65" 4K @ 58K - Panel TV : Review

parambir

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Hello friends...

I had earlier posted a thread https://www.hifivision.com/posts/791957/ where I was looking for reviews on "Panel TVs". Unfortunately there was not much response on that.
But I did some further "hunting" and finally took the leap. Yesterday I picked up a 65 inch 4K Panel TV for 57K. I did the unboxing and setup today.

Before I begin here is a disclaimer -
1. I actually was looking for a 4K @ 60 Hz TV since I am not into gaming.
2. I am not looking at too much of "smartness" in the TV since I am using Minix U1 Android box which is smart enough for my requirements.
3. Not a big fan of TV being capable of 4K upscaling since I will be playing my video through Yamaha Rx v681 receiver which has 4K upscaling.

Background: I have been closely following the panel TVs for more than an year now. Earlier they claimed they were 4K but it was fake. They were only full HD. Recently though they have come up with 4K panels and display technology. I tested a couple of them before homing to the one that I picked up. The only problem in the ones I tested was that they were not going beyond 4K @ 24 Hz. How do I know? Well for one the Minix detected 4K @ 24 Hz at HDMI port so I trusted that figure and secondly when a video played on HDMI port, it showed 2160 @ 24 Hz... so that was for sure. Finally I came across one person who claimed 60Hz and it indeed was. So this is the one I picked up.

Test: I may not be perfect at testing TVs but whatever minimal knowledge I had I applied that. To begin with I downloaded 3 videos - 4K @ 60 fps, 4K @ 25 fps and 1080p @ 25 fps. I carried them in a pendrive attached to my Minix player. Note - I did not connect the pen drive to the TV as this will not give me the performance from HDMI port where I will be actually playing subsequently. Then I used XBMC player to play each of these videos. My confirmation comes from the fact that when I played 4K @ 60 fps video, the HDMI port was showing 2160 @ 60 Hz and when I played 4K @ 25 fps the HDMI showed 2160 @ 25 Hz. So I concluded that 60 Hz refresh rate was supported at 4K which is pretty much in line with other budget 4K TVs.

Screenshots:
20180915_204110.jpg
Startup screen

20180915_204123.jpg
Booting screen

20180915_210116.jpg
About Screen.

Please note - Nowhere it is displaying "fake" Samsung or Sony Logo.

Setup process: I have been able to successfully able to connect on to the wifi network at home and open play store. I have also connected the Tatasky on one of the HDMI ports and Chromecast on the other. Both easily played on respective ports. I yet have to connect my Yamaha receiver and then stream full HD movies from my Home Cloud server through Minix !!! Don't worry. Won't bog you guys with those details but will post next review of that setup and see if upscaling through Yamaha works !!! (fingers crossed).

Ports: The TV has 2 x HDMI ports (Neither supports CEC but doesn't bother) I will be turning it on and off through Google Home Automation along with my Home Theater. It has 2 x USB ports including one USB 3.0 port. There is a RGB port and SDCard slot too.

Review so Far: Well as for the above setup with Tata Sky and Chromecast, there was no problem. But the acid test is with home theatre for which I will do a setup tomorrow and share with you guys.

Cost: Well after some negotiation skills I manage to get it for 58K with 1 yr warranty. Even the best of the ID sale on Amazon or Flipkart brought these TVs to 67 or 68 K at most. So I think this was a fair deal and yes I got table and wall mounts with the TV.

I hope this review helps those who are looking to pick up 65 inch 4K TVs and are budget conscious and are willing to do some wild west hunting.

Thanks for stopping by.... Cheers

Parambir
 
Hello friends...

I had earlier posted a thread https://www.hifivision.com/posts/791957/ where I was looking for reviews on "Panel TVs". Unfortunately there was not much response on that.
But I did some further "hunting" and finally took the leap. Yesterday I picked up a 65 inch 4K Panel TV for 57K. I did the unboxing and setup today.

Before I begin here is a disclaimer -
1. I actually was looking for a 4K @ 60 Hz TV since I am not into gaming.
2. I am not looking at too much of "smartness" in the TV since I am using Minix U1 Android box which is smart enough for my requirements.
3. Not a big fan of TV being capable of 4K upscaling since I will be playing my video through Yamaha Rx v681 receiver which has 4K upscaling.

Background: I have been closely following the panel TVs for more than an year now. Earlier they claimed they were 4K but it was fake. They were only full HD. Recently though they have come up with 4K panels and display technology. I tested a couple of them before homing to the one that I picked up. The only problem in the ones I tested was that they were not going beyond 4K @ 24 Hz. How do I know? Well for one the Minix detected 4K @ 24 Hz at HDMI port so I trusted that figure and secondly when a video played on HDMI port, it showed 2160 @ 24 Hz... so that was for sure. Finally I came across one person who claimed 60Hz and it indeed was. So this is the one I picked up.

