TV Tutorial

[shootnstarz]

Well the old 800lb CRT is about to shit the wagon right here at the start of football season and I need a new TV.

I'm thinking LED is the best route to go? Any recommendation on brands, features, brands to stay away from (like Phillips for one)? No gaming just TV and movies. I don't know jack about these new fangled squawk boxes.

Rick

 

[Seanpcola]

In my opinion just about any TV on the market is good. The 32" in the sun room was the cheapest no name tv that BestBuy had when I walked in that day 6 years ago and it still works flawlessly with an amazing picture. Wallyworld has the best prices generally though.

Rick, about the only important point in regards to these new TVs is that generally speaking, the sound with the built in speakers suck. I believe the manufacturers don't worry about it because nowadays a lot of people go with component audio equipment anway. All of my TV s have surround sound or speaker bars. So, unless you go high end you probably are not going to be happy with the audio and will have to buy a separate sound bar, a decent one will run about $100.

Check your PMs

 

[Kanaloa]

If you are a football fan and have HDTV on your plan, get a good quality set. The football games look awesome on my brother in law's TV. I have two flat HDTVs, and the experience is nothing special at all. My TVs are pretty much the most inexpensive models I could get. They are fine for every day TV and movies. I have a Panasonic Plasma and a Vizio LED from Sam's. They have worked great for about 4 years now. The Vizio has wifi and will stream Netflix and other sources such as YouTube. Not a bad feature to look for.

 

[Seanpcola]

No doubt you get what you pay for but in my experience the cheapest POS in the store beats the snot out of anything high end 10 years ago. I thought my TVs were just mediocre till I we switched from Brighthouse cable (compressed signal) to wifi, HD antenna and even when wife insisted on getting direct tv. The picture on my 6 year old 32" is amazing now with a full signal, much better than anything I ever saw a decade ago. Very rich, clear, well defined video.

As for having a smart tv, it is worth the few extra bucks but I don't think Rick is into that end of it, though he may be when he sees what's available. You can buy something like a Chromecast ($35) and turn a dumb tv smart, which I did on a couple of mine. Smaller TVs tend to be about that much different in price between smart and dumb but when you get bigger the cost difference is a bit more.

 

[shootnstarz]

My old CRT is already smarter than me. I'm sure I'd probably like streaming Netflix and such but all that's pretty much over my head as of now but I'm a great researcher.

As for audio I already have a pretty good stereo I pipe the sound through. All I have is the basic 60 something channel regular cable w/no box. That combined with the interweb and land line cost makes my cable bill almost $200.

RH

 

[Kanaloa]

The TVs with built in wifi have apps built in. Simple to push a few buttons to get to Netflix. If it wasn't simple, I wouldn't spend my time on it. Just have to have a good wifi signal. I agree with Sean, I wouldn't spend the money on hi quality HD, as the benefit is not there for me personally. But I do like watching the games at my bro's house! I need to review my cable bill and see how I can get it lowered in price.

 

[FelixH]

Actually, this is good timing!
Everyone has a Labor Day sale going on right now.
Personally, if it's my money, I'm buying Samsung or a Sharp Aquos.

With some of the cheaper brands, like Best Buy's "Insignia" store brand, I've seen some really poor performance.
With some other cheaper brands, like Visio, I've seen some really good performance.
If you go with the cheaper brands, it's going to be hit or miss.

At home and at work, I haven't been disappointed with Samsung or Sharp.

 

[Seanpcola]

I'm a big Samsung fan but in my experience, and from watching several friends cheapo TVs you can get good cheap stuff. I just haven't had any problems. Only issue I had was on my first one. I forgot to tell my wife how to NOT clean the screen and she rubbed the snot out of one, producing some light shadowing that only shows up in certain scenes. Not good but I'll live with it on that TV as we seldom watch it anyway.

As for Netflix and such, yeah a smart tv is the way to go but if you can save a hundred bucks to go dumb and it's not that important to you then Chromecast, Fire stick or whatever does the same. The Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Roku and similar apps are all free and you just download to a tablet or your phone/device.

