- Feb 14, 2004
- 49,983
- 6,295
- 136
$999 shipped on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/TCL-65US5800-65-Inch-Ultra-Smart/dp/B01BGC39JY/
Afaik, this is the only 65" 4K Roku TV currently on the market (as of 15-NOV-2016). Just got the TCL in today (free shipping via scheduled freight delivery, not 2-day Prime) & spent the evening playing with it. Initial thoughts:
Pros:
1. Amazing PQ. 4K Youtube demos are glorious...it's like looking through a window in certain shots. Very happy with the price I paid vs. an OLED. Coming from my beloved Mitsi DLP (extremely filmic PQ), it is actually pretty close in quality (I'd say 90-95% as good) & definitely beats it on well-shot 4K content.
2. FAST wake-from-off. My 43" Insignia 4K Roku TV takes a short time to boot up. I think this must keep the Roku running in the background somehow, or else use a faster SSD or something. Turns on super fast! Edit: From what I've read, the Roku portion stays awake for 15 minutes. Even after that period, it is faster than my Insignia 4K Roku TV to wake up.
3. GUI & loading of stuff like Netflix & Youtube is zippier than my Roku 3. Even 4K content loads as fast as the Roku 3 can load 1080p content, very nice!
4. Lower-res content is surprisingly good. My room is 13x19' & is oddly laid out, with the TV in the corner & a sectional opposite it, so I probably sit about 15' feet away (sounds far, but it's really not). 65" is just the right size for that layout. From that distance, the PQ is great. I watched an old movie (Heavyweights, shot on film) on Netflix & it looked just fine. Watched some TV, 1080p & 4K Netflix, Youtube stuff, Wii U, everything looked great!
5. Solid legs & reasonably thin bezel. Simple, classy design. Won't win any design awards as it's basically just a big, non-intruding panel. Only catch for me is my corner stand is literally an inch too short width-wide, so the front legs are only halfway on haha. Also, 2-prong power, which is nice.
Meh:
1. Slightly glossy screen. Not terrible, but it helps if I turn off the floor lamps behind me. At least it's not a sheet of glass like OLED, although Denithor mentioned in another thread that his curved OLED model significantly reduces glare, so while I'm not a fan of curved (although it's not bad on 65"+ models), that might be worth looking into in the future.
2. No Wiimote strap on the bottom (like my previous Roku remotes). I bought an extra Tile tracker specifically for the remote because it always disappears (kids). I'll have to rig something up now. Fortunately, Roku has a nice smartphone app for backup. The upgraded Roku players do have a remote-finder, which is handy, but this does not.
3. Speaking of the remote, no headphone jack (nice if you have a family & you watch late at night or early in the morning or while working out without having to blare the onboard speakers), although the smartphone app now lets you stream to headphones plugged into your phone, so it's not a dealbreaker. Also, I didn't realize that the remote was going to be IR, not RF. Love love love the RF remote & not having to point it at anything. Not a huge deal that it's IR because it's a TV & not a projector, but would have been nice. Suppose it's good if you want to replace it with a Harmony down the road. iirc, the nicer UP130 TCL televisions have the enhanced remote (in fact, I think that's the main difference, the remotes), but they don't offer that in a 65" size. If it had had the headphone jack AND the remote finder, I definitely would have shelled out some extra for it.
4. Overpriced, in light of all of the Black November deals. My brother got a 65" Vizio 4K TV for $598 from Sam's Club on a one-day sale the other day. $400 cheaper is not exactly pocket change...however, having the Roku integrated is too nice to pass up for my family & was worth the extra cost. They let you label each HDMI input with what's connected & all of the inputs show up as simple, remote-clickable channels. Super super super easy. So, you pay for convenience.
5. Have had an audio glitch twice (across all channels & inputs) where the sound would bounce in & out, like a stutter. A quick reboot fixed it. Annoying to have to do tho (keeping the box the TV shipped in for a couple weeks just in case there's any long-term goofy issues). Edit: updated the OS with another update, 7.2 to 7.5 this time, we'll see how that fares. Edit2: Youtube has frozen up twice on me since the update (no control response), first time only a power button on the remote would respond, second time the IR receiver wouldn't even blink & wouldn't response to the power button on the remote, had to get up & turn off the TV manually. Thought the batteries on the remote might be dead, but the remote turned the TV back on right away. Edit3: Happened again, this time the IR receiver would flicker, but it did nothing. Power button on the TV didn't respond either, had to physically yank the power plug. Narrowed it down to Youtube 4K...that's what causes it freeze up...but not always.
