5.0 out of 5 stars Solid TV - Great depending on content and picture source.

2026-01-23    -mac_rmm

So far I am pretty happy with this TV. I am coming from a 55" LG B9 oled and sit about 10 feet away from the TV. At first, I was a little disappointed with the upscaling for YoutubeTV and similar streaming 720p or 1080p feeds. Some of that may be going from the 55" to 65" but sitting at the same distance. It has gotten better however and it really does seem to depend on the quality of the feed, not necessarily the TV itself. Some channels or shows look really really good. Some can be grainy with motion. Just depends. On any other content (for instance streaming 4k, Dolby Vision, etc) the TV is tremendous. It is indeed very bright and can really "pop" if that's what you're looking for. Again, it really depends on the content.Coming from an OLED, I have yet to tell much difference at all between the blacks here and OLED-level blacks. There might just be the faintest amount of blooming that I can notice but that just might be my eyes. It gets plenty dark with very "inky" blacks.I would recommend upgrading the firmware when you get the TV to version V201, which can be found on the Avsforum page for this TV. Everyone there says that is the best firmware and made a big improvement on motion handling with the TV. I installed it immediately upon getting the TV so don't have anything to compare it to, but again as of now I am pretty pleased with the picture quality as long as the source is solid.The google TV interface is pretty fast and responsive so far. 64 gb storage internally is plenty to install lots of apps. Ethernet is only 100 mbps so may want to get a 1gb adapter for the USB 3.0 port - that's what I am doing. I am debating about trying a Nvidia Shield Pro to see if it can upgrade the upscaling at all but I don't think it will be a major upgrade.I have not used it for gaming at all but would assume it would look great with lots of pop, similar to what you would see with HDR or dolby vision content.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Value

2026-02-11    -Butchboy

Purchased the 65" QM8 on Prime day and am not disappointed. The colors on this thing are fantastic. The darks are dark and the colors are vivid. It is the first time I have ever seen skin tones on a tv look like actual skin. The colors are spot on and there is plenty of room for preferential adjustments. The brightness is off the charts but can easily be scaled down if desired.The sound is good, but not great. It's better than any other TV I've had, but nothing to write home about. I guess it's as good as one can expect coming out of the TV. I hooked my TV up to an old AV receiver instead and get great sound.Google TV is fine. I keep it in "apps only" mode to avoid all the ads and viewing suggestions that clutter up the screen (though they aren't as bad as some other streaming OS's). The only problem is that the DirecTV streaming app is also nearly inoperable due to its lag (up to 30 secs per button press), but all other apps are peppy and responsive. This is a longtime known issue for DirecTV from what I understand. For the few times I use DirecTV, I flip over to an old, cheap Roku I had sitting around.I like the integrated ASTC 3.0 tuner. In my area, there are 6 NextGen stations that I view. Flipping to the OTA tv is easy as a single button press and OTA is nicely integrated into the TV. Also, using the Sofabaton U2 universal remote, I can type in channel numbers when viewing OTA, but the TCL does not accept the "." button for channels like 2.1. It's weird that the TCL tv accepts channel numbers but the TCL remote itself doesn't have any numeric buttons.One small gripe I have is that the remote seems to be both partially Bluetooth and IR. Programming the universal remote, I had to combine the Bluetooth and IR functions in order to get it functioning properly. Not a big deal once I figured that out, though it took me some time.Overall, I love this tv and am very happy with this purchase and would make the same purchase again.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing value, fantastic picture quality - and you can make it a dumb TV if you want

2026-03-01    -Christopher Beaugrand

This was a birthday gift to myself, and so I decided to spend more than I might have on a TV. But it was well worth it. Having had several TV’s in this size range, but more towards the “budget” end of the price range, the difference is significant. The black levels on this TV are amazing, and the brightness is fantastic. It seamlessly adjusts based on room brightness so that it’s not blasting us at night but is easily visible during bright sunlight.One of my biggest concerns with this TV was the ability to turn off as many of the “smart” features as possible. I have an external Roku box and when TCL dropped Roku in favor of Google, I was quite upset until I realized that you can set up the TV without the Google services. During initial setup, just choose “Basic setup” and after the setup is complete and your TV has auto-updated, you can either block it on your router or change the WiFi info so that it can’t connect to the internet – instant dumb TV. I can still use my Roku Ultra box connected to HDMI1 and everything is great. That was the first part and it was easier than I thought. The second part – turning off all of the picture enhancements – wasn’t quite as easy. My wife hates any kind of motion enhancement, it provokes extremely strong “soap opera effect” vibes and she won’t watch it. With this TV, I was able to lock my Roku box in 4k HDR mode and then tell the TV to be in “PC” mode where it doesn’t do any motion enhancements. This works very, very well. It still does 1080p upscaling and smoothing so 1080p (and lower, I have some 480p movies as well) look better than they ever have, but no motion smoothing, frame interpolation, or anything like that.My only disappointment with this TV is the TCL remote. I use an old Logitech Harmony remote to control my AV equipment and TCL only has limited options. I can’t directly choose HDMI1, for example, or directly choose Picture Mode “PC” or even directly power on or off – only power toggle. Because I will be using this TV myself, it shouldn’t be a problem, but if the input got changed by accident or the power got out of sync with what the Harmony thought it was, it could be really annoying for someone else to try to fix without the original remote (which is put away in a drawer). Even my old Yamaha receiver, I can directly select which input, which DSP effect, and lots of other options directly.But, that is a relatively small issue. The picture quality is fantastic and that was what I really wanted. For the price (it was 40% off when I bought it) – I don’t think anything else comes close.

