Curved TV's?

Bogwhoppit

I bought one of the first Samsung Smart TVs specifically to watch you-tube. Then they remove the you tube app as their license expired. So I'm stuck with a dumb TV that initially cost four figures which you can now pick up in Tesco for less than a crate of milk. 

My first and last experience of adopting new technology.

exocet

Bogwhoppit;739544" said:

I bought one of the first Samsung Smart TVs specifically to watch

you-tube. Then they remove the you tube app as their license expired. So

I'm stuck with a dumb TV that initially cost four figures which you can

now pick up in Tesco for less than a crate of milk. My first and last

experience of adopting new technology.

Bogwhoppit;739544" said:

I bought one of the first Samsung Smart TVs specifically to watch

you-tube. Then they remove the you tube app as their license expired. So

I'm stuck with a dumb TV that initially cost four figures which you can

now pick up in Tesco for less than a crate of milk. My first and last

experience of adopting new technology.

Pretty sure that all TV Manufactures were in the same boat with the YouTube app changes. I don't think we'll ever be able to rely on "Smart TV" to be the sole source of connectivity - however the plethora of cheap add-on boxes / gadgets eg Google Chromecast makes much of the built in technology to be irrelevant. As much as I enjoyed having built in YouTube on my Sony - it's so much easier to drive it all from my phone / ipad via Chromecast.

Beexter

All I can add is that I went and looked at a load of TV's. I wanted a good picture, SMART features and around 50". Didn't want to pay top dollar, wasn't interested in 4k due to viewing distances/ lack of content (for now), wasn't bothered by curved or not and ended up with a Samsung. Very happy with the picture, seems snappy enough moving between apps and more than anything, has built in access to all the terrestrial catch-up players. Very happy with it.

I would add that I'd never buy a TV without actually watching it with the screen on. The picture on some of those on my shortlist that on paper were "technically" superior looked quite poor when viewing.

strumjoughlamps

thread revival innit  

so I found a LG 4K smart w/ Freesat which was the perfect spec for me and my budget.. set it all up and there was a black patch on the right hand side, not noticeable with normal viewing but with same colour images I could see it, after a few days I couldn't bare it so it went back for a replacement.. come home with replacement and taking it out of the box the casing was loose... so it went back and losing a bit of faith with LG I looked at other brands..

I see a Samsung curved FHD smart on offer so I thought 'fk it' and went for it despite the concerns RE reflections etc..

WOW, no reflection issues whatsoever, build quality is superb and picture is amazing, whether that is down to it being curved or not I don't know but image is amazing nonetheless.. One thing I am sure of due the the curve is last night we were watching Star Trek Beyond and my daughter was sat to the left and I asked her if the picture looks ok from her angle; "it just looks like its facing me" was her reply so I don't get all this 'curved screens are only for 1 person' malarky.

so yes it is looking like curved is dead but in some situations this doesn't mean they were bad, just not amazing as they made out.. and at the price drops they are receiving should be a consideration.

wish it had freesat though as I have now had to bring another box out of retirement, but ist worth it for the PQ I now have.

Sporky

Curved screens existed for two reasons.

1) Panel yield was higher than for flat glass - lower wastage means higher profit
2) They needed a new gimmick to convince people to buy yet another telly

strumjoughlamps

Sporky said:

Curved screens existed for two reasons.

1) Panel yield was higher than for flat glass - lower wastage means higher profit
2) They needed a new gimmick to convince people to buy yet another telly

I never doubt your thoughts/knowledge on such matters Sporkster and I really was not looking for a curved screen but that is what has happened and its a positive..

no doubt its a Samsung being better than LG over a curved being better than flat thing.

boogieman

A friend of mine has got one, it looks odd for a few minutes then you don't notice it's curved at all. 3D seems far more gimmicky now tbh. Judging by the amount of used ones up for sale I guess they're very much yesterday's tech. 

Sporky

strumjoughlamps said:

I never doubt your thoughts/knowledge on such matters Sporkster and I really was not looking for a curved screen but that is what has happened and its a positive..

Aye - I'm not knocking them as tellies, but there was a lot of marketing guff.

ThePrettyDamned

Myranda said:

Axe_meister said:

Curved screens look ok when sitting Omar TV stand but very odd when wall mounted. Personally I'd go with a 1080p OLED TV. Even at 1080p to my eyes the picture quality looks much better.

Wait till you see a 4K OLED... Mind-blown!

So far I've yet to see any 4k tvs that have really nice colour - that's to say, doesn't just render everything super saturated. Although, that's only in store and they probably pump everything up to make it look nicer when browsing... 

Sharpness wise, 4k is noticeably better - I watch at 1440p on YouTube (so not even 4k) where possible (matches screen resolution) and it's a more significant difference than I'd have believed, although not like the jump from VHS to dvd (ie crap to good, more like great to a bit better). 

