TCL 43S405 43-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2017 Model)
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Product Specifications
- Dimensions (W x H x D): TV without stand: 38.3” x 22.2” x2.9”, TV with stand: 38.3” x 24.4” x 7.5”
- Smart functionality offers access to over 4,000 streaming channels featuring more than 450,000 movies and TV episodes via Roku TV
- Pairs 4K Ultra HD picture clarity with the contrast, color, and detail of High Dynamic Range (HDR) for the most lifelike picture
- Direct-lit LED produces great picture quality
- 120Hz refresh rate allows fast moving action scenes to be seen with virtually no motion blur
Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 (one with HDMI ARC), 1 USB (media player), RF, Composite, Headphone Jack, Optical Audio Out, Ethernet
Product Description
Size:43-Inch | Configuration:TV only TCL, one of the world’s largest TV manufacturers in the world and America’s fastest growing TV brand, bring the latest in 4K technology and design. We’ve simplified the 4k Ultra HD TV so you can instantly enjoy endless entertainment. With HRD compatibility, choose from more than 4,000 streaming channels that feature 450,000 movies and TV episodes plus live sports, news, music, kids and family, food, science and tech, fitness, foreign language and so much more.
Product Reviews
I Play Video Games
Here’s the short version:If you grew up poor and can’t mentally justify spending a month of rent in urban California on a single television, if you’re poor as heck right now but could conceivably afford this television, if you’ve never owned a 4k TV, if you’ve never owned an especially large TV, you will not be disappointed by this gigantic freaking monstrosity of a display. It nicely upscales 1080p content, it has a nice frame rate, it has passable speakers you can hear the bass on, and as someone who is picky about delay to the point of 25ms being effectively unusable for music-based games I am very happy with the “game mode” option that removes the delay typically associated with HDMI displays. It is a good TV and everyone in my family, which includes two audio people and a visual artist, is extremely happy with it.The detailed version:Given the extremely low cost compared to similarly sized TVs it is surprisingly high quality.The remote is minimal, comfortable, and easy to use.Has a phone app in case you’re one of the many people who habitually misplace the remote. App does exactly the same things the remote does.The speakers kinda suck at low volumes, but it’s whatever. If you care about audio quality go buy some fancy external hookups. It’s good enough that I can bump the Thumper soundtrack and it’s still a decent listening quality. Actually plays tones below 200Hz and does so cleanly, so it’s better than most TVs I’ve had.It has a “game mode” that it claims will affect the picture quality, but does not noticeably do, and the lack of delay is such that it is not noticeable to me, a musician to whom 25ms of delay is unacceptably bad and unusable. I’m actually able to play Thumper on the Nintendo Switch with no problems whereas with my previous TV it was so bad that I opted instead to play on console with headphones. This is the feature that I love the most about this TV.The upscaling is such that on my gaming PC I saw no difference between 4k and 1080p when playing GTA5 (except for the frame rate when large distances or a large number of objects are visible, which is entirely due to the fact that I’m playing it on a GTX1060).It has a lot of service integrations, such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play Movies, and a few others.IT’S HUGE OH MY GOD I AM BAD AT CONCEPTUALISING PHYSICAL SPACE I DID NOT REALISE HOW BIG FIFTY-FIVE INCHES IS EVEN WHEN ESTIMATING ITS SIZE BASED ON MY EXISTING 40” TELEVISION I LITERALLY HAD TO REARRANGE MY ENTIRE ROOM AND BUILD NEW FURNITURE TO ACCOMMODATE THIS THING???????It’s surprisingly thin.Does CEC and has settings to automatically switch channels based on what just turned on.Lots of options for controlling and customising various aspects of the television including picture and audio correction, accessibility options including captions and spoken audio transcription (I have not tested the latter feature), and UI skins. You should absolutely poke around the options as much as possible once you get this as there are several options for things like the refresh rate of the display, which I imagine is relevant to a lot of people. (I am not intimately familiar with specifics of refresh rates, but I have seen no tearing or distortion from fast-motion visuals and things appear to animate smoothly.)Does some advertising for purchasing media through Roku, presumably to offset the cost of the device. It isn’t especially intrusive and only consists of movie posters in a small portion of the screen at very select times in one part of one menu.Does require a significant amount of opting out of certain things.Overall a fantastically huge, featureful, and good-looking TV for the cost.Regarding complaints I’ve seen in other reviews: My product did not show up broken, it has not stopped working despite extensive use since I got it, I have no complaints about the refresh rate, it displays 4k content over HDMI with no issues, they say it’s a glossy screen but it’s really just unusually and disconcertingly smooth and otherwise significantly less glareful and reflective than my previous television, it has effectively no inconsistencies with backlighting or colour (just a small spot that’s slightly brighter, which is only visible at extreme viewing angles or if the screen is effectively displaying nothing but black, and I don’t mean like really dark or a scene at night I mean like literally it is displaying the colour black over 50% of the screen, and only then is it noticeable from a front angle, and just barely at that).So if you’re one of those folks that buys artisan gold plated audio cables aged seven years in oaken casks, if you buy two of the Ti version of the latest nVidia graphics card because you absolutely need to run everything on “Ultra” at 120FPS in 4k, if you’re the kind of person who thinks Grey Goose tastes better, you probably won’t like this TV.If 10% not as good as the best thing for 1⁄4 of the cost is your jam, this is an amazing purchase. I freaking love my new giant TV.
