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We are sometimes requested for tv suggestions, and it is getting tougher to justify why somebody ought to spend large bucks on a serious model in India. There was a time when the perfect options and efficiency had been strictly the area of premium TVs, however the price range section has since defied such expectations. In the present day, many manufacturers provide inexpensive televisions with large 4K screens, sensible connectivity, and help for HDR. Indian model Vu has gone a step additional with the Cinema TV.
Priced from Rs. 26,999 onwards, the Vu Cinema TV range is, to the perfect of our information, probably the most inexpensive TV vary with help for Dolby Imaginative and prescient HDR at present. There’s much more to those merchandise as nicely, with 40W sound output, the most recent model of Android TV, and apps for all the favored streaming companies in India. On paper, all of this sounds nice, however is it too good to be true? Discover out in our evaluation of the Vu 4K Cinema LED Android TV.
Vu 4K Cinema LED Android TV design and specs
First off, the Vu 4K Cinema TV is obtainable in three sizes – 43-inch, 50-inch, and 55-inch – with all of them having 4K decision LED-backlit screens. We had the 50-inch 50CA variant for evaluation, which is priced at Rs. 29,999. The 43-inch and 55-inch choices are priced at Rs. 26,999 and Rs. 33,999 respectively. Your alternative of which one to go for ought to rely solely on the scale of your room and the quantity of area you’ve for the TV – all three have precisely the identical specs, with the plain exception of display measurement.
No matter what display measurement you decide, the design is commonplace throughout all variants. There are skinny borders on three sides of the display, whereas the underside is considerably thicker to make room for the 4 front-firing audio system. Slightly below that could be a module that homes the IR receiver for the distant and the facility mild. The left facet of the speaker grille has a Vu emblem, whereas the correct has a Dolby Audio emblem.
We fairly appreciated the gold accents and black-gold color mixture of the physique, which give this TV a singular look that can attraction to lots of people in India. The included stands for table-mounting the TV are gold as nicely, though we did not use them as we had the tv wall-mounted throughout our evaluation. In the event you do table-mount the TV, you will want a large desk because the stands are close to the perimeters of the TV.
The Vu Cinema TV is not too thick, but it surely is not a slim tv both. The again is apparent black plastic, and all ports and sockets face to the left. There are three HDMI ports; two USB ports; an Ethernet port for wired Web connectivity; an antenna port; a TOSLINK port for digital audio output; a 3.5mm audio out socket; and a single AV enter which requires using an included 3-to-1 adapter for connectivity to older standard-definition supply units.
The tv has a 4K (3840×2160 pixels) LED display with a refresh fee of 60Hz. You get 40W of sound output by way of a four-speaker setup comprised of two major 15W drivers and two 5W tweeters. Dolby Audio and Dolby Vision HDR are supported on the TV, and brightness is rated at 500 nits. Moreover, HDMI ARC and Bluetooth 5 are supported. The TV has 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of inside storage for apps, and an unnamed quad-core processor. The 50-inch variant we had for evaluation weighs 9.6kg with out the stands, which is sort of mild for a TV of its measurement.
Vu 4K Cinema LED Android TV distant and options
The Vu Cinema TV has some primary options which can be frequent to all Android TV units, corresponding to built-in Chromecast performance and Google Assistant. The previous lets customers display forged from cell phones or tablets on to the TV, whereas the latter permits you to management the TV and choose content material utilizing voice instructions. The microphone for Google Assistant is on the distant, though you’ll be able to hyperlink the TV to a Google Dwelling system and use it for voice instructions as nicely; this technique labored for us as anticipated. You additionally get HDMI-CEC compatibility on the Vu Cinema TV.
The distant that comes with the Vu Cinema TV seems to be attention-grabbing. It matches the black-gold color theme of the TV. It is not among the many finest remotes we have used with regards to construct high quality and really feel, but it surely definitely obtained the job achieved with none hassle. It makes use of Bluetooth in addition to IR, and has controls for all the things we might presumably want, corresponding to Android TV navigation keys, a D-Pad, a quantity pad, a Google Assistant button, playback controls, and buttons for settings and data.
