New TV Purchase Help!!!

[Cohiba]

Hey All...

Yeas I know I should be talking to the salespeople at BestBuy, Crutchfield, Fry's Electronics and everyone else who sells a tv.

I want to hear from my OSA brothers and sisters on what they have encountered with tvs.


I will probably purchase around Christmas or the New Year for some good deals. I'm NOT hung up on brand names, heck a few of my buddies have Vizio tvs and they seem great.


I'm or should I say we(wife and I) are looking at the 65"-70" tv but what perplexes me is all the features...

Curved
OLED
HD
HD4K
1080-vs-2160 resolution

The list goes on and on...........

Maybe throw out times to get a good deal on a tv...EXCEPT the Black Friday in November. I'm not that crazy to go early and fight the crowds!!!

Brands to look at...ones to stay away from. Brands with good speakers. Sound bars. Anything else you want to throw in the mix.

The main purpose is to watch movies in HD and cable in HD....that's about it. I'm not really into streaming or apps on a tv.


Thanks!!!!

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

You know, once upon a time, I knew this stuff backwards and forwards. I sold electronics off and on for a decade (from 99 to 05, so take this with a grain of salt), but mostly audio gear. I'll do my best to help, but remember the answer is almost always "it depends".

Curved screen: gives you more of the "theater feel", but I don't know how well it works for off-center viewing.

OLED: is an improvement on LED. Something about organic light emitting diodes. I'm guessing it's supposed to give better control over all the colors. LCD (from back in the day now...Jeez, I'm getting old) had great brightness, but pretty crappy black levels/contrast. Over time, they got better, only to switch to LED, which has now gone to OLED. Bottom line, look at the black levels at any TV you're considering.

HD: still looks great to me, but I grew up watching VHS.

HD4K: I'm guessing it's 4x HD. I don't honestly know if there's much content at that high a bit rate. However, it would look amazing.

1080 vs 2160: Same as above? I honestly don't know.

Good brands: Sony, Samsung, LG, Sharp. If you want to spend more, Pioneer Elite. Vizio seems to be pretty good, especially for the price. I've got Best Buy's house brand "Insignia" in my living room. It's not bad, but my old Samsung was better.

Sound: I've never heard a TV I thought had great sound. But this is coming from a guy who spent more than a little on two different sound systems; one for movies with little speakers the wife approves of (Mirage), and one for music (Old separates and giant 4 way Infinity floor standers).

One thing I've come to wish I had was a "smart TV". The kids always want to stream Netflix, so I got a Chromecast for the living room, but then they want my laptop to stream it. My bedroom TV (a Hitachi...disappointing compared to what I remember back in the day) is hooked up to a Samsung DVD player with internet access. I's cumbersome, but I can make it work. If it's in your budget, look at a smart set if you do Netflix or something similar.

My initial response of "it depends" is because I can't tell you what set to buy. I've had three different people in a sound room proclaim three different speakers were "the best". What you think is important or looks good will be different than my opinion. Budget is always a concern. I've demonstrated sound systems that would cost $50k to buy. Did it sound great? Yeah, of course!! Would I buy it? Absolutely not. I've got other things to spend my money on, like kids who want to go to college.

 

[dennishoddy]

We bought the greatest, most expensive Sony 70" available last fall at Best Buy and put it on Direct tv in the sticks where we can't take advantage of any of the cool features.
Buy according to your location.

 

[rawhide]

Bought our last new one about a year and a half ago. TV technology seems to change as fast as all the other tech stuff. At the time the high end Panasonic's were good and the best in my budget (non 4k but smart) were the Samsung and Sony. Have a 60" Samsung that is really amazing especially with Blu Ray. 9 year old Sony still looks great as well and has better speakers than the Samy.

http://www.avsforum.com/ is my go to source for entertainment electronics.

 

[Mkokc]

Just my 2 cents, if you need a tv with Internet capabilities but it's not often, get a hdmi adapter for your phone if it's internet capable, you can get a great tv with a great pic and not spend the extra dough for a smart tv, I use one on my small tv in my reloading room to stream Netflix while I'm reloading and works great, jmo, may be something to look at so you can focus on the actual specs of the tv

 

[druryj]

We have 3 Samsung TV sets, 55" 42" and 24" and one off-brand 32" I got at Wally on sale for $98 that actually is just fine.. They are all great as far as we are concerned, but then again, my hearing is pathetic at best and my eyes are not much better, but wife is happy with what we have. We got a JBL Sound Base for the living room set, but IMO, it was waste of money. It sounds great for loudly blasting old Led Zeppelin music but doesn't do a darn thing for the evening news or the average TV program. When the 55" dies, or gets moved to a new location, I will replace with a bigger set, like a 70". We'll just go to Best Buy or something and cart something home.

