Help me choose a TV

[Royale with Cheese]

My 65 inch Roku TV of 5 years just crapped out on me a few days ago.  I get audio, but no video.  

I'm sure there is a loose wire or something like that where I could remove the back, troubleshoot and figure it out.  But it's a standard HD TV and this give me an excuse to upgrade.

 

So, I would like at least a 75 inch, I will go up to 86 inch for the right deal.

 

I'm not a TV expert so I'm hoping you guys have some answers.

 

• OLED and QLED....what is your opinion overall on both and which would you prefer and why?
• 4K streaming.  I have YoutubeTV and have the standard package at 1080p.  But you can pay $10 a month to upgrade to 4K.  But, how many channels, programs and events come in 4K?  Is it worth it to upgrade to premiums or is there just not enough programs that run on 4K?
• Size.  86 inch as a man sounds great but I don't want to lose too much picture quality.  Best Buy has sales right now and two I'm looking at are 86 inch Hisense and 75 inch Samsung.  Both QLED and the specs are roughly the same.  I know Samsung is top quality but I don't know anything about Hisense.  The Hisense is about $300 cheaper.

[Augie]

I’ve got a 77” LG OLED TV in the family room, and we LOVE it. I ordered it thru Crutchfield because they had free delivery and it was about $200 less than Best Buy or Costco.  Win/win. The free delivery saved me from renting a van because it would not fit in either of our cars at the time. That may be helpful to you. 

 

I was watching Notre Dame play in Dublin and a box popped up asking if I wanted to watch it in 4K. Yes please! I learned that I get several 4K stations already, plus you can search in Netflix, etc for 4K only. It’s nice, but the picture is pretty darn good to start with.  

 

I think of TVs a being disposable these days. I hope the next one lasts longer for you. 

 

EDIT: The 4K channels do not always have programing available. There’s only a few of them, and sometime they are just blank on my DTV Streaming setup. You can search for 4K on other streaming services. 

 

 

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Edited 19 minutes ago by Augie

[May Day 10]

I have a 75 in both my living room and basement.  IMO that is plenty. 

 

I would always buy either Samsung or Sony.  

[BillsFan4]

First question would be what your budget is. 

 

OLED and QLED are 2 different types of TVs and technologies.

 

A QLED TV is just a regular LED backlit TV with a color filter on the screen (“quantum dot” light filter). Sony also has this technology. It’s called Triluminous.

 

An OLED Tv is much different. OLED = organic light emitting diodes. There are literally BILLIONS of small light emitting diodes that can each be turned off individually from each other, which creates almost infinite contrast and true blacks, with no blooming.

 

Where as with LED backlit TVs, there are maybe a few hundred LED’s (on the high end LED TVs) or maybe a few dozen on lower end LED TVs. Some are what’s called “direct lit”, where they have LED’s across the whole screen. Sometimes they can be turned on+off individually and other times they are turned on/off in zones. It depends on the TV. Some low end LED TVs are only edge lit (only have LED lights along the edges of the TV).

 

There is also a new lighting technology out called “mini LED”. It uses more LED backlights than a standard LED but still not as many as an OLED. But the mini LED get significantly brighter than an OLED.

 

oh, and then there is QD-OLED, another new technology. It uses the quantum dot light filter with a new, brighter OLED panel.

 

all have their benefits and drawbacks. OLED is still my favorite.

 

 

Almost any new Tv is going to be 4k capable these days. I do think it’s worth owning a 4k TV. There is plenty of 4k programming and movies these days. Most of my streaming services broadcast in 4k. Amazon even broadcasts some of the Thursday night football games in 4k.

 

 

As far as brands of Tv - Sony is my favorite brand and has been for decades now. They are far and away the best when it comes to picture processing. Their processors have been #1 for a very long time.

 

depending on your budget, I’d recommend at least a Sony 900 series LED. Or if you can swing it, one of their OLED TVs. (I own both their top end LED and OLED TVs and love them both, but the OLED wins hands down).

 

LG is also an excellent brand for OLED TVs (though I’d avoid their LED TVs). 

 

If you are looking for a cheaper TV, Hisense is a decent choice. Their processing isn’t going to be on the level of Sony, but they have excellent picture quality for a cheaper TV.

 

I would strongly suggest avoiding the lower end Samsung TVs. They are crap IMO.
 

 

this is a great site for reviewing TVs:

 

https://www.rtings.com/tv

Edited 3 hours ago by BillsFan4

[Royale with Cheese]

14 minutes ago, Augie said:

I’ve got a 77” LG OLED TV in the family room, and we LOVE it. I ordered it thru Crutchfield because they had free delivery and it was about $200 less than Best Buy or Costco.  Win/win. The free delivery saved me from renting a van because it would not fit in either of our cars at the time. That may be helpful to you. 

