Can somebody point me to the TV buying discussion thread?

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

There is too much made out of Hz and with today's tv's, 60hz sets are fine. I'm not expert though, so maybe at 60" and beyond, it is noticable. Remember, the source footage is never greater than 60hz.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379206,00.asp

I totally understand that more than 60 Hz should not make any difference. However, I find sports especially football unwatchable even on many 120 Hz models. My sister purchased a 240 Hz LCD this winter, and I was pleasantly surprised while watching bowl games and playoffs this year. That said, it completely botched the non sports content I watched. The artificial handling of the frames beyond 60 Hz was too much for me and most of the family as well.

I am strictly a plasma guy due to this strange affliction that I shouldn't suffer from, because like your article states...it shouldn't matter.

[I. J. Reilly]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Spectre is another multi china TinbAwn.
Westinghouse, Spectre, Sylvania, and any of a dozen store brands'

So are you saying all these brands are complete crap? I'm looking for a cheap bedroom TV in the 40" range and the above brands have some enticing offers.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by I. J. Reilly

So are you saying all these brands are complete crap? I'm looking for a cheap bedroom TV in the 40" range and the above brands have some enticing offers.

Not at all, in fact many times they are using system architecture that is a few years old, discarded from Panny, Sharp, or Pioneer.

They are all produced in one of two factories, often on the same assembly line with the case differences being the only differentiating factor. Ive even heard stories of mis boxed product.

The product has the potential to be decent or a giant turd as their quality control is virtually non existent. For a non bleeding edge they are hard to beat. In fact I have a Dynex or Spectre in my daughter's bedroom and one in our RV.

[CU Tiger]

Dola - should probably clarify TinBawn is either the company that manufacturers these or imports them, I never could get definitive clarity on that. But the same company represents about 11 brands.

When we dabbled in component level repair, you literally would often have a control board with a dozen part numbers on the bag.

[MizzouRah]

I bought my wife a dynex 32" for the bedroom and so far, she loves it, HD looks great.

I think I paid like $180 for it some time ago.

As soon as my Sony craps the bed.. I'm going to get that Sceptre 50" for $499 from Walmart.

[MizzouRah]

Purchased the Sceptre and VERY early impressions are extremely HAPPY. Picture is superb, even the non-HD stuff looks better than my Sony does. Needing a bit of tweaking, but I'm super happy.

$500 for a 50" HDTV, can't really ask for more..

[Swaggs]

Things that suck: Got a 3D TV (sweet!) and then found out that my cable box isn't calibrated for 3D (not sweet!). Sadly, we have a few too many DVRed shows on it to be able to switch it out any time soon.

Question: Do 3D TVs need anything special in the HDMI department?

I saw Best Buy had some that were "Made for 3D!" for like $80. I bought a bunch of HDMI cables from Amazon awhile back for like $20 total and would much rather go that route, unless the quality will be way, way worse.

[stevew]

Lungs-

Sharp is releasing a 90" this year if you have a spare 11K.

[MizzouRah]

I doubt any HDMI cable is different than the other.. except for price.

[chadritt]

I bought a bunch of HDMI cables for $2 - $4 each a few years ago and they work perfectly still. The cables only have two states, working perfectly and not working at all. Theres no in between or variations of picture quality. Its a beauty of things being 1s and 0s, it either gets them all or it doesnt know whats happening.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I doubt any HDMI cable is different than the other.. except for price.

you might need version 1.4 certified cables but they are most likely dirt cheap at this point.

like 99% of digital based stuff is indistinguishable, the only difference might be if you need a thin cable cause of the depth of the TV. If you're going a longer distance, you might want a better cable too, but we're talking 50' or more.

If you're never going to touch this once you set it up, I'd buy pretty much one level above the cheapest shit available from the internet and tell the in store sales guy to fuck his own mother.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by chadritt

The cables only have two states, working perfectly and not working at all. Theres no in between or variations of picture quality. Its a beauty of things being 1s and 0s, it either gets them all or it doesnt know whats happening.

this is simply not true. While the signal is 1 and 0 its carried through electrtical current/wave forms that are pretty hard to distinguish for a processor and pretty easy to get EMF noise in.

Originally Posted by stevew

you might need version 1.4 certified cables but they are most likely dirt cheap at this point.

like 99% of digital based stuff is indistinguishable, the only difference might be if you need a thin cable cause of the depth of the TV. If you're going a longer distance, you might want a better cable too, but we're talking 50' or more.

