Thinking about updating my old dumb TV and finding myself on a troubled spot.

My country has insane import barriers that make most goods unaffordable and rare. Also, living at the bottom of a pit, we get neutered versions of electronic products when they’re not simply old models discontinued elsewhere.

Been looking at TVs sized between 65 and 75 inches and none are under 1k but the models don’t match what your market offers. It’s obvious these are older models.

So i think one way to start is to discard a fee brands. Those available locally are LG, Sony, Samsung, TCL.

My current TV is a Samsung and never had an issue. It’s over 10 years old.

0-0

No complaints with our 3 Samsung & multiple TCL at work.

I have a LG and a Samsung. I like the LG better, but it's not really apples to apples. The Samsung was a lower cost TV for bedroom and is only 60 Hz, and the LG was bought for living room since it was 120 Hz and excelled at live sports. I bought the matching soundbars too and also prefer the LG.

Samsung was kind of the gold standard for quite awhile, and we bought two or three óf them over the years. We were really disappointed in the sound quality of the one we bought for our kitchen/dining area a few years back. We replaced that with a Vizio on my brother’s recommendation; it’s been fine.

Our primary tv is an LG, which we bought on the recommendation of the dales guy at Costco. It’s a great tv. We paired it with a SONOS soundbar and are really happy with it.

My LG has been the best TV unit I've ever owned.

If this is your main TV where most of your watching happens

Samsung if you do mostly video games and animation

Sony if you are watching mostly like action


If it’s just a bedroom TV Or extra TCL really surprised me for their cost. Mom has a couple at her house.

I had never had one. Posts like yours had me reading the forum and several mentioned TCL and I ended up getting a TCL. Been great for 4 yrs now. But only 50" to fit in our TV shelf. Been very happy.

We have 4 Samsung TVs. 2 of them probably 10 years old. We have had ZERO problems with any of them. Samsung is the only television we will buy. (Sony is too $$$)

Been very happy with Samsung over the years. That said if at all possible just ditch/don’t use the “Smart” aspects and instead go with a stand alone ROKU or Apple TV. Much better overall experience. Honestly if your still happy with your current TV just add said ROKU or Apple device.

Chris

I’m thinking is the way to go based on my current experience (2 tv sets that i bought 12+ years ago).

But local prices are insane and are something like $1500, $4k and $10k ranges.
The more affordable models don’t match the current 2023/2024 models reviews.
Spending four grand on a 65 inch 4k TV seems way too much to me.

Intended purpose is main tv/gaming. Our basic cable signal sucks (not unlike watching VCR) but tgat is because we don’t have a Smart TV with Digital TV decoder.

Will look into LG. Niece used to do CS for them, she will know.

0-0

Been Samsung for many years. Going LG OLED next time...in the next 12 mos.

We switched from Samsung to LG a few years back after repeated failures in Samsung products....TV's, fridge, washing machine. Have been very pleased with the LG offerings and plan to stick with them.

I love my TCL Roku TV and will buy the same when it comes time to upgrade.

My Dad bought a Vizio smart TV without consulting me first (I’d have had him get the TCL) and he hates it and even I find it unintuitive and hard to use and I’m very tech-savvy.

TCL gets my vote!

Well, Sony has always been a quality product in my experience for TV’s… they were the go to for old CRT styles as well.

Our current TV is an old 52” flat panel from 2007 that just won’t die. I’d like to upgrade to something more recent, but can’t do it while it still works.

The smart apps are the biggest advancement in TVs over the last 15 years. (OLED is cool, sure, but very expensive relative to the rest of the TV market.)

15 years ago the smart apps built into TVs were absolute garbage and an external device like a FireTV, Roku, or AppleTV were necessary. Not so anymore. Many TVs have native Roku or Fire OS on board now and the apps are all accessible and all work well.

The picture on your TV goes and most people don’t notice but smart apps are the number one reason to get a new panel, imo. I use Samsungs and like the overall layout and connectivity with SmartThings. You can voice search and connect to Echo Devices. I just got a new 75” Samsung for $600 for the basement and it’s really great.

I have a Samsung and a Sony. The Samsung is the older of the two by a couple of years. Everyone and I do mean everyone comments on how good the Sony picture is, the Samsung is okay but no one has ever said it has an exceptional picture. I am pleased with the service of both but if I ever have to buy another it will be a Sony.
If you are planning to stream video from your WIFI versus cable, check which apps the TV natively supports. I have to use a WIFI receiver dongle on the Samsung as it doesn't support the apps that I like to watch. That may have improved since I purchased my set but I just prefer not to have 4 different controllers to watch my shows. The Sony just happened to support my favorites and was able to upload a couple to its' view list while the Samsung was more restricted.

quote:

Those available locally are LG, Sony, Samsung, TCL.

my preference would be in this order:

LG
Samsung
Sony
TCL

Right now I have LG and Samsung, but I found that I still needed a firestick to do everything that I wanted to do. Sony uses Google TV if that bothers you.

they pretty much all spy on you now by sending info about what you watch back to the mother ship.

We recently picked up a 77" Samsung OLED and it has been terrific. Very highly rated, and using as our main TV.

Their QLED models are also well rated and right now much, much less. This is end of season, so for those of us stateside can pick up 2023 models on a bargain. Not sure what that translates to down under.

The native menu on Samsung sucks IMHO, but we are using Firestick for viewing. Before buying this had staid at friends with Samsung while they were away, and I swear the menu made me feel like an idiot. Worse, some apps couldn't even be found to download that we have on Firestick. Goofy.

Have had good luck with Sony as well in smaller setups.

It's a mystery that anyone spends that kind of coin on a TV and wants to rely on the built in speakers. Yes they have improved, but without going to full HT mode, there are tons of soundbars +/- subs out there for pretty cheap that will much improve the experience.

Sony for us. Over the past 8 years I've purchased at least 3, and all have been great. Reliable, a great picture, and interface easily with AppleTV, Denon AVR receivers, etc.

They are Android operating system, if that matters. We are all Apple, and had no issues. We use an AppleTV, and have sometimes had cable tv hooked up. I do not use any "smart" functions on the tv itself, mostly to try to control some privacy.

Samsung in our family room has a great picture and works with just about every app you could put on a Firestick or ROKU box, Yahoo, Netflix, Prime, etc.

LG in the Garage, sorry Man Cave, good picture works well with sports, you can see some delay with high speed things like trains, moving cars etc, but it's a 6 year old model.

We have a ROKU TCL on the patio outside, lower cost but still 4K and you run the TV through the ROKU interface, that works pretty well, it's easy enough and it has a very good picture for a much lower cost.

If you can get a TCL it's not a bad choice, that would be the best bang for the buck