6. The soap opera effect is very minimal, but I haven't found a way to disable it. TCL advertises the set as having a 60Hz native refresh rate with a 120Hz clear motion index (effective). The only two times I've seen it are when the camera is set to multiple people, especially torso & headshots, and when there are horizontal landscape sweeps. It's not as bad as true auto-motion sets, but it is noticeable, but only at certain times. I'm very sensitive to this effect (absolutely hate it); have not found a way to disable it at all. Fortunately it's not bad on this set & rarely happens, but still...would be nice to have an "off" switch.
7. My color settings on say Netflix only kick on when I start playing the movie...the menus are brighter white & I have more warmth setup in the color parameters; it's very noticeable when it clicks over while playing a movie after selecting it from the Netflix menu screen. It's like applying an Instagram filter. Also, those settings don't seem to translate to the other inputs (still learning how the system works, so there may be a universal-apply mode, although it wouldn't be a bad thing to have it per-input as say a console would probably need different settings than streaming movies).
Cons:
1. Still tweaking settings, but it struggles with black levels in certain areas, particularly hair, and certain (but not all) shadowed areas. It can reproduce dark skin tones just fine though. Grays, dark grays, and various black levels are good. I'll have to watch more content, especially 4K content, to see what's up. I think part of it is that it's fairly bright, but not super bright of a TV, which is fine for my living room, since I get some light, but not a ton of light, although putting it on the Brighter setting burns my retinas (it's like a giant flashlight in the dark, lol) & increasing the brightness definitely washes out the contrast, so again...still tweaking the settings. The default ones on RTings are pretty decent. Note that the RTings review says that it's not a very bright TV, but I think it's fine. Bright enough to hurt my eyes in the dark at max brightness setting!
2. Horrifically bad speakers. They literally sound like the speakers on my iPhone. Crap volume & tons of distortion. Huge disappointment coming from the 43" & 55" 4K Insignia Roku TV's, which have hands-down the best built-in TV speakers I've ever heard, by far (too bad they don't sell a 65"!). One review on Amazon I read said it has a remote-controllable (hallelujah, I didn't need yet another remote!) 3.5mm aux-out, so I can hook up my ancient-but-awesome Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers to improve the sound & add some bass. Disappointing as we just use this as our "TV" TV (we have a separate projector & surround-sound system for movies), but from the sound of it, at least I can make the sound work with the existing Roku remote. Edit: Yes, 3.5mm output jack exists (shows up as a headphone jack on the OSD when you change the volume); it does mute the onboard speakers & does allow level control via the Roku remote, so I'm happy now...great picture & now great sound with my awesome 2.1 Promedias!
This is replacing my 60" Mitsubishi 1080p DLP, which I dearly loved, but it needed a fairly expensive new light engine (even after replacing the bulb) due to intermittent flicker. It's by far the most money I've ever personally spent on a television set. I am very picky about picture quality (even moreso than audio quality), but with a 4K set, you get 4 times as many pixels vs. an equivalent-size 1080p set, so even on non-brand-name sets like TCL, you still get a pretty dang nice picture because there's more to work with.
Would I recommend this set? Depends. They've had a nice 65" 4K LG going for $800 & had that Vizio on sale the other day for $600. If you're not stuck on specifically having Roku integrated into the TV, then there are much better deals to be had. Plus you can always just buy a separate Roku player & then you're not hosed if anything happens to the onboard unit; that's a risk with smart TV's. My family is trained on the Roku interface & having it integrated, with specially-named channels (with icons for consoles, cable TV, etc.) for inputs, makes all the difference & was definitely worth the cost for me. I suspect that will not be the case for the majority of people. I feel like this would be better-positioned at like $750...you can buy a Hitachi or Sceptre screen (neither smart-enabled) for $599 from Walmart right now & add on a 4K Roku for $100 more, so you'd end up with a Roku-enabled screen of the same size & resolution for $700, which is still $300 cheaper than the TCL, so I think they have some room to drop the price for sure. I think Sharp or Hitachi or whoever is coming out with a competing 65" 4K Roku TV at some point, so maybe we'll see that happen sooner rather than later.
RTings has a review for the 55" version here:
http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl/us5800
Their recommend settings are here:
http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl/us5800/settings
Should be pretty much the same for the 65" version. Anyway, in short, I am very happy with mine. I'll slap my stellar computer speakers on it tomorrow to solve the audio problem & that should do the trick for me!