Kanaloa, I have a thread I started on costs, saving and options. There is definitely money to be saved over cable or satellite IF you can get what you want on the internet and HD broadcast signal, it doesn't work for everyone but I was extremely happy. Only reason we got a satellite service was because momma just couldn't live without her Fox News and cooking shows. Even if you like Sports there are some great cheap services on the internet. I don't watch sports, didn't care about the news or cooking shows but when I had the house set up the way I wanted I was saving $100 a month.

 

[bohica793]

I have two Visios that are wonderful.

 

[Seanpcola]

Yep, I have several Visio products and they're great. Only complaint I had in the beginning with them was proprietary remote codes but that seems to be no problem anymore.

 

[LowRiderRed]

We just bought a 4K UHD last weekend. Best picture I've ever seen, and it's a smart TV.

 

[shootnstarz]

I'm a big Samsung fan but in my experience, and from watching several friends cheapo TVs you can get good cheap stuff. I just haven't had any problems. Only issue I had was on my first one. I forgot to tell my wife how to NOT clean the screen and she rubbed the snot out of one, producing some light shadowing that only shows up in certain scenes. Not good but I'll live with it on that TV as we seldom watch it anyway.

As for Netflix and such, yeah a smart tv is the way to go but if you can save a hundred bucks to go dumb and it's not that important to you then Chromecast, Fire stick or whatever does the same. The Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Roku and similar apps are all free and you just download to a tablet or your phone/device.

Kanaloa, I have a thread I started on costs, saving and options. There is definitely money to be saved over cable or satellite IF you can get what you want on the internet and HD broadcast signal, it doesn't work for everyone but I was extremely happy. Only reason we got a satellite service was because momma just couldn't live without her Fox News and cooking shows. Even if you like Sports there are some great cheap services on the internet. I don't watch sports, didn't care about the news or cooking shows but when I had the house set up the way I wanted I was saving $100 a month.

Hey Sean,...........it's me !!!

Rick

 

[Seanpcola]

Hey Sean,...........it's me !!!

Rick

Yes Rick, I know. Your point?

I'm trying to say that you don't need an expensive TV but you will be impressed with even a cheap one. You already have cable so you have your sports.

 

[Alcolee]

I just bought 5 60" sharp led tvs for a church I do some tech work for. They have them on tv carts and use them in classrooms. For $800 each, they look great, are smart tvs, have both computers and DVD players hooked up to them. For the money, they were a great choice. I have a couple of older Vizio tvs that I have been using for years and never had an issue. Hope that helps.

Al

 

[shootnstarz]

Well, from researching I think I like the 48" LEDs. They're from around $350 for the dumb ones to around $500 for a smart one.

So, with this smart TV I can use my wifi and transmit (stream) movies and/or TV shows from my desktop computer via the wifi to the TV? Is this how Netflix works? Keep in mind I don't have a smart phone, tablet, ipod, ipad, ipud, nothing but a desktop computer, wireless for my wife's computer and a flip phone. I know, how to I survive?

Rick

 

[madeSICC88]

The TV will have its own app store that allows you to download things like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu etc.. and stream that way.
I'm sure there are some TVs that will allow you to also connect to your desktop and play videos/music stored on your computer but not totally sure.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

[shootnstarz]

"app store"? You lost me.

These things will download from the wifi directly to the TV and not use the desktop? So the menu will be on the TV?

I'm a little behind times, just figured out how to stop the VCR from blinking 12:00 !!!!!!!

Rick

 

[madeSICC88]

Exactly, everything will be on the tv.

 

[Seanpcola]

Come over and I'll show you how my setup works Rick.

I just got back from Wallyworld. They have some great deals this weekend on TVs Rick.

 

[Bay Ranger]

Yup, great deals now on TVs. Manufacturers are trying to unload their current models in preparation of releasing new models for the Christmas shopping season. I have a LG plasma that I am happy with. Plasma because the colors are brighter and darker in a pretty bright room. Went with LG because Consumer Reports tested this model a a "best buy" in plasma. I've had it for about 2 yrs and am happy with the performance. BTW, but the biggest one that you can afford and will fit into the space where you want to locate it - you won't be sorry you bought the biggest.