Soniq S14A Series

Good enough I guess – Our first introduction to a Smart TV, but it's not really all that smart... we never use the web browsing feature because it's slow and clunky, and there's not a lot of compatible apps other than YouTube and eBay. We haven't used the 3D feature either. The picture quality is OK, not spectacular, but it reflects the price I guess. Having to charge… Read more

the remote is pretty annoying too, but at least we only need to do this every 2-3 months. But for a budget TV that we're still using as our primary TV without issue 4 years later, we can't really complain. I'd be happy to buy a Soniq TV again.

Good quality 3D TV reasonably priced – This was one of the few 3D smart TVs I could find left on the market & it was available for a reasonable price. Built in speakers are serviceable, the unit has enough ports, but navigation through the smart TV functions can be very slow and clunky. I have managed to get the unit to do what I want with a minimum of headaches & it is really great to… Read more

be able to watch both standard TV & DVDs in 3D! The only annoying issue is a repeated message "Mstarlauncher has stopped" which forces you to stop watching your program, go to the TV remote & hit OK in order to dismiss the message from the middle of the screen. This error message can crop up every 10 minutes or so, which can get very irritating. After reporting it to Soniq, the issue seems to have settled down, so fingers crossed! Otherwise I am generally very happy with the purchase.

Ok picture – Bought this because my 3D tv died after a few years But the picture has blotchy colour and motion and it said 100hz but that it was wasn't . They made up,some term 100hz backlight 100hz means smooth motion ... this is hasn't . Inputs play up on this and my past soniq but it's the odd time  Show details

Don't turn on – This is my second TV in two years first bought March 2014 didn't work after 8 months I have replacement from JBHiFi. The second TV didn't want to turn on after 18 months called the shop in Macquarie Center to be told I should get a new tv. I call also SoNiQ they offer trade the faulty one if I did paid for an older version the price was ridiculous expensive. Don't buy this brand no matter how cheap the current offer is.  Show details

Slow remote, but good value for money – I was told by JB as the product was under $500, is only covered for one year. Slow to respond to remote, especially when turning on. However, very reasonable picture quality for the price, though I regret somewhat not buying a more expensive TV at the time of purchase. Overall recommended, as good value for money.The word "scam" in my user name does NOT refer to this product or JB Hifi but to a previous review about Smile Bar.  Show details

Stay far away from Soniq and Jb hi fi – After using for a while it turns on when ever it wants. Once turned off cant turn it back on. At times will go back on hrs later sometimes never. This is by far the worst TV ever i have purchased. Never ever again Sonic. Pay the extra $100 or so and purchase a different brand or you will be throwing your money in the bin.

Excellent Value – PIC It has an incredible picture, though there is some typical light bleed noticeable when the screen is black, but correct pic setting - so the black areas still have some lightness necessary so as not to eliminate shadow detail always evens this out. The colours also look flawless most the time but to my ugly surprise, in a dark scene their… Read more

smoothness (apparently backlit TVs make gradients smoother) turned to ugly blocking and colour banding (where two adjoined colours do not blend seamlessly, but you see the difference like a band).

The service menu shows it is 24 bit colour (about 16 million colours) which is probably standard for all HD TVs. I think 4K has deep colour. So probably all TVs do this in dark scenes but mostly it all looks so smooth. So I forgive it.

Strangely DTV over scanned even more than the standard of other TV's, as all the ugly watermarks are utterly cornered.

I fixed this in Overscan in the service menu.

CONTRAST

It has good contrast but beware: What makes subtle dark shades black is when you use any infernal pic preset all half-blind TV manufacturers use. Which is a contradiction as they always now, finally after many decades, get the colour temperature right - so black and white is B&W, not blue & white as it always used to be too blue on tube TVs. Now grey is grey with no tint.

With the pic you need to do opposite to them, and lower contrast, heighten brightness until the blackest is just above darkest. Then all shadow detail is seen.

Brightness at about 65, contrast at 20 or 30 unless pic is needed to be brighter.

Contrast then determines the brightness without affecting black.

Lessen colour until natural.

Any TV will black out dark detail otherwise.

SONIC use an LG panel, and it is super-fantastic in everyway. So bright, detailed, and contrasted. I imagine it is all but impossible to make a bad picture these days, due to LCD.

Colour banding and artifacts

I kept looking for colour banding especially on foreground out-of-focus objects or people where it can show most, but all skin tones remained smooth. No blotchy anything except in the 24bit colour limitation in some dark areas. Maybe other sets or more expensive ones overcome this, but it barely is a bug you can see. Usually it looks flawless, like looking at film.

Otherwise the HD is immaculate.

The SD which any TV has to upscale is the best any TV can do, and so you can see it will not be as perfect but sometimes surprisingly, even SD such as news, ads, local programs, can appear almost as HD. When it is maximum sharpness so at full potential. Too often programs don't do this, so appear blurry.

