Totally off-topic: our TV died, Need buying advice

[hangar 661]

Ok I know  strange topic, but my wife and I have been out of the television buying circuit for like decades now (lol) and our livingroom television finally died today. We don't want to repair the old set and prefer to buy a new smart TV instead...so we have no idea where to even begin. Any recommendations as to picture quality, price, longevity (im guessing there is none these days)...buy online a bad idea?...We don't want something big...I dunno maybe 30 something or 40 something inch?

What's good these days for middle of the road, not high end but not junk?

[Republic DC9 234]

I got a Samsung 4K TV for $300-$400 (think they’ve come down even further now) and it makes a fine monitor for my flight simming - I have the PC next to it, keyboard and mouse on a TV tray and it works great!

Steve

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

I am using a Samsung GQ75Q85R Q-LED TV and can recommend this in any aspect. It's great for TV and great for Gaming/Simming aswell. Has 120Hz refresh rate and an overal great performance. As DC9 does, i have my PC right next to it and with wireless Keyboard, Headset and mouse it makes up for a good gaming experience. Use caution with wireless mouses as they tend to be laggy from time to time.

 

Best regards,

Tom

[hangar 661]

Sounds like Samsung is winning 2 to nothing 🙂

Not going to be using it for any pc gaming though, just using for TV and streaming services.

[Camsdad13 64]

Add a third to Samsung. Have 3 in my home office for work and one dedicated just for FS. LG is pretty good too. Have 75” one in our family room that was very reasonable a couple years ago on Black Friday. 

[W2DR 1,859]

I have both Samsung and Sony. I'm going to go against the grain and vote for the Sony. The Samsung is cheaper but the color and overall picture quality on the Sony blows it away. Internally there is very little difference in any smart tv. Go with the one that YOU like the best for picture quality.

[spilok 1,132]

The LG is the best TV I've ever had.  I now have 3 of them.   I do own Samsung, which is also excellent, but the LG beats it hands down!

Stan

[Penzoil3 480]

Go to the store and look at the tvs yourself. See what color it really is, and what you like. 4K is great, though a bit more expensive. Can't beat Samsung, I agree, but it is a personal preference.

 Sue

Edited September 22, 2020 by Penzoil3

[charliearon 3,017]

Keep in mind that anything you see in the displays at the store are out of the box and they come from the factories set at full blast colors and brightness.  I have a Sony 52 inch I bought in 2006 and had the proper adjustments made when it was installed.  It's still going strong and a great 1080p HD picture.

[hangar 661]

Well thanks everyone, for all your responses and insights...it surely helped. Unfortunately I don't have a ton of time to get too familiar with all of this but I spent a number of hours today at least trying to get some research done and I think I've settled on the Samsung UT8000 which is basically an entry level set that will get us into 4k land. I figure my wife watches alot more tv than I do and she doesn't care much about perfect picture quality as long as she gets to watch her shows and the picture is reasonably clear. I would like to get to see a little bit of 4k to get to learn about it. The price is cheap so it's not going to be a perfectly bright display with great angles I'm sure...but I believe it should suit us for awhile at least.

Only $347, and it's a 43 inch 4k@120htz refresh...I could also get a $250 40 inch 1080p set! But I couldn't find any reviews on it and I thought that 4k might be fun once in a while.

Edited September 22, 2020 by hangar

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

+1 for Samsung you can't go wrong

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

Just make sure, (haven't checked the UT8000) it is NOT an Edge LED Display. You will have no Joy with them because the Edges of the Display will always be brighter than the rest of the picture especially in dark sequences.

I learned the hard way and returned it the next day to get an OLED Display.

[hangar 661]

34 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Just make sure, (haven't checked the UT8000) it is NOT an Edge LED Display. You will have no Joy with them because the Edges of the Display will always be brighter than the rest of the picture especially in dark sequences.

I learned the hard way and returned it the next day to get an OLED Display.

Thanks, it's got direct lighting, not edge.

"Direct-lit: lights are on the edges and behind the screen for more light uniformity than Edge-lit."

[scott967 62]

I recommend checking out avsforum to get owner reports on the various tv available.  A lot of people also swear by rtings.com review site.  I would check out Vizio as a value TV.  They offer 3 LCD model lines V / M / P in increasing performance, and just released the H model OLED.  I bought one of their previous E models a few years ago as a "fill in" TV while waiting for OLEDs to come out.

 

A value alternative is TCL.  I don't have any experience with them but they are eating other tv maker's lunch.

 

Keep in mind Samsung doesn't do Dolby Vision.

 

I'm not a smart tv guy so don't have an opinion.  My Sony OLED has Android TV which can run Android apps.  I guess they all provide youtube, netflix, amazon prime, etc and probably chromecast or miracast.

 

scott s.

.

 

 

[Republic DC9 234]

We did have our bedroom Samsung LED go whacko and an independent service guy (handles all different brands’ warranty claims) came to replace the screen under warranty - dejected about the Samsung I asked what HE personally had for TVs and what he recommends - he had multiple giant Samsungs and highly recommended them too (and deals with fixing them every day).