Moving soon. Time for a new big TV. AT&T only offers streaming service so I need to upgrade to a “Smart” TV.
Help me out. I’ve been out of the market so long that all the techno-babble has me rolling my eyes.
I don’t know what I should be looking for.
I’m not sure I’m ready to spring for OLED. Besides the cost, so much stuff runs banners etc. that I’m worried about burn in.
I do know that more local dimming zones is a good thing on larger screens. Just no manufacturers publish them.
Heaven forbid we can actually can get info for making an intelligent choice.
So help an old fart spend his money wisely…
Budget $7000 - less would be better - but this is likely the last TV I will ever purchase - so I’m will to spend a few bucks if it’s worth it.
Screen size 75” or perhaps larger. Thinking larger might be a good thing.
Viewing distance 12 to 15 feet.
Moderate room brightness.
Native 8K seems like a good thing to have.
Nice sound for conventional shows. As in clear dialogue. But will have an external AV system for movies and TV shows that deserve the honor. I tend to leave the AV off for typical talking heads.
Offended by all the spyware tracking, but what can one do?
Where to buy the thing?
With much higher optically efficiency and better color rendition+durability, it’s totally worth it to buy such.
That means either the Samsung S95B if you want the cheapest screen with it, or the Sony A95K if you really want the best(has better thermal dissipation, higher sustained brightness, better tonemapping, better OS in my opinion):
Got an 4K LG OLED last year that replaced my 11 years old Philips FullHD LCD.
I have to say, it works flawless, and the pictures are superb!
But for the smart part, you don’t need it, if it’s only intended for streaming services, i would advise a Google Chromecast with Google TV (the larger white dongle)
We use it on the TV in our bedroom, which is a very old dumb LCD TV, but with the addition of the Google TV it’s super.
That one supports all apps i need (the LG does not support all apps) and it’s even 4K
i’m very happy with it.
Usually TV Reviews: Best of 2023 - RTINGS.com has the details you want. But for the budget you’re looking at, I don’t think you have to worry about backlight zones. I hope BlueSwordM is right about OLED durability, but they haven’t been around in TVs nearly as long as LCDs, so I haven’t been willing to spring for one yet. I’m using a 20+ year old LCD on this computer, and my computer at work.
My favorite UI in TVs is Roku. But, you might not find a Roku TV in your price range, they tend towards the lower-end. LG and Samsung aren’t bad, either, but I like the LG UI better.
One other thing to consider is a good sound bar, unless you can play the TV sound through a good audio system.
The built-in speakers on most TV are pretty useless.
That’s even newer than just plain OLED, with an even shorter track record for reliability. Do you have a link with some evidence of long-term reliability/durability for QD-OLEDs?
I hate LCD’s with local dimming, but I put up with them because I’ve never had an OLED in a phone last more than 4 years. Admittedly, that’s a harsher environment than my TV, but if you can replace a flourescent tube, even the ancient LCD screens last virtually forever, AFAICT.
Thanks all,
The rtings site is a big help.
It helped me decide on the appropriate size for our viewing distance. So 83” or 85” for us. Go big or go home - oh wait - we would be home…
At the new place only internet is available - along with AT&Ts streaming service.
They won’t even install a POTS line anymore! Which offends me no end. POTS will work even with the cells down or a local power failure.
So the only way to get good sound is to use the eARC out from the TV to the AV system.
Looking at the eARC pass through, some sets don’t support all the various surround formats.
For example the LG OLEDs don’t support DTS-X via DTS-HD MA, 5.1 DTS, or 5.1 DTS via Optical output.
While Sony supports everything as far as I can tell.
Do any of you know what audio formats the streaming formats use for surround?
If a movie is native DTS, is it converted to something else when steamed? That seems unlikely to me.
I probably need to go hang out at some AV forums to find this stuff out.
Any suggestions?
I too would be suspicious about Samsung’s latest and greatest. Being a zero day user of new tech is often fraught with early release problems that the company needs to improve on. And Samsung doesn’t have the greatest support rep.
IMHO,$7000 is too much to spend on a TV. You are much better off spending in the $2000 range and upgrading more often. $7000 is very high end and the technology is that much more likely to be replaced that much sooner. $7000 would mean you are buying in the top 1% percentile.
There are 85 inch TVs selling for under $2000 if you look for the sales.
$7K is just ridiculous unless you are JayZ.
It’s simply not worth it. That $7K TV will be worth $700 in a matter of months.
