I think people on here are failing to see the deal with this and just want to be a snob about 10bit

Is £439 for a 49 inch 4k TV with HDR capability, Ambilight and Andriod TV a very good dead? - Yes

Is it going to compare to a 10bit TV thats going to cost you at the very least 3 times the price - No

Also the people saying "its getting bad reviews on AV forums" or "its not a great 4k TV" I do wonder if thats just what you've been told and you haven't actually looked at it with your own eyes. The reviews and people you are listening to are just snobs and experts, I guarantee 99.9% of you out there wont be able to tell the difference between this and a high end 4k tv.

I had this set and I had to return it due to backlighting issues and poor black levels. Pity really as it's a great looking set and Ambilight is amazing.This is a HDR set but it's only rated at 350 nits.My search for an affordable 4k HDR set will continue and I will stick with my 51" Samsung plasma for now.

I would also like to sign up to your "search for an affordable 4K HDR set" newsletter. :man:

This is just another example of rebranded product made to be sold on constant "promotion" at one place(Argos)...£20 up or down but always around this price. Lots of returns to Argos due to image retention and backlight issue just shows what it's really worth...

Down to £450

New firmware available here: http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?ctn=49PUS6401/12&slg=EN&scy=GB

Release notes: http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/cpcontent.pl?ctn=49PUS6401/12&dct=FUS&did=ENG&reldct=FHI&scy=GB&slg=ENG

Good to see Philips coming out with frequent updates!

Picked up this TV today and I can see a light greyish horizontal line on the tv which keeps moving up and down.
Any suggestions?

No problem

Sorry I never looked at the pictures , my bad..

Thanks maye :smiley:
Sorry

Does it not show you this in the photos on the argos Web page? I've just looked 63cm?

Can any one with 49" , Let me know the distance between two legs (stand)?
I need to check whether or not the 49 incher will be suitable for my tv stand or not

Thanks in advance

Anyone got pics or videos of ps4 pro running on this tv

Probably supported as it can process a 10bit HDR picture but won't perform as well as a real 10bit screen.

Cheapest decent 10 bit screen this size is almost double this price.

No you need a Premium UHD certified set for proper HDR.

Does this support ps4 pro hdr fully any shots

Which side load launcher do you recommend.

Has anyone tried any 4K YouTube videos on this?

As I've already said. Download latest firmware from philips website and update TV from USB . Then you can go into options and enable unknown soucres .

Pointless thought as all the missing apps when you load them on TV use a phone interface so can't really navigate with w controller .

And All4 the screen goes upside down . You also need side load launcher to see the icons

From what I have read on xda developer it's disabled and there's not a lot of hope for root.

Mines not laggy.... I just can't find the unknown sources option for itv and 4/5 media players.

I got the 55 delivered yesterday. This will is an upgrade from a 5 year old 32" HD telly.

Massive upgrade for me. Screen is great in comparison. I love ambilight.

Sound quality was not great. I had to use my soundbar - ARC works fine.

Not so good: I think the tv is a bit underpowered to run android tv. Navigating menus and TV guide don't feel very snappy. Netflix and amazon were a bit juddery until I reenabled motion smoothing. Netflix and amazon were both very laggy until i unplugged the TV and rebooted it. I assume it's because something was running in the background.

Overall I'm happy with it so far but a bit worried that the underspeced android tv will only feel 1000 times worse in 5+ years time.

Anyone know if SkyGo will run on this under Android ?

I think the codes may have expired, as the TV is now £649 and it looks like they're doing the "Spend £100, get a £10 voucher" promo now.

Thanks but doesn't work unfortunately. Anyone else have a code that works please?

I have august software, but no unknown sources option...itis supposed to be under android settings right. Will ITV then be on play store?

I got the 55 yesterday. All good, but game mode looks shocking on my xbox one, its washed out and has a yellow tinge. Does anyone have any settings for this mode??

Just to put this out there. Out of the box this thing has no access to things like ITV Hub and All4, you also can't side load apk because the option for unknown sources is missing . If you search for an update on the TV it won't find anything and the sw out of the box was from April .

Go to philips website and download latest update on there dated August. Put this on USB and update your TV.

You can now turn on install from unknown sources from settings . Seems philips disabled it on purpose and it upset a lot of people so they added it back in

I got the 55 yesterday. All good, but game mode looks shocking on my xbox one, its washed out and has a yellow tinge. Does anyone have any settings for this mode??

55" has now gone to £650

I just bought the 55" yesterday, I think I used TV10.

