Help upgrading Pioneer Kuro LX5090

[TOPDIV]

Hi All,

Is there anyone on here that has changed their old Pioneer Kuro for a 'smart' TV and found the new 4k TV's are a considerable step up and a worthy upgrade ?

I'm afraid i'm quite behind the times at the moment, with my last batch of upgrades happening 6 (or more) years ago.

To me my Pioneer still looks great, and while i'm still using Sky and or a streaming box that usually plays max.1080p content, i haven't really felt the need to upgrade.

However, i have some surplus money at the moment, enough to upgrade a TV if needed, and i must admit the idea of watching Netflix series in 4k or upgrading Sky to view the football in Ultra HD has a certain appeal. Having a smart TV that has Amazon Prime,Netflix and other apps all in one place would be handy.I also have a rather silly problem whereby my living room gets very hot on a summers evening when you've got a plasma and AVR pumping out considerable heat !

But obvously the main concern is the picture,are the newer TV's on a different level these days or are the deep blacks of the Kuro still holding their own ?

(note: i'm not being lazy by not going to view the TV's in a shop, i'm not in the best of health so advice on here would be much easier - and i'd be limited to Curry's if i did venture out and frankly, i'm not a fan!).

So are the new TV's a massive step up from the days when Pioneer plasmas ruled ? Primarily i was looking at the LG OLED55B7B as that would seem to fit my needs and my price range (the Sony alternative mentioned by this magazine is a little too high in price for me).

Thoughts anyone ???

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Hi All,

Is there anyone on here that has changed their old Pioneer Kuro for a 'smart' TV and found the new 4k TV's are a considerable step up and a worthy upgrade ?

I'm afraid i'm quite behind the times at the moment, with my last batch of upgrades happening 6 (or more) years ago.

To me my Pioneer still looks great, and while i'm still using Sky and or a streaming box that usually plays max.1080p content, i haven't really felt the need to upgrade.

However, i have some surplus money at the moment, enough to upgrade a TV if needed, and i must admit the idea of watching Netflix series in 4k or upgrading Sky to view the football in Ultra HD has a certain appeal. Having a smart TV that has Amazon Prime,Netflix and other apps all in one place would be handy.I also have a rather silly problem whereby my living room gets very hot on a summers evening when you've got a plasma and AVR pumping out considerable heat !

But obvously the main concern is the picture,are the newer TV's on a different level these days or are the deep blacks of the Kuro still holding their own ?

(note: i'm not being lazy by not going to view the TV's in a shop, i'm not in the best of health so advice on here would be much easier - and i'd be limited to Curry's if i did venture out and frankly, i'm not a fan!).

So are the new TV's a massive step up from the days when Pioneer plasmas ruled ? Primarily i was looking at the LG OLED55B7B as that would seem to fit my needs and my price range (the Sony alternative mentioned by this magazine is a little too high in price for me).

Thoughts anyone ???

hi

you do not really need to buy a OLED TV as the Sony 4k TVs are pretty good value for money I’ve just brought a 49” Sony 4k TV and it’s a massive step up from my old 12 year old sharp TV .

picture quality is very good on 1080p and very good on 4k pictures the blacks are very good and overall colour is excellent for a LCD TV and obviously you get the apps like amazon , Netflix , YouTube , music , photo , google , internet explorer .

LCDs do not get very hot like plasma TVs do and they are very thin and light TVs theses days

but if it was me I would not buy a OLED at the moment because they are so expensive so I would wait till the prices drop like they have done with the 4k TVs have done and you can get some really great quality 4k TVs for sensible money .

if you calibrate a 4k TV probably it will look just as good as a OLED TV does a specially the Sony TVs as they are quite good with the blacks and I like how Sony uses good green’s that look natural to me but if I could afford a OLED TV I would buy one because they do look great but very expensive but do not disregard the LCD 4K TVs as they are very good .

 

[bigboss]

If you're coming from a plasma as great as the Kuro, you'll prefer the OLED. Demo and see what you prefer.

I attended a TV shootout between Philips OLED and Samsung Q7. Check the results:

https://www.whathifi.com/forum/tvs-and-projectors/tv-shootout-philips-9002-oled-vs-samsung-q7-qled-bafta

Another shootout is planned between 4 OLED TVs. Check AV forums for details.

The question for you is how much 4K watching will you expect to do? What's the rest of your system like?

Check this:

https://www.whathifi.com/features/4k-streaming-vs-4k-blu-ray-vs-blu-ray-which-best

I had a Kuro which I reluctantly sold to the buyer of my house and bought a Panasonic VT65. I'll upgrade my system to 4K when the price of 4K projectors come down to sensible levels.

 

[bigboss]

If you're coming from a plasma as great as the Kuro, you'll prefer the OLED. Demo and see what you prefer.

I attended a TV shootout between Philips OLED and Samsung Q7. Check the results:

https://www.whathifi.com/forum/tvs-and-projectors/tv-shootout-philips-90...

Another shootout is planned between 4 OLED TVs. Check AV forums for details.

The question for you is how much 4K watching will you expect to do? What's the rest of your system like?

