I think I need a new TV

DzynKingRTR said:

I have a ps3 and use my TV as a bigger screen for my notebook. I want to spend as little as possible, but I still want something decent. This could not happen at a worse time. Money is real tight right now, unless things change (raise or better paying job elsewhere). Lots of natural light in the room, one of my walls is almost entirely window.

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Sounds like LCD/LED is the way to go, then. "Smart" features probably aren't very important to you with the PS3/computer plugged in. They do well in bright rooms and perform better at cheaper pricepoints compared to plasma (which aren't really worth it under $1k).

Pick a size, then go to a store and see the differences yourself. And slickdeals.net is your friend.

I never use the apps with my smart tvs. I dont even know which ones I have. I generally buy Samsung bc I'm spoiled but vizio has done a lot off business at the low end of the price scale.

We got our Samsung SmarTV at a good price. I like it. Had some minor issues connecting it to the wifi, but nothing major.

We don't have cable. Just Netflix and Amazon Prime. So for us, getting a web-enabled TV was important. We already had a Roku, but having everything built in is a little easier (one remote for everything). I think it's worth it if you watch a load of streaming content.

Some additional benefits:
- I have a Samsung Blu-Ray that was purchased before the Samsung TV. When I plugged it in, the TV recognized it as a Samsung product. Now, whenever I switch the TV source to BluRay, it automatically turns on the BluRay player and my Samsung TV remote can operate the BluRay. All without me having to program either.
- I have a Samsung phone and I can control functions in certain apps (like YouTube) from my phone. Not a necessity, but a neat little feature.
- Samsung also has an app that you can download on to your PC and link it to your TV. THis is helpful if, like me, you have a massive music or digital video library saved on your computer.

The only other thing I'd say to look out for is the HDMI ports. If you have multiple devices to plug in (cable box, BluRay, game system, laptop, etc), you want to be sure you have a TV with plenty of HDMI ports. I don't think there is any kind of standard. Depending on brand and price point, I seem to recall it ranging from as little as 2 ports to as many as 6 on one TV.

RedStar said:

LED, LED, LED, LED, or LED. Brightest picture, no glare, most colors, etc...

We got a Toshiba 50" LED from Best Buy 2 years ago for $598. It's been nothing but incredible. Don't get anything with a high mhz unless you enjoy feeling dizzy when you're watching. Don't worry about things like apps or anything because you'll more than likely never use them and if you do, they usually come on a DVD or Blu Ray player. Even our Dish Network Hopper has them now. All it does for a TV is add to the price.

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6 years ago, we had a break in and they stole everything and I do mean everything ... SOB's even came back for a second truck load and hung out eating our snacks and drinking our adult beverages. They were a couple of illegals who had only been out of prison a couple of months when they did this. The only things they didn't take were my army gear, they were very careful to avoid all of that except one trophy ... my dog tags. Guess how the cops tied the geniuses to our house when the caught them for something else? Those were the only thing recovered from the break-in because one of them was wearing them. Sorry, back on topic.

It forced us to get a new tv and since all our old tube TV's were now gone, we splurged on a Panasonic 46" TV from walmart. I NEVER get protection plans but for some reason, did on this. It completely died about a year later and they replaced it with a Toshiba. It has worked great for us since then and has even survived two long moves.

One thing you might want to look into is what I do. For me to enjoy TV or a movie, I gotta have speakers. I bought a cheap Phillips DVD/Blu Ray player/speaker combo for about 150$ at Wal Mart. It came with a center speaker, front L&R, rear L&R, and a sub woofer and is wireless for Netflix, Hulu ect (still hook up the laptop for regular internet surfing for the keyboard). Anyway, if you are on a budget, this might work out better for you than paying for a smart TV. I know its not Bose quality, but if you aren't a sound snob as I am not, it sounds good to me and MUCH MUCH better than any TV speakers. If you decide to go with that option, just make sure you leave the sound on the TV at 0.

G-VilleTider said:

Bose quality

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*shudder*

I bought a new TV last summer and originally brought home a Vizio M-series 3D HDTV. Colors looked great but the black levels were horrible. It had a dimming feature that improved black levels but had an annoying side effect. During scenes with a bright object surrounded by mostly darkness there would be this weird flashlight effect happening, meaning you could see the light shinning from the edge of the TV through the dark part of the scene to the bright object in the middle. It was very annoying to me but I'm really picky. I ended up exchanging the Vizio for a LG that had better overall black levels and the colors look a little better then the Vizio as well. It's also a passive 3D TV which is what I wanted because I wanted to be able to bring the 3D glasses home from the theater and use them. Works great and I love 3D blu-rays now!

As far as the smart features, they work pretty good on the LG although it is a little sluggish/slow at loading the apps and content. I personally wouldn't pay attention to the smart features on the TVs and just buy a Roku/Apple TV/Amazon FireTV. We have both a Roku and Apple TV and they both work 10x better then the smart features on the TV (that goes for both the Vizio I originally had and the LG I now have). If you don't have many other Apple devices then I'd recommend a Roku, it will have every app that a smart TV can offer plus a whole lot more. Personally, I like my Apple TV better but that is because it works flawlessly with all our iPhones, iPad, iCloud movies and iTunes Match subscription. The AirPlay feature from iOS devices to the Apple TV is worth the price alone IMO.

