Current 43" 4K options?

[Frraksurred]

No, it's only 60Hz. Outside of that I have no complaints. The size is about as big as I'd go for a computer monitor though.

Thanks. I wondered about the size, good point. With the depth of my desk I may stick to the 40-43" range.

 

[Dan_D]

Thanks. I wondered about the size, good point. With the depth of my desk I may stick to the 40-43" range.

I think 49" is better for games and 40-43" are better for productivity due to the dot pitch. That said, when my first 48" went out, I still went with a 49" to replace it.

 

[Mad Maxx]

I can confirm from experience that there's a pretty big difference between the 40"/43" and 49" TVs. I've found the smaller sizes to be much more comfortable to use. Looking up at a 49" made my neck pretty stiff and sore after an hour or two. Just my experience. Others love working and gaming on big screens.

 

[Frraksurred]

I just moved to a stand up desk that is barely 30" deep, so I think I'll still stick to 43", but this is all good info, thanks guys.

 

[elvn]

i just bought a TCL 43" 4k VA last week on sale at target for $300 after reading this review on rtings.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl/s-series-4k-2017-s405

It's a VA with 4171:1 contrast ratio and it does 120hz backlight strobing rate on a 60hz panel, no interpolated frames added. I'm very happy with it and am using it to run multiple browser windows, twitch, youtube, etc. tiled on it as well as using it alternately as desktop/app space. It's not 120hz display refresh rate but the 120hz pwm strobing looks great to me so far, especially for video windows. It's not FALD and it's not really HDR either but that's not what I bought it for and I didn't want to go into $600 - $700 - $1000 + for a non-gaming monitor as I'm planning on getting one of those high hz HDR gaming VA's by end of year or early next.

It's admittedly large at a desk but I have it set back on my cuved "J " desk, on the furthest end part in the corner of the room. My three monitors will mesh better and the 4k 43" will be angled better view-wise once the heavy duty ergotron monitor arm I ordered for it get here.

Current work in progress setup here:

More details and pic here, with the most current pictures at the bottom of the photo gallery:
https://imgur.com/a/8EAmu

 

[:-)]

Who makes screens for TCL 43S405 ?

 

[elvn]

It seems like they have their own lcd production lines, and that even some other manufacturers outsource to them.


In April 2008, Samsung Electronics announced that it would be outsourcing the production of some LCD TV modules to TCL.[11]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In July 2008, TCL announced that it planned to raise 1.7 billion yuan ($249 million) via a share placement on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to fund the construction of two production lines for LCD televisions; one for screens of up to 42 inches, and the other for screens of up to 56 inches.[12] TCL sold a total of 4.18 million LCD TV sets in 2008, more than triple the number during 2007.[13]

In January 2009, TCL announced plans to double its LCD TV production capacity to 10 million units by the end of 2009.[13]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In November 2009, TCL announced that it had formed a joint-venture with the Shenzhen government to construct an 8.5-generation thin film transistor-liquid crystal display production facility in the city at a cost of $3.9 billion.[14]

In March 2010, TCL Multimedia raised HK$525 million through the sale of shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in order to fund the development of its LCD and LED businesses and to generate working capital.[15]

In May 2011, TCL launched the China Smart Multimedia Terminal Technology Association in partnership with Hisense Electric Co. and Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., with the aim of helping to establish industry standards for smart televisions.[16]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCL_Corporation

In November 2003, TCL and Thomson SA of France announced the creation of a joint venture to produce televisions and DVD players worldwide.[8] TCL took a 67 percent stake in the joint venture, with Thomson SA holding the rest of the shares, and it was agreed that televisions made by TCL-Thomson would be marketed under the TCL brand in Asia and the Thomson and RCA brands in Europe and North America.[8]

In April 2004, TCL and Alcatel announced the creation of a mobile phone manufacturing joint venture: Alcatel Mobile Phones.[7] TCL injected 55 million euros in the venture in return for a 55 per cent shareholding.[7]

