Let's discuss LARGE flat screen TV's
 

So finally pulling out 15 yo stinky carpet and finishing the game room downstair. Going to make a theater room out of it.
Now to pick a TV.. Choices are numerous...

LED, QLED, or OLED ? for 75 in price range from $1230 to $3100
The room will be able to be super dark so thinking QLED is best bang for the buck ? but open to discussion

75 in or 85 in ? Room is approx 15 x 20 I'm leaning towards bigger is always better

refresh rate ? Most seem to be 120 hz but expensive ones are 240 ..

and why are some sets still in the $5k range ??

Probably limiting my choices to Samsung or LG maybe Visio???

Comments please

I've also heard that there are some amazing projectors that are HD and even 4K. I think you can setup the wall to be the screen or it's also possible to get a screen that comes down from the ceiling. That way you can have a huge screen. If that's your thing.

We're still working with a 46" Samsung from 2007 or 2008.

I was looking about a year ago. Very, very popular and highly rated were TCL and HiSense. We've obviously had pretty amazing luck with our Samsung. I think we paid about $1500. It was pricey, but I think we've gotten our money out of it at ~$120/year.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/tvs-on-the-market

What did add cost at least to projectors was how well it could do fast motion, and also how well it could do dark shades, I think the TV's are the same.

What are you using it for sports, movies or just everything. I still prefer my old 106" 1080hd projector for movies, I do not watch sports, not set up at the moment just need to finish the room, but will probably look for a newer 4k projector. With a projector you will require a tuner also.

I think my son got a TCL. He has a large living room that is never very dark. It has an amazing picture. He also has a projector setup in the same room. 120" if I recall. He's up on all that electronic stuff, me, I'm stuck in the reel to reel tape age.
I've sent him an email asking what kind he has, but he's probably busy with the twins so it might be a while till I hear from him.

Just heard from him.
TCL 75 6-series 4K UHD Dolby Vision HDR QLED Roku Smart TV- 75R635.
Check it out as it has an amazing picture IMO.
He sent me an amazon link that has them for $1600.

I've always found this to be a good resource:

https://www.avsforum.com/forums/

I have an LG OLED TV.
The picture quality is incredible, as good as anything I've ever seen. But they are expensive, and can SCREEN BURN!
LG says they won't but that's not true

Ya know how the idiots at some channels decided to put their logo on the bottom right corner, like the military channel has a large yellow "M" on the screen at all times?
Well now so does my TV.
I don't watch those channels anymore on that TV because the shadows get burned into the TV.

When it comes time to buy a replacement, it won't be an LG OLED.

Large screens are no longer the 'big investment' that they used to be.
Just shop around at stores that have demos. Pick one...if it doesn't work out good...you're not out that much.

I'm a Samsung/Costco guy. Was just there today and they have a 7 series in both 75 and 85 inch. Great return policy and you can see it "in store".

Bigger is better but depending on room size it can be overwhelming. Your eyes can wiggle back and forth like you're watching a tennis match. Take a tape measure and stand back from the TV the distance you think you'll be.

People might think you're weird for doing that in the store but just tell them "I'm going in for penile surgery and I just want to figure out how much is too much". They'll walk away hastily.

It wasn't that long ago that a thousand dollars would be needed to buy a 35 inch screen.
Now that money will buy a smart tv in the 65-75 inch range.

I was reading through an article on the OLED vs Samsung QLED.

OLED = Best picture with best dark vs light. BUT they have issues in rooms with a lot of ambient light

QLED = Really a standard LED type TV but with lots more individual back lighting. Not as good (but cheaper!!!) than an OLED, but they show better picture in high ambient light.

So, very dark room, go with OLED. Room with lots of windows, go with QLED.

I was looking for a Samsung 55" to replace the "non-smart" TV in the bedroom. You couldn't find one except the $1200 models. They had 65" and up but it was too big for the space. I was going to drive 35 miles to pick one up at the closest store.

Wife says "Have you measured the one in the living room? Maybe we can get a bigger one for there".

Yeah, you guessed it. 55".

So we got a bigger, cheaper TV for the living room and she was right again.

I went to Costco and got the biggest OLED LG that they had.

Worth every penny. I have two of the next size smaller ones for my office and living room.

This was a gift for my parents. The "smart remote" allows you to talk into it like a microphone. It goes to the channel that you say into the little button thing.

The blacks are truly black, and color is incredible.

^^ very nice TV

the browser and youtube ad server are the problems on those things

Oled's are amazing, but for 1/3 the cost, a TCL is equally amazing. No, its not quite the same, but its one heckuva deal.

I'm about to pull the trigger on a 43" TV, which is the largest that will fit in my the nook in our family room.

At the lab we just installed a permanent screen in one of the classrooms for a projector.

