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OT - budget-midrange tv around $500 (or under $1k)?

Reditus

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Jun 20, 2019
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Okay my old eyes aren't the best anymore and some shows are very dark/dim and hard too watch. (Nix the obvious joke please) Anyway I think my 12 year old LCD TV is actually the problem. Rather than pay a repair to get new backlights installed I am thinking about getting a new one.

I am looking at 50". It's a bright room so the backlight will be turned way up. What do people have out there? Is Hisene any good? Reliability&life is an important factor to me. Should I raise my limit to a $1000? I am not a gamer or need lots of bells and whistles. I have a roku stick for streaming. I watch sports&movies. I will probably wait until next football preseason before I buy. Anybody out there have recommendations or comments about their budget-midrange tv and if they like it? Thanks!
 
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Okay my old eyes aren't the best anymore and some shows are very dark/dim and hard too watch. (Nix the obvious joke please) Anyway I think my 12 year old LCD TV is actually the problem. Rather than pay a repair to get new backlights installed I am thinking about getting a new one.

I am looking at 50". It's a bright room so the backlight will be turned way up. What do people have out there? Is Hisene any good? Reliability&life is an important factor to me. Should I raise my limit to a $1000? I am not a gamer or need lots of bells and whistles. I have a roku stick for streaming. I watch sports&movies. I will probably wait until next football preseason before I buy. Anybody out there have recommendations or comments about their budget-midrange tv and if they like it? Thanks!
I just walked past a 65 inch Samsung smart TV at Walmart for $450. Plenty of 55 inch in various brands for under $400. I have had larger (45 - 55 inch) Samsung, Vizio, ONN, Toshiba and a small HiSense in the past. Kind of a crap shoot because I haven't seen a lot of reliability differences between them. Maybe pop for the 3 year extended warranty? My experience is if they make it past year 3, they are generally good for several more years. Good Luck.
 
TCL will leave plenty of cash in your wallet and give you everything you need and then some. If you spend anymore on something else you will only be doing it because you want to, not because you need to.
I bought a cheapo, Roku-ready TCL so I could watch baseball and early-fall football out on my deck. Wanted something I could just throw a cover on, and not worry too much if it got damaged or stolen. It has far exceeded my expectations.
 
A little retail tip about TVs.
Never buy the black friday tvs. They Re cheap for a reason. They often use outdated parts and are sub standard models. Best time to buy? Superbowl week.
 
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50"ers they are fantastic.
what_she_said_office.gif
 
We purchased a Samsung a little over a year ago at Christmas time for our living room, under 50". Hated the thing. It was beautiful looking straight into it, but from any angles it was terrible. Did some research and it was a Samsung thing. We have a smart LG that is probably 4 years old and it is very nice.

We took the Samsung back and put our old plasma back up. We were impressed with the Vizio and TLC had lots of good reviews.
 
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Vizio and TCL are decent for the price. Don’t buy the store budget brands such as ONN etc.
I have an Insignia (Best Buy store brand) 65" Roku TV that has been...fine. I don't super love it, but I don't hate it.

The input lag means I can't play Call of Duty online on it at all which I didn't know going in. It doesn't handle motion as smoothly as some others probably do. But we also use nothing but streaming services so it sorta doesn't matter.

All depends on what you're using it for. If I had to do it over again I'd probably get a Samsung. If you have cable TV or you're gonna watch a lot of BluRay movies on it you could go higher end. If you don't care very much about video quality the Insignia is solid.
 
I own 3.... 50"ers they are fantastic.
I got a TCL Roku 55 for the basement for less than $400 and was extremely pleasantly surprised. I will admit I shelled out more than 2 grand for a Samsung 75" QLED for the family room and am really happy with that too. It was worth the money because there are a lot of windows and the auto sensing keeps the picture fairly clear even in sunlight and it works well with my Samsung phone. I wouldn't say the picture is a quantum better than the standard TCL downstairs, but it is noticeably better. Like stereo equipment, every $1000 buys you just a little bit more.
 
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A little retail tip about TVs.
Never buy the black friday tvs. They Re cheap for a reason. They often use outdated parts and are sub standard models. Best time to buy? Superbowl week.
Agree, I am a diligent features/price shopper and the week before Super Bowl is the best time to buy hands down.
 
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I can’t speak for what brands are best specifically for high brightness, but in general I recommend Vizio.

What I’ve read is that they started as a cheap Walmart brand before significantly improving in quality, but their reputation as a budget brand has kept them from raising prices to the level of Samsung, LG, etc.

For that reason I’ve only purchased Vizios for the past decade and have never been disappointed. Got a 65” for something like $700-800 from Best Buy a few years ago. Again, no advice on brightness from me. I’ve never had problems watching it while the sun is shining through the windows though.
 
