In this video we incorrectly state the TCL S546 supports 4K 120Hz and not VRR. In fact, the S546 supports 4K 60 with limited VRR capabilities due to HDMI 2.0b inputs. The TCL R646 6-Series does support 4K 120 and VRR. We regret any confusion created by the error.
Long time viewer of your content. Just wanted to let you know that I purchased the TV back in October and had MAJOR issues. However, I am pleased to report that the software update they just released fixed ALL of my issues and I am loving this tv now!
I bought this TV when it came out. It was indeed sluggish in the beginning, but the software updates have made it much more snappier. I compared this to my brother's $2000 LG TV, and the TCL interference is much faster now. I have watched movies, played games, I really have no complain. The only issue I have encountered is that sometimes in really black scenes or games, there have been some issues with the picture, like it was really dark to see. But nothing some tweaking in the settings wouldn't fix. For the price, I am content with the product
You’re literally the only reviewer I’ve seen that reported the glitches of the software. I see reviews on Best Buy that address it but RU-vid reviewers don’t. Idk why 🤷🏾♂️ But thanks for being thorough with reporting your experience.
Same! I got one a few months ago and I could not deal with it. Crazy sluggish, did not feel like a brand new tv. Feel like the tv was not capable of keeping up with the Software
I'm confused with the opening, as the S546 is 60hz with VRR, not 120hz without VRR. The gaming features are enabled through the HDMI menu settings (similar to Sony's setup).
@@TrumpsaTerroristChangeMyMind I'm really happy with it, especially for that price. I noticed my panel isn't perfect, there seems to be a bit of light bleed on the right side that's visible when watching something with black bars, but it's not bad enough to be distracting. The overall picture quality to me is very very good.
@@ScottGibbs yeah I got this for my fam and after playing with the settings like smart hdr local contrast adjustments on (most leggings out the box were off I flipped them on) and under brightness warm color was maxed😂 so I put it in the middle of warm and cool as it should be the picture looked significantly better without noticeable blooming deeper black levels and less greying of deep black colors
I like the 100% Vivid and natural colors despite its flaws. I’m still getting a Google TV because Roku has so many ads and you can’t place an ad blocker even if you try to disable ads on the secret menu.
Picked up the TV August 5th at Best Buy in Canada. Price match against a major online retailer. TV is now operating Google 11 and i have not encountered any issues after all updates. However we have used Firesticks for 3 years and the TV location at our home does not have a cable box. The Firestick apps include 4 major Canadian broadcasters so cable box is not required. TV has not had any picture adjustments and was excellent out of the box. Remote is adequate and does provide an onscreen pop up remote for connected CEC devices. It is not an LG Magic remote however. Only issue thus far is I cannot figure out how to power on my Pioneer receiver with the TCL remote, the sound volume is supported however. I did set up the receiver's TV input to HDMI with ARC on. The Receiver does show on the CEC page in the TV's settings menu. Not a big deal after the receiver is powered on with the Firestick the TCL remote does the rest. I watched RU-vid 4K beach videos and they were amazing. As well the movie on Disney Canada - The Prey - at the start displayed both Dolby Vision & Dolby Atmos. Thanks for all the reviews.
I just canceled the TCL 5 series and ordered a 75" Sony X85J after I saw this review. Thanks for the great review. You saved me countless days of this holiday in tweaking and exchanging TV's.
I'm about to do the opposite. I canceled my 75x90j order and looking to get the tcl 5 series. The X90j and all their xr models have motion issues as reported by QuantumTV. How's your experience with your Sony?
Got this for my mother 2 yeara ago and she couldn’t handle the smart tv. So now it’s in my bedroom. At first I couldn’t agree more with how glitchy the OS was and I almost did plug my google chromecast into it. Updates have fixed The glitches and it runs almost as smoothly as my QM8. Great TV for the bedroom now.
Caleb, I not only don't have to Google 'Captain Kangaroo' I'm old enough that I saw the first episode. I was all excited to see the guy who played Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody do this new character. Whenever I hear the show's opening song it still brings me back to those black and white broadcasts. Soupy Sales was another BIG favorite of mine.
