The IT Nerd

I recently had some of the backlights of my TCL 43″ TV fail. That gave me the opportunity to upgrade to a new TCL 50″ TV. But that still left me with what to do with the 43″ TV. Ideally I would like to get it repaired so that I could resell it and make sure that it didn’t end up in a landfill site. But I have had issues with TCL’s support in the past. In my review of the 50″ TV, I said this:

Now, before I wrap things up, I’d like to point out one thing about TCL. Their support in my experience has tended to not be that good based on my previous interactions with them. Though that was about 18 months ago and maybe they have improved things since then. I guess I am about to find out as I have a request into them to get my old TV repaired. But the reason why I am pointing this out is that a company who makes a product adds value to it by having good support so that if you need it, they can help you. Conversely, if a company doesn’t provide good support, it detracts from the value of the product. And because of that, I feel I feel it is important to let you know how a company is going to treat you before you put down your hard earned money.

Let me describe how my service experience went. First I filled out a form on their contact us page asking TCL where I could take the TV for repair. That was on Friday night. On Sunday afternoon I got a reply saying that TCL has no repair centres, and then the customer service rep. tried to walk me through resetting the TV as they felt that this was a software issue. I told them that I had done the troubleshooting that they were suggesting and reiterated that any suggestions that I could for a place to take it to repair would be welcome. But they didn’t offer anything on that front.

Undeterred, I called them the next day. The first time I called them I was told by an automated system that there would be a 13 minute wait. But I did have the option of requesting a call back. So I chose that option and hung up.

Three hours later, no call back. #Fail.

This is where I will point out to TCL that if you have a service that allows your customers to schedule a call back, you need to actually call them back or you look like you don’t care about your customers.

So I called back and got through in three minutes. I asked the customer service rep where I could take the TV for repair. The rep put me on hold as he didn’t know the answer. Then came back and told me that they didn’t have authorized repair centres. So I should take it to anyone who is “qualified” to repair TVs. I thanked him and hung up.

Some free advice for TCL. Not having authorized repair centres really makes your products look second hand when compared to compared to competitors who do. Not only that, TV sets should not be considered to be “disposable items” in an age where diverting e-waste from landfills is a thing. Thus you need to give those who purchase your products options in terms of repair so that the life of your products is extended. By doing that, it enhances the value of your products and how you as a company is perceived.

Since TCL said I was on my own, I did some research and came across an article which listed the alleged best TV repair operations here in Toronto. I contacted all of them via their contact forms, but the only one who responded via email was Action TV Repairs. A person named Harjinder responded in under an hour and gave me an address to bring the TV to. Which turned out to be his home in Mississauga ON. I handed the TV to his wife and within two hours I got an email from them telling me that I needed to replace all the backlights as they would all eventually fail and just replacing two would result in the picture having uneven brightness levels. Total cost: $250 all in. I told him to go ahead. Two hours after that he emailed me to say it was ready which blew me away in terms of how fast he was able to repair the TV. I picked the TV up the next day, but not before he demonstrated that everything was working. I paid him cash and I was on my way.

I was impressed by Harjinder and the level of service that he provided. If you need a TV repaired, I would recommend Action TV Repairs without hesitation. I’ve since factory reset the TV and I will putting ads on Craigslist and similar services so that I can find a new home for this TV.

So, it’s clear that TCL has some improvements to do on the customer service front. And if they wanted a model to copy, Harjinder form Action TV Repairs would be my choice for them to copy. He went above and beyond to get my TV repaired and I can’t thank him enough and I would recommend him without hesitation. So in this case, I guess that assuming that I can sell the TV, all’s well that ends well I guess.

Early this week my 43″ TCL Roku TV decided to misbehave. Specifically, half the backlight decided to die. Since the TV in question is 4 years old, I wasn’t surprised. So I took it out of service and I’m reaching out to TCL to see where I can get it looked at and how much it would cost to repair. Assuming of course it can be repaired. But due to the fact that I don’t know how long that will take, I decided to just replace it. And if it cannot be repaired, I will dispose of it responsibly. My requirements were simple, I wanted a Roku TV as my wife and I like what that platform offers. Plus I wanted some form of HDR beyond the edge lit HDR that the 43″ TCL TV had. So after looking around for a bit and a trip to Walmart, I got this:

This is the TCL 50″ Class 5-Series 4K QLED Dolby Vision HDR Smart Roku TV – Model 50S535-CA. That’s a mouthful. And in case you’re wondering what you’re looking at, I was watching a race bike build video when I took this picture. You can watch the video in question here if you’re interested as I find these bike build videos oddly satisfying to watch. This is a 50″ TV with a full array local dimming LCD panel. That’s important because on paper, it should give you a decent level of HDR because it can adjust the light levels of specific zones of the LCD panel to display darker blacks and brighter colours. More on that later. This TV is advertised as an “edge to edge” panel. But as you can see from the picture, it isn’t “edge to edge” as there are clearly bezels that you can’t miss. What I think TCL has done to make the “edge to edge” argument is extended the display glass to the edge of the display and is using that to call the display “edge to edge”. Which is a #fail as there are some people who will expect an “edge to edge” display, and get this home and be disappointed when they see it for the first time. I say that because there are TVs that can legitimately say that they are “edge to edge” and this is clearly not one of them. Thus I would suggest that TCL should yank those words from their marketing for this TV for that reason.

