My TCL TV is garbage and they won't let me return it.

[Sargasm]

I bought a TCL s434 largely based on Linus' review saying its a great budget option.  It has horrible hard-edged blotches on brighter parts of the picture when they move. It took me 2 months to get TCL to replace it, and the replacement has the same problem. Another 3 month of emailing them pictures and videos, and now they are claiming it only shows up in recordings, which is completely untrue. They won't give me my money back or replace it again, and I made the mistake of buying it from Best Buy and they don't take returns after 30 days. I am trying to warn as many people as I can to avoid TCL at all costs. I included a picture if the tv and a screenshot of what that picture is supposed to look like.

[NTDaws]

I don't buy cheap tv brands because of these reasons. Cheap components and electronics. 

[Dedayog]

I've got a 55", my gf has the 50" and 4 other people I know have them.  All without issue. Are you watching it as a monitor on your PC? How does it look just streaming Netflix or Amazon?

 

11 minutes ago, President Dawson Wehage said:

I don't buy cheap tv brands because of these reasons. Cheap components and electronics. 

Very helpful, and the reviews across the board for TCL are very good.  For the price, it's a great option.

 

For the price, what did you expect?  

[Sargasm]

What I don't understand is why the reviews are so good when I managed to get two trash ones in a row.

[Dedayog]

Just now, Sargasm said:

What I don't understand is why the reviews are so good when I managed to get to trash ones in a row.

What model do you have?  That may be something to it.  Some size and model years may be better than others?

[Sargasm]

 

1 minute ago, Dedayog said:

I've got a 55", my gf has the 50" and 4 other people I know have them.  All without issue. Are you watching it as a monitor on your PC? How does it look just streaming Netflix or Amazon?

 

Very helpful, and the reviews across the board for TCL are very good.  For the price, it's a great option.

 

For the price, what did you expect?  

I was expecting a cheap tv but not complete trash. did u see the video? its worse than my cheap 8 year old tv,

 

[Sargasm]

 

Just now, Dedayog said:

What model do you have?  That may be something to it.  Some size and model years may be better than others?

55s434 (55" 4 series android version)

[NTDaws]

Have you tried using different apps? It looks like you had you're PC plugged into it. I doubt that's the issue but it's possible.

[Dedayog]

25 minutes ago, Sargasm said:

 

55s434 (55" 4 series android version)

I have the 55s423.  TCL 55" Class 4-Series 4K UHD HDR Roku Smart TV - 55S423 | TCL

 

I wonder if the HDR isn't coming thru properly?  I know PC's and HDR don't always play well, but I'm assuming that's a PC feed which It may not be.,

[Sargasm]

It happens on HDMI from multiple computers and my phone, streaming from my home media server, playing from USB, and streaming Youtube videos. Generally I use it as a pc display, but I have tested every input I can. It happens with HDR turned on or off. 

[Sargasm]

Specifically what happens is when a dim part of the screen gets brighter ,either because a brighter thing is moving, or because something is flashing, it flashes way too bright with hard edges in between frames. It doesn't do it when it's paused, only as it loads a new frame. Here's a slowmo video it advancing 1 frame while it's paused.

[Donut417]

Looks like an HDR issue with the computer. I only say this because my 1440p monitor supports HDR and when I had it enabled on my MAC my background had issues like you had in your first pictures. I would disable HDR on your PC and see if that makes a difference. 

 

As far as the reviews go, I did check out rtings.com for info on that TV. The reviews are good, but looking at the individual categories, you can see this is a budget set. While TCL is considered a good budget brand Ive been looking at TV's myself and will probably end up with a Samsung or LG as they have some of the best TV's and picture quality.