Test: I may not be perfect at testing TVs but whatever minimal knowledge I had I applied that. To begin with I downloaded 3 videos - 4K @ 60 fps, 4K @ 25 fps and 1080p @ 25 fps. I carried them in a pendrive attached to my Minix player. Note - I did not connect the pen drive to the TV as this will not give me the performance from HDMI port where I will be actually playing subsequently. Then I used XBMC player to play each of these videos. My confirmation comes from the fact that when I played 4K @ 60 fps video, the HDMI port was showing 2160 @ 60 Hz and when I played 4K @ 25 fps the HDMI showed 2160 @ 25 Hz. So I concluded that 60 Hz refresh rate was supported at 4K which is pretty much in line with other budget 4K TVs.

Screenshots:
View attachment 30263
Startup screen

View attachment 30264
Booting screen

View attachment 30265
About Screen.

Please note - Nowhere it is displaying "fake" Samsung or Sony Logo.

Setup process: I have been able to successfully able to connect on to the wifi network at home and open play store. I have also connected the Tatasky on one of the HDMI ports and Chromecast on the other. Both easily played on respective ports. I yet have to connect my Yamaha receiver and then stream full HD movies from my Home Cloud server through Minix !!! Don't worry. Won't bog you guys with those details but will post next review of that setup and see if upscaling through Yamaha works !!! (fingers crossed).

Ports: The TV has 2 x HDMI ports (Neither supports CEC but doesn't bother) I will be turning it on and off through Google Home Automation along with my Home Theater. It has 2 x USB ports including one USB 3.0 port. There is a RGB port and SDCard slot too.

Review so Far: Well as for the above setup with Tata Sky and Chromecast, there was no problem. But the acid test is with home theatre for which I will do a setup tomorrow and share with you guys.

Cost: Well after some negotiation skills I manage to get it for 58K with 1 yr warranty. Even the best of the ID sale on Amazon or Flipkart brought these TVs to 67 or 68 K at most. So I think this was a fair deal and yes I got table and wall mounts with the TV.

I hope this review helps those who are looking to pick up 65 inch 4K TVs and are budget conscious and are willing to do some wild west hunting.

Thanks for stopping by.... Cheers

Parambir


One Query , 2nd pic is of the TV actually or just a random pic? cos by look of it the TV doesn't feel like 65", saying cos I myself is having VU 65" from last 2 years and its huge or may be its just how the picture was taken making it look smallish, anywayz congratulation and enjoy the big TV experience, after this it will be very hard to go back to smaller TV's.
 
All the pictures are of 65 inch tv. Yes the angles may not be so great. Was struggling between son wanting to watch tv and me wanting to click boot pics. By the way. .. some people have complained long boot time especially iffalcon. But this one is up and running in under 10 secs.
 
Ok, so going through your other thread I understood what TV we are talking about, but can you let us know your thought process for getting this panel TV? Even if you are saving 5-6k is it good enough? I guess there is no warranty on this TV, what happens if it shits the bed in a couple of years, where will you get it fixed??
 
Savings. .. About 10k. Warranty 1 yr. That is what is given by all other brands. As far as repairs after that is concerned well there are guys who repair such tvs so that is not much of a problem. Hope this clears things
 
UPDATE

Here is an update after I connected it to my Yamaha Rx v681 Receiver...

Connection & Configuration: Yamaha receiver HDMI out to TV. Minix U1 Android Box on HDMI in of Receiver. I switched between two configurations - Yamaha video mode was set to "Direct" which means it will output whatever it receives. Basically no upscaling. Full HD goes as full HD and 4k goes as 4K. And second configuration as "Processing" where I set video resolution to 4K.

Results: Using both the above mentioned configurations I played multiple videos (primarily full HD and 4K). There was no noticeable delay or errors in display. I even checked if Yamaha was upscaling... and it was upscaling. Below is the screenshot of video output.
WhatsApp Image 2018-09-16 at 13.01.35.jpeg
So the full HD was being upscaled at 4K. For those of you who have read about upscaling will understand that it is no magic. It is just a predicting algorithm which fills in gaps using past image samples. There will be jitter in fast moving videos. Upscaling a hull HD to 4K will never happen... the best you will get is close to 2K. This will happen even if the TV is upscaling. I did notice some jitter on upscaling when playing movies like fast and furious in upscaling mode but I am sure those having upscaling on TV would have experienced the same. Upscaling (also known as upconversion) sounds like you’re getting 4K video quality from 1080p video. That’s not what it is. And it’s far from perfect. It stands to reason that there would be problems with technology that forces a picture into duplicating its pixels to create a fair estimation of a higher resolution. Whereas it’s implied to be all about precision, upscaling can’t add more detail than is already present.

I then played the same set of videos without Yamaha doing upscaling... they played flawless... just the way they should be playing. Although I kept switching between "processing" and "direct" while a video was playing and noticed that TV was displaying on top corner "2160 @ 60 Hz" and "1080 @ 24 Hz" to satisfy the "insect" in me and tried to notice any change in the video... well I did not notice much change.

