The Perfect TV: A Complete Guide

Dave West  00:00

You have to have a decent sound experience, because without that, you got a great car, but you need to have great fuel to pull into it. If that makes sense, if you want a real cinematic experience, be it sport, you want to feel like you’re in the stage, be it a movie, like you want to feel like you’re in the cinema with that extra bass and warmth,

 

Voiceover  00:17

no fluff, no jargon, just the honest truth from the name over the door, this is Dominic Smith Talks Tech.

 

Dominic Smith  00:25

These days, when I’m comfortable buying TV, it is very easy to get lost. OLED mini LED, LED, or Q NED sound bar, or built-in sound, big screen, or bigger budget TV, the choice can be paralysing. Today, we’re going to help you know exactly what you need, spend only what you should, and come home with a TV that genuinely transforms your viewing experience. To help, we have two of the best in the business: National Sales Manager for Samsung UK and Ireland, Dave West, and our very own TV expert, Reese Uli. Welcome, guys.

 

Dave West  00:55

Hi, Dominic. Hi, Rhys.

 

Dominic Smith  00:57

We’re quite excited to get under the bonnet with what you should be looking for when you like to buy a TV. We decided to run this one a little bit earlier than normal, because generally it would be autumn, Christmas season kind of a topic, but with the World Cup coming up, and the World Cup so far away, and unfortunately they’re not in it, but we still are huge sports fans, so we’ll no doubt be clued in. What should we be looking for if we’re going to go ahead and change your TV, so first I want to put that to Dave. Dave, unless you’re on the inside, like we are looking at it from the outside, gonna have to buy a TV. You’ve got LED mini LED, you’ve got all edge, you’ve got Q N Edge, you’ve got,

 

Dave West  01:32

yeah,

 

Dominic Smith  01:32

so many different technologies. What, what typically should your, you be gravitating towards, and why?

 

Dave West  01:38

Well, first of all, we’re seeing a large increase in in large screen TVs year on year across America, selling, sell out, and like we’re finding that there’s more and more 65 inch and above screen sizes selling, and the call for like 77 inch old ads, for example, is just been phenomenal of late, and customers are really looking to spend that bit more to get the better piece of quality, if that’s what their budget is there to do, but we’re finding, you know, overall, when you’re going through the range of TVs itself, it’s down to first of all budget, what are you using the CV, what’s your expectation, will you be gaming on the TV? Are you a big movie buff? Are you putting your TV into a bright room in a house, dark room in a house? When do you watch your TV? Mainly because when you think about it, overall people watch TVs around eight hours a day on average.

 

Dominic Smith  02:35

Jesus, that much.

 

Dave West  02:36

Yeah, up to, up to, especially on weekends, even more if you are watching a box set series of Game of Thrones, or something like that. You could be hours and hours on a weekend in front of a TV, and we’re finding, as well, that people are upgrading their TVs now nearly as much as we’re upgrading their phones, which is shocking when you think about it. But generally, we kind of expect the lifespan of a TV to be five to seven years minimum from a Samsung perspective, but technology is always growing, it’s always changing. So, well, yeah, when you’re looking to buy a TV, and looking to, you know, you want to do a bit of homework, first of all, exactly what your expectations are, what your budget is, and yes, you have got different grades of technology, so you’ll have Kristen UHD being the starting point, which will be generally a 60 hertz paddle, and then technology goes up and up and up, so you’ll have the likes of 165 hertz TVs, which gamers would absolutely love, and be more focused towards gaming and movie, what we call movie buffs. It’s all down to what your expectation is, and what’s what screen size your room for? That’s another thing, too.

 

Dominic Smith  03:45

So, if you’re like you’re like me, who comes in at whatever time of the evening and watches the news, that might be that might be it for the for the evening. What’s the expectation there?

