Toshiba U79 and U80 Owners Discussion And Review !!

[saran]

I

If you're buying a high end TV and expecting to use the default speakers as a 'complete package', you're doing something very wrong. Even the so called high end speakers in LG C9 pale in comparison to the ₹12k studio monitors I have.

A TV is meant to be a panel with mediocre speakers. If manufacturers started adding premium speakers inside, it would add to the cost of the TV and you'll have to pay it again and again with every new TV purchase. I'd rather spend on a high-end audio gear once and use it till it dies with multiple TVs.

And the speakers are quite serviceable. I was thinking I won't be able to wait till Diwali, but they are decent enough to use for a month and get a good speaker in Diwali sale.

Thanks for your input, I will look for some deals in sound bar in the big billion sale or amazon sale next month, I know that all led Tv's suffers in the sound department, main reason is due to space constraint, but for me the voice is not clear when watching prime videos and there is a lip sync issues in optical out which I tried to adjust but it resets itself, Can you please try prime video in your app and let me know how it sounds try listening to conversation, I want to check if the issue is only in my TV. Has any one tried ARC and is there any sync issues kindly let me know.

 

[neoonwheels]

Update:

So I got the ARC thing working now. It was the AVR setting which was off by default. Now the AVR HDMI out works as input for audio channel too. The TV gives option of: Bitstream (My fav), Auto, DD, DD+ and PCM.

Another good thing is, I have Fire TV stick (FullHD) connected to AVR which now I can control using the TV remote (And TV Remote APP on Android). Also enabled the Alexa voice commands.

Confirmed -

1. ARC works over the HDMI. My AVR detected DTS stream being sent from TV for the movies which had DTS. It works in App (Prime/NF) as well as when I played movies through the USB port of the TV. No lip sync issue over ARC.

2. Bluetooth headsets connected with the TV without any issues and I could hear all the voice from TV. In couple of heavy movies (more than 20 GB file) I could see the voice was 1 sec off. There is no setting to adjust lip sync, its disabled in BT mode

3. CEC over HDMI works flawlessly. I could control Amazon Fire TV stick through TV remote (And RemoteApp) flawlessly

Will keep updating the thread with my observations

 

[a_nuj_sng]

Folks,
I have been looking to buy a TV ever since my 55 inch Mi TV 4(the first model from them in 2018) died on me somewhere in April. It had some issue with a hotspot on the panel which melted away the glass in a tiny 5 mm radius. Since I had bought an extended warranty from Jeeves I got back 28K of the 40K original price I paid and they junked the TV.

I have a pretty big bedroom with sky windows on two walls. This makes the room really bright especially afternoon when the sun shines straight on these windows. I do have blinds on these windows , it still leaves the room fairly bright. We used to struggle watching the Mi TV during the day.

So I can think of two clear requirements.
a) A screen which is anti- glare and bright enough to be visible during the day.
b) A 65 inch TV since the viewing distance is about 16 feet.

From the little researched I did I feel a QLED tv with good brightness levels will do the job.

I do have Bose speakers and a fire tv stick 4K, so I don't care too much about the sound output or the OS as such.

By reading all the discussions here and a few other threads , it looks like the Toshiba U8080 is a good bet. 1000 Nits brightness, QLED, 120Hz refresh rate and the works.

Only hitch is that my wife isn't too thrilled shelling out 95K for a non Samsung/LG/Sony TV when the previous one went bad in just over 2 years.
Am I right in waiting for and buying the U8080 over the U7980. Do these additional features/specs warrant a premium of 30K.
I just want to be sure that when I do buy the 8080 my wife is going to be impressed looking at the display.

Hoping for some pointers from the folks here.

 

[lightgamer]

I have a pretty big bedroom with sky windows on two walls. This makes the room really bright especially afternoon when the sun shines straight on these windows. I do have blinds on these windows , it still leaves the room fairly bright. We used to struggle watching the Mi TV during the day.

