T3 India – April 2019

34 T3 Tomorrow ’sTechnologyTodayAPRIL 2019 WWW.T3INDIA.COM

Opinion

here’ssomethingever

so satisfyingandyet

oh-soaggravating

whenit comestothe

• boringlyconsistentlyexcellent


• stateoftechtoday. Nowhereis
  thatmoreevidentthanin the
  worldoftelevision.Sweet,sweet
  4K(ormaybe8K),HDR,motion-
  smoothed,thin-bezelledTV.
  We’vejusthadCESanda few
  moreEuropean-centrictelly
  showcasesandI thinkit’sfair to
  saythatthishasbeenthebest
  yeareverfornewTVs.
  Thisis greatnewsforallofusin
  manyways, butontheotherhand
  is it, really? If we’vegot90 ,000- 2,70,000tosplashona
  gogglebox,bountifulrichesawait...
  butwhichoftheenticinglovelies
  doweopt for?
  Thisis a fantastictimetobuya
  TVbecauseallthe mostimportant
  newtechnologiesarenowwell
  entrenched.Overthelastfew
  years,the earlyadoptershave
  squanderedtheircashon
  experiments,asusual.
  ConsequentlyTVmakershave
  beenable tocontinuetodevelop
  newimage andsound-boosting
  tech,fromHDRandOLEDto
  in-homeDolbyAtmos.Now,us
  normalpeople can reap the
  benefits.

Smooooooth

The problemwiththis is it makesit

harder thanever tochoosewhich

newtelevisiontobuy. I thinkI

couldbreakitdownthus:

Samsungis bestifyouwanta

brightTVyoucanseein daylight.

Panasonicis bestifyouwant

somethingmore‘cinematic’– a

hard term todefine, but I hope you

knowwhatI mean.LLG

andSonyarearguabbly

thebestall-rounders.

Philips,interestingly,is often

consideredbestby‘AVpurists’

anditsTVsaregeneerallyjolly

good,butthewaythheyinsiston

turningtheirmotionsmoothing

upto11 in demosdoesputmeoff

a bit.Andafterthatyou havethe

likesofToshibaandHisense,who

make similarlyamazingTVsbut

forlessmoney.

Whatscreenyouthinklooks

bestis prettysubjective,anda lot

ofthetime,thecustomerservice

guys in shopswillrecommendthe

onestheylike personallyorthe

brandsthatpaythemthemost

commission.Sothat’stricky, but

onthe plusside, aboveabout

`72,600,allLCDandOLEDpanels

need. Thereis nexttono‘native’

8Kcontent– the UK’sbroadband

servicescanonlyjustdealwith

4 K andnobodyis goingtobe

broadcastingin it anytimesoon.

Cometothat,mostpuntersstill

don’tevenreallyknowwhat4Kis,

neverminditsupscaledbigbro.

LookattheHDMIinputs–

mmm,yes,thisis allsexystuff.

Ideallyyouwantfourofthemat

least,andyouwantthemalltobe

abletotake4KHDRsources. That

couldbecomeuseful sooner than

youthink.

Perhapsmostimportantly

whenviewinga new,premiumTV

in theshops,asktoseesomething

on it thatyou’dactuallywatchin

reallife. TVshopsareverykeen

on showingHollywoodFX

bonanzaswithalltheimage

smoothingandvivid-ification

settingsdialledupto11.Or,even

worse,specially-shotdemo

footage,usuallyinvolvingpeople

dancingsomewhereexoticwhilst

havingpaintpowderblownover

thenin extremely slowmotion.

Tr ywatchingsom ebroa dc ast

TV onit, orsport,ora movieyou

love,withthesettingsona more

‘normal’level.Youmightbe

surprised at howdifferent it looks.

Most punters still don’t

even reallyknowwhat

4K is,never mindits

upscaled big bro, 8 K

T

arebroadlyprettysimilar,andall

verygood.

So myadvicewouldbetofocus

onnear-future-proofingyourself

as muchaspossible.

Picka screenyoulikethelook

of,butmakesureit hassupport

forona weirdlylargenumberof

Blu-rays –you’llalmostcertainly

needanexternalsystem.

Realistically, 8Kis allverylovely,

but it’s not somethingyou really

How the hell are you meant to buy a TV when

they’re all really good? Let me guide you...

Duncan Bell has

square eyes