The big "How do I choose an HDTV?" thread.

$3700 is way too rich for my blood (the 77" does have the eARC support I want).

Turns out there's exactly one model, an an LG LED, that has all the things I'm looking for, and is around $2000 for the 75". The hesitation is that the rtings review says that the brightness isn't nearly as bright as many of the other models out there. Since HDR is one of the main selling points for me, that's a bummer.

I think we're going to go see a display model and see how it looks. If it doesn't do the trick, I'll probably wait for next years' models, or for a major price drop on the other 75" models for this year.

$3700 is way too rich for my blood (the 77" does have the eARC support I want).

Heh, no disagreement there. (Not that we even have the room for much larger than 65", but still. )

Definitely feel you on the eARC and HDR things too. Lunabean just wants the bigger screen, but I want a good quality screen that isn't a pain in the ass to connect with all our devices in the best possible way.

Thankfully, the combo of the C9 and the Denon 3500H receiver I just bought SEEMS like it will do the trick. I'd be happier if there were reasonably priced receivers on the market that would cleanly pass through all the new HDMI 2.1 features, but at the very least with eARC I should be able to get most things working together as I'd like (albeit maybe not organized quite as I'd prefer).

Chaz wrote:

After talking to my wife last night, she sounds like she's more open to the idea of a TV upgrade, but she threw a monkey wrench into things: she doesn't think going up to 65" and 4k/HDR is enough of an upgrade. She doesn't really get why I want HDR, so screen size is the main thing for her, and 5" isn't a big enough difference.

HDR (especially Dolby Vision for me) is much more important than screen size.
Has she seen a comparison between non-HDR and HDR?

Nope, she hasn't.

I think I've talked myself out of requiring eARC suppor. TThere's no guarantee it'll become widely adopted enough to make a difference, and there might be something better by then anyway. So now I've got my eye on the Vizio P series. The not quite top end one seems to be going for around $1500. I'd prefer the top end one, and it looks like Costco might have those discounted to $1700 in a week or so. I'm not sure if anyone else will have that price, or if it's worth it to buy a Costco membership just for that.

What's really annoying is that no stores around me seem to carry either one in stores, let alone both so I could do a side by side comparison to see if the high end one is worth it.

Chaz wrote:

Nope, she hasn't.

I think I've talked myself out of requiring eARC suppor. TThere's no guarantee it'll become widely adopted enough to make a difference, and there might be something better by then anyway. So now I've got my eye on the Vizio P series. The not quite top end one seems to be going for around $1500. I'd prefer the top end one, and it looks like Costco might have those discounted to $1700 in a week or so. I'm not sure if anyone else will have that price, or if it's worth it to buy a Costco membership just for that.

What's really annoying is that no stores around me seem to carry either one in stores, let alone both so I could do a side by side comparison to see if the high end one is worth it.

Online the px 65 is 999 right now.

Yeah, but I'm looking at the 75" one.

Oh right . Looks like that price was only good till yesterday, unfortunately. I'm sure they will go on sale again though.

After a bunch of measuring, debating, some creative use of photoshop, and the arrival of a larger-than-anticipated bonus, we decided that the best move will be to try and snag the 75" Vizio P Quantum X from Costco online when the sale starts next week.

We'll need to move it to above the fire place, which also means re-routing wires. We put in an electrical outlet and HDMI pass through plate behind the current wall mount, but the new location means routing those through at least two studs. The current thinking is that short-term, I'll conceal the wires on the surface with a painted cable raceway. My wife's talking about getting a window added where the TV is currently hung, so if she really wants everything run in-wall, if we get the window, we'll just run the wires while that's happening, since things will already be more opened up.

Now I just need to figure out how I'm hooking everything up. I'm not certain how well my current HDMI switch will pass 4k and HDR, so I'm planning on running any 4k sources directly into the TV, and anything else via the switch. I guess it's time to hit up Monoprice and order some longer HDMI cables.

Have you watched an elevated TV before? I prefer eye level.

Agreed. Watching my friend's fireplace-mounted TV is simply fatiguing.

