TV advice needed

[Tugela]

My wife wants a new TV. We're not huge TV watchers, but we stream select programs and I enjoy sports. We don't have cable or satellite, our content is from over-the-air broadcast and Apple TV. Occasionally we watch a DVD. Given the space requirements we're looking in the 50" range.

We just returned a Samsung smart TV after trying it out for a while. Neither of us was happy with it for these reasons:

• Interface was slow to respond. You pushed a button on the remote and there was a delay before the TV performed the function. It's 2016, for fuck's sake. My 486 PC was faster than that in 1993. When I push a button on the remote, I want instant response.
• Smart Hub feature was clunky. You turn on the TV and it takes 3-4 minutes for all the features to connect/boot up. I want to be able to push a button and see some dragons and violence in Game of Thrones without sitting there for a few minutes waiting for the TV to orient itself.
• After streaming an episode of any show, the screen would simply go blank. No automatic return to a menu, no splash screen, nothing. No response from any inputs. I had to turn the TV off and then back on. Again, it's 2016 and engineers should have figured this shit out.

I'm not going to get cable or satellite. I don't need a ton of features and functionality. I never use the DVR. I just want a TV that works and plays the limited range of content I want to see with decent picture. I don't need 4K or whatever the latest amazing screen resolution is because I don't spend enough time in front of the TV to care and the signal quality from OTA and my Apple TV isn't high enough to appreciate a high end display.

Every TV I have looked at has way too much crap that I don't want. In Land Rover terms, I need a Series IIa to drive into the village for a liter of milk and the only models on the market are the L405 Range Rover with TFT display, screens in the headrest, heated/cooled steering wheel, automatic deploying side steps, and terrain control.

So what's out there that is simple and just works? What should I look for? Ballpark price range is about $500.

 

[AfiRover]

we are in the same boat
we found that a visio from costco ($300) works just fine for the news and the od apple tv stuff
its a series I 1948 landrover of tv's it might even leak given enough time

 

[riceybean]

We have a Visio 4k from Costco, fit the bill for us, no complaints. I think there is a sale starting next week too. We might upgrade to the 55" for the living room and put the 42" in the bedroom.

 

[mgreenspan]

Get whatever TV you want but use something like a Roku. I was going to get a smart TV for my wife to have in the bedroom but realized after researching that non smart TV with a streaming thingy is better than any smart TV due to interface, speed, and updates for the software are more frequent for external devices than smart TVs.

 

[chris snell]

Don't waste your time with Smart Hub or the TV-based apps. Buy a TV for the screen and use an Apple TV or Roku for streaming. I use the Apple TV to watch Netflix and Roku. Taking the lead of some DWebbers in a previous thread, I bought the top-end Samsung. I had to go to a specialty A/V store to find it. It's been great.

 

[squirt]

I have an older "dumb" LED tv with 2 HDMI ports. One is connected to Fire Stick, onto which I've sideloaded Kodi and a couple of other apps to stream whatever I want.

I also have a $25 android "Kodi box" type unit connected to the headrest monitors in the car. They're about equivalent.

Buy a non-smart TV, and get an Android device to plug into it, and you'll be entertained. Think of it like comparing navigation on your phone to just about any in-car Nav. The external device will be constantly updated, and you can even switch to completely different software if you like. Built-in functionality will always lag behind.

 

[Maximumwarp]

I got one of the last plasmas that Samsung made a few years ago, a 60" (can't remember the model #, of course). Best Buy had 'em on sale bc everything else was a "Smart" TV and this is a "dumb" TV. I love the picture, and I handle all the streaming apps through the Xbox One. It's getting harder to find the dumb TVs these days, but I guess even if you get Smart TV, you don't technically have to use the interface that's built into the TV. Use a FireStick or something.

 

[ERover82]

Get a TV for the screen, and if you have discs, a $40 bluray player that will cover streaming as well.

 

[D Chapman]

All you need is Kodi side loaded on some sort of device. I use the Fire Stick. Then you get about everything, even live TV.

 

[bigred]

All you need is Kodi side loaded on some sort of device. I use the Fire Stick. Then you get about everything, even live TV.

What are you getting for live TV? Local networks? Sports has kept me from cutting the cable (or, dish, in my case)

 

[D Chapman]

There are many apps available. Personally, I use US TV Now. I think it's $3 a month. I like it because it has a TV Guide. But on it I get all the normal FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS which are, oddly enough, Harrisburg, PA, based. This app also gets NG, Discovery, and CNN. There are about 15 other channels as well, but those listed are pretty much all I watch.

