OT-Advice on buying a new TV | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT-Advice on buying a new TV

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Get the fastest refresh rate possible. 120 Hz or even 240 Hz if you can. Faster screen images smooth out motion - less blur - very important for watching hoops, hockey, etc.
 
I would highly recomend a Vizeo. I purchased a 42' lcd with 60Hz and the picture quality is fantastic. Don't fall into the "buy a 120hz" if you are not a gamer or techy. I almost fell into that trap, no need to overbuy on a tv, unless you're not worried about a budget.

If you want to watch movies in 3d, then yes, get a 240 hz and a 3d blu ray player.

I have not experienced a bad reception on my 60hz Vizeo and my kids play on their wii and the picture is great. You won't go wrong with a Vizeo or Samsung, IMO, good luck.
 
Of all the Panasonic plasmas I've recommended to family and friends through the years, they've been nothing but thrilled. But I'll also agree with the folks mentioning Samsung and Vizio. Find a tv in your price range from one of those 3 brands and I think you'll be quite happy. Very nice bang for your buck represented by all three.
 
I don't think you will notice any difference between 120 and 240 hz but there will be a price difference. Whatever you buy will soon be outdated anyway. So make your decision based on picture quality. Maybe google some reviews on how a model you like works with the net and apps because some may do a better job than others. Most Husky Fans here seem to recommend the Samsung or Vizio. I would go with one of those. Now start a thread on where you can get the best deal
 
Thanks again everyone. I like what I hear about the plasmas, but from what I understand they would not be a good choice given the amount of sunlight/glare to which the TV will be exposed in that room.

I also like everything I hear about Vizio; and we recently bought a smaller one of those for the new kitchen area and we are happy with it. They appear to deliver the best value overall, coming close to Samsung at a much lower price at every level.

But since this is going to be the main TV in the house, I'm still leaning toward the Samsung. I haven't been back to the stores to check them out since Christmas time, but I think I'm ready to go back again now, armed with some better insight and some questions to see how the salesperson responds.

I am probably going to Best Buy, especially since, last I knew, they had a no-interest for a year deal if you use a Best Buy credit card. I don't have one, but I'll get one if that's the case. I could use the float to help furnish the room in the meantime.
 
pinchy said:
I bought a 46 inch Sony Bravia smart TV at Mitch's in New Britain.
From what i understand they sell Costco merchandise that they have to move out for new merchandise
It is a bit hit or miss when you go,we had to go 3 times before we decided on the Sony.
We initially wanted a smaller TV but we could not pass up on the price

It cost $800. I looked up the model # on the internet and the prices were from$1400-$1600
I wil ltell you that you can't tell if the boxes have been opened or not but the owner assured me that they are new and he plugs in the tv before you leave. He also will take back the tv within 30 days and after the 30 you can get a warrenty from the manufacturer.He is nice guy from my experience.

It is worth a look, we love the tv. It is 240 hz with 3D and all of the wifi hookups
In fact i just watched a movie on Netflix thru the tv tonight.

Good luck






plugs inthe
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Mitch's does sell Costco merhandise. I only know this because I was in Costco electronics department when he came in and overheard a conversation with a Costco manager. He buys all their blemish and outdated merchandise.Never been to Mitch's but I'm guessing they have some pretty good vlaues.
 
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Late $0.02

I did my research about 18 months ago. Panasonic and Samsung were the best available products.
I purchased 2 Sammys based on picture quality, features, reviews, price and aesthetics.

I went for a 50" plasma and a 32" LED for bedroom. By far the Plasma is the best picture. The LED is all PC, low energy consumption yada yada but if picture quality is important to you go plasma, unless LED technology has drastically improved since my purchase.

Also, after purchasing the 32" from the local BB, I learned Best Buy is far from the best buy.

I bought the 50" from an outfit out of state (Brooklyn or Jersey). Arrived, by truck, at my door...saved a ton of money over Not really the BB store....couldn't be happier with purchase and 50" Sammy. It's a high end 3-D but we don't use the 3rd D. Agree 3D currently is a gimmick. 50" Sammy 2D/3D picture is nothing short of spectacular.

Set up/calibration (pushed by BB) proved unnecessary...I think it's a BS moneymaker for BB
like extended warranty and unnecessary (exception computers).
 
I bought the 55" LG 3D TV and have no regrets. I also hooked it up with a Bose sound system. I have Avatar and have watched it several times. The 3D glasses are passive and inexpensive. I have 8 sets. Almost every sports event today is broadcast in 3D. Not only do you have the depth perception but the picture is much clearer in 3D. If you don't like to wear the glasses (my wife doesn't) it is easy to switch to 2D. The additional cost for 3D over 2D was much less than I expected. You should view a sports event in 3D before you make your decision.
 