The room is massive, and so is the screen. 100x160 inches. Yes, almost 9x14 feet. Weighted about 60 pounds total, and cost close to $5000.

You need a badass projector to throw an image that big!

Projector TV seems to limit where the screen goes a bit. Or where the projector is. Make sure the centerline of the screen is at eye level because you don't want to have to look UP to see the screen like those installed over a fireplace. Bad for your spine, especially your neck.

Re: screen size, a really large screen is what you'll need if you want to be able to have up to 8 people viewing without a tiered floor in the room (4 seats on front row and 4 behind, up about a foot).

When I'm watching a movie late at night by myself, I turn off all the lights and pull a chair right up to about 3-4 feet away from our HUGE 40" Samsung and it's like being in a movie theatre. :D

https://media.giphy.com/media/xEsKoUwoJ621q/giphy.gif

Re: the brand you pick, I've always heard go with one of the top 3 or 4 most respected and stay away from the lesser/store brands and you'll be happier with quality and longevity.

Vizio is making almost as much on their data collection as they do the actual TVs

https://www.engadget.com/vizio-q1-earnings-inscape-013937337.html

I think most of the smart TVs are pretty scary in that regard. If/when we eventually upgrade, I'll be locking down our firewall for traffic sourced from the TV.

What's almost as bad is that most smart TVs have ads and "suggested content." WTF? I think there are a couple of TVs that you have the ability to turn that stuff off, but not most of them, and I think that includes some of the bigger brands.

I also bought a TCL Tv from Costco. 65 inch Just amazing for the money. I read the reviews, it has some of the best blacks . But the truth is LG and Sony Oled tv’s are the best in the world. Nothing else even comes close. But expensive. My wonder TCL 6th series was $500 at Costco. And they give extra warranty.

5 best TCL TVs you can buy in 2021 https://www.techradar.com/best/tcl-tv

"There are few TV brands operating today that offer value quite like TCL.
The Chinese electronics maker has quickly become one of
the biggest presences in the nation’s TV market, and... "

https://media.giphy.com/media/2YschQ...p38o/giphy.gif
https://media.giphy.com/media/d8Qut9...D383/giphy.gif
https://media.giphy.com/media/xThtan...oAIE/giphy.gif

Not many other options, are there? China, Korea (not much better) and Japan (is anything still made there?) are the main options. Is there anything else?

And even if they have something that says "made in Malaysia" or Mexico or Taiwan (that one should have been in my first list) my bet is that many/most of the parts come from China and are then assembled in the other locations.

THis article is interesting, it looks like the HiSense brand is making TVs for a lot of the other big TV groups.
https://www.consumerreports.org/tvs/tv-brands-arent-always-what-they-seem/

Yummy!

Since we have a HTPC on our TV we never connected the TV to the network. No issues with any of that! :)

My Projector: White Box sitting on table just below screen. Screen is 100", room is 16x15

Daytime - not as bright as evening but very decent (also next to 15' wide picture window):
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1623086281.jpg

Evening - Crystal Clear
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1623086390.jpg

Those vertical projector are pretty wicked!

Yea, that projector is a very cool set up. Brand/model?

We have a 65" LG OLED C9? it's the mid range one. It's a couple of years old now. We bought it for the last season of GoT, and we are still blown away by the picture quality. We sometimes wish we had gotten something in the 75"+ range since it sits on a big wall, but after we watch movies on a friend's Samsung Qled we immediately know we made the right decision.

Tom, long time no post! It's good to see that you're still occasionally around. This must be one of your quarterly posts. :D

I've recently bought (2019) two Vizio TVs. The picture quality to me was better than LG, the same as Samsung, not as good as Sony. The deciding factor was the interface. It was the most intuitive to use for me, and the native Netflix, Youtube, and Prime Video apps were easiest to use.

If using an external device, the Apple TV is really slick (and I'm not an apple fanboy). voice search is WAY faster than trying to type with a D-pad

The brand is VAVA 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector, I've been very happy with it. It has a smart TV function but is limited as it gets YouTube but not Netflix so I stream Netflix thru my DVD. It gets lots o other stream services but I don't have subscriptions. I am goin to hook up Apple TV soon. For some reason, there are no Ads on YouTube so I really like it on this TV - I wish I could figure out how to get that app on my computer.

This projector can project up to 150" so I bought an additional 150" outdoor screen which I can use for outdoor movie nights. Haven't used it yet (covid ruined the year) but this summer will see some use.

I bought the 75" Samsung QLED a couple of years ago from Costco.
Chose it for the high refresh rate to watch sports. Now I stream sports and the feed sucks so the high refresh rate doesn't work.
It's an 8000 series and you can only order it online. In-store is the cheaper models.
Very happy with it.