New TV suggestions
 

I have an eight year old 60 inch LG plasma that's been really good but now it's starting to die. Half of the screen is going out. I had a repair guy look at it and he basically said just buy new instead of trying to fix it.

So, I love the OLEDs but the price still seems a little steep. Should I wait for Black Friday or will it not make much difference?

I've heard really good things about TCL Mini-LEDs and they're less than half the price of OLED. Is OLED really that much better? The room it's going in is usually pretty bright so want bright picture and nice blacks etc.

Anyways input is welcome.

I have three 2019 TCL Roku 4K TV's, from 43" to 75", and they all look amazing and perform extremely well.

Last week, I purchased a new TCL 5 Series QLED 50" for my studio. It was $369 with next day delivery at Walmart and while I didn't expect to see much of a difference, it's pretty freaking huge when watching 4K UDR content such as the Marvel movies on Disney+.

I fired up Avengers: Endgame on Disney+ because I wanted to see the blacks and colors of the opening scene in which Tony is stuck with Nebula in deep space, and even my 12 year old noticed the difference immediately.

I'm sure you can spend as much money as you'd like on a QLED but Dude, the TCL 5 series looks freaking unbelievably awesome.

I LOVE my TCL. It can do well in a bright room depending on the light source. It has quite a bit of glare if there's a direct light source.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tc...ries-r625-2019

I actually have the 2018 75" model, it's a bit higher rated than the 2019.

I was looking at this one. I might pull the trigger right now so I have a TV ready to go for tonight MNF

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/tcl-65-...?skuId=6377895

TCL will be the best bang for your buck.

OLED technology is the best picture going. Black Friday might be a good bet, but it appears around superbowl time you will find the best prices. I think I paid about $2k for my C9 for NFM around that time.

It looks decent all around.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tc...2019-q825-qled

I'm sure it'll look amazing. I am absolutely shocked at how great the new 5 Series QLED looks and that model is several above mine.

Costco is waiting on a huge shipment of TCL TV's that are currently stuck at the Port of Los Angeles due to the tariff situation so if you can wait, I'm sure you'll be able to save several hundred dollars. They also have a ton of other brands, including LG, Samsung, Vizio and others that are very reasonably priced but I stuck with TCL because I like the convenience of having all TCL Roku TV's throughout my house and their picture quality is plenty awesome for the price.

FYI, TCL has inflated the cost of that model by $200 dollars due to the tariffs.

It was initially $999.99 at Best Buy in August and now it's $1,299.99 at BB.

https://www.techhive.com/article/356...%27ve%20tested.

Updated later on August 3, 2020: Best Buy has raised the price of this TV back to its MSRP of $1,999—which is $200 more than Best Buy’s current price for the 75-inch model. Keep a close eye on prices for this TV.

For what you get out of the LG CX series, they're really not THAT bad in terms of price.

And it really is best of breed; hard to get many arguments to the contrary.

Being able to get the absolute top of the market for about $2,300 on an LG CS 65'' is kindof a bargain, IMO. It's rare you can get to the peak of a high quality consumer electronic for that sort of fairly reasonable figure.

We stuck w/ the 50" for the living room and we have a pretty nice Samsung in the basement - the LG is just flat out better.

TCL has in general been the best bang for your buck company. Vizio will give you a bigger screen for a cheaper price than other brands but the quality isn't quite as good. I have some 4k Samsungs, a 4k TCL, I like LG products...my experience in general is Samsungs and LGs are the premier picture quality TVs, however Samsung has some durability issues, once you get to 5 years anything after that is extra time on that TV.

The only downside I have for current gen OLED's is if you game or you watch things like say sports that have a constant HUD on the screen they experience some burn in at times.

I use that same website for the exact problem you specified - the glare.

RTings does a glare test that really does a nice job of demonstrating how certain TVs are able to kill that glare really nicely. That's what put me towards the LG 8X a few years ago - those screens absolutely gobble up that glare and really do a nice job of absorbing it.

It's something you never think about until you get it in your room and during the fall/winter football months the southern sun !@#$s up your football games or something.

