What is the Best TV, and Method of Purchase?
Mates,
I am sad to report our 15 yr old 42" plasma TV has gone to be with the great TV tuner in the sky. It actually died months ago but since we don't have TV except for during college football season nobody cared. But now we are mere days away from actual college football, without question my favorite sport, and we need to replace that TV very soon.
Assume we are pretty set that a 50" is the max we have space for in our house, and that I don't mind buying a sound bar if that should be part of the deal. Assume also that we only use the thing a few months of the year and it otherwise collects dust, so we aren't going to spend on some stellar, in-home theatre set up.
The question is this: What is the best brand of TV, and from where should I buy it, Amazon, local Best Buy or ABC Warehouse, some other retailer or on-line place that is a great deal?
Thank you for your help and I hope others get some great ideas from the response.
Football is just 22 days and a wake-up away. Go Blue!
XM
Samsung (I refuse to buy a Lucky Goldstar)
& I'd buy from Amazon unless locally could come close on price with an easier return option.
Honestly, at a given size & price point most of the tvs are going to have almost identical screens . Better to focus on other overlooked items like enough extra HDMI ports, etc. & which remote is going to end up being the least frustrating (you said you were using an antenna)
August 9th, 2018 at 10:03 PM ^
We have a Samsung with all the bells and whistles and are very happy with it. I searched the internet for the best price, printed it out and took it to my local, independent shop and asked if they could match the price. They did. Also gave me an additional discount to pay for the sales tax, delivered it, installed it and took the old TV away. We were happy and they were happy.
August 9th, 2018 at 10:16 PM ^
Got my 55 in LG on sale at Best Buy for like $350. I've had it for 3 years now, never had a problem. It was neither the best nor the worst on the market at the time. No complaints at all.
August 9th, 2018 at 11:31 PM ^
Costco
August 9th, 2018 at 11:47 PM ^
One thing to consider is the room the TV will be in. Lots of windows? Lots of lamps? Overhead lighting? Dark with low lighting?
LED TVs output more light, OLEDs less, so LED is better for bright rooms. Some TV screens are very reflective, others less reflective. So, that’s why I typically purchase TVs where I can see them such as at Best Buy.
My family room has a lot of windows on one wall and lamps arrayed around the room, so high light output and a less reflective screen are important. In 2015, I bought a Samsung 65” 4K UHD LED TV. At the time, it didn’t seem to make much sense to buy a HDTV with 4K coming to market. Makes even more sense now to buy 4K given how prices have dropped and 4K programming is becoming plentiful.
I’ll be back in the TV market in a year or two. My 58” plasma in my man cave is getting up there in age and gives me a bit more time for OLED prices to fall.
August 9th, 2018 at 11:56 PM ^
I covet large TV screens....
I bought a 52" Samsung 1080p in 2007 when the price dropped to $1,700. Still works great and the sound is great. My understanding is that DirecTV has some 4k conent and so does Netflix, but most cable is 1080p at best. When I had Time Warner I noticed they would switch the quality to 720p or 480p on a regular basis at the box and I'd have to switch it back. Point being that 4k is better, but most of the time you're going to be watching something far less than that.
Two years ago I bought a screen and and Epson projector and a $120 surround sound. It's only 1080p, but I have a 100" movie screen in my basement that kicks ass and cost me ~$800. We have movie nights and the kids play a lot of video games on it. Highly recommend.
I want to replace the 52" Samsung with a 70" or 75" TV, now that you can get them for around $1,500 from time to time, but it seems like I should just take my ass into the basement.
August 10th, 2018 at 12:34 AM ^
I'm a bit of a Samsung loyalist. All my electronics are Samsung, have been for years. My 42" 720p plasma has been going strong for 13 years now. Every now and again, I think I should upgrade... and then I ask myself why? My TV's picture is still beautiful. I used to want a smart TV until I added a Roku stick a couple years ago. I have what I need and I'm still happy with it. I'll probably keep it until it dies (or I do).