Sit on your couch or in your favorite viewing chair. Look straight ahead -- whatever height you're looking at, that should be where the middle-to-top area of your TV should be.

Also fireplace heat and TVs

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Also fireplace heat and TVs

I've heard this as well.

My TV is on a stand in front of the wall across from our windows, but we have opaque window coverings. Pre-Harvey, our TV was on a stand placed directly in front of the fireplace, which we literally never used. Almost no one ever noticed the "missing" fireplace. During the renovation, my aunt and wife (not the same person) insisted that the fireplace be left visible.

I had a TV above a fireplace.. you can get a tilt mount to put it so its easier to watch.. depending on how far back you sit its even easier to watch comfortably.

is it possible that HDR has a much more dramatic effect on LCDs than OLEDs?

Honestly whether I watch standard stuff or HDR/Dolby Vision stuff on my OLED I don't see a huge difference. Everything looks beautiful tbh

interstate78 wrote:

is it possible that HDR has a much more dramatic effect on LCDs than OLEDs?

Honestly whether I watch standard stuff or HDR/Dolby Vision stuff on my OLED I don't see a huge difference. Everything looks beautiful tbh

Depends. Bright scenes will pop more on a good LCD because they can crank the brightness much higher than current OLED TV’s. But you will still deal with blooming and related issues to full array backlighting. It’s a trade off but I can’t deal with all the other issues an LCD especially for gaming.

Putting the TV above the fireplace isn't my ideal choice, but it's really the only option. With the room arrangement, if we put it eye level, we're restricted to a 65" set. Since text on a 60" at couch distance is already frequently too small, I don't think going up five inches will help a lot.

Mounting above the fireplace only puts it about a foot higher than it is now, and we're sitting back far enough that I think it will work. Our mount does tilt down, so we can adjust a bit. If it's really bad, we can get one of those mounts that let you pull it down to eye level when you want to. The fireplace is gas and enclosed, and doesn't heat up the area above it that much, plus we barely use it.

I would get the mount that drops down then. One thing I've found with our TV which is mounted a little too high for my taste is it suffers from the high moon effect where it appears smaller the higher it is from the floor.

Since those drop down mounts are around $150, I think we're probably going to start out just using the one we have and see how it is. If it's real bad, I'll look into the drop down.

The other problem is that there's a soundbar that needs to go underneath. The drop mount would also need a mount foe that so it doesn't wind up behind the TV.

interstate78 wrote:

is it possible that HDR has a much more dramatic effect on LCDs than OLEDs?

Honestly whether I watch standard stuff or HDR/Dolby Vision stuff on my OLED I don't see a huge difference. Everything looks beautiful tbh

I have an OLED and I do notice a dramatic change between non-HDR and HDR. There's also a noticeable difference between Dolby Vision and HDR.

I got my 55” LG C9 OLED which I use as my main PC monitor. After updating firmware I can say that G-Sync works well. Hard to tell it’s exact range but at 4K 60Hz it makes a difference since most games struggle to maintain 60Fps. VRR works with the Xbox One X as well and I couldn’t seem to see how it helps since I couldn’t see if any games support it. Supposedly Gears 5 does. Overall the TV is an upgrade over my C6 that it replaces.

Do you know of any good guides on how to set up C9 as a PC monitor - which settings to use etc.? Have had it for months now, but haven't really dared jumping into that.

Surprise! Costco started their sale early, so I just ordered the Vizio PX75-G1. Longer HDMI cables are on their way, and I'll pick up a surface mount cable concealer set from Home Depot this week. I was thinking I'd need to call DirecTV and upgrade to a 4k DVR, but it looks like they barely have any 4k content available, so I probably won't bother. I do need to upgrade the Netflix subscription.

Next step is shuffling around the old TVs. The current 60" is going to move up to our bedroom, and the 46" that's there is being given to my mother in law. Of course, wife wants to wall mount the 60", so need to get a new mount for that. Then they also want to mount the one we're giving to the in-laws. But the spot they want to mount it is in a corner, and there's only 18" of wall available there. So finding a mount with a narrow enough plate and that can extend far enough could be tricky. Need to do some measuring.

