New TV - what to get

[masraum]

We're thinking about getting a new TV. Our old TV is a 12-13yo Samsung 46".

I was thinking (because we've had such good luck with the current TV) that we'd get another Samsung, maybe bump up to 55" (we're currently at 46, I think). We don't watch a ton of TV, so I don't want to spend a ton, but I want something nice. I was thinking about a 55" Q60T or Q70T ($700-1000).

Any thoughts, recommendations? I haven't looked at TV specs in years (probably since 2007/2008 when we bought this one).

[widebody911]

I just went through this: went from a Vizio 47" to a Sony Bravia 55" The picture quality is great, but the sound is "so-so" - with these thin TVs, you pretty much need to get a sound bar to get good sound.

One of the big factors that drove my decision was the "Smart" TV functionality; not so much was it "smart" but could it be controlled. It's hard to not buy a "Smart" TV nowdays. What turned me away from Vizio, Samsung, LG, etc was the built-in snooping functionality, and the ads in the user interface - as you use the UI and move through menus, the TV displays ads. The trick is, if you go to the store to check them out in person you probably won't see these "features" but do some google searches and you'll find the complaining on various boards.

Because my wife wants to use the Hulu app, I don't have a choice but to connect it to the internet, so I got a Pi Hole. The amount of traffic from the TV to parts unknown is sobering. The average Joe won't GAFF, but I do. I aggressively block what I can - letting through just enough so the apps will work. For example. it was interesting to see a Subaru commercial, while at the same time the TV initiated a connection to Subaru.com. My TV has no business talking to Facebook, either.

This is a log screenshot of roughly 1 minute of watching Hulu on the new TV. The TV just pulled an update a couple of weeks ago, and the external traffic jumped about 75%. I suspect they ship them with more "quiet" firmware, and once it's bought and installed, it updates itself with the more aggressive version.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by widebody911

I just went through this: went from a Vizio 47" to a Sony Bravia 55" The picture quality is great, but the sound is "so-so" - with these thin TVs, you pretty much need to get a sound bar to get good sound.

One of the big factors that drove my decision was the "Smart" TV functionality; not so much was it "smart" but could it be controlled. It's hard to not buy a "Smart" TV nowdays. What turned me away from Vizio, Samsung, LG, etc was the built-in snooping functionality, and the ads in the user interface - as you use the UI and move through menus, the TV displays ads. The trick is, if you go to the store to check them out in person you probably won't see these "features" but do some google searches and you'll find the complaining on various boards.

Because my wife wants to use the Hulu app, I don't have a choice but to connect it to the internet, so I got a Pi Hole. The amount of traffic from the TV to parts unknown is sobering. The average Joe won't GAFF, but I do. I aggressively block what I can - letting through just enough so the apps will work. For example. it was interesting to see a Subaru commercial, while at the same time the TV initiated a connection to Subaru.com. My TV has no business talking to Facebook, either.

This is a log screenshot of roughly 1 minute of watching Hulu on the new TV. The TV just pulled an update a couple of weeks ago, and the external traffic jumped about 75%. I suspect they ship them with more "quiet" firmware, and once it's bought and installed, it updates itself with the more aggressive version.

Good to know. The missus and I were talking today and she brought up in her non-tech way the phone home and elsewhere type snooping. I have pi-hole as well, and I think Pi-hole has some IOT specific lists. I guess what I would prefer would be a commercial style firewall where I had total control over everything in and out.

So the Bravia doesn't have the ads and snooping?

That's good to know about the ads, that would piss me off, and the amount of outbound connectivity is sobering.

I'd begun to wonder about some other brands. I'd been planning to get a sound bar, but then wondered about the Q80T which has more speakers and amp built in, so maybe it's not necessary. THe one thing that I wonder about though is that all of the thin TVs have to project the sound to the rear or sides, and it seems like having it projected out the front is better.

Thanks, I'll keep looking.

[widebody911]

So the Bravia doesn't have the ads and snooping?

No UI ads, but in TV mode I still see external connections; I can watch something and pull the logs if you wish.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by widebody911

No UI ads, but in TV mode I still see external connections; I can watch something and pull the logs if you wish.

Well, that's a step in the right direction. Adding a firewall that would allow me to lock down a TV would be a pain. I'd have to hang a firewall with wifi (if good ones exist) off of the back of the carrier router or I'd have to hang a firewall off of the carrier router and then a WAP off of the firewall. That sounds like a huge PITA. And you can't block (well you can, but...) sites like Subaru.com.

Ugh!

I told the missus, and her response was "do we really need a new TV?"