Has TVS10 expired? Really wanted to go for the 55 inch!

One review i saw said out of the box it was superb no calibration or tweeking required even with specialist equipment they could not improve it's standard setting that's unusual these days normally fine tuning is always required even with very expensive sets,i'm pretty sure i read set the screen hue to warm and the colour to 60 and thats it.

Quick update. TV came today, very impressed for the money! Android TV is really smooth , black levels on TV are only average but nothing terrible. I watched a HDR demo and thought it looked fantastic, this set is pretty poor for HDR apparently so the real 10 bit must look out of this world as it really impressed me.

Overall I'm very happy with the picture and casual watchers of TV who aren't picture experts won't have anything to grumble about.

Overall a very good entry level set

Ordered the 55 for £540, Really wanted to hold on for a 10bit, but with my current Plasma being faulty and the cheapest decent 10 bit £1200 thought it was worth a go.

Its a shame my 51" Sammy plasma developed a fault or i would stick with it.

I know im not getting a top spec TV but its literally entry level price, I was tempted with the Hisense 55M3300 but the built in Freesat and ambilight swung it to Phillips.

No the 55 is 8 bit,it does get decent reviews so for the money it's a pretty good buy.

I'm interested in this . Yes it might not be as good as a 1k Sammy but this half the cost, fair compromise .

Does anyone know if the 55 is 10bit,?

Haha, good point :smiley: Sorry, maybe I was rude, I did mean use google was the easiest option to find out.

I wouldn't say it's a simple option...... much easier to buy the original Philips with Ambilight.

Before you post something about you have never seen, just do some research (via google - simple option).
And here is the link
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Ambilight-with-Hyperion-Works-with-HDMIAV-Sour/

Middle Age Men and their 'Black Levels' :smile:

Review here ... https://www.avforums.com/review/philips-6501-49pus6501-uhd-4k-hdr-tv-review.12949

Still can't decide whether to buy the 55" of this, blow £1800 on an 8000 series Samsung or just wait until the 2017 TVs get released lol.

For gaming this seems like the best value for money unless you want to spend £1500 (I have been researching 4K sets a lot and most fall down when it comes to input lag)

Lol that's more like it lo shame about the tv

I got sorted with a to of gumtre, not brand new but will do me
Sony 49x8309c 4K android, with 5player and all
3 months old 350£

Over lan, installed kodi and my blurry rips that play fine using a shield tv stop and start, could be my lan cable but I have just taken back and got the 49" Sony x7005, they refunded £479 back to my card which was the price without the extra 10% off :smiley: loving the Sony so far.

Ah. Thanks. Did you have a 4 year TV extended warranty with them for them to give you full refund?

So how do you work that out?

Specious/deceptive -- it's the square footage that counts.

It would be nice to know how you are playing them
Is plex over a wifi
Or a slow USB stick
Or even blue ray


It would be nice to know if it's the tv is the problem or the setup
Just making things easier for the rest of us who can't see the setup

I'm a cord cutter as well and so want to like this tv, I tried to play a 4k click of Star Wars battle front Death Star and the tv crashed, displayed 2 screens and I had to power off, does this every time I try

​I am a cord cutter and don't have any of these issues. I am using an ethernet cable instead of WiFi. Try that as it could be an issue with the network?

I picked up mine yesterday evening and really loving it so far! Perfect to watch Black Mirror in UHD which launched yesterday!

I'm thinking about taking it back, can't get a smooth picture even trying different motion settings, my shield tv plays everything fluidly but android on this nothing is impressing me, even plex takes ages to start playing and judders, thinking about paying extra and getting a Sony as really like android tv.

cost per inch

43" £341.10 = £7.93 per inch
49" £431.10 = £8.79 per inch
55" £539.10 = £9.80 per inch

You have to use fast track and pay for it online, that's what I did to get the extra 10%

I said it worked online. The manager tried it.. agreed and then gave me 10% off! I bought the 49" for £431...it's a really good tv for the money. You won't be disappointed!

Can you use this code if you want to pick in store? If yes, what step ??? Can't find it ...

use TVS10 at checkout for a further 10% off!

As far as I can tell all 4 ports are ARC enabled believe it or not, my menus look nothing like the screenshots above, I cannot find the menus with HDR etc?

Have you got it in the ARC HDMI slot, when I read up on this TV last time there is only one arc port. Also you might have to set that port up in the settings as an audio out port I know I had to do that on my mums LG

Also remember to use HDMI port 1 or 2 for 4K, otherwise it will be @30Hz

Cheers will give that a go.

