New TV, what to buy?

[Qs Laptop]

Costco. Hisense. 65 inch. Regular $399. Bought last year, sale. $349. Great picture.
Don't be fooled by the price. TV is really good,

Previously owned. Costco. Hisense. 55 inch. Which is why I'm sold on Hisense

Brother just bought. Costco. LG. 55 inch. $1300+. All newest features. My TV picture
is better than his. Brother did not want to buy "cheapie" TV. Wanted "name brand, label".

From the OP:

"I want a reasonably great TV, we don't update that often (9 years this time) - not what's cheapest. Visio, Hisense, TCL no thanks WADR."

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Yes, no extra cost but the cost is much higher than the same TV elsewhere without the crammed warranty. If you want a warranty then yes, it's a good deal. If you don't typically buy extended warranties, it's a scam.

Not so in my case, after selecting the model I wanted I scoured the internet for prices, Costco was $5 more. Not bad for 5 years warranty + the one from the manufacturer. If you do not do your research, you may get shafted, but not if you do.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Yes, no extra cost but the cost is much higher than the same TV elsewhere without the crammed warranty. If you want a warranty then yes, it's a good deal. If you don't typically buy extended warranties, it's a scam.

Not so in my case, after selecting the model I wanted I scoured the internet for prices, Costco was $5 more. Not bad for 5 years warranty + the one from the manufacturer. If you do not do your research, you may get shafted, but not if you do.

This was my experience at Costco as well, except they had the lowest price on my LG C2, matching everybody else's lowest price on same TV.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

We decided last month to give away our 14-year old LG TV, whose only hi-tech feature was that it allowed us to look at photos/videos on screen using a USB port! Pretty cool stuff in 2009. We mostly watched Netflix and YouTube on my iPad pro and my desktop PC, and my wife watched BBC morning programs on the LG.

But with some apartment renovations underway, including in the bedroom, where we have our TV, we decided to go big and Blow That Dough on a very well regarded 2023 LG G3 OLED 55". It's wall-mounted and completely flat on the wall. Also we installed a good LG soundbar with Wi-Fi-connected sub-woofer.

It's plenty big and AMAZING in every aspect (except price). We bought it from a local specialist who consults/orders/delivers/installs for a price. An overinflated Swiss price I might add, so not of much use to the vast majority here. But I was keen to avoid any added hassle to our renovations agenda.

rtngs.com gave it an overall 9.1 review and noted its exceptionably bright screen using LG's new Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology. Also top marks for gaming (which we don't do) and incredibly fast response time.

Here are their Pros/Cons:

PROS
Near-infinite contrast ratio for perfect blacks.
Superb reflection handling.
Exceptionally wide viewing angle.
HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four ports.
Extremely bright for an OLED.

CONS
Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.

Check it out here: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/g3-oled

 

[Qs Laptop]

CONS
Aggressive ABL can get distracting with large areas of brightness.

Check it out here: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/g3-oled

Have you ever personally experienced this effect?

I'm going to guess that no, you have not.

Yes, you did buy the gold standard for OLED's with the G3. Congratulations.

Nine months later I still look at my C2 in awe at the picture quality.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Have you ever personally experienced this effect?

I'm going to guess that no, you have not.

Yes, you did buy the gold standard for OLED's with the G3. Congratulations.

Nine months later I still look at my C2 in awe at the picture quality.

I've only had it a week so far and I have only experienced awe. The installer asked if this would now hold me for the next 14 years. I said, maybe only 10 this time.

-BB

 

[CDRE]

Recommend OLED. Look at the comparison screens at Sam's/Costo/BestBuy and see if the OLED makes a difference to your viewing tastes. LG has speakers that face the rear and Sony has speakers that face the front. We have LG OLED and very well pleased.

 

[ivinsfan]

From the OP:

"I want a reasonably great TV, we don't update that often (9 years this time) - not what's cheapest. Visio, Hisense, TCL no thanks WADR."

The next line is But I'm open to suggestions before I buy a TV....so not sure exactly what OP's intent is....

 

[Midpack]

Bought an LG 65C3 at Costco today (not the Sony A80L after all), for $700 off, will set it up tomorrow. Getting a free 5 year warranty is nice though odds are we won’t use it. Thanks to all for the input and suggestions.

I did notice none of the OLEDs are as bright as cheaper LED/mini LED sets but the OLED colors and contrast are beautimous. We’ll mostly watch movies and sports. The room we’ll be using it in is usually not bright, hope we made the right call.

 

[Car-Guy]

The thing about any new TV that I sort of dread, is getting everything setup. I mean, my main TV in the living room has two DVD players (for different formats), a DirecTv DVR, a sound bar, an OTA antenna and an infrared headset. Wiring those up is easy but getting them all configured and named and working on one universal remote with the new TV can be a bit of a PIA. Oh, and let's not forget setting up the 802.11 wireless Internet connection for all the streaming services as well as getting them to recognize the new TV.

And yes, while I know I could probably get someone to do all that for us, I prefer knowing how it works for future troubleshooting or component replacement.

 

[audreyh1]

Recommend OLED. Look at the comparison screens at Sam's/Costo/BestBuy and see if the OLED makes a difference to your viewing tastes. LG has speakers that face the rear and Sony has speakers that face the front. We have LG OLED and very well pleased.

Our OLED TV is plugged into our fancy audio surround system, so we don’t care about the TV speakers.

 

[audreyh1]

Bought an LG 65C3 at Costco today (not the Sony A80L after all), for $700 off, will set it up tomorrow. Getting a free 5 year warranty is nice though odds are we won’t use it. Thanks to all for the input and suggestions.

