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Longimanus

Longimanus

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Lee
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I’ve currently got a Samsung 7000 series TV which I purchased from John Lewis back in Jan 17. It’s developed a light leak/bleed fault and they have offered a replacement (LG) or a refund of £649, £150 less than I paid, anybody know if this is the normal thing to do to refund less than the purchase price after this amount of time after the original purchase?

I’m considering taking the refund and investing in an OLED TV, anyone have experience of these and are they worth the extra investment?

I also have an old (10 years) amp that everything runs through (DVD, SKY, etc), as this is quite old now, can this have an affect on the picture quality now compared to newer amps? I’m wondering if I his needs an upgrade now or not?

Thanks in advance for any info
 
Yes, this is normal and quite legal.
If the company is unable to do an exchange then they can offer a partial refund. The reduction in refund is to account for the year and a half use that you got out of it.
 
ecoleman said:
Yes, this is normal and quite legal.
If the company is unable to do an exchange then they can offer a partial refund. The reduction in refund is to account for the year and a half use that you got out of it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, appreciate it
 
You can probably replace the set with a lot better for that money.
 
Longimanus said:
I also have an old (10 years) amp that everything runs through (DVD, SKY, etc), as this is quite old now, can this have an affect on the picture quality now compared to newer amps? I’m wondering if I his needs an upgrade now or not?
Click to expand...

It depends if the throughput of the the AV is 1080p, if it is then no you won't see any difference with the picture quality.
However, if you decide to upgrade to Sky Q then obviously a 4K ready TV and AV amp would be worth paying for.
I'm assuming your present AV amp supports HDMI otherwise I would get rid of it in favour of a newer amp as it's It's pointless using an old amp with scart and a HD TV and HD box.
 
Longimanus said:
I’ve currently got a Samsung 7000 series TV which I purchased from John Lewis back in Jan 17. It’s developed a light leak/bleed fault and they have offered a replacement (LG) or a refund of £649, £150 less than I paid, anybody know if this is the normal thing to do to refund less than the purchase price after this amount of time after the original purchase?

I’m considering taking the refund and investing in an OLED TV, anyone have experience of these and are they worth the extra investment?

I also have an old (10 years) amp that everything runs through (DVD, SKY, etc), as this is quite old now, can this have an affect on the picture quality now compared to newer amps? I’m wondering if I his needs an upgrade now or not?

Thanks in advance for any info
Click to expand...


OLED do look good but I do wonder how much of that quality is actually used when the source has greater compression such as NetFlix, Sky etc? It's a lot of extra money. I'm sure I also read somewhere that the blues wear out far quicker so four hours viewing a day would give you a 10 year lifespan - which is still pretty good. It may have been old information though.

I've got a regular 50" Panasonic 4K and Game of Thrones on Blu-ray looked amazing to me although I do like Panasonic. Perhaps with OLED I would have been able to see that extra fold in her cloak whilst she was hiding in the shadows.
 
hashcake said:
It depends if the throughput of the the AV is 1080p, if it is then no you won't see any difference with the picture quality.
However, if you decide to upgrade to Sky Q then obviously a 4K ready TV and AV amp would be worth paying for.
I'm assuming your present AV amp supports HDMI otherwise I would get rid of it in favour of a newer amp as it's It's pointless using an old amp with scart and a HD TV and HD box.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, the current one does support HDMI, so looks good for the moment then
 
gman said:
OLED do look good but I do wonder how much of that quality is actually used when the source has greater compression such as NetFlix, Sky etc? It's a lot of extra money. I'm sure I also read somewhere that the blues wear out far quicker so four hours viewing a day would give you a 10 year lifespan - which is still pretty good. It may have been old information though.

I've got a regular 50" Panasonic 4K and Game of Thrones on Blu-ray looked amazing to me although I do like Panasonic. Perhaps with OLED I would have been able to see that extra fold in her cloak whilst she was hiding in the shadows.
Click to expand...

Many thanks, this info is great.

I’m looking at going up to a 55+ screen and some of the OLEDs are not that much more expensive, need to do some more research then
 
Longimanus said:
I’m considering taking the refund and investing in an OLED TV, anyone have experience of these and are they worth the extra investment?
Click to expand...


I have had a OLED television for a a little while now. It is a 55" LG E6V which is a 2016 model which replaced a Pioneer 'Kuro' plasma. My television has been superseded by the E7 and the now current E8 models.

