Best tv for $700 or less?

[LoneSage]

I have this innate ability where I forget about work the moment I crack a tinnie, you should try it sometime.

Kids can't smell the winesweat over Zoom.

 

[90s]

As a guy who used to work at a store that sold them, do NOT buy a Hisense TV. Low end picture quality, even lower end durability.

Imagine my surprise when I bought a couple of Sharp TVs and found out they are owned by some Chinese company called Hisense. Well, I'm happy so far. I replaced an old 1080p Sanyo and a Hitachi that broke. 4K is nice. HDR is okay I guess. My eye isn't really trained enough to see the difference. The price point was nice. I figured if I wasn't gonna get an OLED or QLED maybe there wasn't a big difference among lower priced TVs.

Buying TVs has changed man. I remember companies like Zenith, JVC, Goldstar. I didn't even see Panasonic on Best Buy.

 

[joe8]

Buying TVs has changed man. I remember companies like Zenith, JVC, Goldstar.

These days it's LG, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung.

 

[LoneSage]

Kids can't smell the winesweat over Zoom.

Addendum: but they can see the flushed cheeks and the 3 month beard of a broken man

 

[Neo Alec]

I'm pretty happy with my 65 inch 8 Series. Most I've ever paid for a TV by far, yet this is considered mid-tier. The firmware seems to have some quirks. Seemingly like all Samsungs, the correct settings are somewhat obtuse (always set the input labels on Samsungs to "PC" no matter what, even though the TV will do its best to override this).

I really hate the way modern TVs make you pay for all these features and then lock them behind cryptic settings. It's probably a racket for the stores to sell TV calibration services. For example, you pay for decent HDR, and then the TV isn't set up to correctly to display HDR out of the box.

 

[yagamikun]

I recently got a 2020 Samsung 8 Series 50" (TU8000). I got this TV specifically for three things as it runs most of my retro game consoles in my set up: Low Latency (~9ms in game mode), Good 480p Upscale, and viewing angle. I'm pretty happy with it - but I don't use it for 4K or HDR content, so I cannot comment on that. I don't know of another TV that has this low input latency, though, and it feels fantastic. Colors are bold, but you do have some restrictions in game mode. Great black levels too. I have a 2018 8 series I use for modern stuff, and I've been quite happy with that.

The downfall, if you have two Samsung TVs in the same room, the power button on each remote will fuck with the other TV so I have to turn on/off each TV on the actual set.

 

[Ajax]

We moved into a much bigger place last week and needed a TV that fills the room a bit more than our old TV, so got the TCL 65" 4 series last weekend. The menu is pretty laggy, which is not a great experience. Also, the flashlighting on the one we got was pretty awful outta the box, and I don't even usually notice stuff like that. I turned the brightness down one notch, and that seemed to reduce the flashlighting a bit. 99% of the use that the set will see is entertainment for my two daughters though, so it doesn't matter much at all to me how it looks. I wouldn't recommend this set, however. Maybe the 5 series is better?

We were using a 50" Element Roku TV in our living room before. This is now used to play PC Engine, Neo Geo, and Genesis via Framemeister, and fucking slays so far. My setup is pretty meager, but maybe I'll post a pic sometime.

 

[greedostick]

Treat yourself, get an OLED LG, picture is simply amazing. I've always been a Sony guy but i got converted with this TV.

For gaming, i believe the TCL have pretty good input lag w/ very friendly price tag.

I've been on the LG kick for a few years now with televisions and phones. They make great products. One day I will own a beautiful OLED set.

 

[Fritz]

I wouldn't mind picking up a new TV set for the 4K. I love my Panasonic plasma but with 4K it is time to take the jump. I am just not sure about OLED's and the burn-in on them. I might be better off with a standard LCD, not really sure.

 

[90s]

I really hate the way modern TVs make you pay for all these features and then lock them behind cryptic settings. It's probably a racket for the stores to sell TV calibration services. For example, you pay for decent HDR, and then the TV isn't set up to correctly to display HDR out of the box.

Never mind simple things like screws. I swear LCDs used to come with the screws already in the back of the TV for wall mounts or to use them on the stands that have mounts (like my case). Or maybe I'm misremembering. The TVs I bought now say the screws for mounting will come with the wall mount. It said that in the quick start guide because if I want a full manual with specs and so on I have to print it myself. WTF. I just put the legs on the TV for now.

I do appreciate that one of the TVs I bought has a little pop up whenever HDR content is being shown. The other doesn't.

 

[90s]

I've been on the LG kick for a few years now with televisions and phones. They make great products. One day I will own a beautiful OLED set.

One of the TVs I was considering was a 49" nanocell LG that was 1000$ It looked really nice, but for less than that I got two 4K UHD HDR TVs (43" and 55").

 

[Neo Alec]

I recently got a 2020 Samsung 8 Series 50" (TU8000). I got this TV specifically for three things as it runs most of my retro game consoles in my set up: Low Latency (~9ms in game mode), Good 480p Upscale, and viewing angle. I'm pretty happy with it - but I don't use it for 4K or HDR content, so I cannot comment on that. I don't know of another TV that has this low input latency, though, and it feels fantastic. Colors are bold, but you do have some restrictions in game mode. Great black levels too. I have a 2018 8 series I use for modern stuff, and I've been quite happy with that.

The downfall, if you have two Samsung TVs in the same room, the power button on each remote will fuck with the other TV so I have to turn on/off each TV on the actual set.

View attachment 56359

The TV will try to fight you every time you plug a new device in, but cancel the auto setup. Go into the settings and manually setup all the input labels to PC. It fixes all the picture jankiness you get otherwise with a Samsung.

 

[yagamikun]

The TV will try to fight you every time you plug a new device in, but cancel the auto setup. Go into the settings and manually setup all the input labels to PC. It fixes all the picture jankiness you get otherwise with a Samsung.

Awesome, thanks for the tip.