I think I need a new TV

what in the hell is a tube tv?
get a vizio if you want cheap and decent quality. all the hipsters will chime in about all the various colors, refresh rates, blah blah blah. any led tv will look amazingly better than an old tube. dont overthink it. and for god's sake dont buy overpriced hdmi cables from bestbuy.

Plasma can't be beat for movies or sports. Prices are fairly reasonable. Samsung, Panasonic, and LG make them (well, Panasonics are still attainable though production is/has ceased). Like gmart said, anything will look better than the old tube tv, though. Phillips makes some very good quality and reasonably priced lcd's. I'm not a big fan of vizio (the colors looked washed out on the model I considered even after playing with the settings).

There's basically three types of flatscreens: LCD, LED, and Plasma. And in general, that's the order of their pricing as well, in increasing order. LCD is generally being phased out in favor of LED, which is actually a type of LCD that provides a better quality picture. Plasma does provide the best picture, but there are drawbacks beyond price. Namely, unless you view primarily in a darkened environment, there will be glare from reflections on the shiny screen.

I'll second the Vizio recommendation from gmart. Hard to beat on a price vs. quality comparison. And for the money, I recommend LED.

As for smart tvs, I've never used one so I don't know. But my feeling on that has always been that it's not worth it, as it's easy enough to hook your full-up computer or laptop (or web-enabled gaming system) to your tv for free, making it a hell of a lot smarter than a "smart" tv.

FWIW, we love our smart TV. It's a 40" Samsung that we have in the basement office/playroom. I've always had good luck with Samsung TVs and monitors, so I stick with them. I got it on sale last year for a little over $500, if I remember correctly. I think it's LED, but it could be LCD. I know it's not plasma. The one in the den is plasma and I don't see a big difference in the picture between the two. Smart TV's are well-worth the extra cost, IMO.

Catfish said:

FWIW, we love our smart TV. It's a 40" Samsung that we have in the basement office/playroom. I've always had good luck with Samsung TVs and monitors, so I stick with them. I got it on sale last year for a little over $500, if I remember correctly. I think it's LED, but it could be LCD. I know it's not plasma. The one in the den is plasma and I don't see a big difference in the picture between the two. Smart TV's are well-worth the extra cost, IMO.

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Me too. Becoming a big fan of Samsung products. My older plasma (bought when prices were much much higher) still looks good.

Catfish said:

FWIW, we love our smart TV. It's a 40" Samsung that we have in the basement office/playroom. I've always had good luck with Samsung TVs and monitors, so I stick with them. I got it on sale last year for a little over $500, if I remember correctly. I think it's LED, but it could be LCD. I know it's not plasma. The one in the den is plasma and I don't see a big difference in the picture between the two. Smart TV's are well-worth the extra cost, IMO.

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I have a smart TV and frankly never use any of the smart features. Everything is so much faster to look up on an ipad or iphone. The biggest disappointment I have with the smart tv is just how slow it is. Everything takes forever. (60" Samsung smart TV for reference) Plus when you consider that most people now have it hooked to an appletv, ps4, xbox or some other device that can do the same stuff and better, I am not sure I would opt for the smart tv again. That being said, you cannot get some of the better panels and contrast ratios on the tv's without smart tv.

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.

As far as smart tv spend $35 on google chromecast and you can stream your laptop to your tv easily and have faster response.

chanson78 said:

I have a smart TV and frankly never use any of the smart features. Everything is so much faster to look up on an ipad or iphone. The biggest disappointment I have with the smart tv is just how slow it is. Everything takes forever. (60" Samsung smart TV for reference) Plus when you consider that most people now have it hooked to an appletv, ps4, xbox or some other device that can do the same stuff and better, I am not sure I would opt for the smart tv again. That being said, you cannot get some of the better panels and contrast ratios on the tv's without smart tv.

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When you talk about the smart TV being slow, are you talking about entering info using the remote? if so, you can use a keyboard with the TV. Before we did that, I agree that it was slow and frustrating to find what you wanted. We don't have an Xbox, ps4 or Apple TV, so I don't have anything to compare the speed to with regard to other characteristics. Other than the input issue which we corrected by using a keyboard that we already had, I haven't noticed any slowness.

Catfish said:

When you talk about the smart TV being slow, are you talking about entering info using the remote? if so, you can use a keyboard with the TV. Before we did that, I agree that it was slow and frustrating to find what you wanted. We don't have an Xbox, ps4 or Apple TV, so I don't have anything to compare the speed to with regard to other characteristics. Other than the input issue which we corrected by using a keyboard that we already had, I haven't noticed any slowness.

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Specifically about starting apps on the TV. Takes forever from when you click the "Smart TV" button (whatever they actually call it) to when I get the apps menu for picking weather, netflix, etc. Forever being measured in around 5-7 seconds.

chanson78 said:

Specifically about starting apps on the TV. Takes forever from when you click the "Smart TV" button (whatever they actually call it) to when I get the apps menu for picking weather, netflix, etc. Forever being measured in around 5-7 seconds.

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You're right. There is a lag at those times. I never felt like it was a problem, though. Like I said, I don't have anything to compare it to.

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.

DzynKingRTR said:

OK tube TV may have been misleading. It is an HDTV, but it still has the fat back (although thinner than most). This thing weighs about 150+ lbs. and it is bulky. It is a Samsung and I did like it. It certainly looked better than some others do.

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Whatever you get, get a fully articulating wall mount, and get it on Amazon.

We got this (get one from Amazon Warehouse Deals, usually $10-$20 cheaper.) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WXH1Z2/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Can't beat the price or functionality.

DzynKingRTR said:

OK tube TV may have been misleading. It is an HDTV, but it still has the fat back (although thinner than most). This thing weighs about 150+ lbs. and it is bulky. It is a Samsung and I did like it. It certainly looked better than some others do.

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CRT tvs are so obsolete that no one in the world makes them anymore.
I have a Vizio LCD TV and I really like it, although it is a few years old now. If I were to replace it I would definitely upgrade to an LED TV.

DzynKingRTR said:

Is a smart tv worth it?
Any brands that are cheap but still good?

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If you have something like a Roku, Apple TV, Xbox, etc. then the smart TV functions will be redundant, and you'll likely never use them.
What budget are we looking at? And how much ambient light is in the room?

Unless you are talking about OLED's, which are still priced in the multiple 1000's, LEDs are actually LCDs. All LCDs require a back lighting system. LCDs used to be back lit with florescent lighting. Most new LCDs are now back lit with LEDs. The screen is still LCD regardless of the backlighting method. If you walk into someone's livingroom and they have a relatively new flatscreen HDTV, I'll bet you that you wouldn't be able to easily tell whether it was plasma, LCD/florescent or LCD/led. There is just not that big of difference between them.
That being said I dont think that you can go wrong with VISIO for the most bang for the buck. Also, spending a few bucks more for a smart TV is probably a good investment.

Watch Target and/or Wal-Mart for clearance TVs.