Need advice buying a new TV

We’re thinking about buying a new TV. The one we have is one of those big old clunkers–you know, the kind you had when you were a kid. It’s time to enter the 21st century.

We don’t need anything large as our living room is fairly small. What I’d like is to focus on color and picture clarity, and it must be rock-solid reliable (a guy in our building is always having to take his in for repairs). I believe there are several different technologies out there–even the same company using different technology to achieve different kinds of pictures. Where do I start researching? Anyone good with this kind of stuff or know a website that specializes in explaining this?

Budget is always a big question. I have no idea right now, but it sure won’t be 100,000 or anything like that.

Also, what about brands? Samsung, LG, Heran, Chimei? Others?

Thanks.

Hi,

Concerning the brand, I had a terrible experience with my Heran TV… and After Sales very poor.
However, Korean brands are quite famous and reliable (LG and Samsung) while Taiwanese famous brands (Like ASUS) should be okay (At least their AfterSales is good)

Tech point of view, well usually it is now between LED and LCD technology. LED is better (Newer tech, energy savings, …) but a bit more expensive.
Also, some TV are “Smart” meaning ‘connected’. (With wifi or Ethernet cable) and offer some additional services (Youtube, MOD, sometimes Skype with webcam, etc…)
Of course there are others aspect, like contrast, etc… but no need to be too tecky.

At home, I have an LG 42’ LED, so far so good. Good quality, easy to use and perfect to connect my computer to it. (I do not need any “smart” thing since my own computer is actually far more smarter xD)
Samsung has a very strong brand for monitor (Including TV), they usually do really good stuffs.

Hope it helps

I have a Tatung TV, actually very good. No problems and cheap, 32" led NT$12k.

I always go Sony or Panasonic, check speed -125hz if I am not mistaken- and LED. Hopefully Internet connection. Should come about 25K.

Slow Rain,

Hello. My wife and I bought a Heran 46" (okay, maybe it was 47") just last month. We bought it over other brands because its specs were just as good as the competition (domestic and imported) at the same or similar price and it is made in Taiwan. We went to Costco, Ai Mart, Carrefour, and Tsan Kun to compare prices, warranties, delivery/installation charges, and we called friends for their advice. We had nearly settled on Ai Mart when my sister-in-law suggested we call the guy who sold us our fridge last year. This guy runs one of those single laoban independent neighborhood electronics stores. You know, the kind you walk by on your way to the market, or a restaurant near your home.

I thought it was a long shot since there was no way he could compete with the big box stores. Heh. I was wrong. All the independent retail guys banded together a few years ago to create some sort of “hui” or association that gives them serious clout with suppliers. It allows them to supply the same electronic devices the big box stores sell, and beat their prices to boot. That was my take on it anyway (it was delivered mostly in Taiwanese with a smattering of Mandarin, so I think I understood the explanation!). Anyway, we bought the same model from this guy for a couple thousand less than the big box price; bought the Heran sound bar for $2000 less, and an HD antenna and the wall mount, and paid half the delivery charge. The guy and his assistant showed up at around 6 pm. They knew us from last year, were polite and hard working. They installed everything, cleaned up afterward, and made sure we knew how to use it before they left.

He undercut the big box stores by something like $4000 plus we already knew him from before, so we know he’ll take care of us if there is a need for service. He has to work harder and earn a little less than he’d like perhaps, but how else is he going to compete with the big chains?

We’re in Taoyuan, so you probably don’t want to buy from him, but I’ll wager you can find someone a lot like him near your home. Talk to people in your building for references. You may just find a great deal like we did.