 

Dave West  03:55

Yeah, okay. So, look, if you’re watching terrestrial TV via Sky or via Servi, or you know, anything in that respect, and you’re watching the news, and you don’t really go into box sets, so on, so forth, but then you don’t necessarily need to be spending a big fortune on a TV. It’s literally, you’re talking like you want to get a TV, this can be good quality picture that can upscale somewhat, which increases the, I suppose, the visualisation of the picture and the quality of the picture that you’re getting, and you have access to Netflix, you know, because sometimes a lot of people want to be able to, you know, stream, even not necessarily just watch the news, but then you’re looking at maybe your crystal, uh, TV, or if you want to go that little bit above and spend that little bit more, you get a better quality picture in a mini LED or QLED, where you can then get a five year warranty as well on the CV, which is kind of important that you’ve got that bit of trust behind the product as well. Okay, if anything goes wrong, I’m being looked after down the road, and Samson give a five year warranty on our mini LED and above,

 

Dominic Smith  04:59

yeah, which is a. Fantastic, to be fair, so move from that, then from from your basic viewing to your sport, your streamer, not necessarily a gamer, but somebody who enjoys a box that or enjoys a movie on a Saturday evening, or, or like me, last night stood up a lot, I was watching golf, or the GA, or the GA on a Sunday, or Saturday evening, what, what, what’s going to give you that most pleasurable viewing from a Samsung perspective? What’s going to work for you?

 

Dave West  05:25

We have, in fact, a new feature in our TVs this year called Game Mode Pro, which literally, if you’re watching a match, the TV recognises automatically that you’re watching a game of football or golf, and it really kind of enhances that viewing experience and sound experience too. So, if you’re probably for gamers, say, we generally look at like it can’t be like a Neo Q LED or an O LED. If you’re watching TV during the daytime, that’s the thing. If you’re watching a match during the daytime, then you want to have a bright picture. If you’re sitting inside a window, for example, and the sun is beaming in on top of you, watching the game of golf or a football match, then you want to be having a really good bright picture, or some way of enhancing that reflection on the screen as well. So we have anti-reflective screens, and some of the some of our TVs as well, which cater for them to have human experience. But overall, I would suggest that when you’re looking, if you’re into gaming, or into watching a match, rather say into hurling or golf. Then I’d be looking at something like a Neo QLED or an OLED TV, because they would be the superior technology to give you that real depth and the experience of feeling that you’re in the stadium and watching the match. It’s not just your viewing experience, by the way, it’s a sound as well, so we’ve always got a saying in the industry, your experience is 50% viewing, 50% sound, so yet again, it’s important to have that sound element, sound quality goes up, but the TV’s go up as well in that respect,

 

Dominic Smith  06:55

so we’re talking about crystal UHD, is your entry level TV, so typical 55 inch, and that would be what, 400 quid inch, something like that,

 

Dave West  07:03

around that, yeah.

 

Dominic Smith  07:04

And you step up then to mini led and queue that. So, where are we going then, money wise?

 

Dave West  07:10

So, mini led, you’re talking about the 55 inch starting point of mini led for this year, you’d probably be talking around six to 700 euros

 

Dominic Smith  07:20

for 55 inch

 

Dave West  07:22

for 55 inch in around that guide RP, that’s up to the retailer that respect,

 

Dominic Smith  07:26

of course,

 

Dave West  07:26

but then when you go into the OLED market, which OLED is a different technology, yet again it’s a self-emissive pixel that every individual pixel lights up itself independently of each other, and you get more detail, contrast, pure blacks, but pure colours, then you’re talking anything from, say, guide RP of 999 or above. Yeah, for 55 inch,

 

Dominic Smith  07:46

it’s amazing, isn’t it? When you get used to that, like I have an old lead for the last number of years, and it’s just such a pleasure to sit down and watch it. Like, I’m not.. I can’t imagine..

 

Dave West  07:54

oh, it’s unbelievable.

 

Dominic Smith  07:54

Can’t imagine going back to watch to watch anything else, because you get so natural, you know? The motion is so smooth, you know, it’s it’s different level, and tell me now, Dave, the big question, World Cup promos coming, or or stuff for the for the customer out there who may be thinking about, okay, well, I want to sit in and watch my matches on when they’re on the World Cup, because I’m your typical World Cup viewer, I don’t really watch the beginning of it, and then when the exciting stuff starts, me quarter finals, etc. Engrossed, I can’t miss a match. So, what have you got? Anything happening for World Cup?

 

Dave West  08:27

Well, we can’t. We’ve launched already our campaign at the moment, which is our cashback campaign. So, Samsung is a brand. We are now 20 years global number one for TV sales.

 

Dominic Smith  08:37

Here you go with your corporate stuff, number one. So,

 

Dave West  08:41

exactly, exactly, but facts don’t lie, and figures don’t lie, so literally, what we’ve done is we’ve launched a promotion, so we’re in the middle of changing our range from 2025 models to 2026 range, which are about to land in store the next couple of weeks, and we’ve launched cash back up to 20% cash back upon selected lines, and that’s what the customer could go along on redeem 30 days after purchase. 30 days and 60 days after purchase, they can go online and redeem up to 20% cash back on a CV that they buy in store from Samsung.

