Bought a cheap TV for 4K HDR console gaming

[djoye]

My last TV was a higher-end 52" Sharp Aquos from 2008 (1080p). I was planning to wait and buy a larger TV with HDMI 2.1 when that becomes more common, but I'm sitting on a stack of PS4 games that support HDR and didn't wanna wait to play them. I decided that a cheap modern TV couldn't be any worse than something over a decade old, so I bought a $298 58" Hisense Roku 4K TV from Walmart.

I've had the TV over a month and it hasn't died yet, so it has that going for it. The picture is also better than the old Sharp and now I have HDR. I was playing Death Stranding, which looks improved with HDR, but I went back to Horizon Zero Dawn and finished up the Frozen Wilds DLC. I'm very impressed with how HZD looks, I assume the HDR really makes it pop because I don't remember it looking nearly as vibrant on the old TV.

The Hisense has a fairly basic set of display settings. I disabled any dynamic features (not HDR, but auto brightness/contrast) and enable game mode, which I assume kills any post-processing so that the image is clean and response times are better. I don't notice any ghosting on the screen when there's motion (response time appears much better than old TV), the brightness is fairly consistent across the screen (still some barely noticeable inconsistency areas, but much better than old TV), and the image appears much cleaner than the old TV. I've also connected a Wii U and Steam Link and the lower-resolution stuff seems to scale reasonably well, so I'm quite happy with the TV as far as gaming goes.

I didn't really shop for this TV or compare to other TVs, I just went for big, cheap, and HDR. I'll still buy an HDMI 2.1 TV later, but this should hold me over for a while, at least until games start using newer display features.

 

[T4rd]

Did you toggle HDR on/off on it to compare the images? Because I had a cheaper Samsung 4K TV from a couple years ago and like pretty much any TV in the <$500 range, it only has one backlight on it and therefore the HDR on it can make some scenes look worse than it otherwise would with it off because it has to get as bright as the brightest part of the scene, therefore making the contrast go to shit in the darker areas of the scene. If I didn't compare the scenes on some of my PS4 games as well (TLOU and Horizon were the games I used to compare), it doesn't look bad on its own and the extra brightness was nice initially, but my TV had much better contrast overall with HDR off, which I thought looked more appropriate and better overall than keeping HDR enabled. So maybe try the game out after toggling it a few times to see if you noticed the same thing.

I have a LG B9 OLED now that I got on a BF deal, which one of the key reasons I got it was for HDMI 2.1 myself, as well as the VRR (G-Sync/Freesync) support that comes with it that I'm hoping next gen consoles will support.

 

[Armenius]

Did you toggle HDR on/off on it to compare the images? Because I had a cheaper Samsung 4K TV from a couple years ago and like pretty much any TV in the <$500 range, it only has one backlight on it and therefore the HDR on it can make some scenes look worse than it otherwise would with it off because it has to get as bright as the brightest part of the scene, therefore making the contrast go to shit in the darker areas of the scene. If I didn't compare the scenes on some of my PS4 games as well (TLOU and Horizon were the games I used to compare), it doesn't look bad on its own and the extra brightness was nice initially, but my TV had much better contrast overall with HDR off, which I thought looked more appropriate and better overall than keeping HDR enabled. So maybe try the game out after toggling it a few times to see if you noticed the same thing.

I have a LG B9 OLED now that I got on a BF deal, which one of the key reasons I got it was for HDMI 2.1 myself, as well as the VRR (G-Sync/Freesync) support that comes with it that I'm hoping next gen consoles will support.

Looks like the 58" Roku model was retired, so I can't find its specs. The 55" states "HDR Compatible," which means it accepts the metadata but does full screen dimming. Full screen dimming is exactly as you say and it actually ruins the overall picture quality, so you might be better off without HDR on this TV.

If you're looking for a cheap TV capable of HDR then you should seriously look at the TCL 6-series. TCL sources their panels from Samsung and the 6-series has a 100-zone FALD for around $500 in 55".

 

[djoye]

This is a 58R6E or "R6" model. I'm going to have to find the manual, but I do see where the 50R6E lacks local dimming so I'd assume the 58 also lacks it.

It doesn't look terrible, but that's good to know that this isn't a good representation of HDR because, while the overall image does look better than my old TV, I wasn't extremely impressed with the HDR effect on the Hisense. Probably sounds silly, but I really didn't want a cheap TV to be that great because I want to be able to justify buying something like an ~80" Sony XBR this summer.

 

[ThatITGuy]

I did similar, but for me it was getting 4K, not HDR. I had a 50 inch Samsung 720p (i actually didn't notice, i had thought it was 1080p) that i upgraded with a 55 inch Vizio 4K TV that i found for $300 open box at Walmart I had looked it up on rTings and while only mediocre, it was better than much else i would be able to get that that price. The difference has been huge when playing stuff on the Xbox One X. Eventually I will buy a really nice 65+ inch 4k that has the HDR and local dimming to replace it, and then move it into the bedroom and replace this old Samsung again.

 

[Armenius]

This is a 58R6E or "R6" model. I'm going to have to find the manual, but I do see where the 50R6E lacks local dimming so I'd assume the 58 also lacks it.

It doesn't look terrible, but that's good to know that this isn't a good representation of HDR because, while the overall image does look better than my old TV, I wasn't extremely impressed with the HDR effect on the Hisense. Probably sounds silly, but I really didn't want a cheap TV to be that great because I want to be able to justify buying something like an ~80" Sony XBR this summer.

I hear the 2020 Sony OLEDs are going to be bangin'. The 2019 models "only" went up the 77", though. LG's new ZX coming this year is going to go up to 88".

I did similar, but for me it was getting 4K, not HDR. I had a 50 inch Samsung 720p (i actually didn't notice, i had thought it was 1080p) that i upgraded with a 55 inch Vizio 4K TV that i found for $300 open box at Walmart I had looked it up on rTings and while only mediocre, it was better than much else i would be able to get that that price. The difference has been huge when playing stuff on the Xbox One X. Eventually I will buy a really nice 65+ inch 4k that has the HDR and local dimming to replace it, and then move it into the bedroom and replace this old Samsung again.

Was this during the time when the industry branded 720p as "HD" and 1080p is "Full HD?" That was pretty sleazy on their part. I think the internet adopted the term "Half HD" for 720p. They were also putting out televisions with odd resolutions (for a TV) like 1366x768 or 1536x864 and selling them as "HD."

 

[ThatITGuy]

I hear the 2020 Sony OLEDs are going to be bangin'. The 2019 models "only" went up the 77", though. LG's new ZX coming this year is going to go up to 88".

Was this during the time when the industry branded 720p as "HD" and 1080p is "Full HD?" That was pretty sleazy on their part. I think the internet adopted the term "Half HD" for 720p. They were also putting out televisions with odd resolutions (for a TV) like 1366x768 or 1536x864 and selling them as "HD."

I am not the one that bought it, so not sure. It is the pn51d450a2dxza. The TV was purchased by my soon to be ex-wife before we ever met, but was the one that I got in the separation while she got the nicer TV we purchased together. I also got my old 65 inch Panasonic that had the board go bad and was going to be more expensive to fix than what I paid for that 4K.

 

[Armenius]

2011 HD Plasma in 1366x768. Actually a decent model for its time. Screen probably just needs a charge and the image will look great for the resolution.