Question Signal feed for a large OLED TV

[Venger]

Hi,

Back in the day, well 30 years ago, I considered myself a hi-fi nerd par excellence, devouring What Hi-Fi each month, clued up on all the model numbers and tech of the day whilst spending rather large sums of money (well large for me) on my two channel hi-fi system over the years.

Today I must be considered a dinosaur!

The last TV I bought new was a Loewe 32" CRT back in the early 00's, when that finally died, having very little disposable income and utilising the archived awards info on the website here, I bought a second hand Panasonic TX-32LZD85 on eBay for £60 and that has served me very well.

However, having spent Christmas with family who have an absolutely huge TV, coming back to the Panasonic takes some adjusting to so I have decided to source something much larger on the second hand market, something along the lines of the LG OLED55E9PLA for example.

What I'm interested to know is are these modern, large panel OLED tv's fussy about the sort of signal you feed them? I don't have Sky or any subscription TV services, I just use a Manhattan T3-R Freeview box. Is it ridiculous to think that a TV of that quality will perform anywhere near its best when fed from a Freeview box like that?

I live in East London and do benefit from very strong TV signal reception.

Is there anything else I should consider about OLED's and/or large panel TV's in general before parting with any cash.

Many thanks for your time.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

We only have Freeview and Freesat for live TV viewing, and the HD channels look perfectly respectable - if your Freeview box isn't HD, you'll want to think about getting a new one. Does the set have iPlayer built in? I ask as some stuff (Attenborough, some sport) is available in 4k/HDR. A good TV looks at its best when fed with a decent 4k blu ray, but just fed with HD stuff it should still be a big step up.

 

[R2D2]

Hi,

Back in the day, well 30 years ago, I considered myself a hi-fi nerd par excellence, devouring What Hi-Fi each month, clued up on all the model numbers and tech of the day whilst spending rather large sums of money (well large for me) on my two channel hi-fi system over the years.

Today I must be considered a dinosaur!

The last TV I bought new was a Loewe 32" CRT back in the early 00's, when that finally died, having very little disposable income and utilising the archived awards info on the website here, I bought a second hand Panasonic TX-32LZD85 on eBay for £60 and that has served me very well.

However, having spent Christmas with family who have an absolutely huge TV, coming back to the Panasonic takes some adjusting to so I have decided to source something much larger on the second hand market, something along the lines of the LG OLED55E9PLA for example.

What I'm interested to know is are these modern, large panel OLED tv's fussy about the sort of signal you feed them? I don't have Sky or any subscription TV services, I just use a Manhattan T3-R Freeview box. Is it ridiculous to think that a TV of that quality will perform anywhere near its best when fed from a Freeview box like that?

I live in East London and do benefit from very strong TV signal reception.

Is there anything else I should consider about OLED's and/or large panel TV's in general before parting with any cash.

Many thanks for your time.

Second hand OLED TVs may well possibly have screen burn/image retention on them, especially the older ones. QLED or LED/LCD TVs won’t have any screen burn. I would keep clear of plasma TVs too. If you bought a new OLED TV that would serve you well just as long you keep away from news channels and only watch them for short periods. What’s your budget?

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

It's definitely worth making sure a 2nd hand set doesn't have any screen burn, but I think it's a story way overplayed now. My daughter games a great deal with our 65" Panasonic plasma, which means lots of static images, and there are no issues at all. My brother is also a keen gamer, and has no issues with his OLED after five year or so.

So yes, be careful in buying (though you should be doing that anyway), but don't be put off OLED because of the overplaying of this particular card.

 

[Venger]

Many thanks to you both for your replies.

I can remember when screen burn was talked about a lot back in plasma days, tbh plasma wouldn't be on my radar now but I hadn't considered screen burn in modern tv's.

Since posting I have opened the obligatory can of worms by Googling OLED vs QLED and don't really know what would suit me better.

Are LCD tv's still being manufactured?

In terms of budget, probably something around £300 perhaps.

The Freeview box I have now has the HD channels 101-105 and also has access to iPlayer and I would potentially consider getting a secondhand blu-ray player as well just to make the most of the new tv.

 

[R2D2]

Many thanks to you both for your replies.

I can remember when screen burn was talked about a lot back in plasma days, tbh plasma wouldn't be on my radar now but I hadn't considered screen burn in modern tv's.

Since posting I have opened the obligatory can of worms by Googling OLED vs QLED and don't really know what would suit me better.

Are LCD tv's still being manufactured?

In terms of budget, probably something around £300 perhaps.

