I’m looking for a new television and everywhere I go I’m told I should have a 55 inch 4k HDR smart TV. However when I do my research there is very little broadcast in 4k so the best you get is upscaling of HD. I read there are only 12 films sold in this country with HDR and again very little broadcast with HDR. Yesterday I read some reviews that said on a 55 inch screen programmes in less than HD are virtually unwatchable. 3D a few years ago was the greatest thing since sliced bread but some manufacturers have now stopped making 3D televisions. Curved screens seem to be going the same way as 3D televisions and smart tv’s always seem to be waiting for that magical update that will give you all the apps that the brochure said you were going to get.
Are the TV manufacturers conning us or am I reading too many reviews?
Any advice, recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I don’t think they are conning us but I have zero interest in 4k, curved screens or whatever the next big thing they try to flog is.

At the end of the day we have a choice, I bought a TV last year and decided I was happy with 1080p HD (at best I watch iTunes HD downloads) and didn’t need a top of the range TV for my uses.

I dunno but I’ve got a 5 year old mid range sony hd TV, 10 year old sony PVR, PS3 and now a Sony soundbase,
I sound like a complete fanboy, but it all works, picture and sound are great a Chromecast to do the apps( which is just casting phone screen really) that the ps3 didn’t is the only addition

Best thing for me is that Braviasync means one remote controls everything

My point is that most kit works really well, don’t overthink it and all the bells and whistles don’t necessarily add much

Yes, agree it appears a bit of minefield. Needed a new TV and I eventually made a choice and am waiting for my new TV to turn up next week.

In addition to what’s available in term of broadcast material I thought this was a useful chart:-

I now have a really big living room and the calculators said I should be looking at TVs 75″ and up. But with the layout of fireplace etc and a certain snobbishness about huge screens, a finite budget, zero interest in gaming, and more to life than watching TV/films I didn’t want to go above 50″. It appears if that chart is correct that for me at least anything above 720 is wasted (and that’s only from the best seats in the house). Also agreed about smart apps – Samsung seem especially bad at this with some of their 2016 models still waiting for licensing for BBC iplayer, 4OD etc and we are now nearly at the end of August of the model year.

I went for a mid range Panasonic with 4K (I didn’t need 4K, 1080 would have been fine, it just has it) as it was a good price and the operating system seems to be intuitive. Steered clear of curved screen and 3d as they seem to be fads that are on the way out.

Have a 5 year old Panasonic halfwit (not smart but has apps, which are crap) in 38″ which is fine for the distance we watch at. If I was getting a 4K tv it would only be for use as a gaming monitor when I choose to play at the couch and as thats a low priority now then it can wait.

Would probably get a slightly bigger one next time as bezels are damn near non existant so it wouldnt in reality be much bigger but dont see the need for a monster considering how little we actually use it.

Oh, and Braviasync / Vieracast or whatever else is all the same, I could control my Samsung Bluray from my Oanasonic remote 😉

You’d be much better off with, ssy, an OLED TV at 1080p than a slightly cheaper LCD 4k.

I recently bought a 50in Panasonic. Its 4k and has a bunch of smart apps (which are actually pretty well done), but my reason for choice was simple.

It was the fastest one in John Lewis from standby to being usable. I’ve got a Sony that’s only a year old that takes at least two minutes to get from standby to being able to display the channel guide, or even change channel.

The wife bought a 54 Panasonic 6 years ago (so fairly old tech) and its fantastic. SD is OK (upscaled by the tv) and SD sport is poor, anything 720 pretty good and 1080 really nice. Smarts are added by either an Apple TV or my computer which is connected directly to it. You can’t possibly beat the smarts of a computer as it has ultimate flexibility to stream or replay whatever you want. We find we watch maybe 40% broadcast tv and 60% streamed / downloaded content.

As for 4k content is coming and if you consider you’ll keep a tv for 10+ years then maybe its worth it but I personally would not pay for 4k nor give any great weight to “smart” abilities as that changes so rapidly its best done with an external box which you can change as tech changes. Buy the best screen at the largest size (you quickly get used to the size, 40 seems tiny now)

Thanks for comments and advice,the chart does look helpful. Always had Sony up to now but am looking at Panasonic, 50 or 55 inch.

I don’t think they’re conning us at all. You can buy a much better telly for hundreds less than you could not all that long ago. If you want to spend loads on all the fancy new tech it’s available but you can get superb tv’s for very reasonable prices.

Brands. Hard to say. I have always been a Sony or Panasonic buyer. The Mrs a Samsung household.

What @chest says above, get the best quality screen you can in 1080 in the largest size that fits in your room. A chromecast and a smart phone and you have tech or buy an hdmi-out wire to connet phone to tv – thats something you can take everywhere inc mates house / holiday (eg British MTB story movie mp4 on your phone in 1080hd or red bull to watch the dh)

Not sure I agree with that chart.

Image quality – most important for me

Size – next for me, always go 1 size up than you think you need.

Smart – you will generally find the better quality TVs have smart anyway. tbh you will probably end up using it more than you think and don’t underestimate being able to access smart stuff from your remote rather than picking up a tablet or smartphone to send to chromecast. I don’t think any TV offers the full range that you get on Youview, although sony now include a youview app in their android ones but I hear they are slow. I got a sony TV which misses some stuff and a Samsung blueray which fills in the gaps. But we also have a youview box which has them all and works much better…but it’s good to have all bases covered as apps can be removed or become unsupported.

HD – 4k is not really that much more now so I would be tempted to just get it and be done with it. If it really is a good saving for a good quality, good size TV in HD only then go for it. I have a Sony 800 series in full HD, I got it because the image was the one that sang to me the most. My only regret is only getting a 50″ not the 55″.

