Help Me Buy A TV

[Droewyn]

I think our current TV is a 47"? It's definitely a dumb TV; we bought it in 2010 with wedding money. I'd like something a bit bigger (I was thinking 60" but apparently that's not a popular size? So 55" or 65"), 4k obviously, but beyond that all the descriptions are just so many acronyms and buzzwords to me.

So I googled "Best Value TV 2020" and read a bunch of lists, and here are the two I'm leaning toward.

Sony XBR-65X900H

LG OLED65CXPUA

(also looking at the 55" versions of both models)

Anyone have any suggestions? Is anyone else idiot-box shopping?

 

[Kishi]

RTINGS seems to be a good resource for detailed, impartial reviews. They also have a calculator for finding the ideal screen size based on how far you'll be sitting from it.

I'm not actively shopping for one right now, but I, too, have my eye on LG's CX. Have heard nothing but glowing things.

 

[jpfriction]

Of the ones I’ve owned, I like Samsung’s smart TV stuff the best. Loads super quickly and nicely organized at the bottom of the screen so you don’t need to go into a separate menu. Sony’s was pretty bad in my last Bravia but that was forever ago.

 

[Droewyn]

Oh, I like that screen calculator. The plan is to ceiling-mount it above the fireplace (on an arm so we can move it when fire happens) so I also want to measure the brick to make sure that the TV will fit without overhanging it and looking silly.

 

[Lady]

We used a pull-down mount on the wall above the fireplace (This one, I think). It's nerve-wrecking to pull down on such a heavy tv, but there's been no incidents yet. It's nice because it's neutral weighted so you can stop anywhere along the range of motion.

 

[Peklo]

I did this, and figured I might as well commit to a big purchase since it would be a significant one kind of no matter what, so: LG's 55" CX coming later this week. I'm coming off of a 42" late-2000s hand-me-down LCD screen, so I can't really imagine the difference.

 

[Peklo]

This TV is... good. The biggest difference from initial testing is the severely reduced input lag--fighting games, rhythm games and shmups all feel amazingly improved to play. Maybe with time and after fiddling with the settings I'll notice all the granular picture quality things but that alone is huge for my general use.

 

[John]

I've got the 2018 version of the LG C-series, and it's great. There's a couple features in the C9 and CX that I wish I had like Variable Refresh Rate and HDMI 2.1, so you've got as much of a future proofed set as you can get.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I'm pretty terrified of OLED screens because of their propensity for screen burn-in. It's probably not as big of a risk for some of y'all, but the kinds of games I play tend to have a lot of static images up on the screen for a while. I also used my TV as a computer monitor, so I'd very much like to not have the windows task bar ghosting my movies. They sure do look great though.

I just bought a really cheap 65" TCL for my folks for xmas. I'm mildly concerned about things like sound quality, or if it can pump out enough lumens to fight off screen glare, but at the price it came in, that'll just have to be compromises my folks can deal with until they feel like buying their own replacement for their early/mid-2000s flat screen.

 

[Peklo]

I decided not to worry about it too much because getting an expensive piece of tech just to stress out about using it seemed like a foolish thing to do. Even compared to a few years ago the current models are supposed to be much more resistant to burn-in, and there are settings to enable to safeguard against it further, like a non-perceptible constant pixel shifter, or a manual pixel refresher (which the TV runs on its own in standby every so often anyway). I don't play any game for hundreds upon hundreds of hours either, cumulatively or no. Heck, if I want to compare to another display like this, there's my Vita with its OLED screen--no sign of burn-in or other anomalies that would've developed in the seven to eight years I've had it.