Dear all,
Here is a brief review. Not really sure how photos will help in the review. But if you want, can upload them later.
Before I do the review -few caveats which I have mentioned above as well. I am not a pixel peeper. I just want a large screen which I can enjoy. 90% of the viewing on this tv is done by family and hence no one cares about HD or 4K although they do appreciate the clarity that HD channels give.
My overall experience has been that I am pretty happy with the purchase. This TV as can be seen on you tube reviews is not as thin as the MI but not as bulky as my Plasma either and hence I guess a sweet spot where you dont have to worry about accidentally knocking it off its perch.
1) Smartness - while my Panasonic TV is a smart one - it is 6 years old and it was not a pleasure to operate its smartness. This TV in turn is a certified Google/Android TV. Basically its a giant mobile phone minus the SIM and few sensors and cameras. I believe one can do pretty much everything with the Android OS that one normally does on the phone. I haven't tried much - kids downloaded couple of games and I downloaded few AV apps. The speed is pretty good - not much lag when you operate the remote scrolling between apps. Hence this one is a Pro for the TV - breezy operativeness of the smart features
2) I am a computer to Kodi to receiver to TV/Projector guy. Watch whatever I can legally and download from pirate sites for the rest. Because of the issue with my new laptop not being able to talk to my receiver, I am forced to watch much of the content I normally use my laptop, directly using the smart features on my TV. Netflix and Youtube are the two most frequent ones I have used. I never bothered to use Netflix before but now I am bowled over not just by the content, but also the interface on the TV and the clarity is really really good. I still cant get my head over 4K - I tried breaking bad and it had lots of noise - may be all the extra clarity coming out. However 1080P on this TV really rocks - whether its Netflix or Youtube - clarity is way better than anything I have experienced before. The panel is really really good. Unless one keeps a Sony/Samsung/LG next to it - I see no reason why anyone would not prefer this TV
3) Its got 4 HDMI I think. I dont need so many. Its got ARC but my receiver doesnt. Hence havent tested it. Because of above laptop to receiver issue - I plugged a SPDIF out from TV into my receiver. So whatever content I directly watch on TV using its smartness - I do get 5.1 sound from my receiver. However when I connect my Laptop directly to the TV - the SPDIF to Receiver doesnt seem to work and hence I am stuck with sound from the TV - if anyone has a better idea please help me out or else I am forced to buy a new receiver
4) I tried playing my 8 TB WD RAID 1 hard drive/NAS..whatever its called - but TV wouldnt recognize it - maybe because the hard drive itself is smart and its got password and all that. I am currently downloading stuff on pendrive and will try it later in the night directly plugging it into one of the USB ports on TV
5) I downloaded couple of 10GB 4k movie rips - well its not bad - but I can see artifacts. Given that Netflix 4K doesnt have these issues..I am guessing these are the issues that happen when one tries to rip a 40Gb movie into 10 Gbs. And given how good Netflix is..I may stop downloading rips unless absolutely needed
6) I need to figure out how to play Amazon video on it given issues with my laptop and sound. Will try downloading the app and directly playing it on TV - hope it works along with 5.1 sound like Netflix
7) Tata Sky - I have an all channel subscription and normally I would think that full HD on Tata Sky is brilliant. However when I switched from watching Full HD on Netflix or Youtube and to Full HD channels on Tata Sky - one can clearly feel that Tata Sky feed is inferior - may be the compression used for transmission - its not that bright and vibrant as Netflix or Youtube. SD content looks ok. I would prefer watching SD content on my 720P Panasonic Plasma though
8) While I dont really watch out for bleeding of light from corners or blackest of blacks and all that - due to certain reviews by a reviewer called techibeez who highlighted these issues from Mi and other equivalent TVs - I actually watched out for bleed during full black - however I did not notice any such bleeding - havent had time to watch a full movie where its fully black - but reviews on youtube indicate this TV does good in this regard
9) I Played LG and Sony 4K demo vides and it looks really good on the TV. Although going from 1080p to UHD - very difficult to notice the difference. I guess if we keep two TVs side by side and play the same video..one at each resolution - then I guess we can appreciate 4K. Otherwise both look equally good.
10) The display is very bright..even after I toned it down a lot - its way brighter than any display I am used to seeing
11) Sound is pretty good too. Not really sure what Dolby or DTS means on the tiny speakers. However since I have a proper 5.1 setup - the sound on the TV is not worth comparing to a proper HT setup
12) The review units given to the top reviewers on youtube like igyaan seemed to be one from China or Europe which Roku and all that. Infact the unboxing from Igyaan had a white box with lots of logos on it. What i got was a bland brown cardboard box we normally get from Amazon with hardly any logos...hence this seems to be a made for India TV minus few goodies that people out of India experience
13) The TV has chromecast built in - so one less device to plug at the back. It works seamlessly - I need to check if playing say Padmavat on Amazon Video on my laptop streamed to TV outputs 5.1 sound back to receiver via SPDIF
14) There are some Videos on netflix which highlight it has HDR..again unless one has a display without HDR next to it..difficult to say if this works well or not. Same goes for micro dimming also
15) We got a long remote and a short remote. Pretty happy with them..I only use the basic functionalities though. One issue though on the short remote which acts as a air mouse...this is very hard to handle...I would rather plug a wireless mouse and keyboard as its been very frustrating to use. Other thing on the short one which works only occasionally is voice search - they need to refine it..
So I have covered playing from a computer, playing directly from the smartness, playing Tata Sky - not sure what I left out except games which I dont care - do let me know and I shall try and let you know my experience.
Overall I am really happy with my choice and havent really seen any cons thus far. Just hope it works well for at least 3 years - then it shall be fully paisa vasool.
On the TCL webpage..it says PIP..play HDMI video when you browse TV menu..not really sure what this means. Also one useful thing the Mi TV had was that it displays the latest channels watched from Tata Sky which one can control with the Mi remote itself...any idea if i can get rid of tata sky remote and do something smart on this TV too?
At the cost of repetition..Netflix and Youtube works really well on this TV. I have both wifi and an ethernet cable @ 100mpbs into this TV.
Sorry for the repeated edits!!
t.me
