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New TV today
Old 01-16-2018, 11:14 PM   #1
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New TV today

Purchased a new 55" 4k with built in Roku smart interface for $348.00. My nearly 10 year old 40" HD dumb TV cost $400.00. The picture is nice but the sound is a joke.
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Old 01-16-2018, 11:26 PM   #2
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Purchased a new 55" 4k with built in Roku smart interface for $348.00. My nearly 10 year old 40" HD dumb TV cost $400.00. The picture is nice but the sound is a joke.

What brand is the new one, if I may ask?

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Old 01-16-2018, 11:27 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Free bird View Post
Purchased a new 55" 4k with built in Roku smart interface for $348.00. My nearly 10 year old 40" HD dumb TV cost $400.00. The picture is nice but the sound is a joke.
For $348, I'm surprised that you're satisfied with the picture..... The sound is easy to fix... Plug it into your Stereo or get a Sound Bar.

What Brand is it?
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Old 01-16-2018, 11:46 PM   #4
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I just bought a sound bar the realized my 3 or 4 year old TV didn't have an optical port so I had to but a new TV. We also bought a 50" for $400 at Costco.

The Bose 5 really improves the sound, it's $250:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/bose-so...xoCCiEQAvD_BwE
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Old 01-17-2018, 05:36 AM   #5
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In 2000 I bought a display unit from Best Buy. 36" HDTV! Built-in Direct-TV satellite box. I did some research and found out there were power supply issues. Since it weighed 220 pounds, I opted for the in-home warranty repair. The power supply went out in year one, was replaced, and this glass cathode-ray-tube behemoth was still working up until a year ago when my parents sold it.

I bought it on sale for almost $1000.

$348 is an amazing deal for a 55" Roku-TV!
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Old 01-17-2018, 05:45 AM   #6
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I just bought a sound bar the realized my 3 or 4 year old TV didn't have an optical port so I had to but a new TV. We also bought a 50" for $400 at Costco.

The Bose 5 really improves the sound, it's $250:
I was staying at a resort last year that had the Bose soundbar hooked up to the TV and it did sound good, also seemed a lot smaller than some of the other sound bars I've seen.

I've started to look for a replacement for my 10 year old TV. From reading the Consumer Reports (Nov 17) reviews the LG TV's are highly rated but also come with a big price tag although most can be found on sale at ~50% less than retail price.
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Old 01-17-2018, 06:07 AM   #7
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I want a soundbar that has three separate functions:
  • A soundbar for the TV
  • Bluetooth IN for playing streaming music (without the TV) from phone, etc.
  • Bluetooth OUT for listening to the TV with headphones

Anyone heard of such a thing?
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Old 01-17-2018, 07:03 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Cut-Throat View Post
For $348, I'm surprised that you're satisfied with the picture..... The sound is easy to fix... Plug it into your Stereo or get a Sound Bar.
+1. You get what you pay for more often than not.
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Old 01-17-2018, 07:42 AM   #9
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Moved into our new home Nov 1st and bought a new TV. It is a Samsung 75 inch 4KHD. $2000 at Best Buy, free delivery. My son installed it, hooked it all up and got it running. Great picture quality but sound was average. He had an older sound system that he hooked up a few days later. Made all the difference in the world. I think that the emphasis is all on the picture these days. Sound is secondary as there is only so much room for good speakers and the equipment necessary for good sound. We are really happy with the purchase and was lucky to have a sound system available at the right price-free.
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Old 01-17-2018, 08:01 AM   #10
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Most tv's come with poor sound quality. I use my JBL bookshelf speakers. I bet they are 20 years old but sound great. TV cost have really come down and someone always have a deal going on the net. A year ago I bought a 48" 1080hd Samsung for $375. Great picture and I always receive compliments from visitors.

For those that have 4k tv's and stream live tv, do you eat up a lot more data? I have a 1 TB cap and use at most 350 GB a month. Might try 4k at some point.
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Old 01-17-2018, 08:14 AM   #11
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I've been enjoying the LG 49" dumb TV I bought at Best Buy a few months ago for $300. I hated the sound so I bought a LG sound bar for $150 (has a separate wireless subwoofer). The LG TV lacks an optical port so I bought a $20 adapter from amazon and plugged the sound bar straight into the Blue-ray DVD player. Works great, and I love the sound. I don't have cable TV so this setup suits me perfectly.
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Old 01-17-2018, 08:15 AM   #12
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Personally, I'm a SHARP guy. I think they have some of the best pictures out there.