Captain Kangaroo read my joke on air when I was a kid. I couldn't stop yelling I was so excited. Thanks for the tv reviews, very helpful! Keep up the good work.
Disable the Local Contrast and Micro Contrast features on this TV. It makes the TV incredibly sluggish while processing images. Especially those with black backgrounds or images that rapidly change from dark to bright.
I did also.. the 546 was slow sluggish and glitchy so I took it back and exchanged for the 646 with the updated computer solved all these issues.. it's like they tried to run the Google os on the same computer from last year they were running the Roku on and it wasn't able to handle it.. however the 646 runs it just great
Essential holiday watching: Home Alone, the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" animated (narrated by Boris Karlov or whatever his name is), and Lord of the Rings Trilogy (unrelated to Christmas but my favorite film series of all time).
I returned a TCL 5 series Google for a Hisense 65U6G Roku.I already own a TCL 65" 6 series Roku which is great but wanted to spend less for this TV. The 5 series took lots of fussing to get a reasonable picture and the Google menu required more scrolling for my use and seemed comparitivly sluggish. I am much happier with this budget Hisense over the TCL 5 both in image and for Roku.
@@mj85sg Very happy with this budget Hisense Roku over the TCL 5 Google. I think all of these skinny tvs can benefit from a separate sound upgrade. I had some old cheap computer sound system speakers with subwoofer that I connected to the headphone jack. Really helps the sound.
@@Red.exe7 I returned the TCL 5. I already have a 65" TCL 6 series which has very good color. I was not happy with the TCL 5 image or the Google TV it had and returned for the U6G Hisense 65" Roku. To my eyes the Hisense video seems closer to my TCL 6 series. I spent 10 days with the TCL 5 and was never really pleased but might have kept it excerpt for Google. Glad I switched. Hisense seems much better imo.
Yep, 646 sounds like a decent TV, though it might still suffer 480p problems although I'm able to manipulate 480/576p with my bluray player, so perhaps reserved for cable etc
These are now back on shelves at Best Buy. Hopefully with the many reported issues fixed. Can't find any updates from anyone that has reviewed this model though.
I like your reviews because your straight to the point. My Samsung tv. Is on the way out does so many things goes into mute can't change the volume crashes my internet. I'm not a Samsung fan I have bad luck with them.
I bought this 75 inch model. Netflix and RU-vid work well. Disney Plus is glitching. Hulu is okay. Overall, Google TV is sometimes sluggish. My biggest problem was in making the TV recognize a sound bar. I solved this issue by turning off the power, but it was just so annoying.
Great to hear my TCL 6 R635 isn't completely demolished. But can we please give it props for the "Gramma" setting not being locked away in a non functioning phone app.
My Hisense 50" TV with Roku gets me local TV . My Hisense 50" with Google TV does not get me local TV channels! Please note I have them in my Airbnbs' in Puerto Rico. I am sad that Hisense and TCL have both gone to Google TV. How can I get local channels or Roku TV?
The OOB picture quality was awful on the 5 series I got. I tried for almost a week tweaking it and finally gave up on the set. Disappointing since I have an older 5 series set that is great. I went with the Hisense U6, which I am really enjoying.
As someone who just purchased a Tcl S546 I can’t speak to the laggy or buggy os experience. My unit seems to be just fine. Maybe I’m lucky! The only thing this unit lacks is 120hrz hdmi 2.1 for gaming. But that’s not really a big deal for me. Thanks Caleb for the information on this tv along with all your other videos! Love the channel.
@@justlg3359 Hi Luigi, I used Caleb’s picture settings video for this tv to set it up. The colours look fine to me but I’m no calibrator. It’s bright, clear and crisp. I would definitely recommend this set with the caveat that your results and individual unit may vary. I’m so glad I did the research and decided on The TCL S546!
@@justlg3359 according to my research the Hisense U6G is a little brighter than the TCL. However the negative customer experience comments on Amazon are what helped me to make my choice. TCL and Hisense are sister companies however so I would think that the televisions are fairly close is performance.