And I just recently threw away and old SOHO-sized Cisco firewall.

< edit >
Problem solved
https://www.amazon.com/Fortinet-FortiGate-Security-Firewall-Appliance/dp/B01HOOBAZ8
< /edit >

[RWebb]

I got an LG - it is very nice screen-wise, but the browser included has serious issues and tech support is quite poor.

I think Sony is still the MB of TVs, or the BMW, or...

[Shaun @ Tru6]

throw the one you have away and don't get another one.

[serene911]

I picked up a TCL series 6. 55 inch a few years ago. Did a lot of research. It was
one of the highest rated tv's in its price range and above. About $550 at Best buy.
Great picture. I've been very happy with it and everybody else who has viewed it
has said great picture as well.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

throw the one you have away and don't get another one.

Or just watch what he has there until it dies.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

throw the one you have away and don't get another one.

I do enjoy to escape into a show or movie from time to time, and the missus loves to watch mysteries.

While we don't have cable or satellite, we do have Netflix and DVDs that I have ripped and stream locally.

I'm pretty unlikely to get rid of TV completely.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by serene911

I picked up a TCL series 6. 55 inch a few years ago. Did a lot of research. It was
one of the highest rated tv's in its price range and above. About $550 at Best buy.
Great picture. I've been very happy with it and everybody else who has viewed it
has said great picture as well.

I've seen that brand mentioned quite a bit, but had never heard about it before an hour or two ago.

[serene911]

It's always been at the top of the reviews. Upgraded my cable box to a newer digital box
Xfinity. That also was a key component. Comes with Roku and a number of other streaming
services included. The series 6 is the key. For the price it was hard to beat. Have a older
Marantz reciever. Used the Optical output from the tv to the receiver for my home theater
setup. HDMI cables for DVD and the cable box. Check out the reviews on it. Hard to beat
for the price.

[masraum]

I initially thought "about $500 will get me an upgrade from the TV that I've got now." Then as I looked, as so often is the case, I thought, "but 700 would get more, and then 1000 would get more than that." I'm back to thinking that maybe $500, and a sound bar (and a firewall to block all of the smart crap). I guess I'm going to have to perform more research.

[Scott Douglas]

A long time ago my daughter gifted me with a TV for Christmas, or was it my birthday? I forget which it was. I'd caught wind of the coming gift and told her this is what I want xxxx and if you get something else I'll return it.
She got me the Sony XBR 52" I wanted. Costly at the time ($2400?) but it has been stellar so far. Wife got the GEEK Squad to come out and dial it in picture wise since they are all loaded as if they're going to be displayed in a store. Once the picture was under control it looked fantastic. Still does. I run it thru my Denon stereo with all the speakers for surround sound. I love it. I could rattle the windows with movies until we got double paned windows that don't rattle.
I love watching it and really enjoy the sound system I've been able to put together. We don't go out to the movies so this is my entertainment.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by masraum

I've seen that brand mentioned quite a bit, but had never heard about it before an hour or two ago.

I'm a TCL fan. Great TV and cheap. I love mine.

[Seahawk]

When I read these threads I get a sense of doom that I have no idea how to configure fire-walls, my sat-based internet, etc.

And trust me, I can't do it myself.

Serious question: Are there services that can come and do the installs? I assume so but what would you smart folks look for? Is there a national brand of folks that do this, etc.?

I know I am behind and need advice. I can start a separate thread.

[Steve Carlton]

Our aunt moved recently and asked for TV advice, so my brother and I went to Best Buy and were blown away by the 4K image quality and wound up getting 4K TVs for ourselves. I told my aunt that she was bad for my budget and I got a TV- she interpreted that to mean I bought her a TV... um, no.

We really felt comfortable with the advise we got in the Magnolia section of Best Buy. Seems like there's two styles of image- one that's more accurate to real life and another that's more vivid. OLED is the best, but it didn't seem necessary for my bedroom with no wide angle of view issues. The Sonys were of the real life camp, so I got this one:

https://www.sony.com/electronics/televisions/xbr-x950g-x955g-x957g-series

I have to admit I have it set to a more vivid mode at home- it just looks better. It's like putting salt on your food. I've seen more basic 4Ks around $500-600 there, but figured I'd do the job right the first time and spending $1,000 was worth it over a long ownership period. Then there's the sound bar, protected power source, and Best Buy installation, so it can add up. You get a discount on the equipment if you buy the warranty and having the Geek Squad come out to my house and replace stuff seemed a lot better than scratching my head when there's a problem, so that's the way I went.

