Going to buy a 4k TV. Help me, my people!

[ahcmetal]

I've been using an old 1080i projection tv for the last...10+yrs...

I think mid next month I'll be picking up a Vizio-M series 70" 4k, it's around $2k and has the local area dimming stuff and the 4k, the BestBuy staff has lead me to believe that anything Vizio will immediately stop functioning a week after I buy it...the amazon reviews paint the exact opposite picture though...

Seems like a big screen, good features and a good price, if I get 5yrs out of it until OLED takes off I'll be happy...

 

[norton9478]

My GF's idiot brother has a 72" TV in a 8'x10' bedroom.

I don't even know how he can see the whole picture.

 

[smokehouse]

My GF's idiot brother has a 72" TV in a 8'x10' bedroom.

I don't even know how he can see the whole picture.

That's massive...Back when I had to deliver the damn things, I remember taking a 65" Toshiba theater series HD-CRT rear projection set and shoving it in the smallest basement room you could imagine. I swear, he might have been sitting 4' in front of the thing, it was absurd.

 

[norton9478]

The good thing is that he doesn't need a heater.

The TV kicks off enough heat to warm the room.

 

[iluvmonsterz]

"for the money"?...sorry man, Sony will never (and has never) qualified for that title. They make good stuff, but their price never qualifies for "bang for the buck" awards. There's also always the the finicky Sony issues to deal with as well. Their TV's have never been known for being rock solid quality wise.[/QUOTE]


word.

 

[Neo Ash]

The new 4K displays are a lot smoother than even 1080. Because of this you cannot go by the old rules for determining screen size for a display that will mostly/totally see 4K content. With 4k you can sit much closer to the display, even as little as 1 X the screens diagonal measurement.

 

[Kiel]

This just makes me mourn for the death of plasma. I'd skip out on a 4K TV for quite some time.

 

[Electric Grave]

To me Sony is the best, name alone is one thing but Sony has been consistent for years, I have no complaints about Sony whatsoever, I rather pay up and know it's quality than paying down to a different brand regardless if it's considered "the same quality" which isn't true to begin with.

Like Samsung for example, they were making all the LCDs for a lot of different companies when the tech was new and yet people fail to realize that the rest of the components on a Samsung TV and a Sony TV are very different. I realize Samsung has upped their game ever since pioneering the previous LCD gen, LED is a whole another game though and now you got Ultra HD and what have you...I'm still gonna trust Sony over anyone other brand in manufacturing something that's going to perform well and last. Just my 2 cents on Sony screens, same thing goes for sound equipment.

 

[HDRchampion]

Sony is the TV i buy all the time. Every tv i currently own is a Sony & still has yet to fail me. The only other brand is Samsung, which is my plasma. Whenever i do make the 4k plunge, ill probably go with a Sony or Samsung.

 

[Electric Grave]

^He's only saying that 'cause of me but wants to make it look like it was all him...

 

[Gamefan]

I used to be a huge Sony TV fan! Now I have moved over to Samsung. Just picked up a 50" 4K Samsung for my Xbox One and PS4. It has 120Hz refresh rate and got it on sale for just under a grand. I only use it for gaming and so I thought I would wait for a curved Sony UHD display for movies and TV watching.

 

[djjimmyjames]

I bought a fifty inch Black Friday special, $200. Thing is awesome good refresh rate, looks great in 1080p my only gripe is it has 4 hdmi and 1 component hook up no svid or composite.

 

[norton9478]

Brand names mean almost nothing as far as quality goes.

Unless you are getting one of the top models, they are all made by the same dozen or so contract manufacturers.

 

[GregN]

My friend bought a 4k TV when an electrical storm fried her old one. Watched part of Walking Dead on it, and holy shit! It looked so good, it looked real!

 

[ki_atsushi]

Stick with a 1080 set for now, the new standards aren't even cemented yet. Last I heard there were 2-3 slightly different resolutions that were are known as 4k, maybe wait until they get that shit sorted out. Besides, most games and video content is still max 1080p anyways... why bother having to upscale?

