Advice on buying a TV

Odinsfury

Odinsfury

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My Samsung 43 inch plasma has started acting up and I think it might be time to get a new TV.  It's not that I'm not interested in 4k, it's just that I don't watch much television, if any.  I also don't have a PS4 pro.  The only way I would get one is if my PS4 stopped working.  So, 4k really isn't in my near future. 

Is it a bad idea to buy a 1080p TV?  Would I be wasting money by doing so?  It seems I have to spend a decent amount to get a good 1080p TV, but instead I could spend a little more and get a decent 4k TV. 

Also, what should I look for in a TV for gaming?  I'm looking for one in the 50 inch range. 

 
rtings.com has good reviews on tv's. There is a lot of information for each tv but they have categories.

But the biggest thing is size of the tv and how much you are looking to spend. And it might not be much more to jump up to a 55" tv since the prices between 50 and 55 are pretty similar. I imagine you are probably going to be keeping this tv for a while. Then spending more to get a 4k tv might be worth it.

 
Thanks, I stumbled upon rtings.com after posting this and it was by the far the most useful site I had found. 

 
Right now your probably going to see a lot of new models coming out between now and summer/fall. So last year's models my be pretty cheap. If they are still available to get. But what I like about rtings is the "input lag" section. Because I had a 32" tv ages ago that had horrible input lag, so bad that I couldn't play any fps games online without getting dominated. 

And since you had a plasma they had higher refresh rates (up to 600 I think, which is variable). So you may want to look at tv's in store to see if you like a tv at 120/240hz. It gives the "soap opera" effect. It's something that either won't bother you or will. 

Then just make a list of features you want and go from there. There is a mind boggling amount of information but a lot of stuff is subjective to the user and your preference.

 
SchmidtA99 said:
And since you had a plasma they had higher refresh rates (up to 600 I think, which is variable). So you may want to look at tv's in store to see if you like a tv at 120/240hz. It gives the "soap opera" effect. It's something that either won't bother you or will.
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The 600hz thing with plasma screens is different from the 60/120/240hz with LCD screens. They each refer to different things. The 600hz plasmas weren't actually 600 frames per second. The 600hz (as an example, some sets had less) refers to the on/off state of each pixel to determine how bright the pixel is over time. The frames per second is likely actually 60, and for each frame there are 10 on/off cycles. You'd light the pixel up for more or less of those 10 cycles for how bright or dark that pixel needed to be for that frame. This happens so fast you don't see it as flicker, but instead as one overall brightness. A medium brightness pixel would be lit for 5 of the 10 cycles.

60/120/240hz with LCD screens, however, actually does have to do with frames per second. Since early LCD screens suffered from bad motion blur because LCD pixel response time is slower than with a plasma (which is nearly instantaneous), having higher FPS helps to smooth things out. It does this by creating a bunch of fake frames between each real frame that smooth the transition from each real frame to another. The TV's processor basically guesses what these frames would look like if they really existed. That smooth motion is fine for sports and live TV, but makes movies (which are shot at 24FPS) have what's referred to as the "soap opera effect" where they look too smooth and weird. Luckily, most sets that have that feature also let you turn it off, and the response time of modern LCD screens is much faster than they used to be, so it's not really a big deal to turn it off. I have a 55" 3D Vizio that I bought in 2012 and I turn that smooth motion crap off and TBH I really don't notice much motion blur like you'd get with the earliest sets. The smooth motion is pretty much a marketing gimmick and is a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist anymore.

tl:dr - plasma and LCD hz aren't directly comparable, and the 120/240hz smooth motion of LCD sets can be turned off if you hate it and the image will still look good

 
Also, 4K is mostly a gimmick unless you sit really close to your TV. The difference is not nearly as noticeable as the upgrade from 480p to 1080p. I'm not saying it's not noticeable at all, but it's not the huge leap that HDTV was.

A passive 3D 4K TV is the one thing that would make a new 4K TV worth it to me (it allows a 3D 1080p Blu-ray to be seen in true 1080p instead of 540p), but you probably don't care about 3D, so that's a moot point. From what you've said, I don't think you'd be going wrong by spending less and getting a really good 1080p TV, but it just comes down to what you plan to do with it in the future, really.

 
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Yeah, your right on the plasma vs lcd. But I just kind of wanted to gloss over it and mostly to make sure the op looked at tv's in person because the manufacturer's lie a lot on the specs of tv's (well mostly deceive people). 