 

Dominic Smith  09:14

It’s phenomenally strong. Yeah, it’s very strong.

 

Dominic Smith  09:17

Exactly,

 

Dave West  09:18

and it’s across the OLEDs, Neo Q LED, you know, it can be quite a chunk of money back to the customer on the back end,

 

Dominic Smith  09:26

and we know your bias, Dave, and you’re with your Samsung, and you’re particularly good to deal with, to be fair to you, but if you’re going out tomorrow, you’re a customer, you’re going into your local store there in Nina, wherever you’re going, and you said, I’m going to buy a TV, why would you gravitate towards? What would you be your TV that you were saying? I’d love to have that at home, you know.

 

Dave West  09:45

Well, given the house, I mean, it is kind of a dark house, and this is kind of key for me. In fact, it’s the environment that you’re putting the TV into, and the best probably TV for my experience would be an old TV, but the thing is that where I’m putting the TV. Be inside a window in a dark house, I will still watch the TV during a day,

 

Dominic Smith  10:04

right?

 

Dave West  10:04

So I want to get that anti-reflective screen.

 

Dominic Smith  10:07

Okay,

 

Dave West  10:07

because if I ever do move down the road and I’m moving to a brighter house, then I’m at least I’m covered there for the future as well.

 

Dominic Smith  10:13

Okay,

 

Dave West  10:13

so for me, I would probably go with the S 90 or the S 95 OLED.

 

Dominic Smith  10:17

Oh, lovely, yeah,

 

Dave West  10:18

S 95 more than likely OLED.

 

Dominic Smith  10:19

Yeah, yeah,

 

Dominic Smith  10:20

you skipped across a couple of other things there that you know you didn’t mention lifestyle, which of course is a massive sector in which just maybe explain that or roll that a little bit first.

 

Dave West  10:31

Yeah, so people want to have that unique centrepiece in their house. We have a lifestyle range of TVs as well called the Frame. So the Frame literally is an art TV. It’s like a piece of art on the wall, a painting, and you get a little clip on bezel. You can choose your own colour bezel that clips around it, like it would affect, for example. And it has a fully anti-reflective screen, so when you go into the room, you can have a picture of your family portrait on the TV, or you know, a piece of art from Da Vinci or Picasso, or somebody, because there’s an art store there, Samsung Artstor, you can download the artwork accordingly onto the TV as well, or you can upload your own pictures, and when the TV’s on standby, it looks like a painting on the wall. Now, this TV’s got a matte finish, so it’s literally a matte display, there’s no glossy shine to it, but when you go and press the power button and home button, it turns into a smart TV.

 

Dominic Smith  11:26

Yeah, it’s really class. It’s really class. Absolutely.

 

Dave West  11:30

So, this year sees us launch what we call the Frame Pro, and that launches, in fact, in the next two weeks. And the Frame Pro will have what we call a wireless one connect box on the 55 inch or above screen sizes. Last year it was in the 65 and above, and this is literally going to be the TV will hang on the wall. There’s no USB ports or HDMI at the back of the TV, they’re in a box that can be hidden away up to 10 metres away, and it sends the wireless signal. You can plug in your Sky box into the one connect box, and that wirelessly sends a signal in front of the box to your TV. So, literally, the TV’s just hanging on the wall, you have a power socket, probably built in behind the wall, it’s all the idea of it, and they don’t see any cables around the wall of the TV at all, it just looks like a painting on the wall, amazing.

 

Dominic Smith  12:12

Yes, it’s superb, in fairness. And the projector, how we doing with that?