Alot of people have this issue with hdr. Make sure to update software so that hdr is enabled in the latest firmware. Then download a hdr trailer off the Internet onto a USB stick and then play it using the media browser, the hdr symbol will appear in the top right and you can then change hdr settings if you need to. Or use an xbox one s with a hdr enabled game (USB way cheaper to test obviously)

Picked this tv up this afternoon, have connected to my Sony soundbar but all the audio on Netflix is with a really deep voice like its not syncing right over HDMI, also how do you enable HDR or know that its working?

If paired with a raspberry pi and the right software, or something like a lightberry for example, the LEDs will correspond with whatever is on the display

£431.10 with Tvs10 getting my sort of price range


Subtotal: £479.00
Promotional discount: £47.90
Balance due: £431.10

Don't expect the home made lights to go in sequence with what you are seeing on the screen , maybe changing random colours or a solid colour.

The ambilight made this set quite tempting - then I found out how easy and cheap it was to make a DIY one...

I have a very similar set as you i bought the 52PFL8605H in nov 2010, i dont really feel the need to change it yet. Philips selling out and not making their own sets in europe any more has gutted me as i love philips and high end sets like yours and mine are the last ones that they made and are way better than any sony, samsung etc :disappointed:

I think people on here are failing to see the deal with this and just want to be a snob about 10bit

Is £439 for a 49 inch 4k TV with HDR capability, Ambilight and Andriod TV a very good dead? - Yes

Is it going to compare to a 10bit TV thats going to cost you at the very least 3 times the price - No

Also the people saying "its getting bad reviews on AV forums" or "its not a great 4k TV" I do wonder if thats just what you've been told and you haven't actually looked at it with your own eyes. The reviews and people you are listening to are just snobs and experts, I guarantee 99.9% of you out there wont be able to tell the difference between this and a high end 4k tv.

is that good or bad

Its 60hz as it shows in the photos above it plays 4k at 60hz

​That also says 60hz but all other sources including Av Forums state 100hz.

Thank you I have done this fingers crossed!

Disable the colour enhance setting. I noticed that with it flashing on xbox one. Turn it off and fine .

Took the tv back though due to other issues

It's sub 500£, it's won't be the best but will do the job
And it's not a bargain, it's a a few pound cheaper than its normal price
It's not a missed price or slashed to clear stock

I'm looking myself, but there hasn't been any real bargain to make me bite

I guess the reason I decided to contribute to this post was because I felt posts like these were misleading for people (who were sitting on the fence) not that into tech. To my mind low, end screens are ones such as cello, alba or bush. I've had to use them at budget conscious friends' or familys' houses, and they are dreadful.

This is not a 720p screen nor does it have a poor bare bones interface as some TVs do for freeview.

Its pleasant to use, has a nice picture image and runs 4k HDR content. To compare it with £800 or £1000 TVs seems a bit off topic at least in my mind. True you're not getting a steal, but then again I would never buy a £800 TV in any case.

I grew up with Philips being a quality brand, maybe its changed now. But I personally with this TV haven't noticed that change, and it's at argos so if anything goes wrong you are covered if you need to return it.

I think people miss the point
This is a cheap low end screen, it's not going to be the best, will it do the job I'm sure it will
You can wait until 10bit screens are in every cheap screen, but the new tech will be out then, so you will be looking that

And really how important is 10bit hrd, you will be seeing it the very odd time, odd game consol and the odd over priced movie.
If you like it buy it

Its a good price for a 4k screen of that size although the panel does get slated a bit on av forums with a lot of people returning it

With what everyone has been saying about the cheapest 10 bit panels being £1000 or so, I wouldn't be surprised. But still it's a nice panel, even if 8 bit.

tv is crap

Heat for the pics but i cant make out why the tv says its 10 bit and its specs say its 8 bit ?

I currently have an 8 year old 42" Panasonic plasma, I am not actively looking to replace just yet but keep tabs on current trends, there are loads of similar products like this.
We need to stick together on this, don't buy these 4K, and prices for OLED will need come down, it's new technology but they need to "drip dry" old tech first!

How funny I have literally just bought this TV on Tuesday and we are having problems with the colour keep changing on its own can anyone help I am thinking of taking it back :disappointed:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/philips-43pus6401-43-inch-4k-ultra-hd-399-with-10-off-code-359-00-argos-2530223

Was posted on here, got awful comments.

