TV is dead, now which one?

[Frimley111R]

After 12 years our plasma 50" LG TV is dead. I know nothing about TVs so what do you recommend? I guess 4K and a smart TV, LED? What else?

[miniman]

Having bought one, I don't think I'd bother with a Smart TV. We have a Sony Bravia (Android TV OS) and honestly a standard TV with an AppleTV / Amazon Fire TV or even Chromecast would be as good if not better.

[bristolracer]

Frimley111R said:

After 12 years our plasma 50" LG TV is dead. I know nothing about TVs so what do you recommend? I guess 4K and a smart TV, LED? What else?

What is wrong with it?
If it's stuck in standby it's an easy fix,power supply is cooked and would need a capacitor rebuild.

Trying to get a picture as good as a plasma is a costly business.
As poster above pointed out,don't go overboard with the smart stuff,firestick apple etc do it better than the TV makers.

[cobra kid]

miniman said:

Having bought one, I don't think I'd bother with a Smart TV. We have a Sony Bravia (Android TV OS) and honestly a standard TV with an AppleTV / Amazon Fire TV or even Chromecast would be as good if not better.

Having bought one, I'd still go with a Smart TV. Not having to trail 4 different boxes with 4 different remotes with different sets of issues is a bonus.

[davek_964]

I'm genuinely surprised you can buy non smart TVs these days - I assumed they all were!

Think the OP needs to give a budget for recommendations. I replaced a plasma with an LG OLED which is a stunning picture - but at a cost.

[Frimley111R]

bristolracer said:

Frimley111R said:

After 12 years our plasma 50" LG TV is dead. I know nothing about TVs so what do you recommend? I guess 4K and a smart TV, LED? What else?

What is wrong with it?
If it's stuck in standby it's an easy fix,power supply is cooked and would need a capacitor rebuild.

Trying to get a picture as good as a plasma is a costly business.
As poster above pointed out,don't go overboard with the smart stuff,firestick apple etc do it better than the TV makers.

It just started to switch itself off and on (standby) randomly last night and so we couldn't stop it after trying all the obvious things. That said we tried it this morning and it seemed to be ok. Fair point about fixing it potentially. In these days of a throwing stuff away culture I didn't really consider fixing a 12 year old TV. I'll keep an eye on it and if it goes again I'll look to try getting it fixed first. It'll be a lot cheaper than a new one! I have little interest in TVs, as long as they show a picture that's fine. A smart TV looks good but I won't get one unless I have to.

[megaphone]

I'd go for 55" LG OLED. But £1600.

https://www.richersounds.com/lg-oled55b7v.html

They where down to £1500 in Jan.

[OldGermanHeaps]

For me the best budget brand is hisense. I have fitted these in hundreds of homes and businesses and apart from the latest bad firmware update never had a problem, and nobody has complained about picture quality.
Quite a few have been running 24/7 since 2015 as cheap 4k cctv monitors.

Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Tuesday 13th February 09:06

[jmorgan]

Budget?

Smart TV's are fine for a while then they stop upgrading apps. I would make sure the one you get has the best option to plug in a smart box to extend the life past any apps when they are left to rot.

[steveatesh]

Personally I'd start by going to actually look at them in a Currys shed or Costco.

You can see a lot of choice side by side, get the model numbers, spec and price, use the man maths bit to arrive at what you want and buy it.

Personal choice at the end of the day of course.

[Frimley111R]

jmorgan said:

Budget?

Smart TV's are fine for a while then they stop upgrading apps. I would make sure the one you get has the best option to plug in a smart box to extend the life past any apps when they are left to rot.

Thanks sounds like good advice. It's predictably not stopped happening

[Frimley111R]

Ok, TV is officially dead.

Assume a budget of around 5-600 what should I be looking for? HD quality/4k quality? Not a smart TV because the apps don't update? Etc...?

[jmorgan]

Apps are supported and will update for a while, might have misled you, it is the long term thinking. Just think long term in the hope that your TV will last many years. Personally HDMI highest you can get (2.0b or 2.1) and it should be OK. If apps are stopped for your TV then whatever box is around should pick up the slack.

e.g. iPlayer stopped working on my Panasonic bluray, too old they said.

Also My TV no longer gets manufacturer software updates and it is 2015, Netflix and Iplayer and youtube are still supported but I do not expect them to be there for ever and at that point I will rely on a plugin box.

