Time For A New TV

[JPS35]

Time to upgrade from a Sony KDL-52XBR4 bought in 2007. Top of the line and very EXPENSIVE at the time. Now, I am a cheapskate looking for a 65" for streaming, tv, and movies. Budgeting less than $500. Considering a Samsung TU690T, Hisense U6K, or ????? Rtings shows both are good budget tvs. Thoughts?

 

[Tech Junky]

Hisense

I've played with a few of their projectors now and they're decent. Currently using their px2. I would think their standard TV options should be decent as well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a Hisense energy-star mini fridge.

 

[JPS35]

Thank you, gentlemen. Other thoughts or recommendations?

 

[Tech Junky]

Other thoughts or recommendations?

It's all personal preference as my eyes aren't your eyes. Best idea would be find a store with a large selection and see if you can tell the difference. There should be some niche AV stores around you that have more options you find in the typical box store.

You can even find a pretty good stock at WM these days. Or go my route and get a PJ and adjust size as needed if you have enough shade in the room you're using it in. Just add a streamer stick to it unless you find one with it built in. The nice ting about the PJ option is the screen size adjustment just by moving them closer / farther away from the wall. I can do a typical size with just inches away or I can pull it back further and fill the whole wall to the ceiling. I didn't bother with a "screen" and just point it at the wall but, there might be some better daytime performance with a screen that deflects ambient light.

 

[mindless1]

Samsung over Hisense EVERY TIME it fits in the budget. Hisense uses lower build quality and buggy firmware that they don't fix especially if it's android OS on their budget lines of TVs. At the same time, while Samsung Tizen OS is very popular due to how popular Samsung TVs are, it does not have the universal app support that Android OS TVs have, so if you want an Android TV, pick a major brand, not Hisense.

I'd sooner just get the Samsung if these are the choices then if you need full android support, get an android HDMI dongle to run those if the day comes that you find apps you need that won't run on Tizen. Most people won't care but the Samsungs also come with Samsung TV Plus feature which is hundreds of B-list channels that stream for free, and is integrated reasonably well with the remote so not as much wading through menus to use. On the other hand, their budget TVs have pretty pedestrian remotes if you are picky about that.

Samsung TV Plus – Stream Live TV for Free | Samsung US

Everything you love about TV at zero cost. Stream 400+ live TV channels, 1000s of movies, and shows on demand. No credit cards, contracts, or cables.

www.samsung.com

 

[JPS35]

It's all personal preference as my eyes aren't your eyes. Best idea would be find a store with a large selection and see if you can tell the difference. There should be some niche AV stores around you that have more options you find in the typical box store.

You can even find a pretty good stock at WM these days. Or go my route and get a PJ and adjust size as needed if you have enough shade in the room you're using it in. Just add a streamer stick to it unless you find one with it built in. The nice ting about the PJ option is the screen size adjustment just by moving them closer / farther away from the wall. I can do a typical size with just inches away or I can pull it back further and fill the whole wall to the ceiling. I didn't bother with a "screen" and just point it at the wall but, there might be some better daytime performance with a screen that deflects ambient light.

We did this yesterday with a local tv only store. Impressed with both Samsung and LG. QLED, QNED, OLED, Edgelit, Backlit, LED, mini-LED has come a LONG way over 17 years. OLED is great, but more expensive. Thinking more about the others and backlighting.

 

[JPS35]

Samsung over Hisense EVERY TIME it fits in the budget. Hisense uses lower build quality and buggy firmware that they don't fix especially if it's android OS on their budget lines of TVs. At the same time, while Samsung Tizen OS is very popular due to how popular Samsung TVs are, it does not have the universal app support that Android OS TVs have, so if you want an Android TV, pick a major brand, not Hisense.

I'd sooner just get the Samsung if these are the choices then if you need full android support, get an android HDMI dongle to run those if the day comes that you find apps you need that won't run on Tizen. Most people won't care but the Samsungs also come with Samsung TV Plus feature which is hundreds of B-list channels that stream for free, and is integrated reasonably well with the remote so not as much wading through menus to use. On the other hand, their budget TVs have pretty pedestrian remotes if you are picky about that.

Samsung TV Plus – Stream Live TV for Free | Samsung US

Everything you love about TV at zero cost. Stream 400+ live TV channels, 1000s of movies, and shows on demand. No credit cards, contracts, or cables.

www.samsung.com

Good suggestions. We have a Roku stick we use. Even as old as our Sony is, it still came with some built in streaming services. Obviously the Roku provides more. Now that TVs do it, Roku may be obsolete, but we have it if needed.

 

[Tech Junky]

mini-LED

Might be overkill for brightness but, I've been trying to source a panel for a laptop using this because well it would work better in sunlight. They tend to be 3x brighter than a traditional laptop screen but not as much compared to a TV. However with more dimming zones could be a great option.

 

[balloonshark]

<---- Not an expert.

I think I would get a TCL over those brands. If you get the hisense I think they recommend not connecting the tv to the internet as the heat kills the smart tv. Use a streaming device instead and do any firmware updates with a usb stick if it's possible.

This past winter I picked up a Sony X90L. I went with it because of the good upscaling. It was around $1000 but I took out an amazon credit card which came with a $200 credit that I applied when I purchased the tv. I was also looking at comparably priced TCL and Hisense tvs but reddit seemed to recommend the X90L so I splurged and went with the Sony.

 

[mindless1]

^ The Hisense I put up with and resurrected from a self-bricked state, after the first few months of lockups, I had it disconnected from the internet and every *smart* thing available in the menu, disabled. That didn't leave it capable of just being a dumb display panel, still locked up and eventually wouldn't boot at all. A bug caused it to eat up nv memory and once full, can't boot. Did a forced reset that happens with a firmware update to clear the nv memory to get it working, but same firmware it already had because there isn't a newer version. Plus they have terrible customer support, even the useless canned reply emails weren't in good english.

 

[esquared]

I don't know about TCL anymore. I liked the fact that Roku was built in. My 32" TCL in the bedroom has lasted 6-7 years with no issues
When my living room set, Samsung 40" 650, bit the dust after 12-13 years I replaced it with a 43"TCL 4k in 2022, which lasted 14 months.

I replaced that TCL with a 50" Visio and it's been doing fine but I miss the speed of the Roku. Vizio has many built in streaming apps but it's really slow compared to the Roku.

My Samsung was the best of all the flat screens I've had.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I don't know about TCL anymore.

I know offtopic but I have a TCL phone. It's decent for the price I paid.

I replaced it with a 43"TCL 4k in 2022, which lasted 14 months.

Funny thing, my 43 inch LG lasted exactly 12 months and a week or something, outside the warranty period. I think quite a few corners are cut in these 43 inchers. My issue was a failed mobo which they wanted more than half the price of the TV to replace so gave it to some guy I knew. Maybe he got it fixed on the cheap? Didn't hear about it afterwards.

My Samsung was the best of all the flat screens I've had.

I just got a 360Hz Samsung 27 inch monitor. Feelings are mixed. While I love the deeper colors of the OLED, the brightness is definitely lower than the previous Gawfolk VA panel monitor I was using. "Infinite" contrast with lower brightness kinda making it seem like a downgrade, despite costing almost 8 times as much. I guess it would pay off in HDR and high fps smoothness?

I prefer the colors on LG TVs. For sharp image and absolutely lovely motion, there is no beating Sony.