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HDMI 2.1 TVs - Worth the upgrade from an older 4k set?

Sethbacca

Member
That's it, that's the question. I have a 5(ish) year old TCL 6 series that still looks decent enough picture quality wise, but am kind of getting the bug to upgrade to one with VRR, 120hz, QLED better picture and all that, especially with PS5 Pro possibly coming. I'm not looking to bump to a $2k OLED or anything, but thinking something like the HiSense U7K and bumping up from my current 55" to a 65" or so.

I'm thinking I'm gonna keep tabs on pricing through the holiday season and see if I can find a deal that makes sense. Any of you guys that have sidegraded/upgraded and regretted it?
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
My only tip is try to get at Costco if you can. You get an additional year worth of warranty. Home service pick up/return if there's an issue. And if you are into extended warranties, they are dirt cheap compared to Best Buy. And extended warranty is like $100 for 5 or 6 years total coverage.

I find all these high tech new TVs get issues. I've had to use the Costco service twice to repair stuff way beyond 1 year standard warranty.
 
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Sethbacca

Member
My only tip is try to get at Costco if you can. You get an additional year worth of warranty. Home service pick up/return if there's an issue. And if you are into extended warranties, they are dirt cheap compared to Best Buy. And extended warranty is like $100 for 5 or 6 years total coverage.

I find all these high tech new TVs get issues. I've had to use the Costco service twice to repair stuff way beyond 1 year standard warranty.
Conveniently, Maine is getting our first Costco in literally the coming weeks, so I'll have to peep it after it opens. I had a Sams Club membership but held off on reupping until I see what Costco offers.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
To me the 120 fps modes in games like COD are literal game changers

That said I do have pretty hard core gamers that claim they can't feel a difference between 60 and 120 so your mileage may vary

VRR is a great addition as well

To me if you can afford to do it and not break the bank its totally worth it
 

REDRZA MWS

Member
That's it, that's the question. I have a 5(ish) year old TCL 6 series that still looks decent enough picture quality wise, but am kind of getting the bug to upgrade to one with VRR, 120hz, QLED better picture and all that, especially with PS5 Pro possibly coming. I'm not looking to bump to a $2k OLED or anything, but thinking something like the HiSense U7K and bumping up from my current 55" to a 65" or so.

I'm thinking I'm gonna keep tabs on pricing through the holiday season and see if I can find a deal that makes sense. Any of you guys that have sidegraded/upgraded and regretted it?
I have an LG GX and it’s been 100% worth every penny. And I upgraded from only a C8 before it. The 120hz, instant game mode, VRR, has all been worth it plus the picture on it for me is second to none.
 

Bluntman

Member
Sorry, a little bit offtopic, but I just wanted to ask this for a long time, but kept forgetting to. When you American guys quote prices, is it without VAT?
 
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SScorpio

Member
Sorry, a little bit offtopic, but I just wanted to ask this for a long time, but kept forgetting to. When you American guys quote prices, is it without VAT?
America doesn't have VAT, and there's no Federal level sales tax.

Different states, and even cities can have their own sales tax that's add on. The prices are the base price without the tax.

There are some states that don't have sales tax, other don't have income tax.

 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Sorry, a little bit offtopic, but I just wanted to ask this for a long time, but kept forgetting to. When you American guys quote prices, is it without VAT?
Nope. When people in US or Canada state prices, it's before taxes unless someone says it is or all-in cost. Taxes vary a lot. It might be 5% in some places, or in Canada add about 13%.
 

tr1p1ex

Member
wouldn't bother.

I think if you're getting 60 fps in a console game and your pic looks good then you're good.

The reality is you get used to whatever you have and it fades into the background.

So if I'm upgrading it (has) to be much nicer/bigger at a must buy price.
 
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gothmog

Gold Member
To me it's a game changer. My Xbox and PS5 experience is so much better since I upgraded.
There are places you can bid and they will ship you one for an all in price with tax included.
 

Bluntman

Member
Nope. When people in US or Canada state prices, it's before taxes unless someone says it is or all-in cost. Taxes vary a lot. It might be 5% in some places, or in Canada add about 13%.