The Vu Cinema TV’s distant has hotkeys for Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Google Play Motion pictures. We regularly discovered ourselves utilizing them, despite the fact that stepping into these apps is not too arduous from the Android TV interface itself.
The distant runs on two AAA batteries, that are included within the field. All the pieces labored as anticipated, together with voice recognition and the power to make use of the distant with out it being pointed on the TV (after it has been turned on, after all). Whereas different producers are going for minimalism with their remotes, we do respect Vu sticking to a extra conventional one. It might not look as modern as some others, but it surely’s rather a lot simpler to make use of and faster to get issues achieved on the TV.
Vu 4K Cinema LED Android TV software program and interface
The time period ‘sensible TV’ is a broad one, and usually refers to any TV that may connect with the Web to entry content material. Among the many higher software program implementations we have used on sensible TVs is Android TV, an working system and interface developed by Google. The Vu Cinema TV vary runs on the most recent model of Android TV – model 9 – with the inventory Android TV launcher and entry to all well-liked apps and companies on the platform.
Some apps corresponding to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube come pre-installed on the tv, and help 4K, Dolby Vision, and HDR streaming the place relevant, assuming your subscription plans and Web connection help high-resolution streaming. Different apps might be downloaded by way of the Google Play Retailer for Android TV.
Android TV’s app catalogue is rising rapidly, and yow will discover official, well-designed apps for a lot of the well-liked streaming companies accessible in India, together with Hotstar and Zee5. There’s additionally an enormous listing of video games, and brief video suppliers corresponding to Pink Bull TV and Fb Watch. All of the apps that we tried on the Vu Cinema TV labored nicely, and had been straightforward to navigate with the distant.
Whereas all of the settings for the TV might be accessed by way of the Android TV dwelling display, image and sound settings might be adjusted even whereas taking part in particular content material by way of an app or when utilizing an exterior supply system, one thing we significantly appreciated. As we have seen on different TVs with Dolby Imaginative and prescient, the Vu Cinema TV did lock some image settings when Dolby Imaginative and prescient was energetic, since this mode units its personal image settings.
One other helpful characteristic is the ‘fast wake’ mode, wherein the TV will solely go into standby when the facility button on the distant is pressed. Which means restarting the TV is near-instantaneous generally. In any other case, it takes round a minute or so in addition up the TV whether it is switched off.
The software program expertise of the Vu Cinema TV was wonderful for us, with responsive controls, no lag or stutter, and no efficiency points throughout our evaluation interval. Moreover, the shortage of an extra launcher UI above the inventory Android TV interface made for a clutter-free, straightforward utilization expertise, and one that will not want you to depend on exterior streaming units for entry to good on-line content material.
Vu 4K Cinema LED Android TV efficiency
Inexpensive televisions nowadays are, no less than on paper, changing into ok to be thought-about on par with premium choices, however lots of them fall brief with regards to efficiency. That stated, the Vu 4K Cinema LED Android TV punches above its weight, providing image high quality that we’ve not seen earlier than at this worth level.
It definitely is not on the identical degree as choices that price twice as a lot, but it surely does exceed the efficiency of another sub-Rs. 30,000 tv we have used to this point. Some key parameters the place it did significantly nicely are colors, sharpness, and brightness.
For our testing, we began out with the absolute best content material we might play on the TV – 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient. Beginning with the Adam Sandler starrer Uncut Gems on Netflix, we had been impressed with the brightness and color accuracy of the Vu Cinema TV. Daytime scenes within the jewelry district of mid-town Manhattan had been vivid, and captured the essence of New York’s concrete jungle successfully. Pores and skin tones and brightness had been additionally on level, with the TV successfully differentiating between vivid and darkish zones in the identical body.