 

[Fygee]

Spike I work as a home theater supervisor for Best Buy and sell these tvs everyday. The Sony 65x850c is the best tv for your money hands down. It's triluminous color chip and motion capabilities kick the shit out of the comparable samsungs.

I'm surprised that for that cost its still only 120hz instead of 240hz.

I'm curious, how do the LG/Samsung/Sony TVs compare to the Visios?

As far as those saying to stick with 1080p for now, its good to consider getting a 4K for future proofing, and also for the up-scaling. From the ones I've seen on display in stores, they do a pretty good job of imitating 4K. Additionally there is 4K media available on Youtube and Netflix now, with more coming down the pipe.

If you don't want to get 4K now, its best to wait if you can rather than plunk down the money on a 1080p display unless its small and a good price.

 

[smokehouse]

Brand names mean almost nothing as far as quality goes.

Unless you are getting one of the top models, they are all made by the same dozen or so contract manufacturers.

I can agree with this.

Another problem I have is that no TV comes correct out of the box...and stores have no problem with setting up certain sets to look "better" than others.

I used to be on the bleeding edge of the TV market...always reading professional reviews on performance specs, pre/post calibration IRE performance, color temps, contrast ratio...bla, bla, bla...

I got burn out on it.

You know what sold me on ly 2008 LG LCD? LOL...the fucking sound quality. It sounded far better than any other display they had (which was damn near all of them). That TV lased over 7 years in my living room...displaying everything from 480 shit cable, to video games, to HD content. I never found myself picking it apart performance wise. Here's a review of my (actually 2007 model):

http://www.cnet.com/products/lg-lb5d/

Lots o complaints...3 out of 5 score...bla, bla, bla. Right out of the box, it outperformed my (previously) top of the line, and ISF calibrated, Hitachi Ultravision HD RP set that ran me $2500+ in 2002. It creamed it in nearly every way picture quality wise (save sound...that Hitiachi kicked serious ass in that dept).

It's funny, here we are again...I look up the set I have now and find this:
http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-brand/lg/uf7600

So a 6.9 out of 10. LOL...this set makes my 2007 look like total crap, in every way. The PQ difference is staggering. It also set me back $400 less than the Samsung CNET said to buy instead, which happens to be this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U9U96CY?tag=rtings-tv-bs11a-20&ie=UTF8

Go ahead...read the negative reviews on the thing. Once again...buggy sets with all kinds of gremlins (and hit and miss), crap places like CNET do not address.

In the end, I decided $897 -vs- $1297 wasn't worth the extra $$. Time will tell I guess...

 

[norton9478]

I used to think that audiophiles were mostly self-fulfilling fools.

But I've bought up some older High Fi(-ish) equipment and man does it sound good. Better than I ever expected.

A 1956 Magnavox stereo console with a 30-watt tube amp.
A pioneer Pioneer SA-9500II
Some Advent-3 speakers (they handled folk really well,but not bass-driven music).

One thing I will never be convinced of is Vinyl. I love vinyl. Have over 1200 records. Listen to 30 to 40 records a week. But with few exceptions, the music almost always sounds better on CD. Maybe in theory, the vinyl is better.

But in actuality.... a properly mastered CD is better.

 

[norton9478]

I have always what scant money I had into surround sound (rather picture size/quality).

My GF's family always bust on me about my small tv (32" until last xmas, now 42"). But that surround sound, they like and aren't used to.

I also used to chill with this girl how had a history of minor schizophrenia she hated surround sound with a passion.

 

[MidnightAbyss]

I used to think that audiophiles were mostly self-fulfilling fools.

But I've bought up some older High Fi(-ish) equipment and man does it sound good. Better than I ever expected.

A 1956 Magnavox stereo console with a 30-watt tube amp.
A pioneer Pioneer SA-9500II
Some Advent-3 speakers (they handled folk really well,but not bass-driven music).