August 10th, 2018 at 1:36 AM ^
Just finished doing a ton of research myself.
My oled is the best picture I have ever seen, but you can cut the price in half if you opt for full array local dimming instead. Led and qled are not the same as oled.
Aside from lighting, the next most important thing is refresh rate (to avoid flicker when watching sports). Most televisions advertise refresh rates that aren't their real refresh rate. For instance, when Vizio promotes a "true motion" refresh rate of 120hz, they really mean 60hz smoothed by staggered dimming. You will want a tv that has legit 120hz refresh if possible.
Third most important attribute is the sound bar. All of them have simulated surround sound, but not all have built-in subwoofers. You'll want dual built-in subwoofers.
The least most important attribute is 4k, because most tv signals aren't even truly 1080p, they are usually 720p at 120hz or 1080i at 60hz.
No matter which tv you get, make sure you run your signal via HDMI and run the tv optical audio output into the soundbar. If your tv only has 60hz refresh rate, you can get an upconverter for cheap that will smooth the pixels to a 4k resolution, but they usually only output 60hz, and if you have legit 120hz refresh rate you won't want to give that up.
Finally, the best thing you can do for your tv is to adjust the picture after you pull it out of the box. There are lots of tutorials online that describe how to do this.
If you have price protection with your credit card, I would recommend buying from your local best buy, and getting reimbursed by filing a claim with your card that references the tv online for a lower price. Just make sure your card recognizes the online price source as a reputable vendor. This approach will save you hundreds, get your tv in the house with no delay, and allow for local returns if pixels are dead.
Happy hunting! Watching college football with a crystal clear picture and sound is a great joy.
August 10th, 2018 at 2:46 AM ^
Obv. everyone is different. Bought Samsung 4kHD 58", along with UHD 4k Samsung player and a Samsung 3.1 sound bar with a subwoofer. Prices were reasonable. Where I added a bunch, which was worth it, was a good movable wallmount (left, right, up down,) plus having a carpenter bury in the wall the power, 3 HD HDMI cables, internet cable, and cable to roof antenna. Wireless is fine, but a direct connection is great. And interestingly, 4k broadcast transmission is higher resolution than what you get through cable TV or Dish. This means that games transmitted via Fox or NBC are very high quality. (I don't know that any games will be on ABC or CBS.)
August 10th, 2018 at 6:51 AM ^
TCL 49” 4K Roku. $319 on amazon. It is inexpensive, beautiful, connective. I have the 65” and it changed viewing football as I knew it.
August 10th, 2018 at 7:45 AM ^
Picked up a 65" TCL for the cottage for like $600 a few months ago. Very impressed with it and you cant beat the price. If your into streaming the built in ROKU is perfect. We decided to just stream when we are up north and its so easy to navigate, my 5 year old is a wizard with it.
A post earlier in the summer suggested to visit thewirecutter.com for reviews and that is what sold me on it, also the amazon reviews...oh and the price since its just a cottage TV. Also reading more into the company its has grown crazy the past few years since they have been on amazon. They manufacture all of the components in house and that is why they can sell the TV's for so cheap.
August 10th, 2018 at 8:02 AM ^
XM, just about any TV you buy now will be remarkably better cross the bored from your old model. You can certainly buy a good 50 inch TV for under $500, but if I were you I would go into a local electronics store and see the difference in the black scale between a $2,500 OLED and the ones in the $500 range. That is where you can tell a difference once the lights in your room are low at night. Also true HDR is great, but more expensive and not fully supported yet, so I wouldn't spend the extra cheese in that.
Lastly, spend some $ on a good soundbar. Trust me, you won't regret it. From my research, I went with the Klipsch RSB-11 and it is amazing.
Have fun!
August 10th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^
love klipshs. we have them as our computer speakers and they rock. when i was at michign, lo those many years ago, we had a pair of 6 foot tall klipsch horns that could light up a whole neighborhood.
