2018 TCL 43s515 43" 4k TV with dolby vision for $350.

Kdawg

[H]ard|Gawd
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new model just came out, priced at $350.
with dolby vision.

Gonna see if it scorches my eyeballs with the brightness.


Update:
Not worth the price. It's pretty much identical in features and quality to the 43s405, give or take.
But for ~$100 more.
It is also not bright enough for real Dolby HDR.
Actually it's the same brightness as the 43s405 pretty much.

Dolby selling out on its license, selling to anyone.

Same PC performance.


TCL is again using an AUO panel, and it's supposed to be wider color gamut, but I can't tell the difference.
I read TCL uses some coating to make the colors pop more. But the inherent color gamut of the panel is likely the same as the AUO in the 43s405.

Main difference is the s405 is backlit, and the s515 is edgelit from the bottom.

This time I didn't need to disassemble the TV. I could see the characteristic blue board and chips through the vents.

k2QmHOv.jpg
 
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new model just came out, priced at $350.
with dolby vision.

Gonna see if it scorches my eyeballs with the brightness.
It proabably fake like all the other cheap TVs out there. Getting tired of all these TV manufacturer claiming HDR when really only accepting the signal and not doing much with it.
 
Well, just being able to accept the 10-bit signal is enough for me. It means that you're at least going to get the color and tone gradients, even if you're not getting the extreme contrast, and you can process the signal properly.
 
well, this one is supposed to have wide color gamut and real dolby vision.... though probably low level c-class dolby.
Got one ordered and will review and compare to my 43s405
 
well, this one is supposed to have wide color gamut and real dolby vision.... though probably low level c-class dolby.
Got one ordered and will review and compare to my 43s405
I'm interested in this one. I got the 55P605 hooked up to my PC. I'm looking to hook up my other PC to this one if it's as good as the P605.
 
I only tested youtube hdr on both 43s405 and 43s515.

both TVs detected HDR and switched to HDR mode. Couldn't tell a difference.
 
Mine is sitting at Best Buy right now, picking it up at lunch and then I'll have some time to play around with it after work. I don't have a 405 to test it against, but I can offer some general impressions from games and I have a Dolby Vision test video I can fire up as well to see how it looks.
 
Mine is sitting at Best Buy right now, picking it up at lunch and then I'll have some time to play around with it after work. I don't have a 405 to test it against, but I can offer some general impressions from games and I have a Dolby Vision test video I can fire up as well to see how it looks.

Looking forward to it. Waiting to see if this is a viable computer monitor replacement.
 
Anyone using this as their PC montior? says 120Hz. Will it product that rate for PC games?
 
Mine is sitting at Best Buy right now, picking it up at lunch and then I'll have some time to play around with it after work. I don't have a 405 to test it against, but I can offer some general impressions from games and I have a Dolby Vision test video I can fire up as well to see how it looks.

http://4kmedia.org/lg-dolby-vision-uhd-4k-demo/

I downloaded a real dolby vision test file, it was a .ts file. But I couldn't play it properly in Windows. Potplayer makes the colors look all funny.
Windows native movie player was the same. Couldn't display the expanded colors.
I tried putting Windows in HDR mode, and still, the dolby vision file had fucked up colors.

I then tried the native roku video player on a usb drive, and roku couldn't read a .ts file.


Anyone using this as their PC montior? says 120Hz. Will it product that rate for PC games?


no. this is just like the 43s405. Fake 120hz.
Windows only detects 60hz.
 
http://4kmedia.org/lg-dolby-vision-uhd-4k-demo/

I downloaded a real dolby vision test file, it was a .ts file. But I couldn't play it properly in Windows. Potplayer makes the colors look all funny.
Windows native movie player was the same. Couldn't display the expanded colors.
I tried putting Windows in HDR mode, and still, the dolby vision file had fucked up colors.

I then tried the native roku video player on a usb drive, and roku couldn't read a .ts file.





no. this is just like the 43s405. Fake 120hz.
Windows only detects 60hz.

Have you tested it with a 4K blu ray player?
 
nope. don't own a bluray player.
got a bluray rom in my 6 year old laptop, but no blurays or blanks.
 
Bump. I waited for this screen to come out so I could use it for office apps when I work from home and now having second thoughts if I should save 50 bucks or spend it on the new model.

