Metz 50MQE7600 Review

Introduction

A lot of the big TV brands have focused on premium-priced TVs, leaving space for others to sink their teeth into the budget market, which may mean that you, as a buyer, come across some unfamiliar names.

Names such as Metz, which entered the UK market a few years ago with their Roku TVs, as a prime example.

This Metz TiVo is, on paper, ambitious for a budget set, but does it have the chops to be among the best cheap TVs?

Design

• Anti-reflective screen
• Stand pedestal

The stand comes in three parts and takes a while to put together, taking just under six minutes for me to get the TV upright.

It doesn’t help matters that the stand juts out, making it awkward to place a soundbar in front, should you need one. Available in sizes up to 65-inches, all sizes have the same design.

The TV’s build quality is solid, though. Considering the all-black and plastic affair of most budget TVs, this one is a step up. Bezels are thin and the silver coating always gives the impression of a more expensive set.

The matte screen heroically fends off reflections in a bright room. While it can have unwanted effects on the picture, I’m happy to see this level of anti-reflection tech on a TV this affordable.

Connectivity

• Three HDMI inputs
• Google Cast

There are three HDMI inputs, one of which supports HDMI ARC to connect a soundbar to.

Two USB inputs, a CI+ slot, Ethernet, optical output, analogue input and AV cinch input (RCA) make up the rest of the connections.

There’s Wi-Fi (including Google Cast) and Bluetooth support. It’s worth noting that you get the same connectivity across all sizes.

Interface

• Sluggish response
• Freely platform

Like Sharp, Panasonic, Bush and others, Metz has chosen TiVo as its interface. The performance is similar to the Sharp 50GM6245E, which means there’s good and there’s less good.

There’s customisation in terms of the services you want to see. It’ll collate titles from all the streaming services, free and paid, in your country and it’s up to you what you want to watch. The ‘trending content’ shows what other people are watching on TiVo (which is rather cool).

There’s Freely integration, serving programming over Wi-Fi though there’s the option of hooking up to an aerial should you want that.

You can’t, of course, ‘record’ programmes with Freely but you can rewind, check the EPG in advance (or in the past) and dip into everything that’s available on the UK catch-up apps – as long as you’re signed in to those apps.

Voice can be used to search for content or open apps, and it’s mostly accurate in figuring out what you’re saying, although results don’t seem inaccurate. A search for romantic films came up with TV series like The Idol and The Little Drummer Girl.

It can understand context, though, so if you’re searching for a genre (say comedy), you can refine that search via an actor or year etc.

Click through to a landing page and TiVo will tell you where it’s available, whether you can rent or buy, and you can rate titles thumbs up or down, feeding back into your recommendations.

The main bother is that the interface is slow in terms of loading. There are too many times when I’m met with a black screen when swapping through menus, and too many times where text and images take their sweet time to load.

Another odd issue was that opening Netflix caused the TV to freeze every time. While Apple TV+ wasn’t supported, and Disney+ didn’t seem to support HDR at all. Strange.

Features

• QLED panel
• Dolby Vision support
• DTS sound coming in a firmware update

On the Picture front, there’s HDR10, HLG (for streaming broadcasts such as iPlayer and Sky) and Dolby Vision HDR support (available across video streaming services).

It’s a QLED panel, which, compared to a standard LCD screen, should present a wider range of colours. The backlight is a Direct LED, which features rows of LEDs behind the screen that emit brightness. However, Direct LED doesn’t use local dimming, so black levels and contrast won’t be as strong.

On the audio side there’s Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital/Digital+ and DTS Studio Sound, though the latter is due to come in a firmware update.

Gaming-wise, there’s no mention of ALLM or VRR, but in the TV’s game mode, the Metz 50MQE7600 records a decent 15.3ms input lag.

Picture Quality

• Overcooked colours
• Lacks brightness

Like many budget TVs, the Metz 50MQE7600 isn’t the brightest. It hits 346 nits in its Dynamic mode, 316 nits in Standard and a dim 152 nits in Movie. It can’t do HDR properly and with its Direct LED panel it can’t display black levels properly or a firm sense of contrast.

But I’ve come to accept that reality for budget TVs. What’s less impressive is the accuracy of the Metz 50MQE7600’s colours. Even in Dolby Vision, something is off.

With Alien: Romulus, the rich, warmth of the picture appeals, but it’s also clear the colours are overcooked. The orange/red look of the film is replaced by pink/red. White tones look more green/cyan – the tuning of the colours is well off.

In Civil War (4K Blu-ray) the look of the film doesn’t match what I’ve seen on other similarly priced TVs. Day scenes have a blue-ish tint to them when they should be white. Some blues look too blue, others veer to green, while darker greens look lighter. HDR content has a red push to colours, while blacks can have a green tint.

Colours can be very exaggerated and switching through Dolby Vision modes doesn’t rectify this. Dolby Vision Bright looks too bright, while Dolby Vision Dark is too dark.

There’s some colour striping (turning on 10-bit gradation doesn’t seem to have any effect). 4K images can look noisy (turning off Local Contrast fixes this) and there’s some black crush (loss of detail in the darker parts).

The Metz feels like a Hisense TV from a few years back, where colours are oversaturated and you’re firefighting to reduce the issues but then it creates another one.

In its Dynamic mode, there’s clipping (loss of detail in the brightest parts), loss of overall detail with colours that again look a little odd. The Movie mode lacks punch, and warmth – colours just aren’t quite the right tone or shade.

The problem with the Metz isn’t that it’s not colourful, it’s that the colours aren’t the right ones.

Upscaling

The same problems carry over with HD and SD content. Colours don’t look the most accurate out of the box, white tones have a blue-ish look, complexions err towards red.

Switch to Neutral colour tone and the TV achieves a better balance, maintaining a saturated look without going too far. Skin tones are punchy and expressive but not distractingly so.

Levels of detail and sharpness are fine, SDR black levels are strong and the picture is bright without being too bright to create a better sense of contrast.

But at the end of the day, whether it’s 4K, HD or SD content, the Metz TiVo suffers from the same ailments. Judged on its own and it’s a rich and at times attractive looking image but the overstated colour performance means you’re not watching films and TV series the way they were meant to be seen.

Sound Quality

• Inconsistent performance
• No DTS support (for the moment)

The Metz isn’t a showcase for the clearest dialogue performance, nor is the soundstage the widest. Even with the volume ramped up, it sounds condensed and small. The built-in sound system has a warm tone but lacks sharpness. At its worst, it can sound boomy and distorted.

With the absolute powerhouse of a soundtrack that is Civil War, the Metz can sound too bright and harsh at higher volumes with distracting levels of distortion becoming an issue. It lacks energy, punch and scale, making the action scenes tame and weak.

There are other modes to play with but results are mixed. There’s a Dolby Atmos mode, although it doesn’t sound the clearest, coming across as muffled. However, bass is more effectively managed.

Turn Atmos off and the TV sounds more energetic, louder and bigger, but not as detailed.

The Total Sonics mode can sound more spacious, even if it also makes the bass sound hollow and distorted. Turn the processing off completely makes dialogue sound harder, voices hollow and the overall sound is strained.

It’s an ultimately disappointing performance.

Should you buy it?

FAQs