The Freeview box I have now has the HD channels 101-105 and also has access to iPlayer and I would potentially consider getting a secondhand blu-ray player as well just to make the most of the new tv.

There is a LED LG TV here for £300 at John Lewis with a 5 year warranty that could be an option for you:

https://www.johnlewis.com/lg-50ur75006lk-2024-led-hdr-4k-ultra-hd-smart-tv-50-inch-with-freeview-play-freesat-hd-essence-graphite/p112480351

TCL make some affordable QLED options too, although they don’t tend to come with a 5 year warranty unless you buy from Costco. Samsung have LED options too and yes, I believe they still make LCD TVs.

If buying a second hand OLED I would purchase from a shop if possible, that way you can return it if anything is wrong with it and you should get some sort of warranty with it too. I will keep looking for different TV options.

QLED TVs tend to be quite bright TVs with good blacks and the OLED TVs have even better blacks but may not be as bright.

 

[R2D2]

This website on eBay tends to be quite good, they tell you about any issues the TV might have like screen burn etc:

Security measure

www.ebay.co.uk

You can get some good deals on QLED TVs and OLED TVs.

 

[Venger]

Many thanks for the info R2D2, much appreciated.

I can't quite believe you can buy a brand new LG 50" tv for under £300 !!

I've spent a couple of hours this morning looking into the different screen tech, adding QNED and QD-OLED into the mix to further complicate things.

The room the tv will go in has very large bay windows at one end so when the sun does decide to shine, the room can get a lot of light which makes me wonder whether an OLED will be bright enough (even now we pull the curtains when it's really bright if we're watching tv).

The only thing I don't like the sound of about QLED is their off-axis viewing limitations.

 

[R2D2]

Many thanks for the info R2D2, much appreciated.

I can't quite believe you can buy a brand new LG 50" tv for under £300 !!

I've spent a couple of hours this morning looking into the different screen tech, adding QNED and QD-OLED into the mix to further complicate things.

The room the tv will go in has very large bay windows at one end so when the sun does decide to shine, the room can get a lot of light which makes me wonder whether an OLED will be bright enough (even now we pull the curtains when it's really bright if we're watching tv).

The only thing I don't like the sound of about QLED is their off-axis viewing limitations.

I have gone from OLED to QD-OLED because of the sun in my room. Mind you you can buy OLED TVs with anti-reflective coating but the ones I know that work best are Samsung TVs and Philips TVs. I am sure some of the other manufacturers are good too though. You can check on this website:

TV Reviews

473 TV reviews. Start with our picks for the best TVs below. These are the ones we recommend based on our testing and in-depth TV reviews.

www.rtings.com

I actually don’t think manufacturers do make LCD TVs anymore!

 

[R2D2]

AVForums look a good bet for a quality second hand OLED or QLED TV, here’s one deal:

https://www.avforums.com/threads/lg-b8-55pla-2018-oled-tv.2519012/

They also post pictures and say if they have screen burn or not and some have warranty remaining.

 

[giggsy1977]

I have gone from OLED to QD-OLED because of the sun in my room. Mind you you can buy OLED TVs with anti-reflective coating but the ones I know that work best are Samsung TVs and Philips TVs. I am sure some of the other manufacturers are good too though. You can check on this website:

TV Reviews

473 TV reviews. Start with our picks for the best TVs below. These are the ones we recommend based on our testing and in-depth TV reviews.

www.rtings.com

I actually don’t think manufacturers do make LCD TVs anymore!

I know you're tongue in cheek, but just for clarity, all televisions are LCD, aside from plasma and OLED. The sheer number of acronyms out there makes it a nightmare for anyone who has been out of the TV buying game for a few years far more complicated than it needs to be!

 

[R2D2]

Here’s another good deal:

Amazon.co.uk

Buying from Amazon allows you to return it if you are not happy with it.

 

[Venger]

Many thanks for the continued info R2D2

I am on avforums from time to time, hand't thought about their classified ads, will take a look.

 

[R2D2]

This looks a good deal for a brand new 4K Blu-ray player:

TPS - The Perfect Signal Ltd

description:

www.tps.uk.com

I have one like this too and it’s very good.

 

[R2D2]

Or if you just purely want a 4K Blu-ray player for your TV and are not bothered by the lack of Dolby Vision this is a top deal too:

Panasonic DP-UB150EB 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player at AV.com

Panasonic DP-UB150EB 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player at AV.com

www.av.com

All 4K Blu-ray players produce similar pictures, so there is no need to spend a fortune on one.