TL;DR: Nice set if you absolutely need a Roku built-in (note that the next size down, 55" 4K, can be had for literally half the price). I give it 4 out of 5 stars, knocking off one star for the terrible laptop-style speakers that distort at any reasonable listening volume (update: aux output works with computer speakers via remote control, so you can easily fix the sound with a decent 2.1 PC speaker setup).
https://www.amazon.com/TCL-65US5800-65-Inch-Ultra-Smart/dp/B01BGC39JY/
Afaik, this is the only 65" 4K Roku TV currently on the market (as of 15-NOV-2016). Just got the TCL in today (free shipping via scheduled freight delivery, not 2-day Prime) & spent the evening playing with it. Initial thoughts:
Pros:
1. Amazing PQ. 4K Youtube demos are glorious...it's like looking through a window in certain shots. Very happy with the price I paid vs. an OLED. Coming from my beloved Mitsi DLP (extremely filmic PQ), it is actually pretty close in quality (I'd say 90-95% as good) & definitely beats it on well-shot 4K content.
2. FAST wake-from-off. My 43" Insignia 4K Roku TV takes a short time to boot up. I think this must keep the Roku running in the background somehow, or else use a faster SSD or something. Turns on super fast! Edit: From what I've read, the Roku portion stays awake for 15 minutes. Even after that period, it is faster than my Insignia 4K Roku TV to wake up.
3. GUI & loading of stuff like Netflix & Youtube is zippier than my Roku 3. Even 4K content loads as fast as the Roku 3 can load 1080p content, very nice!
4. Lower-res content is surprisingly good. My room is 13x19' & is oddly laid out, with the TV in the corner & a sectional opposite it, so I probably sit about 15' feet away (sounds far, but it's really not). 65" is just the right size for that layout. From that distance, the PQ is great. I watched an old movie (Heavyweights, shot on film) on Netflix & it looked just fine. Watched some TV, 1080p & 4K Netflix, Youtube stuff, Wii U, everything looked great!
5. Solid legs & reasonably thin bezel. Simple, classy design. Won't win any design awards as it's basically just a big, non-intruding panel. Only catch for me is my corner stand is literally an inch too short width-wide, so the front legs are only halfway on haha. Also, 2-prong power, which is nice.
Meh:
1. Slightly glossy screen. Not terrible, but it helps if I turn off the floor lamps behind me. At least it's not a sheet of glass like OLED, although Denithor mentioned in another thread that his curved OLED model significantly reduces glare, so while I'm not a fan of curved (although it's not bad on 65"+ models), that might be worth looking into in the future.
2. No Wiimote strap on the bottom (like my previous Roku remotes). I bought an extra Tile tracker specifically for the remote because it always disappears (kids). I'll have to rig something up now. Fortunately, Roku has a nice smartphone app for backup. The upgraded Roku players do have a remote-finder, which is handy, but this does not.
3. Speaking of the remote, no headphone jack (nice if you have a family & you watch late at night or early in the morning or while working out without having to blare the onboard speakers), although the smartphone app now lets you stream to headphones plugged into your phone, so it's not a dealbreaker. Also, I didn't realize that the remote was going to be IR, not RF. Love love love the RF remote & not having to point it at anything. Not a huge deal that it's IR because it's a TV & not a projector, but would have been nice. Suppose it's good if you want to replace it with a Harmony down the road. iirc, the nicer UP130 TCL televisions have the enhanced remote (in fact, I think that's the main difference, the remotes), but they don't offer that in a 65" size. If it had had the headphone jack AND the remote finder, I definitely would have shelled out some extra for it.
4. Overpriced, in light of all of the Black November deals. My brother got a 65" Vizio 4K TV for $598 from Sam's Club on a one-day sale the other day. $400 cheaper is not exactly pocket change...however, having the Roku integrated is too nice to pass up for my family & was worth the extra cost. They let you label each HDMI input with what's connected & all of the inputs show up as simple, remote-clickable channels. Super super super easy. So, you pay for convenience.
5. Have had an audio glitch twice (across all channels & inputs) where the sound would bounce in & out, like a stutter. A quick reboot fixed it. Annoying to have to do tho (keeping the box the TV shipped in for a couple weeks just in case there's any long-term goofy issues). Edit: updated the OS with another update, 7.2 to 7.5 this time, we'll see how that fares. Edit2: Youtube has frozen up twice on me since the update (no control response), first time only a power button on the remote would respond, second time the IR receiver wouldn't even blink & wouldn't response to the power button on the remote, had to get up & turn off the TV manually. Thought the batteries on the remote might be dead, but the remote turned the TV back on right away. Edit3: Happened again, this time the IR receiver would flicker, but it did nothing. Power button on the TV didn't respond either, had to physically yank the power plug. Narrowed it down to Youtube 4K...that's what causes it freeze up...but not always.