Unsurprisingly, your TCL gets a pretty poor glare score.

Thanks, yea I saw that too. I think I'm gonna wait till at least Prime Day

I use a TCL as an office TV, it's not like my sports or gaming set.

I've heard about the burn-in concerns but as far as I can see, they ALL have that feature that will intermittently 'shift' your screen a pixel or two to avoid that problem.

It's theoretically possible but there are a half dozen different things the TV can/will do AND several things that a user can do to prevent it.

It's the big scare point but it's never something I've been overly concerned about.

Newegg has it for $2169 right now. I'm just curious if I wait till November it'll be like $200 cheaper or something

As long as I shut of the lights that sit directly over the TV, I don't have any glare. It has to be a pretty direct source for the glare to be bad.

My primary use of that TV is gaming and you can't beat the TCL at that price. I paid $1100 for a 75" that has one of the lowest input latencies in the industry. It's a great gaming TV and that's really all I wanted.

What's up with these online sites like TV Tronics? They have tv's like thousands of dollars cheaper. Got to be a scam right?

https://www.tvtronix.com/LG-C9PUB-77...77C9PUB/p-1154

Oh there are plenty of instances where it doesn't matter.

But if we're talking about putting something in your living room and there's natural light in there, it's just something you need to consider that few people really do.

They'll want to talk about contrasts and blacks and all that shit, but none of it matters if you have a giant sun-spot in the middle of your picture. And a lot of newer TVs are pretty bad about that.

I'm just pointing out that folks should really give those glare tests a look if there's a chance it will be an issue for them. It is in my living room for 4 months out of the year so it was pretty critical in my shopping evaluation.

rtings.com is a pretty great resource when tv shopping. The entire west facing side of my house is windows. Even with quality shades there's still a ton of light that pours into my living room. I had in mind some brands I was interesting in and not only does rtings do the glare/picture tests, they compare the tv against 4 or 5 others in that price range with pros/cons for each them. I settled on an LG that performs better in bright rooms. It saved me from throwing money towards something that wasn't a good fit for my living room.

The site also provides some recommended calibration settings which is handy after purchase.

Black Friday sales will begin early this year and will also be online, so it might be worth it to wait.

I saw a 65" LG 7 series at Costco Burbank Saturday and it was awesome. They have a couple of larger LG's that are less than an a 1/2 thick on display which looked amazing as well.

I'm done with Samsung. From a washer and dryer that went out after only 7 years and wasn't repairable because Samsung stopped producing parts, to my parents issue with Samsung refrigerators, TV's and sound bars, I plan to avoid them forever.

LG CX for the best you can get.

TCL for best bang for the buck.

My main TV is a 65" TCL 5 series that I bought for $1000 a couple of years ago or so. I guess they are down to like $500-$600 now. The picture is great but, let's be honest, it's nowhere near how good the LG OLEDs are.

I use a projector and I love it. So much cheaper than a tv and I can have up to 150ft that kicks ass. I can watch movies at night in my back yard on the back of my house. If it's dark enough I'm going watch the Chiefs on Thursday Night Football coming up.

7 years? That's a ****ing tank compared to Samsung lately. We replaced our washer after 3 and our dryer after just 20 months. We got tired of calling for warranty repairs. Even though they were covered, they had so many problems we had to get rid of them.

Just bought this 75” LG today. I haven’t bought a new tv in nearly 9 years. Hopefully I won’t be disappointed

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-75-c...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

Funny because I have a Samsung washer that's only like a year old but it's already acting up. But then again I had a LG dish washer that literally caught fire mid cycle so who knows lol.

I think Samsung puts all its resources behind cell phones and LG puts all of theirs behind TVs

I had a repairman out last year to fix the Samsung washer and once he realized it was the main board said “I’m sorry, this can’t be repaired because Samsung stopped making the main board. A little piece of advice: Avoid Samsung at all costs.”.


I called around to every service center in the country along with some of those online parts places like AppliancepartsPros.com, which is awesome BTW, and no one had it.


My parents had three Samsung refrigerators fail in 4 months and finally gave up and went LG.

