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Please help me pick a ~60 inch TV...

slugg

slugg

Diamond Member
There are so many TVs on the market, I just don't know where to start. There is a bunch of CRAP out there, and only a few good bang-for-your-buck models. I haven't kept up with the industry, and honestly, I'm pretty overwhelmed. I would really appreciate some help picking a TV.

I'm looking in the 55 to 65 inch range. Every plasma screen I've ever seen flickers and hurts my eyes, but perhaps that's because they were crappy? Nobody else seems to notice this flickering except for me, for some reason. I'm open to both LCD and plasma, where I believe OLED would be too expensive for me. Also, I plan on using an Apple TV and I already have a Roku, so these "smart TV" features you see everywhere mean nothing to me. I *hate* automatic contrast and backlight adjusting TVs; most TVs let you turn it off, but some don't! I also hate the motion smoothing crap; that must be able to be disabled. Not too worried about the speakers, since it'll be connected to some external speakers. Low latency video is important (i.e. no lag when playing video games).

So what would give me the best bang for my buck? Any particular models? I'm weary of Black Friday ads, since most of those "deals" are just to unload craptacular merchandise that nobody really wants.

Thanks in advance 🙂
 
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Budget?

Room...dark, bright?

Uses for TV...gaming, movies (type), watching sports?


And yeah, OLED's are from $9-15k for a 55", so unless you're okay with that.......
 
Pacfanweb said:
Budget?

Room...dark, bright?

Uses for TV...gaming, movies (type), watching sports?


And yeah, OLED's are from $9-15k for a 55", so unless you're okay with that.......
Click to expand...

Ah yes, I should have mentioned these details!

Room: semi bright. The light sources will more than likely be an issue for a glossy screen, so perhaps plasma is out of the question, unfortunately. Do they even make plasma with a matte screen?

Budget: $1500 or less. Would like to be around $1000, but if it's worth it, I'll pay more.

Uses: Movies (all genres, including documentaries like Planet Earth, but also old stuff that has been "remastered"), lots of Netflix (in other words, highly compressed 1080p), and gaming. No sports, no actual TV other than on-demand services.

Thanks!
 
slugg said:
Ah yes, I should have mentioned these details!

Room: semi bright. The light sources will more than likely be an issue for a glossy screen, so perhaps plasma is out of the question, unfortunately. Do they even make plasma with a matte screen?

Budget: $1500 or less. Would like to be around $1000, but if it's worth it, I'll pay more.

Uses: Movies (all genres, including documentaries like Planet Earth, but also old stuff that has been "remastered"), lots of Netflix (in other words, highly compressed 1080p), and gaming. No sports, no actual TV other than on-demand services.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

All plasmas are 'glossy' but some are brighter than others and reject reflections better. Typical rooms plasmas do fine in though. However if your light source is directly behind the tv you might have issues.

You care at all about 3d content? Most likely you'll get it, but it changes things a little.
 
slugg said:
Ah yes, I should have mentioned these details!

Room: semi bright. The light sources will more than likely be an issue for a glossy screen, so perhaps plasma is out of the question, unfortunately. Do they even make plasma with a matte screen?

Budget: $1500 or less. Would like to be around $1000, but if it's worth it, I'll pay more.

Uses: Movies (all genres, including documentaries like Planet Earth, but also old stuff that has been "remastered"), lots of Netflix (in other words, highly compressed 1080p), and gaming. No sports, no actual TV other than on-demand services.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Plasmas don't come with a matte screen, but they do come with filters for light. The cheap ones don't. For 1500, you should be able to get a 60" with some kind of filter, like the Panasonic 60ST60.
 
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The ST60 sure does look like a nice TV. It's tempting, except that apparently it has a lot of input lag. That kinda sucks because I rather enjoy fighting, music, and racing games...

Any other suggestions?
 
slugg said:
The ST60 sure does look like a nice TV. It's tempting, except that apparently it has a lot of input lag. That kinda sucks because I rather enjoy fighting, music, and racing games...

Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

See if you can find a XXST64 at costco. Its the non-3d version, but with the glare filter from the st60. Less lag. The 55VT60 can be had for around $1500 and has less lag as well as better 3d and slightly better blacks.
 
Well I just looked at some Samsung and LG plasmas at Sams Club (no panasonic to be found). All of them flickered and hurt my eyes... So I guess plasma is out of the question. What about LCD options?
 
