New TV Needed

[longknocker]

I Need Some Advice From The "Experts", Please. My Mitsubishi WS 55" TV Of 13 Years Just Went Out With A Failure Of The Red, Green, Blue Component Port. The TV Now Has A Very Greenish Tint. I Can Get A New 55-60" 1080i LED TV For Around $600. Should I Upgrade To The New 4K Technology? Supposedly Most People Can't Appreciate The Difference In Picture Quality Unless You're 3 feet Or Closer To The TV. My Viewing Distance Is 9 Feet. If I Get A 4K TV, The Models I'm Looking At Are The SONY XBR55X850B & The Samsung 55H8550. Both Of These Are $2K At Best Buy. I Keep A TV For Around 10 Years Or More Until It Breaks. From What I've Read The New 4K TV's Upgrade A Standard Definition Picture To HD & The HD Picture To 2160i. Any Advice, Recommendations? Thanks So Much!

[Dude Here]

I replaced my Sony LCD projection TV with a 46" Sony LED smart TV and I love it. The picture is crystal clear and I haven't noticed any difference caused by viewing angles. I've got mine mounted above my fireplace, roughly the same distance as your TV. I got mine from Best Buy a couple of years ago and it was $900 if I recall correctly.

[longknocker]

Thanks, Steve. My Point Is: Should I Pay Roughly 2X More For The 4K Technology? Is It Really Worth It? Since I Tend To Keep A TV For A Long Time & This Would Be Our Main TV In The Den To Watch, Should I Bite The Bullet & Go With The New Technology?

[markem]

We replaced our first generation HD TV with a Samsung LED about 3 years ago (maybe 4). The LED has almost no glare, even under conditions that made the old TV unviewable. The much smaller depth has been greatly appreciated by the dogs, who like the room.

The new LEDs are supposed to have 20+ year life on the LEDs. The main issue that I recall being told about was back lit vs. edge lit. Gotta say that I don't know the differences well.

We got ours from Best Buy and our local one has a high end TV and entertainment store inside so we talked to them. Their advice matched what others told us and the price was good, so we bought from them.

Personally, if the technology has been around for more than about 18 months in quantity, I'd go with the newer technology as longevity is one of the big factors in selling TVs now, so newer should mean better long life span.

[The Poet]

As I understand it, the improvement with 4K is at present limited due to a lack of 4K content. Consider it like buying a BluRay player when there was very little offered on BluRay discs. This should of course change over time, which may be quick (within a year or three}, but at present you won't see any huge difference because there won't be much 4K out there to take advantage of that sharper resolution.

This of course does not mean that over your foreseen 10-year "lifetime" of the set you will not see a vast amount of 4K become available, and I fully expect you shall. However, keep in mind that your initial impressions might be disappointing, not due to the TV itself but due to the lack of "software" available which can take advantage of the upgrade.

[longknocker]

Thanks, Mark & Thomas! I Just Need To Decide Whether To Spend $1,000 Or $3,000 By The Time I Buy A New 4K TV, New 4K Receiver, & New 4K Blue Ray Player! I Don't Do Any Gaming, But I Do Watch A Lot Of Sports & Movies On Netflix. I Understand Netflix Will Start Streaming 4K Movies Soon.

[markem]

I'd say to not do it, then. The prices should come down significantly over time, just like with the LEDs. If you don't really need it, then wait for it to get cheaper. HD sports on my LED are very good.

[The Poet]

Plus, OLED sets should drop in price a lot over the next few years, and they offer a large improvement over LED or LCD in contrast . . . that is, blacks which are truly black. This doesn't help your present need, but may be a reason to make a smaller investment now while waiting to make a greater upgrade later.

Just my , and worth every penny.

[longknocker]

Originally Posted by The Poet

Plus, OLED sets should drop in price a lot over the next few years, and they offer a large improvement over LED or LCD in contrast . . . that is, blacks which are truly black. This doesn't help your present need, but may be a reason to make a smaller investment now while waiting to make a greater upgrade later.

Just my , and worth every penny.

Is OLED A Better Picture Than 4K? The Other Issue Is I Need To Redo My Cabinetry That Was Custom Built For My Heavy 55" Mitsubishi Widescreen. It Won't Work With The New Thin Line TV's.

[The Poet]

Better picture? Depends on your definition. At present, the only OLED available whose price is merely "Ouch, that's a lotta bread" (as opposed to "Are you freakin' kidding me?") is the LG 55-inch curved 3-D Smart, which sells at Best Buy for $3500. It is a 1080p TV, so is not as sharp as 4K sets. But reportedly with its self-illuminating OLEDs, plus the addition of a "white" pixel to augment the standard 3 color ones, it offers an "infinite" contrast range from true black to sparkling white. The 4K is, of course, 4K-sharp, so has that advantage. I'd expect that, within a few years, we'll see 4K OLED sets of 50-inch size for around $1500, but again that does not help you today.

