Bigger TV (65") Recommendations

Discussion in 'Geek Cave: Computers, Tablets, HT, Phones, Games' started by purr1n, Oct 7, 2019.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Now that I've gotten the small cheap TV out of the way for my son's room, I'm now looking for a bigger TV to replace my trusty old 50" Panny plasma. I really don't want to give it up, but setting up a projector in the backyard every time for movie night has become a pain. Besides, the horn-loaded full ranger, OB, and sub-system, which is ideal for movies, can't exactly be moved outside. Kids have noted that all of their friends have big ass TVs in their living rooms. I'm like the lone holdout / luddite with the "small" plasma. Evidently, big good televisions can be found for cheap now.

    So thus, does anyone have any recommendations considering my one big pet peeve: I require shadow detail. No crushed blacks. I don't expect plasma or OLED, but I want the best that LCD can offer. My budget is $1k give or take for a 65" TV. I might head out to Best Buy and check out what's up with current LCD tech.
     
  2. EagleWings

    EagleWings Friend

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    Look into Samsung’s QLED line and LG’s Nano Cell line.

    P.S: Be sure to check out the remote of the TV model before you buy. Manufacturers are offering some really shitty remotes these days.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2019
  3. Superexchanger

    Superexchanger Friend

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    Helped a friend through a similar situation, though his use-case was different. We converged on a TCL 6 (65 inch). Has dense enough local dimming zones that decent contrast/detail is preserved. Most reviews suggested its as good as you can get for under/around 1K at that size.

    Should mention that I saw it myself. I run a Panasonic VT60 plasma at home, and was pretty impressed with the overall picture (colors, contrast in daylight), though I didn't see any movies at low light with dark scenes.
     
  4. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    In your budget range, Vizio seems to be the most common recommendation with this one looking pretty good: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/vizio-...rt-4k-uhd-tv-with-hdr/6346168.p?skuId=6346168 In general, the P and PQ series looked better to me in store than any of the Samsungs in the same range when looking for myself last year and this year for my parents. LG wasn't really competitive in the price range either. I ended up splurging for an OLED and my parents ended up with a Sony XBR850G which has an IPS panel (were concerned more about viewing angles than black levels). Sony is a good TV, but definitely has the IPS cloudy gray black issues.

    You can get some models to look for from Wirecutter and Rtings recent lists:
    https://www.rtings.com/tv
    https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-tv/
     
  5. drgumbybrain

    drgumbybrain Science Nut

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    I have a smaller model of this LG branch. very good image. I like it

    the 65 have a discount on amazon

    LG 65SM8600PUA Alexa Built-in Nano 8 Series 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED NanoCell TV (2019) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PQ97CRW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_0K4MDbTXEMG45
     
  6. abisai2

    abisai2 Friend

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    I have a Samsung 60" KS8000 as my primary TV and have no desire to replace it even though it doesn't have the latest bells and whistles. It's that good. It's one of the few TV's I've bought that still impresses me with its picture quality.

    With that said, I did replace my bedroom TV recently with a 2018 Vizio P-Series that I am very happy with. Picture wise I would say its on par with my Samsung. For your price range I would give the Vizio P Series a look.

    One thing I do like about the Samsung TV's is the separate input box found on some models. It simplifies cable routing for my use case. With the Vizio all inputs are on the TV itself.

    Another thing to keep in mind are the inputs for whatever you decide on. Some manufacturers limit the input functionality on some ports to keep costs down. This can be a nuisance depending on what you want to connect. I prefer all my inputs to support full functionality.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I detest rtings. Overloaded with a lot of useless measurements - some are good for pointing out gross errors - but most are not very useful beyond that. A knowledgeable person summarizing the salient points is far more effective in telling people what is actually good. I've already stated my one pet-peeve: shadow detail as close as possible to plasma or high-quality projectors. The second would be color accuracy. I'm looking for a color, tone, and shadow detail most similar to a typical theatre screen (I don't need laser projector brightness), projector, plasma. BTW, absolutely no Samsung because every single Samsung I've seen crushes the blacks. At least I'm pretty sure of it. Will visit Best Buy to see how far Samsung has gone in this area with their QLED up to their 90 series, but not holding my breath, even after I tweak the settings.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2019
  8. m17xr2b

    m17xr2b Friend

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    I'm actually been going with a friend to the shops at lunch for a 65inch. I've got an oled for two years LG C6 and a nano cell.

