BPL Vivid TV review: A TV that does not bother about the future’s uncertainties

Big screen televisions are becoming more and more affordable, and that can only be good news for the couch potatoes. Of course, watching your favourite movie or TV show is significantly better on a larger screen. If you are looking for a large 55-inch display without parting with a lot of money, BPL is back in the world of televisions with a rather interesting Vivid TV range.

The 55-inch Vivid TV (model number BPL139F2010J) is priced at Rs44,990 on Amazon.in, and is one of the few TVs in this price range which offers this screen size. Its immediate rival would perhaps be the TCL P2 L55P2US 4K UHD LED (Rs52,990; Amazon.in) which also has a 55-inch display. Here’s how BPL Vivid TV measures on the design, features and performance aspects.

In terms of design, the BPL Vivid TV is all about following convention with an acceptable design and clean lines. You get a black colour finish on the bezel around the screen. There are absolutely no gaps between the display and the frame, which testifies to good build quality.

There are 3 HDMI inputs, which means you can easily connect sources such as a direct-to-home set-top box, a DVD player and even an Amazon Fire TV Stick and not have to worry about swapping HDMI cables. Many TVs in this price range only have 2 HDMI ports, which is quite inconvenient in the long run.

The Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 resolution) panel is extremely good, for standard definition as well as high-definition content. While the picture settings options are not very detailed, the automatic noise reduction algorithms do well enough to remove any distortions that sometimes creep into broadcast content and streaming sources.

If you like to binge watch TV shows and do movie marathons, this display is extremely comfortable. First up, there are hardly any reflections from ambient lighting, which means your eyes won’t have to stress trying to focus on the moving visuals on the screen. Contrast is good, though the black colours aren’t the deepest. Colours look fairly vivid, without being overbearing.

Sound isn’t the best in terms of bass response and overall richness. While the dialogues are reproduced with great clarity even at high volumes, the lack of low frequency magic takes away from the experience while watching movies, for instance.

Before you order the BPL Vivid, the question you must ask yourself is—do you need a 4K TV, or are you happy with a Full HD TV. At present, we really cannot hold the Full HD specs against the BPL Vivid TV, considering most popular sources of content that we will plug in are limited to the Full HD resolution—your cable or DTH surely wouldn’t have any 4K channels, neither is your DVD player 4K capable. If you feel that you may want to plug in a source such as perhaps the new Apple TV media player to view Netflix and Amazon Video in 4K, ask yourself—is your broadband fast enough? For streaming Netflix in 4K for instance, the minimum speed you need is 24Mbps.

For most purposes, the BPL Vivid TV comes across as a value for money big screen TV that will simply get on with its job without any fuss at all. Not the most future-proof perhaps, but for the here and now, this is absolutely worth it.