I picked up the 65" roku model for 799$ on black friday. I wanted the google one but I'm using a fire cube anyways so I figured I'd save the extra 100$ then I picked up the Samsung b550 soundbar. I'm loving it.
Oh this is easy. Lord of the Rings. They came out in December when I was a kid so they are my favorite movies to watch around the holidays! My kids love them now like I did when I was their age!
Caleb 2 questions Is the series 6 with google tv as glitchy as this series 5? Do these TVs have bluetooth or another way to hook up wireless headphones? Love the reviews keep up the great work
I have owned the tv for 14 weeks. I will now confirm that I would choose the Roku operating system over the google OS as the unit I own has minor nuances. I have never encountered these nuances with my previous 6 HD/4K smart tv's. What I experience is slower connectivity and response to remote control actions. Yes, I do a restart for the tv once per week upon observing the sticking or freezing of an app. The unit does not coordinate 100% of the time with a 4k fire stick. I also connected a 2.0 HDMI cable to a soundbar. It actually takes 15 seconds for the audio connection. The message displayed on screen is "audio device connected" after 15 seconds. This is not a deal breaker but another branded tv connects to that soundbar in 1 second. That tv uses a 1.4 HDMI cable. Both cables are certified. In addition when scrolling the screen to select a program for viewing the action is slower than the fire stick or native OS of our other tv. We have never required a restart for that tv in 30 months. It is also a pain not to include a pause and play action button on the remote. Yes I can request hey google pause or play tv. Yes I was accustomed to a deluxe remote on the other tv. In summary the nuances remind me of yesteryear computers that had to be restarted a couple of times per week to permit a memory clearing reboot. The tv's picture sharpness and nice color display offsets the nuances. The pricing available in August, motivation for purchase, has not been repeated even during the early black month sales. Happy shopping and ensure the tv and the remote can be tested and compared to non Google OS tv's.
Slow and sluggish is TCLs issue with Roku also. Too bad, because they could really own this space. They should have two versions today, Google AND Roku. AND update the hardware pushing these OSes.
I wish tcl would release the same version worldwide, instead of different model names and leaving out certain functions from eu models, but pretending it’s the same! Or just straight up making certain models only available on a specific continent…
TCL really cut corners on the C725 and P725, by having two of their three HDMI ports be 1.4b. I was going to buy the C725, but the 1.4b HDMI ports was a deal-breaker for me. I bought the C825 instead for $150 more, which has 4 HDMI 2.1 ports and a 120hz micro-LED panel.
You mentioned several times in the video that this TV lacks VRR but supports 4K at 120 hz. The Rtings review says the exact opposite (that it maxes out at 60fps, but does support VRR). Do you know why their review has conflicting information?
If these were my options I'd get the Roku TV version with a Chromecast with Google tv. Best of both worlds. Also did you just say the gravity Blu ray is 480p? Or did you mean DVD?
Hi Caleb, You say in this video that the S546 is 120hrz for gaming. Are you plugged into the earc port? If so are you using an external sound bar ? If yes then optical audio (toslink)only? No hdmi earc for sound?
Hello there, I am debating between TCL Series 5 S535 with Roku TV and S546 with Google TV. Based on my preferred watched content (Streaming and Sports), my prerequisites are color and motion accuracy with brightness and android platform with low lags/glitches. Suggestions?
I have the 65'' S546 and the audio and the color accuracy might be bad out of the box but I found tweaking the setting to my liking to be very easy. I have never heard good audio from tv speakers so I didn't really care about that and I have surround system anyways. But the laggy and glitchy of the OS that you talk about I'm not seeing it, so I'm not sure if I just won the lottery on this one or what. honestly those statements are so true of the TV this new TCL replaced which was a 55'' Philips android TV made by Funai corp, remote that I have to double or triple press to get anything to happen and the weird stuff that just wouldn't work and the lack of overscan and picture warmth adjustment it was just all bad. This new TCL S546 is an absolute dream to run.
