HDR TV Recomendation

Hardware and technical stuff
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Tech crew, looking for some advice on a purchase I’m about to pull the trigger on.

The Setup - I got a PS4 Pro for the holidays from the family and initially I had it on my 1440p Ultrasharp and it looked good, but I could tell it was just a 1080p image stretched to fit (the Pro can’t do 1440p it seems). Also that monitor doesn’t have on-board speakers (thankfully) so I’d have to manually swap my speakers off the PC anyway, so that would blow (or buy another set of speakers, but no thanks).

The solution is to get a nice HDTV for my office and keep the PS4 (and maybe a Switch later?) dedicated to it. Problem solved? However, the more I researched HDR the more it sounds like it’s really a thing and as such, I may as well get a TV that can take advantage of it.

My office is a size where when I turn from my PC desk to face where I’ll have the TV set up I’ll be about 6’ from the TV, maybe 7 if I press my chair up against the wall.

As such, after doing some research on my own, it sounds like the 43" Sony X800D is going to be the TV for me. By all accounts, a solid performing TV in terms of response time, HDR 10 (which I’m told is true HDR?), 4K screen (I don’t intend to game in 4K, I’d rather get 60fps @1080p honestly so I hope this has a good 1080p picture since they don’t really make 1080p TVs with HDR that I have found?), and solid picture and color. Maybe not the best brightness, but I’m in a really dark room when I turn my lamp off.

The Question: Does anyone have any experience with this TV? Anyone played HDR games on it? $650 is a lot of money, I don’t have that much saved up very often and I may also want to drop another $100 on a sound bar from what I’ve read, too (at some point). I think I could get a slightly larger display if it was a better display for gaming, which is all I really need this TV for (I mean, will I watch movies on it? Yeah, probably, but primarily it’s for gaming).

I’m also really curious if the 49" version would be worth saving up for as it has an IPS screen, but by all accounts it’s also a darker screen. I love my IPS monitors, is the IPS panel on the Sony worth the $150? And would 49" be too large for my office?

Any other recommendations I should be looking at? If there is a much better TV for not too much more, maybe it would be smarter to save up a little longer?

Thanks in advance!

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I have this TV, gaming at 4k and 1080p depending on the game. I think Battlfield 1 uses HDR , but I am not sure.

It is a very bright TV, at least for me in a dark room.

I am happy enough with the on board speakers, I sit 4 feet away, it sounds good enough and I don’t have to clutter my desk up with more stuff. There is a audio out plug on the tv if you want to plug in headphones, which is really nice.

This is a top and bottom edge lit screen, so I have noticed some very mild light bands on a pure gray screen (battlefield 1 fog especially). Blacks are even and quite good.

No motion blur issues, make sure you have a new HDMI cable that supports 4:4:4 @ 60hgz.

Overall a really good screen, I got mine on Amazon. :)

I talked about it more in this thread: TVs in Late 2016

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Oh yeah, the thread where I realized we had the same mouse pad! Or we did, I recently got a Steelseries pad for Christmas, which is freaking amazing by the way - best mouse pad I’ve ever used by far.

Thanks for the comments and thoughts, I dug up the thread(s) you were referring to and read them again. I didn’t realize until moments ago I’d read your thoughts on the very TV I’ve been looking at since early December! Did you ever try Civ VI in 4K?

I’m pleased you are pleased with the TV. I’m hoping to order it next week, though Amazon is currently out of stock so I may have to do some shopping.

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Yes CIV VI in 4k is very nice also Endless Legend in 4k!

Witcher 3 in 4k is also fantastic, and I haven’t even started Blood and Wine yet! I can only imagine the colors!

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For funsies, would you take an off-screen picture of Civ VI and/or Endless Legend in 4K? I’m starting to get tempted to put this on my desk and use my 1440p Dell Ultrasharp as my secondary display all the sudden… I enjoyed the images you provided in the previous thread, I’m just a visual guy I suppose.

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I’ll get pics for you this weekend.

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Sweet Christmas! Thanks!

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Bought this TV when it was on sale just before Christmas and ended up taking it back. The screen was nice but the android TV system performed really sluggishly (particularly the inbuilt freeview tuner) and the wife and I couldn’t stick it. That said, it sounds like live TV isn’t going to be your main use for the it, I’m sure if used primarily for gaming it would be very nice.

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Wait, are the Amazon specs correct in that this has ONE hdmi port?

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Just some quick advice, if you are not in immediate need for the TV, its likely best to wait until a week before the Super Bowl. That week and Black Friday are traditionally the days to get your best deal.

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No, it has four.

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I looked at the 43 & 49, and the reviews for the 49 seemed quite a bit better (different panel type, vastly better viewing angles, more closely-aligned with the higher tier models, etc). We’re pretty happy with our 49 after a couple of weeks. It’s a guest cottage thing but it’ll get a lot of use.