If you're never going to touch this once you set it up, I'd buy pretty much one level above the cheapest shit available from the internet and tell the in store sales guy to fuck his own mother.

This however is spot on.
There is actually a pretty major difference in cable quality. You just wont see it until you get into long runs. Id start at 20' not 50' but at 50' ray charles can tell the difference.

For a standard box in same room as anything but the largest tv configuration, shit buy the cheapest crap you can find

[Logan]

Geez, in what instances do people run 50' of HDMI wiring?

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Things that suck: Got a 3D TV (sweet!) and then found out that my cable box isn't calibrated for 3D (not sweet!). Sadly, we have a few too many DVRed shows on it to be able to switch it out any time soon.

Question: Do 3D TVs need anything special in the HDMI department?

I agree with the comments by Steve & CU on the cable. I would also say anything longer than 20' and thats when you should be more cautious of cable quality.

On the cable box side...this is going to depend on your video provider to a degree.

There are different types of 3d content out there. Cable companies today support "frame-compatible" 3d. This means the 3d video is essentially the same as an HD video feed (to the cable box/HDMI interface) and the TV simply does all the work. This is perfectly fine to pass through from a video standpoint.

The part that might depend on your provider is whether they will allow that content to a cable box that cannot render the guide (and a handful of other little nuances) while in 3d mode on the TV. I'm not aware of any that do, so long as the cable box has an HDMI interface, but I suppose its possible a few might. Others do all of their 3d in MPEG4...so that might also be a limitation of your box vs another.

Now where HDMI 1.4 comes into play is regarding "auto-switching" between 2d & 3d. HDMI 1.4 specifies a standard messaging structure, however a 1.3 interface on the cable box could pass these messages through as the electrical spec is the same. The reading of the messages would be the job of the 1.4 TV...unless of course the cable co. wants to support some overlay features in 3d mode (such as the guide) and in this case, they may place their own restrictions on the cable box (my company does not for instance).

One thing to note on HDMI...as of 1.4 they have really made it more confusing to consumers (imo). They no longer allow manufacturers and anybody selling licensed HDMI compliant products to advertise the HDMI version number because 1.4 has a lot of optional features. So in their effort to reduce confusion of what 1.4 means...they want the HDMI features to be spelled out (such as ethernet, 3d, etc.).

The problem I see is that these features aren't overly intuitive to consumers unless you include the hdmi version. After all, what does the 3d feature mean? There are certainly many ways to display 3d that are agnostic to an HDMI interface.

Anyway...long story short...I'd suggest trying to navigate to your cable provider's free 3d content and see if it actually works. I wouldn't trust what the average customer rep tells you about that type of thing.

[Swaggs]

Yeah -- I checked it out and it shows a split screen. Basically the 3D channels and content has identical screens on each side of the screen. It is an older Scientific Atlanta cable box and when I did a google search, I saw that Comcast has a few other options for 3D/HD/DVR customers. I don't think it will change my pricing (although I wouldn't be shocked).

Anyway, I didn't really buy it for the 3D. It was a significant size upgrade for us that looks like it will perform well for sports, jumps us up from 720 to 1080, and was a pretty good price for a brand I trust (Samsung). I can't see us sitting around, wearing 3D glasses, watching TV too often -- just thought it wouldn't hurt to have (given the good price). It was bundled with a Smart, wireless 3D Blu Ray (our existing DVD player is like 12 years old, so I already feel like we leapt ahead a few generations. Just need to figure out how everything works.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by stevew

Lungs-

Sharp is releasing a 90" this year if you have a spare 11K.

Hah. That might be a budget buster.....

[SteveMax58]

Oh, so if you can actually see the split screen that would mean you just need to set the TV to the right 3d mode. This would be SBS (Side-By-Side) 3d mode. based on your description.

If you see the split between the top of the screen & bottom of the screen...then you'd use the Top-Bottom mode (I guess self-explanatory enough).

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by SteveMax58

Oh, so if you can actually see the split screen that would mean you just need to set the TV to the right 3d mode. This would be SBS (Side-By-Side) 3d mode. based on your description.

If you see the split between the top of the screen & bottom of the screen...then you'd use the Top-Bottom mode (I guess self-explanatory enough).

Ah... Well, that makes sense and was easy to do.