Let’s look at the connectivity that you get:

You get four HDMI ports. The fourth one is a eARC port which is where I plugged my TCL soundbar into. I plugged my computer that I use for Zwift into port number one and have two HDMI ports left over. You an Ethernet port, a cable/antenna port, a USB port, a analog AV in port for devices that connect using composite connectors. It does require a 3.5mm cable that was included in previous TCL TV’s, but is not included on this one for some reason. Finally you also get a headphone jack and a SPDIF digital audio optical cable connection. In terms of mounting options, it supports 200mm x 200mm VESA mounting options which is what I use. And there are additional screws for that in the box (though I used the one that came with my stand as they are longer). You can also use the included feet if VESA mounting isn’t an option for you. In terms of connectivity beyond Ethernet, it also comes with WiFi 5 (802.11ac) which is a shame because WiFi 6 (802.11ax) is the new hotness and all devices in 2022 should have WiFi 6 as far as I am concerned and it would future proof this TV to a degree. Having said that, WiFi 5 still works just fine for this TV for your streaming purposes. I’ll also note that there’s a Roku remote in the box. But you can also pair it with a Roku voice remote as well to give yourself some extra functionality. But keep the remote that comes with the TV as you’ll need it if you reset the TV back to factory defaults.

In terms of audio, this TV supports Dolby Digital Plus and has two built in speakers that utilize that. However while the built in speakers have decent audio quality, I will say that they’re really intended for those who want to make do with them until they get a soundbar or surround sound system as that will give the best possible audio. Speaking of which, this TV is able to route Dolby Digital Plus through my my TCL soundbar and I got great audio that way.

The real star of the show is the display. This is a 4K full array local dimming panel that supports a wide colour gamut (1.07 billion colours) which results in the panel having HDR10 (meaning it can hit 1000 nits of brightness) and Dolby Vision certification. The big difference between Dolby Vision and the HDR10 standard is that Dolby Vision uses dynamic metadata to tone-map the image on a per-scene or per-frame basis. This means that Dolby Vision content can adjust the brightness, color, and sharpness to better conform with the capabilities of the display. This results in a more “accurate” image that better preserves the creator’s intent compared with competing technologies like HDR10. Dolby Vision has a few other benefits, like support for up to 12-bit video at a peak brightness of up to 10,000 nits, although no displays are currently capable of such levels of brightness.

Now all of that sounds great, but let’s go into the weeds a bit with this specific TV. If you read this story on HDR panels, I said this about full array local dimming panels:

This is the next best option as this technology is much cheaper than OLED and produces great HDR visuals. It does that by having a number of “zones” for the backlighting system that can individually adjust to give you the level of light required to display the content as dark or bright as required. And the number of “zones” is what you need to pay attention to. I would say that if a display doesn’t have something north of 500 zones, you won’t get the same level of HDR quality as OLED. Or put another way, the more zones, the better the HDR performance. 

Now TCL on their website only mentions that this class of TV has “up to 80 zones” which I assume you get 80 zones if you spend the bucks to get their 75″ TV which is the top end model for this class of TV. Or put another way, there are less zones in play here on this 50″ TV. I am guessing that they don’t want to get called out on having less zones in their smaller TVs. Having said that, while this doesn’t reach anywhere near the levels of contrast of an OLED panel, it destroys edge lit panels rather easily and produces surprisingly good levels of contrast and brightness with minimal levels of blooming. By that I mean that you would have to find something like a space scene from a movie like Star Wars or something like that to find blooming, and you would have to look for it. But the bottom line is that anything that I tossed at it looked better than what I was expecting. Which given the fact that the panel has less than 80 zones to work with is impressive. For those of you who are control enthusiasts, you can download the Roku app and get into the settings of the TV to really tweak the picture the way you want. I’m not that guy so I didn’t do that.

Then there’s the motion clarity. Given that this is a 60Hz panel, it was surprisingly good as I couldn’t find any sort of tearing or motion blur. That’s likely due to TCL’s AiPQ Engine which “optimizes color, contrast, and stunning clarity for an unrivaled 4K HDR experience.” Thus movies and TV shows look great on this panel based on my testing. Having said that, even though this panel has a game mode, PS5 and Xbox One users should really look elsewhere as you want a 4K 120Hz panel with adaptive refresh rate support for the best possible game experience on those consoles. Ditto for PC gamers who care about high refresh rates.

Speaking of that game experience, my wife did an indoor ride on the Zwift platform to test that game experience out as this TV is connected to a Windows 10 PC with a Nvidia 1060 video card. She reported that the game looked even more realistic than before. So much so that on rolling hills within the game gave her video game related motion sickness much faster than with the old TV. A testament to the quality of the picture I suppose. For the record, we run Zwift at 1440p @ 60 Hz.

