Keep in mind, I won't be using the smart apps on the TV so I don't care about the software being slow or anything like that. I use an Amazon Fire Cube for all the streaming stuff.
I know there are only a few manufacturers of the panels in the world, but there are still grades.
I just saw how cheap Amazon has the TCL TVs on sale, so it's giving me ideas of replacing the 55" in the living room with a 65" or even a 75" if I can arrange everything to fit.
As someone that deals with TVs all day I think of them as appliances. Can you watch TV on it? That's good enough for me. Do have some issues with TCL and other small brands not working with cable remotes.
I got one from costco on black friday last year. Picture works well, .. speakers are horrible. I paired it with a soundbar and it's a nice upgrade from my decades old toshiba.
Only problem I have is the motortrend app works like poo on it.. crashes all the time. eveyrhting else is flawless.
I read something recently that actually said the TCL 6 series was a great television- I believe they're getting their QLED panels from samsung- who pretty much owns the market. I'd buy one.
I bought a TCL years ago. Never used the speakers on it and it's not smart - I have other things plugged into it that are better at sound and better at smart. It's been 100% reliable and had good picture for the money at the time.
I have a TCL with built in Roku that I bought 3ish years ago, and I'm mostly happy with it. The speakers aren't great, but are good enough for the sports and general tv watching that I do with the occasional movie thrown in. The picture is pretty good most of the time, but the darks are a weakness. Also, there is something about TCL that doesn't work with most universal remotes like cable companies use these days, so we have to use the TCL remote to turn on and off and volume, with the cable box remote for changing channels, etc.
For the $250 I spent on my 55 inch, I have no complaints.
They have a pretty good reputation among TV nerds. They are generally cited as the best values in the industry. You can get better quality, but not for what they charge. There is a bit of a "panel lottery" aspect to them, though. Some panels are better than others, and you won't know if you have a good one until you get it home and try it. So, buying from a place that's easy to return it would be a desirable thing.
We have one. Had it 2 years, no complaints. Use a few of the apps on it, that we thought we wouldn't use.
collinskl1 said:I have a TCL with built in Roku that I bought 3ish years ago, and I'm mostly happy with it. The speakers aren't great, but are good enough for the sports and general tv watching that I do with the occasional movie thrown in. The picture is pretty good most of the time, but the darks are a weakness. Also, there is something about TCL that doesn't work with most universal remotes like cable companies use these days, so we have to use the TCL remote to turn on and off and volume, with the cable box remote for changing channels, etc.
n the remote nFor the $250 I spent on my 55 inch, I have no complaints.
I've had good luck googling "X brand TV X cable company remote code." A lot of codes aren't listed in instructions but are in support forums.
Mndsm said:I read something recently that actually said the TCL 6 series was a great television- I believe they're getting their QLED panels from samsung- who pretty much owns the market. I'd buy one.
Yeah, looks like the ones on sale are the lower end ones, not the 6 series. The 6 series are quite a bit more. Not that a few hundred more for a TV is a ton, but % wise it's a pretty big step.
$749 vs $1199 for a 75" for example.
z31maniac said:Mndsm said:I read something recently that actually said the TCL 6 series was a great television- I believe they're getting their QLED panels from samsung- who pretty much owns the market. I'd buy one.
Yeah, looks like the ones on sale are the lower end ones, not the 6 series. The 6 series are quite a bit more. Not that a few hundred more for a TV is a ton, but % wise it's a pretty big step.
$749 vs $1199 for a 75" for example.
1200$ for a 75" doesn't sound like a super bad deal to me, but- I'm a media whore. I like big screens and loud speakers. If you just need a basic panel, I can see where you'd want to not spend that dough and just go for max real estate.
We've had a 42" in our bedroom for three years. I wouldn't use it as my primary TV but we've been pleased with the value for the money.
As for the earlier comment about the Motortrend app crashing on it, yep I've had that happen both on the TCL and on my FireTV so I suspect it's the apps stability problems not the TV's fault.
collinskl1 said:Also, there is something about TCL that doesn't work with most universal remotes like cable companies use these days
Cable boxes don't work with HDMI-CEC?
I haven't had a need for a universal remote in a decade because everything can control everything else through HDMI now.
I have a 65 inch 4 series, the super cheap one with the Roku OS on it, for the basement. Speakers are E36 M3 but I really can't complain about the picture at all. I play a lot of video games on it and watch movies when everyone is sleeping.
I wouldn't hesitate to buy a 6 series TCL.
I love my TCL RokuTV - but I've been all in on Roku since they first came out.