Oh I see, thanks. Strange for a European obviously because we always talk about the full all-in cost. Still, tech stuff is very cheap in the US indeed, even when factoring the above stuff in.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
To me the 120 fps modes in games like COD are literal game changers

That said I do have pretty hard core gamers that claim they can't feel a difference between 60 and 120 so your mileage may vary

VRR is a great addition as well

To me if you can afford to do it and not break the bank its totally worth it
I found this to be the case, too. I got a 120 hz QLED with VRR last year and it's so nice for gaming.
 

Sethbacca

Member
Err yep the early 4k tvs have been soundly surpassed.
Yeah, I always get a little envious when I'm meandering through Best Buy and see the picture quality on the new sets. I could almost but not quite justify the upgrade on picture quality alone if I wanted to spend the money on a higher end set, but I'm a cheap ass.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
Depends. You don't always need HDMI 2.1 for the various features. Depends on the TV.

For example I have VRR up to 1440p and don't have 2.1. So in most cases where you're playing at higher framerates on consoles you won't be getting 4k anyway.
 
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Mister Wolf

Gold Member
That's it, that's the question. I have a 5(ish) year old TCL 6 series that still looks decent enough picture quality wise, but am kind of getting the bug to upgrade to one with VRR, 120hz, QLED better picture and all that, especially with PS5 Pro possibly coming. I'm not looking to bump to a $2k OLED or anything, but thinking something like the HiSense U7K and bumping up from my current 55" to a 65" or so.

I'm thinking I'm gonna keep tabs on pricing through the holiday season and see if I can find a deal that makes sense. Any of you guys that have sidegraded/upgraded and regretted it?




Solid release from TCL this year. If I needed a TV I would choose between this or the Sony X93L.
 

Sethbacca

Member



Solid release from TCL this year. If I needed a TV I would choose between this or the Sony X93L.
Yeah, I definitely peeped this one. It's one of the ones on my short list. I'm mostly leaning U7K because it's the one most recommended in mid range by RTings and Caleb over at Digital Trends. Plus a 65" right now is $750. Ultimately depends on what comes down the pipe between Black Friday and New Years sales.

 

Mister Wolf

Gold Member
Yeah, I definitely peeped this one. It's one of the ones on my short list. I'm mostly leaning U7K because it's the one most recommended in mid range by RTings and Caleb over at Digital Trends. Plus a 65" right now is $750. Ultimately depends on what comes down the pipe between Black Friday and New Years sales.



I doubt you will regret your purchase. More and more developers on console are adding VRR unlocked framerate modes and 40FPS modes for these 120hz HDMI 2.1 compliant TVs. On PC it's a necessity. You might as well get the most out of your gaming experience.
 

Kuranghi

Member
TCL isn't as good a purchase due to their worse image presentation/upscaling + gradient handling than Hisense and crushing of blacks to try and compete with OLED (it doesn't compete because its still an LCD, it just fucks the accuracy of the image and makes getting the shadow detail back annoying because you have to compromise other aspects of the image to do so) so I would choose Hisenses over TCLs for best overall choice with the features you want.

The U7K is great, but I would get the U8K if you want something really special for the money, its about 25% more than the U7K in 65", so if thats taking it outside your budget I would suggest staying at 55" just to get the U8K, since its about the same price as the 65" U7K. The U8K has the same featureset overall but the peak brightness/dimming capability is much higher/better than the U7K and definitely worth the extra money.

Thats because on paper it might seem like 1000 nits vs 1500 nits, but the U7K is as quoted or slightly underperforming in brightness, whereas the U8K is massively outperforming the quoted brightness, its more like 1800-2200 nits depending on how you have the picture settings configured. The dimming zone count is a big improvement too, 240 vs 672 for 55" and 384 vs 1008 for the 65", so roughly 3 times as many zones so even if you did take the 55U8K over the 65U7K for cost reasons its still nearly double the zones: 672 vs 384.

So for the money the U7K is excellent but the U8K is superb. PM me if you want to get into the details of the Hisense U7K or U8K, happy to help.
 