In May 2005, TCL announced that its Hong Kong-listed unit would acquire Alcatel's 45 per cent stake in their mobile-phone joint venture for consideration of HK$63.34 million ($8.1 million) worth of TCL Communication shares.[9]

In June 2007, TCL announced that its mobile phone division planned to cease using the Alcatel brand and switch entirely to the TCL brand within five years.[10]

In April 2008, Samsung Electronics announced that it would be outsourcing the production of some LCD TV modules to TCL.[11]

In July 2008, TCL announced that it planned to raise 1.7 billion yuan ($249 million) via a share placement on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to fund the construction of two production lines for LCD televisions; one for screens of up to 42 inches, and the other for screens of up to 56 inches.[12] TCL sold a total of 4.18 million LCD TV sets in 2008, more than triple the number during 2007.[13]

In January 2009, TCL announced plans to double its LCD TV production capacity to 10 million units by the end of 2009.[13]

In November 2009, TCL announced that it had formed a joint-venture with the Shenzhen government to construct an 8.5-generation thin film transistor-liquid crystal display production facility in the city at a cost of $3.9 billion.[14]

In March 2010, TCL Multimedia raised HK$525 million through the sale of shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in order to fund the development of its LCD and LED businesses and to generate working capital.[15]

In May 2011, TCL launched the China Smart Multimedia Terminal Technology Association in partnership with Hisense Electric Co. and Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., with the aim of helping to establish industry standards for smart televisions.[16]

In January 2013, TCL bought the naming rights for Grauman's Chinese Theatre for $5 million.[17]


Grauman's Chinese Theatre, or TCL Chinese Theatre at Hollywood, California.
In 2014, TCL changed the meaning of its identifying initials from "Telephone Communication Limited" to a branding slogan, "The Creative Life", for commercial purposes.

In February 2014, TCL spent 280 million RMB to purchase 11% shareholdings of Tianjin 712 Communication & Broadcasting Co., Ltd, a Chinese military-owned company which produces communication devices and navigation systems for the Chinese army.

In October 2014, TCL acquired the Palm brand from HP for use on smartphones.[18][19]

In 2016, TCL reached an agreement with BlackBerry Limited to produce smartphones under the BlackBerry brand,[20] under BlackBerry Mobile.

I'm really liking this monitor for my purposes. The larger ones have FALD but this one is already 3" over 40" and I didn't want to go higher or spend hundreds of more dollars. It's also not bright enough for real HDR color volume and color highlights but I'm fine with that. In my moderate lighting room, at 100 backlight and 50 brightness it's plenty bright for SDR usage, almost on the side of too bright at these settings.

 

[elvn]

More about TCL and Amazon in particular (though they sell at target and wallmart etc too)..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethpo...e-to-dominate-the-amazon-charts/#1cce35e6f096

------
Many TV manufacturers cobble their sets together out of components that come from a variety of suppliers. Problem is, this process creates middle men that keep costs up, and could have implications for a brand’s ability to quickly iterate and release new products.

“TCL is almost completely vertically integrated,” Larson says. “We’re among the top five panel producers in the world. We make our own plastic. We mold our own cabinets. We make our boards. We even have a factory that makes speaker drivers. The only thing we have to buy, really, is the main processor and the memory that goes along with that.”
-------

The No-Baggage Brand

TCL’s recent entry into the North American market gave it a key advantage over legacy brands: It had a completely blank slate to define itself and its target market in anyway it wanted. “When we decided North America was worth a run, rather than buy or try to rent a brand, we put all our efforts into growing the TCL brand with the idea that, although there’s zero brand recognition, there’s also no baggage or negatives associated with it,” Larson says.


