Hi Everyone,
After several weeks of consideration to upgrade my 6 year old 32" LED TV (Toshiba 32P2305), I have recently purchased 55 inch TCL C8 for Rs.52000 from TCL Exclusive store in Mogappair, Chennai.
Before i review the TV, here are the details of my existing living room A/V setup (Before the purchase).
1.) 32Inch Toshiba 32P2305 TV
2.) MI Box S (Purchased from Aliexpress)
3.) Denon AVR-1507 7.1 AV Receiver (supports basic Dolby/DTS/Proligic II formats)
4.) Craftel Mini Toga Theatre Module 7.1 Speaker Package (2*5 1/2" 2-way Bookshelf, 1* Dual 4" 2 way center, 4* 4 1/2" Mini Theatre surrounds, 1* 10" Active Sub)
5.) ACT Fibernet 150 Mbps internet connection (Dual band router)
As you can see, I already had atleast what can be considered as a very basic HT setup except for the small size TV. In 2017 December, I moved to my new flat. I did not have any intention of purchasing new TV then. However, following up on the latest AV news and hearing about new TVs coming up with Dolby Vision HDR formats etc I suddently got the itch of getting a new bigger TV around Feb 2020. VU launching their 2020 premium series worsened the situation.
My Requirements:
1.) 55 Inch due to the space available. 65 inch would be a tight fit.
2.) VA panel (OLED out of budget) due to decent blacks as my primary requirement is to watch movie in dark room. So was not keen on IPS models.
3.) Budget Initially started with 30-40K. Then later decided to stretch until 70K.
4.) Wanted a Dolby Vision certified TV. HDR10+ support would be bonus.
5.) The TV needs to play HDR content from Netflix, Prime Video, Youtube. Also, should support 5.1 Dolby audio from most common OTT services.
6.) Smooth playback of local HDR content, as i have a lot of ripped HDR bluray movies.
7.) Certified Dolby and DTS audio. Dolby Atmos certified would be a bonus
8.) Just decent upscaling is fine. As i mostly watch FullHD/4K content. 720P very rare. SD content once in full moon.
9.) I dont have DTH. Very rarely I watch Live TV channels, it will be through Sunnxt (Sun Group channels), Youtube (news), Hotstar (Vijay).
10.) Need Optical/SPDIF out since my old receiver do not have HDMI and i need to connect it to Optical port of my receiver to get Dolby surround from OTT apps via TV to my speakers.
TVs considered (All 55 inches):
VU Premium 2020
This was the TV that made me seriously consider upgrading my 32 inch TV. A 55 inch TV with VA panel, 400 nits brightness, Dolby Vision, HDR 10 and what not. All for 32K. Too sweet of a deal. Initial impressions on youtube by so called specification readers (not reviewers) from India gave a positive impression. I almost zeroed on this TV. If there was no lockdown (due to COVID-19), I might have picked this up. But, due to lockdown and shutting of the e-Commerce platforms gave me time to check for other options as well. Meantime, few reviews from flipkart mentioned about motion handling issues on fast moving scenes in this TV.
Oneplus TV Q1
Motion handling issues from VU tv made me consider an alternative from a well known brand (atleast better than VU) who will be able to provide better panel than VU. I found Oneplus to be a great TV atleast on paper (not the Q1 pro but the Q1). Its a QLED TV along with Dolby vision, HDR10+, Dolby atmos, DTS-HD, 500 nits brightness, VA Panel, WCG, 50W audio and so on. All for 69K. However, its now available for 60K after discounts which is great. A similar specced TV (Q60R) from samsung costs around 90K and it does not have Dolby vision support, DTS support etc. Oneplus community is also very active and they are providing OTA updates regularly. As a oneplus 7T user, i was happy to get TV from the same brand. However, when i visited the Reliance Digital store and had a look at the TV my perception changed. First, the panel did not look bright enough to my eyes (I am still not sure why). TV burried in the middle of Sony/Samsung flagships in the Reliance showroom made the matter worse for Oneplus. I tweaked the picture settings and still was not able to find it brighter to my satisfaction. I visited two different showrooms and the impression was same. Also, the inbuilt video player was pathetic and was not able to play any of my demo videos smoothly (4K with dolby vision and HDR10). From the community, i heared that they are working on it but not sure when it will be resolved as they are in to it for almost 6 months now. So i understood that this TV is great for streaming content from OTT in its current state but not for local content. Kodi cannot help in this case, since the inbuilt player is the only option to play dolby vision files and Kodi cannot play them. But heard Kodi can play all other formats (with HDR) fine on this TV locally. Dropped this from my list with a heavy heart.