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Silver Wattle

Gold Member
Just FYI, the HDMI alliance changed HDMI 2.1, it doesn't require any of the cool features to be "2.1".
Basically HDMI 2.1 is HDMI 2.0, you have to look much closer at the specifications for features like VRR, eARC, 48GBps bandwidth.
 

Little Mac

Member
I'm not looking to bump to a $2k OLED or anything, but thinking something like the HiSense U7K and bumping up from my current 55" to a 65" or so.

Bought the 55" U7K about 3 weeks ago off Amazon for like $530. I want an OLED like the LG C2, but I can't justify the cost. Maybe down the line. Regardless, I really like the U7K. It's a great bang for your buck TV. No issues whatsoever. I used the calibration settings from rtings.com and its a great upgrade over my 2018 TCL Series 6 (55r615), which for some reason out of the blue, it's backlight just started flickering.
 
I'm always tempted to buy an upgrade to my 2016 Samsung but I'm afraid it won't be able to go dim enough in the backlight. I bought an U8H a while back and returned it for that reason. Is there a spec that shows how dim it can go? I'm not talking about local dimming.
 
VRR is very important if you currently or in the future plan to play on PC.
I mean, sure, but if he plan to play on Pc IN THE FUTURE is not really a good motive to change his television NOW, isn't it ? Every year the new models bring some big or little refinement nd the past yer models suddenly cost much less...
 
Literally every feature of HDMI 2.1 specifically benefits gaming.
Faster refresh
Variable Refresh
Faster audio over earc
HDR/4k/120hz

Do you need it? No.
Will you notice the improvement? Especially in shooters like Call of duty? heck yes. And Sony has been good about 40hz support lately.

These features have made it to budget displays now too, it's worth investing in if you're a heavy gamer.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
That's it, that's the question. I have a 5(ish) year old TCL 6 series that still looks decent enough picture quality wise, but am kind of getting the bug to upgrade to one with VRR, 120hz, QLED better picture and all that, especially with PS5 Pro possibly coming. I'm not looking to bump to a $2k OLED or anything, but thinking something like the HiSense U7K and bumping up from my current 55" to a 65" or so.

I'm thinking I'm gonna keep tabs on pricing through the holiday season and see if I can find a deal that makes sense. Any of you guys that have sidegraded/upgraded and regretted it?
Luckily for you, 55" OLEDs no longer cost anywhere remotely close to $2K.

Get a 55 inch C2 for around $1200.

Totally worth it.
 

K2D

Banned
Haven't gotten around to 120hz and 40fps yet. That's the whole reason I bought one. It's been a year.

I'm having a lot of issues with a surround reciever and hdmi cables.

If you have a surround system.. buyer beware I guess..?
 
Haven't gotten around to 120hz and 40fps yet. That's the whole reason I bought one. It's been a year.

I'm having a lot of issues with a surround reciever and hdmi cables.

If you have a surround system.. buyer beware I guess..?
avoid eARC.
nice in concept, but tv manufactures usually screw something up or cut some features.

plug hdmi into receiver/sound processor, and have the receiver/sound processor send video to tv.
just ensure your receiver/sound processor fully supports hdmi 2.1.
and if you bought an early hdmi 2.1 receiver/sound processor, you might have a faulty chip. lots do. google it to ensure your model isnt affected.

if you have have a receiver/sound processor with a faulty chip, a fall-back option is to actually use eARC.
just output lossy 5.1 via optical/toslink.
 
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Mister Wolf

Gold Member
I mean, sure, but if he plan to play on Pc IN THE FUTURE is not really a good motive to change his television NOW, isn't it ? Every year the new models bring some big or little refinement nd the past yer models suddenly cost much lassets.

There has been no new refinements in TV tech that will affect gaming since VRR became a TV standard. Nor is there anything on the horizon that I've been made aware of. The only thing I'm seeing is TVs are now releasing that are 144hz over 120hz but that is nothing to write home about. Personally I miss 3D TVs. Playing games like Gears 3, Uncharted 3, Arkham City, and Halo Anniversary in 3D was an experience like no other.
 
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