When this thing is cranking 4K, the picture is stunning. If you play a DVD, you'll get the best image, but I haven't gotten a 4K DVD player yet. Streaming is so easy, but I was getting crummy picture quality and streaming issues. I shouldn't have been, I was set up with 75 Mbps through Comcast, but doing a speed test show I was getting around 10-20 Mbps. Thanks, Comcast. I called them and they said they were upgrading the neighborhood and gave me a credit.

Slickdeals.net is a great source of screaming deals- sort of a Bring-a-Trailer of everything.

https://slickdeals.net/newsearch.php?src=SearchBarV2&q=4K+TVs&searcharea=deals&searchin=first

[masraum]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

I'm a TCL fan. Great TV and cheap. I love mine.

There don't really seem to be any available right now. Another budget brand that gets good reviews is Hisense.

It's interesting, about the Ads, the site https://www.rtings.com goes very deep into the performance of various TVs and even compares or allows comparison of various models. They list 2 things, Ads and "Suggested Content in Home"

Ads: Whether the TV's main interface has ads. This does take into account ads in third-party apps.
Suggested Content in Home: Whether suggested content appears on the TV's home menu or main menu. Suggested content can include recommended movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, etc.

Apparently, the HiSense H9F (competitor to Sony X900F) does not have Ads, and has suggested content in home that you can disable. And as Thom has advised, the Sony has ads that you're just stuck with, and has suggested content in home, but you can opt out of that. But in their review of the Hisense, they are careful to say that Ads could be added at any point, and that Sony has either added or increased Ads. I guess that's a way of subsidizing low TV margins for the manuf.


https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/compare/sony-x900f-vs-hisense-h9f/585/908

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

When I read these threads I get a sense of doom that I have no idea how to configure fire-walls, my sat-based internet, etc.

And trust me, I can't do it myself.

Serious question: Are there services that can come and do the installs? I assume so but what would you smart folks look for? Is there a national brand of folks that do this, etc.?

I know I am behind and need advice. I can start a separate thread.

I'm not really aware of any specific group that you could call to setup something like a Pi-hole (blocks ads, tracking and malware sites) or a firewall (can be setup to block whatever from very loose to very tight). There are a bunch of folks around here that could probably do it. There are probably also folks in your area, although finding a good one might be a pain.

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Our aunt moved recently and asked for TV advice, so my brother and I went to Best Buy and were blown away by the 4K image quality and wound up getting 4K TVs for ourselves. I told my aunt that she was bad for my budget and I got a TV- she interpreted that to mean I bought her a TV... um, no.

We really felt comfortable with the advise we got in the Magnolia section of Best Buy. Seems like there's two styles of image- one that's more accurate to real life and another that's more vivid. OLED is the best, but it didn't seem necessary for my bedroom with no wide angle of view issues. The Sonys were of the real life camp, so I got this one:

https://www.sony.com/electronics/televisions/xbr-x950g-x955g-x957g-series

I have to admit I have it set to a more vivid mode at home- it just looks better. It's like putting salt on your food. I've seen more basic 4Ks around $500-600 there, but figured I'd do the job right the first time and spending $1,000 was worth it over a long ownership period. Then there's the sound bar, protected power source, and Best Buy installation, so it can add up. You get a discount on the equipment if you buy the warranty and having the Geek Squad come out to my house and replace stuff seemed a lot better than scratching my head when there's a problem, so that's the way I went.

When this thing is cranking 4K, the picture is stunning. If you play a DVD, you'll get the best image, but I haven't gotten a 4K DVD player yet. Streaming is so easy, but I was getting crummy picture quality and streaming issues. I shouldn't have been, I was set up with 75 Mbps through Comcast, but doing a speed test show I was getting around 10-20 Mbps. Thanks, Comcast. I called them and they said they were upgrading the neighborhood and gave me a credit.

Slickdeals.net is a great source of screaming deals- sort of a Bring-a-Trailer of everything.

https://slickdeals.net/newsearch.php?src=SearchBarV2&q=4K+TVs&searcharea=deals&searchin=first

I haven't used or though about slickdeals in a long time.

Yeah, I suspect we'll be happy with a new TV. I'm interested in some of the new features and think they'll make a big difference in the picture. I'm looking at a Sony a step down from the one you list, I believe. If nothing else, it should be a lot more efficient than what we've got now which is ancient, and puts out a ton of heat. You can feel it when you walk past.

[nota]

https://www.avsforum.com/forums/lcd-flat-panel-displays.166/

they like the TLC 6 series for the dark blacks [local dimming]
when I got one a few years ago it was rated the best 4k tv for the money [under 1K $]