 

Dave West  12:19

Yeah, so we have a couple of projectors in America, we’ve got a freestyle projector, which can go up to 100 inch screen size. There’s a, in fact, it’s a cracking little device that you can remotely carry around with you. You can plug in a, you like a wireless battery charge or a battery pack into it as well, if you want to go camping, for example. It self-calibrates, so it finds its own level, in fact, which is a great little projector. In fairness, so guiding, it’s probably in the retail market, probably on the five nine night mark at the moment, might be even a bit more attractive price point in the coming weeks, but you then have got then what we call short throw projectors, so there’s different type of projectors, so the Freestyle literally is a smart projector operating on the Samsung Tyson operating system platform, same as what our TVs are, and literally then you can bring this with you anywhere in your backpack, it’s little round cylinder sort of a projector, then you have what we call a short throw projector, short throw projectors, they’re 4k and they add what they’re doing, it’s in, so literally you can have a short throw projector a couple of inches away from a wall or from a screen, and then it can short throw up to 120 130 inch screen in front of you. And we have the Premier Five, which is the one that we’re kind of ranging, this one that we newly launched recently. And Premiere Five is a touch screen short throw projector, which is quite a unique experience, so literally, for if you’re presenting in a boardroom or a classroom, or even at home, you can literally go and touch the wall at such a degree, and then you know, press the home button if you don’t want to use the remote, and you can use it just like a touch screen TV, but it’s a projector, quite an unusual experience to use, have to say,

 

Dominic Smith  14:00

pretty cool for a match, though. 120 inch screen for

 

Dave West  14:03

it would be absolutely will be, and it saves like, yeah, 120 inch screens. Anything around 100 inch TVs very heavy on the wall in that respect, so you know you don’t have that weight if you’re living in a house with dry line walls and you’re concerned about having too much weight on the wall. Projector is probably the best way to go over something like that,

 

Dominic Smith  14:21

and then adding sound to some of these TVs. Now, you know, some of them don’t particularly need it. Some of the higher ends are probably pretty good, but if you’re adding on a sound bar, say, you know, for for your Q letter, your mini LED, should you do that?

 

Dave West  14:33

Yeah, so, as I kind of alluded earlier on, like sound is 50% of the human experience, and your, your experience of watching a match or watching a movie. Our TVs have got what we call object tracking sound in the TV itself. Literally, it tracks the sound as like a tank is going across the screen, so it’ll track the noise of the tank going across the screen, but it doesn’t give you the full Dolby Atmos experience, what we call. Yeah, and what that is, is literally Dolby Atmos, is where your TV and your sound bar work in unison together, and literally they throw the sound literally behind you as well. So it’s giving you like a three-dimensional sound, like an experience in a cinema, cinematic sound. So, without, you know, a good sound bar, you’re not going to have that experience, and I always really suggest that when you’re in a store, you know you’re watching a CV, you’re going to buy a TV, just listen to the sound bar with it as well, just ask for a demonstration in store of the sound bar on and off, and that will give you that is really an eye opener. I have to say, we also have, like, obviously got wireless Dolby Atmos, so if you’re wall mounting your TV and your sound bar, you don’t need to have cables going between the TV and soundbar. For Samsung TV and Samsung soundbar, I would be biassed again, we have wireless Dolby Atmos, so then you don’t have to have them slightly cables on the wall in that respect as well. But sound bars are really, really important if you want a real cinematic experience, be it sport, you want to feel like you’re in the stadium, be it a movie, like you want to feel like you’re in the cinema with that extra bass and a warmth.

 

Dominic Smith  16:11

Yeah, that’s amazing.

 

Dave West  16:12

Obviously, the better sound bar, yes, you will pay a little bit more, but sound bar will last you for years and years and years, and they won’t go out with

 

Dominic Smith  16:22

1. What I find, as well, is even if I’m not watching TV, I stream using from the phone to the sound bar, you know, just to relax a bit, and maybe do a bit of reading, or, or even if you’re working in that particular room, you just have stuff on on the sound bar, so it’s, you can utilise it in that regard too, which is just, yeah,

 

Dave West  16:39

exactly, you got tap, we have a thing as well called Tap View. So, if you got a smartphone, obviously, and you want to use, like, Spotify and play Spotify in your sound bar, you just, if you go along and you just tap your phone on the soundbar, and then it’ll wirelessly share your Muse Extreme from your phone to the soundbar. It’s quite a good experience, in fairness, and it’s done by the Samsung SmartThings app, but it’s literally it’s great unique experience,

 

Dominic Smith  17:03

and all the new range London next month.

 

Dave West  17:05

Yeah, so it’s starting to arrive very quickly. Have to say this time of year things change quite quickly, and yeah, so in the next two weeks we’ll start seeing the new range start to drop into store as well. So there’s some great offers in store at the moment, obviously, and as we’re changing to new stuff, we literally launched with a new offerings as well, on a new range.

 

Dominic Smith  17:27

Any significant changes?