 

I was watching Notre Dame play in Dublin and a box popped up asking if I wanted to watch it in 4K. Yes please! I learned that I get several 4K stations already, plus you can search in Netflix, etc for 4K only. It’s nice, but the picture is pretty darn good to start with.  

 

I think of TVs a being disposable these days. I hope the next one lasts longer for you. 

 

I have a Tacoma so I will be fine.

Plus, I would rather handle the delivery myself for something this sensitive.

 

So with the QLED TV in a non-4k stream, you will still see a difference in picture quality?

[Royale with Cheese]

11 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

First question would be what your budget is. 

 

OLED and QLED are 2 different types of TVs and technologies.

 

A QLED TV is just a regular LED backlit TV with a color filter on the screen. Sony also has this technology. It’s called Triluminous.

 

An OLED Tv is much different. OLED = organic light emitting diodes. There are literally BILLIONS of small light emitting diodes that can each be turned off individually from each other, which creates almost infinite contrast and true blacks, with no blooming.

 

Where as with LED backlit TVs, there are maybe a few hundred LED’s (on the high end LED TVs) or maybe a few dozen on lower end LED TVs. Some are what’s called “direct lit”, where they have LED’s across the whole screen. Sometimes they can be turned on+off individually and other times they are turned on/off in zones. It depends on the TV. Some low end LED TVs are only edge lit (only have LED lights along the edges of the TV).

 

There is also a new lighting technology out called “mini LED”. It uses more LED backlights than a standard LED but still not as many as an OLED. But the mini LED get significantly brighter than an OLED.

 

 

Almost any new Tv is going to be 4k capable these days. I do think it’s worth owning a 4k TV. There is plenty of 4k programming and movies these days. Most of my streaming services broadcast in 4k. Amazon even broadcasts some of the Thursday night football games in 4k.

 

 

As far as brands of Tv - Sony is my favorite brand and has been for decades now. They are far and away the best when it comes to picture processing. Their processors have been #1 for a very long time.

 

depending on your budget, I’d recommend at least a Sony 900 series LED. Or if you can swing it, one of their OLED TVs. (I own both their top end LED and OLED TVs and love them both, but the OLED wins hands down).

 

LG is also an excellent brand for OLED TVs (though I’d avoid their LED TVs). 

 

If you are looking for a cheaper TV, Hisense is a decent choice. Their processing isn’t going to be on the level of Sony, but they have excellent picture quality for a cheaper TV.

 

I would strongly suggest avoiding the lower end Samsung TVs. They are crap IMO.
 

 

this is a great site for reviewing TVs:

 

https://www.rtings.com/tv

Here is one I have been looking at.

 

Would this be the lower value one you suggest to avoid?

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-75-class-q7f-series-qled-4k-uhd-samsungvision-ai-smart-tizen-tv-2025/6619142.p?skuId=6619142

[BillsFan4]

14 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Here is one I have been looking at.

 

Would this be the lower value one you suggest to avoid?

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-75-class-q7f-series-qled-4k-uhd-samsungvision-ai-smart-tizen-tv-2025/6619142.p?skuId=6619142

No, that’s a Q series. The Q series is good. I was talking about the TVs lower than the Q series, like the D series (usually labelled “crystal UHD”). 

 

personally, I’d go with this one over the Q7, but it’s a couple hundred more.

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-75-class-bravia-xr-x90l-led-4k-uhd-smart-google-tv-2023/6544735.p?skuId=6544735

 

that site I linked is great for comparing TV models. They have a comparison tool that breaks down everything in great detail.

 

https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/compare/lg-b4-oled-vs-lg-c4-oled/49540/49541

 

 

[jayg]

Hisense is Chinese company if it matters to you(so is TCL).  I have 4 older Samsung plasmas that I still use a well as a Sony OLED which has great picture but streaming is a little choppy for live sports. It's 4 or so years old so maybe they've sorted it out but I don't stream on it 99% of the time. I'm not a fan of LG products but almost pulled the trigger on aN 86" OLED at costco.  I think they had it for 899 and the picture was great but may do a projector whenever I finish the basement. 

 

I don't know if it's still the case, but LG and samsung used to supply sony with the oled panels themselves. 

[BillsFan4]

17 minutes ago, jayg said:

Hisense is Chinese company if it matters to you(so is TCL).  I have 4 older Samsung plasmas that I still use a well as a Sony OLED which has great picture but streaming is a little choppy for live sports. It's 4 or so years old so maybe they've sorted it out but I don't stream on it 99% of the time. I'm not a fan of LG products but almost pulled the trigger on aN 86" OLED at costco.  I think they had it for 899 and the picture was great but may do a projector whenever I finish the basement. 

