Tell me about your (recent) TV buying experience

Are questions about video hardware allowed here??

I'm hoping to buy a new TV soon. If you've purchased a television in the past year or so I would love to hear about your shopping and ownership experiences. Answers to any or all of the following are appreciated:

• What model did you buy?
• Where do you buy it?
• Did you get a good or special deal? (you don't have to reveal actual price)
  
• What 2-3 features were most important to you? If "picture quality" was your primary concern that's fine, but a little more specific info would be appreciated (e.g., black level, contrast ratio, etc.)
• If it's a 4K unit, how does HD content look on it? (Assuming the TV itself is doing the upscaling. if not what's the source?)
  
• What are the Pros and Cons of your model?
• Would you buy it again?
• Was there a different model you seriously considered and wish you had bought instead?
• Anything else?

Thanks!!!

 

I bought a 55" Sony XBR55X99E about 6 months ago. I bought it at a big box store. The price is already starting to come down, currently $100 less on Amazon. It is 4k LED. My other three TV's are Samsung 1080P LED's. The Sony has more color gradations and less blocking in the shadow areas, but the Samsungs are easier to adjust for proper picture settings. The Sony is nice, but I think I prefer the way the Samsungs reproduce skin tones.
I do not use the 4k upsampling at all. Because it has 4x the pixels, it dithers everything anyway. You can't get more information out of a 1080P or compressed 720P cable channel than what's being broadcast by using all the fancy enhancements, so I watch everything at native resolution. 4K is a bit of a marketing scam, because there is so little 4K content out there, unless you live in Japan, or have the latest 4k Blu-Ray player, and buy movies for $25 each. Because of this, up close the Sony is actually less sharp than the 1080P sets, although as I said, there is a wider color gamut. And, from a reasonable distance, the picture is certainly decent enough.
I can't speak to the audio quality or internet features, I use it strictly as as display in my home theater system, along with my Comcast DVR, a Sony internet-capable SACD player, 200w Yamaha amp, and four speakers.
The big blue store was offering leftover 2015 55" Samsung 1080P models for a third of what I paid for the Sony. I'd grab one of those before buying this again.

 

Just purchased a new Sony XBR for our bedroom in our new house (49"). We had purchased another XBR (55") a little over a year ago for the living room area of our old home, and loved that TV so much, we know we were going for another Sony for the new house. The new XBR's really are quite stunning (both are 4k units).

I also grabbed a $260 Sharp 40" at Walmart (gasp) for a guest bedroom that is honestly a surprisingly good little TV......can't beat the price.

 

I bought a 55-inch Sony XBR from Crutchfield. I briefly considered OLED, but decided to save the dough. I especially like the Android/Chromecast features, but I chose the TV because of what the reviews said about the picture. I was not disappointed. The audio on these thin TV sets is not good, so I run it through an Adcom amp and control it with the TV volume.

 

Good point, this is actually the info that I'm after. How does non-4K content look when displayed at native resolution on your (or anyone's ) 4K TV?
Most of my content will be 720 or 1080p, and I'm not a huge fan of upsampling, but perhaps someone has a made unit with a particularly good engine.

 

I have a Vizio and a LG 4K set. They display native content beautifully (480, 1080, 720). I haven't noticed any issues and I'm pretty picky.

 

I purchased a Sony 65 inch XBR 4K LED through the integrator doing the installation, they matched the box store price. They suggested the Sony over Samsung because it retained its brightness in a very sunny room. I also own Samsung tv's and found that they don't always integrate nicely with cable or universal remotes, plus their ARC output to a sound bar (bedroom setup) doesn't always connect properly.

 

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences.
Anybody else?

I kinda feel the urge to splurge on OLED, but know the prices are gonna come crashing down in a year or so.

 

I purchased a Vizio P50 C-1 earlier this year and love it. It does have native 4K and does a nice job of up-scaling other resolutions as well.

Make sure that what ever you buy has HDR capability. There are two types currently HDR-10 and Dolby Vision which is fairly new. The Vizio has both and you have to also make sure where ever you are getting your content from, HT receiver, Blu-Ray player etc are also capable of passing the HDR signal.

 

The 'rents got a smart TV earlier this year at Best Buy for our den. It's a Sony, and my mother primarily wanted it for Netflix.

Only con is that Netflix or the TV in general doesn't work sometimes and you have to unplug the television and plug it back in.

 

Mark me down for the new Sony 4K 55 (I think).

I walked into Best Buy on Christmas Eve last year and they had a stack of them marked down to $1,000.

I was in and out of the store in 15 minutes. I refuse to put much effort into shopping for tv's. Once you get beyond the bottom feeder models, it's hard to buy a bad one.

 

I agree 100% with you here....really like them, but know the prices will fall (soon).

