thinking about getting a new TV


 
Clint

Clint

TVWBB Olympian
My brother came to visit 3-4 weeks ago & he's been shopping new TVs. Funny thing is last time we bought at about the same time we wound up with the exact same set just by chance.

This time he's set on the 8000 series by Samsung, and I'm set on cheap. Right now I have a ~2006 46" Sony bravia, & the only reason I want to upgrade is for cleaner, easier to read text. I can read on my TV but I have to <cntrl> + scroll all the time & it messes with web page layouts.

So my brother wants to get the 65", I think I'd be ok with a 60". I've only looked a few times but now it's on, I think.... waiting for black Friday & the old man says that Superbowl weekend might even be a better time to upgrade the old boob-tube.

Here's what I'm looking at:

Sony XBR65X750D 64.5" 4K Ultra HD (currently $1198)


Samsung UN60KS8000 (60") $1197)

Anyone have some great advice or a killer pick? I'm sure anything new, especially a 4K model, will be a big enough improvement for me.
 
I have a 4k samsung TV and have had it for a while. While it is nice, there is VERY little in the way of 4 media. There are some movies coming out now, but you need a 4K player - and don't buy one that will "upscale." You want one that can read the 4k disks. That is about another 250-500$. If I could do it over, I would just by the standard HD tv and get one with the highest refresh rate.
 
I am sticking with my plasma until OLED tv's come down in price. I don't like the animated look LCD tv's produce.
 
Andrew F said:
I have a 4k samsung TV and have had it for a while. While it is nice, there is VERY little in the way of 4 media. There are some movies coming out now, but you need a 4K player - and don't buy one that will "upscale." You want one that can read the 4k disks. That is about another 250-500$. If I could do it over, I would just by the standard HD tv and get one with the highest refresh rate.
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I doubt I'll be buying any 4K media but I do want the option to view & stream it... Netflix's original series are all 4K (I don't watch any), and I bet amazon prime streams 4k too. I'm going 4K bare minimum just because I expect it to last for >10 years & we all know how fast technology evolves. The Samsung's refresh rate is 240Hz, while most others seem to be 120Hz (mine is 60)....


JBooker said:
I am sticking with my plasma until OLED tv's come down in price. I don't like the animated look LCD tv's produce.
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I'd like to get OLED just on principle! Doubles the price though..... I was very interested in that tech in the early 2000s.

I hope the animated look doesn't come through with whatever I get, or that I can adjust it... my friend who has an upscaling 4K, his makes movies look like they're pre-production----everything is just too clean & looks like a stage. I'll have to turn the sharpness down....maybe I'll tweak theirs too.
 
I think the other part of it is the refresh rate. Native video is 24 frames per second (HZ) or around that. Then when you get a tv that refreshes at 120hz it makes fake images that fall inbetween the native 24 frames per second. This makes for a smoothing affect or animated affect because there isn't such a drastic change between frames. The higher the refresh rate the more false video frames that are in between the standard video. I think some LCD Tv's have a setting to turn it down so it isn't as bad if at all.
 
My recent experience with Samsung concerning a new dishwasher was awful. I will never buy another Samsung product based on their poor customer service.
Ray
 
Larry Baltz said:
When I'm not grilling, I design and install A/V systems. To get red of the animated or "soap opera effect" turn off or minimize auto motion plus on the Samsung TVs.

Here's a great website for choosing and evaluating TVs. They also have the recommended settings for each TV.

http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung
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Thanks Larry - I used to do a little in that area too (home theaters, distributed sound/data/phone/satellite, starting in 94) - we had monstrous CRTs & some big rear (and front) projectors. Don't forget your farojouda line doubler :) . I remember the first Plasma tv available from Pioneer was right around $20,000 (circa 2000/2001?) with maybe 10% profit built in.... yes, I pitched it to a customer :)


Ray Crick said:
My recent experience with Samsung concerning a new dishwasher was awful. I will never buy another Samsung product based on their poor customer service.
Ray
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I'm sorry to hear that! Other than their cheap CCTV systems @ Costco, everything I've had of theirs has worked flawlessly....including the gas range I upgraded to in early 2013. One bad experience can really stick with us though.....
 