    Sony has the best picture for an LED, it's all in the X1 chip, some don't have it, stay away, X1 Extreme is for their upper models and it makes a difference. Usually expensive. Andoid OS
    Samsung QLED is shit, just marketing, it's an LED. Not impressed with the picture quality, menu is clunky with large remote.
    LG NanoCell is good, the OS and remote are a big plus, won't give you the detail you need in shadows or deep blacks.

    My friend didn't want an OLED, but browsing the shops his eyes can't help but look at that picture. He's getting an OLED now.

    Screen burn-in can be an issue, TV has auto compensation and you can manually do them. Some panels are better than others at this.
    LG supplies most of the OLED panels. Sony picture processing + LG panel is the best agreed picture experience.
    LG OLED is coming down in price, their picture quality has some issues, scenes with certain motion doesn't look great.
    B series in LG is cheap, lacks some features, has different processor. Same panel across the OLED range.
    C series for all rounder, E adds features you don't need.

    If you can find the last gen LG OLED 6 seriesC6,E6(lg oled65e6p), these have 3D as well, an experience in itself. LED 3D is crap. OLED dropped 3D around two years ago for some reason, supposedly to make them brighter for HDR.
    After the 6 series, the 7 and 8 series had minor improvements, HDMI 2.1, 1000$ bump in price.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2019
  9. mkozlows

    mkozlows Friend

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    IME, going to Best Buy is worthless, unless you have one with a Magnolia in it, because the main store is floodlit, and you can't tell anything about dim/dark lighting performance, which is where black levels really matter. (And that's leaving aside the part where they have all the TVs set to absurd 9000K-max-sharpening mode that makes them pop on the floor, but look terrible.)

    If shadow detail is your biggest priority, you really, really want an OLED, because they really are that much better than the alternatives. But yeah, out of your budget: 65" OLED is like $2500 or so now vs. $1500 for a quality LCD display.

    That said, I've got a Samsung KS8000 LCD that I've been using for a few years now. It replaced an old 1080p plasma, and while it doesn't match it in some ways, it exceeds it in others (brightness, resolution, color gamut, no ABL artifacting). In the daytime, it's a better TV, flat out, no question. In dark rooms, you see local dimming artifacts, and the plasma would be better on non-UHD content. (On UHD content, even with the worse blacks, the color gamut and HDR more than makes up for it.) So it's not like it's a total shitshow if you can't do OLED, it's just more tradeoffy tradeoffs.

    And that said, as you go down the model lineups, things get worse fast. My parents have the model right below mine (7500 or 7000 or something, I forget), and it lives down to every stereotype of LCD, with murky gray blacks and sloppy motion. Coming from a plasma, I doubt you'll be happy with a mid-level LCD; get a flagship model (maybe a last year's closeout, or a Black Friday sale?) if at all possible.
     
  10. gridmaster

    gridmaster Facebook Friend

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    If you like OLED, the manufacturers that make them are LG, Sony, Philips and Panasonic. They of course all use LG's OLED panel, rebranded. Thing is tho, each manufacturer does their color calibration differently. For the life of me I can't find the youtube video that went over them all, but if my memory is correct Panasonic specifically color calibrated their TVs to movie studio standards. So you can find the right color science you want in OLED if you go for the manufacturer that does what you want.

    As far as LCD, no idea. went OLED 5 years ago and never looked back, to me there is just no comparison between LCD and OLED, can't really go back myself.
     
  11. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Find a deal on a newer 55" OLED for around $1K and scoot your couches closer. Usually you can find open-box stuff or new last gen stuff.

    Not even joking. That's exactly what I did, because I couldn't afford the 65". In fact, I not only moved my couches closer, I entirely rearranged my living room just because I downsized to a 55" TV. It has absolutely been worth every penny rather than mucking around in LED territory, even if I could have gotten a larger and good LED for under $1K.

    I want to say that if you go open box, refurb, or last gen, you can nab a 65" OLED for $1500-1700 these days. Worth waiting till you can afford that, or sell some lesser used audio gear.

    OLED is worth it to the point that I just don't even recommend LED to folks these days whatsoever unless they are on an extreme budget.
     
  12. jnak00

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    You can probably find last year's Sony XBR 65X900F for a little more than $1,000. It's got the X1 chip m17xr2b talked about. I bought the 55" model last year and really like it. Great black levels. There is a bit of blooming on certain scenes but nothing too terrible. There were some firmware hiccups early on, but these have been resolved. I think it runs Android Oreo now, which is a version or two up from when I bought it.
     
