Need a new TV! (Specs help...)

I never got rid of my CRT TV since all of my concert dvds are SD and having tried every upscaling method known to man (and failing miserably) it's still between my main towers, the led tv relegated to a corner of the living room.

 

Failed in what sense?

 

You need something with voice control so some 11 yo in Bangla Desh can change the channel or operate Time Machine for you.

 

In providing a picture that was as good as that of SD content displayed on my CRT TV.

 

Yes, but what I was asking was in what way didn't it look as good? I've done many SD DVD transcodes of shows, from Frasier to DS9 and the results have always been much better than the original. You need to know what you're doing of course because things like interlacing can trip you up if you don't handle it properly, so you end up with combing effects. Also frame rates should match so you don't get jerky motion. You can apply a touch of smoothing and sharpening to make the finer details pop a little, etc.

But if you use say a point-and-shoot app, then I can see how that would more likely than not produce suboptimal results.

 

Bumping this thread.

Anyone have any updated recommendations? EVERYTHING boasts 4k capability now. It's intimidating if you haven't purchased a set in 7-8 years.

I'm trying to stay under or around $800. 50-55 inches is ideal.

Dumb question: is there any inherent advantage in owning a smart set, as opposed to just streaming with a Roku stick or something similar?

 

Actually a very good question !

 

I too would love to hear updated recommendations/purchase guidelines.

On "smart sets," my view is there is no advantage to them (although as with UHD/4k, more and more sets have smart features whether you want them or not). The 3rd party streaming boxes are inexpensive, super-small, usually have better navigation interfaces, more frequent updates to the channel software, more available channels, faster development/adoption of new channels, and (AFAIK) faster dedicated processors fueling the interface.

Smart TVs might catch up to the dedicated streamer boxes at some point, but for now I'd say that in terms of quality and future-proofing, a Smart TV is like an integrated amplifier with a built-in CD player.

 

A year in, I'm very happy with my Samsung UE48H6700.

Picture looks great with the right sources, and the Smart functions are good, if sometimes slightly clunky.

 

I was under the impression that you could somehow be spied on with a smart TV set. That it could somehow be hacked. Is this true?

Had also read that the HDCP TVs will not let you play all region discs. That your player will play it but the TV wont show the picture. Does anyone know anything about this?
I think this is problem only in the states but not really sure.

 

I have a 'smart' TV but never use that hodge-podge of features - it's a bit of a mess. Stick with Roku, it's better and consistent across different TVs.

 

What are the high end manufactured TVs two years on from when this thread started ...either Oled /4K related,
and has the price dropped ?

 

Looks like a ton of the 4K UHD are now discounted. Saw some cheap ones at Sam's. But some of them are still anywhere from $1200-$3500. Some of the Vizio's and Samsungs I saw were $600-$800. Picture looked good to me, higher ones prob have better resolution but I couldn't tell a difference they all looked pretty good to me, with LG looking the best but it was priced the highest.

As for Smart TV's we use the YouTune, Netflix and Amazon features all the time. Have had no issues with any of them.

 

What happened to Sony&Panasonic?

 

thing i found when replacing my old 42" tv last year was that most 55" tvs now use virtually the same amount of space as that did due to the much thinner bezels so you may as well upsize screen size when changing. Also think it would be a bit silly not to get a 4k one now instead of changing again in a few years.

I ended up buying a Phillips one as my old tv was from them and never missed a beat. I think i read afterwards though that not all Phillips tvs are made by them anymore and some are just using the brand name but ive had this for about 9 months so far and have no issues with it. Only thing i should have paid more attention to though is HDR as this doesnt have it. If you are going to start using 4k bluerays then make sure you get a HDR tv.

 

I picked up a 43" Kuro for €150 recently. Folks are literally giving away plasmas at the moment. Unless you fork out for an OLED I`d go the S/H plasma route. Picture quality from a Kuro plasma is superb. The LCD/LED screens are bags of sand imo. - terrible picture "quality".

 

What about projectors ?

 

@alexpop I forgot all about those. I didn't know Panasonic still made them here is a article from 2014:

Panasonic Smart Viera 2014 Review | TV Reviews

Checked their website and they still make them and a google search shows them at Sam's club and Walmart, maybe I did not look hard enough for them when I was there. I saw mostly Vizio's and Samsungs and even Hitachi. Most of the TV's in Sam's placed on an endcap were LG's and they were pretty stunning. Didn't see a Sony at all.

 

Sony /Panasonic last golden year was 2012/2013 i would imagine.
Just curious about them.

 

Seen a LG 4K( shop display ) and even tuned into a bog standard tv programm the picture looked great.

 

Get a new smart tv. That's what me and my family have right now and we just got it a few months ago.

 

The days of the high end TVs are gone it seems.

 

The LG OLED65G6P is the top of the heap at the moment, but you can get most of the quality via one of their lower OLED models. However, if you must have the best, this is it.

 

Strange my Vizio told me last night that on 6/30/17 YouTube will no longer work. Hmmmm.... We watch YouTube all the time on the TV I need to see what's up.

 

I gave in. My wife wanted a 32¨ led TV for movie watching and I just bought a Philips for her (us). We now enjoy films in HD from a pendrive and over-the-air HD broadcasts but our main telly is still the big ole CRT I use to watch my concert DVDs.