Mike
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Old 01-17-2018, 08:22 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by FIREmenow View Post
I want a soundbar that has three separate functions:
  • A soundbar for the TV
  • Bluetooth IN for playing streaming music (without the TV) from phone, etc.
  • Bluetooth OUT for listening to the TV with headphones

Anyone heard of such a thing?
Bluetooth for streaming music seems to be a common feature for new soundbars but not sure about the output for headphones. One feature that is worth having on a soundbar is a HDMI (ARC) port, also need a HDMI (ARC) port on the TV for it to work. It makes connection and control of the soundbar easier.
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Old 01-17-2018, 08:55 AM   #14
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This is a TCL brand. I researched TVs on CNET & a dozen other test sites. It gets very technical. This TV has no local dimming which is good for movies. It has HDR but no dolby vision. I watch over the air broadcast TV. Movies & TV series from the library. Some Redbox blue ray. TCL makes a P series TV which is a better TV but it is $600-$700. If I was outfitting a home theater I would spend more but I felt for the money & my viewing habits it was a good compromise. The tech is evolving quickly & this TV will be obsolete in 2-3 years.
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Old 01-17-2018, 09:44 AM   #15
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I believe they purposly use inferior audio speakers to make you spend more money. Speaker technology has evolved. Tiny speakers make great sound. Just another source of profit.
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Old 01-17-2018, 10:04 AM   #16
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we considered a TCL brand as well as some other brands while shopping in Walmart. We took pics of the tvs we like with the price card then went across street to best buy. Best buy had one of the exact same tvs for $100 less. Ended up buying a 65 inch curved Samsung TV, 4k smart and a bunch of other doodads i will probably never use. Sound is good and pic is awesome but kinda weird as it looks like 3d in a way, but happy with purchase. Best buy seems to have the best prices as this TV was reg 1399 on sale for 848 and Walmart wanted 1199. Best buy will also match any competitors price and will even do the research for you as they were going to give us another 300 off a vizio TV that Costco had on sale. I did notice while at Walmart that you could not play with the volume on the tvs, which leads me to think it is all about the pic these days.
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Old 01-17-2018, 10:24 AM   #17
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The cameras they use to shoot movies have advanced faster than display technology available to the masses. If you move to far away from the TV you no longer see 4k resolution. If you move off to an angle the display quality deteriorates rapidly. The VA panel has superior contrast while the IPS panel has a wider viewing angle. The quality of your source is usually the limiting factor.
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Old 01-17-2018, 10:42 AM   #18
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Were talking budget TVs. If money is no object & TV display quality is a top priority then OLED is the best. But screen burn & image retention has been reported.
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Old 01-17-2018, 10:43 AM   #19
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I believe they purposly use inferior audio speakers to make you spend more money. Speaker technology has evolved. Tiny speakers make great sound. Just another source of profit.
It actually works the other way around though the end result is the same. What manufacturers are aiming for is to offer to Consumers the very lowest base price (for the television). They do this because customers generally reward manufacturers for offering the lowest price. Time and time again with regard to so many things consumers seem to be generally unconcerned about having to spend more money after a purchase to effectively finish the purchase they originally made. We see that with baggage fees on airlines and a whole host of other things. So this display plus sound bar approach is simply an "unbundling" of what used to be a television purchase.

Just look at the comments above where people have purchased a television and a sound bar... None of them expressed the purchase of their home entertainment system in terms of the combined price but rather specified the price of the individual units. That's a standard consumer perspective, looking at them as two separate purchases even though originally the intention was to purchase a television that had sound.

And manufacturers also unbundle as many other costs as they possibly can. I remember when HDTVs first came out they included the cables that you needed to connect it to your DVD player because it was a cable that a lot of people didn't have just laying around. But that has a cost to it and manufacturers are going to get rewarded for the lowest base price, not for providing that cable, and consumers are not going to punish manufacturers even though the consumer has to pay for this additional item as a separate purchase after the purchase of the television. Now that the cable is much more readily available everywhere it isn't going to cause the kind of problems that did when people would have to wait a week or so to get that cable after they've gotten their television.

My most recent HDTV comes with a box that allows it to connect to other items... I'm not sure how else to explain it. It effectively separates from the television itself the mechanisms that are involved in connecting the television to cable to DVD players to DVRs Etc. I have it in my head that one day this box won't be included and when you purchase a television you invariably have to purchase a connection box to go with it. This may seem incomprehensible but that's the way washing machines are sold today. If you just buy the washing machine you don't have the hoses that connect the washing machine to the water. That's a separate package. On Best Buy's website they're very careful to ensure that when you put a washing machine in your cart they pop up something to tell you you need this other item in order to properly install the washing machine.
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Old 01-17-2018, 10:53 AM   #20
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We purchased a 55" Smart LG TV in May 2017 for $429 from BJ's. In conjunction with the purchase I was able to sell our 12 year old 37" Dell Television for $60. Thus, the net affect was a cost of $369 to upgrade our television.

Our entertainment center allows for a 55-60 inch set and due to the decrease in prices over the years, it seemed like a good opportunity to upgrade.

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