 

This in the Sept / Oct 2017 Crutchfield catalog.
Each summer a group of A/V imdustry experts holds a " TV Shootout" where a handful of the finest TVs available face off.

This year for the 4th year in a row - an LG OLED model took the top honor.
The winner was the 65"OLED65E7P

 

Waiting for OLED prices to fall. Still hard to beat my 50" Pioneer Elite Plasma.

 

A few years ago, I bought one of the last of the Panasonic plasmas. I got a 50 inch set because it fit the room better, but have regretted passing on a 65 inch set. If you want 65 inched and don't want to compromise on PQ, you have to go OLED or used plasma IMHO. Used plasma is much cheaper. So I watched the AVS classifieds until I spotted a good one within driving distance. Bought a calibrated final year 65 inch Panasonic VT with fairly low hours. I'm probably good for a decade now. No regrets.

 

My earlier comments about Samsung not always playing nice with third party products notwithstanding, I own their last generation 64" plasma and am thrilled with it. It gets moderate use so it should last a long time.

 

I bought a 42" LG at HH Gregg about 6 years ago. I didn't buy the warranty. Also, I drove a Wrangler at the time and it was very hard to fit in the back seat.

 

Bought a Sony Bravia XBR-65X850B (4K) during a black Friday event at Best Buy. Really wanted the 75 inch - but only had the display model for a severe upcharge & wasn't interested nor was I coming back. They had two Sony soundbars/subwoofers of the same model on the floor -- only supposed to have 1 and so, they gave me a deal on one of the floor models consisting of a Sony HT-ST7 which includes the active subwoofer (SA-WST7 and wireless transceiver EZW-RT50) for 50% off. Mounted the soundbar using 2 "L" brackets below the TV & the subwoofer sits in the corner.

I like Sony's -- have had nothing but that brand since 1979 (except for a "world" Panasonic I bought in Germany in '99). Easy operation & great picture. The wife likes the Netflix button on the remote -- of course many have that these days. If she's happy -- that is all that matters.

Best Sirs,

Bob

 

A few weeks ago I got an LG C7P 55" OLED. No tax and free shipping from Amazon, and they even threw in a $500 LG soundbar. It was kind of expensive I suppose, but I hadn't bought a TV since 2009 and figured this one would probably last me just as long.

Anyway, getting to the point you need to sack up and get an OLED TV and that's all there is to it. The LG is pretty fantastic too, I liked it better the the more expensive Sony A1E my brother has, and some reviews agree. I'll also add that not 4K sources all look fantastic, nothing to worry about there.

 

I bought a Samsung 65" 4k TV (KS8000) earlier this year. I picked mine up locally but it was on sale (although I didn't know it until I pulled the trigger). The most important feature for me was 4k (obviously). I still have a nice 65" 3D Panny Plasma as a spare. That said, the Samsung blows it away for HD content. The colors are not only more vivid, there are colors present that didn't even exist with the Panny. Brightness is obviously a huge step up from any Plasma. Not only brighter but truer white instead of a greyish white. Blacks are about the only thing the Panny does better. But I'd trade everything else to sacrifice a little black background.
Second most desired feature was a smart TV with tons of available apps. It's always best to stream right into your TV. A lot better, IME. I don't care about being able to 'talk' to your TV. But someday I may figure out how it works.
I've always found it best to have the TV upscale. Always send native resolution to the set. And I also always run video sources directly into the TV.
Nefflix and Amazon Prime have a fair amount of 4k content. Don't listen to all the negatives about lack of content. I can't possibly watch everything in 4k being offered on those two provider sites and there is more coming all the time. Regrets? Nada. It's the best (and least expensive) set I've ever owned.

 

I have cable but once watched a hockey game over the air from the local CBS affiliate. I largely did it just to see if I could. We're a long way from the broadcast towers. It looked fantastic, better than cable, which makes me figure the weakest link is usually my cable or media, not the TV. If I'm going to watch cable all the time, I am guessing that would limit the picture quality I could get from an OLED, since it even seems to limit my LED set. I expected that might be the case, which is why I got past the OLED temptation.

 

love my LG 65e6

 

OLED

 

Got $30,000.00?

 

You probably can't go far wrong with either Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, or LG these days. Decide what screen size you want. Go for bigger rather than smaller, as you will get used to what may seem a giant screen at first. Don't buy under 55" if your room takes it. Set a budget. Don't pay for thrills you won't need like 3D. Look for special offers or technology just being phased out for a newer model. I think diminishing returns set in pretty quickly. Over here you can buy something very nice for say £800 to £1200. The £2000 to £4000 sets currently being advertised will be better, but not that much. Save some money for a nice BluRay player and soundbar/speakers.