According to Larson, the company made sure to identify what the American consumer specifically looks for in TVs, and to position its brand to fill that slot. In this case, that meant making sets that were on the less-expensive side ("price conscious," as Larson puts it), but also had large screens and future-proofing frills such as 4K resolution—a type of content that is currently far more plentiful in the US than many other markets. To give a sense of how this plays out in production, the company's top-selling 32-inch model sells for $169 on Amazon, while a just-released 55-inch 4K goes for $500—far less than similarly sized 4K models from other manufacturers.


TCL TVs come with built-in Roku streaming software (photo: TCL)


Vertical Integration

Many TV manufacturers cobble their sets together out of components that come from a variety of suppliers. Problem is, this process creates middle men that keep costs up, and could have implications for a brand’s ability to quickly iterate and release new products.

“TCL is almost completely vertically integrated,” Larson says. “We’re among the top five panel producers in the world. We make our own plastic. We mold our own cabinets. We make our boards. We even have a factory that makes speaker drivers. The only thing we have to buy, really, is the main processor and the memory that goes along with that.”

According to Larson, owning its supply chain allows TCL to release new sets far faster—and cheaper—than is possible at competing companies that typically have to wait for suppliers to send them samples before they can finish designing their upcoming TVs.

“By the time you fit the electronics in there, and the back light, and the module, you may be off two to three millimeters from what your original design had,” Larson says. “We know exactly what is going to be coming off the line in four, five, or six months, and can design a TV around it today.”

 

[:-)]

Damn, I was hoping maybe they use the same AUO VA panel that Samsung 43'' MU6xxx TV-s use in EU. Seems like a very good and fast VA panel.

 

[Kdawg]

i just bought a TCL 43" 4k VA last week on sale at target for $300 after reading this review on rtings. It's not 120hz display refresh rate but the 120hz pwm strobing looks great to me so far,

There is no pwm at 100% brightness. That's why it's comfortable to use at that level.

not too bright, not too dim.

 

[Kdawg]

Damn, I was hoping maybe they use the same AUO VA panel that Samsung 43'' MU6xxx TV-s use in EU. Seems like a very good and fast VA panel.

The 43s405 does use AUO VA.
It's likely a B-grade panel though, because you can see uniformity issues on a gray screen.
No dead pixels though.

I took it apart and posted a thread about it a few months ago.

The 49" TCL uses TCL's own CSOT factory panel

 

[:-)]

Do you think Samsung is using B-grade panels too in their TVs that use AUO and not their own panels?
Edit: I saw you have tested a lot of TVs lately. How often do you had dead pixels?

 

[Kdawg]

i wouldn't know.
in my limited testing, i have never seen a samsung with an AUO panel inside
I've only seen them use their own samsung panels, or BOE panels.

amazingly, no dead pixels on any of the TVs i played with.

 

[:-)]

In Europe we must play panel lottery if we want to buy a 43'' MU6xxx TV. You can get AUO VA or BOE IPS
BOE IPS 43B6AU0VK
AUO VA 43L6AU0VM

 

[Burticus]

Glad I saw this thread. Fry's has the Atyme TV's on sale 199 for 43 and 229 for 49. I was going to go pick one up to play with as a monitor. Guess I won't bother.

So much for my hopes of scoring something decent under 400

 

[Kdawg]

that Atyme is pure garbage.
and there's plenty decent stuff under $400.

 

[GnatGoSplat]

Kdawg, have you looked into this one? JVC LT-43MA770
https://www.walmart.com/ip/JVC-43-Class-4K-Ultra-HD-2160P-LED-TV-LT-43MA770/272742906

Already one report says the colors are way off, so I'm guessing this is probably crap.

 

[kamxam]

I know it's a lot bigger that 40-43", but I was looking at the Samsung 55NU8500 CURVED 55” to replace my 40" Samsung JU6700. (NU8500 is about $800 refurbished and about $1000 new on amazon) Anyone have any experience with this TV as a monitor or for gaming?
The Rtings review give it a decent rating, but interested to see real world use if possible. Thanks!