Sorry but trying to stay ahead of technology is a losing proposition.
Oh so true!
There is no such thing as too much closet space, too large a garage, too large a shop, too many toys (though my flashlight pile is getting close), or a TV too big….
All the Best,
Jeff
I wonder if beyond a certain dimension that projection might be a better way to go. Think of it… as the larger the screen, the harder it is to physically manage. PLUS, if there’s ever dead pixels… that really sucks.
There’s also the matter of viewing distance. If you sit within 8~10 feet, about 70” is all you really need.
I would NOT sink a huge amount of money into the TOTL of today. Technology is still changing. OLED is still ramping up in terms of quality. The next big thing is flexibility. You’ll be able to lay it out flat or have curvature. Imagine being able to roll it up for more convenient moving around.
I wouldn’t pay more than $2k. Also, you don’t need a refresh rate better than 120Hz. 240Hz is only really necessary if you frequently game on your screen with games that have very high graphics demand.
Mrs. Jeff and I went tire kicking on TVs a few days ago.
She paced off our theoretical new viewing distance.
“We need something bigger than 75”.
Music to my ears. As the 85” range is what is recommended by the RTINGS site for our use. RTINGS.com has been a great help in comparing different sets.
Projectors just don’t cut it for non darkened rooms, and off axis viewing is poor even with the best of screens.
No easy place to mount the thing in our location.
OLEDs - I’m running hot and cold. They sure look nice in the store displaying lots of bright points surrounded by dead black.
The manufacturers know what makes them look best. And of course each brand is running a different demo so it’s hard to compare.
Heck they even run different demos on LEDs vs OLEDs on the same brand.
I’m concerned about OLEDs crushing the near blacks. I hate this.
Video fan boys will cringe, but I’ll swap dead black for “Off black?” to be able too see deep into the darker areas without the detail/dark-dark values being compressed so that info is lost.
Thanks again for all the suggestions.
All the Best,
Jeff
For projection, you don’t want just any white wall. You want to set up a projector wall surface. You can buy special material for that purpose. But yeah, side viewing can lack more at the outer edges of the viewing area.
I also don’t mind some loss of “near black” as black. It’s just so satisfying having deep black. I once had a plasma TV and its black was so much better than LCD. But those things ran hot and were heavy.
Is that even a thing with OLEDs? Reviewers and manufacturers often don’t even publish contrast specs (or say inf:1) for OLEDs. LCD contrast is usually in the 5k:1 range, 7-10k:1 with local dimming.
Orders of magnitude better contrast, and getting rid of the abomination that is local dimming should give you much better shadow detail (my old rear-projection DLP did, but I haven’t bought an OLED tv yet), not worse, compared to the ubiquitous LCDs.
The FCC requirement since 2019 has been a minimum of 24 hours backup power for fixed service, and 8 hours for mobile service, in order to make sure 911 can be reached in any outages up to those durations. This applies regardless of whether the service is provided over copper or fiber.
When POTS operators decommission copper, they still have to keep similar battery + generator backups as their POTS facilities. They are frequently the same facility anyways, so that’s often already in place. Actually, I was told by someone who works for an ILEC that is currently installing fiber but has not yet started decommissioning copper that their power consumption actually decreases significantly as they switch to fiber. In such cases, they’ll end up with more backup capacity than planned once they begin decommissioning the copper, although the main reason they are interested in doing so is saving on electricity costs and repairing the now-redundant copper lines.
The other problem is POTS is powered by the provider. Fiber transmits no power, so fiber-based phone service requires a battery of its own. Unfortunately, it is typically only able to power a conventional telephone and maintain the phone connection over fiber, not to keep your internet service running during an outage.
I can’t speak to what AT&T might offer in your area, but as far as I know, it should be comparable in terms of outage-tolerance as your old service.
It depends on the service. Netflix, for example, says they use Dolby Digital Plus in 5.1. I assume they do convert when necessary:
I can’t speak to details or say what a dedicated audiophile will think of streamed sound. I just plugged an optical cable from my Samsung plasma TV to my old Denon receiver, and the audio works fine. I only use 2.1, but it sounds pretty good to me - definitely better than the soundbars I’ve heard when visiting friends or relatives, who almost always have newer equipment than me. Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Youtube over Roku or Samsung Smarthub, as well as Bluray have all just worked audio-wise.
As far as I know, OLED is what you want then. They generally win on contrast ratio, black levels and uniformity, and gradient handling.