Let's argue about televisions (again)!

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 4:26 pm

I definitely prefer Roku to Android TV as well.

2019 was a particularly bad year for center stands. It seems like more and more TVs are steering away from them - which I agree is irritating. I didn't help by buying one with widely spaced legs this year.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 7:05 pm

Hmm, was hoping for a less lopsided vote on that question since I chose a TV that comes with Android.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:31 pm

I have an Android tv and a Roku hooked to it that I ignore.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:33 pm

bam ?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:36 pm

Nope. It was strictly in response to his vote result.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:39 pm

sorry - that's almost what I meant. I think.

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:40 pm

Kraken wrote:Hmm, was hoping for a less lopsided vote on that question since I chose a TV that comes with Android.

My in-laws have a new Sony tv with Android built in and it's nice...works just like my Android TV box, just without the box connected. When I say Roku is better, it's not because Android is bad. It's just that Roku is designed for one simple purpose and does that really well.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:45 pm

My TV has all sorts of built-in things that I haven't yet bothered to look at. I doubt any of it is unique, fabulous, and free. It does not have built-in Chromecast, which was useful in the 70" Visio our current TV replaced.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sun Oct 13, 2019 9:45 pm

disarm wrote: ↑Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:40 pm
Kraken wrote:Hmm, was hoping for a less lopsided vote on that question since I chose a TV that comes with Android.
My in-laws have a new Sony tv with Android built in and it's nice...works just like my Android TV box, just without the box connected. When I say Roku is better, it's not because Android is bad. It's just that Roku is designed for one simple purpose and does that really well.

That's good to know. Since I've never used either one, whichever one I start with will probably become my preference. Reviews I've read favor Android because it doesn't have ads, it's more fully-featured, it's updated more frequently, and it connects directly to the Google Play store, where (as I understand it) there are apps that I will want to install, for some reason.

The only thing I worry about is whether this is like the early days of PCs vs. Apple, where if you make the wrong choice up front, you're stuck with Apple forever. As I see it, Roku is Apple in this scenario. But the analogy might be entirely invalid.

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Mon Oct 14, 2019 8:46 am

No, Apple TV is the Apple in this situation.

I've never used Android TV but I love my Roku TV.

I have opted out of all ads on Roku and never see them.

Jaymon · Post by **Jaymon** » Mon Oct 14, 2019 11:34 am

Exodor wrote: ↑Sat Oct 12, 2019 11:44 pm Thanks for this thread - I picked up a 55" TCL for $319 today. Took a bit of work to get it mounted (the legs are too far apart to fit on top of the TV stand that held the previous 46" TV so I had to wall-mount it(and what happened to center stands? Every TV seems to have little spindly legs on either side of the set instead of a single pedestal in the middle)) but it looks great and I really like the built-in Roku.

I have 2 of the 55" tvs. one with a single pedestal in the center, and one with spindly little legs on the edge.

For my opinion, the spindly legs on the edge provide more stability. but they also mean a little more trouble when you need to angle your tv.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:30 am

70" Element 4K UHD Smart HDTV with Roku for $550

iloveplywood · Post by **iloveplywood** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:38 pm

A little late, but I purchased a TCL TV and the legs were too wide so I ordered this:

VIVO Universal 32 to 55 inch LCD LED Flat glass stand off Amazon for $50 (couldn't get link to display right).

It works well and was relatively painless to install, I'm sure there are similar solutions for 65"s and up.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:41 pm

iloveplywood wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:38 pm A little late, but I purchased a TCL TV and the legs were too wide so I ordered this:

It works well and was relatively painless to install.

Interesting. But how do you feel about plywood?

iloveplywood · Post by **iloveplywood** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:45 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:41 pm
Interesting. But how do you feel about plywood?

Sort of a love/hate relationship currently.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:48 pm

iloveplywood wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:45 pm
El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:41 pm
Interesting. But how do you feel about plywood?
Sort of a love/hate relationship currently.

Kind of makes your name misleading, doesn't it?

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:50 pm

And OO delivers once again.

Edit: Threw some tags around your URL.
https://www.amazon.com/VIVO-Universal-S ... 772&sr=8-1

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 1:17 pm

TheMix wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:50 pm

And OO delivers once again.

Edit: Threw some tags around your URL.
https://www.amazon.com/VIVO-Universal-S ... 772&sr=8-1

That only supports sizes up to 55", but I see a couple of related products that might work:

https://www.amazon.com/WALI-Universal-S ... 1VE47PV3SA

https://www.amazon.com/PERLESMITH-Unive ... 1VE47PV3SA

How "universal" do you suppose these really are? Do all TVs have the same wall-mounting specs? There are one or two other TVs I'll add to my list if I can get around using their wide feet. (The TV project is on hold for now, but I can reevaluate it next week.) I don't necessarily need a pedestal base, just a footprint of < 48".