 

[rawhide]

We have 3 Samsung TV sets, 55" 42" and 24" and one off-brand 32" I got at Wally on sale for $98 that actually is just fine.. They are all great as far as we are concerned, but then again, my hearing is pathetic at best and my eyes are not much better, but wife is happy with what we have. We got a JBL Sound Base for the living room set, but IMO, it was waste of money. It sounds great for loudly blasting old Led Zeppelin music but doesn't do a darn thing for the evening news or the average TV program. When the 55" dies, or gets moved to a new location, I will replace with a bigger set, like a 70". We'll just go to Best Buy or something and cart something home.

When I started having trouble reading game scores is when I upgraded to the 60" and for the tinnitus a set of Sennheiser wireless headphones are outstanding.

 

[Podman]

Buy local where you can take it back in case of problems. I got a Samsung and had some problems and Samsung Support told me to upgrade the firmware. I did and now the tv is a
boat anchor. So since I bought it from Crutchfields and it's still under warranty, I will have to ship it back to get it fixed. And also Samsung support is terrible. They are in India or somewher
and will not help you. I will never buy a Samsung product of any kind again. Go to Wally World or Bestbuy or somewhere local where you can get service in case something happens.

 

[BReeves]

You do not need a Smart TV, not sure I would ever buy a Smart TV if I can get what I want without it having the Smart stuff. A $100.00 Blu-Ray player will give you everything a Smart TV offers and you can upgrade or update without having to replace the TV. Blu-Ray players now include most streaming services, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. with built in wireless, I have a Wal-Mart Vizio TV on an antenna with a Sony Blu-Ray player that takes care of our movies.

 

[NightShade]

Ok, going to throw out a suggestion and then go over some definitions. First off a smart tv is not a requirement but if you get one it is really nice to have since only one remote is required. I have a 4K LG Smart TV that uses the WebOS. They recently upgraded to the newest version and since I use Plex this TV is the greatest thing since sliced bread, Seriously. The remote is very different and it gives an on screen pointer so that you can navigate the menu's. It's odd at first but once you get used to it it's great, Plus I can put an app on my phone that will allow me to do the same things as the remote with a touchscreen to act like a trackpad and it moves the menu's to the phone or tablet. My wife can turn it on and switch to plex and watch a movie or tv show without any issues. Or she can use Netflix with an easy switch, plus all the inputs can be modified to ACTUALLY say what they are on screen so she can easily make the switch. With the TV in the bedroom (non smart tv) she has to call and ask questions if that says anything. I also use it as a monitor and even do some graphics editing. In fact I am sitting about eight feet from the screen right now posting this. No you do not have to have a smart TV but most of the 4K versions are so why not right?

Now down to some suggestions. If you are going to just use this for a little while and then move it to the bedroom just get a 1080P non smart tv and be done. If you plan to keep it in the living room for at least four years I would go for the 4K Smart TV, even if you don't do streaming now you may want to at some point and just the ability to switch inputs on a smart tv is good. Did I mention that my remote has the ability to do on it's own and has for a couple years what the new "contour" boxes do? One caveat however of getting used to the 4K screen even with lower resolution content is that you will become VERY spoiled. Went to my father's place in CA with HD channels on a 1080P and it just looked like crap compared to what I am used to even though I was sitting farther away. After a couple months you WILL notice it, trust me.

As far as the 720P, 1080P, 2160, HD, SUHD, UHD, etc the best place I can point you is here http://4k.com/resolution/ Short and simple however is that HD is ≈ 1080P, 1080i, 720P, 720i. While 2160 is ≈ 4K, SUHD, UHD, QuadHD... Manufacturers basically decided that they could try and one up each other by using different definitions for the same thing. But the closer that you sit to the screen and the larger the screen the higher the resolution will need to be to look crisp, there is a chart on the site I linked that will give you an approx distance to look for but at 70 inches if you are within ten feet of the screen 4K is a go to over a HD screen. And to add to your dilemma try and find one that has at least one 10bit input which will help with 4K content when it goes mainstream (going to happen soon trust me) and one with HDR (High Dynamic Range) Will have brighter and richer colors http://4k.com/a-closer-look-at-4k-tv-hdr-9860-2/