I'm hoping the TV gets here before all the black friday sales are over. I want to get a 4k streaming device. We prefer the Roku interface, but the Roku can't get surround from most services to our soundbar. I know the Fire Stick can, but I want to see if the new TV can pass the signal the way I need it to, or if I just get a Fire Stick.

Shadout wrote:

Do you know of any good guides on how to set up C9 as a PC monitor - which settings to use etc.? Have had it for months now, but haven't really dared jumping into that.

I havent done anything beyond setting the label for the input for PC.. The C9's now auto enable HDMI Deep Color when it detects the ability from the output. I settled on 150% scaling.. 100% is doable but the text is super small even on a 55" from a few feet away.

My mother's interested in buying a new TV; she'd like a 50-inch (that's all she really has room for). She spotted a Q7 Samsung for $800 at Costco, which seemed like a good deal to me, but I figured I'd better make a sanity check here first.

Is there anything else she should be looking at? She sits a little off-center, so a wide field of view would seem like a good idea, and I think quality of HDR would probably impress her. In checking Consumer Reports, the Samsung Q7s seem like a pretty decent combo of those three features, plus having a high general picture quality, so it seemed like a good idea to me. But am I missing any really good bets?

Also, I see Chaz mentioning a sale; will that start on Black Friday for Samsungs? I see LGs are on sale now, but those didn't rate as well when I was looking.

I will just once more say that I love my TCL with Roku built-in as a budget TV. I think you can get 43" for $300ish, I assume 50" isn't that much more. I don't think the average viewer thinks much about picture quality, and honestly, I'm not sure I would if I didn't read about it.

Same. TCL with Roku has been wonderful. My wife struggles with remotes and tech sometimes but has had no problem with it. Very user friendly.

Yeah I would recommend a TV with Roku built in as well for anyone that wants decent picture with very easy to use built in streaming options.

TCL is a Chinese owned company, if you care. Other similar Roku TV brands aren’t, for example Philips (Dutch) and Sharp (owned by Foxconn which is Taiwanese).

Malor wrote:

My mother's interested in buying a new TV; she'd like a 50-inch (that's all she really has room for). She spotted a Q7 Samsung for $800 at Costco, which seemed like a good deal to me, but I figured I'd better make a sanity check here first.

Is there anything else she should be looking at? She sits a little off-center, so a wide field of view would seem like a good idea, and I think quality of HDR would probably impress her. In checking Consumer Reports, the Samsung Q7s seem like a pretty decent combo of those three features, plus having a high general picture quality, so it seemed like a good idea to me. But am I missing any really good bets?

Also, I see Chaz mentioning a sale; will that start on Black Friday for Samsungs? I see LGs are on sale now, but those didn't rate as well when I was looking.

According to the Rtings Review the Q7 is not great for off axis viewing.

Well, that off-axis thing isn't good. CR seemed to rate the Q7s better than that, but there's a lot of models and maybe someone's confused. I haven't seen reviews of the exact model she was looking at, so I guess I'll trust Rtings.

She's trying to upgrade the 1080p TV she has, which is at least okay. Would a 4K TCL be a significant upgrade, or are they merely acceptable TVs?

edit: I should also append that the reason she wants to update is because her friends are telling her that 4K content is amazing. My belief has been that resolution isn't that critical, that everything at 1080p and higher is about the same unless you're very close to the screen, but that display technology and HDR support could make a major difference in perceived quality. So if she's starting with an unspectacular 48", 1080p flatscreen, and wants to upgrade to a better 4K flatscreen that's very close to the same size, would a TCL be worth doing, or should she go up into the Samsungs, for the presumably higher picture quality?

Obviously, an OLED would have the biggest impact, but that's out of her price range... she was originally thinking $600, and upsold herself to $800. She might go a scoche further, but not much.

In terms of LCD tech they all will suffer in off angle viewing compared to OLED. But knowing that get an IPS panel Based LCD TV as it has superior off angle viewing to VA panels.