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid TV - Great depending on content and picture source.

2026-01-26    -mac_rmm

So far I am pretty happy with this TV. I am coming from a 55" LG B9 oled and sit about 10 feet away from the TV. At first, I was a little disappointed with the upscaling for YoutubeTV and similar streaming 720p or 1080p feeds. Some of that may be going from the 55" to 65" but sitting at the same distance. It has gotten better however and it really does seem to depend on the quality of the feed, not necessarily the TV itself. Some channels or shows look really really good. Some can be grainy with motion. Just depends. On any other content (for instance streaming 4k, Dolby Vision, etc) the TV is tremendous. It is indeed very bright and can really "pop" if that's what you're looking for. Again, it really depends on the content.Coming from an OLED, I have yet to tell much difference at all between the blacks here and OLED-level blacks. There might just be the faintest amount of blooming that I can notice but that just might be my eyes. It gets plenty dark with very "inky" blacks.I would recommend upgrading the firmware when you get the TV to version V201, which can be found on the Avsforum page for this TV. Everyone there says that is the best firmware and made a big improvement on motion handling with the TV. I installed it immediately upon getting the TV so don't have anything to compare it to, but again as of now I am pretty pleased with the picture quality as long as the source is solid.The google TV interface is pretty fast and responsive so far. 64 gb storage internally is plenty to install lots of apps. Ethernet is only 100 mbps so may want to get a 1gb adapter for the USB 3.0 port - that's what I am doing. I am debating about trying a Nvidia Shield Pro to see if it can upgrade the upscaling at all but I don't think it will be a major upgrade.I have not used it for gaming at all but would assume it would look great with lots of pop, similar to what you would see with HDR or dolby vision content.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Value

2026-02-19    -Butchboy

Purchased the 65" QM8 on Prime day and am not disappointed. The colors on this thing are fantastic. The darks are dark and the colors are vivid. It is the first time I have ever seen skin tones on a tv look like actual skin. The colors are spot on and there is plenty of room for preferential adjustments. The brightness is off the charts but can easily be scaled down if desired.The sound is good, but not great. It's better than any other TV I've had, but nothing to write home about. I guess it's as good as one can expect coming out of the TV. I hooked my TV up to an old AV receiver instead and get great sound.Google TV is fine. I keep it in "apps only" mode to avoid all the ads and viewing suggestions that clutter up the screen (though they aren't as bad as some other streaming OS's). The only problem is that the DirecTV streaming app is also nearly inoperable due to its lag (up to 30 secs per button press), but all other apps are peppy and responsive. This is a longtime known issue for DirecTV from what I understand. For the few times I use DirecTV, I flip over to an old, cheap Roku I had sitting around.I like the integrated ASTC 3.0 tuner. In my area, there are 6 NextGen stations that I view. Flipping to the OTA tv is easy as a single button press and OTA is nicely integrated into the TV. Also, using the Sofabaton U2 universal remote, I can type in channel numbers when viewing OTA, but the TCL does not accept the "." button for channels like 2.1. It's weird that the TCL tv accepts channel numbers but the TCL remote itself doesn't have any numeric buttons.One small gripe I have is that the remote seems to be both partially Bluetooth and IR. Programming the universal remote, I had to combine the Bluetooth and IR functions in order to get it functioning properly. Not a big deal once I figured that out, though it took me some time.Overall, I love this tv and am very happy with this purchase and would make the same purchase again.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing value, fantastic picture quality - and you can make it a dumb TV if you want

2026-01-09    -Christopher Beaugrand

This was a birthday gift to myself, and so I decided to spend more than I might have on a TV. But it was well worth it. Having had several TV’s in this size range, but more towards the “budget” end of the price range, the difference is significant. The black levels on this TV are amazing, and the brightness is fantastic. It seamlessly adjusts based on room brightness so that it’s not blasting us at night but is easily visible during bright sunlight.One of my biggest concerns with this TV was the ability to turn off as many of the “smart” features as possible. I have an external Roku box and when TCL dropped Roku in favor of Google, I was quite upset until I realized that you can set up the TV without the Google services. During initial setup, just choose “Basic setup” and after the setup is complete and your TV has auto-updated, you can either block it on your router or change the WiFi info so that it can’t connect to the internet – instant dumb TV. I can still use my Roku Ultra box connected to HDMI1 and everything is great. That was the first part and it was easier than I thought. The second part – turning off all of the picture enhancements – wasn’t quite as easy. My wife hates any kind of motion enhancement, it provokes extremely strong “soap opera effect” vibes and she won’t watch it. With this TV, I was able to lock my Roku box in 4k HDR mode and then tell the TV to be in “PC” mode where it doesn’t do any motion enhancements. This works very, very well. It still does 1080p upscaling and smoothing so 1080p (and lower, I have some 480p movies as well) look better than they ever have, but no motion smoothing, frame interpolation, or anything like that.My only disappointment with this TV is the TCL remote. I use an old Logitech Harmony remote to control my AV equipment and TCL only has limited options. I can’t directly choose HDMI1, for example, or directly choose Picture Mode “PC” or even directly power on or off – only power toggle. Because I will be using this TV myself, it shouldn’t be a problem, but if the input got changed by accident or the power got out of sync with what the Harmony thought it was, it could be really annoying for someone else to try to fix without the original remote (which is put away in a drawer). Even my old Yamaha receiver, I can directly select which input, which DSP effect, and lots of other options directly.But, that is a relatively small issue. The picture quality is fantastic and that was what I really wanted. For the price (it was 40% off when I bought it) – I don’t think anything else comes close.