buying my first TV. So many options

[pinky33]

Ever since I left my parents house in 2004 to go off to college I have been without a TV/cable/netflix/hulu. Basically I used my computer and projector for the past 14 years. I now have wife/kids and my wife wants a TV mounted upstairs by fire place (projector/home theater is in basement).

Facts:
-I don't watch sports, but if my local teem is in the playoff I suppose I would watch....
-55" is the best price point and would fit nicely. I can fit a 60" though
-I plan to put a wood frame around TV so it looks like a large picture frame and then constantly run a cycle of photos.
- These photos might be put on a usb stick or through a home theater computer
-I won't have cable, just a digital antenia for local shows. sesame street and PBS for kids.
-I will probably get hulu,netflix or something at some point
-Maybe build home theater PC. I have a lot of movies stored on my computer that I will find a way to stream to TV.

Needs
- wall mountable (pretty sure all TVs are these days)
-at least 55"
-user friendly (nice remote)
-If I don't hook up a HTPC right away I want a remote with a keyboard or mouse built in. Easy navigation
-Not a pile a crap TV
-Great viewing angle

Wants
-somewhat low power consumption since TV will be on 24/7 as a picture frame
-cheap, (lol)
-at least 3 or 4 HDMI inputes


Questions

Because I have been out of the TV world for 14 years I am not sure the best way to hook up my peripherals to receiver

I beleiver the best way is to hook up my peripherals is into HDMI into TV, then run one optical cable to receiver. This might also be a must for me since my receivers are older and don't have HDMI inpute. They do have optical input.

Items I will most likely hook up.
-HTPC
-rasbery pie with retro pie intalled
-hdmi to thunderbolt for my wife's apple laptop hookup?
- digital antenna for local shows.



Since my receiver has no remote I plan to buy a logitech remote that controls both TV and receiver and anything else.


What am I forgetting, missing and wrong about


Any thoughts, ideas?



Although I have not really researched TV's deeply. When I walk through microcenter or Costco I feel LG is the nicest cheapest looking TV. I like glossy and there are not Windows that would cause a glare in room.


Thank you for reading and commenting

-pinky.

 

[JLK03F150]

I have read some of the best smart tv's are those with Roku incorporated. Roku had all the hulu, netflix, amazon, etc apps for streaming. If the smart tv is good enough it will allow you to delay the HTPC build for a longer time.

 

[bob4933]

Budget, budget, more budget, and finally gonna need that budget.

As well, being "older" its extremely unlikely that your receiver will be hdmi 2.2 compliant.

Finally, the "smart" part of the TV's are rarely up to speed with Roku/firestick offerings. I've played with some REALLY nice tv's and never found the speed of the TV to be that wonderful. (lookin at you, OLED boxes)

 

[pinky33]

I figured the build in smart part would be slow. HTPC should fix that.

The 55" LG's I see are under $500.

tv mount I like is 60-80
remote I want is about 50-100

NO real limit, but also no need to spend more than I need.



Not sure why my receiver with no HDMI inputs at all would need to be hdmi 2.2 compliant to run stereo speakers. Maybe I am missing something.

 

[bob4933]

A hard budget is actually mandatory. Its like saying you want a "good car". Great, theres lots of "good cars". Some are 2000$, some are 2 million.

Lighting zones, HDR, panel type, refresh rate, size, etc.

The most direct analogy would be saying you want a "24-27 inch monitor". Well, you can get a 24" 60 hz tn panel for 100 bucks. A 4k, 144hz HDR 27" ips panel? Well thats gonna cost ya.

That aside, take a look at the TCL 55P607

As well; depends on your routing. If you use your receiver to... receive.... it needs to be html 2.2 compliant or things like Netflix wont give you 4k. The way around it is to run into the TV and optical audio out; though I haven't tried this with an HTPC type setup. Im sure that would be ok.

 

[Pinky]

I'm not a fan of smart TVs, you're better off getting a separate device (like a Roku) for streaming. My experience with 'smart' devices is they become outdated and support is eventually dropped for them (sometimes after only a couple years). Then you'll end up buying a separate device, or as the TV makers would prefer, a new TV. You'll also get more frequent updates for the software and likely a more robust selection with a dedicated streaming device, as well as more use (my old Roku 2 (4-5 years old?) is still supported, even though I've moved on to a newer Roku).