Reminds me of the LG 8200pla Nanocell i had in 2019, anything below HD was terrible bad upscaling (brilliant for gaming and movies), since then was an LG C9 and now the C1.
I have this TV and have been back and forth with TCL troubleshooting for weeks now. My main issue is the use of the TNT app I use to stream live NBA/NHL/AEW content. There is NO SOUND... Only on this app... Not through my soundbar, not through the TV. I back out and reboot and somehow there is sound only through the TV that has to be turned up to 70-100% to be barely audible. It's so inconsistent. I have no sound issues on any other apps through the internal Google TV I also don't have these sound issues on a Chromecast with Google TV or Amazon Firestick plugged into this tv... It is so annoying! I also have sporadic glitches with content loading slow, backing out of apps or shows, the same apps taking 2-3x as long to load as they do on my Chromecast Dongle!
I've owned this TV for a couple of weeks now and this is the first time hearing about this supposed 4k 120hz support. Is this some sort of error or am I missing something?
I’ve had a number of headaches with this tv. First, voice commands via google assistant didn’t work so well, the assistant overlay remained permanently on the screen and other issues. TCL sent me a new tv, which worked much better. But after a system update, audio stopped working for my optical connection for many, but not all my apps. Which means I have to use the weak tv speakers for most content. This is so strange. Pluto works. Amazon does not. NBA works, but Netflix does not. TCL’s modified Spotify app (when using voice commands to play a song) doesn’t work, but opening the full Spotify app does work. TCL dragged their feet for two months and finally offered a refund after initially saying they didn’t do that. I’m no expert when it comes to electronics, but I am competent. I’m scratching my head over the wildly inconsistent optical audio issues. Any thoughts on why some apps audio works via optical and others don’t?
Bought the tcl 65in roku 6 series a few weeks ago after doing weeks of research and landing on either the u8g or 635. Unboxed it, the remote never worked correctly and just stopped working after about an hour. The blooming was also extremely apparent and the motion was meh. Went right back to the store and decided to spend twice as much and got the 65inch a80j. It will be here tomorrow, and I'm super excited! Oh and like this 5 series the color on my 6 series was pretty shitty.
Top 3 movies Bridesmaids, the big Lebowski, and Deadpool are my top movies to watch on the holiday's 😀 and yes if everyone is wondering bridesmaids is my favorite comedy movie 🎬..
The biggest reason why I can never get a TCL again is because they cannot correctly play 25/50fps content via HDMI. Why is that important? There are so many British tv shows and movies on Netflix and Prime. When played on a device like the Chromecast or Nvidia Shield, it is an almighty mess. TCL just assumed we in America don't watch British tv shows. Idiots. My money is going to the X90J.
Thank you, Caleb, I think you do an amazing job in your reviews. I just bought the TCL 5-series with Google TV during Black Friday and I am not happy with the user experience, however, can admit I was more excited about the potential of the Google TV interface than Roku, and I like that there are some improvements (that you mentioned) on this one when compared to the Roku. Best Buy just pulled TCL from their store, and I am afraid of keeping this TV at home and these issues not getting better. If I am to return this, should I go for the Roku version? Or should I consider the Vizio M series or a Samsung (probably with lower quality as they are more expensive)? I am pretty locked in price so I would love to exchange this TV with nothing added out of pocket. Thank you for the help. Cheers.
Glitchy is just to be nice, it freezes and reboots its self and can’t even go to a different output unless it comes back from the glitch!! Also the google assistant doesn’t always work as it should, I get faster responses from my Amazon fire tablet that I got 3 yrs ago! Than the google option in this TV!! But oh well !! It’s a nice TV can’t wait for an update of software!!
I returned a TCL QLED850 (Which I think is the some-what equivalent in Scandinavia, but not as bright with 4K120 + VRR) here in my country because of the software bugs and the "unfinished" feel of the UI/UX in general. It froze up 4 times in just a few hours and I had to pull the plug for it to work again, ATMOS not working in D+, HBO Max or the Apple TV app etc. Shame really, as I really wanted to like it. All the HDR support you need with HDMI2.1 and so on, but alas the whole feeling of using the TV was not great.