Clint said:
Thanks Larry - I used to do a little in that area too (home theaters, distributed sound/data/phone/satellite, starting in 94) - we had monstrous CRTs & some big rear (and front) projectors. Don't forget your farojouda line doubler :) . I remember the first Plasma tv available from Pioneer was right around $20,000 (circa 2000/2001?) with maybe 10% profit built in.... yes, I pitched it to a customer :)




I'm sorry to hear that! Other than their cheap CCTV systems @ Costco, everything I've had of theirs has worked flawlessly....including the gas range I upgraded to in early 2013. One bad experience can really stick with us though.....
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Oh I remember the big CRTs and I don't miss them one bit! We have had great luck with the Samsungs in general. The 8000 series is sweet.
We made a lot of money with Fujitsu Plasma with a 30 point margin and the 63" at $25K! Those days are gone. We tell client's to buy their own TVs these days...
 
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You can never go to big, i bought a 60" Sharp Aquos Quattron a few years ago and i wish i bought the 80" model.
TV's don't last long around here as the salt air kills them in a short amount of time.
 
Larry Baltz said:
When I'm not grilling, I design and install A/V systems. To get red of the animated or "soap opera effect" turn off or minimize auto motion plus on the Samsung TVs.

Here's a great website for choosing and evaluating TVs. They also have the recommended settings for each TV.

http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung
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Where were you 2 years ago! lol.
I'm thinking of cutting the cable cord, but I don't want to get rid of the DVR. Besides Tivo and their 15$ a month charge, any other DVR type systems that can record off of attena? The ability to sling the programing to a TV elsewhere in the house would be good too.
 
Andrew F said:
Where were you 2 years ago! lol.
I'm thinking of cutting the cable cord, but I don't want to get rid of the DVR. Besides Tivo and their 15$ a month charge, any other DVR type systems that can record off of attena? The ability to sling the programing to a TV elsewhere in the house would be good too.
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Happauge has PC cards & USB sticks that work well. Sharing the programs would be as simple as sharing a folder on your home network, but that's assuming a PC @ your TV (I've had that for around a decade I bet).

I was going through some of the specs (briefly) on the Samsung 8000 series & there are USB HDD ports, no idea how that works yet though.

Kodi is pretty slick too, but not easy - probably easiest for that would be something like the firestick or other "stick" type device. I cut the cord many years ago.

ks8000-inputs-back-large.jpg
 
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I cut the cord on Halloween. We have Netflix, Hulu and a digital antenna. Miss the DVR for sports, but it hasn't been an issue yet.
 
Pat G said:
I cut the cord on Halloween. We have Netflix, Hulu and a digital antenna. Miss the DVR for sports, but it hasn't been an issue yet.
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I have that too...... I don't use either of them that much though!

First thing I'm going to do is figure out how to disable the camera & microphone in the TV....I hope. I would like to use some of the "smart" features but I don't want the microphone & camera streaming to who-knows-where.

http://parentsonlinesafety.com/internet-safety/what-is-a-ratter/

"to be a fly on the wall" :) we've all potentially bugged ourselves, I'm afraid, with our phones.
 
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Clint. I own three TV's and they are all Sceptre models from Walmart. You have to order them for store pickup, they don't sell them in the store. My 55" was $350 plus tax, the other two were even less. None of them are smart TV's but I have Roku sticks on two of them and the XBox on the other. I have been completely satisfied with their performance, I do have Samsung sound bars and sub's for two of them. I'm frugal, or cheap if you ask my wife. I am very loyal to Sceptre just like I am to Weber because they give you a lot for the money.
 
I bought the Bravia 65" a year and a half ago and have been VERY happy with that. It replaced a Samsung that is now about 6 years old. Less than two years after we bought it, I had to spend nearly $300 to replace the power supply (If I recall correctly). They guy at the shop said that issues with Samsungs were common but they did have good picture quality. In short, he said: "Buy a Sony. If you really want the Samsung, get the extended warranty.".

Around the same time we got the Bravia, we bought a Samsung gas dryer and are very happy with it so far. But the exploding phone and washing machine tricks do have me a bit concerned. :p
 
Too many choices!

OT:
Funny you mention exploding phones.... when I saw the note 7 come out I thought about upgrading from my note 3 ---- and then the bad stuff started happening.

I've repaired my note 3 at least 3 times, maybe 4....last time was around 10 days ago. First time it fell into a pan of enchilada sauce, a week or 3 later a friend bumped me (on purpose!) & it fell out of my hand...while I was on it...into a sink full of soapy water....then last week the mic just stopped working so it'd only work w/ bluetooth or on speaker phone (same each time). I have one more mic/usb3 port in my drawer... Stoopid phones- luckily it's a ~5 minute fix.
 
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