LG makes some of the better econo model televisions. We're currently using a 50" LG 1080p purchased as a black friday deal several years ago from Amazon. For our needs "HD" is more than enough. Unless it came out to be the same money, I'd probably not be worried about 4k. Especially since you're not going to find a lot of quality 4k TVs in the $300-500 range. I see no name brands on Newegg from time to time, if you're willing to gamble on getting a defective model and the hassle of trying to get it replaced/repaired. Brick and mortar is still great for the 'easy' return.

I'd recommend Vizio, but there's a lot of variability between their models.

Avoid buying TVs from Walmart, they usually sell models that are made for Walmart, at a lower price point and lower quality [usually missing features].

 

[pinky33]

Thanks pinky,

I forgot to add that I am only looking at 4k. The LG's and samsung's I find are 4k and around $480 to 600. Which sounds reasonable. I fully agree the amount of content in 4k is little to none and where I source my movies/tv shows are barely 1080. The reason I want 4k is because this will be used as a digital picture frame just as much if not more than a TV.

Just like any other display tv or monitor it seems my wife and I just need to visit some stores, play with TV's and see what we like.

I am happy I have confirmed that a HTPC will be needed. And that I can run inputs into tv and then out through coaxal/fiber audio to my older receiver. Therefore I will need a TV with a minimum of 3 HDMI and preferably 4.

 

[wagex]

just saying, but about 2 years after i purchased my 65" vizio i recently started to notice a dark spot in the middle of my tv, like 1/4 of it in the middle is darker than the rest of the tv. turning down the backlights has helped make it not as noticable hell it might be because ive always had the backlight on full brightness and my tv is on probably 14 hours a day between me watching at night and the wife / kids watching it during the day. but it only had a 1 year warranty. needless to say im buying samsung or LG on my next go around.

 

[Pinky]

Just like any other display tv or monitor it seems my wife and I just need to visit some stores, play with TV's and see what we like.

That's really the only way IMO unless you're on the budget end, in which case you're going to live with whatever compromises you end up with for the $$$ savings. You can count on there being compromises.

Don't forget I'm the *real* pinky around here bud. Narf! Zoit!

- - - Updated - - -

just saying, but about 2 years after i purchased my 65" vizio i recently started to notice a dark spot in the middle of my tv, like 1/4 of it in the middle is darker than the rest of the tv. turning down the backlights has helped make it not as noticable hell it might be because ive always had the backlight on full brightness and my tv is on probably 14 hours a day between me watching at night and the wife / kids watching it during the day. but it only had a 1 year warranty. needless to say im buying samsung or LG on my next go around.

Quality control seems to be Vizio's weakness.

 

[Alaric]

I bought my TV with the intention of it just being a monitor. 43" Toshiba (1080p) with three HDMI inputs and 5 ms response time and that's it. Not a smart TV or anything else. I keep the hardware and software on my rig. I got the previous year's model and paid $269 at BB and been a happy camper ever since.

 

[DaveB]

-I plan to put a wood frame around TV so it looks like a large picture frame and then constantly run a cycle of photos.
- These photos might be put on a usb stick or through a home theater computer

Just buy this and call it done.

 

[petteyg359]

Skip the QLED crap from Samsung's marketing department. I tried one of theirs; they have horrible judder and watching anything with motion, even peoples' mouths while they talk, is painful. Maybe it'd get better with manual configuration, but I've never had to calibrate a PC screen for motion, and I shouldn't have to on a TV. Go with LG or Sony for OLED. The extra cost is worth it. You will never see ghosting or judder on an OLED, you'll never see people's mouths flickering and stuttering while their voice is coming out just fine, etc. I have LG's 55" B7A (paired with a separate stereo system) and as someone who tends to hate watching TV anywhere else it's pretty awesome.
Your list items:

• 4 HDMI, 3 USB, two of each accessible from the side without pulling the TV away from the wall.
• Viewing angle is great, I can walk into the kitchen 20 feet away and colors are all still perfect at nearly perpendicular to the screen.
• Bezel is thin. It is silver, but not visible at all in a dark room.
• Lack of backlight is obviously good for low power use and zero heat output.
• The remote works as a mouse by waving it around, and I have a Logitech keyboard/mouse receiver plugged in to the USB port on the side and both work.
• If your receiver uses HDMI and is new enough to support CEC, the LG remote would control it just fine by having the TV forward commands to the receiver over the same HDMI connection the receiver uses for output to the TV.
• Has an optical out for your receiver.
• Has an sorta-kinda-looks-like-optical RS232C port right under the optical audio out that probably does something, but I have no idea what.
• Receives all the subchannels of my PBS antenna station just fine

 

[Pinky]

Aren't OLEDs still really expensive?