The TV uses the Roku platform and there’s really not much to say about it because it’s a relatively stable and easy to use smart TV platform that has a ton of streaming options including their own Roku Channel which has free watch on demand and live broadcast options. On top of that, this TV also supports HomeKit so that those of us in the Apple ecosystem like yours truly can leverage this within the home app to do things like turn off the TV automatically when everyone leaves home. There’s also AirPlay 2 support which my wife and I leverage to do Apple’s Fitness+. I will note that the implementation of HomeKit by Roku still has some rough edges around it. The most visible rough edge is that you can turn off the TV and it will show as “off” in the Home app. If you look at the Home app an hour or two later, the TV will show as on and being at the home screen. But the TV actually isn’t on if you physically look at it. In other words, the TV doesn’t always report its status to HomeKit properly. This issue has been around since Roku first rolled out HomeKit and they really need to clean that up as other TV’s with HomeKit support that I’ve seen don’t do that. Other than that setup was insanely easy as all your Roku selections are stored in the cloud, and HomeKit setup is just like any other HomeKit device. The total time for me to set this TV up was less than an hour which included mounting the VESA bracket for my stand to the TV.

Now, before I wrap things up, I’d like to point out one thing about TCL. Their support in my experience has tended to not be that good based on my previous interactions with them. Though that was about 18 months ago and maybe they have improved things since then. I guess I am about to find out as I have a request into them to get my old TV repaired. But the reason why I am pointing this out is that a company who makes a product adds value to it by having good support so that if you need it, they can help you. Conversely, if a company doesn’t provide good support, it detracts from the value of the product. And because of that, I feel I feel it is important to let you know how a company is going to treat you before you put down your hard earned money.

The TCL 50″ Class 5-Series 4K QLED Dolby Vision HDR Smart Roku TV – Model 50S535-CA goes for $589 CDN which is a good value given what you get. Sure it still isn’t as good as an OLED TV from a picture quality standard, but it beats anything it competes with. Thus keeping the quality of their support in mind, and a couple of the ways that this TV is marketed, I would consider this TV or one of its bigger siblings if you are in the market for a 4K TV with HDR support that doesn’t break the bank.

Apparently the Department Of Homeland Security is probing Chinese based TV maker TCL over accusations that their Android TVs have backdoors that facilitate data theft:

The acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the agency was assessing the cyber risk of smart TVs sold by the Chinese electronics giant TCL, following reports last month in The Security Ledger and elsewhere that the devices may give the company “back door” access to deployed sets, The Security Ledger reports. Speaking at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said that DHS is “reviewing entities such as the Chinese manufacturer TCL.” “This year it was discovered that TCL incorporated backdoors into all of its TV sets exposing users to cyber breaches and data exfiltration. TCL also receives CCP state support to compete in the global electronics market, which has propelled it to the third largest television manufacturer in the world,” Wolf said, according to a version of prepared remarks published by DHS. His talk was entitled “Homeland Security and the China Challenge.” 

As reported last month, independent researchers John Jackson — an application security engineer for Shutter Stock — and a researcher using the handle Sick Codes identified and described two serious software security holes affecting TCL brand television sets and would allow an unprivileged remote attacker on the adjacent network to download most system files from the TV set up to and including images, personal data and security tokens for connected applications. The flaw could lead to serious critical information disclosure, the researchers warned. Both flaws affect TCL Android Smart TV series V8-R851T02-LF1 V295 and below and V8-T658T01-LF1 V373 and below, according to the official CVE reports. In an interview with The Security Ledger, the researcher Sick Codes said that a TCL TV set he was monitoring was patched for the CVE-2020-27403 vulnerability without any notice from the company and no visible notification on the device itself. In a statement to The Security Ledger, TCL disputed that account. By TCL’s account, the patched vulnerability was linked to a feature called “Magic Connect” and an Android APK by the name of T-Cast, which allows users to “stream user content from a mobile device.” T-Cast was never installed on televisions distributed in the USA or Canada, TCL said. For TCL smart TV sets outside of North America that did contain T-Cast, the APK was “updated to resolve this issue,” the company said. That application update may explain why the TCL TV set studied by the researchers suddenly stopped exhibiting the vulnerability. 

In his address on Monday, Acting Secretary Wolf said the warning about TCL will be part of a broader “business advisory” cautioning against using data services and equipment from firms linked to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This advisory will highlight “numerous examples of the PRC government leveraging PRC institutions like businesses, organizations, and citizens to covertly access and obtain the sensitive data of businesses to advance its economic and national security goals,” Wolf said. “DHS flags instances where Chinese companies illicitly collect data on American consumers or steal intellectual property. CCP-aligned firms rake in tremendous profits as a result,” he said.

As far as I can tell, this is restricted to Android powered TVs that TCL makes. I have a Roku powered TCL TV that don’t appear to be affected. But this highlights the fact that if you put something on the Internet, smart or otherwise, it’s a risk. So if this concerns you, and if you have one of these TVs, you should unplug it from the Internet. Though these TVs never saw the light of day in Canada.