I just read what I typed. Let me offer a little extra info. We had decided there was no need to buy an awesome Samsung, LG, or Sony LED TV. Yes, they are noticeably better. We don’t watch much TV and really dislike the cable TV quality. We either watch what is available from the antenna or hook up a laptop. We don’t need 3D capability. Our lives do not revolve around our TV, so we didn’t opt for the best there is, you know? Neither did we settle for a crap TV. The Heran is a good solid TV that was priced just right for us. I just asked my wife how much we paid. She doesn’t remember the exact amount for our TV, but she remembers the total amount. What does that mean? Well, her parents decided to buy a new TV at the same time–the week before CNY. ‘Dad’ listened to my arguments for and against various TVs and decided he wanted the same model we were going to buy except he bought the 42" model. Together we paid $45,000NT for 2 TVs, one sound bar, one wall mount, one digital antenna, delivery, and installation (My in-laws live in the same building as us. I know! I know! :loco: :loco: )

I want to say their TV was either $13,000 or $16,000, but I can’t remember. Perhaps I can get my wife to dig up the receipt.

Best of luck with your search.

I have a Heran for three years. The on/off function is starting to go (you need to turn it on twice), it will cost 2500 NTD to fix. The service was okay though as the Heran guy came to our house to check, I think they may assemble them in Taichung. If its under warranty it’s a free fix (tip- get the warranty stamped by retailer when purchasing otherwise it is invalid). The TV is pretty functional, their remotes were pretty flimsy (don’t stand up to kids throwing them around) but as with any MIT local brand it is not designed to last very long. We have used it a lot as have young family at home a lot.
I would pay a bit more for a Samsung or not MIT next time (same kind of problems with my local brand air con).

Make sure the TV has hdmi and Internet connection.

Don’t buy Chimei. Absolute crap!

I’d say Samsung has the best picture clarity typically, with Sony right up there…though Sony is a bit overpriced due to name.

If you want a good balance of picture quality and reasonable price, I’d look at LG and Panasonic.

I own 2 LGs and one Samsung…one LG is a 5 year old LCD 720p and still going strong. The Samsung has terrific picture quality, but also a lot of bells and whistles, including 3d.

I’d avoid all that gimmicky stuff…3d is really overrated (never use it) and you don’t need a smart TV with apps. Even though my Samsung is amazing for movies I’m a fan of the LG sets.

I personally wouldn’t buy the heran/chimei stuff…not sure it’s horrible…but you can see just by looking at them that corners have been cut in the build. Not to mention a lot of their ‘new’ sets use tech that’s maybe a year or 2 old, which is part of the reason why you see em for so cheap.

Some people would also argue that HZ (the refresh rate advertised) is a gimmick…sets come in 60HZ, 120 HZ, 240 HZ…maybe higher. Here’s an article:

techradar.com/news/home-cine … cks-646907

And a decent explanation here:

ehow.com/info_12117081_60-hz … z-lcd.html

That isn’t to say you can’t see the difference in HZ, but it doesn’t make it a better viewing experience, imo. My Samsung, I believe, goes up to 240 HZ…if you enable that processing it essentially fills in frames and makes the picture much smoother, but also ‘weird’…it can make a TV show feel live…kind of like what you see from soap opera cameras…but I don’t like it. Maybe 120HZ is all you need there…60 is not bad either but 120 seems the standard these days.

Prices have recently dropped as well, so I think you’ll be surprised what your money will get you. Go out to costco and you’ll see reasonably priced sets even up to 55’ now. Like 55-60k in price. If I were you, I’d look at LG and Panasonic, look for 120HZ sets with no bells and whistles, and sort it out from there. Even 47’ is pretty big and I’m sure you can find something like that in the 35k? range…something like that.

Thanks for all the replies–and useful, too!

We don’t use our TV very often, either. The idea of watching YouTube videos seems okay; TED Talks would be great, too.

The current TV we have is almost 10 years old, so I’d want something with similar longevity from whatever we get next. I’m willing to sacrifice overall picture size for better quality. However, I’m a little concerned that a TV needs to be “installed”. I’m okay with plugging it in to electricity and plugging in an internet cable, but what exactly needs to be “installed”?

Eh, I am afraid they don’t build them like that anymore. The new LCDs/LEDs have a limited lifetime, acertain amount of hours of use and kaput! They’re history. So I still have a clunker for the pets to watch, doesn’t matte rif it is on all day and night. Some of the new ones cannot be left in a single image or they’ll “freeze” over, and sometimes some develop black spots where their components are burned. In summary, do expect a shorter lifetime.