 

[Lateralus]

I know it's a lot bigger that 40-43", but I was looking at the Samsung 55NU8500 CURVED 55” to replace my 40" Samsung JU6700. (NU8500 is about $800 refurbished and about $1000 new on amazon) Anyone have any experience with this TV as a monitor or for gaming?
The Rtings review give it a decent rating, but interested to see real world use if possible. Thanks!

Do they not make the 48/49" class anymore? If not, that's a shame. I am using a 55" LG OLED and if I could go smaller while retaining the same image quality, I would. I've used 40" and 48" previously...55" is absolutely the upper limit of what I want to use.

It's too bad you aren't closer - I'd sell you my UN48JS9000 which is curved and would be an upgrade from your JU6700.

 

[kamxam]

Do they not make the 48/49" class anymore? If not, that's a shame. I am using a 55" LG OLED and if I could go smaller while retaining the same image quality, I would. I've used 40" and 48" previously...55" is absolutely the upper limit of what I want to use.

It's too bad you aren't closer - I'd sell you my UN48JS9000 which is curved and would be an upgrade from your JU6700.

Thanks, but not in that much of a hurry atm. Probably will sell the 6700 to my brother who thinks that anything less than 10 years old is state of the art. (I usually sell him my computer stuff when I upgrade)
As for the 8500, I only saw the 55" and the 65" on Rtings and on Amazon so pretty sure that's it for the model.

 

[Mad Maxx]

Curved screens are very nice on bigger TVs when using them as monitors. Kinda helps wrap you up in the viewing experience.

 

[Sparky]

I play fps games on my X800D just fine. Just use the Game input. I also downloaded Kodi from the built in Playstore and watch Twitch with it.

 

[Gor]

Has anybody played around or have thoughts on the new Vizio 2018 E43-F1 by chance? I know rtings.com gave it a 8.0 as a pc monitor.

 

[Kdawg]

Has anybody played around or have thoughts on the new Vizio 2018 E43-F1 by chance? I know rtings.com gave it a 8.0 as a pc monitor.

always note which size Rtings reviewed. In this case, they reviewed the 65", so none of that shit applies to the 43".

I saw the 2017 e43 last year in the showroom, and it had that nasty cheap pixel dimming static dithering, and one guy on rtings confirms the same for the 2018 43" vizio as well.

looks like newspaper print shit. Colors are not even solid. It has a micro brick pattern. I would give no more than a 4.0 as a pc monitor ....

 

[prne10]

I picked up a refurbished Acer ET430k three weeks ago from the certified refurbished store and I've been pretty happy with it for movies and casual gaming.

 

[pavel]

Hi, can anyone here comment on the Hisense 43R6107 4k TV? I googled it and this site came up but I can't find the post in which someone was mentioning it?

It seems to be pretty common now - available in Canada and the USA? It's at Costco and some online vendors as well. I am looking for a 4K TV that can also be a PC monitor - I know about the chroma 4:4:4 thing and I think this TV probably has a VA panel but that's the norm I believe, with most 4k TVs in this low price range (under $400).

The Visio E43 series is also recommended but not in stock (i.e. not available anywhere) so I switched from considering that to the Hisense. I think TCL has some new TVs coming out for a similar price in Canada, too. That's the only other alternative I could find.

https://www.costco.ca/Hisense-43R6107-43-in.-Smart-4K-Roku-TV.product.100416258.html
https://www.amazon.ca/TCL-43S425-CA-Ultra-Smart-Television/dp/B07DXT8XDQ

Help? Please advise?

 

[Burticus]

I picked up a refurbished Acer ET430k three weeks ago from the certified refurbished store and I've been pretty happy with it for movies and casual gaming.

Have you noticed any screen blanking / black screen issues? That seemed to be a major complaint on the Amazon and Newegg reviews. Of course I always wonder... how many of those were cable problems...

I saw those on sale too for like $299... I couldn't pull the trigger then but I wish I had.

