TCL - 98" Class S5 S-Class 4K UHD HDR LED Smart TV with Google TV

I love big screens. I had been using an ultra short throw projector for the last 5 years. I loved the projector for its perfect uniformity (no defects) and no reflections, but the blacks were a serious weakness. The immersion of a big screen trumped the weak blacks and I lived with the projector. I have other oled TVs, and ultimately I want a 110" oled for my living room, but pricing is still crazy high. I saw this for $3k and considered. Saw it drop to $2.5k and was tempted, then it went to $2k and I couldn't resist. The first panel delivered had banding issues (only showed up on brown or darker blue areas) and some uniformity issues on very dark screens. Best Buy replaced it and the second panel was much better. I am crazy picky about defects and the second panel is nearly perfect. Very mild lighter spots on black and near black screen. I can see it if I pause on a black screen with no lights, at night. I have always had tvs at the large end of the spectrum and uniformity has always been an issue. In this case, it is not a deal breaker. If you are going from a projector, the brightness and blacks are so far superior you will be very happy. If you are expecting this to have oled perfection, you will be disappointed. I am very happy with the purchase. FYI- this is an unusual VESA mount. Finding a bracket to handle the weight was not too hard, but the mounting pattern is unusual. I had to use "vertical vesa extender plates" purchased through a popular online retailer.

I purchased the TCL 98S550 before Black Friday for $2999 and was able to match the price when it dropped to $2499. On 1/22/24, I was able to price match the $1999 price for even more savings. I know TCL is probably clearing out their older models to make way for the new ones, but to get a 98" TV for less than $2k is amazing. I originally had a 110" screen and a Sony 295ES 4k projector. Unfortunately, I rarely used my theater room because it's located on my third floor and I have an LC 77" C1 TV in my first floor living room, so I mainly stayed downstairs to watch TV or play video games. After surfing YouTube one night and seeing an unboxing and review of this TV, I decided to sell my projector and put the money towards this TV. I was excited about not having to worry about a light controlled room, new HDR formats and Dolby Vision, and the ability to play my games at 4k@120Hz. Getting this TV to my third floor was definitely a chore. The delivery folks had to take the TV out of the box and then go out the front door just so they could angle the TV to go upstairs. I had to unscrew the railing on my second floor so they could swing the TV around and they then had to finagle the TV through the doorway leading to the third floor and up a narrow staircase! They were definitely sweating and took a few breaks. I offered them all the water and gatorade they needed, plus gave them a generous tip. Because of the size of the TV and the length of my center speaker, I had to build a custom TV stand using 2x10's. Once they installed the legs on the TV and lifted the TV onto the TV stand, I told them to power up the TV to make sure it turned on, and then I let them leave. Setup was breeze. I setup a Google Account and installed all the streaming apps I use. I ran a 25 foot HDMI 2.1 cable from the eArc HDMI output on the TV to the eARC input on my Marantz SR6014. Everything sounded great until I noticed an anomaly from the Dolby App on my Xbox Series X. For some reason, it didn't recognize Dolby Atmos and the app wouldn't even let me test tone the speakers because it said Atmos was not supported. So after some back and forth and research, I decided to replace my Marantz receiver with the Denon 3800. This allowed me to hook up all my equipment through the receiver and get 4K@120Hz from my Xbox and PS5. When I fired up my Xbox and opened the Dolby App, everything was now working fine! The picture far and away blows my old Sony 4k projector out of the water. Being able to have my lights on and still be able to view what's on the screen is a huge plus for me. Even though the black levels are better on the TV vs the projector, that is still one my complaint on this TV. When the lights are on, the picture is great and I don't really notice the black levels. However, when the lights are off, I can definitely tell that the screen is backlit and that the blacks are more dark grey. To counteract this and provide more contrast, I decided to install an LED light strip behind the TV, which tricks my eyes into believing the black levels are darker. All in all, this is an excellent TV for the price. I've started to use my theater room a little more which I'm happy about. Obviously I have a little buyer's remorse since the Hisense 100" came down in price to $4k, but it sold out pretty quickly. If you have the room in your house for a 98" TV and don't want to spend a fortune, you really can't go wrong. If you're a home theater aficionado who prefers inky blacks like an OLED, you might be better off investing a little more into a Mini LED or QLED set.

Our previous TV was a 75” Sony X950K that was coming up on 3 year sold. Great TV with zero issue and great IQ. It was just too small for the room. Our couch is 14 feet from TV and there is really no way to change that. I finally pulled the trigger on the TCL S5 and have zero regrets. Size is perfect now. IQ is very similar to the Sony. It did take some adjusting of color for each picture mode but I like the results. I have no criticism of this TV at all after week. We use the TV as a dumb TV doing our streaming through an Apple TV and a DirecTV DVR for mostly sports. No gaming yet. The whole experience is very immersive and makes a huge difference for some types of viewing. We’re very happy with the TV. Feels like a movie theater in our family room now. How this can sell for $2500 (on sale) is beyond me. Nothing about this TV seems cheap.