48" screen OLED TVs

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48" screen OLED TVs

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There seem to be a number of folk on here who are much more knowledgeable than me about all things electronic so thought I'd just put this "out there" and see what bounces back.

If you've been following the "grumpy" thread you'll see that I didn't have to go up town to buy a fuse to repair my boy's adaptor so I decided to walk up to the library and return my books, all of which I'd now read. I'd forgotten that this library branch doesn't open 'till 1300 hrs on a Wednesday and I got there at just before 12. Not worth going home and immediately returning I decided to walk up to John Lewis's store at the top of Leith Walk and take a look at the TVs.

I've more than a passing interest as our existing, quite old, Panasonic is starting to get a bit on the dim side. I'm told that as they age the LED back lights dim and I've now got the brightness up near maximum to get a watchable picture. We've had it for years so it owes us nothing and has been very reliable. I've been thinking of just replacing it with a good spec more modern LED - probably Sony or Panasonic - but I've heard these new OLED sets are supposed to be pretty stunning so I was wanting to have a look. I also have size constraints as I've built my own TV cabinet and the existing 43 inch just fits nicely.

John Lewis had a Panasonic, Sony and an LG 48 inch OLED on display and the pictures were stunningly good. Of course the images they are feeding them will be maximized for effect but, WOW doesn't begin to describe it compared to our old telly. I did a bit of measuring up and the Sony KE48A9 with it's miniscule stand and minimal bezel would slot right into the space occupied by the present Panasonic which has a relatively large stand and thick bezel. In fact it would fill the available space and make it look like a custom fit! The LG 48C14LB has a slightly taller stand, but not by much. I think it would fit with just a touch shaved off the top shelf support of my cabinet or I could back mount it in some way, maybe using a wall mount to the back of the cabinet. The Panasonic TX-48JZ1000B and it's more expensive relative the TX-48JZ1500B with their deeper stands definitely wouldn't fit unless I back mounted, using a wall mount, to the back panel of the cabinet. I'd probably need to make a supporting frame to take the weight but it could all be concealed so would look fine - just a lot more work.

The Sony looks to me to be the front runner from the reviews and it'll be the easiest to install too.

Just wondering if anyone has any opinions. On the other hand the existing Panasonic is by no means dead yet. No dead pixels or anything other than it's just a bit dim. Maybe I'd be better to wait a wee while and let them develop the OLED panels a bit? maybe they'll come down in price a bit when they become the norm?

At our age this will probably be the last TV we may buy so I don't mind splashing out a bit to get something really nice. So, if anyone has an opinion on them or advice to give please do reply. Thanks in advance to anyone contributing.
 
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My son-in-law has a Sony OLED TV. The pictures are stunning even the ordinary definition stuff looks good and doesn't look plastic like it used to do with interpolated pixels (the steppy edges are smoothed by the graphics card computer).
 
Dad died 2007 and left me a tidy sum. At the time I purchased a top of the range Sony TV along with surround sound speakers complete with sub. The speakers five of them are the size of matchboxes, but the sound is just amazing. Honestly you have to hear it to believe it :cool:

Jock get the Sony package complete with surround sound, that’s my advice, you won’t regret it. There must be a shop in “embra” where you can test out the merchandise, go get it Jock.
 
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Ihad a Sony for years. It was great. Eventually storm clouds appeared and Having bought mum a Sony the previous year.... also good, I bought another, but Oh dear it was appalling and after a few days I took it back. I was told they have been having issues. I declined a replacement and got the latest Samsung 4k smart job. It was appreciably better. Its been good for nearly 3 years. Apparently LG make 90% of all the screens now. Have a look at their TVs as they seem good value. I think our TV is just a plain LED.
 
Will you be using any of the smart features built in? Almost all TVs now have built in netflix, prime, iPlayer etc and honestly this is one of the areas that the different brands are most distinguishable from one another. I can't speak for Sony's inbuilt smart software unfortunately. Samsungs is absolutely dire, slow and clunky, both my sisters have bought brand new Samsungs in the past 12 months and both have the same sluggish poor interface. LG really excels in this area, they purchased WebOS years back from Palm and turned it into their smart TV interface, it is silky smooth and as someone who works in IT is by far the best option for the built in software.
If you don't care about any of that then it'll be simply down to what fits your cabinet and what looks best to you...
Just a note if your current TV is still cutting it you might want to hang on a little while until the chip shortage has subsided as prices may come down? I can't really be sure of that obviously but something to consider
 
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