Dang. Please keep us updated on performance. That's a crazy price point.

My wife hates technology and spending money with a passion. Let's just say she has no regrets with our OLED purchase. Its an incredible upgrade.

The infamous Samsung "main board".

I've heard that one MULTIPLE times.

My parents had an issue with a Samsung fridge, it just is what it is, them and LG are both Korean companies so you get what you get.

We've been through multiple washers and dryers, both Samsung and LG, since our Maytag's died (after 20 years). We've been through 3 dishwashers. We have a Bosch now and it's lasted longer than the last 2 put together. We also have had an LG fridge fail but replaced it with a GE and haven't had any issues since.

On washing machines, go Speed Queen. You'll likely not have to buy another one, maybe ever. They cost double, but are built to last for 20+ years, and are made in the USA. You'[ll probably buy 3 or 4 of most modern washers in that time frame.

Truth.

There is quality out there if you look for it.

My wife makes and sells stuff and uses a sewing machine. After going through 3 or 4 "big box" Singer's in a couple of years, I went to a small quilting shop and did some research. I ended up buying her a Baby Lock (which I'd never heard of prior) and not only does it get glowing reviews from many old ladies that have used them for years, it came with a 25-year warranty. Yeah, it was 4x a high end Singer but so far, it's been worth it. She's already completed 2 projects that broke a regular machine.

I hate our Samsung fridge (brand new, came with the house). Its working fine but the design is aids. It has next to no door storage to accommodate the abundance of condiments required in America. So now there's mayos and mustards battling it out for space on the shelves with all the other stuff in there. It's like a game of Tetris trying to get to the one thing you're craving to put on a sandwich. So annoying.

That's all refrigerators and it's a uniquely American problem. :D

I had a GE is my last place that fit my condiment needs fine. This Samsung is all style, little substance.

The problem is that mayonaisse comes in 32oz jars.

That's not a condiment, it's a food group.

:D

My wife and I just bought a 75" Samsung Q80T television and it's pretty nice. Sound is surprisingly good without a soundbar, gets loud at around 15 - 20 volume. She says it looks fuzzier and grainier than our other television, but I haven't looked up preferred settings online to test and most of the time we're watching YouTube TV at 1080p, not 4k content. Was it $3000 nice, without warranty, with mounting services and mount? Possibly, obviously you'd rather pay less than $2000 for a TV, but it was on sale for $2600 for a 75" 4k QLED TV so I feel like it's worth it's money. We have a 65" Samsung 4K from 5 years ago and my wife says the picture looks better to her on that one so maybe 65" is the sweetspot for 1080p. The Tizen menu system is nicer on the 75" for sure, much snappier, and I appreciate that everything is now behind the TV instead of through the OneConnect box on the 65".

I'm in a bit of a dilemma with TVs, myself.

I bought a 40" Sony Bravia in 2009 that still runs like a champ - it's my office/gaming tv at the moment. It works insanely well, and I've never had any issues with it whatsoever; however, I'm getting a PS5 soon and want to be able to take advantage of this upgrade in graphics. So I'll be in the market for a ~40" 4k tv soon, but....

1) I haven't had great experience with smart tvs that have built-in platforms like Fire TV or Roku. I currently have a 55" Toshiba smart 4k tv w/ Fire TV and it's slower than **** (probably because I'm constantly near the 5GB memory limit, but what can you do when it only holds, like, 10 ****ing apps).

2) I love Fire TV - I've had every generation of standalone Fire TV systems, and I just bought a Cube and it works great.

What this means is I'm looking for a non-smart 4k QLED or OLED 40" tv. Is that even an option in today's market?

4K is pretty much wasted on a 40" TV/Monitor.

Though perhaps one of these might work for you. TV's without smart bits built in are scarce. You don't have to actually use the smart bits on most of them though.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/be.../40-42-43-inch

ETA: From the reviews, the 43" Sony might be your best bet.

I don't think you'll be able to find a non-Smart TV these days that worth a crap but there are plenty of 40"-43" 4K Smart TV's available for less than $300 dollars.