Been on or around this price for ages.

Not a hot deal but the mod posting sways it as usual.

Not a 10 bit panel you won't get a 10 bit panel under £1000,tech specs here http://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/09d4444

​your nit value depends on your black level only 540 nits is actually required for UHD Premium

I was under the impression it is HDR as its a 10 bit panel but not UHD Premium as it only reaches 350 knits.

Also very tempted by the new discount code - just to check, how is the sound on this? One of the reviews mentioned it wasn't great but could be improved with a sound bar.

i may be wrong, but it looks like the TV will process HDR input (i.e. not just show a black screen with sound) but at 350 nits maximum brightness, the image won't be dazzling. UHD alliance recommend a minimum of 1000 nits

on a separate note, I too was once a Sammy 51" plasma owner. it died after 2y (? coincidence) and samsung gave me a replacement 49KS7000 (after me quoting Sales of Goods Act)

Also have a 43 inch version http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5389465.htm

Works out at £341.10 using code TVS10

Thanks OP :smiley:

I was on the fence about buying this but this pushed me over the edge.

Bought.

see comment 31 all tvs at argos over £350 there is so many tvs to pick and save extra 10%:smile:

Ah! Must be the new code, the last was without the "S" Thank you :smiley:

TVS10 code works. I would change the OP and price.

Subtotal: £479.00
Promotional discount: £47.90
Balance due: £431.10

I use my google photos as the host, at the very end of the link it creates it has the "w and h" settings example "=w686-h916-no" then I change those numbers to normally 500x500 which from memory reading somewhere else is mobile friendly for those reading on the app.
If I direct link from Amazon as another example again towards the end of the link you get "SL1200" part which again I would change to the value of 500" Hope this makes some sense for you!

At this price there is no chance that it's a 10 bit panel,it will be hdr but not hdr 10.The cheapest i have seen that i think are 10 bit is the LG Super UHD range for the same size screen as this Philips you are looking at just under £700

Edit,Did a quick bit of digging and definately not 10bit neither is the LG range I quoted the cheapest true 10 bit I could find was a Samsung 49"" but it was in the £1200-£1300 price range.

What's the refresh rate?

I have 43"version. Had to buy sound bar as sound was terrible. Now its a great TV.

looking at these pictures it seems like a pretty decent tv?

my question is...
is it really 4k tv?
and is it really hdr like full hdr?
and is it a 10 bit panel?

Guy at work has got a 3rd party one set up on his TV. It's pretty impressive. And you can put it on a better TV than a [email protected] Philips .... :man:

(Needs something to drive it through. PC/RPi. It's a Lightberry setup he has I think.)

For most people who will be using it with an Xbox One S (or a PS4 Pro), here's the Console end of things confirming what the TV is capable of.



Apologies for the massive pictures (tried finding out how to resize them embedded for 30 minutes but had to give up in the end)

Why has buying a new tv turned into such a minefield. I'm thinking of changing mine, but there seems to be a whole load of unknowns with regards the standards now. I'll probably wait until things are a bit clearer with regards HDR and the requirements of.

So to summarise... the more head lice the better when it comes to TV's nowadays.

I've arrived to the conclusion that the majority of people on this site have a 51" Samsung plasma telly

I had this set and I had to return it due to backlighting issues and poor black levels. Pity really as it's a great looking set and Ambilight is amazing.This is a HDR set but it's only rated at 350 nits.My search for an affordable 4k HDR set will continue and I will stick with my 51" Samsung plasma for now.

Bought the 43PUS6401 for £399 in August and have found it a very good set (granted I am a student and know very little about TVs). The HDR settings aren't obvious, they only activate when a HDR source is run on it, then all the settings are available and in the top right a HDR symbol will show. I tested it with a Life of Pi 4K trailer, and I was blown away by the difference between HDR and non-HDR, the colours are very vivid and pop and the lighting wasn't dark at all. It reminded me of those UHD TVs they demonstrate in shops.

The Android system it runs on can be a bit hit and miss, but on the whole works fine, not laggy but not ultra smooth like a Playstation 4's interface (more like an Xbox one as a comparison - I have both). I have to turn the TV off to restart the android OS once or twice a week when certain programs like youtube or iplayer don't work. I have Kodi installed on it, and it works like a charm.

Annoying thing is all the resolutions between 1080p and 2440p support/run only at 30Hz, so are pretty much made redundant, so difficult to scale for PC gaming - I have it hooked up by HDMI. So you're either at 1080p or 4K, nothing inbetween if your GFX card can't handle it.

