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The Water Cooler
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New TV Purchase Help!!!
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<blockquote data-quote="Zaphod Beeblebrox" data-source="post: 2894400" data-attributes="member: 4606"><p>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".</p><p></p><p>Curved screen: gives you more of the "theater feel", but I don't know how well it works for off-center viewing.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>HD: still looks great to me, but I grew up watching VHS.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>1080 vs 2160: Same as above? I honestly don't know.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zaphod Beeblebrox, post: 2894400, member: 4606"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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