I have a VU iconium series that is 4K + HDR10. The panel is also 8 bit on that.
Logic says that 10bit content is no better than 8bit if the panel is 8 bit. I was able to get some test run on my TV by using Netflix UHD account.
- UHD only content definitely looks better than 1080p (only slightly).
- UHD + HDR content looked worse than 1080p on my TV (I watched Lost in space S1E1). HDR was low in brightness overall, dim enough that somehow I wanted to go back to 1080p. The scene where they crash land on the planet where all the ice is, the ice looked blueish and overall brightness was dim with HDR, whereas 1080p looked white-ish and much more bright.
HDR on this TV looks bad - just to get that checkbox ticked in the spec sheet. There are very few controls to do any kind of tweaking and make it look better. I have also not bothered too much. The TV overall is an unfinished product. The android on it is a joke. I have added a Firestick4k already.
I am not complaining though, since I got a 55 inch UHD + HDCP2.2 TV for ~35K INR. I just want the TV to take 4K input and show it on the 55" screen.
My gut feeling is that the Dolby vision models are going to be a similar case - unfinished products and may actually look worse than 1080p when Dolby vision enabled.
OTOH, Sony/Samsung have been making a fool out of the Indian customer for a long time now. TVs that sell in US for 1K USD (~70K INR now, was ~50K INR a couple years ago), they were selling here for more than 2Lac. Yes there is some import duty now, but that is just 36%. 36% duty does not justify the price being 3X the price they sell in US. And to top it off, they claim that the price in India is high because they have to spend more to provide service here in India (a Sony India higher up said this). What a load of crap. Their service in India is pathetic compared to US and they keep getting away with shoddy service due to consumer laws here being almost non-existent. They are screwing the customer from both ends - sales and service, and getting away with it for a long time and claiming that they're being fair.
To top it off, get this - back in 2012-2013, if you were going out of India, you could bring 1 TV back with you duty free. So you would see a lot of people coming back from Gulf or Singapore/Thailand bringing 1 TV each back with them. This hurts Sony business in India as well as their distributors. Sony used to refuse to service those TVs bought outside India (even if you are not claiming any warranty and willing to pay them for any service parts + labor). They pulled such S#!t first and then these guys lobbied with the government and put in place a duty of 36.05% if you're bringing in a TV from outside. They still pull cheap tricks when providing service if you get a TV from outside India.
I would say good riddance to Sony and Samsung. Similar to what Xiaomi, Oneplus and other chinese smartphone manufacturers did to the big phone brands here in 2014, same thing is happening in the TV industry now since the last 2 years, and it is long due. Consumer is the true king and competition should be nurtured by govt, not stifled. That is the only way that leads to overall betterment of the race.
Ending my rant/whatever with 2 good thoughts:
- Whether Dolby vision content looks good or not, it is not so expensive to give it a try. We now have options in this segment. UHD should still be useful even if Dolby vision may not be.
- We need to see continued progress here and finally with a 12bit panel too in reasonable price. Glad that VU and TCL are here to provide cheaper, more reasonable options. Long live brands like VU. I am so glad they're here in India, to teach brands like Sony and Samsung a lesson.
TCL/VU : Welcome to India. You have delivered a serious sucker punch to the big daddies of the industry here. Live long and prosper, and don't be evil.