  13. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    Samsung is not and will not be competitive til their microLED technology hits the market. At every price point there is a better TV. The Vizios impressed with everything but banding and viewing angles. The better models with full array leds should handle shadows well. I hated the grayish blacks of my parents' Sony 850G, but it handled shadows and colors well within the context. The 950G (and more relevantly older 900F) is a VA panel with X1 processor and will be better (was the runner up choice to my OLED - poor viewing angle of VA panels was the tipping point for me to spend the extra 50%). I will echo what many others have said: if shadow detail is important to you, nothing comes close to OLED. I got my C8 for $1900 last year and have already seen the C9 drop as low as $1700 this year. With Black Friday/Cyber Monday coming, you may be able to get an older model (the C level is the sweet spot), for close enough to your budget that it would be worth the splurge.
     
  14. mkozlows

    mkozlows Friend

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    The thing about Vizio is that their quality control isn't super-great. If you hang out on AVSForum, you'll find that... well, you'll find that every TV is a compromised monstrosity where you'll be lucky if the one you get works at all, and where its major failings will make the thing barely usable. But once you normalize for how forums work, you'll find that Vizio threads tend to have more than their share of people complaining about weird behavioral quirks or image artifacts.

    Maybe someone can explain Six Sigma to Vizio.
     
  15. Claud

    Claud Living the ORFAS dream

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    I left plasma for OLED three years ago. Bought a C series 65" for my city home. OLED is so much better than most LED TVs and even do blacks better than anyone. The best part is that you do not suffer if you are off center watching. I had a 58" Panny plasma, but my LG OLEDs have so much better contrast that the picture almost leaps off the screen. I bought a mid range LG 55" Oled for my beach cottage where again I upgraded from a 50" Panny plasma. My beach cottage is small and I sit about 4 feet closer there.
    If you can't afford an OLED, then buy a larger screen Sony LED. Their picture processing is great.
     
  16. Thenewerguy009

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    Increase your budget to $1500 & buy from one of those numerous New Jersey located warehouses that sell LG OLEDs for cheap.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=lg+...ved=0ahUKEwihupzXj4vlAhU6HjQIHd8LCxwQ_AUIESgB

    They even sell through eBay sometimes so you get an added protection.

    The only downside is they take a long time to ship, sometimes over a month & you need to call them to confirm your order & they will try to up sell you their own worthless warranty or expensive expedited shipping options.

    Totally worth the hassle for a cheaper 65" OLED.
     
  17. mkozlows

    mkozlows Friend

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    Counterpoint: Buying from scammers is not worth it.
     
  18. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    the new oled from LG is the bargain right now as i think its around 1500$. but then, how reliable is LG, this I dont know.

    truly incredible image however, beats my xbr900e sony.
     
  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Took a trip down to the local Best Buy / Magnolia. Found out the Sony 900/950 is what I want. The 800 sucks. The 900F is a big step up, and doing a side by side, the 950 is better but not much better.

    No, not a plasma, but what Sony is doing here with LCD/LED is surprising. Colors looked great, accurate out of the box in movie mode. Only the darkest blacks were crushed, which is totally acceptable. I think a couple of colorists I knew mentioned the Sony LED models short of OLED.

    The problem is that the 65" is a bit more than I want to spend. It's $1400, maybe a bit less for open box models. I really want to be budget disciplined as one kid is already in high school, and OLED will no doubt get cheaper when 8K or 16K sets come out.

    The Visio P-series looked pretty decent too, but wasn't quite there is terms of shadow detail. QLED up to Q90 was bright and vibrant, but it really sucked by crushing the blacks. Deep jet blacks for sure. But no shadow detail regardless of tweaking.

    Not going 55" because I would just keep the 50" plasma. The point is to have an appropriately big screen with the Oris horns beside them.

    I'm gonna to hit the TCL 6 later tonight. It would be below budget. I don't quite believe the claims, but I need to see it for myself. Need to ask the salesguys to haul the thing to the right room. The Best Buy / Magnolia guys aggressively steered me to higher-end Samsung. When I bitched, they then l lead me to Sony. Will report back later tonight.
     
  20. Mithrandir41

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    The local dimming and Dolby vision support on the TCL are really impressive for the price. I don't think there's a better "budget" TV in that price range. I think they look better than lower level Sony, Samsung or LGs.
     

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