Let's talk TVs

[Toothpick]

I think a lot depends on what you watch on TV too. If you watch a lot of 4k movies you might enjoy the OLED. If primarily just watch network TV you’re probably not going to notice the OLED. If you do some gaming - OLED is probably nice. No gaming - OLED is probably a waste.

Admittedly I don’t know enough about OLED to have a valuable opinion. But for me the price of OLED is still to high. I’d rather get a giant LED (75-85) and a really nice surround sound. I just don’t think that OLED is going to be THAT much better for the price it is.

Also, I would stick with Samsung. I’ve had 3 or 4 of their flat screen TV’s. All very happy with.

 

[gpjoe]

This statement here is everything I need to know to give you a recommendation. Home theater is one of my other hobbies, and I’m into resolution, color space, and frame rates in an attempt to recreate the material as the director intended in a theater.

If you are happy with viewing that type of material at home as you mentioned, you would be best served by buying the largest screen size the Mrs. and wall space will allow from brands like Hisense, TCL, or Samsung. The only other brand I recommend is Sony, which is my theater choice, but there is a large step up in price. I would only ever recommend an LG if it was OLED. The other brands I cannot recommend because of lower quality.

Stick with LCD displays and LED backlights. The type of backlighting won’t matter if you’re not into watching UHD material with its expanded colorspaces. Local dimming is a bit overrated because it causes halos around bright objects against dark backgrounds. It can be distracting.

Another thing to consider, when I’m in my home theater with all the bells and whistles, I’m amazed at what it presents, but I’m perfectly happy on the couch next to the Mrs. watching material on our living room TV without any bells or whistles and using the built in TV speakers. In fact, that’s where we spend most of our viewing time now anyway.

You may want to check out rtings.com as I feel they have the most unbiased reviews out there.

Very helpful, thanks.

...and it kinda reinforces my current leaning towards getting a comparable replacement. I'm not convinced that I need anything more to enjoy my usual content.

I've currently got the 60" hanging on the wall between some shelves (also attached to the wall) and could probably fit a 70", maybe a 75", though 65" will be plenty. My recliner is only about 10' from the TV.

 

[gpjoe]

I think a lot depends on what you watch on TV too. If you watch a lot of 4k movies you might enjoy the OLED. If primarily just watch network TV you’re probably not going to notice the OLED. If you do some gaming - OLED is probably nice. No gaming - OLED is probably a waste.

Admittedly I don’t know enough about OLED to have a valuable opinion. But for me the price of OLED is still to high. I’d rather get a giant LED (75-85) and a really nice surround sound. I just don’t think that OLED is going to be THAT much better for the price it is.

Also, I would stick with Samsung. I’ve had 3 or 4 of their flat screen TV’s. All very happy with.

I'm on board with all of this.

I mainly watch network and cable programming (satellite) and sports. My gaming days are long past. And yes, it will very likely be a new Samsung.

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

This statement here is everything I need to know to give you a recommendation. Home theater is one of my other hobbies, and I’m into resolution, color space, and frame rates in an attempt to recreate the material as the director intended in a theater.

If you are happy with viewing that type of material at home as you mentioned, you would be best served by buying the largest screen size the Mrs. and wall space will allow from brands like Hisense, TCL, or Samsung. The only other brand I recommend is Sony, which is my theater choice, but there is a large step up in price. I would only ever recommend an LG if it was OLED. The other brands I cannot recommend because of lower quality.

Stick with LCD displays and LED backlights. The type of backlighting won’t matter if you’re not into watching UHD material with its expanded colorspaces. Local dimming is a bit overrated because it causes halos around bright objects against dark backgrounds. It can be distracting.

Another thing to consider, when I’m in my home theater with all the bells and whistles, I’m amazed at what it presents, but I’m perfectly happy on the couch next to the Mrs. watching material on our living room TV without any bells or whistles and using the built in TV speakers. In fact, that’s where we spend most of our viewing time now anyway.

You may want to check out rtings.com as I feel they have the most unbiased reviews out there.

Makes me glad I bought a new Samsung for the SEC Championship Game in December. I got the same one the Samsung employee working at Best Buy told me he had, after the purchase while we were loading the box into my vehicle.

I don't know anything about televisions, but I like the tv, and find things I enjoy watching.

I use a sound bar and the captions. Hearing is not my strong suit.

Usually my wife wouldn't go with me to buy a television, but she did. She hated the process, the store, and probably me, and wanted to leave as in leave right this minute. She also required a new tv to watch college football so not buying wasn't an option. Being frantic to leave pushed her to upgrade to a more expensive tv than I would have felt comfortable justifying to her. I didn't attempt to stand in her way.

Don't ask me what her reasoning was.