I'd highly recommend getting a light-blocking curtain. They have a special coating on one side and almost completely block the sunlight. My older apartment was on the 13th floor(with no other high rise in the vicinity) with the sun directly shining on the big 8-feet by 12 feet balcony door(glass). The light-blocking curtains I got from Amazon basics made it hard to tell the day from the night when it completely closed it.

I was fine using my 450 nit brightness monitor at 30% brightness with those curtains. It was so dark I had to turn on lights during the day time. Try to get them before deciding on a TV as it might open a lot more options.

By reading all the discussions here and a few other threads , it looks like the Toshiba U8080 is a good bet. 1000 Nits brightness, QLED, 120Hz refresh rate and the works.

The U8080 seems to be the H9G which actually reaches close to 1400 nits despite claiming only 1000. And yes, in your scenario it will be a great TV to get if you want a bright one. However, with that kind of light inside the room, not even a Samsung Q90R will look impressive inside.

Your primary goal should be to dial down the light in the room than to get a TV to compensate over it. Brighter TVs also get hotter, and if you have that kind of light getting inside the room, things will heat up and go bad much quicker.

Only hitch is that my wife isn't too thrilled shelling out 95K for a non Samsung/LG/Sony TV when the previous one went bad in just over 2 years.
Am I right in waiting for and buying the U8080 over the U7980. Do these additional features/specs warrant a premium of 30K.

About the last TV going bad, it might have been due to the light (and hence heat) coming inside. In that case, even a high-end Samsung/LG would have gone bad.

About the U79 v/s U80, it depends really. For my parents I got the U79 since 90% of the content they watch will be SDR, with some OTT content. For them, the extra wait for the U80 (we needed a better TV for IPL) combined with the limited HDR content they'll watch is pretty pointless.

I on the other hand would get the U8080 hands down even if it was twice the cost. I have an arsenal of 4k HDR collection and the H9G is a significantly better TV and would last 5-6 years without getting outdated. It gets brighter, has way more dimming zones and a better HDR algorithm. It also has a better quality panel with much better motion with a 120Hz refresh rate.

I just want to be sure that when I do buy the 8080 my wife is going to be impressed looking at the display.

Nothing is gonna look good if the room has that much light. It will bleed away all the contrast due to the light pollution.

 

[aditya2603d]

I am getting Dolby Vision at both the places, at description and when playing. TV's Picture setting has Dolby Vision options too. I am adding pics of Dolby Vision for Mandalorian from Disney+ and Letter for the king from Netflix. Also my Firestick 4k display settings for reference.

Okay I tried a few things. Like yours I set the resolution on my firetv 4k to automatic. In this mode it restricts to 1920x1080. I could get Dolby Vision working(along with Dolby Vision prompt coming up). But somehow I was not satisfied with the PQ as local dimming supposedly wasn't working in DV titles with raised blacks(raised blacks is an issue with DV content). The DV also worked in Disney+ but again restricted to 1080p.
So I returned to forcing 4K resolution in firetv 4K and then I was still receiving DV signal in Disney+ as can be seen from screenshot. But it is I assume being converted to HDR10 standard and being displayed as the picture mode selected is HDR night. As far I am concerned in Disney+ the quality in both DV and HDR10 both were similar with HDR10 having deeper blacks, brightness being equal. Using Netflix in firestick with forced UHD resolution, the Dolby Vision titles run in HDR10 mode and the overall picture is drastically less brighter and less pop then when playing using DV. So the option left is to use internal Netflix app to get Dolby Vision working in Netflix in 4K resolution.
Raised black in Our Planet, Night On Earth in Dolby Vision in Netflix was very apparent. I even tried DV content (Tehran) in Apple TV which also suffered from raised blacks. And when I switched to forced UHD resolution in firestick all DV contents defaults to HDR10 with significantly less brightness in Apple TV and Netflix DV titles.

 

[BLASTO]

Leaving out 55U80 is a bad decisions. Could have sold like hot cakes.

 

[bipin1143]

Leaving out 55U80 is a bad decisions. Could have sold like hot cakes.

Yep solid sales they have missed

 

[Srinivasa Rao]

Leaving out 55U80 is a bad decisions. Could have sold like hot cakes.

