[iq100]

Originally Posted by JerryLBell

Last year I got the bug to get a 4K TV. Right about then, a number of websites I follow that review TV and other home theater equipment were going nuts over the TCL Series 6 4K HDR TVs, claiming they were every bit as good a picture as you got from substantially more expensive Samsungs and LGs. I bought one (a 65") and have been quite happy with it. This year, my man-cave TV went out and I decided to buy another TCL. I thought I'd save a few bucks with a lower-end series and got a Series 4 4K HDR TV. It was terrible. The picture quality was just plain bad no matter what I tried to do to calibrate it (and I'm been into home theater for decades so I'm not completely ignorant). I took it back and got a TCL Series 6 4K HDR (a 55"). As good as the set I bought last year was, this year's Series 6 is better-looking and has more dimming zones. So I'm a fan of the TCL Series 6. I'd really like to get a Series 8, but they are quite a lot more expensive and not as great a deal when compared to similar technology in Samsung and LG.

There is one caveat with the TCL. They are built in China, which will stop some folks from buying them. The Chinese government is probably given them financial aid to make them so competitive with the South Korean-built Samsungs and LGs.

There is one other issue that probably isn't an issue for most people. The TCL interface is based on Roku, which most people know as a streaming services stick that you can plug into a TV. Here, it's built in. It's fast and supports most streaming clients you can think of However, if you have DISH Network TV (like I do) and use this as a secondary TV and figure you can save a few bucks on renting a DISH Network "Joey" box for this TV, think again. DISH hasn't written a streaming app that works on Roku TVs or sticks. If you want to use a streaming stick for that, you have to get an Amazon FireStick (there may be other devices that work, such as AppleTV, but I can only go with personal experience). Otherwise, just get a "Joey" (or a "Hopper" if this is your main TV).

As far as size goes, there are two schools of thought. One says,:



Well, based on that one, I should be sitting 96" (8 feet) to 160" (13 1/3 feet) from my 65" TV. I am probably between 7 and 8 feet maximum from it.

The other school of thought says:



My first HDTV was 40". The second was 48". Then 55". Now 65", If I could afford and fit an 85" set, I'd probably grab it. I love me some immersive home theater, both in terms of screen size (though I prefer quality over quantity, I do like a big set!) and sound. And I've got a pretty decent sound system to help with the sound.

By the way, if you're expecting to be as knocked out going from HD TV (aka "1080p resolution") to 4K TV (aka "2160p resolution"), you may be disappointed. First of all, very little on your cable or satellite TV service is 4K and none of your Blu-ray discs (much less your DVDs) are 4K. If you get NetFlix or Disney+ or Google Prime or a few other streaming services, some of the content is 4K but most of it is still HD or even SD. Second, HD resolution is 1920 x 1080 or 2,073,600 pixels total. Standard definition (SD) was, at best, about 640 x 480 or 307.200 pixels total. The jump from SD to HD was a 6.75-fold increase in resolution. The resolution for 4K TVs is 3840 x 2160 or 8,294,400 pixels so the jump from HD to 4K is four-fold. And for most people our age, the pixels on an HD set are already small enough that we can't distinguish them from one another. Make them four times smaller (for the same-sized set) and you might not see any resolution difference at all.

The other difference if 4K is color. HD sets have a very good range from the brightest image they can show to the darkest (this is called the "dynamic range"). Most better 4K sets support something called "High Dynamic Range" or "HDR". This can be notably better than the dynamic range on regular HD sets but only if the source material supports it and your TV can decode it. There are a few competing standards for HDR, the most popular of which are HDR10 and Dolby Vision. If your source material is encoded with these (not all 4K shows use either) and your TV can handle (not all 4K TVs do both or even either), it can be noticeable. Bright scenes can be brighter without "blooming" into full white. Dark scenes can be darker without losing detail in the shadows. However, this really only shows up dramatically in more recently made movies and TV shows that are shot with newer digital cameras. Older shows or even shows where the images just aren't that dynamic in the first place will not show up all that differently.

Any suggestions for content that shows off 4K and HDR? Name of content, and a URL where the content can be bought, streamed, etc.

Thanks.