LCD Smart TV's, What's good, what's NOT ?

[acarmody]

Next question on TV's before this thread vanishes in the never never.
When we do upgrade the TV what's the go with aerials / antennas for them? Our old TV antenna on the roof of the house has just about had it. The Cockys have done a few too many chin-ups and mating rituals on it and I've fo several bits of it in the garden or on the driveway!
Do I need to replace the old school antenna or will my swanky smart TV just pull the signal out of the ether?
I think I know what you're going to say but say it anyway!!

Need an antenna mate. Unless you live next door to the TV stations, you need an antenna directionally pointed at the towers.

 

[sleepa]

Of course your current antenna MAY work. One of ours recently was massively bent out of shape and we still pulled out most channels, only missing 2, and this was an old analogue antenna.
Hell, even rabbit ears worked for us.

You will get a better quality signal with a new TV antenna and maybe an amplifier if you need it though.

 

[mpower]

Of course your current antenna MAY work. One of ours recently was massively bent out of shape and we still pulled out most channels, only missing 2, and this was an old analogue antenna.
Hell, even rabbit ears worked for us.

You will get a better quality signal with a new TV antenna and maybe an amplifier if you need it though.

amps do nothing for quality and can sometimes make things worse by simply boosting the crappy signal.

Quality of signal =/= strength of signal.

 

[sleepa]

Yeah, I know that. But sometimes it's needed, like if you are on the edge of the signal and it makes a difference, sometimes it does make it worse though.

Plenty of experience in different country areas where it made the difference between getting a good digital signal and one not worth trying to watch. Although if he is in Sydney itself he shouldn't have an issue.

 

[kiwicon]

you need an aerial to match the TV signal as well... but with saying that smart TVs (a lot of them do both) UHF and VHF - VHF channels (channels 2-13) and UHF channels (channels 14-51). well that's how it is in NZ anyway

 

[XUV]

you need an aerial to match the TV signal as well... but with saying that smart TVs (a lot of them do both) UHF and VHF - VHF channels (channels 2-13) and UHF channels (channels 14-51). well that's how it is in NZ anyway

VHF is so last decade here in OZ, no fuzzy half analogue signals to be had anywhere.

 

[graphicgoose]

I ended up picking up a Sony KD65X8500B UHD 4K TV last week for $2,942 from JB Hifi. Haven't adjusted any settings yet as haven't really had the time nor desire, but straight out of the box it looks fantastic. Picture quality is excellent and 4K is the ducks nuts. I was actually more impressed with how non-**** SD playback is though, as I was expecting it to look terrible...it's actually easily watchable.

 

[commodore665]

VHF is so last decade here in OZ, no fuzzy half analogue signals to be had anywhere.

Yeah digital is being being rolled out across the country in NZ , not sure if any analog signals are still about .

 

[XUV]

I ended up picking up a Sony KD65X8500B UHD 4K TV last week for $2,942 from JB Hifi.

What's the smart function like ?

Haven't adjusted any settings yet as haven't really had the time nor desire, but straight out of the box it looks fantastic. Picture quality is excellent and 4K is the ducks nuts. I was actually more impressed with how non-**** SD playback is though, as I was expecting it to look terrible...it's actually easily watchable.

yeah, SD's good, 'till you how good 1080 HD is , then SD becomes a 1st world problem ....

Setting wise try
Contrast - 100
Brightness - 45
Sharpness - 65
Colour - 65

This off soccer mode and improved the factory setting alot , Even on a kogan POS TV crap pic improved with those settigs.

 

[graphicgoose]

Haven't had a huge chance to play with the smart function yet. Used the Youtube app once and that was easy enough. From what I've read the Samsungs are better with respects to Smart functionality, but the Sony's are the better panels. To be honest the Smart functions aren't why I bought the TV, I just wanted a bawler screen for my theatre system, which it is.

Hahaha yeah, of course SD doesn't look anywhere near as good as 1080 or 4K, but considering I've got a bunch of TV shows already on a HDD in SD I was surprised at how watchable they are on such a large and high res screen. The upscaling seems to work pretty well also.

Cheers for the settings options, I'll give it a crack when I get back home later in the week. Might even download a calibration app for my phone and give that a try also.