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 3:25 am

Most if not all televisions adhere to the VESA standards. I have now had three different televisions attached to the same wall mount and it works fine.

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 9:04 am

This thread is awesome. I was toying with the idea of replacing our living room TV. Now you all have done the research/reviews for me. And I think it's going to be cheaper than what I expected. Good news!

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 9:51 am

High quality TV's have never been cheaper IMO. Unless you are going OLED, and everyone should go OLED if you can afford it

. Even those are coming down from silly prices now If you are patient for a sale. (see Dell right now!)

Since this is a nice catch all....

How does everyone feel about open box purchases? I normally have no issue with them from a reputable vendor. I was hesitant with getting an OLED one but an extended warranty from Micorcenter and the fact I could tell from the TV's operating system how many hours it was used made me pull the trigger. It brought it down in price enough to get within my budget range + 100. I ended up getting a nice open box Samsung sound bar set as well. All told I walked out right at $1499 for both at roughly $1000 total in savings. Incidentally, I also have gotten 2 open box gaming pc's from Microcenter over the last 6 years as well. One had issues but they made it whole by upgrading the video card to a better brand and then upgrading the power supply as well.

May be worth looking at open box options as it allows you to step up in quality and maintain your budget. It does take more effort and patience though. Both bestbuy and Microcenter do a good job on their websites allowing you to search local open box stock.

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:15 am

I haven't bought one, but do check out open box stuff at Best Buy. There is also a Best Buy outlet in town I have looked at before too. My experience is sometimes there are good deals and other times they have open box items that are more expensive than some previously seen sale prices on the same model new. I think it's a "right time and place" thing.

I bought a TV in July after I moved and was definitely checking out the open box stuff, but ultimately just went with a new one at Costco that was reduced to a point I haven't seen again since. I was also looking in the lower cost range for the bedroom. Whenever I have to replace the LR or Theater Room TV I will be looking in a higher price point where if I found a good enough deal on an open box, I would be open to it.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 11:18 am

My TV shopping is on hold for the moment because the dishwasher is insisting on being replaced ASAP. I think it done washed its last dish. But now that I'm sure I can get around the wide-stance problem, I'm going to add a Roku TV to the Android that's already wishlisted and let them duke it out on price. I think the Hisense Android is a slightly superior TV for my uses, but people here really do prefer their Roku. Hopefully I can settle the dishwasher emergency quickly and get back to this subject by midweek.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 11:31 am

Sorry man but I dont research dish washers

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 11:44 am

iloveplywood wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:38 pm A little late, but I purchased a TCL TV and the legs were too wide so I ordered this:

VIVO Universal 32 to 55 inch LCD LED Flat glass stand off Amazon for $50 (couldn't get link to display right).

It works well and was relatively painless to install, I'm sure there are similar solutions for 65"s and up.

Hm, that's an idea I hadn't considered.

I went with this wall mount which was a bit of a pain to install (mostly because I'm terrible at home maintenance stuff) but it does look nice now that it's in place.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 12:04 pm

My current 75" worked out fine on the stand I had because the legs were offset from the center. Briefly looked at some bigger units at Costco this weekend but they all had legs on the corners which would require something like the stand noted above or a reconfiguration of my whole setup as I'm not sure wall mounting would work for me.

Thankfully not in any rush for an upgrade. Yet.

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 2:52 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Sun Oct 20, 2019 11:18 am I think the Hisense Android is a slightly superior TV for my uses, but people here really do prefer their Roku. Hopefully I can settle the dishwasher emergency quickly and get back to this subject by midweek.

I wouldn't let the TV OS influence which TV you buy. Buy the TV based on price, picture quality, etc. If you end up not liking the built in OS, just buy a Roku, Fire stick, etc. They aren't expensive relative to the price of even a budget TV.

Jaymon · Post by **Jaymon** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 6:25 pm

so when we are in the store, they have those tvs on display showing off like pictures of flowers and rainbows and lipstick and such.

according to the wife, the colors are amazing! I think its samsung oled? is that a thing? so is it a special thing that makes the bright rich colors, if i wanted to get those colors do i need a samsung oled, or is that a 4k thing and I am just no wathcing the right shows?

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:17 pm

You were likely looking at a Samsung QLED TV. Samsung abandoned OLED years ago in favor of QLED. QLED is an LED with a special filter that produces more saturated colors. All of their high end TVs are QLED. You can read about the difference between OLED and QLED here on RTINGS.

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:22 pm

I'll add that since the link I left above was written some (not all) of Samsung's QLEDs from 2019 have better viewing angles - which makes them tempting to me (not that I am currently in the market). I think the next time one of my 2 main TVs dies, I am likely to replace it with an OLED, but I will consider a QLED if there is an advantage on price. For example, this weekend there was an acceptable Samsung QLED at 65" cheaper than the cheapest 65" LG OLED. Were I buying one, I would have had an interesting decision.

