Hey audio visual experts, I’m looking to get a new telly, can any of you offer any advice on these two TV's?

[Mottie]

I’m looking to get a new TV. Mrs Mottie doesn’t like large TV's that dominate a room so I am restricted to 42” (possibly could go to 43” but with an argument!). Won’t be used for gaming etc and must have Freeview play. I just have a sound bar, a Fire TV cube and our CCTV to plug in to it so 3 HDMI sockets needed. I've been looking around and I’ve seen two so far that I like the look of.

Sony Bravia

and

LG C3

Can any of you offer any advice on what to get, what to avoid and why? Is one of those better than the other? Do they have good specs?

Are there any others I should consider?

 

[jurassic sparkk]

Both look good mate. The LG C3 speakers are not the best but as your going to be using your soundbar its okay.
I'll go for the LG one if i was in your shoes. Read the review on Techradar. Its really good.

Sony on the other hand just have high price tags. Thats it really.

As long as the TV is 4K and has at least three hdmi ports then its good.
Pick the more cheaper one.
P.s i could go in more detail but I am composing this on my phone.

 

[jurassic sparkk]

You could always try Sky Glass. Give that a search.
I've got it and boy the sound is amazing.

 

[Rodders53]

Pop into a Richer Sounds, John Lewis or similar to compare them in the flesh - set to a Filmmaker type mode for PQ and try the handset remote and interface.

You may hate one vs the other possible sets' controls. (What brand is current TV?)

Read any AVForums reviews and owner threads. There are some real experts on there!

Panasonic MZ800 or more likely the higher spec MZ980 may also be worth a look (but I expect you may have discounted those already)?

$ky Glass is not OLED as far as I know and the LCD screen quality is not the best, either from what I have read. (Beware in case any subscription on top?)

 

[Mottie]

What brand is current TV?)

Panasonic

MZ980 may also be worth a look (but I expect you may have discounted those already)?

Hadn't seen it. I’ll put that on my list now.

 

[foxhole]

Got a cheap Hisense tv for the wife to use in bedroom, she really likes the simple controls ( hasn’t figured out the controls on a Samsung we have had for 8 years). Also has voice control and remote control via phone app.
Best of all it’s cheap, cheap, cheap.
Got a cheap jvc in the annex, has Alexa built in and voice control.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Mottie doesn't do cheap, he's a brand whore!

 

[Mottie]

Mottie doesn't do cheap, he's a brand whore!

Buy cheap, buy twice is my motto.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Lucid

www.diynot.com

Andy

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Buy cheap, buy triple is my motto.

 

[Lucid]

If you can afford it, and by some miracle your missus would let you have a 55", then the LG G3 is the one to get. These have the heatsink panel and the micro-lenses, so they go brighter than the C3 with less risk of image retention. The rtings review site has been running accelerated wear tests on all the major OLED brands. LG comes out on top (best) because the anti-image retention tech kicks in the quickest. Shame they don't make it in anything smaller than 55"

Sony and Panasonic picture quality via their image processing tech is better, and they have better support for audio pass-through which is important for some such as gamers (multi-channel PCM via eARC), but Sony comes out lowest (worst) on image burn/retention. That's disappointing.

Samsung QD OLED (another micro-lens tech) would be a contender for me except for the stupidity that it won't support Dolby Vision as a matter of principle because they're pushing HDR10+. In truth, there's not a lot between 10+ and DV, but there's a lot more DV content around, and if the TV doesn't support it then you drop back to standard HDR10. The same is true of sets that don't support 10+. They drop to HDR10. However, since there's far less 10+ content around then this is a less frequent occurrence.

LG: HLG, HDR10, DV
Samsung: HLG, HDR10, HDR10+
Sony & Panasonic: the full house

Between the C3 and the Sony, I want to say Sony, but their oddly reluctant anti-retention tech nags in the back of my mind. The C3 is good now that LG has fixed the screen dimming issue with a firmware update. The wild card is the Panasonic TX-42MZ980 (was £1599 / now £1199). Since any TV is going to have a range of image qualities thrown at it, then image scaling and video processing has to be something you pay attention to. The HCX Pro AI image processor isn't just a gimmick. I have a version of it in my Pana 820 4K player. It does nice things with 1080p Blu-ray, but also helps old school DVD along, too, which is a bit of a bonus. Freeview and the catch-up Play content could use all the help it can get.

 

[Mottie]

If you can afford it, and by some miracle your missus would let you have a 55"

Two hopes there - Bob Hope and no hope!

One thing is sure whatever TV I get and that’s that I'm going to get a new pair of glasses tuned to the exact distance between the TV and my 'ead so that I can get the full experience of the picture.

 

[Mottie]

Just been out to Curry’s, all they were interested in was selling me a Sony. I took that with a pinch of salt as all the salesman’s T Shirts had 'Sony Bravia' on the back so there’s obviously some tie up there. They rubbished the LG.

Next, went to Richer Sounds. They told me that they all had LG sets and that LG made the screens for Sony and Panasonic? One thing that many reviews said about the LG was the 'magic remote' and how tricky it was to use. They let me have a play with it and I found it fine - no different from a mouse really.

I ordered one there and then, getting it on Tuesday. £899 - the cheapest of the lot which sort of worries me but we'll see! If it goes down any cheaper on Black Friday, they'll refund the difference and it comes with a 6 year guarantee.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

We have an LG with the magic remote, it generally works really well though sometimes the pointer does randomly move away from where you've had it for a few seconds.

 

[Mottie]

We have an LG with the magic remote, it generally works really well though sometimes the pointer does randomly move away from where you've had it for a few seconds.

The bloke in the shop showed me how to scroll through apps just using the cursor if I didn’t want to use the on-screen pointer. He also said you could buy a standard LG remote to use for about six quid off eBay.