Extremely happy with this purchase
I am shocked at the picture quality. I went into this purchase wanting a larger inexpensive TV for the master bedroom. So far I am floored, the picture blows away my Panasonic plasma I purchased several years ago (for 3x the price). The Roku OS is super easy, The antenna integration and USB storage for recording live programming are great.One small item I can nitpick is the white LED at the bottom center of the TV that remains on after powering off. I haven’t dug through all the settings yet, I will post an update if I can disable it. Update: The LED can be disabled in settings under power settings.If this set can continue to perform, I will replace my main Panasonic Plasma with the new TCL C SeriesThe pic is from a nature show “The Hunt” streamed from Netflix.I can’t imagine a better picture for the price point. That coupled with the Roku OS and I am extremely happy with this purchase
How to Get Blu Rays to Not Look Awful on this Great TV
I replaced a 100” 1080p projector, which simply due to the size of the image, I am going to miss, but this TV is spectacular for the money, although being a cinephile, I’d like some more advanced picture settings, particularly the ability to turn off interpolation. Out of the box, regular 1080p blu rays look AWFUL, but that is fixable as I will get to shortly. I won’t get into too much detail about the picture. There are other reviews for that here, and I agree with the positive ones, the picture is phenomenal for the price, but there is a bit of unevenness in the backlighting that only bothers me when the screen is mostly one color/shade.The real reason I’m leaving this review is to tell you how to fix what, to me, was almost a deal-breaking picture issue when playing native 24p content. I was playing a brand new blu-ray on my PS4 (not a UHD blu ray), and like any cinephile should, I have my PS4 set to output 24p signal when available (most movie blu rays). This resulted in horrible artifacting during fast motion and panning, especially in dark scenes. (Legitimately awful, I was about to send it back, but decided to sleep on it.) After some research and fiddling with settings, I found that turning the 24p setting off on the PS4 mostly fixed this, but I wouldn’t recommend that.The best solution that I found was to enter the Expert Picture Settings menu (using the Roku app on your phone), and to turn Noise Reduction to Off. My guess is that since this TV has a native refresh rate of 60hz, it is doing a 3:2 pulldown on 24p signals and attempting to guess and add 36 frames every second between the original 24 (which is standard for 60hz TVs), but then the Noise Reduction is seeing a lot of those artificial frames as “noise” and trying to smooth them. This is probably what is causing the artifacting and ghosting during motion. You’d think the software would ignore the artificial frames that the TV itself generated when it comes to noise reduction, but that doesn’t seem to be the case and the two functions collide into an absolutely unwatchable mess on screen.Don’t take my word for what looks best though. Try it yourself. Try it with just turning 24p off on your blu ray player. Try it with just turning Noise Reduction off. Try it with both. I liked it best with just Noise Reduction off, but everyone is different. I’ll be honest, if I hadn’t been able to resolve this, I would absolutely have sent the TV back and bought something with more advanced picture settings, albeit at a much higher expense. It was that bad.Hopefully this helps you.
This TV displays ads when you play a DVD.
This TV displays ads when you play a DVD. Let me repeat that. When you play a DVD that you own, on a DVD player connected to this TV, it displays ads.
An “OK” picture and a “semi-smart” TV.
Eh - it’s OK. Have had it for a few months now. Replaced a 4-yr old LG with failing LEDs. I find the Roku “smart” part a little constraining - as the Roku OS won’t play…
Couldn’t ask for a better TV, especially considering the price
Couldn’t ask for a better TV, especially considering the price! Only con is that the volume does not seem to get very high, however we have a sound bar that we use with it so this…
It has some drawbacks but is a decent television for the price.
Decent television for the price. The picture quality is fine. The remote is frustrating to use. It is tiny and lightweight making it difficult to handle.
Great
Really like this tv. Easy to mount on wall and picture is great. Price was lowest i found for a good 4k 55” tv.
I couldn’t be happier with the picture quality at this price point
I couldn’t be happier with the picture quality at this price point. Hands down the best value in a large screen 4k TV available today.
Good TV, great price, but suffers from dead pixels
Good TV, great price, but suffers from dead pixels. I’ve found four distinct clumps on mine. Luckily, at this resolution I can’t resolve them unless I’m standing within ~3 feet of…
Great tv for the price point. Works well in bright room.
So far, so good. Have had it up and running for a day now. Good screen clarity, nice picture, speakers work perfect for my living room/kitchen.
Four Stars
Great tv for the price
I purchased the TV in June, and the first …
comments powered by DisqusI purchased the TV in June, and the first few months the unit worked as expected. If I were to review the product immediately, it would have been five starsHowever, as…