I think I need to play with it a bit. It seems to work, but when some text came up on the screen, it didn't line up correctly.

[cartman]

This is a good time to bring up my favorite site for buying A/V cables and various extras (wall plates, speaker mounts, banana plugs, etc.):

HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more!

They have great prices on their stuff, and it works like a champ. I've been a big fan of theirs for a long time.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Ah... Well, that makes sense and was easy to do.

I think I need to play with it a bit. It seems to work, but when some text came up on the screen, it didn't line up correctly.

Yeah anything guide or closed captioning related is likely to make your eyes hurt. You'll want to put the TV back in 2d mode before doing anything like that.

Also keep in mind that the 2 images you see in 2d mode are close but not actually identical. There's a slight offset between them purposely. So when you go 2d to 3d mode on the TV, text may not be legible without the glasses either.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Logan

Geez, in what instances do people run 50' of HDMI wiring?

I ran 50' In my basement so that I could hook my computer up to the TV. But that was cause the wireless options were significantly more money.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Logan

Geez, in what instances do people run 50' of HDMI wiring?

Data closet.
In many higher end homes we did we'd wire everything to a single closet and use IR repeaters to remote control everything in this closet from every room. Stick a DVD in and watch it on every tv if you like.

[Landshark44]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/LG+-+55%...=1218551139323

I'm about to buy this one unless somebody talks me out of it in the next day or so.... What you guys think?

[Autumn]

I just got a 27' inch non-flatscreen off of Freecycle to replace my 10 year old TV with a broken speaker, and discovered it only has one set of RCA jacks. Is this the right thread for me?

[Landshark44]

Is there a "rule" for figuring out the correct size tv for an area?

room i'm putting tv in is approximately 15' x 15'. Hanging tv on 60 inch wall, so I'm thinking 55 is perfect. saw some posts that said sometimes a TV is "too big " for a room.... would I be better off getting a 52"?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Landshark44

Is there a "rule" for figuring out the correct size tv for an area?

room i'm putting tv in is approximately 15' x 15'. Hanging tv on 60 inch wall, so I'm thinking 55 is perfect. saw some posts that said sometimes a TV is "too big " for a room.... would I be better off getting a 52"?

It's usually based on the distance that the primary seating is going to be away from it. It's also personal comfort though. If I were you I'd measure the distance from the wall to where you'll be sitting and bring a tape measure to the store and stand that far away and see if you think it's too big.

What Size HDTV is Right for My Room?

[gstelmack]

There's another good chart out there that shows resolution, screen size, and distance to know when you would notice the pixels. Part of the whole retina display / DPI debate. I'll see if I can find it. Because a 55" 1080P is not a 55" 720P when it comes to viewing distance.

[gstelmack]

Ah, here's a version:

1080p charted: Viewing distance to screen size -- Engadget

[INDalltheway]

FOFC - you all never seem to disappoint me so I had to come to you guys with this all important life choice - buying a HDTV. I will start out and state that I have a soft budget of $1200. I wouldn't be the least bit upset if I spent under this by a good margin, but also could expand a little if something warrants it. I and looking at TVs between 46-52 inches. When I make purchases like this, I want to make sure I buy something that will last and will be enjoyed for a while. I am not interested in 3D unless someone could convince me of it's place in the future of television. My main uses for the set will be to watch HD sports, Xbox/playstation, and whatever the missus watches. Thanks guys!

[gstelmack]

http://www.sears.com/panasonic-viera...6&blockType=G6
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...5532000P?mv=rr
http://www.sears.com/panasonic-50inc...5&blockType=G5

[cartman]

Just when you got used to 1080p, here comes 4K!

Sony releases first 4K TV: The 84-inch XBR-84X900 | TV and Home Theater - CNET Reviews

[IlliniCub]

Anybody have any experience with the VIZO 47 inch lcd 3d tv? it's only like 500 or 600 bucks at walmart and my tv just died...It uses the regular theatre 3d glasses. Thinking about picking it up tomorrow after work...I really don't wanna spend much over 600 at this point as its kind of an unexpected purchase, so this tv would fit my budget just wondering if its decent.

[stevew]

Everything is basically good now.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by IlliniCub

Anybody have any experience with the VIZO 47 inch lcd 3d tv? it's only like 500 or 600 bucks at walmart and my tv just died...It uses the regular theatre 3d glasses. Thinking about picking it up tomorrow after work...I really don't wanna spend much over 600 at this point as its kind of an unexpected purchase, so this tv would fit my budget just wondering if its decent.