Aren't they going to release it during Flipkart days?

 

[bipin1143]

Aren't they going to release it during Flipkart days?

As per the given information by Toshiba there are no plans for 55u80

 

[sunnysinghb]

Finally the TV is set up today. I tried to cast live channels on Airtel Thanks app and the videos did not play, but there was sound. Can anyone try this?

 

[iambatman28]

Finally the TV is set up today. I tried to cast live channels on Airtel Thanks app and the videos did not play, but there was sound. Can anyone try this?

Some apps block casting as a drm measure.

 

[lightgamer]

Finally the TV is set up today. I tried to cast live channels on Airtel Thanks app and the videos did not play, but there was sound. Can anyone try this?

How were you able to cast from airtel app? Did you do the whole screen cast and opened airtel? The app itself doesn't support casting AFAIK, and should block the display if it uses widevine(DRM).

Same will happen if you try to cast or screen record in Netflix. Else everyone would be pirating and downloading these shows.

 

[sunnysinghb]

How were you able to cast from airtel app? Did you do the whole screen cast and opened airtel? The app itself doesn't support casting AFAIK, and should block the display if it uses widevine(DRM).

Same will happen if you try to cast or screen record in Netflix. Else everyone would be pirating and downloading these shows.

Yes I did screen cast and opened the Airtel app. I did think about piracy issues but since I could hear the sound I thought maybe the app allows it.

As stated by everyone the OS is half-baked and needs a lot of improvement. But its very fast and responsive. Watching sports was good and I didn't notice any blur with the settings mentioned. Yet to try football and fast action movies. 4k videos is where the TV really shines and I thought the upscaling of 1080p was good enough. Below 720p is ok-ish. Will keep exploring other aspects.

 

[lightgamer]

I've had it enough with VIDAA now. The more I try to set it up and get it to work, the more it frustrates me. It seems like a UI from 2005, and the only app which seems to be coded decently is Netflix.

The Media app should have one role: to play all kinds of formats properly. However, it can only access files through either DLNA or local media and even then only supports text subtitles. No PGS or ASS subtitles support. Also, OPUS audio is not supported. For uninitiated, among compressed audio formats OPUS is king in terms of bandwidth to quality ratio. On top of it, it accesses media frame by frame which has issues with large REMUX files over network, since even my mesh router network and connecting the TV to a node via ethernet can't keep up.

The Plex app is hot garbage as I already mentioned multiple times. It doesn't support HDR, has a dated interface and today it just stopped working (maybe an update). It also renders the UI in very low resolution, like 720p or so. It's just bad when you compare it to how great Plex looks on android and Windows. Heck, Plex doesn't even list VIDAA as a supported OS.

The prime app is another example of how badly something can be coded. It's clear that Amazon engineers didn't spend much time here. They just ported a web wrapper on it. It's slow, renders at low res and just looks unsightly. At least it works nice, which is not I can say of the above ones.

Overall, I'm done with it and desperately need a new box. Those with Firestick 4k, have you had any issues with, say Dolby Vision/Atmos content on Netflix? @aditya2603d @sijuvrm any help will be appreciated. If Dolby Vision doesn't work with Firestick 4k(even with Netflix), I'll just get the Mi Box 4k since it has Chromecast ultra built-in and costs about half as much.

 

[aditya2603d]

I've had it enough with VIDAA now. The more I try to set it up and get it to work, the more it frustrates me. It seems like a UI from 2005, and the only app which seems to be coded decently is Netflix.

The Media app should have one role: to play all kinds of formats properly. However, it can only access files through either DLNA or local media and even then only supports text subtitles. No PGS or ASS subtitles support. Also, OPUS audio is not supported. For uninitiated, among compressed audio formats OPUS is king in terms of bandwidth to quality ratio. On top of it, it accesses media frame by frame which has issues with large REMUX files over network, since even my mesh router network and connecting the TV to a node via ethernet can't keep up.