We have six Smart TV's, all TCL Roku 4K's. I bought a 43" TCL 4K for my wife's office during the Christmas season of 2018 and the TV was dead out of the box, so I exchanged it the next day at Costco and haven't had an issue since. FYI, Costco doubles the manufacturer's warranty and allows returns/exchanges for up to 2 years.

Personally, I absolutely love the picture and convenience of a Roku TV because once it's authorized, it downloads all of our apps automatically. The most time consuming aspect is authorizing all of those apps but even that's really quick these days because the CPU's are just so fast these days.

My latest TCL QLED boots so quickly that I barely even see it. I press power and BOOM! I'm at the home screen.

Thanks, Dude!

Speed Queens are in laundry mats so I assume they last forever.

I have several GE appliances that we installed brand new back in 2003 and while cosmetically, they appear to be brand new but electronically, I've had to personally replace fill lines, an ice maker and several other internal parts, which can be found on Amazon, yet Samsung doesn't even make replacement parts for a seven year old unit.

I seriously have no idea how they can stay in that business because by now, nearly everyone knows their appliances are garbage and their customer service is atrocious.

I don't necessarily expect an appliance to last forever but geez, I was absolutely shocked that Samsung discontinued replacement parts on an appliance that was less than 7 years old.

I mean, that's insane.

Research up on LG fridges. For awhile their design of compressors was ass and they’d last 2 years. I’m guessing they got it fixed but just be careful.

That being said I have a 12 year old LG fridge that *knock on wood* is good to go.

My buddy is a GE dealer and bled GE. Wouldn’t buy anything that wasn’t profile. But has a speed queen. So does Buehler445 on account of it.

There's probably some other there but not that I'm aware of.

I'm surprised you've had such good luck with Amazon Fire. I've had 3 of them in different hardware iterations and never had anything but trouble with them. We did have one of the Fire Stick HD's that was slow so out of the box, I sent it back. Literally 15-20 second delay after pushing a button on the remote. I never knew if the button push had actually registered.

We switched them out for Roku and never looked back.

We have a 75" TCL Roku, a 40" TCL Roku and I have a Roku Express in my office. I love them.

Will do.

I actually chose to replace about $150 dollars in parts myself on my 17 year old GE fridge because literally everyone I know that's purchased an LG, Samsung or Kenmore has had problems, from the icemaker to the door unit not working properly and so on.

For those of you that aren't aware, appliancepartspros.com not only carries freakin' every single part available for every company that's still manufacturing replacement parts, they have videos on their website which show exactly how to replace each part. If you understand even the basics of how to use a screwdriver or socket set and so on, these parts are easily replaceable.

I've saved thousands in labor costs just in the past 10 months alone and cannot believe how simple it is to do so.

I should have clarified - I did try the Stick, and it was garbage. But I still have my Gen 1 Fire TV and it works very well. And the Cube is great now, too. I'm glad you've had luck with Roku, but any Roku I've ever used is terrible. Slow, crazy lag, ugly UI. No thanks for me!

I'm looking at this tv now. Seems to fit what I'm looking for. Thoughts?
https://www.nfm.com/samsung-43-class...hd-4k-smart-tv

Avoid Samsung at all cost. Also, that's too much money for a non-UHD TV, especially a TV that small.

It also sounds like you were using very early generation Roku's. I had a stick for a while back in 2016 and agree, it was clunky and lagged.

But the latest generation Roku TV's are so incredibly fast that there's no lag, no delay, no nothing - just a great performance and great picture for very little money.

Also, keep in mind that by choosing an LG or Samsung (do NOT choose Samsung), there's a very real possibility that the apps you use aren't available without a Roku or Amazon Fire.

It probably never actually powers down, just turns off power to the screen,keeping the smart bit going all the time. Doesn't take much power to run the smart bits.

Surprisingly, I actually turned that function off and it still goes to the home screen so quickly that I don't even see it boot. It's literally press the power button on the remote and boom, there's the home screen.

I wish it allowed me to specify which app to open upon pressing the power button but that's probably asking too much at this point in time.