Speakers – I’ve got a nice Denon AVR and surround speakers as the TV is bad. At first I thought it was okay but then I put the amp on…I am not a sound bar fan but they are a big improvement if you notice sound.

oh and EPG – test out the EPGs. I think panasonic are pretty nice from memory. I would avoid the very cheap base models though.

Not conning you, just trying to recoup the development costs. Like many other products, eg razors.

Ignore any ‘smart’ crap, 3D, and curved screens, 4K is fine, it’ll work perfectly well and for the foreseeable future.
Instead of the built-in so-called ‘smart’ rubbish, get an Apple TV or similar and use that, it’ll at least get regular OS updates, unlike the on-board TV OS.

Smart features are nice but they are neglected and often abandoned as soon as the next generation comes out.
I have a 3 year old Sony and many of the built-in apps are dead, luckily Netflix app still works almost always so I don’t have to start old PS3 for netflixing.

Would much rather have the highest resolution/sharpest image screen with no other features. I don’t want, programme guides, 3D, curved screens, or built in apps, just let me have a tremendous quality screen and I’ll sort the rest out.

I was in a similar pickle with it – I fancied a 4K TV, we’ve got some very high end monitors in work, and mega power PCs with 4K output etc and the few bits of media you can find for it look amazing, but home TV seems hard work, Sky has just started some 4K stuff and so has Netflix (if you’ve got a very fast connection to run it) but I was reading that “4K” isn’t a standardised thing, and most hardware that says 4K isn’t and even if it is, it relies on HDMI connections which can’t handle the through put for 4K or something.

Nonsense

Don’t think they are conning us but they are trying to find a way to continue to drive sales. When the slim lcd and plasma screens first came out almost everyone brought into them if only for the massive space savings that could be had even with a vastly superior screen size. The manufacturers are trying to find a killer feature to try and recreate that goldmine which has long since passed.

What andyl says, as outstanding as the screens are the sound is mediocre (my 10+ yr old flat screen sony has better sound than new tvs as it had forward facing soeakers in the screen surround). I am also not a soundbar fan (price bs spec and relatice to the tv) but its worth thinking about a solution.

Sound not an issue as I have a Denon amp. with surround sound speakers. I also have Talktalk TV box which works well for the Iplayer etc. So focus will be on picture quality which at present seems to be pointing to Sony or Panasonic 55 inch.

TV tech is moving way ahead of broadcasting tech for many of us, we still have our LG 32″ from summer 2009, the one where you can mess with the firmware and get a free media player from USB source (cannot recall model off top of head). It has doubled up as a pc monitor for Mrs goat for several years and does a good job at that too, was such a great buy for ~£300.

On the plus side, “regular” non-ultra HD tvs have come down a lot in price. We got a fantastic mid-range Samsung smart TV (6000 series) for £350 in the sales last Christmas, down from £600.

We’re still blown away by the picture quality of 1080p Blu-Ray films. 4k / ultra seems to be overkill unless you’re watching on a huge screen.

We had a curved screen Samsung in our “lodge” when we were on holiday.
I wasn’t impressed with the way it spreads the reflections across the whole screen. The picture didn’t seem any better than my 7 year old Panasonic 1080p plasma.

@kjcc sounds ( 😉 ) like you are very much on the right track. When you first get the 55 itbwill seem enormous within a few weeks it will just be the normal tv – enjoy.

What andyl says, as outstanding as the screens are the sound is mediocre (my 10+ yr old flat screen sony has better sound than new tvs as it had forward facing soeakers in the screen surround)

sound from a TV has always been substandard and if you rely on it you are doing yourself a big disservice.

I am using my Bose Soundlink Mini as a temporary solution on one of my TVs, from the headphone socket as well, and it is surprisingly decent and more satisfactory than the Denon DHT-T110 soundbase I got for the MIL last year.

it is not very big, can be somewhat justified if you ever take it anywhere else to use, like on holiday, and can take a bluetooth or google chromecast audio feed to add to its versitility.

As I said earlier – the better image TVs will have all the smart guff anyway. The smart stuff costs pennies to add these days so they just slap it on. The entry level TVs will be less impressive than the higher up ones.

When testing a TV in store always go into the options and turn off any motion compensation. You want a TV that looks good without any of the motion stuff on. My sony has it all turned off, when I go to someones house with it all turned on it makes my head go funny.

Don’t be afraid to mess with TVs and make sure you switch them over to the same program when comparing.

Our TV has HD, and we have the choice of HD channels, and streaming HD films, but we never bother.

You know you’re getting old when a technology you can’t see the need for, and never adopted, is being superseded by something even newer and flasher (and more expensive).

As for Smart TV – doesn’t one of those £30 dongles turn your TV into s Smart TV anyway>

The basic rule is that the more the difference between the number of pixels the TV offers and the number being broadcast then the more processing the TV has to do and the more opportunity it has for making a huge mess of it.

The further away from the TV you are the less likely you are to be able to see any mess up the TV is making.

Get too many pixels and sit too close to it and it will be nasty.

Broadcast TV is only 720P or 1080i (which are pretty much the same) and so a Full HD set will have to upscale a bit.

SD TV is even lower res and so the upscaling will be more.

(The bitrate also makes a differences as to how well the TV can upscale).

So get as big a TV as you can tolerate maybe, but slightly smaller is better than slightly bigger.

Also look for sets that have been well reviewed by something like hdtvtest (or wherever) where they have published their settings when calibrating it – this will allow you to get the colors much closer to correct than if you had just been fiddling with it. Don’t underestimate the importance of good color. Sony’s are often a bit too colorful out of the box.

Panasonic is probably your best bet.

Get your smarts from an external box, or a Amazon Firestick.