I got it for my kids for Christmas since they are huge into the 3d disney movies right now. I could care less about 3d myself, but they think it is great. It does not have the same HD quality as my LG tvs on non-3d stuff, but it really is not that bad at all. I find the picture a little darker, but once again not a big deal to me. The 3d stuff all works fine, the kids love it and it is really nice that it came with 2 pair of 3d glasses, and we just got 4 more pairs from the local theater after watching some movie there.

So not the TV that I choose to watch every day, but my kids prefer it over the other tvs in the house. Not a bad deal when I got it for like $530 I think.

[IlliniCub]

Thanks a lot...I'm dealing with a 4 year old dynex 1080p so I'm sure the picture quality will be better than that for sure I would think

[finketr]

i still have my crt TV.. kinda wish that damn thing ould die so we can go buy a new tv that we want but don't want to pay for.

[IlliniCub]

Ended up going to sears and saw that LG's 47 inch 3d tv was on sale and only 50 more than the Vizio one....so I picked it up instead seems really nice so far!

[Lathum]

anyone ever do wireless HDMI? Thinking about trying this since the end of my HDMI cable snapped off and I really don't want to pay to wire a new one through the wall.

Amazon.com: Atlona AT-LINKCASTAV LinkCast Wireless HD Audio/Video Station: Electronics

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Lathum

anyone ever do wireless HDMI? Thinking about trying this since the end of my HDMI cable snapped off and I really don't want to pay to wire a new one through the wall.

Amazon.com: Atlona AT-LINKCASTAV LinkCast Wireless HD Audio/Video Station: Electronics

I'd be concerned a bit about delay, as that is a problem with wireless speakers.

How long is the cable run with the broken end? If you can tug on one end and have the other end move, you might be able to buy a new cable, tape it to the broken end, and pull the new cable through.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by cartman

I'd be concerned a bit about delay, as that is a problem with wireless speakers.

How long is the cable run with the broken end? If you can tug on one end and have the other end move, you might be able to buy a new cable, tape it to the broken end, and pull the new cable through.

First thing I thought of. The problem is the cable was installed before the drywall was put up so it is stapled to all the oards in the wall. I called the guy who did the install and this was what he recommended.

[cartman]

D'oh, that sucks. In any event, it probably is still cheaper to run a new cable than to buy one of those devices.

[sterlingice]

There may be one, but I can't find a newer thread so I'm just going to hit this here. I love my old 42" Panasonic plasma (watching Matrix:Reloaded or Dark Knight on that thing was amazing) but it's over 5 years old now and starting to bleed colors a little so it's time for that to become the bedroom tv.

I'm looking to buy a tv in the $700 or less range, around 50" or, preferably 55" in the next month or two. I don't really care about "smartness" as I have a BluRay player that has all of that covered so ideally, I'd rather pay more for better picture quality. However, I'm looking for sweet spot: if there's one with a good picture for $550 or one that's slightly better at $700, I'd take the $550 because of diminishing returns. But if it would only cost another $50 to get "smart" features, I'd probably pay for the $600 just so I would save on having to buy another BluRay player.

There seem to be a couple of different of technologies out there but it seems like some sort of LED is best. In a store, I don't really see a big difference with 4K unless I stand up close and it's out of my price range vs value at this point. I do like the difference in 120Hz vs 60Hz so I'm pretty set on 120Hz but I'm "meh" on 240. Also, I hear that IPS is a better display than TN but how much better?

Lastly, there's 3D. I'm on the fence there and this is probably the only tv I'm going to buy for the next 5 years. It seems like a dead technology to me but if I'm misreading that, I'd pay a bit of a premium to get it now. My BluRay (it's a Sony S5100) supports 3D so I'm set infrastructure-wise.

So, any thoughts, models? So far, I've liked the Samsung UN55H6350 pretty well but it hasn't quite fallen into that range. It hangs out around $800+ and you're paying for some smart features and design I don't care about. I've also liked the LG 55LB6300 but it also hangs out around $900. Same thing- more features than I need but I feel like that's the really crisp picture quality range that is noticeable to me. So I feel like I have to pay an extra $200-$300 for features I don't like to get the picture quality I enjoy. If there's a screen out there that's in the similar range but not smart and costs $250 less, I'd be all over that (please tell me there is!)