One thing I will never be convinced of is Vinyl. I love vinyl. Have over 1200 records. Listen to 30 to 40 records a week. But with few exceptions, the music almost always sounds better on CD. Maybe in theory, the vinyl is better.

But in actuality.... a properly mastered CD is better.

I have 1970 Fender Princeton Reverb tube amp that I inherited from my Great-Grandfather. Sounds awesome for guitar. I love the way old tube equipment sounds over solid state. It just has so much character.

I used to be pretty deep into the audiophile bullshit. Had a couple thousand of dollars into it. Until one day I realized that yeah this shit was nice but I it's not why I loved music. I could enjoy music out of a phone speaker. So I downgraded all my stuff and now I run probably a $500 setup and have no regrets. In reality it's actually not that huge of a jump from a mid grade setup to a high grade. By then you reach the point of diminishing returns. Your biggest jump is going to be low to mid grade.

 

[mr_b]

As with everyone else. 4k is a hard buy. On one hand, the display tech isn't there to warrant the asking price and on the other that's all you can buy in stores. What's the point of putting money in a tv if its not at least 4k at this point.

TV buying protip for BestBuy - Buy the weekend before black Friday and schedule your delivery for the Saturday after. Walk into store near close Black Friday and return tv. They will not want to take the hit on their magnolia sales for Black Friday. They asked me what price I would pay to keep it. They knocked another $600 off the tv. I ended up getting $1,000 off the tv from the window price.

 

[smokehouse]

I used to think that audiophiles were mostly self-fulfilling fools.

But I've bought up some older High Fi(-ish) equipment and man does it sound good. Better than I ever expected.

A 1956 Magnavox stereo console with a 30-watt tube amp.
A pioneer Pioneer SA-9500II
Some Advent-3 speakers (they handled folk really well,but not bass-driven music).

One thing I will never be convinced of is Vinyl. I love vinyl. Have over 1200 records. Listen to 30 to 40 records a week. But with few exceptions, the music almost always sounds better on CD. Maybe in theory, the vinyl is better.

But in actuality.... a properly mastered CD is better.

It only took me hearing a high end system once to believe that it was real. I heard some unglodly expensive turntable/pre amp coupled to two Wilson Audio Alexandria X-2 speakers mated to two Halcro dm58 monoblocks.

It was simply amazing...even my friend who went with me, who had only a fraction of the interest in the stuff that I did, was blown away.

In the end...it was neat...but the price was just at stupid levels (I think the speakers alone are well in excess of $150K/pr). So there's the whole diminishing returns issue...

As with everyone else. 4k is a hard buy. On one hand, the display tech isn't there to warrant the asking price and on the other that's all you can buy in stores. What's the point of putting money in a tv if its not at least 4k at this point.

It seems to me that the industry is clearly moving away from 1080 panels. This is the primary reason why I bought what I did. Every other 1080 only panel I looked at wasn't as nice as the one I got and again, we're talking about well under $1K here...

 

[HDRchampion]

TVs are really cheap now. I remember my Sony 60" was $4,500...Still works great, all i have to do is replace the bulb & its brand new again.

Have you guys experience 4k Projectors?

 

[smokehouse]

TVs are really cheap now. I remember my Sony 60" was $4,500...Still works great, all i have to do is replace the bulb & its brand new again.

Have you guys experience 4k Projectors?

They are cheap. Like I said earlier...

27" SD CRT RCA (1997) $350
32" SD CRT Proscan (2000) $800
51" Hitachi HD CRT RP (2002) $2500-3000 (can't quite remember)
32" Sony SD CRT (2004) $1000
42" LG LCD 1080 (2008) $1500-1600
49' LG LED 4K (2015) $900

Save that Proscan and RCA...this is the cheapest TV I've ever owned...and by a long shot, the most advanced.

 

[bradtemple87]

Just be careful with Vizio. Their tvs are very popular, but I have had a lot of problems with their new 2015 models brand new out of the box. Five of their new tvs I opened have solid green lines at the bottom of the screen and I had to send them out for service.

I can post pictures in a couple days when I go back to the store if no one believes me.