New TV recommendations

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Bill 4K plasma was made.
https://newatlas.com/panasonic-hd-3d/13842/

Note: I said "in an affordable manner." You linked a $70,000 TV that wouldn't fit in most rooms. I was referring to the sweet spot in consumer sizes between 55"-75". Plasma pixels didn't scale down small enough to get 4K in those sizes.
Plasma was great for the time, but I really don't miss it. OLED today is better in almost every respect. It gets brighter, gets blacker, does colors every bit as well, and can be made in just about any size from a smart phone to a monster 100"+ size. It has also become more affordable than plasma was.
Also, I don't believe that designing TVs that used less power has made them any less reliable. It has more to do with the overall 'cheapening' of the TVs through the last 10 years due to intense competition from Chinese brands like Hisense and TCL. The push for ultra-slim designs has also made TVs less reliable. When you pack circuits into smaller spaces, we know what happens. They get hotter, and there is less tolerance for faults. The compact designs have pushed the boards to almost complete surface mounted designs which also tend to fail more easily. Luckily, we are paying significantly less for TVs now and if it needs to be replaced every 5-7 years, then so be it. I paid $1500 for a 42" Panasonic Plasma in early 2007. In 2022, I bought a 50" Hisense for the bedroom that cost me less than $350. For the most part, the Hisense looks better than the Panasonic did and it doesn't heat the room up either.

Calibration is key. A properly calibrated $400 Hisense will destroy an un-calibrated TOTL Sony OLED in watchabilty and picture quality.

I’ve run Samsung and Vizio for years (decades) with zero issues. The only time I’ve gotten rid of one was when there was literally no room for it. For example, went with a new Samsung 75” in the HT, moved that 65” Vizio to the family room, moved that 60” Vizio to the 2ch area, and moved tha t50” Samsung to a needy neighbor.

As for OLED, QLED, or mini-LED, I really don’t see the value vs investment. Maybe when 8k goes mainstream, but as of now, not so much.

treitz3 wrote: »

Samsungs. They usually crap out on us every 7 or so years. I'll look at Sony's next.

Tom

LOL!! Again, this house will have to disagree, we have lived in this house for 25 years now, and just like you with SONY, we have only moved our TV’s around the house, never had a TV die on us, and as I said, the only TV we had an issue with, just happened to be a SONY, nothing big, we still use it, and honestly, I doubt it would keep me from buying another SONY.

All I am saying is, Samsung has treated us well, and they have a fantastic picture..

Edit: Sorry Tom, I shouldn’t have read this on my phone, you know, old eyes and all, and not wearing my glasses, I totally read what you posted wrong, LOL!!! But my statement does reflect my experience with Samsung.. 🤪

HzTweaker wrote: »

daddyjt wrote: »

Calibration is key. A properly calibrated $400 Hisense will destroy an un-calibrated TOTL Sony OLED in watchabilty and picture quality.

How do you calibrate your TV?

Training, lots of training.

HzTweaker wrote: »

daddyjt wrote: »

Calibration is key. A properly calibrated $400 Hisense will destroy an un-calibrated TOTL Sony OLED in watchabilty and picture quality.

How do you calibrate your TV?

You tweak the Hz.

A disc is nice to have. Keep in mind that calibrating with a DVD will only adjust the Rec.601 color space. A Blu-ray or a USB loaded with HD files would be needed for the Rec.709 color space. UHD is BT.2020 color space, then there are others for Dolby Vision (DV) and HDR10 spaces. It can get frustrating because modern TVs will change the settings each time a different signal is received. Took me awhile to figure out why some things were blinding me when I finally got a UHD TV. It was the DV settings, which you can't access until it receives a DV signal.

For Rec.709, AVSforum created set of free calibration files. I had them burned to a disc at one point, but I don't know what happened to it. I still have a Spears and Munsil DVD from 25 years ago, but I only use the color filters that came with it.
It might take some time to find the download, but here is the AVS thread for the 709 files.

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/avs-hd-709-blu-ray-mp4-calibration.948496/?nested_view=1&sortby=oldest#replies

Thank you for the info All.

OLED is great, but they are not as bright as the comparable LCD (LED Backlit). If you want dark room movie viewing, it is very hard to beat OLED. At the lower price spectrum, I would suggest looking at the LG OLEDs. They typically offer better value and no loss of image quality. You didn't mention what size you are looking for. At 55", you should easily find one under $1k. At 65", that might need to be a BF sale.

Vizio is a good bang for the buck. The remotes typically suck as they are so small and thin. That being said I've not seen the Vizio remotes for several years. I noticed at Sam's club that the big 85" Quantum series was marked down to $800, the 75" Quantum Pro was down to $800. I'm a Sony man myself but the Vizio Quantum Pro series has always drawn me in.

kevhed72 wrote: »

Anyone sporting an OLED panel right now??

I've had several. Loved them all. All long as your room isn't really bright, OLED rules.

The new Panasonic has my attention. Z95B, or the Z95A if a deal can be found.

Enjoy your search!

In the last couple years OLED sets have gotten better with brightness and LED sets have gotten better with picture quality. I'd still pick an LED set for a bright room where a set would be used throughout the day and an OLED set for picture quality in a room where light can be controlled. I have LED and OLED sets in different environments. Picture quality on my OLED set is still considerably better than on my LED sets. OLED sets tend to be a bit more expensive to buy but cheaper to run compared to mini-LED sets and lighter in weight because OLED is self-illuminating.

Panasonic has a 77 inch OLED set now. The 55, 65, and 77 sizes were announced in January. They get good reviews except for the Fire TV operating system built in.

Emlyn wrote: »

Panasonic has a 77 inch OLED set now. The 55, 65, and 77 sizes were announced in January. They get good reviews except for the Fire TV operating system built in.

I did find that after I posted, it was too late to edit. It appears that it may be discontinued as it is listed at 1/2 price now on the Panasonic page. Looking for the OLED after Eric (Conradicles) posted most everything was the 55" and 65" models. I was disappointed when Panasonic left the US market. Over the years they had great stuff and IIRC most of the plasma staff at the time came from Pioneer Kuro side, win/win for us back then.

billbillw wrote: »

Overall, looking at current pricing, I think it will be hard to find a 65” OLED in any brand for under $1K given inflation and tariffs over the last couple years. Maybe if you can find a closeout model. I haven't been following sales though. I guess what I'm saying is you might not have many OLED choices if your purchase is price/size driven. There will be plenty of LED/QLED/mini LED choices though.

Kev, I guess I stand corrected. Samsung has the S84F for under $1000 in 65" at BestBuy, which I suspect is the main one you are looking at. I can't find any detailed/measured reviews of that model. It is not the same as the S85F, which uses a QD-OLED panel and is quite a bit more expensive. That said, I've been happy with the old school OLED panel on my 4-year old Sony. I'm the Samsung would look nice once you put it into the Film mode and turn off all the garbage AI enhancements. I bet Samsung is using older panels to use up surplus on that model.

One thing I forgot to mention previously, is that Samsung does not use Dolby Vision. They have HDR10+ which is their proprietary method for dynamic tone mapping. Most video geeks prefer DV, but overall, that shouldn't be a huge hurdle. Just make sure your streaming box can support HDR10+ (unless you plan to use the Tizen interface).