TCL 75R617, 75" 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV, 2019 Model

I wanted to spend a little time with the TV before writing a review. Now that I have had an opportunity to really give it some attention I can say that I am very pleased. First off, the reason you are reading this review is to know one thing. Is this a good 4K TV at this price point? The answer is an unquestionable YES. This TV is a good TV at any price point to be honest and the fact that it is so affordable only sweetens the deal. I should stress however that I have not owned a 4K tv before or had much time viewing any besides models set up in stores. I admit that I am a 4K newbie so with that in mind you could argue that seeing any 4K image at all would be impressive to me. To an extent that may be true but I did my homework and research on this one before purchasing and I can definitely say that the professional and customer reviews were all accurate. This truly is the best 4K picture you can get for under $1000 right now. So what makes it so great? Let's address the picture quality first. Out of the box the first thing you will notice is how vibrant the colors are. The tv applies these amazing colors to anything you happen to be watching. HD, 4K, video games - heck even SD sources look amazing if for no other reason than the colors. Where the TV really shines though is when viewing a 4K source with HDR or Dobly Vision (this tv supports both) applied. Breathtaking doesn't even begin to describe it. One of the first things I did was pull up some HDR demo videos on Youtube and was immediately blown away. Videos running in 4K look good to begin with, but when you watch one with HDR it truly is spectacular. This tv can get very bright and also handles blacks very impressively. So when HDR is applied you get deep, rich shadows and darks and very intense brights. Not to mention the color intensity is simply stunning. The fact that this tv supports Dolby Vision is another huge plus. Between Dolby Vision and HDR I find Dolby Vision to be the superior format. It isn't so much about trying to stun you as it is just subtle image enhancements in regards to color and lights/darks. Dolby Vision was a must have for me when shopping for a new tv because I planned to watch movies more than anything on it and I love what Dolby Vision does for films. There are plenty of settings so it may take you some time to tweak them to your liking. Once you do however, be prepared to be very satisfied with everything you watch. The Roku software is flawless and I have nothing bad to say about this tv's operating system. I have also seen some reviews that say that if you look at this tv from the side too far then some picture loss is noticeable. Personally I have not seen this happen but then again I do not have a large room and have not had to view anything from one extreme side or the other. I have also read that some sets have bad dirty screen effect. I must have been lucky in my panel since I have not noticed any issues with this either. I ran a dirty screen effect test video from Youtube and only barely noticed some small black areas here and there. To be honest, this is a problem that is simply part of owning an LCD tv, it may be impossible to eliminate it entirely simply because it is the nature of an LCD set. If I have to complain about anything it would be about the remote. It is just a little small for my tastes, but then again, Roku remotes have always on the small side. Other than that I honestly have no real negatives or gripes about this tv at all. Some have said that the sound from the tv speakers are not very good but I use a surround sound system using the very convenient ARC from the tv so I have not tested the tv speakers at all. Bottom line, this is an amazing tv at this price point and I highly recommend it.

I’ve waited a few months to write this review. This TV replaced a 2012 Panasonic 50” HD plasma in our living room. After getting a XBOX One X, I convinced myself I needed a 4K tv to take full advantage of the XB1X’s capability. While overall I am pleased with the performance of the tv, there are some things I miss about my plasma. When playing UHD games on the XB1X, the graphics are amazing. I could tell a huge difference over the plasma’s HD graphics. The LED screen is also much brighter than the plasma, which I knew even when I bought the plasma. For utilizing the UHD capabilities this tv did exactly what I thought it would do. I’ve always liked how plasma TVs look. When I watched tv at someone’s house who had an LCD/LED, I could tell a difference in the fluidity. I’m not a tv guru, so I don’t know the word, but the movement of the people looked like I was watching them in person. It doesn’t have that cinema or movie movement. A plasma just looks much more fluid, especially in high movement scenes. I believe a plasma has superior refresh rate over LED, but again I’m no guru. Regardless, when watching fast paced, high movement HD tv shows, I’m not overly impressed compared to my plasma. However, I think that would be the case for any new led tv I bought, and not specifically this one. I have been able to minimize this effect customizing the settings. I use the cinema preset for most tv watching and just adjust the brightness as needed. I will say I can see a difference in how the tv tries to “upscale” the graphics of standard HD content. For normal tv shows without a lot of fast movements the image is much better compared to the same program on my old tv. The internal speakers are ok. I had an older sound bar that used an optical cable. I plugged it up initially but there was a slight delay in the sound. I unplugged it and have been using the internal speakers. I plan to get a new sound bar and utilize the HDMI ARC. I was concerned about the vertical screen lines and corner screen issues others have expressed. I can barely see the vertical lines on a solid white screen, but for normal tv watching I cannot see them and it does not interfere with anything I’ve watched. I did see the corner fading initially, but it seems to have improved over time. And again when watching tv, I don’t even notice it. I also like the built in Roku app. We do not stream and watch DirectTV mostly. But we’ve liked having some of the free content on the Roku. There are some apps our kids watch on the iPad that they can now watch on the Roku. Overall I’m very pleased with this TV.