Didn't read the replies but here is my .02

I will never buy another Samsung again. I bought a Samsung because it was top o the line a few years ago. after 24 months I had a single horizontal line across the entire screen and then I a few months later started having vertical lines across the entire screen at turn on, along with a clicking that went on for 20-60 seconds. After doing some research, i realized the capacitor was bad and probably also the video board..in less than 4 years. One day, all i had were the horizontal lines

I retired that and bought a Sony 46 LED for under 1k at tiger direct and absolutely loveit. great pic, better sound than the samsung.

In the basement, I have a Panasonic Plasma that is about 2 years old....great tv and the plasma's were much more size/dollar when I bought it.
 
I bought a 50" Panasonic plasma close to 3 years ago. The picture is amazing.

Plasma still has the deepest blacks and still has the best contrast ratios (Ratio between the whites and the blacks). LEDs will have a brighter colors. Plasma will have the wider viewing angle. LED/LCDs will have a lower power consumption and will be less in price as well.

I tracked my purchase for a few months on http://camelbuy.com/. And when I came to buy the TV, I used a price match at Best Buy and also packaged a home theater system for free (Pansonic BluRay + speakers). I ended up selling the entertainment system on Ebay later though. Sometimes, it helps waiting for those package deals. Used a Best Buy reward zone card as well to use the points for DVD's, paper, printer cartridges, cables etc ...

Just don't buy the overprice cables at Best Buy though ...

HTH.
 
OkaForPrez said:
My only advice, never buy an HDMI cable from a big box retailer.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20056502-1/why-all-hdmi-cables-are-the-same/

I'm not sure the type of cable mentioned in the quoted blurb, but if Best Buy will gouge you on HDMI, they are probably gouging you on the other cables you are purchasing. Do your homework on perpipherals too, and then go to newegg.com
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Agree. I ended up buying a cable from Amazon as a filler for another product I purchased there to get free shipping.
 
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NJHusky said:
Didn't read the replies but here is my .02

I will never buy another Samsung again. I bought a Samsung because it was top o the line a few years ago. after 24 months I had a single horizontal line across the entire screen and then I a few months later started having vertical lines across the entire screen at turn on, along with a clicking that went on for 20-60 seconds. After doing some research, i realized the capacitor was bad and probably also the video board..in less than 4 years. One day, all i had were the horizontal lines

I retired that and bought a Sony 46 LED for under 1k at tiger direct and absolutely loveit. great pic, better sound than the samsung.

In the basement, I have a Panasonic Plasma that is about 2 years old....great tv and the plasma's were much more size/dollar when I bought it.
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This is the exception. There is a reason why Samsung is beating Sony to a pulp, though Sony and Samsung have similarly low defective rates. I have a Samsung PN58c8000 in my basement and replaced my defective 42" LG upstairs with an older 43" Samsung plasma. Love them both and have no problems.
 
I work for a company that has developed a pair of Samsung Smart Apps. Theyre constantly evolving and I think Smart TV is great stuff.

That said, I'd still buy a Sony. Still make the best. Worth the extra cash for the picture quality. I have yet to see another company produce better colors on an HD signal.
 
Plasma is still the way to go .... Panasonic is currently the best. Formerly, Pioneer Kuro technology was the best plasma on the market, but they decided to get out of the business.
 
If you're getting the tv for a man-cave and are sitting at least 10 feet away, get yourself a 720p $600 51" plasma tv and don't look back. You'll save money, have great image quality and won't be too sorry when you upgrade to OLED in 3-5 years.

Cheap 120hz LEDs will still have ghosting especially in football or hockey. You want at least 240hz, but that is still less than half of what typical plasma has (600hz). Then you have light leakage with lcd. Watching movie in a dark room on an lcd results in black being grey. To fix that you need a local dimming led lcd. Those are expensive, typically starting at $3500 compared to $2000 for edge-lit led which only offer energy and weight savings with still crappy image quality.

So, to have nice image quality on a budget but have a bright room and expect to watch Saturday noon football, get yourself some cheap curtains and a plasma. You should come in under $1000.
Otherwise go for $3500 local dimming LED LCD or if you've got money to burn,wait till fall and get yourself a $10,000 OLED tv (think Samsung Galaxy S2 screen but 50" instead of 4.3".)
 
