Product Description: | Unleash your game with the Philips 43" Class 4K Ultra HD (2160p) Gaming + Google TV – where stunning visuals meet ultra smooth refresh rates. With settings already optimized for gaming, simply plug in and connect your favorite game system for the ultimate gaming experience. Unleash your game 144Hz native refresh rate allows for ultra-smooth gaming Crisp, clear picture with 4K Ultra HD resolution Large screen for single player or multiplayer gameplay Play like a Pro AMD FreeSync Premium enables seamless, tear-free gaming Low input lag means faster action and better gaming results Faster panel reduces image smearing for greater details Settings optimized for enhanced gaming right out of the box Your Entertainment Destination HDR10 supported — See more of that the director intended Dolby Vision and Atmos for a cinematic experience at home Google TV brings together movies, shows, live TV and more Hey Google – Search, discover, control your smart home Bluetooth® enabled with 802.11 AC for a wireless world |
Top Comments
I just received this yesterday because I bought this back when the 50" version first was posted on sd.
I've had some experiences with cheap 120hz tvs used as monitors before so I was prepared for problems with the tv and I got them.
I updated the firmware immediately when getting the tv. The panel was well protected by a thick slab of honeycombed cardboard.
The good news is there is no resolution downscaling when running at 4k 120hz like other cheap 120hz tvs have.
TV only works in 144hz mode when run on 1920x1080. At any higher resolution, it will force you to 120hz. Also, in order to enable VRR at 4k (which is disabled and not even clickable), you have to go into 1920 mode, enable vrr, apply settings, then switch back to 4k 120hz.
I tried running this at 2560x1440 and the image was messed up. https://imgur.com/a/bRiufaz . This is common on tvs because they often neglect non-tv resolutions.
Games would all cause the tv to go into 60hz mode when they ran. In order to fix this, I had to go into the nvidia control panel, change resolution, then scroll away from the "ultra hd..." section to the PC section and select 3840x2160 and 120hz. Note that 144hz is not an available option. However, doing this turned off Dynamic Refresh rate in Windows. Turning Dynamic Refresh rate back on in Windows would then switch Nvidia control panel back to 60hz for games (although it was still running at 120hz in windows). Btw, pressing the settings button on the remote twice will show you what your current refresh rate is.
I notice a fine cross hatch pattern while moving in games that is not visible while standing still. From prior experience, this means that the tv is running in hdr mode even while hdr is disabled and mapping 8bit color channels into 6bits so as to leave 2 bits of space for HDR and then using temporal color dithering to simulate the lost colors.
I also set the hdml signal mode to enhanced (aka hdmi 2.1) like Notadealio recommended but all the problems were unchanged. It was on auto before and I am using a 2.1 cable so i think it detected the correct hdmi mode to begin with.
All in all a lot of compromises with this tv but it's cheap.
My takeaways:
-OS was sluggish out of the box. 144hz worked fine until I did an OS update, then it disabled enhanced HDMI mode and locked it to 60hz. Re-enabling enhanced mode allowed 144hz to work again. I factory-reset the TV and the OS is MUCH faster, but on reset 144hz mode vanished and only allowed me to select 120hz mode. Re-applying OS updates enabled 144hz again.
-Response times are around 4-5ms. This is fairly acceptable for the type of panel the TV has.
-It is a VA panel, so blacks look great and colors are vibrant. It has a prominent color-shift when viewed at an angle, but I've not observed ghosting and the motion blur inherent with VA panels is palatable when gaming (also not the worst I've seen from a VA).
-Freesync works just fine with my Nvidia laptop and my AMD desktop.
-Text is clear and this would would fairly-well for a monitor connected to a PC in my opinion.
-The speakers are not particularly good, but they're serviceable.
-I rather like the remote. It has a button to enable low-latency game mode that is quite handy.
-Beware spamming buttons on the remote. The TV accepts all button presses in a que, so if you experience lag and press a button repeatedly in an attempt to get the TV to comply.. you will be waiting a moment as it cycles through all your inputs in-order. Before I reset the OS the system hanged when I was enabling game mode with the remote and in my frustration I pressed the button around seven times -I was forced to watch the TV enable and disable game mode in slow-motion several times before it would comply (this prompted my factory reset of the thing).
Overall it's stupendous for the money. I wouldn't buy it for anyone older than gen-x due to the software quirks though.
89 Comments
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpfGhWx
Beware he tested it with it plugged into the HDMI 1 port so he isn't testing the TV to it's fullest potential. Go yell at him in the comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlWxVxO
I am very disappointed in the picture quality though. The brightness and contrast are so high by default that everything is washed out. I love the Google TV interface for general use and apps, but the TV settings are atrocious. There are different picture mode presets that do help slightly with picture quality and contrast, but every single one still looks washed out. You have to change it to Personal in order to adjust the typical, individual picture settings. For some reason, maybe I have a defective one, the settings do nothing on my TV. I can adjust them to either extreme, any of them, and zero change on the picture.
This is only the second TV in the house that's not OLED, it's meant to replace my first 4K TV that is 10 years old, but honestly, the picture looks worse than that one. I will probably be returning it and looking for an OLED steal. It's very hard to go back once you've seen OLED.