August 10th, 2018 at 8:03 AM ^
I looked up reviews on CNET for the year that I was shopping in. They broke it down into several categories, but at the end of the day the reviewers all agreed on the same thing: if it's for home theater then buy a projector, if it's for tv watching then do a smart tv.
TV sets are so small that resolution and picture quality improvements can't really be distinguished by the human eye anymore, but for a $500-$600 bucks you can have a 15 foot screen projected on the wall and blow all your friends away. My best friend has a projector in his basement and his screen is literally floor to ceiling, his wife does yoga and her video instructor is life sized. It's awesome.
For my living room I personally have the TCL 55" S405. It's a wifi ready ROKU tv with plenty of input ports,
UHD and 4k resolution, and optimized for ambient light viewing. Bought it for under $400 online and picked it up at the local BestBuy. Love Chromecasting to it from my phone and laptop, too.
Many TV's have movie theater features like local dimming zones to get the blacks really black in no-light situations, but they give very poor picture quality when you're watching Michigan Football at noon with ambient sunlight pouring in the windows.
TV manufacturers will gladly sell you a $3500 tv and rave about it's quality and exclusive features, but they're only minutely better than a $350 tv these days, at 10 times the price.
August 10th, 2018 at 8:03 AM ^
Our DLP died about four years ago and I bought a 55" 120 MHz Samsung LED at WalMart. No Smart TV bells and whistles but that seems superfluous anyway. Think I paid $899 or so for it but I'm sure it could be had much cheaper now. Great picture but it's not 4K. When our bedroom TV dies I'll probably replace it with the 55" and get a 60" or 65" for the living room.
I'm looking forward to the T Moble / Sprint merger as they will bring 4K service on their new 5G service. They're talking about offering an a la carte service which will be much cheaper than Comcast.
August 10th, 2018 at 8:22 AM ^
Since we're in a TV thread and the board doesn't need another OT post about a similar topic...
I recently bought a new TV and am interested in mounting it on our fireplace. While I've heard that this is an awful idea, my understanding is that it's mostly because the heat is bad for the TV and the mantel makes the height uncomfortable to watch. We'll be removing the mantel and putting it directly above the fireplace, which we don't use, being in Jacksonville. My question is, can I get any old mount to put the TV on the fireplace or will I need something special to mount on a brick fireplace?
August 10th, 2018 at 8:32 AM ^
An old mount will work fine. The only difference is you will want to drill pilot holes for screws first with a masonry bit, and then use slightly larger (than the hole) masonry screws.
August 10th, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^
Just to confirm I understand: The mount doesn't matter, but I shouldn't use the screws that come with the mount? Should buy masonry screws? Appreciate the response!
August 10th, 2018 at 9:11 AM ^
yes masonry screws. mount doesn't matter. also, watch this video.
August 10th, 2018 at 8:30 AM ^
If you have a costco membership, their TV's are often slightly cheaper, but more importantly, they have the best return policy around. If something goes wrong with that sucker, just bring her back in and they will make it right.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^
I got a 55" curved screen samsung 4k from Walmart. it was the display model and my kid works there, so I got it for $250 and paid $30 for the 2 year warranty extension. I think retail price was $699 or something like that.
its great... and being a smart TV, as the good DrMantis said, its netflix, roku, etc capable.
August 10th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
I picked up a 75" Sony 4K TV during Best Buy Black Friday last year - they had a special that included an $800 surround sound system for free so it was a pretty great deal. Plus with the "My Best Buy" points I accrued enough to get a free Ninja blender which is also a pretty cool gadget.
I was also looking at AmazonWarehouse where they offer open-box deals on electronics and found their prices to be extremely competitive
August 10th, 2018 at 4:45 PM ^
I walked in a Costco and bought an LG TV that they were going to stop carrying. While there, i checked the price on that TV online and it was selling for around $1200. I paid $699.
Also, if you use your Costco credit card they extend the warrant by an additional 2 years.