FYI, Best Buy is promoting OLED by showcasing these sets at thousands of stores this week. Maybe one is close enough for you to visit, and then YOU can tell US what it's like.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/home-pro...eut=2392442063

[longknocker]

$3500 Is "Are You Freakin Kiddin' Me", Thomas! No Fancy Showrooms In Mobile, Unfortunately. After Reading Best Buys Customer Reviews, The SONY Apparently Has Better Customer Service & Quality Than Samsung?? I Have A 2 Year Old LG 60" Plasma In The Gameroom That I Love, But "The Mrs." Thinks It's Too Dark. She Likes A Brighter Picture. U Think The 4K & LED Pic Are "Brighter" Than Plasma?

[Dude Here]

Originally Posted by longknocker

Thanks, Steve. My Point Is: Should I Pay Roughly 2X More For The 4K Technology? Is It Really Worth It? Since I Tend To Keep A TV For A Long Time & This Would Be Our Main TV In The Den To Watch, Should I Bite The Bullet & Go With The New Technology?

Gotcha. We really don't watch much TV at our house, (our set will go DAYS without even being turned on) so I couldn't justify spending the coin on the 4K. Like The Poet said though, with it being such new technology you're limited on the amount of 4K content that will be available to you. I would say wait on getting the brand new stuff.

[The Poet]

Originally Posted by longknocker

$3500 Is "Are You Freakin Kiddin' Me", Thomas!

Hey, I've seen OLED prices that would get you a new car!

As for Plasma, again as I understand it, the only complaint about them (aside from their high power drain) is their darkness. The picture, contrast, viewing angle, and refresh rate supposedly blows LED away, but you needed a darker room to see the screen clearly. Yet if you want a Plasma, you better get it NOW . . . it is following the dodo into extinction.

Keep in mind that NONE of what I've told you is based on personal experience, and is only what I've read. At present I am watching The Caine Mutiny over boradcast TV on a 15-year-old 20-inch Toshiba CRT set hooked up to a digital converter box and rabbit-ears.

[shilala]

Greg, I ran all over looking at tv's just a couple years ago.
I'm not about the 4k (although it wasn't available then) or the 3d, or the other "must have" gimmicky stuff.
The best picture was on a Sony Bravia LED 240hz. I think it's 60", might be 55".
When I say "best", it's subjective. The picture looked the best to me. It was super sharp and it doesn't ghost at all when we're watching football. (Neither do either of my old 42" Toshiba plasmas.)
So many of the tv's ghosted so bad it almost gave me vertigo.
The sony on sale is reasonably priced, ends up being right around Toshiba and LG and Samsung.
I could not possibly be more pleased, and I picked this model based on the strength of Scott (sofaman's) tv. He had a Panasonic that fried in a couple years and he decided to go with the Bravia. After watching a few games on it, I was more than sold.
My buddy UB bought one as well, and I saw it when we were down there visiting last month. It's just as gorgeous a picture as ours and Scott's.

Good luck with whatever you pick, my friend!!!
(I haven't turned on a tv yet, by the way. lol)

[shilala]

Originally Posted by longknocker

U Think The ...LED Pic Is "Brighter" Than Plasma?

I do. And a lot "sharper". Although I'm honestly thrilled with the two plasmas we have, but they are both in dark bedrooms.
I think it's cause the plasmas have that screen door pixel thing going on that makes for much blacker blacks, while the led is backlighted and always wants to be bright.
So the plasma does black really good and the led does the whites really good.
I think the boss is right, buddy. You should have known.

[longknocker]

Originally Posted by shilala

I do. And a lot "sharper". Although I'm honestly thrilled with the two plasmas we have, but they are both in dark bedrooms.
I think it's cause the plasmas have that screen door pixel thing going on that makes for much blacker blacks, while the led is backlighted and always wants to be bright.
So the plasma does black really good and the led does the whites really good.
I think the boss is right, buddy. You should have known.

Hey, Scott; You Know The Boss Is Always Right! Thanks For The Advice, All!

[The Poet]

News today just FYI, Greg.

http://news.yahoo.com/lg-bets-pricey...060536835.html

[longknocker]

Originally Posted by The Poet

News today just FYI, Greg.

http://news.yahoo.com/lg-bets-pricey...060536835.html

Thanks, Thomas! Good News! The TV Repairman Came Out Last Nite, Bypassed The Bad Video Port On The TV, & The Color & Bright Picture Are Back For $120! Now I Can Hopefully Wait A Few Years To Decide On A New One.

[The Poet]

Good news.

[OLS]

My first question is why don't you adapt to another port on the TV? Is it the same?
Short of your HDMI doing the same thing, there are usually at least three ways to get
the signal into your TV, with the proper application of adapters. $20 versus $1500.

That said, I find Samsung to be the most solid on a cost/value ratio. Sony makes
about the best-LOOKING pictures, LG is a good bargain option, stay away from
Viewsonic, Coby and the other price bait of course.

OOPS, sorry, I see the repairman did what I thought needed to be done. Good all round.

I also see that I am not the only one that loves SONY. In 32 years of television,
it sinks in over time that EVERYTHING has a SONY nameplate on it in the control
room, and the best thing about SONY is it works and works and works. The level
of manufacturing competence is worth the extra money, I find. The pictures are
good enough to trust as a reference to what your gear is doing. If the price ever
comes into your wheelhouse in comparison to what you thought you might spend
on a mid-tier TV, always go SONY.