JVC Fire TV Edition 40'' Smart 4K Ultra HD HDR LED TV

For a 49" 4K HDR TV at £299, this is amazing value. If you want the best value 4k tv around, this is probably it.Is it perfect? - No but it will probably be good enough as a main tv for many homes and a cracking 2nd/bedroom/office tv, even for those with a premium brand main tv like me.I already have 2 top draw 55" 4k tvs, the Panasonic CX802 (arguably the best tv from 2015) and the LG OLED E6 (arguably the best tv from 2016) but wanted a 3rd tv for my office, as my daughter has now got my older HD tv in her bedroom.In addition to the JVC Fire TV Edition, I considered the (50") Hisense B7500 (£349), the Phillips 7 and 8 series (c. £500) and the Panasonic GX 800 (C. £600). I have no doubt that the Panny and Philips have a superior picture but they both have poor SMART functionality and Philips tvs have an inherent issue with washed out HDR. The Hisense is also pretty basic in its SMART functionality and unlikely to be much better in terms of picture quality, as well as reported lip sync issues. So, I took a punt on this one, admittedly with some trepidation, as I am quite picky when it comes to audio/visual stuff.I need not have worried, as this has a surprisingly good picture, very good sound for a budget flat screen tv and the Fire TV OS is on a par with LG's WebOS but without the irritating lip sync issues that tend to plague LG tv video apps.The only issue of particular note I have had appears to be with the Fire OS when playing 4K HDR content. It appears to stretch the processor, RAM and storage to the limit and can cause picture stutter and freezing with Amazon Prime content and slow Fire OS response. Clearing the cache in the Amazon Prime app under settings and/or rebooting the tv resolves this and it is best not to use the menus too much when playing this content e.g. to check picture and sound settings). Hopefully, a firmware update may resolve this going forward.I am also a bit disappointed the tv does not appear to handle the HDR 10 plus format, as Amazon Prime has recently started using that, rather than Dolby Vision. However, the HDR 10 plus videos in Prime do play in standard HDR 10 instead, so you are still getting HDR, just not quite as good. Probably a cost issue and could possibly be upgradeable through firmware at a later date, as the fire tv cube has it.Below are my more detailed comments on the tv and set up, as the manual may be large but doesn't explain what a lot of the settings do.Picture QualityPretty good out of the box, with the movie setting being the most accurate. However, I have done a basic calibration by tweaking the contrast, brightness, backlight, colour etc., which has improved the picture further. The picture does not "pop" with vivid colour like some high end tvs, particularly with sub 4K sources, but I found the colours to be impressively accurate and natural for a tv at this price. The greens (least important) are the only area that it struggles with a bit, as do most budget tvs. The image is very good indeed when fed a 4K HDR source, which gives that extra "pop", regardless of whether the HDR type is HDR 10, Dolby Vision or HLG.Upscaling to 4K - adequate but not the best.Black levels - surprisingly impressive, particularly if you tweak the picture settings properly (mine is a VA panel but I understand these are shipped randomly with either VA or IPS panels - VA panels have better blacks). Understanding a little of how VA and IPS panels are manufactured, I imagine you may be more likely to get a VA panel with the 40" and 49" and least likely with the 55" but I can't be sure.Viewing Angle - very limited. Anything slightly off central viewing results in faded colours, the more off axis you go, the more faded the picture. However, it appears to retain colour accuracy pretty well off axis and is certainly watchable. If you get an IPS panel, this should be much improved but at the cost of poorer blacks. I prefer the better blacks and ensuring I don't watch at an angle.Motion handling - the tv does not have any motion interpolation to remove judder and blur, which is a common feature of most other tvs. However, this feature rarely works without adverse side effects and many switch it off, so not a loss for me. I have found the motion during action scenes and fast sport to be very acceptable, particularly at this price level, although if this is something that really bothers you, you may wish to look elsewhere.Backlight Functionality - this is a fairly basic direct lit LED tv, so there is some backlight blooming and you can sometimes see individual lights on in some scenes. However, I was expecting much worse at this price and I imagine it will be perfectly acceptable for many people.Picture SettingsThe auto backlight works quite well but, if you switch it off to try to get a better picture for your room, the backlight automatically sets to the maximum of 100 and the picture, particularly in dark scenes, will look awful. For all non-HDR content, you need to drop the backlight to somewhere between 40-55 in my experience. I have mine at 45 in a lower than average brightness room. When HDR kicks in, the tv automatically recognises this and resets the backlight higher, as this is needed to properly experience HDR. Don't worry, though, as the picture does not suffer similar problems when in 4K HDR. It looks great, even in a darker room.There are several picture modes but I found movie to be the most accurate and best for viewing.You can get more vivid images out of the picture by turning up the colour control to around 70 but this will be at the cost of colour accuracy, which starts to reduce around 52-53 on my set. Mine is set to 52.You need to set backlight (unless using auto modes), brightness and contrast according to your particular room conditions but, for what it is worth, I have mine set to 45, 51 and 48 respectively.The sharpness control appears to do virtually nothing, even with a calibration disc/slides I could see no difference between min or max settings. I wouldn't worry too much about this, though, as professional advice is usually to switch it to zero anyway.Colour temperature - I have mine set to warm but cool, standard and user all look fine too and and can be customised.Picture format - for best PQ, use auto mode.Advanced picture settings - the tv provides a full suite of calibration options, should you wish to fine tune your picture further but I would advise not playing with these unless you know what you are doing. However, also included in this menu are a few picture "enhancements" that you may want to experiment with, as purists would switch all these off! In particular, I have switched off adaptive luma control, local contrast control and blue stretch. I have left on both noise reduction functions (to reduce picture noise in various situations) and have these at "auto" and "low" respectively with no noticeable detrimental effects.I recommend setting DI Film Mode to "auto", as this will ensure films display with the correct frame rate.There are game and PC modes that should only be switched on, if you are gaming or connecting to a PC.HDMI RGB should be set to auto but may need to be set to full when connected to a PC only.HDMI input mode - leave at auto unless you get no picture, in which case switch to 1.4 (non UHD sources) and 2.0 for UHD.You need to set each input separately and can't copy over settings automatically across all inputs. Also, there appears to be no way of adjusting the picture settings for the tv's own inbuilt apps at all, only the external inputs such as HDMI. I would normally be concerned about this but, having watched a variety of content in different apps on the tv, it all looks really good, so Amazon have probably set this up pretty well themselves and tried to keep this simple for users.Sound QualityI was very surprised at how good the audio is on this tv. The advertised spec promotes its DTS HD and Virtual X capabilities and completely ignores its Dolby audio capability. In standard Dolby (smart) mode, the tv has a good, balanced sound with clear dialogue (further dialogue enhancement options also available) and, surprisingly, the tv was able to play the Dolby Atmos soundtrack from Jack Ryan, indicating it may have (unadvertised) Atmos capability. I tried the DTS Virtual X (a pseudo atmos-type effect) and this certainly added some real dimension to the sound but at the cost of some vocal clarity. All in all, this was a real surprise, as I was expecting to need to buy a soundbar but am happy to do without. Lip sync has been absolutely fine with all content, from the tv or via HDMI. it doesn't do deep bass, of course.Fire OS - apart from the resolvable glitch mentioned above, it is one of the slickest systems around on a tv. Really good.Build quality - uses cheap, slightly flimsy plastic but overall seems to be fine. My top bezel was slightly loose but has no detrimental effect. I am very happy for the price.