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The TCLs have a good picture for the price but I’m Leary of how long that cheap Chinese brand will last. I personally would not buy one for that reason. I would avoid Vizio as well. The Sony Bravia series is still really good and bright. The Qled from Samsung is good or you may be able to grab a Sony OLED for under a grand by that time.

Best brand for quality and reliability right now is Sony by a long ways. I repair TVs and my best friend does all the warranty work for all the major brands.
 
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No matter how good of TV you buy, it will be outdated and much better ones will be out in 2 years time.

So don't waste your money on the high end ones...$500 can buy you a big-ass quality TV. Like others, I'd suggest a Samsung.
 
I've had a series 6 TCL for 18 mos without a problem. Best TV for price . Check Cnet.com for reviews. Super bowl week will have some of the best deals of the year.
 
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I have multiple tv's, and in order they are.......
Sony
LG
Scepter
Samsung
Vizio

As a theatre installer told me, there's a reason all the cameras you see are made by Sony. If you want to pay for quality, buy one. If you are just concerned about getting the best bang for your buck, shop for price. Just make sure you get a good 4k picture. You see more and more content now out in 4k. Directv had four Husker games in 4k this fall, and NFL games every week. Disney, Apple, Netflix, etc. put anything new in 4k. I can't believe how much difference it makes.
 
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Thank you all for the responses. Y'all get points. Good input to mull over.
 
I will second anyone who said the TCL Roku TV. I love the built in Roku and the picture and audio is good for the price.
 
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Okay my old eyes aren't the best anymore and some shows are very dark/dim and hard too watch. (Nix the obvious joke please) Anyway I think my 12 year old LCD TV is actually the problem. Rather than pay a repair to get new backlights installed I am thinking about getting a new one.

I am looking at 50". It's a bright room so the backlight will be turned way up. What do people have out there? Is Hisene any good? Reliability&life is an important factor to me. Should I raise my limit to a $1000? I am not a gamer or need lots of bells and whistles. I have a roku stick for streaming. I watch sports&movies. I will probably wait until next football preseason before I buy. Anybody out there have recommendations or comments about their budget-midrange tv and if they like it? Thanks!
Samsung 4K
 
The TCLs have a good picture for the price but I’m Leary of how long that cheap Chinese brand will last. I personally would not buy one for that reason. I would avoid Vizio as well. The Sony Bravia series is still really good and bright. The Qled from Samsung is good or you may be able to grab a Sony OLED for under a grand by that time.

Best brand for quality and reliability right now is Sony by a long ways. I repair TVs and my best friend does all the warranty work for all the major brands.
If recall correctly, OLED is bright but there can be burn in and light reflection issues. So getting a QLED at 50" would be a better option and Samsung has to be right up there in terms of reliability. I've never had any problems with the three I bought and one is over 15 years old.

If he is willing to spend a little more, the Samsung Q80T is an awesome TV. At 50-55" it would be affordable as well if he caught a sale price.
 
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If recall correctly, OLED is bright but there can be burn in and light reflection issues. So getting a QLED at 50" would be a better option and Samsung has to be right up there in terms of reliability. I've never had any problems with the three I bought and one is over 15 years old.

If he is willing to spend a little more, the Samsung Q80T is an awesome TV. At 50-55" it would be affordable as well if he caught a sale price.

The Q80T is one of the best from Samsung right now. A 50” is right at $1,000 from Best Buy. OP can even chop a couple hundred off getting a Q60T with a little less bells and whistles but still a nice QLED picture. Correct, if you don’t want to do screen refreshes and watch stuff with a lot of still images all day, OLED may not be for you. It is a Plasma-type of technology.
 
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I am so glad I am not a car guy and/or a picture quality guy.

TV's are so cheap right now it is amazing, you can probably walk out of a store with a 70 inch TV for 500 dollars.

Or do the 3 TV set up, I bet you can do that for 600 dollars.
 
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Yesterday evening I decided that around Feb 1st I am going to a store and check out the Sony 950H and the Samsung Q80T. I will buy one of those if I can get a good deal. I am slightly partial to the 950H as my current tv is a 46" Bravia. If I can't get a good deal, I am going to try and survive another year as I got the old one working better.

I considered the TCL series 5/6 but feel that TV would be a better fit for a lower light situation like my basement. Plus I am not sure if TCL has adjustable legs for their TV's. I don't have a tv table to accommodate a wide stand and wall mounts won't work for me. As it is, I plan on moving my old TV down to the basement if I buy a new one. I got the old one working better by turning the automatic ambient light sensor to off and setting the backlights to max and setting brightness up higher. Basically, I'm flogging the old horse down the backstretch.

Again thanks for all the input.
 
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I'm a tv snob....the best 55"-65" TV for under $1k is Sony X900H - Got my 65" at Costco for $999. If you aren't too worried about it then the other TVs mentioned above will be fine.
 
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