I know that it has already been stated but I'm going to re-state it. All LED TVs are LCD TVs. LED just refers to the type of lights used to backlight the liquid crystal display, but it is the same LCD technology that has been used for many years. The advantages in using LED are less power consumption, brighter and, in theory, will last longer. Just ignore the poor little dumb Best Buy employee when he tries to tell you that LED screens are better then LCD screens; they're not because they are actually the same screen. I mean literally the same LCD panel. Most manufactures use the exact same LCD panel in all there TVs for a given year's product line. The specific features, configuration controls and extra features in pricier models all comes from the boards and the OS that they put in the TVs. Not all TV makers manufacture there own panels, Vizio does not. Last year, I think, Vizio used JVC panels and I believe they have also used LG panels in the past as well. LG and Samsung manufacture there own panels and they also sell them to other companies. I'm not sure about Sony and Panasonic.

CrimsonPride25 said:

Agree with above posts. We have a Vizio Smart TV and hardly ever use any of the features. Most of the apps are slow and out of date it seems. We just hook the laptop up or use the iPad for internet. Picture is still great, but I don't know if I would pay the extra for a "smart" tv again.

Will say this though, it is nice to have netflix built into the tv, the only reason we do not use it is because we use Netflix through the Xbox instead in a different room.

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I have a 55" Samsung LED Smart TV. We use the Netflix and Amazon Instant Video apps on nearly a daily basis. We bought a Smart TV to minimize the number of accessories and cables that have to be accommodated when the TV is mounted on the wall.

Edit: By the way, we love the TV.

I have a Vizio. Very happy. I made sure to buy the one with the highest contrast ratio. Some model Vizios have much lower specs. I would get 120 mhz. 60mhz can lag with fast action. 240mhz looks strange. Bigger screen is almost always better unless you sit real close.

I didn't get a smart TV because they said I wasn't qualified. :biggrin:

seebell said:

I have a Vizio. Very happy. I made sure to buy the one with the highest contrast ratio. Some model Vizios have much lower specs. I would get 120 mhz. 60mhz can lag with fast action. 240mhz looks strange. Bigger screen is almost always better unless you sit real close.

I didn't get a smart TV because they said I wasn't qualified. :biggrin:

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Nope. I've been hearing this for as long as people have been discussing mhz rates. Maybe on some off brand Westinghouse or Funai, but this doesn't occur on any top end model.

RedStar said:

Nope.

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Well it did for me. Course I probably process info faster than most. IMHO BTW Dyzn get a 1080 TV. Not a 720.

G-VilleTider said:

It forced us to get a new tv and since all our old tube TV's were now gone, we splurged on a Panasonic 46" TV from walmart. I NEVER get protection plans but for some reason, did on this. It completely died about a year later and they replaced it with a Toshiba. It has worked great for us since then and has even survived two long moves.

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I initially read this as "survived two long movies" and thought "Well, I should HOPE so"

seebell said:

I have a Vizio. Very happy. I made sure to buy the one with the highest contrast ratio. Some model Vizios have much lower specs. I would get 120 mhz. 60mhz can lag with fast action. 240mhz looks strange. Bigger screen is almost always better unless you sit real close.

I didn't get a smart TV because they said I wasn't qualified. :biggrin:

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It's not MHz when you're talking about refresh rate, it's just Hz.

roger, wilco CBI

CharminTide said:

*shudder*

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Agreed, not being Bose quality is actually a good thing. Bose speakers are built from some of the cheapest materials around, all there small cube speakers use cheap paper cones and most of there speakers are incapable of producing a wide range of the audio spectrum. I used to own a Bose system but quickly found out how low quality they were. I could put together a speaker system at almost half the price of a typical Bose system that would blows it's socks out of the water.

I bought into the Bose marketing many years ago but, started to wonder why it didn't sound quite right once I got it home, and didn't sound near as good as it did in the store. That's when the internet, specifically places like AVS Forum, opened my eyes. I now have a system that runs circles around even the most expensive Bose system. One of Bose's tricks are their strict guidelines on how stores can setup their displays. In places like Best Buy, you are only a few feet away from those tiny cubes, even the ones behind you are only a few feet away. It's not hard to make even the smallest of speakers appear to sound good in a 3 foot cube, but get them home and now you are 8 to 10 feet (or more) away and those things just can't fill a normal sized room with good, full range, quality sound.

I tell people that even my modest theater setup sounds better then most of our local movie theaters. Not necessarily in how loud the volume is (I need my speakers to last so I don't push them to extreme volumes) but in the quality of the audio produced. I keep my system calibrated and balanced properly so, that even at lower volumes, it is a more pleasing and satisfying audio experience the most movie theaters that just have some teen who cranks up the volume/bass.

My Bose bashing could be a thread all on it's own so I'll just stop hear.

We are poor folk in Maysville. For sound I bought a Vizio soundbar. I think it was 99 bucks. I wish I had bought the sound bar with the sub woofer, Better than the tv speakers and no mass of wires.

RollTide1017 said:

...
My Bose bashing could be a thread all on it's own so I'll just stop hear.

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:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Uh, yeah... I meant to do that.

DzynKingRTR said:

HHGregg seems to have way better prices.

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Amazon and Crutchfield usually have very good prices and, depending on where you live, no sales tax.

At the beginning of the year I got a 47" LG LED smart TV (model 47LN5750) from Costco, upgrading from an old 30" Samsung flatscreen CRT (I did mention that it was old, didn't I?). The total (including tax and extended warranty) was just under $700. It is fantastic, and we use the smart functions ALL the time. The boys can stream clone wars, I can stream orphan black, my daughter streams heartland, and it's all good. REALLY looking forward to football season.