Result: The big question I ask myself... Have I got what I was looking for in the budget I was willing to spend on an entertainment device... the answer is definitely YES. It may not be the best in the market... but I guess then there is no limit in adding sugar to milk...

Hope the above review was helpful to you guys. My further review would be to play 4K movie without upscaling by Yamaha...

Cheers...

Parambir
 
Mi TV 55 In for Rs. 45,000/-
This 65 In for Rs. 58,000/-

This is good for consumers. 4K 43"+ is fast becoming a de facto standard for new TV buyers.

Could you (@parambir ) kindly let us know the make and model # of this review item?

Could you also, based on your free time. let us know how this doubles up as a PC monitor?
Thanks in advance!!

Regards,

Ravindra.
 
Sorry I didn't get the brand name. Great detail review.
Incase you have followed my posts... these are not branded. But mine is better because it is not faked to display Samsung or Sony logo which they actually are not. This one uses A+ IPS grade panel.
 
Mi TV 55 In for Rs. 45,000/-
This 65 In for Rs. 58,000/-

This is good for consumers. 4K 43"+ is fast becoming a de facto standard for new TV buyers.

Could you (@parambir ) kindly let us know the make and model # of this review item?

Could you also, based on your free time. let us know how this doubles up as a PC monitor?
Thanks in advance!!

Regards,

Ravindra.
Dear Ravindra

For make and model refer my previous post.
Yes this can double as TV monitor but then you really have to sit far !!! You desktpo can connect through standard RGB port which will be non HD or through HDMI port. As for keyboard and mouse, you can use wireless ones. Hope this helps.
 
Dear Ravindra

For make and model refer my previous post.
Yes this can double as TV monitor but then you really have to sit far !!! You desktpo can connect through standard RGB port which will be non HD or through HDMI port. As for keyboard and mouse, you can use wireless ones. Hope this helps.


Thank you for your early reply!
Where can I demo/ buy this?

Regards,

Ravindra.
 
Thank you for your early reply!
Where can I demo/ buy this?

Regards,

Ravindra.
You will have to look for a similar seller at your end. This was just luck that I came across the seller who was not faking a samsung or Sony logo.... For demo, you can ask me as many questions as you want !!! will be glad to help.
 
The final test... watched a movie in 4k format. Deadpool to be precise since it hasplenty of slow and fast moving scenes. The receiver was kept at direct configuration that is no interference with original format. It played flawlessly. Couple of scenes I repeated by changing the receiver to processing mode but there was no change in output as expected.
 
Savings. .. About 10k. Warranty 1 yr. That is what is given by all other brands. As far as repairs after that is concerned well there are guys who repair such tvs so that is not much of a problem. Hope this clears things

is that a manufacturer warranty ( I think not as its unbranded) or seller warranty (as in grey products) ? cos if its seller warranty than it may not mean anything and he may back out in case of any issue saying its not covered or happened due to misuse as happens with other grey electronics, also I hope you realize that in case panel (led panel ) fails it has to be replaced completely and cannot be repaired and will almost cost 70% -80% of TV cost.
 
is that a manufacturer warranty ( I think not as its unbranded) or seller warranty (as in grey products) ? cos if its seller warranty than it may not mean anything and he may back out in case of any issue saying its not covered or happened due to misuse as happens with other grey electronics, also I hope you realize that in case panel (led panel ) fails it has to be replaced completely and cannot be repaired and will almost cost 70% -80% of TV cost.
If I had taken without warranty then I was getting a discount of 5k. But with warranty even the Panel is covered for 1 yr. Its not grey market. Grey is when I would have bought a branded tv from unauthorized sources.
 
If I had taken without warranty then I was getting a discount of 5k. But with warranty even the Panel is covered for 1 yr. Its not grey market. Grey is when I would have bought a branded tv from unauthorized sources.

is this a manufacturer warranty? does the manufacturer has authorized dealer in India providing after sales?
also does it come with proper paper and stuff (warranty card) to enforce it in case of any issue? this TV really looks good so wondering if it is too good to be true!
 
is this a manufacturer warranty? does the manufacturer has authorized dealer in India providing after sales?
also does it come with proper paper and stuff (warranty card) to enforce it in case of any issue? this TV really looks good so wondering if it is too good to be true!
Look as far as warranty is concerned it is from the dealer. He has given me a bill with the dates. Also since the seller is local to me availing warranty will not be a problem. Secondly the tv is made or assembled as the case may be in India. If people think its a risk I have taken... I am ok with.
Finally I have been able to setup my 7.2 hometheater system complimented by the 65 inch 4k tv.
 

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Look as far as warranty is concerned it is from the dealer. He has given me a bill with the dates. Also since the seller is local to me availing warranty will not be a problem. Secondly the tv is made or assembled as the case may be in India. If people think its a risk I have taken... I am ok with.
Finally I have been able to setup my 7.2 hometheater system complimented by the 65 inch 4k tv.
thanks for explaining it in better terms that is local assembled one hence explains the low price. setup looks good, Enjoy!
 
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