I did notice none of the OLEDs are as bright as cheaper LED/mini LED sets but the OLED colors and contrast are beautimous. We’ll mostly watch movies and sports. The room we’ll be using it in is usually not bright, hope we made the right call.

Awesome!

Brightness has not been a problem for us. We have some sheer blinds we can close if necessary. The TV is not facing any windows and only early morning light hits one set of side windows.

 

[Midpack]

The thing about any new TV that I sort of dread, is getting everything setup. I mean, my main TV in the living room has two DVD players (for different formats), a DirecTv DVR, a sound bar, an OTA antenna and an infrared headset. Wiring those up is easy but getting them all configured and named and working on one universal remote with the new TV can be a bit of a PIA. Oh, and let's not forget setting up the 802.11 wireless Internet connection for all the streaming services as well as getting them to recognize the new TV.

And yes, while I know I could probably get someone to do all that for us, I prefer knowing how it works for future troubleshoot or component replacement.

I enjoy doing all that stuff myself, even though it may take some time, for two reasons.

I prefer knowing how it works for future troubleshooting (as you noted).

And use it or lose it, applies to mental as well as physical - the challenge is good for me as long as I am able...

Too many of my buddies have given up keeping up with tech, and work around the house for that matter, and they won't be able to regain those skills IMO. They can barely handle their own smartphones...

 

[Car-Guy]

^^^^^
The problem is by the time I need to troubleshoot something, (usually years later) I've forgotten "how I did it" in the first place... And, where did I put those dang instructions. But after fiddling with it for a while, it starts to come back. I guess I shouldn't complain too much since once I get them setup like I like want (or actually how the DW likes) it's usually pretty reliable.

Funny, in the past I would completely tear down an old V8 engine and rebuild it without really thinking about it and without any instructions. Still could these days if I had the need. (And I enjoyed that a lot more)

 

[Qs Laptop]

Bought an LG 65C3 at Costco today (not the Sony A80L after all), for $700 off, will set it up tomorrow. Getting a free 5 year warranty is nice though odds are we won’t use it. Thanks to all for the input and suggestions.

Fantastic! You're going to love it.

I did notice none of the OLEDs are as bright as cheaper LED/mini LED sets but the OLED colors and contrast are beautimous. We’ll mostly watch movies and sports. The room we’ll be using it in is usually not bright, hope we made the right call.

The higher brightness of LED vs. OLEDs is overrated. Don't worry, the brightness of the C3 will be more than sufficient. Within a day or two you will wonder what all the fuss about brightness was all about. The contrast and the inky black levels of the OLED are far more important to picture quality.

One thing that I'm still amazed about is when there is a transition between programming and the screen goes black. When this happens on my LG OLED it appears that the TV is turned off. I mean it is dead black. When this happens on an LED TV there is a dark gray screen. You can tell the TV is on, just in between content. This indicates that there isn't true black levels with that LED technology.

If you have any questions about picture settings PM me. For example, I have the brightness setting for regular TV content (cable, sports, any non HDR content, etc.) set to 75 (out of 100) and it's plenty bright.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Midpack and Bryan Barnfellow, here is a link to a forum thread about the LG C3-G3 TVs. I follow the corresponding C2-G2 thread and found it to be indispensable. There's a lot of content to sift through but it's worth it.

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/20...rs-thread-faq-2nd-post-no-price-talk.3264219/

 

[explanade]

I'm tempted to buy but people are hoping that LG will migrate their MLA tech to the C4 line next year.

 

[Texas Proud]

Woot is having a sale on TVs... but one day only..





https://electronics.woot.com/plus/time-for-a-tv-upgrade?ref=w_cnt_gw_dly_snb

 

[CosmicDreamer]

If you ask me which brand to choose between LG, Samsung, and Sony, I would say Sony without hesitation. Sony is a Japanese brand, while LG and Samsung are both Korean. Samsung and LG TVs might look better, but Sony TVs are more reliable and will last longer.

 

[Qs Laptop]

If you ask me which brand to choose between LG, Samsung, and Sony, I would say Sony without hesitation. Sony is a Japanese brand, while LG and Samsung are both Korean. Samsung and LG TVs might look better, but Sony TVs are more reliable and will last longer.

That was certainly true in the 80's, 90's, and 00's. In the past 15 years, I'm not so sure. Do you have any objective data showing this?

 

[REWahoo]

That was certainly true in the 80's, 90's, and 00's. In the past 15 years, I'm not so sure.

^This.

CR says that Samsung, LG and Sony all have excellent reliability records while other widely known brands are more problematic, especially Vizio. YMMV, of course.

 

[explanade]

The basic OLED display tech has been developed by LG and Samsung.

Sony buys the OLED panels from them, puts their own electronics on them. A lot of people think the processing on the Sony is superior, for things like motion blur.

But LG uses superior processors for things like more high speed HDMI ports while Sony relies on Chinese Mediatek processors.

 

[ncbill]

Sony is better processing & uses the screen as a speaker so you could conceivably skip the sound bar.

But do you want to pay the premium versus LG?

IMHO I'd get the C3 & a sound bar instead.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Do you have any objective data showing this?

Rtings.com is working on it.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/longevity-test

How Long Should A TV Last?
Our 100 TV Accelerated Longevity And Burn-In Test

Excerpt:
During the startup phase, the Sony A80J, A80K, A8H, A90J, A90K, and A95K, as well as the Vizio OLED 2020, developed severe image retention after only two weeks on the test. We ran the compensation cycles on affected TVs and tried different methods to remove the image retention, including running a few videos designed to remove it. We were eventually able to remove most of the image retention. The LG OLED TVs also showed signs of image retention when we stopped the test, but it cleared very quickly, and no additional action was required.

 

[pb4uski]

Don't buy Vizio. I have two that are each 15 years old and the damn things just won't die.