I just bought an Acer refurb laptop and it looks brand new, for nearly half the price. So I'm not too scared of their "refurbs".

Edit - I see the refurbs again on Amazon ($309) and ebay ($312) from Acer refurb seller. I know the ebay Acer store charges sales tax, like they did on the laptop I just bought. So I'd need to see another 15% off ebay coupon to swing me that way, since I always have Amazon GC to burn.

 

[pavel]

The 43s405 does use AUO VA.
It's likely a B-grade panel though, because you can see uniformity issues on a gray screen.
No dead pixels though.

I took it apart and posted a thread about it a few months ago.

The 49" TCL uses TCL's own CSOT factory panel

I noticed that you said the Vizio E43 looks crappy and I asked about the same tv in a subsequent post - sorry about that.

Have you had a chance to check out the TCL 43S425 - apparently, it's an updated version of the S405?

 

[prne10]

Have you noticed any screen blanking / black screen issues? That seemed to be a major complaint on the Amazon and Newegg reviews. Of course I always wonder... how many of those were cable problems...

I saw those on sale too for like $299... I couldn't pull the trigger then but I wish I had.

I just bought an Acer refurb laptop and it looks brand new, for nearly half the price. So I'm not too scared of their "refurbs".

Edit - I see the refurbs again on Amazon ($309) and ebay ($312) from Acer refurb seller. I know the ebay Acer store charges sales tax, like they did on the laptop I just bought. So I'd need to see another 15% off ebay coupon to swing me that way, since I always have Amazon GC to burn.

So far I have had no issues (bought it at the end of June) and I use it 8+ hours a day. I've used both DP and HDMI inputs. Not a bad deal for the $290 I paid. Obviously if you look at refurb reviews you can see it is sometimes a crap shoot, but for the price you can't really complain.

 

[Deleted member 89018]

Gor pavel I have a Vizio E43-F1 currently in use as a PC monitor. I just got it last weekend, despite some of the negative reports, because I figured, eh, even if I don't like it as a monitor, it's tough to beat as a budget TV for the current sale price.

Anyways, I've been fiddling around with the settings on my PC and I'm not having any of the issues that have been reported. There was a user report on rtings about 4:4:4 not seeming to work properly on the unit but that hasn't been my experience. I did need to go into the input settings menu and set "full UHD color" for the inputs that the PCs are using; it does not default to that being enabled. The rtings user said this was done in their test, but also mentioned an NVIDIA GPU. I've got two systems I've connected, both Radeons, so that is a difference for sure. That user comment was also posted on October 15, and they've had at least one firmware update since then (the rtings review mentions that the "watchfree" thing was added in an update on November 15), so it's possible the issue did exist and was resolved. The firmware version on mine reports 1.1.14.1.

I've got the inputs set to the "computer" mode and I dropped the backlight from 75 (the default for this mode) down to 50. I haven't made any other changes to it and so far I haven't had a reason to do so.

I can also enable HDR / WCG in Windows 10, though I understand the TV doesn't have a wide gamut so I'm not sure how that works. Turning it on makes the desktop look washed out. The TV detects it as HDR10 when it is enabled. I used this video to see if I could notice any differences (the running theory being that it won't be very noticeable on this model):



Being able to flip back and forth between SDR and HDR output made it easy to see differences in scenes (the biker at 0:45 was especially noticeable). I'm quite happy with the HDR picture on this set. It's not pushing the crazy bright vivid colors of the 55" Sony X900F I have in my living room (there's really no comparison between the two, I mean, this cost less than 25% what I paid for the Sony), but I think for gaming on a PS4 or Xbox One it would be pretty good. Probably for PC use as well, but I don't like the way it makes the desktop look and I don't stream a lot of video on this PC anyways (nor do I have any PC games that support HDR), so I'll probably be leaving it off for PC use.