 

[petteyg359]

Aren't OLEDs still really expensive?

Relatively, yes. LG B7A 55" is the cheapest OLED I know of and is around $1600-$1700 last I checked if you exclude disreputable scam retailers. But treat it like anything else; sometimes you get what you pay for. If you really plan to use it a lot, might as well pay for something that will look good and not annoy you with motion compensation shenanigans. Of course, all that assumes your budget actually allows dropping close to $2000 on electronics occassionally.

 

[ihrsetrdr]

55" is currently the sweet spot, if you're adding all the devices you mentioned I can't see that a smartTV would add much benefit. But, if the price was right, then sure.

$500. plus or minus.

Most brands are very close in quality, I personally would go with Sharp or LG.

I have a Chromecast for my "non-smart" TV, takes care of my streaming needs.

 

[pinky33]

I currently use this keyboard for my home theater in the basement. http://www.microcenter.com/product/376891/K400_Wireless_Touch_Keyboard

This means I have 3 remotes, one for on/off of projector(projector remote), one for volume on receiver(receiver remote) and the mouse/keyboard combo. This works fine for me and my wife. I needed to explain it to my daughter a few times, but she gets it now.

I am wondering if there is a combo of the logitech mouse/keyboard and logitech harmony remote. Does not need to be logitech. But think of something that can connect to

HTPC
be a somewhat full keyboard, touch mouse pad
volume for receiver
turn tv on/off and change inputs


maybe I am dreaming. The extra receiver I have that I will use has no remote so a harmony remote($40) type of device will be purchased somehow.


worse case scenario. I have mouse/keyboard combo and a harmony remote for receiver and tv. probably the best easiest option.



Thank you for any options or ideas

 

[Alaric]

There is probably a smartphone app. In fact, I'm sure there is, and if I find where I read about it I'll post a link here.

 

[Pinky]

If the remotes (TV, receiver) use infrared, the phone/tablet also needs it for any app to work.

I would assume that if I was to go with a HTPC and a TV/receiver, that I would have a wireless keyboard/touchpad combo for the HTPC and a logitech harmony to control the rest. I'm sure there's higher end, custom home theater solutions that could incorporate everything, but that would be well outside our price points(?).

 

[Alaric]

The phone app is Bluetooth, I believe. So, yeah, compatibility there would be required.

 

[Cnaydmancangt]

1080p or 4k.. blah blah it doesnt matter what your dvd or cable company puts out.. Wanna know a secrete ? Most cables companies actually only put out a 1080i yes Intelaced signal to cut back on bandwidth so that awsome cool 1080P you think youre getting isnt even 1080p.

Also a 4K TV running at 1080p will still look 10 million times better then a 1080p tv at 1080p.. The reason why is the pixels. One important thing people constantly forget on TVS and Monitors for computers is the PPI.. A higher PPI will always have a superior picture. ALWAYS.. Computer monitors the average one is at about 90PPI.. A 24 INCH will be 1080p and 90PPI, a 32-34 inch at 1440p (2k) will be at 90PPI, but a 27 inch at 1440p (2k) will be at 110 PPI.. PPI means Pixels per Inch... So youlll have 20 more pixels per inch on a 27 inch vs a 32-34 inch at the same resolution.. make sense ? So the 27 will have a far superior picture quality.

Now back to tv monitor's. Most T.V's the average ones 55-65 inchs are like 40PPI.. Yes 40 or actually 36 pixels per inch.. thats what a 1080p 55 inch will be at. If you get a 2k 55 inch youll have 55 pixels per inch, if you get a 4k 55 inch tv youll be at 80 Pixels per inch.. 80 is close to what our computer monitors are at "still lower of course" but 80 is wayyy better then 36 or 55..

I have two 55 inch LCD tv's one is a cheaper tv only 1080p the other is a 2k T.V, i can clearly night and day see the superior 2k TV picture quality.. the cheaper one is grainy as hell even 4 feet away.

Dont cheap out, get a 2-4k TV.. Youll regret it ina heart beat