This tv is a great buy in my opinion. We wanted a new tv for our bedroom, and we definitely wanted smart features. I was using a separate device for smart features like Netflix, but that obviously means 2 remotes and 2 devices always plugged in etc. I had been looking at other more expensive brands, but was captured by this when it flashed up on sale at Amazon due to the integration of Fire tv. (We got the 40” at £249). We subscribe to Prime so we will get the benifit of Prime Tv. Plus all the other smart apps like Netflix and Spotify etc all rolled into one device. So I have fired it up and after connecting to our Home Wifi it proceeded to check for an update for the software which it downloaded and installed with no issues. I then signed into my Amazon account and was up and running with all of the smarts. The interface was very snappy and impressive. Scanning for normal tv channels was a breeze. I wanted to test the picture in 4K and it is great. I streamed from Prime tv to test this. So called experts may see things that normal people don’t, but it was a lovely picture in my opinion, and the colours are nice and bold. The remote is very nice and feels very good quality. It is curved on the bottom, and fits to the shape of your hand brilliantly. Using the play/pause, fast forward etc on the remote works great with the streaming services. Alexa works on the remote by holding the speaker button as you speak and she behaved brilliantly. (You have to have an Amazon account for this). I asked the obvious questions about weather etc and she always answers. I tested her by asking to turn on my Alexa enabled kitchen smart speaker which see did straight away. So basically, for the cost of this, plus the saving that you are making by not needing a separate smart box/stick I just think it is great value. It feels a good quality, and even though it might not be the most striking out there in terms of looks, it is definitely modern, thin and the bezels are pretty small. You can’t go wrong with this in my opinion.

I brought this tv for my mum as she is used to the fire stick and can easily use the interface.There are literally no professional reviews of this tv going around just sales blurb. I read that this is a Curry’s tv as they own JVC who use poor quality displays manufactured in Turkey. I found that a bit disconcerting. I was worried that what your paying for here is just a 4K fire stick integrated with the cheapest possible display. But that is not the case. I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised.The display is impressive for this price range. And holds its own with other more prestigious brands. I tested the first episode of Hunters on amazon prime, one of the first scenes is at night outside a theatre with lots of fluorescent lighting. This popped nicely on this HDR display.You often hear that HDR and Dolby vision isn’t that noticeable on cheaper displays with low nit brightness, but it is at least noticeable (270 nits here), which is an achievement I guess. But obviously it isn’t going to compete with higher end models. It’s adequate, satisfactory for the money I would say.On black background you can make out the edge lighting of the panel, there is some noticeable bleeding at the corners of the display. But this isn’t noticeable playing content.4K content looks excellent though. Blacks are strong and I doubt this tv has local dimming but for example, Every star in the background of Netflix’s ‘The Search for Life in Space’ are pin sharp with no light bleed around the edges and details are crisp and vibrant.Build quality is decent enough, the stand is solid but there is no swivel.Sound isn’t too bad, It’s clear with limited bass but I didn’t expect anything else tbh.Overall I’m Not disappointed. Would recommend.