I'll vouch for the Panasonic plasma. I own two: a 4-5 year old (can't remember off the top of my head) 42" plasma and a 2 year old 50" plasma, both are 1080p. The newer TV has internet access.. which I'm a fan off.. I mean you're Blu-ray player will most likely have it too and almost everything has Amazon and Netflix... I use Amazon on a regular basis and am very pleased with the picture quality over my crappy internet connction. Not much beats the convenience of an internet connected TV. I mean I have Amazon and Netflix on 3 or 4 different devices but the TV is the easiest to deal with. It's funny how little things like not waiting for the PS3 or Blu-ray player to boot up make a difference. The picture quality on the newer Panasonic is astounding. It wasn't the top end Panasonic either...
 
We had a Panasonic plasma but the electromagnetic radiation it gave off actually killed our dog!

I would avoid those for sure!
 
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So, I went to a few stores and have continued the research...

I've confirmed that my room is too bright with too much glare potential for plasma, so I am definitely getting an LED.

I'm basically down to deciding whether to push for full array backlit with local dimming, which, in the stores, looks like it makes a difference. Problem is, Samsung's version of local dimming is only available on their models that come with 3D (which I don't need) and voice control, gesture control and facial recognition (no, I'm not kidding), and there appears to be a lot of reliability problems with sets in these two series (ES7000 (lower quality local dimming) and ES8000), so much so that they are offering them at some pretty steep discounts. A great deal on an unreliable TV is not what I'm looking for, so I may be ruling out Samsung if I am convinced that local dimming makes enough of a difference. I know jleves believes very strongly that it does; any others with thoughts here?

And, if I do go with local dimming, it looks like I've got to choose between Vizio, LG, Sony and Sharp. Assuming it all comes down to what I can get the best deal on at the time for the features that matter to me (and now willing to spend a few bucks more for 60" (or larger)), any strong reasons to eliminate or favor any of these? It looks like there are some serious deals on some of them.

Continued thanks for any more insights.
 
I like Vizio cause it's the most American of the choices you have left. The background display is most likely built in the same factories for all of them.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
 
I've had a Samsung 50 inch for 3 years now and its still amazing. Watching Blu ray movies at night with the lights off is a great experience.

I have a 37 Inch Vizio LCD in the bedroom and that's pretty good too.

Samsung would be your best bet, although they can be expensive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
gibhunter said:
I like Vizio cause it's the most American of the choices you have left. The background display is most likely built in the same factories for all of them.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
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If you're not setting up a home theater, be careful of Vizio. The sound quality is not good. In fact, I'd recommend getting a speaker bar if you're not going all out with a system.
 
I have Samsung and ended up getting a speaker bar because the speakers started failing (bad distortion at louder volumes) after 3 years.

I have newer Samsung in my man cave and that has nice speakers, can't complain yet. Having said that I thought he said that Samsung was out. I have LG plasma in my bedroom and it works real well but I'd still buy Vizio out of the choices he has left. It's cheapest has pretty good picture quality and it's built (fine, put together) in California.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
 
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Seriously? you people are talking about $3,000 tv's and you use the speakers that are built in? You are supposed to disable them if you are hooking up a theater system since they are not meant for the only logical channel you would use them for in a 5:1 or 7:1 scenario. Love my 55" Vizio so far after three years it's going strong though I did just recently have to purge the memory. Rumor has it their 3D TV's are having issues with a recent firmware update. Thats one thing I don't like about some of these "Smart TV's" they go out and update firmware and you really don't have a way to go back if it screws things up.
 
Excalibur said:
This is the exception. There is a reason why Samsung is beating Sony to a pulp, though Sony and Samsung have similarly low defective rates. I have a Samsung PN58c8000 in my basement and replaced my defective 42" LG upstairs with an older 43" Samsung plasma. Love them both and have no problems.
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Uh oh, I just saw an add for a 50" HD (so 720) 600hz LG plasma for $499. Should I be wary of this deal? I figured since it was only a 720, it probably was a dump.
 
CL82 said:
Uh oh, I just saw an add for a 50" HD (so 720) 600hz LG plasma for $499. Should I be wary of this deal? I figured since it was only a 720, it probably was a dump.
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Every brand has their defective products, so I've got nothing against LG. Just because a product is priced as OPM doesn't mean it's not a quality product -- it just means that it's old. Everybody is dumping their 720p product because it's old. My upstairs 43" is a 720p -- I figured I didn't need to upgrade there because I already had the top of the line 58" in the basement.
 
I have a 32" Samsung LED in the BR and a 51" Samsung Plasma in the LR I love both.
 
This is what I own . . . XBR Link. If you're serious about your TV, and I'm guessing you are, you'll go with this one. You can probably finance it if you're too poor to buy it outright. Go big or go home.
 
Frank Ivy said:
This is what I own . . . XBR Link. If you're serious about your TV, and I'm guessing you are, you'll go with this one. You can probably finance it if you're too poor to buy it outright. Go big or go home.
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Do you mount it on the side of your BBQ rig?
 
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