Then there is the software, only you can make that choice, go to a shop and play with them and see which ones you get on with. Not a good example but the remote for my samsung bluray is absolutely terrible and the method of fast forward and rewind is awful, to the point of it is going in the bin at some point in the near future. Had I known I would got another player (not many 4k at the time).

[Lucas Ayde]

Frimley111R said:

Ok, TV is officially dead.

Assume a budget of around 5-600 what should I be looking for? HD quality/4k quality? Not a smart TV because the apps don't update? Etc...?

Just look for a well reviewed set for picture quality and one that supports the various HDR schemes (if you are getting 4k, which is almost a standard at that price point now). The more HDMI inputs the better and you'll want to see things like ARC (Audio Return Channel) support for the likes of soundbars.

I have to say that both Samsung and Sony make very good sets from a hardware point of view and they seem to know how to make something with a pleasing picture.

As others have said, the Smart TV part is totally irrelevant. The built in capabilities are rarely as good as a dedicated box and don't tend to get properly updated leaving them 'orphans' after a couple of years, especially galling if it's a proprietary OS. Sony Bravias at least use Android TV for their built in 'smart' functionality but they use underpowered hardware to run it and don't provide timely OS updates in my experience.

Get something like an NVidia Shield TV box and all your 'Smart' bases are covered, it's easily the most capable and best supported 'Smart' add-on box. Chromecasts are super cheap as is the Amazon FireTV stick if you don't need all that the NVidia offers.

[Bikerjon]

I finally sold my trusty plasma a couple of months ago. A great TV that cost around £1500 back in the day and which I've had for 10 years (maybe more). I was deliberating changing it for a relatively cheap (£500) LG 49" 4K HDR TV for quite a while and I'm glad I took the plunge. Not only are the extra "smart" features worthwhile and really do change the way we watch TV, but the picture is unexpectedly good for what is a budget TV. The only annoyances were setting up the thing took literally hours/days of experimenting with the vast array of picture options and the TV guide is slow to use.

Edited by Bikerjon on Wednesday 7th March 10:20

[Brainpox]

I'm no expert but I have a 65" Samsung with their 'Quantum Dot' tech. Blacks aren't as deep as OLED but is significantly cheaper (or was when I bought it at least), no risk of burn in, and reduced input lag. Worth checking out imo.

[MYOB]

miniman said:

Having bought one, I don't think I'd bother with a Smart TV. We have a Sony Bravia (Android TV OS) and honestly a standard TV with an AppleTV / Amazon Fire TV or even Chromecast would be as good if not better.

I agree with this. I spent over £1200 on a Sony last year and quite honestly, the "Smart" aspects of the TV are quite slow and clunky. I hardly use the "smart" features and still use Apple TV/Firestick.

[Frimley111R]

Lucas Ayde said:

Get something like an NVidia Shield TV box and all your 'Smart' bases are covered, it's easily the most capable and best supported 'Smart' add-on box. Chromecasts are super cheap as is the Amazon FireTV stick if you don't need all that the NVidia offers.

Looks interesting although we already use a Firestick.

[Frimley111R]

Bikerjon said:

I finally sold my trusty plasma a couple of months ago...... I was deliberating changing it for a relatively cheap (£500) LG 49" 4K HDR TV for quite a while and I'm glad I took the plunge. Not only are the extra "smart" features worthwhile and really do change the way we watch TV, but the picture is unexpectedly good for what is a budget TV.

Edited by Bikerjon on Wednesday 7th March 10:20

Are TVs still plasma or LED? Thew only point someone once made to me about plasma screens (ours is/was) is that the screens are very reflective and as we have big windows in our house this is a bit of an issue at times.

[anonymous-user]

Frimley111R said:

Bikerjon said:

I finally sold my trusty plasma a couple of months ago...... I was deliberating changing it for a relatively cheap (£500) LG 49" 4K HDR TV for quite a while and I'm glad I took the plunge. Not only are the extra "smart" features worthwhile and really do change the way we watch TV, but the picture is unexpectedly good for what is a budget TV.

Edited by Bikerjon on Wednesday 7th March 10:20

Are TVs still plasma or LED? Thew only point someone once made to me about plasma screens (ours is/was) is that the screens are very reflective and as we have big windows in our house this is a bit of an issue at times.

Basic options are OLED or LCD. LED is simply the backlighting technology for LCD panels so a LED tv is an LCD with LED lighting.

Money no object - buy OLED

On a budget - LCD/LED