P.S. I realize this is a 'gaming' TV and I didn't test gaming on it. I just wanted to future proof as much as possible and wanted HDMI 2.1 ports/features, plus a higher refresh rate that also has Dolby Vision/Atmos. It ticks all of the boxes, but the picture quality is below average for normal TV viewing and/or movies.
I am very disappointed in the picture quality though. The brightness and contrast are so high by default that everything is washed out. I love the Google TV interface for general use and apps, but the TV settings are atrocious. There are different picture mode presets that do help slightly with picture quality and contrast, but every single one still looks washed out. You have to change it to Personal in order to adjust the typical, individual picture settings. For some reason, maybe I have a defective one, the settings do nothing on my TV. I can adjust them to either extreme, any of them, and zero change on the picture.
This is only the second TV in the house that's not OLED, it's meant to replace my first 4K TV that is 10 years old, but honestly, the picture looks worse than that one. I will probably be returning it and looking for an OLED steal. It's very hard to go back once you've seen OLED.
P.S. I realize this is a 'gaming' TV and I didn't test gaming on it. I just wanted to future proof as much as possible and wanted HDMI 2.1 ports/features, plus a higher refresh rate that also has Dolby Vision/Atmos. It ticks all of the boxes, but the picture quality is below average for normal TV viewing and/or movies.
Yeah I find the picture settings lacking. I don't have an Oled to compare, so I can't tell the difference. I do see washed colors at different viewing angles, so make sure you are viewing the TV at around center. The viewing angles are really bad. Viewing at a slight side angle, higher, or lower from center really messes with the colors on screen.
My overall impression, assuming everything actually worked, is that this TV is specifically aimed at gamers where performance is more important than image quality. Which is good, I just bought it to be more future proof having HDMI 2.1 and at least 120Hz refresh rate.
I ended up moving my Gaming OLED (rarely used) to where this was to go. There is no substitute for OLED, period. The difference is astonishing, especially at smaller screen sizes.
Save up and get an OLED, you will never look back!
Ethernet port; I'm afraid this is not a gigabit port. I plugged it up and was only getting 97Mbps. The TV can do better than that on its wifi.
Bluetooth; I was able to pair an Xbox controller via Bluetooth, and play on the TV via the steam link app without much issue. I then paired some Bluetooth headphones (shokz open run). It worked and played fine except a bit of audio lag. Netflix was the worst. Fandango at home and Prime Video weren't too bad. I did notice a bit of audio lag on input 4 where my Xbox series X plugged in.
Retroarch worked okay, but was a bit fiddly. You can't really just plug in a USB drive with roms. I had to plug in an old 32gb card, and format it to internal storage. I then used "CX file explorer" to make a new folder called roms on it. I plugged in a separate USB drive to transfer roms onto the TV USB stick. The TV can play up to a bit of N64, but I would stay under N64.
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The 4k and 144hz is a rare feature for a TV of this size and price, but so is Google TV/Bluetooth remote/VVR. The speakers aren't terrible for this small tv either. Another rare treat for a TV is the generous amount of USB ports, 1 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0. I had an extra 32gb drive I put into a USB 2.0 port expanding the storage from 16gb to an additional 32gb. After formatting it to an internal drive I put a bunch of roms on it, and downloaded retroarch. It won't quite do N64, but everything else under that was fine.
Since the unit has Bluetooth you can hook up a Xbox controller or you can probably pair it with headphones for private listening as well. I didn't need a TV when I bought this, but with all the features I am pleased with my purchase!
I am very disappointed in the picture quality though. The brightness and contrast are so high by default that everything is washed out. I love the Google TV interface for general use and apps, but the TV settings are atrocious. There are different picture mode presets that do help slightly with picture quality and contrast, but every single one still looks washed out. You have to change it to Personal in order to adjust the typical, individual picture settings. For some reason, maybe I have a defective one, the settings do nothing on my TV. I can adjust them to either extreme, any of them, and zero change on the picture.
This is only the second TV in the house that's not OLED, it's meant to replace my first 4K TV that is 10 years old, but honestly, the picture looks worse than that one. I will probably be returning it and looking for an OLED steal. It's very hard to go back once you've seen OLED.
P.S. I realize this is a 'gaming' TV and I didn't test gaming on it. I just wanted to future proof as much as possible and wanted HDMI 2.1 ports/features, plus a higher refresh rate that also has Dolby Vision/Atmos. It ticks all of the boxes, but the picture quality is below average for normal TV viewing and/or movies.
2) Is your GPU HDMI 2.1 capable?
3) You using an HDMI 2.1 cable? Preferably one that is Ultra-High speed certified
Some blacks are purple [compared to my 2nd monitor (IPS) and iphone (OLED].
Color adjustments can only be performed through the "Personal" preset.
And the presets are only available if you switch the HDMI Mode to Video (it defaults to PC).
I'll likely be returning.
I received my Philips TV today but won't be able to test it for a while so I can't comment on the actual picture quality and brightness so take my response with a grain of salt.
This TV is too glossy to use as a monitor. Any little light in the room shows on the screen terribly. Do you experience this too? I am returning it as it is terrible.
Not the brightest but gets the job done for the price.
This one will suffice until QD-OLED in the 40" range is available.
This TV is too glossy to use as a monitor. Any little light in the room shows on the screen terribly. Do you experience this too? I am returning it as it is terrible.
Unfortunately my panel is flashing black randomly even while in the setup mode so it has to go back and since they are out of stock it looks like I won't be getting another one.