TV smoke

kaiser715

kaiser715

Doing hard time
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Location
7, Pocket, NC
I let the magic smoke out of our TV last night. It's been 17 years since I bought one.

Where to buy, what's good and bad nowadays, etc?

Looking 45-50 inch. Doesn't need to be too smart...we just use an antenna.

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Samsung has my vote. Haven't bought in a few years so I'm not up on the tech w/ these nowadays

EDIT: We have 3 in our house and the "youngest" we've had for probably 2-3 years and the "oldest" is a 51" plasma I bought back in 2011.
 
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I like Samsung, seem to give me the performance/life I'm looking for. The LG's I've had the panels would die after about 18 months. But I also know folks that'll buy the cheap Hinese Walmart tvs and just toss them if/when they die because they're so cheap. Even what I'd consider a 'good' 45-50" tv, shouldn't run you more than $500ish.
 
Another vote for Samsung. We got our 40" LCD in 2008. It ran from the police for a few hours back in 2010, and returned by CMPD later that same day. Still has white scuffs on it from the car it hitched a ride in. Still works great.

Recently replaced it with the 50", $300 version from Breast Buy, and it's been good so far. Interface and remote in the new TV are much better, plus it has SamsungTV which has some decent free channels.
 
We have two Samsung TVs. One is brand new this year and the other one is about 4 years old. Zero complaints. Another mention for the preloaded Samsung TV. Free movies and TV. Never really used it but it turns on automatically when you first turn on the TV.


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NickMaul said:
We have two Samsung TVs. One is brand new this year and the other one is about 4 years old. Zero complaints. Another mention for the preloaded Samsung TV. Free movies and TV. Never really used it but it turns on automatically when you first turn on the TV.


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Check out 1383. It always has desert racing or gearhead stuff on there.
 
We bought a 55" TCL Roku TV from Costco for $350. It's a year old and has been fine. I probably couldn't tell what the difference is between this one and a $700+ tv is
 
Our oldest TV is a 10 year old Sony Bravia LED that we only "replaced" five or so years back because we thought the HDMI inputs stopped working. Put it in the bedroom and the HDMI's work and its still going strong. We replaced it with an LG 55" LED that we really like too. Just your standard bottom tier big box store TV. The picture quality is great for a basic TV. We've been watching mostly 90's crime/law dramas lately so it doesnt really matter if we have 4k HDR anyway. Like @UTfball68 mentioned...I think the led backlights in it are going out as it started flickering on and off last week, but have been fine since. I'd still buy another one.
 
TCL is the king of the cheap TVs these days.

Actually I have an old Westinghouse that was the scoring monitor for the ECORS days...y'all that were there know how dusty that thing got.
It now my son's college TV...and by that I mean his Xbox display. Bought that thing in harlan Walmart for I think $179 and its still doing its thing
 
TCL actually makes the TVs that are rebranded as more expensive units. My next TV will be a TCL. That said, I have one Samsung and one LG that have both survived multiple moves and still work great.
 
If you care about picture quality, Sony or LG. LG is harder to tune, though.

I have a TCL in the laundry room. It was cheap as shit, color on it is terrible and not really adjustable. There's a Vizio at the beach house that's the same way - greens are hot. Samsungs are good enough for most people, but I don't like the way most of them look.

Unless you're limited on space, go for 65" as a minimum size.
 
shawn said:
If you care about picture quality, Sony or LG. LG is harder to tune, though.

I have a TCL in the laundry room. It was cheap as shit, color on it is terrible and not really adjustable. There's a Vizio at the beach house that's the same way - greens are hot. Samsungs are good enough for most people, but I don't like the way most of them look.

Unless you're limited on space, go for 65" as a minimum size.
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Personally I like the look of Samsung over Sony. My parents have had 2 Sony's, and both have had sound consistency issues amongst different inputs. Certain devices need a volume of 50 plus just to hear them, and others wil burst your eardrums at 30.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Personally I like the look of Samsung over Sony. My parents have had 2 Sony's, and both have had sound consistency issues amongst different inputs. Certain devices need a volume of 50 plus just to hear them, and others wil burst your eardrums at 30.
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Not sure I've ever used the built-in speakers on mine.

Audio settings are tunable for each input, though. Action menu, sound settings, advanced.

I'd probably turn off the dynamic audio, too.
 
shawn said:
If you care about picture quality, Sony or LG. LG is harder to tune, though.

I have a TCL in the laundry room. It was cheap as shit, color on it is terrible and not really adjustable. There's a Vizio at the beach house that's the same way - greens are hot. Samsungs are good enough for most people, but I don't like the way most of them look.

Unless you're limited on space, go for 65" as a minimum size.
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Humble brag....beach house smh
 
braxton357 said:
A 50" is like $160 at Wal Mart these days. They are almost to the point of disposable.
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No kiddin.Black Friday they were haulin out 2-3 at a time.I saw one buggy that had 5 in it.
 
Thanks for all the advice!

Went and got one today. Ended up with a Samsung 50" Series 7. Amazing what all TVs do now. Bought last one in 2002.

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kaiser715 said:
Thanks for all the advice!

Went and got one today. Ended up with a Samsung 50" Series 7. Amazing what all TVs do now. Bought last one in 2002.

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That's exactly what I have, same size and everything. I also just downloaded an app today called "Remote for Samsung TV" which allows me to control the TV from my phone so long as it's in the same wifi network. Works really well, and can actually turn the TV on unlike many of the other apps.
 
braxton357 said:
A 50" is like $160 at Wal Mart these days. They are almost to the point of disposable.
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I work with a guy that had a tv repair shop for years, and his father ran it before that. I asked about which tv to buy and he told me to pick the cheapest tv that had the picture I liked in the size I wanted, and plan on replacing it every 5 years.
 
The newer TCL's are actually decent TV's. I wouldn't buy one at Wally World (unless it's for a garage, etc.) as they are selling the models that are 2-3 years old. I wouldn't buy anything less than a series 6 model.

In April, I bought a 65" TCL Series 6 Roku set from Best Buy and it's been really nice. Great picture and color saturation. OK, it's not 4K but I can't see the difference anyways. I really like the ease in adding streaming sources.
 
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