For those that have both: Hows the lighting, edge vs backlit. Any difference? What about performance of the menus? Besides image, any other differences?
 
I decided to pick one up, and it just arrived last night. So far I've only had about an hour of play time with it, so I can't really give too detailed of answers yet. I also did not have the 43S405, but I'm comparing it to a Wasabi UHD400 I picked up a couple of years ago.

For the hour I played with it, it seems like a great television / computer monitor. It's a heck of a lot brighter than the Mango. Roku app is very fun. I'm troubleshooting the color settings under the Nvidia control panel during desktop use. Specs list this as a 10 bit panel (8 bit + FRC). Only HDMI connections (no DP), so I'm not surprised that it only lists 8 bit under the dropdown. If I choose RGB color (Full or Limited), however, I get strange pixel ghosting. For example, some of the white letters on this forum have a yellow pixel swap. Changing from RGB to YCbCr444 outputs correct colors. Selecting YCbCr444 only allows "Limited" range to choose..."Full" is not listed as a dropdown option.

Was doing some research and I think I came across a forum post somewhere that said the 43S405 was BGR pixel layout instead of RGB...this panel could very well be the same. Could that perhaps lead to the pixel color swaps?

Edit: Got home and tried RGB full again. The pixel shadow effect is now gone. Very strange....perhaps needed a break in period...
 
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I just realized something.

Can I run this off my X260S with a passive Display Port to HDMI adapter at 4k 60?


This is what I found online for the Intel HD520:
DP 1.2/eDP 1.3 max. resolution 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz
HDMI max. resolution 3840 x 2160 @ 30 Hz

Using the DP to HDMI should mean the answer is yes, but im not sure.
 
Spent about a week with the television, and I'm liking it more the longer I have it. Luckily I have no dead pixels, and no clouding or banding issues which seem to have been plaguing the 6 series. Decided to do a lag test. TCL is on the left (HDMI3 port, game mode), Achieva Shimian on the right (DVI connect). The Shimian does not have a scalar board...and therefore no additional processing.

F8TQg8C.jpg

uovwAXW.jpg


Input lag is much much lower than the Wasabi Mango I'm coming from. I believe the Shimian was tested at about 16ms of lag, so I would conclude that the TCL is about the same while in game mode.
 
I guess ill wait for costco to start selling it and pick one up.

Anyone here drive one off a HDMI display link adapter?
 
Spent about a week with the television, and I'm liking it more the longer I have it. Luckily I have no dead pixels, and no clouding or banding issues which seem to have been plaguing the 6 series. Decided to do a lag test. TCL is on the left (HDMI3 port, game mode), Achieva Shimian on the right (DVI connect). The Shimian does not have a scalar board...and therefore no additional processing.


There are no banding issues from LEDs like the 6 series because this is not backlit. it's edge lit.

However, there is still dirty screen banding....
just load up this image full screen. Download with Chrome. Doesn't seem to load in Firefox. .... https://i.imgur.com/XMH0QRL.png
 
There are no banding issues from LEDs like the 6 series because this is not backlit. it's edge lit.

However, there is still dirty screen banding....
just load up this image full screen. Download with Chrome. Doesn't seem to load in Firefox. .... https://i.imgur.com/XMH0QRL.png

Pic of my TV with your background...I'm not the best judge, but it looks pretty good to me:

98a7F7z.jpg
 
I dunno that looks pretty terrible to me. I returned 2 S405's because the DSE makes them unusable for gaming so looks like the new 5 series doesn't improve on that.

I guess it's what bothers you then. I don't notice it at all when I game or watch movies on it. Maybe I'm just not that sensitive as I don't notice PWM flicker either. About the only thing that drives me up the wall are banding issues.
 
Your photo is too bright.

the sample image is a dark gray. But still, you can see the vertical marks on your photo though.

It's ok, I have it on my s405 too. But I don't really care because I'm not staring at gray screens all day. Movies and video are fine in everyday usage.


and there's no PWM at max brightness.
 
pretty much inline with what I saw.

However, the 49s405 I tested last year was markedly brighter than the 43s405. I'm suprised the 55" only came in at 300nits.

The 55" rtings tested probably uses the same house brand CSOT panel as last year, so these test results don't apply to the 43" AUO panel.

and that nasty pixel noise is still present.
RVH4SkW.jpg


The only ones that did not have this pixel noise were the 65" and 43" sizes.
 
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