Check this:

https://www.whathifi.com/features/4k-streaming-vs-4k-blu-ray-vs-blu-ray-...

I had a Kuro which I reluctantly sold to the buyer of my house and bought a Panasonic VT65. I'll upgrade my system to 4K when the price of 4K projectors come down to sensible levels.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I have had a Pioneer 5090 TV and yes the LG 55b7v is an upgrade. I personally find hdr and 4k a bit confusing I like and all and don’t get me wrong 4K Planet Earth is awesome! but some of the other discs are not great. It’s still taking time, if you are going to stream I have found Amazon Prime best. On the good transfers you can really tell the difference on others not so much. I haven’t tried Sky 4K yet but did see a demo in Currys and it did look very good on football, then I hear people moaning about the quality on shows. I have been watching the shows on Amazon Prime and I like them though. I guess what I am saying is you get a bit of a mixed bag.

I have the LG 65e6v Oled and love it and I really like the LG 55b7v - I will just see if there are any bargains on it, I did find one over the weekend!

 

[Deleted member 2457]

£1599 for the LG 55b7v:

http://www.cramptonandmoorediscountclub.co.uk

Just join this website discount club and you will get it for the bargain price. Btw in case anyone is interested you can get the LG 65b7v for £2300 too!

Black levels are all about the same although on my LG e6v I could really tell the difference when I first got it. You should see a big upgrade. Can you possibly treat yourself to the 65-inch? You won’t regret it.

 

[bigboss]

If you do decide to upgrade to 4K, I would recommend you go for the largest screen you can afford and accommodate.

 

[super]

I had exactly the same tv as the op and the only tv that persauded me to change from the pioneer was the Sony 55A1 which i got at a good price. Pity it's a bit out your price range.

 

[TOPDIV]

Thanks to all for the replies , they are really apreciated - i am swaying towards holding fire for a few months and reassessing things in the New Year - perhaps then the TV i really would like most, the Sony A1, will have dropped a little in price or maybe i'll have added to my available funds (won't hold my breath).

Thanks again

 

[bigboss]

The best day to buy will be 24th November (Black Friday sales).

 

[Series1boy]

My advice and also I am a current PLasma owner, do not go lcd. You will miss the viewing angles and those proper deep blacks on your Kuro. Only OLED is an upgrade option from your flagship Kuro in my opinion.

I have an LG 4k 55” lcd Tv in our games room and it ain’t a patch on my penny plasma plasma VT. Go and view for your self though.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Kuro 5090 .... I remember it well, buzzing and dim whites. Worst Entertainment thing I ever spent money on.

My advise would be never spend top bucks on anything tv just because it's new and reputedly great.

You'll get it for half the price not long after.

I had a similar experience too!

 

[drummerman]

Kuro 5090 .... I remember it well, buzzing and dim whites. Worst Entertainment thing I ever spent money on.

My advise would be never spend top bucks on anything tv just because it's new and reputedly great.

You'll get it for half the price not long after.

My guess would also be that you probably even find moderately priced LED sets superior to your Kuro. There are more or equally important things than 'pure blacks' but if you judge a picture solely on that OLED it would have to be.

Other example, I have a Samsung S7Edge, superseded now, with an AMOLED screen. Much touted and praised as the best thing since sliced b ... . Guess what, I actually prefer LG and iphone screens. To me they look more natural.

 

[bigboss]

Black levels are important because the deeper and truer blacks are perceived to be by the viewer, the better colours will look next to it. The 3-dimensional effect off a good TV is also reliant on solid black levels to produce depth. A deep, dark pure black level is essential to good picture quality. It's one of the most important characteristics of a TV. It gives the ability for the picture to produce truer colours. Whites don't have that effect. I would recommend you attend one of the TV shootouts to see the difference side by side to understand what I'm saying.

But it's not the blacks that's the most important characteristic of a plasma or OLED. It's the self emission technology. Every single pixel in a plasma or OLED has the ability to switch itself on or off independent of surrounding pixels. LCD (or LED) TVs are either edge lit (most of them are) which emit light only from the edges of the TV or backlit where they're separated into different zones. But the number of zones is far far less than number of pixels. There are 8294400 pixels in a 4K TV. In comparison, Sony ZD9 has the maximum backlight zones of any LED TV: 512.

LED TVs today are far superior to the LED few years ago, and they will be a fine choice. But for someone coming from a plasma, OLED will be better. Prices of LED and OLED are comparable.

 

[drummerman]

I concede I was wrong about OLED. Having looked at Tv's (I need one) OLED'S superiority over even the best current LED sets is easy to see. So much so that I wouldn't advise to spend much now on the latter. Wait a year and prices of OLED will probably come down well below 1k.

I will now buy a cheaper LED and flog that next year when I can afford a decent OLED.

Went to RS today and looked at some LED sets. A Hisense for 350 quid looked as good as a £900 Sony after tinkering with the pic for a minute (the cheap Hisense was in custom mode with most settings at 50 whereas the Sony was in dynamic mode with contrast at 100 as seemed most of the others known brand ones)

I forgot to check upscaling but don't expect miracles from either technology.