The picture without doubt is the best I have ever owned; the only real weakness is motion handling. It is a step down from my old Pioneer but is OKish. It is a weakness of OLED and LCD in general; but a particular weakness of LG. The latest generation of OLED's will be better than my television. And no doubt, Sony, Philips and Panasonic OLED's (which all use LG OLED panels) will have better motion handling and picture processing albeit at a higher price.

To be honest I had no intention of buying a 4K television when I did as I regarded 4K as a work in progress and I still do. I felt compelled to buy because of the decision to discontinue 3D. I love 3D but realise that this is a niche interest and is almost certainly of no relevance to you. On my television 3D is staggeringly amazingly great. Sadly if you buy a current OLED you'll be missing out on this, but as I said, it is probably of no loss to you.

Black levels, as you would expect, are superb and details stand out in way that no other television I've owned or seen matches. Light output is good but not up to what LCD televisions can offer which may be a consideration if you watch tv in an environment with lots of ambient light.

My television does a great job of up scaling Blu-ray / HD and even a good quality standard definition picture looks pretty good. 4K is a step up from Blu-ray but only a very slight improvement. If you're expecting 4K to be a night and day improvement over HD I think you'll be disappointed. No doubt things will improve over time.

Whatever television you buy, OLED or not, I think you'll be happy. Most television pictures are of a very high standard these days.
 
Longimanus said:
I’m gonna take a walk round John Lewis and see what I like
Click to expand...
Remember when you're looking at a big bank of TVs that:
(1) performance with a 4K source carefully produced by the manufacturer to show off the TV may not be the same as performance with a regular broadcast source - it would be a fairer comparison if they had all the TVs displaying (say) live football;
(2) the shop may have de-optimised the settings on the TVs they don't want you to buy (because they aren't as profitable, or whatever), so they won't look as good.
 
Longimanus said:
@Uncle Fester, thank you very much for all that information, it is much appreciated.

I’m gonna take a walk round John Lewis and see what I like
Click to expand...

You are very welcome. A couple of things to bear in mind when looking at televisions in a retail environment is that the lighting will almost certainly be brighter than at home meaning that subtle picture details may be washed out but would visible in a domestic setting.

Also be sure to assess the picture from the same distance you will watch the television at home.

Finally ensure that you are not watching the television in 'vivid' or 'store' mode - see below.


StewartR said:
(2) the shop may have de-optimised the settings on the TVs they don't want you to buy (because they aren't as profitable, or whatever), so they won't look as good.
Click to expand...


Having worked in A/V retail (although back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I have never known a retailer to 'de-optimise' a television or any other product. Of course it is entirely possible that they may do so.

I would be more cognisant of the fact that manufacturers include a default picture mode usually known as 'store' or 'vivid' that boost colour levels unnaturally to make the television stand out from all the other sets on display. While on a cursory glance; the picture is impressive most detail is lost and this mode is wholly unsuitable for regular use if you value a realistic image. In fact during the set up of most televisions you will usually have the option of saying whether the tv is to be used at home or in a store.
 
Thank you both @Uncle Fester and @StewartR, I know exactly what u mean, I had to adjust my current set to get it how I wanted it, the standard setting wasn’t too my liking.

I’m just going to have a quick look at them aesthetically, see which I like and then come home and do a bit of research. Have either of you taken a usb stick in with a specific movie to test one out?
 
Longimanus said:
Thank you both Have either of you taken a usb stick in with a specific movie to test one out?
Click to expand...

Yep, this is exactly what I was about to suggest. I downloaded a whole load of 1080p and 4K trailers which were all high bit rates to try and simulate what Blu-ray would be like, I also downloaded some samples of lower quality stuff to see how the TVs would upscale and deal with the lower quality.

I found this a much better way to shop for TVs as the content would be consistent and also in some places such as Currys they use an a/v feed which actually comes from a central location in England and because it's being shared across so many devices the quality can be pretty bad sometimes - and it's not always showing on all the TVs, some are showing their own demo reels at full quality.

One thing I noticed is that LG TVs were very bad at reading my USB stick. Tried many different models in both Currys and Richer Sounds. Sony played everything and Panasonic played everything except for one which I think was a crazy 140 MBps sample I had downloaded.