I use UK Turk for movies. New releases are typically someone sitting in a theater with a video camera, but after they're out a week or two you get some good quality streams.

 

[az_max]

I use a Tivo with a 'dumb' TV. I get on-screen guide, recording, Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Amazon and 30 other streaming apps (that I never use). I had Screencast working until the last android update. You can play DJ by queuing up videos on your phone for the TV to play.

https://www.tivo.com/shop/ota-detail

 

[jymmiejamz]

I'm bummed, I need a new TV. My Samsung screen started flickering and now the backlight cuts on and off. It started happening when I was watching Stranger Things and I thought the flickering was part of the show.

 

[stu454]

I'm bummed, I need a new TV. My Samsung screen started flickering and now the backlight cuts on and off. It started happening when I was watching Stranger Things and I thought the flickering was part of the show.

Did you freak right the fuck out and string Christmas lights all over the inside of your home?

 

[1920SF]

We have a Visio 4k from Costco, fit the bill for us, no complaints. I think there is a sale starting next week too. We might upgrade to the 55" for the living room and put the 42" in the bedroom.

We too have a visio, literally won by the wife from a drawing at the rental office of a place a few moves back. It has survived moves well (assuming it shows up tomorrow and still works, if it doesn't, well that's what the PCS claims are for). Would def buy one given how it has held up and their price points.

And like everyone else, I run a standalone interface (or two) to stream into it-both in terms of a 'smart' DVD/Blu ray player, a roku, and a chromecast at times.
r-
Ray

 

[Mike_Rupp]

Smart TV's suck balls. To be honest, nothing works perfectly. A few years ago I bought a Sony 55" smart TV. It had the Amazon app, so naturally I used that for streaming from Amazon. What a fucking piece of shit. I swear the TV had the computing power of my cheap Compaq computer that I threw away 10 years ago. The stream was jumpy as fuck. At the time, I had purchased a bunch of things together, so I thought the problem must be the Comcast bandwidth. I had a Comcast guy come out to check on everything and the bandwidth was fine. He suggested to stream from my Blu-Ray player just to see if the TV was the problem. Yep. the Blu Ray player would stream fine and the TV wouldn't.

Right now I use a Tivo box for everything (DVR, cable TV, Netflix, and Amazon). It's nice because everything is in one place and I don't have to mess with changing inputs. Occasionally I'll have issues with the audio breaking up on Netflix through the Tivo box. It's a pain in the ass. I'll switch to using Netflix through my Apple TV and it streams just fine.

Since the streaming devices like Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, etc are so cheap, it doesn't hurt to have a backup.

 

[stu454]

We use a wii U for games and to get the net over our "dumb" flat tv. Works fine.

 

[jim-00-4.6]

Many of the "smart" TVs actually do an ET-phone-home thing.
I'm not a fan of my television telling someone what I'm watching, but that's prolly just me being a dick.
The "voice-activated" ones say in the manual that they transmit everything said within range of the mic to someone.
"Dude, this is some killer blow!"
"Knock, Knock, popo calling"

I haven't purchased a TV in quite a while, but NEC makes some very nice products.
The "professional" models aren't loaded down with "features", they just work.
My preference is an external device as signal source, and the monitor is simply content delivery.

 

[az_max]

Many of the "smart" TVs actually do an ET-phone-home thing.
I'm not a fan of my television telling someone what I'm watching, but that's prolly just me being a dick.
The "voice-activated" ones say in the manual that they transmit everything said within range of the mic to someone.
"Dude, this is some killer blow!"
"Knock, Knock, popo calling"

I haven't purchased a TV in quite a while, but NEC makes some very nice products.
The "professional" models aren't loaded down with "features", they just work.
My preference is an external device as signal source, and the monitor is simply content delivery.

They'd be entirely bored with my conversations.

Even the Tivo (and cox DVR) send viewing info back to The Mothership. they're monetizing every bit of data they can get out of you.

 

[chris snell]

Another alternative: Chromecast.

I found out that I was mistaken about the Chromecast devices. I always thought that you had to stream from Netflix ----wifi---> your laptop ---wifi---> Chromecast, which seemed really inefficient. Turns out, they can stream this way as a fallback but the little devices are actually capable of streaming Hulu and Netflix directly by themselves. You just use your computer or phone to "direct" them to the stream. It's not a bad deal. $35 for HD streaming. It won't do 4K but the average cheapfuck probably won't care.