 

Dave West  17:29

Things, yeah, there’s some big changes, in fact, this year, and across the overall technology sector. So, we have, in fact, got for years, we’ve had Q LED TVs, which are literally their inorganic panel side crystals in the screen. Now, what’s happened this year is they’ve been replaced, and there’s new technology coming in called mini LED and micro RGB. So, it’s two technologies coming. So, mini LED literally is going to be the pixels are 40 times smaller than the standard pixel will have been, so you’re getting more pixels in a panel, they’re more compressed, you get more detail, more contrast, more vibrancy, and that’s early in the range, you’re talking from maybe 400 euros or above TVs, you know, I mean, depending on screen size, and then what we have then this year is micro RGB, so this is a real game changer of a technology, so for years we’ve had OLED, OLED is an organic material that literally over time it’s a cracking CV, it’s cracking technology, but the future is going to be changing, so we need to have them TVs getting brighter and brighter because people are asking for more colour, they’re expecting more bang for the buck, we’ve now got micro RGB is technology landing, and what you get there is like it synifies home theatre experiences. It’s instantaneous pixel responses as well. So, where all edge is individual pixels, micro RGB is going to be exactly the same, but brighter again, and as clean as I say RGB, red, green, and blue pixels, so you get more colour, more vibrance than what OLED can punch out in that respect as well. So that’s a new technology that’s launching this year, and yeah, we have some other new developments as well, even on people that want just a basic TV that you just want to have a kitchen TV. We’ve got a 40 inch HD model for the first time this year as well.

 

Dominic Smith  19:20

Dave, just a couple of more things, if you don’t mind. Screen size, so I don’t know whether I’m putting them on the wall, potentially, or I’m not putting it on the wall and putting them on the stand. How do you, how do you decide, or what’s the perfect optimum in terms of buying a new TV and getting that size right?

 

Dave West  19:35

The general rule of thumb would be, if you’re going for 75 inch TV, that you’ll be seven and a half feet back. If you’re going for a 65 inch TV, you’re six and a half feet back. So you think about the seven five and six, you know, and literally go by the distance, and that that rule of thumb. If you’re going for 100 inch TV, then the reckon you should be nine feet eight back,

 

Dominic Smith  19:59

and as a. Against the wall, because this is a common thing, most people nowadays are putting the TV on the wall, but there is still that stand experience out there where you’re putting on a piece of furniture, or whatever the case may be, and that affects the size, because the unit looks a little bit bigger when it’s sitting on the stand, and when it’s on the wall, there’s an illusion that it’s actually a bit smaller than it physically is. So,

 

Dominic Smith  20:20

what would

 

Dominic Smith  20:21

be what would be a bit of advice on that one.

 

Dave West  20:23

Well, first of all, if you’re keeping the same TV stand and there’s something that’s a permanent fixture to your home, you need to bear that in mind when you’re buying your TV. First of all, you know, has a TV on a centre stand or not? If it doesn’t, if it’s got peg legs, white feet, can they move in, which a lot of TVs do nowadays. You can move them into the centre to be able to fit on one of these TV stands, and if you go into a TV stand in a corner, you need to make sure that the TV is going to fit in that corner before you buy it. Bring it home, unpack the box, and all of a sudden the TV’s too big, you’re there. Oh, what? What do I do? Package them, there’s guns in the bin, you know, you’re leaving the retailer in a kind of a tricky situation. Then, so,

 

Dominic Smith  21:00

but would you downsize a little bit, though, the fact that it’s on the stand?

 

Dave West  21:03

I probably would if it’s on a stand, but it’s the stand is not the beyond lindo. If it fits on the stand, that’s that’s great, but it needs to fit into the corner where the stand is, because generally a stand would be in a corner, and if you know this bear in mind is at an angle, and if you’re sitting at an angle, then you’re looking at TV screen at an angle, then you got the optimal viewing angle, because sometimes TVs, you can lose that viewing experience when you’re looking at a TV at an angle as well, so need to get TV with wide room, wide viewing angle,

 

Dominic Smith  21:34

so seven and a half feet from a 75 you know, six and a half feet, ish, or the equivalent in, in, in metres from, uh, from a 65 inch, and so on and so forth. Yeah, the other thing I want to talk about, when I changed my TV, I had my beloved plasma TV for, for an awful long time, maybe 10 years, and when I changed it, one of the big things was the energy efficiency. I had a TV that was burning over 560 kilowatts, and when I got my new OLED, it was, it was down to 100 and odd kilowatts, so that’s a big move, clearly for the brands, for the direction of where we are with current or the new technologies in terms of energy efficiency.