Also, when is the best time to get them? When do next year's models come out so I can get a bargain? If it's January or February, maybe I'll wait. But if not, now's as good a time as any and I'd like to get this taken care of because we're also going to be car shopping soon (sigh- that's for another thread)

SI

[weegeebored]

I think that you've got a lot of parameters that are difficult to achieve, especially if you need a 55". The LG model that you listed is <$800 in a 50-inch model. Features aside, I don't think that your going to get the PQ you want at that price point. Then again, PQ is in the eye of the beholder. That's the only real explanation for why people choose LCD/LED televisions over plasma (may it rest in peace). Maybe a Vizio E500i 55-inch would work for you?

[sterlingice]

I've seen the 55LB6300 and UN55H6350 both drop below the $800 mark and both are even there right now. I'm trying to decide if I should pull the trigger or wait. I'm also going to go check both out in store one last time today to see if I have a significant preference one way or another. I also have a couple of Vizio models to check out. There's also the little brothers of each of the above models in the 55LB5900 and UN55H6203, which have worse chassis design and software but also are $200 less. I'm going to have to see if I would even get $200 more out of the better tvs for my viewing. I could also drop down to 50" for either of the 6300/6350 and end up in the $650 range.

SI

[weegeebored]

Yeah it's a good idea to check them out if you can. Your eyes will tell you mostly what you need to know. You could try Rtings.com - Find your TV for reviews. I like that they post some somewhat objective results like contrast and black/gray uniformity ratings. FWIW, Consumer Reports rated the LG at 67 and the 50" Samsung model at 68 (74 is high score). My understanding is that LGs tend to have a larger viewing angle before PQ goes significantly down if that's important to you.

I've been doing a lot of research lately as I'm looking to replace a very small LCD set. I didn't pull the trigger fast enough on the Samsung F8500 plasma that I wanted, so now looking at the LEDs. I can't wait until the OLEDs to get better and cheaper.

[MizzouRah]

The greatest TV I have ever owned is this $499 52" Sceptre from Walmart. Much better than that piece of crap 46" Sony I paid $2100 for that went in the garbage after 3+ years.

Expensive TV's are so overrated.

[CU Tiger]

If I was looking at a $700 TV today I'd buy this:
Samsung 60" Class (59.9" Diag.) 1080p Plasma HDTV PN60F5350BFXZA

Its not Panny Plasma good...but its close.
I helped a friend set-up this model a week ago. After we hacked in and played with some "technician" settings this was a $1,000 TV quality picture.

[CU Tiger]

I'm not a Vizio fan and I've expressed that before (though I did recently buy a vizio sound bar for the man cave and have been happy)

But for $530 this specs well though I havent touched one in person.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I've seen the 55LB6300 and UN55H6350 both drop below the $800 mark and both are even there right now. I'm trying to decide if I should pull the trigger or wait. I'm also going to go check both out in store one last time today to see if I have a significant preference one way or another. I also have a couple of Vizio models to check out. There's also the little brothers of each of the above models in the 55LB5900 and UN55H6203, which have worse chassis design and software but also are $200 less. I'm going to have to see if I would even get $200 more out of the better tvs for my viewing. I could also drop down to 50" for either of the 6300/6350 and end up in the $650 range.

SI

Costco has the LG 55" 55LB6100 for $679 after a $120 mfg discount. I have no idea what the model difference is.

LG 55" Class 1080p 120Hz Smart LED HDTV 55LB6100

[Autumn]

Wow, I feel like I used to see this thread on the first page every day, but it took me 12 pages to dig back and find it now that I need it!

Let me set the stage: I have an regular 30 something inch old-school TV (non flat screen, whatever that is called) that I got from someone for free years ago. The one and only time I ever bought a TV was about 12 years ago and I spent about $200. I am, I suppose you could say, a budget shopper. I am not looking for cutting edge and hate to have to spend anything.

That said, I would like to get a new TV. I don't like to spend money, but when I do I want something of decent quality. A friend of mine has a large TV, I'm not sure what kind, and I really, really hate it. Everything looks really cheap on it, like it's a bad SyFy Channel show or something, and so I really want to avoid getting something like that.

Anything I buy will seem really big to me, and I don't need any fancy features (Justhaving a HDMI input will be a big step up for me) and I want to not spend a lot of money. What type of TV should I be looking at, as in format/technology? Is there a particular brand I should look at?