Just had it delivered a few hours ago. Got it setup, turned it on and it’s getting a sparkly line of color on one side with no picture. :facepalm:

Hopefully they will deliver a new one within a few days.

Right on. Thanks.

Aight, you've swayed me. Now I'm looking at this one. Thoughts?
https://www.nfm.com/tcl-50-class-4k-...-roku-smart-tv

That's the exact model I purchased and received last week. Costco has a ton of TCL TV's sitting at the port of Los Angeles and don't know when they're going to be released, so I purchased from Walmart.com because they offered next day delivery for free. Their price is $369.99.

The picture is phenomenal. Even my kids noticed the difference between the 2019 4K 75" TCL Roku TV in our family room, especially with 4K content such as Disney+, Movies Anywhere, Netflix, etc. The biggest surprise is that TCL has greatly improved the audio, so much so that in a smaller space, you may not even need a soundbar.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TCL-50-Cl...S525/728982413

FYI... Roku doesn't support side loading of apps. No KODI, no Cinema, no Mobdro, etc. Dealbreaker if you use any of those regularly.

Yeah, some of us don't need that kind of functionality. I'm a technical person and you're WAY more sophisticated than I am when it comes to TV.

I'm in a class action on these !@#$ing LG linear compressor model refrigerators.

They're AMAZING....when they're running. I loved my LG except for the fact that every 6 months they'd seize up and since everything is part of a closed system with a known seal failure/line clogging issue, nobody will work on them. So you have to find a factory authorized dealer and they're all WAY booked out because, again, these damn things are shit. It took me 8 weeks to get it repaired once, 6 weeks the other time.

And even under warranty (which only covers parts) you're out about $900 on labor.

So after fixing the damn thing twice in 5 years, I scrapped it and replaced it with a GE. I don't like the GE quite as much, but the door in the ice maker doesn't develop the ice block that takes up the entire bin like the LG did, so that's nice. And the entire back of the fridge is a massive LED backlight so that's awesome. But doesn't feel as substantial and the ice maker is sloooooooow to dispense so as often as not I just open the door and pull the bin out. I also don't think its temperature control is quite as precise.

But it won't have me scrambling to fit a bunch of stuff into my beer fridge/deep freeze every year, so that's nice.

If anyone is looking at a fridge, remember that LG and Kenmore use the same guts and I believe they all utilize their linear compressor setup. DO NOT buy a refrigerator that utilizes that system. It WILL fail and if you're lucky you'll get 5 years before it does. They know it will. The seals are made of a material that breaks down when exposed to the refrigerant and the pieces that decay off will slowly build up in the lines before clogging them up altogether.

This is a thing they know it WILL do, they've known this for over a decade and they've done nothing to address it. Ask any salesman you're working with if what you're looking at uses a linear compressor system and if it does, walk away. And if they don't know, find a different salesman because he's probably just lying - they know about these things.

Living in SoCal, where it's often 70+ degrees everyday (and for the past week, 95-110 degrees), a fully operational icemaker is absolutely essential for me. I drink iced tea in the morning and ice water the rest of the day and night, so ice is a must.

I had GE replace the icemaker back in 2010, which cost me $250 with labor. About 5 years later, the icemaker stopped working, so I had it replaced, again, along with a few solenoids. But, the last repairman showed me how to replace the icemaker myself (literally two nuts and a plug), so the last time the icemaker went out, I purchased and replaced it myself for $49.99.

We were in KC over Christmas and my brother had purchased a new Kenmore fridge within the past couple of months. Not only was the fridge not staying cold, the icemaker bucket was so tiny that it could only fill a few cups worth of ice at a time and one night, it stopped working altogether.

It's actually unbelievable that in 2019/2020, ice maker technology is still garbage.

The last fridge we had before the GE was a Kenmore. Last 9 months.

I'd have never guessed that the speed of an ice dispenser would annoy me as much as it does, but man does it ever. Waiting 10 seconds for the thing to churn 5 ice cubes into my 32 oz Yeti just pisses me off. Especially when I know I'm gonna have to wait for the stupid sun tea jug to slowly trickle my tea in there as well.