 

Dave West  22:13

Yeah, so the TVs nowadays are designed to optimise, make themselves more energy efficient as possible. It’s obviously down to the user experience in that respect too. So, when you first buy a TV, you switch it on, it automatically wants to switch it into its own AI energy saver mode, and you have got features on the TV that you can actually go into the settings, so you can have power and energy saving settings, which is optimised, especially that the screen will kind of power itself off after so long of on new stage, if it realises that no one’s watching the TV, our TV’s got little sensors on, you know, they can tell if you’re in the room or if there’s, you know, noise in the room, it’ll increase the brightness depending on how bright the room is, if it needs to be, but at night time it automatically dim the brightness that that bit, so you’ve got, you know, energy efficiency is key. All TVs have got their own energy rating, legally, anyway. So, yet again, you know, when you’re buying your TV, you can see on the energy label on the TV, you see exactly the energy rating and the usage consumption, you know, which manufacturers provide as well. So that’s all visible in store as well.

 

Dominic Smith  23:20

It is, it’s legislation, and it’s important, but it’s just amazing that the TV prices have pretty much come down so much, but the quality, the pictures enhanced, and the energy efficiency is now under control. So,

 

Dave West  23:31

it’s all down to upscaling and processing power, that’s exactly it. And, literally, yeah,

 

Dominic Smith  23:36

good news overall. Thank you, Dave Reese Uli from our gory store, our store manager in Gore, and our super TV sales person is joining us as well. Dave, he’s going to jump in here. So, Reese, talk to us about typical experience in the store. I walk in with the family, I’m thinking of a new TV, I don’t know what size, I don’t know what brand, I don’t know what to go for, I’m not sure much it’s going to cost. How do we take somebody through that process of narrowing this down to a to a suitable product?

 

Rhys Owley  24:05

Well, I think nowadays I don’t think that the customer is tend to tied to a particular brand anymore. So, if they had, say, whether it be Samsung for the last 10 years, whether it be LG, Sony, because technology is revolving each year, that’s one thing that you tend to not try, and you know, tie a customer down to, I suppose. Secondly, then, as well as Dave mentioned earlier, where’s the customer going to be putting this TV? What’s the usage of the TV? Any kids for gaming, you know, so it’s all about finding out what is the customer satisfaction on why you’re purchasing or wider upgrading the TV at home, and then I suppose it’s down to trying to get the benefits across to the customer, don’t be tying them down to a. Particular budget, because then maybe you know there won’t be, I suppose, getting across the point of, you know, with that little bit extra money you might get x benefit, y benefit, but yeah, it’s again, I see at the moment that there’s no tie to a brand anymore, people tend to want to explore,

 

Dominic Smith  25:22

so just to evolve that a little bit, so we’re talking about where, where your position is, the room bright, is it dark, or is this your main TV or secondary TV, or is it just for gaming only, or it’s in a movie TV that you’re going to a particular room of an even to stream, I would find that on an older TV that I have the experience on the stream, and you might jump in, David Vasekka is is enhanced on the newer one on the on the old lead that I have in the main room, so that’s obviously down to revolving technologies as well, is

 

Dave West  25:50

it? Yeah, that would be generally down to upscaling technology and processing, so the likes of just give an example, Netflix, for example, if you’ve got a standard subscription in Netflix, you don’t have the UHD subscription, the TV will do its best to try and upscale that HD to 4k to UHD, let the upscalers do the work behind the scenes to increase that that picture and everyone experience, and that’s all done, the process, and yes, it requires internet as well to do so, so you know internet speeds need to be say 30 meg or above be realistic to you know have the best viewing experience.

 

Rhys Owley  26:26

Yeah, I think you mentioned it earlier as well. Dave, you know, with the likes of your operating systems becoming more advanced as the years has rolled on, like even four years ago we had a basic ties and OS operating system, which are drop down menu on the bottom, simple, simple views for the, for the customer, but you know, as years has rolled on, you know, we have a much better operating system, which are Tizens and Samsung, your Web OS, which are, which are LG, that you know, just for even our Saturday, for watching a particular programme on Netflix or a series that it’ll entice you to, you know, watch the next episode, rather than having to click into your app, scroll down, maybe search for that, you know, movie that just stopped midway through the evening before, you know, so it’s much more user friendly.