I am pretty sensititve to bad viewing angles, so that's why when I bought a budget bedroom TV this year I bought an LG IPS panel which has better than average viewing angles for an LED, despite the fact that IPS TVs tend to be inferior to normal VA Panel LEDs in every other way.

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:25 pm

Having worked at Best Buy as a second job many years ago, it turned me off to open-box items. Sure some are just scratch & dent sort of problems, but you never know.

On the tv front, I'm thinking of this "TCL 50" Class 5-Series 4K UHD Dolby Vision HDR Roku Smart TV - 50S525" to replace my current 48" Sharp. Don't remember if that's one of the models discussed earlier in the thread, but I think it should suit my meager TV needs, and I'm looking forward to the built in Roku for the streaming options.

Thanks again for the research links.

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:36 pm

If you can afford it step up to the TCL 6 series over the 5 series you linked above. I also highly recommend getting a 55" TV over 50" these days. The TCL 6 series TV's have much better picture quality and are still fairly affordable.

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:45 pm

JCC wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:17 pm You were likely looking at a Samsung QLED TV. Samsung abandoned OLED years ago in favor of QLED. QLED is an LED with a special filter that produces more saturated colors. All of their high end TVs are QLED. You can read about the difference between OLED and QLED here on RTINGS.

Samsung is going to be getting back into the OLED game for TV in the next couple of years from what I've recently read.

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:30 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:45 pm Samsung is going to be getting back into the OLED game for TV in the next couple of years from what I've recently read.

Yes it's QD-OLED which they are investing money in. I am not totally up on the details, but I believe it would be a less expensive to make form of OLED, presumably using the Quantum Dot technology used in their QLEDs today. They seem to be moving farther away from OLED as it exists today. AFAIK at least in North America Samsung hasn't sold an OLED in years.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 7:08 pm

55" Vizio M-Series Quantum LED 4K Smart HDTV for $398 (Same Tech as Samsung QLED) $398.00 List Was $498.00

https://www.walmart.com/ip/VIZIO-55-Cla ... /491927729

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 9:16 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Oct 28, 2019 7:08 pm 55" Vizio M-Series Quantum LED 4K Smart HDTV for $398 (Same Tech as Samsung QLED) $398.00 List Was $498.00

https://www.walmart.com/ip/VIZIO-55-Cla ... /491927729

The 70" one is what my daughter threw a fastball at.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:23 pm

My TV research notes say that people's favorite brands, in order, are TCL, Hisense, LG, and Samsung, and Vizio is the only brand that people really don't like (at least in the budget space).

I am getting a little antsy waiting for my chosen Hisense model to go on sale. As recently as August, reviewers were saying that availability was spotty because this TV is a lot more popular than US retailers expected -- even at full price, it's the best deal on the market right now. So part of me is itching to buy it while I can. I really do have my heart set on that particular TV now.

The cheap part of me reminds the impatient part how bad I will feel if the price falls by a hundred or two bucks shortly after I buy it, and Black Friday is just a few weeks away.

The impatient part reminds me that TV will go black when our cable goes away on Dec. 2. Setting up the new TV will involve a service call from my ISP/cable provider (already explained in this thread and too complicated to reiterate), which could take days to arrange. If I get the thing the last week in November, having it set up by early December is going to be dicey. We could potentially go unentertained for days. DAYS!

The cheap part of me usually wins these arguments. The impatient part reminds me that because of Trump's tariffs, prices are unlikely to fall dramatically. The cheap part is wavering.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:48 pm

I bought my TV from Abt Electronics. While you can certainly get advertised deals online; actually going there allows you to bargain for various extras, so you might visit such a place in the Boston area and see what you can manage. The TV we bought was on sale, the sales rep reduced the price even more and discounted installation (we had this one wall mounted) and threw in removal of the old TV (not sure how I would have otherwise disposed of a 70" screen the garbage men won't take and it won't fit in my car to take to a recycle place).

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:55 pm

2 options work there.....sit on the curb and someone will take it....or use a shovel and bury it.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 11:11 pm

I'm not sure what we'll do with our old 42" Westy. It doesn't have a tuner, so it's not really even a TV -- more like a monitor, it needs input from a cable box, DVD player, or something else that can resolve pictures for it to display. We have no use for a second TV in our tiny house, but it still works as well as ever and I hate to throw it away. I wonder if I can donate it, or if old dumb TVs are worthless now.

It did cross my mind that I could simply buy one of those Roku things to turn it into a streaming TV, but losing our cable is a sign that it's time for a major upgrade, and I have the money.