6. The soap opera effect is very minimal, but I haven't found a way to disable it. TCL advertises the set as having a 60Hz native refresh rate with a 120Hz clear motion index (effective). The only two times I've seen it are when the camera is set to multiple people, especially torso & headshots, and when there are horizontal landscape sweeps. It's not as bad as true auto-motion sets, but it is noticeable, but only at certain times. I'm very sensitive to this effect (absolutely hate it); have not found a way to disable it at all. Fortunately it's not bad on this set & rarely happens, but still...would be nice to have an "off" switch.
7. My color settings on say Netflix only kick on when I start playing the movie...the menus are brighter white & I have more warmth setup in the color parameters; it's very noticeable when it clicks over while playing a movie after selecting it from the Netflix menu screen. It's like applying an Instagram filter. Also, those settings don't seem to translate to the other inputs (still learning how the system works, so there may be a universal-apply mode, although it wouldn't be a bad thing to have it per-input as say a console would probably need different settings than streaming movies).
Cons:
1. Still tweaking settings, but it struggles with black levels in certain areas, particularly hair, and certain (but not all) shadowed areas. It can reproduce dark skin tones just fine though. Grays, dark grays, and various black levels are good. I'll have to watch more content, especially 4K content, to see what's up. I think part of it is that it's fairly bright, but not super bright of a TV, which is fine for my living room, since I get some light, but not a ton of light, although putting it on the Brighter setting burns my retinas (it's like a giant flashlight in the dark, lol) & increasing the brightness definitely washes out the contrast, so again...still tweaking the settings. The default ones on RTings are pretty decent. Note that the RTings review says that it's not a very bright TV, but I think it's fine. Bright enough to hurt my eyes in the dark at max brightness setting!
2. Horrifically bad speakers. They literally sound like the speakers on my iPhone. Crap volume & tons of distortion. Huge disappointment coming from the 43" & 55" 4K Insignia Roku TV's, which have hands-down the best built-in TV speakers I've ever heard, by far (too bad they don't sell a 65"!). One review on Amazon I read said it has a remote-controllable (hallelujah, I didn't need yet another remote!) 3.5mm aux-out, so I can hook up my ancient-but-awesome Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers to improve the sound & add some bass. Disappointing as we just use this as our "TV" TV (we have a separate projector & surround-sound system for movies), but from the sound of it, at least I can make the sound work with the existing Roku remote. Edit: Yes, 3.5mm output jack exists (shows up as a headphone jack on the OSD when you change the volume); it does mute the onboard speakers & does allow level control via the Roku remote, so I'm happy now...great picture & now great sound with my awesome 2.1 Promedias!
This is replacing my 60" Mitsubishi 1080p DLP, which I dearly loved, but it needed a fairly expensive new light engine (even after replacing the bulb) due to intermittent flicker. It's by far the most money I've ever personally spent on a television set. I am very picky about picture quality (even moreso than audio quality), but with a 4K set, you get 4 times as many pixels vs. an equivalent-size 1080p set, so even on non-brand-name sets like TCL, you still get a pretty dang nice picture because there's more to work with.
Would I recommend this set? Depends. They've had a nice 65" 4K LG going for $800 & had that Vizio on sale the other day for $600. If you're not stuck on specifically having Roku integrated into the TV, then there are much better deals to be had. Plus you can always just buy a separate Roku player & then you're not hosed if anything happens to the onboard unit; that's a risk with smart TV's. My family is trained on the Roku interface & having it integrated, with specially-named channels (with icons for consoles, cable TV, etc.) for inputs, makes all the difference & was definitely worth the cost for me. I suspect that will not be the case for the majority of people. I feel like this would be better-positioned at like $750...you can buy a Hitachi or Sceptre screen (neither smart-enabled) for $599 from Walmart right now & add on a 4K Roku for $100 more, so you'd end up with a Roku-enabled screen of the same size & resolution for $700, which is still $300 cheaper than the TCL, so I think they have some room to drop the price for sure. I think Sharp or Hitachi or whoever is coming out with a competing 65" 4K Roku TV at some point, so maybe we'll see that happen sooner rather than later.
RTings has a review for the 55" version here:
http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl/us5800
Their recommend settings are here:
http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl/us5800/settings
Should be pretty much the same for the 65" version. Anyway, in short, I am very happy with mine. I'll slap my stellar computer speakers on it tomorrow to solve the audio problem & that should do the trick for me!
TL;DR: Nice set if you absolutely need a Roku built-in (note that the next size down, 55" 4K, can be had for literally half the price). I give it 4 out of 5 stars, knocking off one star for the terrible laptop-style speakers that distort at any reasonable listening volume (update: aux output works with computer speakers via remote control, so you can easily fix the sound with a decent 2.1 PC speaker setup).
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