Dammit, if I gotta take 60 seconds to make my tea, I'm just going to the office and getting a cup of coffee...

Because Louis CK had the right of it, we are a spoiled and awful set of human beings.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kBLkX2VaQs4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

New TV suggestions
 

Welp, I pulled the trigger. Between your ringing endorsement and the quality ratings from the interwebz, I'm hoping I chose wisely. It'll be here Sunday. Thank you very much for your perspective, man.

You're more than welcome, I just hope you're very happy with the TV and are as happy with it as I am with mine.

Good luck and please keep us posted!

I've got that TV in our bedroom. I'm a Samsung guy when it comes to televisions, I like that one pretty well. A little less clear and sharp than the other Samsung we have, which is what stands out about Sammies over the years, but still pretty good.

Edit: Heh, I see you made a different buy. I've heard good things about TCL also, hope you like it.

Set it up this morning. I'm impressed thus far with the picture and audio quality. The input lag from the Roku is unacceptable in my book, so I've hooked up my Fire TV Cube and have a Sideclick (really cool companion remote for streaming box remotes that is programmed to TVs buttons). Works great now!

There's a lag with the built-in Roku? That's weird. Mine is so fast that I can't even see it start up. I hit the power button and I'm at the home screen in 1 second.

You've probably done this already but be sure to update the software. There might be something in Settings that is set incorrectly as well but I'm glad you're enjoying the picture and sound!

Yeah, I have two Roku TV's and one Roku Express. There's no lag at all.

A little late here, but 55" OLED LG.

This thing is pretty slick.

It's an input lag between the remote and the interface. It doesn't affect bootup (it's fast as hell, just as you said), but scrolling through apps like YouTube TV, there's a noticeable lag between button press and action on the screen. Perhaps I'm spoiled from the Fire TV systems (not the Stick - garbage), but once I connected my Cube it's lightning fast with no noticeable lag.

I re-downloaded God of War on my PS4 and started another campaign, and the differences in the picture quality from what I'm used to were STAGGERING. The HDR stuff is magical - I had no idea it would be that much of a difference between my older 1080p setup. Wow!

Interesting.

My experience is the exact opposite. The Roku remote has almost no lag.

The main reason we got my mother in law a TCL Roku TV was because she had a Fire Stick HD and the remote lag was so bad, it would sometimes take 15-20 seconds for a button press to register (also she watches a lot of Netflix and the Fire Stick had big problems with the Netflix app).

Have you tried using the Roku app on your phone or smart device? Something isn't adding up. I just checked 4 of our Roku TV's, including the same model you purchased, and the remote and TV respond quickly and in real time. I don't notice any latency at all.

I'm kind of wondering if there's some sort of electrical interference on the frequency the Roku remote is using, which could come from anywhere, especially if you're in multi-family housing. There's definitely something going on because this isn't the first time you've had this specific issues.

That said, I spoke to a TV Tech while in line last summer at Costco and he told me that I'd extend the life of my TV and electronics by using a standalone Roku as opposed to the internal Roku, so you may come out ahead in the long run.


I am so glad that the picture met or exceeded your expectations!

:rockon:

If you have the "point anywhere" remote (like the one with voice control, keep in mind that it uses a private 2.4Ghz network. Interference is problematic for sure.

And yes, HDR gaming on the TCL is a thing of beauty. That's why I bought mine.

It's a wash for me. I prefer the Fire TV UI anyway, so it's all good.

I am so damn impressed with this TV. I watched Black Panther on it last night and the colors are so vivid and vibrant. Thanks again for the recommendation, fellas. And also thanks to whoever shared the rtings.com website!

Okay, cool!

There's nothing worse than highly recommending a product, only to see that person have a bad experience.

Yep. Same here.

Finally got the replacement last night and set it up. Outstanding picture. Still haven’t had time to play with all the settings. Tons of apps within LGs App Store. Plus LG offers a bunch of free channels.

My WiFi was acting a little flakey with it last night. Kept getting disconnected. I hope the WiFi card in it is good, I’ve never had any issues with my other WiFi devices in that same location.