 

Dave West  27:15

Yeah, generally the whole experience on the operating system is designed to get to know what the customers like, sir, what their viewing habits are. So, for example, it’ll give you recommendations on Netflix, so you’re only one click away from Netflix, or from Amazon Prime, you know, Clarkson’s Farm, or anything in that respect. You know, it’ll come up because it knows you’ve watched it before, and the new series launches, the TV will know you like to watch this, maybe, or whatever need be, and as you say, I bring it straight back in accordingly. So, the operating systems have just improved, but the design does not just be brand specific, but operating systems are designed for TVs, specifically for TVs, unlike mobile phones, because they need to do different things, they operate different ways, and they’re always ever evolving. So, so, same with ties and has been one example, but other brands have their own operating systems, and they’re designed to, you know, follow the steps of what the TV viewing experience is. That’s the overall rule of thumb. So,

 

Dominic Smith  28:13

and recent that, then, so, customer comes in, could not brand lead, maybe has had one of the brands for the previous eight to 10 years, you, I know, because I’ve seen you in action, takes customer through the comparable models across three or four ranges. I know we’ve introduced hysons recently, so that’s another one to be added in. So that process typically, how long does that take on average to get to the point where, where, okay, we’ve decided it’s a 55 inch, our old model was a 48 inch, or as I used to be 50 or or 42 back in the day, but they used to have the big wide frame in them, and now we’ve discovered that, okay, well, it’s more screen, the frame is gone, so or the bezel of the edge, as we call it, so that now is used up by more screen, and we can now go to a to a 55 inch. How long does that typical process take, or that consultation take to get to that point

 

Rhys Owley  29:00

where it’s where it’s, we’re taking all these boxes. I suppose it’s hard to pinpoint an exact time frame, but typically, in, I suppose, personal experience, it should take within half an hour anyway. I suppose at the end of the day, it’s an investment of what you’re making for your overall experience at home, like anything, whether it be white goods for your upgrading in the house and whatnot, it should never be rushed. It should always be half an hour, at least in my opinion.

 

Dominic Smith  29:32

I know what TV you have, but if you are going in, we know that Dave is going to go into the store tomorrow and buy an S 95 anti-reflection anti-glare screen for his house, but that’s because he has to, because he works for Samsung. But you’re going in, you’re going to in lease, right? And your head scratched in there, and you’re going, this is the TV I want to put on the wall at home. The World Cup is coming. There’s a bit of an off runners. I’ve got the warranty. What do you, what are you going to go with? What’s what’s your go-to?

 

Rhys Owley  29:59

So. I suppose I’m lucky enough that I have the best of both worlds in terms of an EOQ lead and a Q and 90, and I also have an S 90 OLED, then as well, but completely different viewing, I suppose, experiences of where the TVs are, so with the Neo Q LED down in the main sitting room, nice and bright, so just to, I suppose, counteract that brightness levels within the room. You do have your, you know, your, your 2000 nit level to counteract that. So fantastic TV, and then the OLED, then upstairs. But personally, I would always try to recommend OLED for your true black levels. Your viewing angle overall is second to none. Yeah, your overall colour contrast is, which are 4k on your Netflix, your Amazon Prime is just second stone,

 

Dominic Smith  30:50

but then you know in store we would do a comparable on, you know, your C series LG to your S 90, or your your B series LG to your S 85 and your Samsung, and so on and so forth, so like often time, and I’ve seen this myself, customers will be gravitating from one to the other because they might find the black content a bit better, or maybe the colours a bit brighter. I oftentimes have compared to the remote control, have a look at the remote control, see, you know, you know, you don’t want a complex, difficult scenario with remotes, etc. etc. So sound is another one. We spoke about it earlier, that you’re getting your experience in the in-store, shopping down the sound. Make sure that you’re happy with this. Is the one thing about online purchasing that can be difficult. You know, you don’t get those experiences if you go to a website, you know, like we have our own website. And sometimes I see stuff, you know, being purchased on the website, and I’m thinking, God, I wonder, does that, you know, I often worry about, well, hopefully they know, or they understand that, that this is the customer I’m talking about, that you know there is a difference for 50 or 60 or 100 quid more that are, that’s quite valid, and the beauty, but in stores we’re able to go through that through the different brands, etc. Well, just, just one thing, guys, for the gamers out there, that’s another evolving minefield of streaming and apps, etc. What can we offer there?