And I agree about the 4k being not as noticeable unless your close or the tv is 60" or larger. And the reason I didn't talk the op out of getting a 4k tv is that the prices of some aren't much more expensive than the price of a 1080p tv. It's not like how 3D was a few years ago and you would spend $300+ more for an inferior tv just because it had 3D on it. Since the op said he had his last tv for quite a while I would assume he/she would want to keep this tv for as long as possible.

And depending on where you buy a tv from they may have extended warranties included or for not much more (costco, sams club, walmart, squaretrade). I do know best buy used to (may still) charge a fortune for extended warranties. So look around. And some tv's come with 1 year and some come with 4/5 year. But that still isn't an indication of quality. Everything is mass produced anymore and something may last 10 years for one person and 1 year for another.

 
I'm sad that home 3D isn't as big a deal as it could have been, poor implementation from the manuafacturers. I've been combing the sales every week andn keeping an eye on BB open-box deals, tempted by the Samsung 8000 right now. It's close to the tipping point where getting 4k isn't a bad idea for futureproofing, although the content that will actually use it is questionable without new consoles. I'll be fucked if I'm going to pay $30 for a 4k disc of a movie.

 
my 10 year old samsung dlp finally died this weekend

so i need a liitle advice.

looking at getting the samsung ks8ooo 65"

versus the sony 65x850D 65"

also i can get these from amazon with free shipping and no tax vs going to best buy any thoughts for or against?

thanks in advance for any response.

 
I love my TCL with Roku built in....it is a 4k but you can get it for a reasonable price from Target...

It is well worth the money...they also have it in various sizes (I got the 55)

 
bigdog_bud said:
my 10 year old samsung dlp finally died this weekend

so i need a liitle advice.

looking at getting the samsung ks8ooo 65"

versus the sony 65x850D 65"

also i can get these from amazon with free shipping and no tax vs going to best buy any thoughts for or against?

thanks in advance for any response
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If Amazon is going to be cheaper I would go through them. But if there is a problem with the tv you have to deal with the pain of being there when ups picks up the tv. Which might involve missing work. Since your not going to want to set a $1500+ tv on your porch/outside.

And it also depends on how your local ups is at delivering items and also how far you are away from an amazon shipping facility. I'm far enough away that spending some more money to get it locally would be better if there is any problems.

Plus I'm not sure on the price match policy of amazon/best buy/costco/sams/bj's/etc so it may be worth it to get one and not have to wait for a sale.

And who is comparing a TCL tv to a top end Samsung/Sony tv. gtfo. I have a 40" sceptre tv that was only $230 which is probably 80% as good as the Samsung/LG tv I was going to get that were around $500. But larger tv's have a lot more features that don't get added to smaller sets. Like full local dimming with a lot of zones. More imputs (usually), better calibrated top end panel with less defects, better color gamut, etc.

 
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Well sure the TCL isn't the same as a $2000 Samsung...I don't think anyone is going to suggest it is...

But if I can get one for the $360 I paid for it rather than spending 6x more just to get HDR and a few other bells and whistles...

Plus, it has one thing those others don't have --- built in Roku (worth about another $100 since its the dual-channel integrated)

 
Navigator2001Plus said:
Literally no one did that, so there's no need to be rude. TCL was mentioned as being a cheap brand; that's it. No one said it was as good as the bigger name brands. No other brands were even mentioned in the same post.
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Exactly!

I do like my TCL, but I also used to do HT installs for a living...I know the difference...but you also pay for the difference....If you're in the 400-800 range, the only thing better than the TCL + Roku is a LG that is right at the top of that price point with HDR....

If you're looking high end and willing to spend the extra cash (over 1k) to do so, nothing beats a Samsung...but if you're going to do that, then blow the whole load on an intricate HT setup too (7.1 receiver w/ HDCP passthrough and enough punch to put a whole speaker setup together ---- recommending floor standings for the fronts and bookshelves for the rears with an active sub)

 
It's like 3x more, you can get "really good" for ~1k. I'm tempted by the TCL, but would rather get the Samsung with local dimming and full feature set. 

 
Sielanas said:
It's like 3x more, you can get "really good" for ~1k. I'm tempted by the TCL, but would rather get the Samsung with local dimming and full feature set.
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Yeah, much of it depends on where you're putting it (dark v light room) and what you are watching/playing on it (source) as to what you need....as well as your budget.

For me, I'd rather spend a little less on the tv portion to get the whole HT package instead of blowing it all on the tv and using the crappy tv speakers (because being honest, I have yet to hear great quality directly from a tv in quite some time)

 
If you want a new tv, visit your local BB. They're clearing the old models, this is the time. I got a $2k 55" 9500 for $750 no stand. They also had a 60" 7000 for $500 at this location. Ymmv, but there are opportunities.
 
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