Here's where I got some of my samples:


http://4ksamples.com/
http://4kmedia.org/



I did a similar thing when shopping for a sound base and put some film demos on my phone and simply streamed the audio to the devices in the store using Bluetooth. This was invaluable for testing out hard to hear vocals in some films, which was the main reason for buying the sound base.[/user]
 
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Longimanus said:
Thank you both @Uncle Fester and @StewartR, I know exactly what u mean, I had to adjust my current set to get it how I wanted it, the standard setting wasn’t too my liking.

I’m just going to have a quick look at them aesthetically, see which I like and then come home and do a bit of research. Have either of you taken a usb stick in with a specific movie to test one out?
Click to expand...



With regard to test material; I have never used a USB stick as the ability of different televisions to read either the stick or specific file format can be quite variable.

I have taken specific DVD's and more recently Blu-ray's and UHD's of films that I'm familiar with. I generally test for how well the television copes with dark scenes (the original Alien film or Harry Potter & The Ghostly Hallows are particularly good) how well a television resolves fine detail and colour accuracy. Finally I look to see what motion handling is like. Although I don't watch sports normally; both football and golf are good for this. If you're not sure what to look for just try to see if things look right and whether you find the image pleasing.

If you go into a retailer at a very busy time and they don't have time to hook up a disc player then arrange to go back when it's less busy. If they won't do it at quite times then they won't get my business. I have found Richer Sounds and Sevenoaks Sound & Vision to be very helpful in this respect.

If you're familiar with set up and calibration discs I can recommend the Spears and Munsil one. Don't worry if you're not as we're going into nit picking territory now.

Personally I don't suggest the use of 'demo' discs or download's as they are usually shot to look good and impress. Other than seeing how good the set may look I don't think that they are that useful. I want to see the televisions work with normal broadcasts and commercially released material and look at difficult scenes and form my opinion on how well they perform. Other people may think differently.

The most useful thing about having test material is that you can use a common basis for comparisons.

If you have no test material to hand don't be swayed by the manufacturers demo loop as they will always run something that plays to the strength of the particular set on show. For instance on a OLED demo you'll find scenes of cityscapes at night, fireworks or starry skies. You'll rarely find truly bright scenes.

Conversely when seeing a demo for LCD/LED televisions (and that includes Samsung's deliberately confusingly named QLED) you'll see lots of scenes of bright skies, brightly lit jungles with a colourful animal (usually a tiger or a colourful bird) and very little in the way of dark material. Frankly it's difficult to make such scenes look bad.

If I have no test material to hand I like to look at people's faces onscreen. Firstly if the colour accuracy is off people's skin tones don't look right and that is relatively easy for us to pick up on. Secondly facial freckles and creases and particularly hair can say a lot about about the sets ability to resolve fine detail. A news readers face on BBC news (it must be a Hi-Def channel) is particularly informative as they tend to use the best cameras.

If you need further information regarding picture quality or want to research a particular television I would suggest you look at the following forum and websites:

https://www.avforums.com/PicturePerfect/

https://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-tvs,review-2224.html

https://www.cnet.com/how-we-test-tvs/

Please note that the last two sites are US centric but will also have tests of televisions available in the UK as well as some that are not.

Finally don't get overwhelmed by technical information and specs. Just make sure that you are happy with the picture, like the look of the television (its going to be on show for a long time) and has the features you want at a price that suits you and that's good enough.

Edited to add: Don't search for perfection as you won't find it. Every television will have it's flaws and compromises. You just have to make sure you can live with them.
 
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I wouldn't buy a TV these days if it couldn't even read a USB stick with some movie trailers on it, especially a higher end TV. It's such a quick and easy way to get footage up and running, just grab the remote and away you go.

I do wish TVs would recognise multi level file structures though, perhaps the latest ones do?
 
Just to respond to the two posts above; I should say that it is some time since I last went looking for a television and maybe things have improved since then in regards to their ability to read and play material from USB sticks. As I said earlier; my television is a 2016 model and my comments reflect my experience at that time.

But as gman said "One thing I noticed is that LG TVs were very bad at reading my USB stick" so maybe there is still cause for concern?

As to whether you shouldn't consider buying a television that wouldn't read a USB stick; that really depends on how you intend to use the television. I have never used that functionality on my tv - but to you it may well be important. My priority has always been picture quality first and if I had the dilemma of choosing a television with excellent picture quality but a poor USB input over a television with a great USB input but inferior picture I know what my choice would be. Ideally you would have both, but as I said before, "Every television has its flaws and compromises, You just have to make sure you can live with them."
 
Some further great info all, many thanks

Im trying to get over some jet lag, I will then get on with the search :)
 
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