The Samsung is better than my previous televisions and probably as good as the best televisions I've seen when out visiting not that I get out much. That said, it's still just a television.

Thanks for the great post.

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Jay21]

Makes me glad I bought a new Samsung for the SEC Championship Game in December. I got the same one the Samsung employee working at Best Buy told me he had, after the purchase while we were loading the box into my vehicle.

I don't know anything about televisions, but I like the tv, and find things I enjoy watching.

I use a sound bar and the captions. Hearing is not my strong suit.

Usually my wife wouldn't go with me to buy a television, but she did. She hated the process, the store, and probably me, and wanted to leave as in leave right this minute. She also required a new tv to watch college football so not buying wasn't an option. Being frantic to leave pushed her to upgrade to a more expensive tv than I would have felt comfortable justifying to her. I didn't attempt to stand in her way.

Don't ask me what her reasoning was.

The Samsung is better than my previous televisions and probably as good as the best televisions I've seen when out visiting not that I get out much. That said, it's still just a television.

Thanks for the great post.

Happy shaves,

Jim

Samsung TVs are great. Even their base models are excellent. That’s what we have, a base model from Target, in our living room. I recommend Hisense and TCL TVs to people because they’re perfectly fine, but the only ones I’ll ever buy are Samsung and Sony. Sony is considerably better at recreating the theater experience for reasons not important to this thread, but Samsung is an excellent daily driver.

 

[njpaddy]

The amount of bass in newer films really drowns out dialogue. I'm to the point that I always have closed captioning on so I can easily understand dialogue without having to go over it again and again.

I have hundreds of silent films, so I'm used to subtitles. My wife, who refuses to watch a silent, hated subtitles until we got Britbox and AcornTV. She used them occasionally watching certain British shows on our 40" Samsung, but with the new TV, she now wants them on all the time. I bought a Polk S2 soundbar to try and redirect the sound forward instead of out, but it's still muddy, even after disconnecting the subwoofer.

 

[Jay21]

I have hundreds of silent films, so I'm used to subtitles. My wife, who refuses to watch a silent, hated subtitles until we got Britbox and AcornTV. She used them occasionally watching certain British shows on our 40" Samsung, but with the new TV, she now wants them on all the time. I bought a Polk S2 soundbar to try and redirect the sound forward instead of out, but it's still muddy, even after disconnecting the subwoofer.

When I’m watching a movie alone in my mini-theater, I find myself using headphones connected to my Yamaha receiver while using its Silent Cinema feature. It makes all sounds crystal clear, especially dialog.

 

[gpjoe]

When I’m watching a movie alone in my mini-theater, I find myself using headphones connected to my Yamaha receiver while using its Silent Cinema feature. It makes all sounds crystal clear, especially dialog.

I have thought about getting a pair of cordless/bluetooth headphones just for watching TV late, when my bride is sleeping.

 

[Jay21]

I have thought about getting a pair of cordless/bluetooth headphones just for watching TV late, when my bride is sleeping.

You might get some lip sync issues due to the latency of bluetooth. Most TVs will let you adjust that, but you might have to set it back when you return to speakers. Asking a TV to remember lip sync settings for each output is asking a lot.

 

[gpjoe]

You might get some lip sync issues due to the latency of bluetooth. Most TVs will let you adjust that, but you might have to set it back when you return to speakers. Asking a TV to remember lip sync settings for each output is asking a lot.

That would drive me nuts. I may just stick with captioning.

 

[Jay21]

That would drive me nuts. I may just stick with captioning.

You might not have any issues or you might not notice. If I use the bluetooth radio from my TV, it’s off a bit, but it’s just fine if I use the bluetooth radio from my Apple TV streaming box.

 

[gpjoe]

You might not have any issues or you might not notice. If I use the bluetooth radio from my TV, it’s off a bit, but it’s just fine if I use the bluetooth radio from my Apple TV streaming box.

So, if I'm understanding correctly, the lag is only a problem with the TV?

 

[Phoenixkh]

We have a semi-ancient Pioneer Elite 50" plasma (monitor only). It has begun to show its age. We do have a decent surround sound system, including a nice sub-woofer. At the time we purchased it, it had the best "black" available and was a marked improvement over competing technologies.

Our son loves his LG OLED TV. His did develop dead pixels but LG replaced the mother board, entire screen, updated the software to current for free, including the service tech's time... and the TV was out of warranty. The current models have, and I quote @luvmysuper here: "New technology has automatic pixel shift and pixel repair in place that makes this a non-issue for most applications."

His repaired set hasn't caused him any difficulties. LG certainly stood behind its product.

We'll have to replace ours soon. I'm sure I'll look at Sony and LG, based on previous research.

 

[Jay21]

So, if I'm understanding correctly, the lag is only a problem with the TV?