I should add, again, I've not seen these 4k tvs outside a shop yet so maybe it's that they really oversaturate everything to make them look better... The worst offender was a Samsung oled one that was pretty vomit inducing, especially on greens. 

prowla

Curved TVs aren't for me:

i. They have a sweet spot, so if you view from an angle then you're going to get a distorted picture.
ii. One of the things about flat panel TVs is they fit in a smaller place, so making them curved goes against that.
iii. A flat panel fits flat against the wall, whereas a curved one bends out at the ends.
iv. Is content recorded to suit curved displays?
v. Other than attractions (inc. 360 degree surround experiences) I don't recall going to a cinema with a curved screen.

All-in-all, I think I'll give them a miss.

TimmyO

We got a 55" 4k curved Samsung.

I was a bit concerned about the curved thing, but in our front room it's actually pretty good. I often sit down one end of the sofa near the front window (I like the light) if I'm not 'actively' watching something front and centre, and the curve means that the far (!) end of the screen isn't horribly trapezoidededed and small.

In short I thought it might make off-centre viewing worse, but it makes it better.

There seems to be a trend away from all the top end stuff being curved now, but my experience has been positive

rocktron

It is a pity that Samsung has removed the 3D option from their 4K Curved Screen TVs. 

 

grungebob

what a coinky dink of a thread.  Just bought a samsung curved 4k 40" yesterday to repalce an aging Sony Bravia 32" flat screen.  The issue I had with the sony wasnt picture qualtiy but that it picked up every reflectino in the room and made it hard to watch dark shows.  The samsung looks pin sharp ( if a little washed out in the clours but Im guessing i can tweak that ) but the curved screen means zero reflections, gimmick or not its done what i wanted and it makes the PS4 a little better too.  is the 6100 series and cost me £400 and im happy with my choice.

ThePrettyDamned

grungebob said:

what a coinky dink of a thread.  Just bought a samsung curved 4k 40" yesterday to repalce an aging Sony Bravia 32" flat screen.  The issue I had with the sony wasnt picture qualtiy but that it picked up every reflectino in the room and made it hard to watch dark shows.  The samsung looks pin sharp ( if a little washed out in the clours but Im guessing i can tweak that ) but the curved screen means zero reflections, gimmick or not its done what i wanted and it makes the PS4 a little better too.  is the 6100 series and cost me £400 and im happy with my choice.

Bloody hell, 4k is coming right down in price these days. 

Snap

4k can be had for very cheap indeed. A couple of years ago (ish) we got a Phillips PUT506400, 50 inch 4k. Its great. Runs on Android, and has a load of client software on it, so does all sorts, including Kodi, and does it very well.

I think it was a little over 500 quid.

Picture is great too. One thing with these super hi tech TVs is that you really do need to get deep into the settings to get the best picture. Otherwise, they look very weird. also, there are a ton of processing options, which are best turned off. Lastly, cos of all the processing that can go on, you are also prone to audio delay. Yet another thing to to sort.

I facny a new TV actually........lol

boogieman

Things move on so quickly in tv land. I bought a top of the range Philips set in 2010. Cost me £800, and that was a special deal, it was £900-1000 everywhere else. I've been using it in my man cave just to watch dvds and play Xbox since I moved in with my wife as she already had a decent tv. We brought it down to use in another room recently and discovered it can't get hd channels, as although it's hd capable it doesn't actually have a built in hd tuner. I've had to buy a separate digibox.  

crunchman

ThePrettyDamned said:

grungebob said:

what a coinky dink of a thread.  Just bought a samsung curved 4k 40" yesterday to repalce an aging Sony Bravia 32" flat screen.  The issue I had with the sony wasnt picture qualtiy but that it picked up every reflectino in the room and made it hard to watch dark shows.  The samsung looks pin sharp ( if a little washed out in the clours but Im guessing i can tweak that ) but the curved screen means zero reflections, gimmick or not its done what i wanted and it makes the PS4 a little better too.  is the 6100 series and cost me £400 and im happy with my choice.

Bloody hell, 4k is coming right down in price these days. 

These days you would be stupid to buy a new TV that isn't 4k. If you are the type who changes your TV every 2 or 3 years to get the latest gimmick then you want 4k.  If you aren't that type then you will want the TV to last 5 years minimum - at which point it's worth getting 4k to future proof yourself when you can get a 4k TV for under £350.

Sporky

crunchman said:

These days you would be stupid to buy a new TV that isn't 4k.

Unless you're a gamer - a lot of 4K screens have the same scaling engines as the HD ones, but use four passes to process the four-times-as-many-pixels images - which means four times the latency...