Okay well there doesn't seem to be much love for LCD. For reasons beyond my control, I had no option but to get an LCD (see my previous posts about flicker).

I ended up buying a VIZIO M651d-A2R from Amazon. I had them price match Sams Club, then you get an additional 2% in rewards points credited to your account at Amazon, and then I get an additional 5% cash-back with my Chase Freedom card (heads up to everyone shopping for a credit card; 5% cash back on Amazon through December), plus I get to skip the 7% sales tax where I live, plus I get it delivered to my house (can't fit it in my car) for free. The deal is good enough for me.

I picked this TV because although it's not a plasma, the blacks are pretty decent. Way more expensive Sonys are a tad better, but not by much. The bang-for-your-buck seems to be pretty good. But one thing that really made it stand out from the crowd was the passive, filter-based 3D technology. No flickering, no batteries, and cheap glasses (if I need to replace them)! My eyes can detect the 60hz flicker from "active" shutter glasses, but there is no blinking with the passive alternative. This is similar to the Real-D or IMAX 3D technology you see in most theaters. It's not quite as good as the newer Dolby 3D technology you're starting to see in theme parks, but it doesn't distort color like the Dolby tech does. 3D isn't that big of a deal to me, but at least now I know I can properly enjoy it if I ever decide to.

I'm not entirely thrilled that I paid for a "smart" TV, since I do not plan on using any of those features, but there was no real way out of it. Every non-craptacular TV on the market has these stupid, smart features. Oh well. The bright side is that at least I can enjoy Netflix while I wait for Apple to release their new Apple TV.
 
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slugg said:
I'm not entirely thrilled that I paid for a "smart" TV, since I do not plan on using any of those features, but there was no real way out of it. Every non-craptacular TV on the market has these stupid, smart features. Oh well. The bright side is that at least I can enjoy Netflix while I wait for Apple to release their new Apple TV.
Click to expand...

Hopefully you'll get the superHD and 3d content out of the built in netflix app at least. That's worthwhile if nothing else.
 
slugg said:
There are so many TVs on the market, I just don't know where to start. There is a bunch of CRAP out there, and only a few good bang-for-your-buck models. I haven't kept up with the industry, and honestly, I'm pretty overwhelmed. I would really appreciate some help picking a TV.

I'm looking in the 55 to 65 inch range. Every plasma screen I've ever seen flickers and hurts my eyes, but perhaps that's because they were crappy? Nobody else seems to notice this flickering except for me, for some reason. I'm open to both LCD and plasma, where I believe OLED would be too expensive for me. Also, I plan on using an Apple TV and I already have a Roku, so these "smart TV" features you see everywhere mean nothing to me. I *hate* automatic contrast and backlight adjusting TVs; most TVs let you turn it off, but some don't! I also hate the motion smoothing crap; that must be able to be disabled. Not too worried about the speakers, since it'll be connected to some external speakers. Low latency video is important (i.e. no lag when playing video games).

So what would give me the best bang for my buck? Any particular models? I'm weary of Black Friday ads, since most of those "deals" are just to unload craptacular merchandise that nobody really wants.

Thanks in advance 🙂
Click to expand...


Anything Panasonic or pioneer will get you where you want to be, just be sure to protect your investment with all the necessary surge suppressant items. sit back & enjoy..:biggrin:
 
slugg said:
I thought 3D and SuperHD was for LG and PS3 only? Did I miss something? Please do share...
Click to expand...

That's the list I saw online too. Apparently it has expanded and netflix hasn't updated their compatibility list. FWIW panasonic does mention superHD in their materials if you dig. 3D support you might be limited to forums for answers as I couldn't find a straight official answer anywhere.
 
The 3D stuff with Netflix is hunt & find. It seems it appears in the Smart 3D TV version only and the 3D Genre list of Titles cycle randomly. I don't think they added 3D to the API of Netflix yet either? So you can't really find a list of 3D Titles anywhere else.

However there is some decent Titles.
 
lopri said:
600 Hz?! I must have been missing a lot about TVs. How does 600 Hz work out and what benefits does it bring?
Click to expand...

It is a marketing point. It is a way of saying plasma has a much better motion resolution than the best LEDs. Most (all?) won't run at 600hz hooked up to something like a PC.
 
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