100Hz

This was my biggest disappointment.

When does 100Hz not mean 100Hz? When it's 50Hz.

Yep, it is just the backlight scanning which is 100Hz, that supposedly reduces jitter, and may improve contrast. I am unable to notice it. Still better in than out.

By turning the brightness down significantly, it significantly reduces jerkiness as less light or energy has to be changed.

The 100Hz is LG's TruMotion. So possibly all is LG.

3D

To my surprise, the passive 3D (no battery needed for glasses) has a flawless 3D picture with no cross-talk (where the ghost of one side's image is seen on the other). Only when I forced myself to look for it, did I see it once only when it was a white against black.

Flawless except the over saturated forced pic preset on 3D that ruins it.

I complained to SONIC who gave me the service code to adjust that and all pic presets, being extremely careful in that mode not to touch anything unknown.

Even in passive 3D, where each side is actually half the vertical resolution, the jagged lines on anything straight are not that noticeable, though looking closely and comparing to normal HD, they are and are probably double.

Passive's other drawback is that lines can become noticeable when too close. Closer than 3 metres, though it seems like 2 metres, on a 47 inch.

2D TO 3D CONVERSION

The 2D to 3D conversion would be fantastic if they did not force a slope making foreground come out, and upper background go in - on everything. It has a huge range of adjustment for depth, and 3D viewpoint which enables 3D to be distant or close. When set at 0 or closest, it enables depth to go in and out the screen.

Yet the up side is this can make for outstanding effect, such as on a roads, sports, many other things, making the foreground come out even more. There just should be an option to have slope off.

Unlike PANA-SONIC's which on their blu-ray player anyway just has the distance or viewpoint, and their safe option of no depth control, which is a shame. And when level with the screen they turn 3D off so you can't even have it at the obvious optimum position. So it must be set at 1 where it only all comes out slightly.

EPG

This always is a serious one.

As usual in my experience, you have to select the channel to get the schedule for that channel.

It rightly fills the whole screen, is bold, beautiful, and baby blue as the menu plus has a white border, looks as smart as the outer TV, and is fun to use.

With the TV pic showing what channel is on, you can see the program list of selected channel.

Press EPG button to cycle channel, programs, info.

Info is squeezed a bit in a box and shows instantly what program you scroll down to.

You can change the day.

INFO

Or NOW NEXT also boldly and neatly fills the whole width just at the very bottom, obscuring as little of the pic as possible yet having nice big writing.

You can scroll up or down if needed, and next or previous.

REMOTE

The remote - simplified on one side, complicated on the other - is not so restricting as I thought.

Press the green HOME button and the set-up screen neatly flies up into space, and you enter TV land. Press OK and you have a full channel list you can navigate to.

It too looks smart and the buttons are solid, though saving money it seems by having less buttons due to the keyboard overleaf. On the other side, it is good not to have to contend with the annoyingly complicated remotes you can never either remember all the buttons for nor see in the dark.

Oh yeah. This is a strange remote too in it has an on/off switch! Don't forget to turn it on! Plus a USB dongle to plug in. It's in the quick start guide.

NET

I don't connect it to the net, so no comment.

FRILLS

Who says you don't get cheap frills?

This TV actually comes on pretty quick. No 15 minute wait. Err second. And I love the splendid red and black SONIQ start up screen with a pleasing cheap trill of music.

But alas, it then forces you to see the CINE-VISION logo for a while, though it also looks good.

The manual is in the TV!

You can select artful wallpaper!

The black border under the screen shown on pics is not there unfortunately, just at the other 3 sides..

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CONS

No Super-video input is a downer as I can't plug in my PS2 with that. Odd they got rid of that these days, keeping inferior composite.

The black frame around the edge of the picture isn't at the bottom.

PROS

This set is worth the price just for the fantastic 3D.

The keyboard at the back of the remote can be used to enter channels, ha.

CAUTION

Be very careful not to ever touch the screen while picking it up or moving it. It might damage it.

Had worse – Not really a smart TV but good picture and size for the price. haven't been able too achieve 100hz on this panel only 60. Came with 3yr free extended warranty just had to register on there website been working for over a year now. can't use youtube and some other apps unable to install google play services

Terrible . Don’t buy – Just after 6 months purchasing this TV, the screen got frozen and didn’t respond to any commands. I had to take the TV back to JB hifi where they accepted the TV and sent it for an authorised repairer. I received a case ID to monitor the progress online but I found this is useless as the repairers don’t update the progress. After 3 weeks, I… Read more

finally called JB Hifi to check the progress and I was told that it will likely to be ready by a week time as the main board has to be replaced.

Since I didn’t hear from JB Hifi after a week, today I called them again and I was told that the repairer has received the part and the TV will be ready by mid next week.

I have been without a TV for a month now but I learnt my lesson, never buy cheap, home brand electronics.