My two GPUs are a Ryzen APU system that's doing 4k60 and a Radeon Fury (which can only do 4k30 over HDMI, so I'm not using it right now). I've used Radeon Settings to toggle between color modes; the TV seems to detect whether it's getting YCbCr or RGB (Radeon settings defaulted to YCbCr 4:4:4 once I enabled the "full UHD color" for the inputs), and I'm using the RGB 4:4:4 full setting for it. (edit - a later conversation with Vizio support confirmed that the set only supports the RGB limited space, so I've changed this setting, but I can't really see a difference).

I've used these test images:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/img/blacktest.png
https://www.geeks3d.com/20141203/ho...-chroma-subsampling-used-with-your-4k-uhd-tv/

And they both display without any problems (specifically, I can read the bottom two lines in the color test, and can make out all of the squares in the black test, although admittedly 1 and 2 are really hard to see).

I sit about 30" from the display and I'm not seeing any of the pattern that Kdawg mentioned. I did try to get really close to the display and at about 5" I can see a "pattern" that might just be the individual pixels, but at my normal viewing distance everything looks solid. I'd heard the same things about the 2017 version, but it doesn't seem to apply to the 2018 model.

I've tried taking close-up pictures of the screen but they keep coming out blurry. The one that I did get that was clear had this weird moire effect on it that I can't see with my eyes from any angle or distance. But I have a really old (circa 2004) digital camera so that's probably a factor.

The only downside I've found so far is that the the display is bigger than the dimensions made me think it would be. Like, I'd guessed about where I would be putting it on the desk based on the dimensions. Once I got it set up I found I was having to look up and down, left and right to see the whole thing. Pushing it back as far as I could got me to the current viewing distance and it's almost right. If I could get another 2-3" distance it'd be perfect.

I don't have anything even close in size for a comparison, but I think the rtings review holds up even for the 43" version. I'll try to post back in a couple weeks to see if I'm still feeling the same way, but so far I'm super happy with it.

[edit] also wanted to point out that while I'm experiencing the dreaded "windows 10 loses HDMI audio output on sleep" issue with this setup, this post on the Kodi forums has fixed it for me. When the system wakes up there's a bit of a delay where it shows up as "Default monitor" and then it switches to the custom INF and the audio is restored. Not perfect, but better than having to reboot or disable/enable things in the device manager.

[edit2] for S&G I set Guild Wars 2 to 2560x1440 @ 60hz and it works. Curious I also tried this on the desktop and it also works. Although text in Windows is a bit blurry (tried with and without GPU scaling, it's just a little hard to read) it also runs at 60hz there. The rtings review stated that 1440p@60hz wasn't supported, so either there has been a firmware update that added it, something with the custom INF that enabled it, or the E43-F1 supports it where the model they tested does not.

 

[FulciLives]

I have a Samsung 40 inch 4K UHD TV Model KU6290
I bought this from BEST BUY for $299.99 in December of 2016 and I've been using it as a PC monitor.
I've been very happy BUT it just died on me. I talked to a TV repair guy and he says that it will probably be $125-150 to fix it. Mind you this is without him seeing it.

I wonder if I should do that or just get something new. Right now BEST BUY has the Samsung 43 inch 4K UHD TV Model NU-6900 for $277.99

I'm not sure if this is "as good" as my old model. Also I'm a bit scared of going with Samsung again. A TV should last more than 2 years before needing repaired (sigh)

Any ideas on another model that is around $300 or so? The only choice I see that seems like it MIGHT be decent is the TCL 43S405 which is $279.99 from BEST BUY right now.

The VIZIO mentioned above might be an option but ... and no offense to user deruberhanyok ... but it seems that he is the singular voice saying that this Vizio doesn't suffer from various problems everyone else seems to "see"

Sigh. I'm not sure what to do.

I'm almost tempted to just buy a dedicated 32 inch computer monitor like the LG 32MA70HY-P which is an IPS Panel at 1080p (to be honest I do all my gaming at 1080p anyway since I don't have the graphics power to do 4K and 1080p looked perfectly fine to me on my Samsung 4K UHD TV).