 

I don't know if it's still the case, but LG and samsung used to supply sony with the oled panels themselves. 

Do you stream on the Sony using the built in smart TV apps? If so, I’d recommend picking up an external streaming device like a fire stick 4k.

 

I never use the built in apps on any of my TVs for streaming. I want the TV just focused on picture processing (etc). You will get a smoother experience using an external streaming device.

 

also, some people are more sensitive to stutter on OLED TVs (usually when watching sports like hockey). I don’t notice it on my Sony OLED, but I know people who prefer LED TVs to OLED for that reason - stutter during fast moving sports.

OLED is superior in almost every way except overall motion handling.

 

 

also, yes, LG makes the OLED panels for every OLED Tv on the market except Samsung.

 

Samsung didn’t have any OLED TVs until recently, when they came out with the QD-OLED panels. They are brighter than traditional OLED panels, but I don’t know how their longevity and burn-in protection compares to standard OLED panels. Longevity and burn-in protection have come a long ways in traditional OLED. I’m always a bit leery of brand new tech until it’s been out for a # of years. I know Samsung had some major bugs with their new QD-OLED a few years ago when it first came out. I’m guessing it’s improved since then.

 

Sony does use Samsung’s QD-OLED panels in 1 or 2 of their TV models.

 

But even though Sony uses LG and Samsung OLED panels, their picture quality is still superior because of their processing and upscaling being by far the best in the industry. 

[Just Jack]

1 hour ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

How does a TV not last more than 5 years?

 

My TVs are going on 16 & 15 years... Including a 53" Samsung plasma... And the year 16 old one (Sanyo 43" LCD) inherited from a deceased friend 4 years ago.

 

Nice thing about old TVs... Lots of inputs!

 

I had a 27" tube TV (Philips Magnavox) that lasted over 20 years before I donated it.  Had Picture-in-picture also, I wish newer TV's still offered it. 

 

28 minutes ago, jayg said:

I don't know if it's still the case, but LG and samsung used to supply sony with the oled panels themselves. 

 

When I bought my current TV, a Sharp 65" with built in Roku, over 6 years ago, I had read that TLC made the displays for Sharp, and there were lots of reports of TLC display's failing after 1 year. So I bought the extended warranty just in case. Must be they put more quality control in the higher end TV's, have not had any issues with the display. 

[HereComesTheReignAgain]

I also have a 77" LG OLED that I bought in 2022.  I have zero complaints and the picture is excellent.  I did a lot of research prior to buying and at the time it seemed to be the best combo of performance and price.  One feature that I didn't realize I would like so much is the nearly flat mounting bracket that came with the LG.  My TV extends about an inch from the wall.  

[Royale with Cheese]

44 minutes ago, jayg said:

Hisense is Chinese company if it matters to you(so is TCL).  I have 4 older Samsung plasmas that I still use a well as a Sony OLED which has great picture but streaming is a little choppy for live sports. It's 4 or so years old so maybe they've sorted it out but I don't stream on it 99% of the time. I'm not a fan of LG products but almost pulled the trigger on aN 86" OLED at costco.  I think they had it for 899 and the picture was great but may do a projector whenever I finish the basement. 

 

I don't know if it's still the case, but LG and samsung used to supply sony with the oled panels themselves. 

 

I have a 50 inch LG in my bedroom.  The quality is decent but the functionality is slow.

 

Once the home screen pops up, it takes about 10 seconds before I can scroll...it just stays frozen until then.

I will have apps that will just not work and then I will have to unplug the TV for about 20 seconds....turning the power off doesn't work.  

Live sports will get choppy here and there.

[Bray Wyatt]

Make sure to look at the refresh rate, for a real smooth 4k experience you will want 120Hz

[Augie]

3 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

I have a Tacoma so I will be fine.

Plus, I would rather handle the delivery myself for something this sensitive.

 

So with the QLED TV in a non-4k stream, you will still see a difference in picture quality?

 

I don’t know about QLED aspect, but with 4K it depends on what you are watching. Go into Best Buy or Costco and they display stuff designed to catch your eye and give you a WOW moment. If you’re watching the news, it’s no big deal. It’s better, but it’s pretty darn good without the 4K. Bottom line is there its still limited content, but you can find 4K stuff if you look for it. 

 

.

Edited 12 minutes ago by Augie

[Augie]

 

While we are on TV’s, we have a Samsung Frame TV in the living room. It’s awesome because when it’s not being used as a TV you can put pictures on it, anything from a Monet masterpiece to family photos or holiday themed art. It’s pretty cool to not have it look like a black TV on the wall. It can be motion activated so it can turn itself off if you are not around.