Philips do regular OTA/Internet updates to the software and the firmware which have made it a better set since I got it, so I'm reassured that they are continuing supporting the set.

Overall, I have a Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One hooked up and they are all excellent at 1080p. 4K HDR with Forza Horzion 3 looks just like the Life of Pi Trailer, absolutely stunning and makes you a bit annoyed to go back to anything non-HDR really. My BT YouView Box showing SD tv on it looks pretty rubbish though tbh, pixellation, motion blur and all that, but I'm not surprised to be honest, all SD content tends to look crappy on modern HD TVs for some reason.

With regard to the comment about the HDR being downscaled to SDR, that doesn't appear to be the case on my set, as both the trailer and games (well only one atm) are shown to be running at 4K (the info button), and looking like they're running at 4K as well.

Just wanted to give a positive opinion to balance out some of the more negative ones (not that there's anything wrong with them), as I'm very glad I got mine.

I'd be all over this, had I not bought a new tele about 5 months ago! Cheers for the post anyway OP.

I have the 51' Samsung 1080i plasma too :smile:

Had it for 10 years and it still works

John Lewis, they have legendary customer service round these parts.

Just to add to the 51" plasma.... mine sadly died a couple of weeks ago. Luckily it was from JL who gave me a full refund of the price paid.... after having had it for 4 years.

Next TV I buy will definitely be from JL, even if it is a hisense at least I know it will be covered!

code TVS10 still works on all tvs over £350 at argos

Well I never knew that :neutral_face: That's a major disappointment. I have a 42PFL9603 from 2009 which is a superb set and had never missed a beat. I was hoping to upgrade to their latest flagship but it looks like I'm gonna have to reconsider.

I just wish you could get the high end Philips TVs in this country. They have some superb sets. In fact I don't know what's happened with Philips in the UK. You can get hardly any of their stuff here now.

Me to

My Sony is perfect, incredibly fast and responsive android experience. My Philips Ambilight with android is a DISASTER!! Literally the only good thing about it is the lights, ever software update that hits fixes one thing and breaks another (before the remote stopped working and now the to won't connect to the internet) Do not but a Philips if you want any form of smart functionality whatsoever!

Yeah I got the Hisense HDR update that everyone was going on about for months and it sucks.

It just puts a slight yellow tint to the screen and that's it, completely fake and useless. HDR on an 8 bit panel is pointless.

great!! cheers!!

Agree with above, HDR will make a bigger difference to the experience than going for a vanilla uhd set.

This is a very good and informative link for the very confusing HDR10/Dolbyvision/gamut/UHD/4k spec, worth a read for anyone considering a TV right now.

http://www.acousticfrontiers.com/uhd-101-v2/

​me too please. hope Black Friday finds me something :sunglasses:

What are the other Ambilight systems that I can plug into my Panasonic?
It looks like it would add to the atmosphere.

*correction 2160p (no idea where 2440p came from sorry)

Just hope the Android smart side is better than my Sony

Is the 10% code finished now? I got this tv for £449 with the code just over a week ago at Argos.

Im in the exact same boat as you guys... i have a Samsung plasma 51" too! But its currently been sent in for repair as it intermitently starts displaying lines across the screen and the wifi has stopped working. Lucky as its covered for 5 years but its only 3 years old! Will wait and sed what the warranty guys say... but always looking for a good 55"!

I very nearly bought this last time it came up on here but there was a lot of talk of lag on the Xbox and not getting the TV to recognize the input to put it into gaming mode which reduces the lag.

Anyone got an opinion on the lag. I get my Xboxones on Friday so Im in no rush to upgrade.

Good price for a 4k false HDR set of this size ,it will accept a hdr signal but will only downscale it to SDR as the panel cant process a true HDR signal but of course you will have to spend a lot more than his if you want a 4k tv that can display true HDR ,it will play ps4 pro in full 4k but without any HDR features

I would also like to sign up to your "search for an affordable 4K HDR set" newsletter. :man:

This is just another example of rebranded product made to be sold on constant "promotion" at one place(Argos)...£20 up or down but always around this price. Lots of returns to Argos due to image retention and backlight issue just shows what it's really worth...

Heated, really impressive price for a quality branded set with Ambilight and HDR. I'm sure a lot of people are going to debate whether Philips is actually a quality brand but after a bad few years I think they have improved a lot over recent years and have put out some very good televisions and monitors...