Daytime colors and vivid scenes had been as soon as once more wonderful once we watched Night time On Earth, a brand new nature documentary miniseries on Netflix. Nonetheless, this present is targeted on what goes on at evening, and that is the place the TV’s first main downside surfaced – black ranges. The Vu Cinema TV struggled to provide deep blacks, and evening scenes with quite a lot of black zones appeared extra like darkish gray. This additionally signifies that distinction is affected a bit, however no less than with this content material, Dolby Imaginative and prescient’s 12-bit HDR encoding did make up for that to an extent.
The primary episode of season 2 of Narcos: Mexico appeared nice on the TV, however we did discover some points with movement when watching the present. Quick movement did not render prefer it was imagined to, even with all movement processing settings switched off, and this led to jitter and a few artefacts on display. Light movement wasn’t an issue in any respect, and we fairly appreciated how the Vu Cinema TV carried out with set-based exhibits corresponding to The Workplace, and a lot of the movies we watched on YouTube.
We then watched an episode from the second season of Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime Video, to check efficiency with 10-bit HDR. It wasn’t fairly as vivid and colour-accurate as Dolby Imaginative and prescient content material, with colors that appeared only a bit exaggerated, however efficiency was nonetheless wonderful. The 4K content material made for a pointy, detailed image that was nice to look at even from up shut.
This tv has a rated brightness of 500 nits, and it was certainly considerably brighter than different TVs we have reviewed on this worth vary. This was significantly helpful when watching TV through the day, with the home windows open, and made for a vibrant and gratifying expertise when used for Dolby Imaginative and prescient content material. The Vu Cinema TV did not get fairly as vivid or detailed as high-end TVs, however positively exceeded our expectations contemplating its worth.
Decrease-resolution content material, whereas naturally not as spectacular to look at as 4K HDR content material, was passable nonetheless. Some fuzziness was seen in full-HD video, significantly within the darker scenes of season 2 of The Purge on Amazon Prime Video. Points with movement had been much less noticeable at full-HD, however positively current.
Black ranges had been significantly poorer with full-HD and standard-definition video than with Dolby Imaginative and prescient and HDR content material. Nonetheless, that apart, colors had been first rate sufficient, sharpness was as we might anticipate, and the viewing expertise was acceptable. Some standard-definition video that we streamed by way of Hotstar and the NDTV app for Android TV did present some artefacts as a result of high quality of the streams, and we discovered that SD content material on YouTube was a bit cleaner to look at.
The Vu Cinema TV exceeded our expectations not solely with regards to the display, but in addition the sound. With 40W of output by way of 4 front-firing speaker drivers, the TV delivers spectacular audio and may get very loud. The audio system produce a soundbar-like large sound, with good tuning that makes for clear voices, and crisp soundtracks and results. The shortage of devoted woofers does imply that the sound lacks in thump, however that is made up for by a very good soundstage and sense of route. Watching content material with Dolby Audio sound was a bit higher, giving the TV a greater sense of route and character.
Verdict
The Vu 4K Cinema LED Android TV checks quite a lot of containers with regards to options and efficiency, and does so at a really aggressive worth. No different TV in India (that we all know of) will give you Dolby Imaginative and prescient at this worth, and this alone makes the Vu Cinema TV our present prime decide for lower than Rs. 30,000. Even the 55-inch variant – priced at Rs. 33,999 – could be wonderful worth, on condition that it gives extra by way of options than its closest priced competitor, the Mi TV 4X 55 (Review).
This tv is not good, with sub-par black ranges and jittery movement throughout resolutions. Nonetheless, it does get the fundamentals proper with regards to image and sound efficiency, and the superb Android TV software program and interface is the icing on the cake. In the event you’re on the lookout for an inexpensive feature-filled TV, that is positively value a glance.
Value: Rs. 29,999 (Vu 50-inch 4K Cinema LED Android TV 50CA)
Mi TV 4X vs Vu Cinema TV: Which is the perfect price range TV in India proper now? We mentioned this on Orbital, our weekly know-how podcast, which you’ll subscribe to by way of Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or simply hit the play button under.
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