WHAT TV thread

So the wife and I are shopping for a TV right now to replace our old 50" Pioneer plasma and I didn't see a 'what tv for me' thread on here.
Basically we like to shop outside of our budget because we like the best of everything but well, money. We're kind of stuck in information overload right now and can't figure out what to get. Right now our thought process is something to just get us by for the next couple years until we can afford a 73" 4K OLED jobber. What specs should we pay most attention to? I really liked my uncle's Sharp Aquos because I felt the RGBY setup really helped the picture clarity but also it had a much higher refresh rate than we were used to at 240hz. We're thinking sub-50", sub-$500 - what's the best that we can get? OLED? LED? LCD? RBGY? 240hz or 120hz? We even found a 180hz. Any contrast ratio range we need to be targeting? Any brands to stay away from?

What's wrong with your current tv? Did it blow up or something?

I'm still waiting for my old Montgomery Ward TV to die.

I have a 4 year old 55" LG LCD tv. It was $600 ish dollars then and probably cheaper now. The main issue is source input, but the tv seems as good as I can reasonably expect. I'd recommend similar with a separate sound bar. The new flat screens don't seem to have the speakers that the old boxes had.

iceracer wrote: I'm still waiting for my old Montgomery Ward TV to die.

I was perfectly happy with my turn-of-the-millenium Sharp 32" CRT, but my wife successfully shamed me into giving it away, even though it still worked perfectly, and buying an LCD set.

I have a 10 year old Hitachi plasma and a 3 year old samsung whatever was cheap at Sears. Other than screen real estate, I'm good. Partial to samsung in general.

I have a couple Vizios that I am happy with. One must be about 8 years old now, but still does what I need it to do. I did notice that the brand new Vizios that recently came out are not TV in that they don't have a tuner in them. They discretly refer to them as home theater displays. I guess they don't want any more of my business because we only have over the air tv or streaming.

50 inch 4k TV's with Rokus built in are approaching the 600 dollar mark.

OLED is objectively the best (Super pricey for large screens) followed by Quantum Dot LED backit TVs.

Curved screens are a gimmick.

I'd avoid Smart TV's, even those with a Roku built in, the software isn't supported for very long and when it stops getting updates you'll be stuck.

I'd get a standalone device or two and you can keep the devices up to date as they age out.

If the price difference between a "dumb" and a "smart" TV is negligeable, then it's a wash.

Anyway, the number of HDMI inputs is important to consider. Count up the number of devices you'll use or expect to use and keep that in mind as you shop.

Compatibility with existing devices is also handy to cut down on the number of remotes you might need to use the system.

As to which tech to go with, 4k is handy for sports and newer Bluray or HD video content, higher refresh rates also help. When shopping, try to bring your own content to test the display, often a thumb drive with some videos on it can be work as many have a USB port and a built in player, or a laptop/phone with an HDMI port. Often the displays in the store can have poor connections and badly sourced content, so bringing your own can help make a determinination based on what you actually watch.

I am a fan of Sony. I have two at the moment and the biggest problem has been hdmi inputs. The one I get at Costco has 6 inputs while the one I got at Walmart that was identical in every way only has two. But it was almost $200 cheaper. However I got one of these and it solved the problem.

https://m.newegg.com/products/9SIA2CE5517887?nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-Mobile&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-Mobile--pla--Cables+-+HDMI+Cables-_-9SIA2CE5517887&gclid=COKf1O7lzNMCFRJXDQodjwMKIw&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thanks for the input everybody! Great stuff so far. As far as the old plasma well, it's gone. We have a 32" right now but our son pretty much uses that exclusively so we're looking for something for the main room.
We are really not too worried about whether it is a smart tv as we have a Blu-Ray player that already has all the connectivity built in that we need. If we find we need more we generally just plug in a laptop and handle it that way. Also not worried about number of inputs as we generally run everything through our Denon receiver and let it dictate which input shows up when we need it, haha. Mostly I'm wondering what the best bang for the buck is when it comes to downright picture quality in the sub-50" market.
Thanks again for all the input, particularly the bit about the Vizios! Great feedback as I really hadn't even wanted to consider one but now I may take another look at them.

Here's what's objectively good in the 48-50" TV range:

http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-size/48-49-50-inch?uxtv=36ef

For under $500 you're looking at the budget TCL they recommend.

Vizio.

But seriously, anybody shopping for a TV needs to go to this site. This guy does a great job and does the price shopping for you.

RTings

In reply to red_stapler:

Sorry, missed that!

Great! Thanks so much for the info!

Thanks for the advice everybody! We did end up going with a Vizio, the E55-E1. Picture quality is great for the price and moving up to a 120Hz refresh rate really made a difference. I'm not sure I would consider it a 'smart' tv or not as the only way to really stream anything on it is via the Vizio SmartCast app. Good thing we're used to streaming off the Apple TV and our Panasonic Blu-Ray player. Overall we paid about $537 with taxes. It's marginally over the $500 cap I set (but since when does SWMBO listen to me??) but the size is great so I'm happy.
Thanks again!

1988RedT2 wrote:

iceracer wrote: I'm still waiting for my old Montgomery Ward TV to die.

I was perfectly happy with my turn-of-the-millenium Sharp 32" CRT, but my wife successfully shamed me into giving it away, even though it still worked perfectly, and buying an LCD set.

I'm still using my Phillips/Magnovox 32" that I bought in 2000, my wife seems embarrassed by it but we don't watch tv so what's the point in upgrading and we can still use it. New ones sure do have a clearer picture.