TV upgrade - worth paying for OLED?

rca779

Really want to upgrade my very old 32' TV for a modern smart TV. 

Interested in a LG  OLED TV that is on offer in Curry's ATM. It's reduced to £1100, but although not very money saving I'm not put off by the price. 

BUT I only have Freeview TV with the standard HD bbc channels and therefore I probably won't get the best out of an OLED TV

So do is it worth buying OLED or do I just go for a decent smart TV?

Any advice?

Neil_Jones

Well Freeview is a dog's dinner when it comes to picture quality/compression anyway due to the decision for quantity over quality and shoving more and more channels on it reducing the bitrates more and more... so for SD material you're effectively upscaling mushy content into super mushy content.  Little you can do about it regardless of the size/technology of the TV.

Anyway all OLED is more to do with how the picture looks and usually results in a thinner TV with a better visual experience (in theory).  They can be 4k/UHD, but as there is no UHD/4k content on Freeview or any live broadcast services (there is for on-demand services like Prime, Netflix and Disney+ and it will come to SkyQ at some point), it may be a waste of money.

A lot will depend on whether you will notice any real difference between an OLED or non-OLED picture and whether you plan to subscribe to any services that make use of it (or go down the Ultra HD route for your DVD collection, since all that is expensive at the moment).  If not, you might as well just stick with a regular UHD receiver and maybe upgrade when OLED technology falls in price as it becomes standard.

rca779

Thanks Neil,  appreciate that answer and it kind of backs up my concern that as much as I would like to upgrade to the latest tech there is little point while watching Freeview 

RumRat

What's your Broadband like? The TV will be smart and for little money you can get a streaming service to view 4K content. No need to rely on Freeview. Even iPlayer can show UHD content once signed in on TV.
If that's not something you would want to do, don't waste your money on an OLED TV as good as they are.

deannagone

I have an older LG OLED 55"  TV.  Its amazing.  I like sci fi movies and the OLED does bring out the colours wonderfully.  I didn't buy it but well worth the quite high price.  I'd consider anything else a bit of a let down.

Later models are even more 'smart' TV's.  I must admit its lovely being able to just watch 'Disney plus' or whatever you are subscribed to, if anything.  

But as advised above, if you aren't interested is watching 4k/HD TV its not really worth it.., or if you only want to watch freeview, again, not really worth getting a smart(est) TV.

Neil_Jones

rca779 said:

Thanks Neil,  appreciate that answer and it kind of backs up my concern that as much as I would like to upgrade to the latest tech there is little point while watching Freeview 

Yeah I should have added about the iPlayer as its quite likely that UHD content so far as Freeview is concerned will be via Freeview Play.  Which you will get on a new TV and its just a fancy name for bringing all the catch-up services together under one banner.  Same with YouTube which will almost certainly be an app on the TV.  Whether UHD content appears "over the air" on Freeview remains to be seen, its more likely going to be via satellite or internet.  I suspect they may have to flog certain parts of the spectrum off to free up enough room for it in due course (like they did with the space previously used for analogue TV, which is now used for 5G) but that may be years away, if ever.

If you want just to add smart TV functionality via apps like YouTube and Netflix and whatever else, something like a Firestick will do the job, which will give you all the functionality of a smart TV without buying one, and they retail from Amazon for about £40, but they're often on offer as well through Lightning Deals, Prime Day, etc.

neilmcl

The majority of large screen TVs these days are 4K/UHD so you will always struggle with standard def pictures, although some are better than others at upscaling. The fact that it's an OLED screen doesn't really make any difference in that regard.

Can you tell us the exact model you're looking at?

The major advantage of getting an OLED is the amazing black levels you can achieve along with excellent viewing angles, something that LCD/LED TVs have always struggled with. I currently run a very good plasma TV which still beats the pants off a lot of LED TVs I've seen for picture quality and it's for that reason I'd probably go OLED when it finally gives up the ghost.

It's worth a look at the forums on https://www.avforums.com/ for actual reviews.

getmore4less

BBC stream UHD/HDR selected programs and some sports.

You have to be careful they do get image retention if you watch a lot of the same thing.

A good regular program to test it is House of games as red suffers the most.


BBC news, Sky news and YouTube are culprits.


Richer sounds and John Lewis first then the second tier place like Hughes. 
Last resort Curry's.

55" should be under £1k these days.

Spend some time on Avfaorums

https://www.avforums.com/forums/what-is-the-best-tv-for-you.367/


The op of this thread does a good comparison of sets each year.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/new-my-best-value-tvs-2020-2021-edition.2325951/

Last year's sets discount ed will be getting rare and this year's sets will start getting cheaper soon.

jamesd

I'm typing this on a computer connected to a 48 inch LG 48CX5LC OLED display, and with a wide range of sources from the computer to YouTube, iPlayer and Prime the picture is excellent, including non-4k content. I've never had an antenna connected to it. I'm happy with my purchase.

iPlayer occasionally has some 4k content, mostly sport but not always. YouTube has it for some things as well. Same for Prime though it's often for extra cost and I don't do that.

While it isn't on the BBC's list, this set does support the BBC's UHD content and unlike early reviews does include iPlayer.

JJ_Egan

OP see your identical post .

Username03725

OLED gives a richer colour, and like virtually all TVs sold now it will be 4K at least so there's no realistic option of finding a new tv that's not 4K even if you wanted to.

SD pictures on any decent sized 4K tv are mushy and the mushiness varies between tv channels, but the reality is that you quickly get used to it and enjoy the programme content whilst somehow managing not to notice the visual dog's breakfast in front of you. Content is always king over picture quality. Note that doesn't apply if there is an HD / UHD alternative but on Sky [and probs on FV too] the higher channel numbers tend not to be in HD or better and aren't very good PQ.

There's plenty of 4K and UHD content available esp if you have broadband speeds roughly 30MBps & higher, although different providers like Youtube, Netflix & Amazon specify different min requirements. Some Netflix & Amazon content looks quite magnificent in UHD so if you can, opt for that. If your broadband speeds aren't quite up to it it's still possible to find Youtube 4K / UHD content and download it to a USB stick, which you can then play on your TV. 

Freeview will realistically never carry UHD, the BBC's next major upgrade is to provide regional news in HD to replace the 6:30 placeholder, and I haven't heard BBC UHD on Freeview mentioned anywhere yet. ITV have no financial imperative to provide UHD programming yet either, so don't hold your breath waiting for FV UHD.

As mentioned, iPlayer's UHD content is v good but is only available if the line speed is up to it AND your tv is on the list that the BBC supports; see Supported TV devices for Ultra HD trials | iPlayer help (bbc.co.uk). I've watched Vigil (the submarine drama), a lot of the Euro's football, The Queen's Christmas Message and some other stuff on iPlayer UHD and it is very good.