In reply to The0retical (Forum Supporter) :
I have the 65" 6-series- bought it last year based on CNET's review of best TVs:
https://www.cnet.com/news/best-tv-in-2020/
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/tcl-65r625-2019-roku-tv-review/
Definitely a great TV for the money- wouldn't hesitate to buy it again. Quite a bright display too, much brighter than my LG OLED, so works well if you have a darker space. My .02 is spring for nothing less than the 6-series
I've had a TCL/roku 55" for I think going on 3 years now. Speakers aren't great, but for how cheap a half decent sound bar that can out perform basically any built in speakers is, that's not much of a consideration. The first one I got had some screen issues out of the box, but I'm 98% sure that was shipping damage. The replacement has been flawless the whole time.
I've got an older roku equipped TCL 55" and I love it. Speakers are adequate on mine. It doesn't have HDR, but that doesn't bother me.
Huh, never heard of TCL other than their advice to not go chasin' waterfalls.
In reply to T.J. :
Thanks. Now I'll have that in my head for the rest of the day.
T.J. said:Huh, never heard of TCL other than their advice to not go chasin' waterfalls.
that's TLC... 
and i've got a couple 49" 4k with Roku and like them for picture quality/weight/price, as others have said, best bang for your buck, but I'd go nicer for my main.
Speakers aren't a concern as I have everything running through the a big Polk 3.1 setup in the living room that will rattle the house.
Also, I just realized I accidentally put this in GRM instead of Off-Topic. Admin/mod please feel free to move to the appropriate sub forum.
My bad!
I have a 55" TCL Roku TV that I bought during that Amazon Prime Day sale thing last July. It was something like just under $350 with free shipping and included a TCL sound bar.
My fiance and I had been mostly looking for an excuse to move the 55" Samsung SmartTV I bought on black Friday in 2014 from the family room to the master bedroom to replace a POS 32" Vizio flatscreen. On a side note, if you don't go with TCL, at least stay away from Vizio...
I can really only compare it to the Samsung it replaced, but here goes:
Pros:
-I've been a big fan of Roku stuff for a long time, so finally having it built into the TV and not taking up an HDMI port was huge bonus for me
-Speaking of HDMI ports, the TCL has 3, while the Samsung only had 2. They're also oriented better going in sideways flush with the back of the TV stacked on top of one another the long way but spaced out so it's easy to figure out what's what. While the Samsung's are the opposite, going straight into the back on the TV and crammed right next to each other, requiring more clearance from the wall and more hassle to identify, plug or unplug cables
-I'm certainly not a trained eye, but the picture doesn't seem any different
Cons:
-Sounds quality from just the TV is noticeably not as great as the Samsung and doesn't go nearly as loud. The TCL soundbar corrects this, but brings some frustrations as far as using it, which I'll cover next...
-The soundbar has a zillion different ways to input the sound from the TV. Without going into it's menu, the type of input is only indicated by the color of a little LED light on the front of it. It's easy (especially for my fiance...) to forget the color for the input you use.
-Now I bet your asking why not just leave it on the input you use? That's because despite having it's own remote with a power button and volume control, the sound bar automatically comes on when you turn on the TV. If you shut it off (using it's own remote), it just turns itself back on if you change the channel or something with a different remote. The sound bar automatically integrates its controls into our Comcast cable remote where it uses the up and down arrows used for cable menus for it's volume. If you scroll up on that remote enough while surfing the guide, the sound bar will keep getting louder. I spent a whole bunch of time when we hooked it up trying to figure out ways around this without success. We just switch to an unused input and change to the right one when we want to use it. Hence why we need to remember that LED color. Would be a lot better if they gave you the option to turn on automatically or integrate with other remotes instead of defaulting to it.
-Remotes are another issue. I like using the Roku remote that came with the TV because I'm so used to it as it's just like older Roku remotes, but obviously we can't use that for cable so we end up having three: The TV Roku remote, the Cable remote and the TCL soundbar remote. I can usually only find 2 of them and sometimes hit power or pause on the wrong one. That said, it probably wouldn't be an issue for most people since other than theNetflix/Hulu/etc. buttons, the Roku remotes functions can easily be put on the cable or another remote.
Despite all that, I'm pretty happy with it. Especially for as little as I paid.
My FIL bought one from Costco for use in a vacation home. It went back to costco after the week. It kept restarting itself the entire week if it was on for more than an hour or so.
I have a TCL 60" from a couple of years ago. Roku, 4k, HDR, multizone dimming, etc. The picture is fantastic, for the money I don't think it can be beat. At the time the only TVs that were more impressive to my eye were the pricey OLEDs.
I also got to find out that they stand by their warranty. Mine had to be repaired or replaced three times during the warranty period, but they took care of it quickly with no hassles. It's been a year or three since the last replacement and it hasn't given me any more issues.
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