 

[Lateralus]

I have a Samsung 40 inch 4K UHD TV Model KU6290
I bought this from BEST BUY for $299.99 in December of 2016 and I've been using it as a PC monitor.
I've been very happy BUT it just died on me. I talked to a TV repair guy and he says that it will probably be $125-150 to fix it. Mind you this is without him seeing it.

I wonder if I should do that or just get something new. Right now BEST BUY has the Samsung 43 inch 4K UHD TV Model NU-6900 for $277.99

I'm not sure if this is "as good" as my old model. Also I'm a bit scared of going with Samsung again. A TV should last more than 2 years before needing repaired (sigh)

Any ideas on another model that is around $300 or so? The only choice I see that seems like it MIGHT be decent is the TCL 43S405 which is $279.99 from BEST BUY right now.

The VIZIO mentioned above might be an option but ... and no offense to user deruberhanyok ... but it seems that he is the singular voice saying that this Vizio doesn't suffer from various problems everyone else seems to "see"

Sigh. I'm not sure what to do.

I'm almost tempted to just buy a dedicated 32 inch computer monitor like the LG 32MA70HY-P which is an IPS Panel at 1080p (to be honest I do all my gaming at 1080p anyway since I don't have the graphics power to do 4K and 1080p looked perfectly fine to me on my Samsung 4K UHD TV).

Sorry to hear that. I also have a KU6290 that I bought around the same time. It was supposed to be a work monitor, but I've since changed job locations and will likely be working from home more (where I already have a 55" OLED) so I'm not sure when it will get used!

Anyway - I saw that NU6900 on Black Friday. Generally, the Samsung sets have been getting a bit better each year (I say generally because I want to say that the MU series was a downgrade from the previous KU series in some respects, but the KU was considered superior to the JU series that preceded it).

There was a similar LG that was also on sale around the same time, but I'm having trouble finding it now. It might have been the LG 43UK6300, but I can't swear to that. Seems like it was a little bit more than the Samsung, but still around $300 (on sale).

I would personally stick with Samsung (or one of the other major brands) over Vizio, TCL, Insignia, etc. Your Samsung's early death is not common, and they tend to have an overall better picture and feature set than the budget brands. A lot of people are happy with their Vizio sets, but typically people buy them because they're a cheaper option that still does X, not because they're the best in class.

As far as 1080p vs 4K, I'd probably still go for a 4K set (even if you do 1080p gaming) simply because you'll be futureproofed when the rest of your rig catches up and is able to push more FPS. 4K sets these days aren't that much more expensive than 1080p, and even if I only had the power to game at 1080p, I would really miss 4K on the desktop.

But, in the end it's up to you. You might be perfectly happy with a 32" computer monitor. But after having used several large 4K sets, I just don't think that I could ever go back to less than 40"+ 4K...that's just me, though.

 

[cybereality]

I'd consider the 32" monitor option.

I've been gaming on a 40" Samsung 4K (same one, KU6300) for a year, then I got a 55" to replace it. I love it for PS4 gaming and movies, but I went too big to use it as a monitor.

Recently I got an LG IPS 1080p ultrawide for my other machine, and I'm loving it. Even though it's smaller, the wide-screen adds to the immersion and I sit close so it still looks big.

I imagined that 1080p may be too low res, but it honestly still looks HD. Granted it's not 4K quality by any means, but it's good enough IMO.

Especially if you are rendering 1080p anyhow, it will look better at native res rather than upscaling on a 4K. Something to think about.