 

Rhys Owley  32:09

I think there’s been a huge pickup, Dave, def within the last even two, three years. You know, I see a lot of the time now that the customer will, you know, spend that little bit extra for that faster refresh rate, and as well as that, with the price range been so reasonable, personally in my opinion, you know, you can get a 120 hertz refresh rate with a five year warranty in Boucher LG Samsung for a four nine,

 

Dave West  32:41

yeah, exactly, and it’s probably gonna get more competitive again, even more so this year, you know, that obviously the real gamers that use like graphics cards and their own systems, and so on and so forth, they want to have the best panel, the best viewing experience that they can get, and generally you’ll be looking at being up to 165 hertz now, and that’s literally the future of gaming in that respect, but we have them panels like the S 95 for example, or the new RGB R 85 sorry, R 95 is coming, that would be 165 hertz panel, so for those gamers that are really into using their, you know, internal systems in house, but want to have a TV for viewing experience, it’s not just a gamer monitor, you can have both. We also have Game Mode Pro on the TVs as well, and one thing with the TVs as well, for the last couple of years, we’ve had Xbox, Game Pass, and this is quite popular, in fact, and it’s across all arrangements. It used to be on the on more premium sets, but it’s across the whole range of TVs now, Xbox, Game Pass, and it’s an app, obviously, that if you have an Xbox at home and you got maybe three or four kids in the house, for example, and the children are screaming, Who’s using the Xbox upstairs? Well, if you got a spare TV, then they can get the wireless controller, pair it up with a TV, and game on the TV without having a console, and that’s the future of game and I think Xbox have, I think they announced as well that they’re only going to make one more Xbox console itself, because the future is going to be online streaming and online gaming.

 

Rhys Owley  34:11

I seen that the monthly subscription then as well for Xbox, they’re the only company that have actually reduced their monthly subscription fee, so there’s another very good selling

 

Dave West  34:24

point. How much you see coming down in price these

 

Dominic Smith  34:26

days, that’s for sure. Televisions and monthly subscriptions are, yeah, exactly, exactly. Anything else to add, Reese, in terms of that experience?

 

Rhys Owley  34:34

I think soundbar wise, we touched on it earlier, but we didn’t really touch on where the actual sound is coming from the TVs nowadays, so obviously with panels now they’re getting slimmer, colour range is getting better, your brightness levels, your nick level, but overall sound in the TV, as Dave touched on it, you know, it’s good, but would always definitely. I recommend a soundbar in terms of channels. Traditionally, a TV’s sound would have either came from the bottom of the TV or the back of the TV. With Sony themselves, now they have a pattern that this sound will travel from the screen directly on selected models only, but with your sound bar, you’re enhancing your channel level, so your sound is travelling directly to you, rather than whether it be from the bottom of the TV or the back of the TV. So, would always would always recommend a sound bar.

 

Dave West  35:31

You have a thing as well called Q Symphony that plays the sound for the TV and soundbar together at the same time, and that’s something that we’ve been pioneering for a few years. But overall, I agree, you have to have a decent sound experience, because without that, you’re literally, you know, you’ve, you got a great carb, you need to have great fuel to pull into it. If that makes sense, it’s, you know, closed in.

 

Dominic Smith  35:53

I would also say, like, you know, and we’re all seeing this, you know, as the trend with the media walls, so we’re all building these media walls in our homes, or new renovations, and you’re building this nice media wall, and you have, you know, nice areas either side of it, and it’s nice and streamlined, and the TVs to fit flush in this media wall, it can’t sit out beyond it, so that has an effect on backfire and down firing speakers and upfiring speakers, so you definitely would need to put a sound bar in with that, because you’re not going to get that experience at all if you go media wall and you ride on the TV, because when it fits flush inside, in that it’s like a box, so it’s going to be hollow. So their considerations I would suggest that people would take into account when they’re when they’re going to buy the new TV. Thank you, guys. Thanks for joining us on this Monday morning, and just to reiterate some very, very good offers for World Cup, there now, and some more coming, some new range coming in at the moment, which is great. A bit earlier than usual, because I guess the World Cup is the, is the big, even though Ireland, unfortunately, not in it, but we’ll all be watching. Okay, guys. Thank you very much for joining us today, and for your insights, we’ll chat to you soon. Thank you very much for listening to our podcast, and we’ll catch up with you shortly.

 

Voiceover  37:06

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