Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Hisense U8H has many problems that caused me to return the product. I bought the U8H because of reviews saying it is "Bright" and the Mini-LED VA panel has "Blacks" that are very dark. Those things were true; however, the U8H suffers from many other problems - and has all along. These problems have never been solved, and never will be. Some of them cannot be solved - such as the inferior technology used for the panel that is based on "8-Bit plus FRC" technology rather than the "True 10-Bit" technology used by Samsung, LG, and Sony. This "Plus FRC" technology used by Hisense and TCL creates a "Rainbow Effect" that some people (including me) see, and it is very disturbing. It reminds me very much of the days of DLP TV sets where there was a similar type of "Rainbow Effect" that some people (including me) could see. In the early reviews of the U8H on reliable places such as RTings, it said the U8H had glitches and problems with things such as Dolby Vision and Netflix, and also the gaming suffering from a problem where the vertical resolution was cut in half when gaming at 120hz. RTings said Hisense was aware of those problems and planned to eventually fix them with firmware updates. Most of those particular problems were solved, although other problems were sometimes created. For example, the one firmware update created another glitch in one of the HDMI inputs. People wondered from the start if Hisense was going to attempt to fix some of the other glitches that reviews talked about. Hisense never promised to fix those particular glitches the way they did the glitches they claimed they were aware of dealing with Dolby Vision and Netflix. For example, the RTings review points out that the U8H has TERRIBLE problems with "Stuttering" while watching Blu-ray movies running at 24 frames per second. I can tell you this is definitely 100% true. No form of firmware update has fixed this yet as of January 2023, so it is obvious no form of firmware update ever will fix this problem. You can easily see an example of this "Stuttering" problem if you go to a local store where all the TV sets are on display. I eventually saw the Hisense U8H at Best Buy sitting next to the Sony X90K and the X95K, and the Samsung Q90B, and the TCL Class 6, and several TV sets from LG. Each of them were playing the same stream of movies. The Samsung and Sony TV sets did not display "Stuttering," but the Hisense U8H did have very noticeable "Stuttering." The LG TV sets actually had the worst "Stuttering" of all. This was particularly noticeable in the new Doctor Strange movie that was on display. The Sony TV sets had virtually no noticeable "Stuttering." But the Hisense U8H showed "Stuttering" in multiple spots - even in scenes as minor as showing Doctor Strange simply rotating his head. The other problem the RTings review talked about was "Shimmering." This was obvious on the U8H, but not on the other TV sets - exactly as the RTings and Digital Trends reviews said. One of the other problems with the U8H that people wondered about all along was if the weakness in "Processing" would ever be fixed with firmware updates. Unfortunately, these problems have never been corrected, and obviously never will. For example, the "Digital Noise" option can be selected, but it never does anything visible to eliminate digital noise. The U8H also suffers from problems with "Posterization" and "Macroblocking" from the various Gradients. These problems are caused by the TERRIBLY INFERIOR technology that Hisense uses in the UH8 and TCL uses in the Class 6 for their panels, which is called "8-Bit plus FRC" rather than using "True 10-Bit" technology for the panel. The Hisense U8H and TCL Class 6 TV sets only have access to a small fraction of the colors available in "True 10-Bit" TV panels. But what is worse is the U8H has such weak "Processing" power that the "8-Bit plus FRC" panel is not capable of processing correctly and ends up with "Gradient" errors and "Posterization" errors and "Macroblocking" errors. A good example of what I'm referring to was seen at Best Buy when all those TV sets were next to each other and Gran Turismo was shown on display on all the TV sets. A person who had never seen that game and didn't know what the game was "supposed" to look like would never think anything was wrong. But when you see the game next to the other TV sets, you realize how the game is "supposed" to look and you realize why the U8H from Hisense has "Gradient" problems with Posterization. The Samsung Q90B and Sony X90K and X95K show colors in Gran Turismo that look "smooth" and "gradually" go from a dark color to a light color so that it looks like it is a 100% perfect transition from "dark" to "light." But with the Hisense U8H, you don't see a "smooth" type of "gradual transition." Instead, with the U8H, you see the colors shift from a white, to suddenly being a darker white, to suddenly being a grey, to suddenly being a dark grey, to suddenly being a light black, to suddenly being a black. It is not "smooth" and not "gradual" at all with the transition. The reason for this is because of the "8-Bit plus FRC" panel that is used, which is inferior technology. The "Viewing Angles" of the U8H are also TERRIBLE. As the RTings and Digital Trends reviews say, the moment you start to get off center so that you are not looking directly at the TV, you start to see the shades and tints of the colors change in ways that are not accurate. In fairness, this also happens with the Sony X90K and even the far more expensive Sony X95K. This did not happen as much with the Samsung Q90B, though. But, it was so bad that I decided I would rather have an IPS panel with Mini-LED to improve the "Blacks" rather than having a VA panel with such terrible viewing angles. The LG Class 83 sold at Best Buy (which is just a renamed version of the 2021 Class 90) actually does not do a particularly good job with the viewing angles considering it is an IPS. But, the LG Class 85 2022 model does do a good job with having high-quality blacks and excellent viewing angles due to the fact that it is an IPS panel and has Mini-LED for lighting. My hopes were very high for the Hisense U8H. I have talked with other people who bought the U8H and returned it. Everyone has said, "I would have gladly paid a couple hundred more dollars if Hisense would have just used a 'True 10-Bit' panel, used some technology to improve the viewing angles of the VA panel, and used some technology to improve the "Processing" so it did not experience problems with 'Stuttering' and 'Shimmering.'" I hope Hisense can fix those problems for 2023. The prices for those Sony, Samsung, and LG TV sets are out of my range, so I didn't buy anything for 2022. I guess I will just have to wait until 2023 to see what is available and hope the prices aren't too high for me. This will be my third year without a decent-sized TV set, because my 70" Sony broke two years ago. I want to wait to get a good one, because I hope it lasts a long time. Best Buy charges WAYYYY TOO MUCH for their insurance, so I won't buy from Best Buy. I want a TV of at least 70", but I'm not willing to pay over $1,500. These TV sets simply don't last as long as they should anymore. That 70" Sony one lasted only four years. It's a good thing I had insurance on it. The reviews were correct that the TV gets "Very Bright" and has "Blacks" that are "Very Black." But there is a HUGE PROBLEM. If you are watching a Blu-ray at 24 frames per second, it DOES NOT MATTER HOW BRIGHT OR BLACK something is, BECAUSE IT WILL be "STUTTERING"!!! Hisense needs to understand that you cannot build a skyscraper with 100 floors without building a solid foundation first! Hisense needs to make sure their #1 priority is to build a TV set that DOES NOT have a problem with "Stuttering." And Hisense needs to make sure their 2023 TV sets forget about this inferior "8-Bit plus FRC" technology that causes a rainbow effect seen by some people. Hisense should ONLY be using "True 10-Bit" technology in their TV sets.