 

[FulciLives]

I find that 1080p looks fine on my Samsung 4K UHD TV. I imagine this is due to 1080p scaling perfectly to 4K since it is exactly twice the width and twice the height. It might also be the Samsung has superior upscaling abilities?
But yeah if I go with a 32" monitor it will be 1080p because:

1.) I can't afford a 4K 32" monitor as they are so much more expensive than a 4K UHD TV
2.) I thought about a 32" monitor that is 1440p but I'm afraid that my hardware won't handle most games at that resolution and it seems (from what I've read) that 1080p scales poorly on a 1440p display.

Still haven't made my mind up but I'm thinking that I will just take my Samsung to the TV repair place and hope he can fix it for $150 or less (and that it lasts at least 2 or more years longer).

 

[Deleted member 89018]

FulciLives no offense taken! I couldn’t find any actual user feedback on the e43-f1 as a PC monitor here, which is why I posted that. There’s lots of stuff on reddit with user impressions for different uses that may be helpful. People seem generally pretty happy with it, but a lot of the posts I saw are talking about using it for console gaming and I didn’t see a lot of PC monitor discussion.

My two cents, I would recommend against taking the TV for repairs. I had a Samsung DLP a ways back that died on me and got a similar experience to you - the authorized repair place giving me a quote without even looking at it, and the price made it worth my while to just buy a new TV instead. In my case the cost of the repair was given as more than the price I’d paid for the TV, so it was an easy call. At the price of half what a new set would cost, before they even see it, I think you’d be throwing money away.

The NU6900 would be a solid choice. This way you get a new warranty and new set.

I was able to do some side-by-side with the Vizio, Samsung NU6900 and a TCL S515 at the store (so not an especially good comparison, but better than nothing at all) and I honestly think I would have been happy with any of them. I didn’t see anything to sway me away from the Vizio so I just went with my original choice.

Depending on where you buy they might have an inexpensive “warranty” (basically a replacement plan) as well - I got one for 5 years on my Vizio for $70 (at Best Buy) which I figured was worth it in case it craps out on me in a couple years. I’ve also seen a lot of people referencing Best Buy returns / exchanges when they’re not happy with their set so you might want to ask about that in store if you’re unsure.

 

[FulciLives]

Yeah if I buy a new 4K TV it would either be the 43" Samsung NU6900 or maybe the 43" TCL S515 (both at reasonable prices right now from Best Buy).

Anyone have the TCL S515 model and using it as a PC monitor?

 

[Deleted member 89018]

FulciLives there's some good user feedback on reddit here:


Note: the S515 / S517 series are the same sets, the model numbers are just different depending on where you buy it.

In the case of the Samsung vs. the TCL it may really come down to just whichever one has an interface that you like.

If it helps I've found googling the model number and some key terms with it is an easier way to find relevant threads - "TCL S517 review" is only partly helpful, but "TCL SA517 4:4:4" finds some more discussion about what formats the inputs will support, if you need to specify certain modes to use it, etc, and it's usually relevant to use as a monitor.

 

[FulciLives]

Good News!

I should have caught this earlier (makes me feel dumb) but the problem was the A/C Power Strip. My Samsung 40" KU6290 is, in fact, perfectly A-OK.

For what it's worth ... my take away from this is:

If you want a current model 40" to 43" inch 4K TV right now the best choices are probably the Samsung NU6900 and if you have the extra cash the Samsung NU7100 is pretty much the same but with slightly lower input lag. I would also consider the TCL S515 / S517 since it apparently doesn't have any flicker when the backlight is set to "normal" levels. Having said that, my Samsung KU6290 has flicker that I don't see and doesn't seem to give me eye strain (the main side effect for some people). There's also some Sony models (like the Sony KD43X720E) which some people seem to think are the absolute best but they were way out of my price range.

Anyways, cheers everyone!

 

[Brahmzy]

I run X800D and X800E. Great TVs as monitors. E is faster and crisper (IPS), D is blacker (VA).

 

[Mad Maxx]

I'm pretty happy with my 40" MU7000, but hope we see some improved 40" - 43" TVs, next year. 2018 was a disappointing year for smaller 4K TVs.