The Plex app is hot garbage as I already mentioned multiple times. It doesn't support HDR, has a dated interface and today it just stopped working (maybe an update). It also renders the UI in very low resolution, like 720p or so. It's just bad when you compare it to how great Plex looks on android and Windows. Heck, Plex doesn't even list VIDAA as a supported OS.

The prime app is another example of how badly something can be coded. It's clear that Amazon engineers didn't spend much time here. They just ported a web wrapper on it. It's slow, renders at low res and just looks unsightly. At least it works nice, which is not I can say of the above ones.

Overall, I'm done with it and desperately need a new box. Those with Firestick 4k, have you had any issues with, say Dolby Vision/Atmos content on Netflix? @aditya2603d @sijuvrm any help will be appreciated. If Dolby Vision doesn't work with Firestick 4k(even with Netflix), I'll just get the Mi Box 4k since it has Chromecast ultra built-in and costs about half as much.

As of now Dolby Vision in Firestick 4k works only in Automatic resolution which somehow restricts it to 1080p resolution. In automatic resolution Dolby Vision works fine in Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV. But you have to make the hard choice of choosing DV over resolution. Because if you force set the resolution to 4k in firestick, it doesn't play DV content and it becomes too dark for Netflix DV content. While Disney+ works similar as in HDR10 or DV. So as a work around I use inbuilt Netflix app for playing Netflix DV content while I have fixed 4k resolution in Firestick 4k and use it consume content on Disney+, Amazon Prime and others.

 

[lightgamer]

As of now Dolby Vision in Firestick 4k works only in Automatic resolution which somehow restricts it to 1080p resolution. In automatic resolution Dolby Vision works fine in Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV. But you have to make the hard choice of choosing DV over resolution. Because if you force set the resolution to 4k in firestick, it doesn't play DV content and it becomes too dark for Netflix DV content. While Disney+ works similar as in HDR10 or DV. So as a work around I use inbuilt Netflix app for playing Netflix DV content while I have fixed 4k resolution in Firestick 4k and use it consume content on Disney+, Amazon Prime and others.

I think this might be because the firestick will need to stream 4k 12-bit 60Hz signal which isn't possible with HDMI 2.0b. You can only stream 4k 10-bit 60Hz with HDMI 2.0 which might be causing this.

Can you try these things and see if it fixes them(not sure if already done):

1. Set HDMI to enhanced in TV
2. Try to send 4k 10-bit 60Hz signal from your firestick, or anything less than 4k 12 bit 60Hz, say 4k 12 bit 24Hz if it's possible.

If Dolby Vision doesn't work, there's absolutely no reason to get firestick right? I can just save ₹2.5k and get the Mi Box 4k. It supports 4k HDR10, has android TV + Google assistant, and supports Chromecast ultra inbuilt.

 

[josedandrew]

If Dolby Vision doesn't work, there's absolutely no reason to get firestick right? I can just save ₹2.5k and get the Mi Box 4k. It supports 4k HDR10, has android TV + Google assistant, and supports Chromecast ultra inbuilt.

Why not wait for the new chromecast.

 

[lightgamer]

Why not wait for the new chromecast.

Not sure if that would launch. Google didn't release the Chromecast ultra in India, and I'm not sure if this Chromecast would work with Dolby Vision too over HDMI, since the fire stick doesn't.

Not to mention Google's Indian pricing has been a disaster so far, and I don't expect any decent pricing from it. It will likely cost 7000 or so going by the UK pricing.

 

[Dr. House]

I am considering U79 Toshiba 55 inch model. Is it really rebranded same panel of Hisense H8F?
I can't find online availability if U79. Reliance digital unable to ship here.
What are the other option to get in decent price or I consider something else?

 

[iambatman28]

I am considering U79 Toshiba 55 inch model. Is it really rebranded same panel of Hisense H8F?
I can't find online availability if U79. Reliance digital unable to ship here.
What are the other option to get in decent price or I consider something else?

You can read the last few pages for real life reviews and it does seem to be the same panel as H8F. Pretty solid contrast ratio and brightness for the price along with decent local dimming. Apart from the OS, the one big flaw is the input lag which is pretty bad.