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Weird, on the comparison chart to other TVs says one.

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I’m glad to hear this - I would have thought the 49" would be a better display given its IPS panel type, but I didn’t find any reviews for it that said it was better than the 43" - quite the opposite in fact, with two reviews (such as rtings.com) indicating it was a slightly more washed out image than the 43" which scared me off - it’s $150 more and let’s be honest, the smaller the screen the crisper the image will always be. I think I’ll stick with the 43" - it’s directly in my budget and I could even use it as a PC display (something I don’t think would work on a 49" or bigger set unless I used a wireless keyboard/mouse!) if I so desired at some point.

Thanks for the feedback though, because I’m still somewhat interested in that size display for 4K content, and if the price comes down before I pull the trigger, or I end up waiting a bit closer to Super Bowl Sunday and getting a good deal on one, I may pull that particular trigger.

EDIT - Jeez, just like this for example.

$50 more than the 43" though it’s an open box. But since it still has the manufacturers warranty and a 30 day satisfaction guarantee, does that even matter? Manuals and software can be obtained online, too. Tempting. Anyone ever ordered an open box item like this with some warnings or words of encouragement?

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We bought the 49" for $849 Cdn, which is about $650 US. That was during Boxing Week at Best Buy (Cdn$899/USD$699 was the official on-sale price).

I wouldn’t have many qualms about buying this class of device as an open box from a reputable retailer with a strong warranty & return/exchange program (a $2-3K OLED, now, would be another matter). But I would want a better discount than that. Have you checked Video Only?

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Dammit. I fell down a rabbit hole of 49" displays and everyone seems to agree for HDR gaming (and movies/TV as well, which I’ll do occasionally when the kids nor wife want to watch something I want to watch) the Samsung KS8000 is the best. It’s also $300 outside of my budget. Tempting to just wait a month and keep saving up until I can get that instead… but is it really better than the Sony 800D? I’m not sure, and I can’t find anything conclusive.

I am getting intrigued by having a 49" display - it seems like there are a lot more HDR gaming options in the 49" space. Also handy if the boy wants to do some split-screen gaming in my office, I should think, at that size.

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I have the 65" KS8000. The picture is beautiful for an LED set. The built-in apps are nice for watching 4K stuff, and if you want all of your movies and TVs to look like they’re videotaped for a soap opera, it does a great job of that. (You can of course turn that off.)

If you use external audio, note that I had a nightmare experience trying to get the thing to cooperate with my tuner. It loves to reset its outputs from surround to stereo, and from HDMI audio out to built-in speakers, etc. every time you turn it on and off. I finally gave up and bought an optical audio switch and I’m running the audio from my Xbox One S, PS4 Pro, etc. directly into my tuner’s optical in. The only time the TV is involved in audio is sending sound from its built-in apps back to my tuner over HDMI.

Haven’t seen the Sony, so I can’t compare there.

Note that the 60" KS8000 apparently uses a different screen than the other sizes and has some picture issues that give the AVSForum folks fits. The other sizes are good, though.

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I ended up getting the Samsung 49KS7000 which is a very similar TV expect for a different stand, some less impressive UHD dimming and only one TV tuner, and obviously a good bit cheaper (all paraphrased from the helpful guy in John Lewis that sold it to me). Apart from some teething issues with some of the smart TV apps we’ve been much more impressed with this than the Sony in both picture and ease of use.

However, this is our main living room TV and also had to stand up to my other halfs lack of experience/patience with tech stuff. If i was in the market for a cheaper second TV for a spare/bedroom i probably could have learned to live with the Sony. I’m not sure if the KS7000 is available in the US though, can’t seem to find it on an Amazon search.

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Thanks for the info, that’s excellent. The 49KS7000 actually is the 49KS8000 here in the states, according to Digital Foundry and some other sites I saw, so it is the same TV we’re talking about. The only concern I have (other than the price being quite a bit higher than I originally anticipated spending) is that Digital Foundry mentioned having to adjust the backlight levels by hand when using HDR (turning it up for HDR content and then down for SDR content) - that sounded like a PITA to me, and no other TV review ever mentions it, even when talking about the KS7000/8000 - have you had any experience with the HDR?

@Editer Thanks for the info, it’s starting to sound like I would be well advised to put a little extra money into this project for a better experience. Thanks for the 60" warning, though 49" is about the biggest I could see in this room (12’ x 10’). Though I wonder if I couldn’t make the argument this is a much nicer TV than the $500 55" we got on clearance two years ago, which is a decent if bland picture with what I consider terrible motion issues, and see if the wife is willing to kick a few hundred more into getting the 55" and instead of my office we put it in the family room. Of course then I have to share it. :)

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Motion blur is fantastic on the 43" , and by that I mean I haven’t seen any, I gotta get them pictures up , so busy this weekend. :p