespread. Watch something from Amazon Prime or Disney Plus or a premium Netflix package or Sky's UHD download service then you'll come across HDR10 / HDR10+ / Dolby Vision quite frequently.
OLED has all this and a lot more besides.
You can hit your "under £1,000" price point with the LG OLED55B16LA at £899. Yes, 55 means it's a 55" screen. The nearest eqivalent in an LCD set is the Samsung QE55QN85A. It has the 100Hz 10-bit panel, but you don't get the multizone dimming and you miss out on the support for Dolby Vision. The Samsung is more money too; £959, so more money and not as good.
A word on brightness. Both OLED and QLED are brighter than your current plasma TV. If you have been happily watching that plasma in your bright room then either new TV will be brighter than that.
Lucid_AV said:
A word on brightness. Both OLED and QLED are brighter than your current plasma TV. If you have been happily watching that plasma in your bright room then either new TV will be brighter than that.
I second this. 18 months ago I replaced my 42" Panasonic plasma with an LG 48" OLED.
The LG is significantly brighter, eye-wateringly so at night. It comes with 'bright room' and 'dark room' settings which is very useful.
And the picture quality on the LG is better in every way for SD, HD and 4K. It's sublime.
Edited by LeoSayer on Friday 15th April 04:30
I third this. People often repeat what they've read elsewhere "bright room = LED not OLED". Its just not true in the real world.
Are LEDs brighter than OLED? Often ,yes. Painfully so in the showroom.
Are OLEDs not bright enough in a bright room? Absolutely not.
My LG OLED is blinding in full HDR mode when there are purposefully bright moments. And that's set up properly - i.e not showroom settings. I have the sun shine straight onto my TV (don't have a choice) and it's absolutely fine.
LEDs may go brighter, but it's a brightness no one needs other than on PUB TV's. A brightness war I suppose.
OP , as posted above, you will be taking a step back if you don't go OLED from plasma.
Are LEDs brighter than OLED? Often ,yes. Painfully so in the showroom.
Are OLEDs not bright enough in a bright room? Absolutely not.
My LG OLED is blinding in full HDR mode when there are purposefully bright moments. And that's set up properly - i.e not showroom settings. I have the sun shine straight onto my TV (don't have a choice) and it's absolutely fine.
LEDs may go brighter, but it's a brightness no one needs other than on PUB TV's. A brightness war I suppose.
OP , as posted above, you will be taking a step back if you don't go OLED from plasma.
Lucid AV said:
Lots of knowledgeable stuff containing many acronyms that I had to Google
My old plasma is a Panasonic TH50PZ81B.When you turn it off there is a few seconds lapse between the loss of audio and the fans powering down, during which time it sounds momentarily like a hovercraft landing. Apart from that, the mediocre sound and the amount of power it consumes its generally OK and has been entirely reliable. At 38kg it’s obviously solidly made.
I naively thought that anything 14 years younger was bound to be better.
Edited by sparkythecat on Friday 15th April 11:03
You could buy a slightly smaller LCD TV for not much money.
You might have to move your chair slightly nearer and close the curtains very occasionally on a bright day.
Big TV and family of four watching together in the lounge is a bit 20th century?
Different if you want to do the proper Pub TV in the games room and your mates come round for beer and grand prix.
You might have to move your chair slightly nearer and close the curtains very occasionally on a bright day.
Big TV and family of four watching together in the lounge is a bit 20th century?
Different if you want to do the proper Pub TV in the games room and your mates come round for beer and grand prix.
I recently replaced a 12 year old Panasonic Plasma TX46G10 with an LG OLED 65" OLED65C14LB. Very happy with it - a stunning picture and well worth paying the extra for.
https://www.richersounds.com/lg-oled65c14lb.html
https://www.richersounds.com/lg-oled65c14lb.html
gmaz said:
I recently replaced a 12 year old Panasonic Plasma TX46G10 with an LG OLED 65" OLED65C14LB. Very happy with it - a stunning picture and well worth paying the extra for.
https://www.richersounds.com/lg-oled65c14lb.html
That 's the model I'm interested in. Just checked and it's £140 cheaper at Costco (online price) so Richer Sounds may price-match. https://www.richersounds.com/lg-oled65c14lb.html
Does anyone happen to know the Costco in-store price?
sparkythecat said:
I’ve been thinking of replacing my 15year old Panasonic 50inch plasma TV and received a marketing mail shot from ao today.
The TV is wall hung on a swivel arm bracket in the corner of a room 6.5m x 7.5m
Will this be a decent replacement, or will I be disappointed?
https://ao.com/product/ue65tu8300-samsung-tv-grey-...
https://www.johnlewis.com/lg-oled55b16la-2021-oled-hdr-4k-ultra-hd-smart-tv-55-inch-with-freeview-play-freesat-hd-dolby-atmos-black/p5517676The TV is wall hung on a swivel arm bracket in the corner of a room 6.5m x 7.5m
Will this be a decent replacement, or will I be disappointed?
https://ao.com/product/ue65tu8300-samsung-tv-grey-...
Can do a lot worse than this. I've got the older B8 Model and have found it to be a fantastic performer and won't break the bank
Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff