parambir
Active Member
Hello friends...
I had earlier posted a thread https://www.hifivision.com/posts/791957/ where I was looking for reviews on "Panel TVs". Unfortunately there was not much response on that.
But I did some further "hunting" and finally took the leap. Yesterday I picked up a 65 inch 4K Panel TV for 57K. I did the unboxing and setup today.
Before I begin here is a disclaimer -
1. I actually was looking for a 4K @ 60 Hz TV since I am not into gaming.
2. I am not looking at too much of "smartness" in the TV since I am using Minix U1 Android box which is smart enough for my requirements.
3. Not a big fan of TV being capable of 4K upscaling since I will be playing my video through Yamaha Rx v681 receiver which has 4K upscaling.
Background: I have been closely following the panel TVs for more than an year now. Earlier they claimed they were 4K but it was fake. They were only full HD. Recently though they have come up with 4K panels and display technology. I tested a couple of them before homing to the one that I picked up. The only problem in the ones I tested was that they were not going beyond 4K @ 24 Hz. How do I know? Well for one the Minix detected 4K @ 24 Hz at HDMI port so I trusted that figure and secondly when a video played on HDMI port, it showed 2160 @ 24 Hz... so that was for sure. Finally I came across one person who claimed 60Hz and it indeed was. So this is the one I picked up.
Test: I may not be perfect at testing TVs but whatever minimal knowledge I had I applied that. To begin with I downloaded 3 videos - 4K @ 60 fps, 4K @ 25 fps and 1080p @ 25 fps. I carried them in a pendrive attached to my Minix player. Note - I did not connect the pen drive to the TV as this will not give me the performance from HDMI port where I will be actually playing subsequently. Then I used XBMC player to play each of these videos. My confirmation comes from the fact that when I played 4K @ 60 fps video, the HDMI port was showing 2160 @ 60 Hz and when I played 4K @ 25 fps the HDMI showed 2160 @ 25 Hz. So I concluded that 60 Hz refresh rate was supported at 4K which is pretty much in line with other budget 4K TVs.
Screenshots:
Startup screen
Booting screen
About Screen.
Please note - Nowhere it is displaying "fake" Samsung or Sony Logo.
Setup process: I have been able to successfully able to connect on to the wifi network at home and open play store. I have also connected the Tatasky on one of the HDMI ports and Chromecast on the other. Both easily played on respective ports. I yet have to connect my Yamaha receiver and then stream full HD movies from my Home Cloud server through Minix !!! Don't worry. Won't bog you guys with those details but will post next review of that setup and see if upscaling through Yamaha works !!! (fingers crossed).
Ports: The TV has 2 x HDMI ports (Neither supports CEC but doesn't bother) I will be turning it on and off through Google Home Automation along with my Home Theater. It has 2 x USB ports including one USB 3.0 port. There is a RGB port and SDCard slot too.
Review so Far: Well as for the above setup with Tata Sky and Chromecast, there was no problem. But the acid test is with home theatre for which I will do a setup tomorrow and share with you guys.
Cost: Well after some negotiation skills I manage to get it for 58K with 1 yr warranty. Even the best of the ID sale on Amazon or Flipkart brought these TVs to 67 or 68 K at most. So I think this was a fair deal and yes I got table and wall mounts with the TV.
I hope this review helps those who are looking to pick up 65 inch 4K TVs and are budget conscious and are willing to do some wild west hunting.
Thanks for stopping by.... Cheers
Parambir
I had earlier posted a thread https://www.hifivision.com/posts/791957/ where I was looking for reviews on "Panel TVs". Unfortunately there was not much response on that.
But I did some further "hunting" and finally took the leap. Yesterday I picked up a 65 inch 4K Panel TV for 57K. I did the unboxing and setup today.
Before I begin here is a disclaimer -
1. I actually was looking for a 4K @ 60 Hz TV since I am not into gaming.
2. I am not looking at too much of "smartness" in the TV since I am using Minix U1 Android box which is smart enough for my requirements.
3. Not a big fan of TV being capable of 4K upscaling since I will be playing my video through Yamaha Rx v681 receiver which has 4K upscaling.
Background: I have been closely following the panel TVs for more than an year now. Earlier they claimed they were 4K but it was fake. They were only full HD. Recently though they have come up with 4K panels and display technology. I tested a couple of them before homing to the one that I picked up. The only problem in the ones I tested was that they were not going beyond 4K @ 24 Hz. How do I know? Well for one the Minix detected 4K @ 24 Hz at HDMI port so I trusted that figure and secondly when a video played on HDMI port, it showed 2160 @ 24 Hz... so that was for sure. Finally I came across one person who claimed 60Hz and it indeed was. So this is the one I picked up.
Test: I may not be perfect at testing TVs but whatever minimal knowledge I had I applied that. To begin with I downloaded 3 videos - 4K @ 60 fps, 4K @ 25 fps and 1080p @ 25 fps. I carried them in a pendrive attached to my Minix player. Note - I did not connect the pen drive to the TV as this will not give me the performance from HDMI port where I will be actually playing subsequently. Then I used XBMC player to play each of these videos. My confirmation comes from the fact that when I played 4K @ 60 fps video, the HDMI port was showing 2160 @ 60 Hz and when I played 4K @ 25 fps the HDMI showed 2160 @ 25 Hz. So I concluded that 60 Hz refresh rate was supported at 4K which is pretty much in line with other budget 4K TVs.
Screenshots:
Startup screen
Booting screen
About Screen.
Please note - Nowhere it is displaying "fake" Samsung or Sony Logo.
Setup process: I have been able to successfully able to connect on to the wifi network at home and open play store. I have also connected the Tatasky on one of the HDMI ports and Chromecast on the other. Both easily played on respective ports. I yet have to connect my Yamaha receiver and then stream full HD movies from my Home Cloud server through Minix !!! Don't worry. Won't bog you guys with those details but will post next review of that setup and see if upscaling through Yamaha works !!! (fingers crossed).
Ports: The TV has 2 x HDMI ports (Neither supports CEC but doesn't bother) I will be turning it on and off through Google Home Automation along with my Home Theater. It has 2 x USB ports including one USB 3.0 port. There is a RGB port and SDCard slot too.
Review so Far: Well as for the above setup with Tata Sky and Chromecast, there was no problem. But the acid test is with home theatre for which I will do a setup tomorrow and share with you guys.
Cost: Well after some negotiation skills I manage to get it for 58K with 1 yr warranty. Even the best of the ID sale on Amazon or Flipkart brought these TVs to 67 or 68 K at most. So I think this was a fair deal and yes I got table and wall mounts with the TV.
I hope this review helps those who are looking to pick up 65 inch 4K TVs and are budget conscious and are willing to do some wild west hunting.
Thanks for stopping by.... Cheers
Parambir