Nevertheless, as said, with HDMI, you can migrate to higher functions, Blu ray, etc. which the clunker can’t.

[quote=“mups”]
I own 2 LGs and one Samsung…[/quote]

:blush: hehe -something similar here.

We bought a Philips LCD in 2005 - was 90 K :loco: HDMI at 720 with 1 entry. For sale now 5 K :thumbsup:
A Sony LCD in 2007 / 32 inch. Recently replaced by a third LG 37 inch/ 5600 series - dirt cheap VERY good image / low consumption.
An LG 40 inch LED 3D we bought last year was recently replaced by a 47 inch 3D LED - I think the 6400 series. 40 K NTD - BEST buy for us.
We connect our Apple TV / stream netflix and watch once an a while a High Def documentary from NGC - or a rented 3D movie

Counted: we got 6 TV’s in house for 2 people
Ask me something about TV’s - I was selling my first one as Retail Sales Rep when I was 18 years old :notworthy:

my advice : by an LG - feedback on Cnet and many other sides is simply good.
Sharp / Samsung also - but more expensive and not always better (LED screens come from some same BIG manufacturers and shared anyway)

You can get old cathode TVs for half nothing now, some of them have excellent picture quality and last forever and use less electricity. Where they fall down is lack of HDMi connection. I think it’s only very recently that flat panel TVs start to reach the picture quality of the older ones, and still not there in terms of collide clarity. Their lifespan is crap and they suck electricity (the newest ones should use less electricity but still more than the cathodes).
In summary flat panel TVs are nice to have but not the advance that they had been promoted to be. Just don’t get a Taiwanese brand, something will break in a couple of years.

have had a malaysia made Panasonic 32 inch LCD for the last year or so. Often kept on all day for my cat to watch tv (tv on keeps him chilled).

no problems, low consumption, doesnt get hot.

good picture

LCD is a softer image then LED. I find LED image to be a bit too harsh/sharp/unnatural.

[quote=“tommy525”]have had a malaysia made Panasonic 32 inch LCD for the last year or so. Often kept on all day for my cat to watch tv (tv on keeps him chilled).

no problems, low consumption, doesnt get hot.

good picture

LCD is a softer image then LED. I find LED image to be a bit too harsh/sharp/unnatural.[/quote]

LEDs are LCD, just with a backlight that allows the picture to be brighter than an LCD model. You can always turn the backlight down if it’s too bright.

Icon, I believe burn-in is only an issue on plasma sets, and from what I’ve read newer models don’t have the burn-in issues older ones do. Some TVs also have a ‘screensaver’ mode where you can tell it to turn the picture off if the same image is on screen for x amount of time. The samsung I have has a screensaver mode after 2 hours, and a turn off TV option after 4 if there has been no input in that time.

Reason I say avoid the smart TV markups is you can always hook up a PC/laptop to your set via HDMI and get the same/more convenient results. As long as your pc graphics card is decent (not top of the line but you have to make sure it can handle HD video!) and you have HDMI output on the pc it’s easy to play up to 1080p video from the pc to TV. So instead of dropping the extra 10-15 k on a smart TV with internet, spend it on a laptop and now you’ve got a TV+laptop with the same capabilities.

For example, I’ve got my pc hooked up in the living room and subscribe to NBA league pass. When I want to watch a game, I hit a button to switch the TV over to the computer input and drag whatever is on my pc screen to the TV (dual monitors are easy to set up since windows 7) and watch in fullscreen there…same for youtube or any other video I want to watch. My pc isn’t a laptop but obviously that would be more ideal for some because you can shut it somewhat on your coffee table and it’s not obtrusive, in addition to portability.

Back in the UK, i had an Optomo HD projector. One of my first big purchases i think will be a projector. I have gone off the idea of a tv nowadays. I havent seen a projector in any of the electronic stores i’ve been to yet though.