TCL C8
Initially i was not considering this TV at all, since on paper this looks almost similar to VU premium with very few additions like HDR10+, Dolby Atmos, WCG, ONKYO integrated soundbar but this costs almost 18K more. However, my perception changed after viewing it in person. That too viewing it immediately after Oneplus TV helped in its favour. First, the panel was bright. Stark contrast to the Oneplus TV. Remember on paper this has only 350 nits compared to oneplus 500 nits. TV looked much elegant with the fabric design soundbar. Also, the top half of the TV is very slim (like the first gen MI TV 4 55inch model). 4K content looked great. It played all my demo files without breaking a sweat and it looked great too. I also did not see any motion handling issues during my two visits to the TCL showroom. Upscaling of 1080P was decent. It played HDR from youtube. It also played Jack Ryan from prime video in HDR10+. It showed relative A/V logos (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Dolby Audio/Atmos, DTS) on top left based on the content. So its easy for us to identify if the content that we are viewing is HDR or not. All this made me consider this TV in my wait list. 3 Year Warranty is a bonus.
I did not consider LG/Sony/Samsung as you know in this case i need to stretch my budget to at least 90K to get a good TV from these brands. I was not ready for the same. I also did not consider MI TVs since they dont support Dolby vision/Atmos etc and also heard that its not too bright either. The only other TV i was expecting was the news of Realme TV launch. However, the teaser suggested Dolby audio instead of Dolby atmos so i understood that Realme is either going to bring smaller TVs or they are not in to spec game. My wife also suggested to get TCL if i am satisfied on the same. She told that new TVs will keep coming and if you start waiting then you will never get any TV*.
*OT: She also told me -> "If i waited for a better person than you to marry, then i would have kept waiting still since there will always be a better person than the one you find".
Purchase:
I dont want to wait after those words from my wife. So i took her to the TCL showroom next day (18th May 2020) to see if she likes the TV. She gave a thumbs up. So paid the money and reached home.
The TV arrived on the same day around 4PM. As per advice from another member, I pinged TCL india in FB messenger on the same night to arrange technician for installing the TV. They promptly created a Service request and the engineer came to my home around 4PM next day (19th May 2020) and installed the TV. I used the existing wall mount (on the wall side) to mount this TV since was not able to remove the screws from the wooden panel.
Basic Calibration:
Before i could judge the TV i wanted to do a basic calibration (without any tools) atleast. Therefore, i used "AVS HD 709" calibration patterns to adjust Brightness, Contrast, color, Sharpness and overscan. A short explanation of what was done is given below.
*Before starting this basic calibration I enabled "Movie" picture preset on the TV. All these adjustments have been done in this preset.
1.) Black Clipping - This pattern is used to set the Black level. For my TCL C8 TV the "Black" setting of "50" was perfect for this pattern.
2.) White clipping - This pattern is used to set the Contrast/White level. For my TCL C8 TV the "Contrast" setting of "99" was required.
3.) Flashing Color Bars - This pattern is used to set the Color/Saturation and Tint. To set the values for this pattern "Blue" mode on the TV needs to be enabled. If the TV does not have that mode then THX glasses are required. Fortunately, TCL C8 has Blue mode (Picture->Advance Settings->Color->RGB Mode->BMode). Therefore, i was able to set the color and tint using this mode. The Saturation value of "73" and Tint value of "48" was required on TCL C8 TV for this pattern.
4.) Sharpness & Overscan - I disabled the "overscan" option to "Off" to make the extreme white lines visible on the screen for this pattern. Also, sharpness value of "0" was just fine.
5.) Brightness - No patterns required. Brightness can be set as per each individual preference and also based on the viewing environment. I use "Brightness" value of "70" based on my preference for SDR content. Its adequately bright even for bright rooms. Keeping this value also will make sure HDR content gets brighter than this when playing HDR content as it automatically increases brightness to full "100".
6.) Color Temperature - I use the "Warm" setting (Default in "Movie" preset) as i found the "Normal" setting to be a bit on colder side. In general "Warm" is recommended and therefore i am using the same.
7.) Gamma - This value affects the "grayness" of blacks. This setting is adjusted to get the shadow detail as intended. In general Gamma value of "2.4" is recommended if the TV has the option to set it. However, if the TV has Gamma setting increments only in whole number then its recommended to leave it to "0". TCL C8 has only increments in whole numbers, therefore i have left the "Gamma" value in "0".
8.) I have given below the setting of other options below.
*Few Black/White bars dont appear in these pics since my mobile was not able to capture it correctly
Black Clipping
White Clipping
APL Clipping
Color/Tint
Sharpness and Overscan
Sound Settings:
*Unfortunately no basic calibration can be done without special tools for Sound. All these setting are just based on my hearing preference. You might dislike it. So set as per your preference.
1.) I have enabled Dolby Atmos "On" and the TV Placement as "Wall Mount". I felt the enabling Dolby Atmos gave a better sound stage.
2.) Rest of the settings given below.
To be continued on next post....