The lag can be caused by any bluetooth radio that sends the sound signal. It’s tough to predict which ones will have a lag or how long it will be. Some do. Some don’t. What happens is the video/sound signal that is normally in sync with regular speakers and sound bars gets split. The sound gets converted to a radio signal and sent to the headphones. This takes time, called latency. The sound lags behind the video by a few milliseconds. Some people notice. Some don’t. Many TVs have a lip sync feature so you can re-time and “unite” the previously split video/audio signal.

 

[simon1]

I used to help Dad replace tubes in our black and white TV, so I'm not really qualified to comment on a new TV.

 

[Tirvine]

We replaced a 42" not smart Visio (with sound bar) with a 42" smart LG OLED. The picture is definitely better, and so far we have not felt the need to add a sound bar back into the mix. Our den is small, about nine feet from screen to eyes for the most distant seating and seven feet where we usually sit. I think the size of screen relative to the distance from the viewer is important. Bigger is not always better. For us this is a Goldilocks setup.

 

[ctr]

We replaced an old set recently. I knew we wanted Sony so that helped in our decision making.

OLED vs various LED options. Didn't opt for OLED even though the picture quality might be better. Sunlight. Our set gets decent amounts of direct sunlight which degrades OLED picture quality over time. Some reviewers said in as little as six months time.

The LED panels for every brand are made by one or two manufacturers. Every brand uses them.

The software interpretation of the digital image is the major distinction between brands. Arguably Sony puts more into theirs. Worth the price bump? Only you can decide.

Screen size. Somewhere there is a size chart for screen size to room size and viewing angles. Had to search to find a smaller 42/43 inch TV. Cost more than the larger unit but a better choice for our viewing location.

The downside of these TVs? The LED panels are more delicate. Touch one and it may crack. These are mini computers with software updates, bluetooth, and lots of other things not related to watching programs. Tons of settings, picture modes, sound modes, etc.

Think I paid $799 delivered.

 

[Jay21]

We replaced an old set recently. I knew we wanted Sony so that helped in our decision making.

OLED vs various LED options. Didn't opt for OLED even though the picture quality might be better. Sunlight. Our set gets decent amounts of direct sunlight which degrades OLED picture quality over time. Some reviewers said in as little as six months time.

The LED panels for every brand are made by one or two manufacturers. Every brand uses them.

The software interpretation of the digital image is the major distinction between brands. Arguably Sony puts more into theirs. Worth the price bump? Only you can decide.

Screen size. Somewhere there is a size chart for screen size to room size and viewing angles. Had to search to find a smaller 42/43 inch TV. Cost more than the larger unit but a better choice for our viewing location.

The downside of these TVs? The LED panels are more delicate. Touch one and it may crack. These are mini computers with software updates, bluetooth, and lots of other things not related to watching programs. Tons of settings, picture modes, sound modes, etc.

Think I paid $799 delivered.

You are right on all accounts.

Sony has much better internal software, especially motion processing, than most of the other manufacturers. That's one of the most important aspects to me because I watch both sports, which are fast-moving, and movies, which have a native 24 fps frame rate. Sony is the best high speed motion and presenting film as near as the original material. The higher-end models (120 hz display) can properly display several native frame rates (24, 25, 30, 50, 60) without any issue and can effectively remove telecine judder (forcing a 24 fps signal from movies into 30 fps for TV).

 

[Chan Eil Whiskers]

Our den is small, about nine feet from screen to eyes for the most distant seating and seven feet where we usually sit. I think the size of screen relative to the distance from the viewer is important. Bigger is not always better. For us this is a Goldilocks setup.

Exactly so. How far one sits from the screen is hugely important. I don't need a tv larger than the one I purchased as we sit fairly close having down our homework on seating and screen size.

This is the tv we bought in December. I like it very much as I've mentioned. It does not have, I think, any ability to synch the sound. I've not had problems with the sound bar being out of synch other than those which can be solved by turning everything electronic off for five minutes before restarting the electronics.​

I bought a Polk S2 soundbar to try and redirect the sound forward instead of out, but it's still muddy, even after disconnecting the subwoofer.

I'm also a fan of Britbox and Acorn and have both. I love some of the British shows.

We purchased this soundbar when buying the tv. I'm happy with it. However, had I a chance to do it over, I would have solicited advice from the Samsung employee salesperson at Best Buy, and believe he would have suggested spending another hundred or two which would have given me an even better sound. This one though is great. Much better than my previous soundbar as this one directs sound towards the listener.​

Happy shaves,

Jim

 

[Jay21]

Believe it or not, despite their TVs being bottom rung, Vizio sound bars are fantastic regardless of their lower price. I've had three over the last decade on various TVs in various places I've lived and they've been fantastic. Reviewers are also quite fond of them, too.