We bought our 55” Samsung television set in 2015 and it’s not working right — there’s a bright patch in the screen, like the sun partially shining through an overcast sky. I also think it may be unnecessarily complicated to operate, maybe incompatible with some things now.
We have “cable” that the television set accesses through the house LAN on twisted pair cable, no longer any coax. We needed a Roku box to access many of the things we want to watch. I think we have Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime, maybe Hulu, I don’t know what all else. I don’t know how to operate the set; Ms. Napier does all that through 6 different remotes that all seem very confusing. We have 6 speakers driven by a combination audio box and DVD player. (I wouldn’t mind keeping the 6 speakers and don’t want to mess with a sound bar.) Some of this is automatic and does stuff wrong, like if we watch a DVD and then want cable the sound box automatically turns itself off. It can be a struggle to turn the built in speakers in the set itself and only hear the 6 better speakers, and when both operate they’re often not quite in sync; also sometimes the picture is as much as about 30 seconds out of sync with the sound, so it’s not even the same scene in a movie when we hear it. The mute button often changes channels. Etc etc.
Most important in replacing the set is I don’t want all this complication and malfunction that I can’t figure out how to fix. I’ve wondered if we should have bought a receiver and a separate DVD player instead, is that the right way to do it? I guess a new set won’t require the Roku any more?
We’re old enough that our eyes and ears aren’t high resolution and high fidelity any more. I don’t think we need things fancy, per se. I just want it to not be so confusing, and not malfunction. Hunting for advice online seems aimed at whether 8K is worth it yet, not about how to fix the malfunctions or avoid having 6 different remotes.
How do we do this?
Tuppence is tuppence, and of course I don’t want to waste money. But if it cost a couple thousand to make things right, I could do that. I bet it doesn’t, though.
I’m having a hard time parsing out how the existing system works, but I’ll give it a go.
The simplest option may be to buy a new smart TV that has Roku (and other services) built into it. Then buy a 5.1 or 7.1 AV receiver. Receiver connects to TV via HDMI. Be sure to use the audio reverse channel (ARC) HDMI port on the TV.
Connect your external sources (BD/DVD player, cable box, or whatever) to the inputs on the AV receiver using HDMI cables. You may also be able to connect them directly to the TV. Doesn’t usually matter much.
Home LAN (network) cable connects to TV (and maybe also to anything else you have that requires network access).
Ready to watch? Turn on TV and receiver. The TV or receiver remote might be able to do this simultaneously. Program TV to use the receiver for sound output. When you do this, both the TV remote and AV receiver remote should change your volume. The speakers in the TV won’t work at all. Use the internal apps on the TV (Roku, Prime, Netflix) as needed.
Want to watch BD/DVD? Select correct input on AV receiver and input on TV. On mine, I can use a single button on the TV remote to switch between internal apps (Roku, etc.) and the external AV receiver.
Honestly, even the cheapest new set you buy today is going to have better technology and a larger screen than the one it’s replacing. $400-500 will get you something great. Most TVs will be able to stream most or call of the services (Netflix, Prime, Roku, etc) without needing an Roku device.
Pretty much all TVs will use wifi to connect to the network. I’m not sure if they come with LAN (ethernet) ports anymore.
I would recommend you still use your separate Roku box. Although most TVs have streaming, they almost all use cheap streaming hardware. This means that streaming platform in the TV may be slow, clunky, hang, crash, etc. You can certainly use the TV’s streaming platform, but if you find it frustrating, go back to your Roku box.
It’s common for the sound to be out of sync when using an external sound system. Most TVs will have a way for you to sync up the video and external sound system. There should be a setting in the Sound menu where you can set an audio delay. If your current TV doesn’t have it, your new TV will probably have it.
We had a Roku stick, but during the pandemic when our old TV died we got a Roku enabled TV. Almost never crashes, much better than the stick which we gave away to friends.
We have two remotes, one for the TV and one for the DVR from Dish Network. If we cut that we’d only need one. And one for the DVD player, but I hardly ever use that since Netflix ran out of DVDs I wanted to watch, which was about a year before they closed the service.
For Napier, if your ears aren’t so hot anymore (mine aren’t either) why do you need six speakers? The TV sound is fine for us, and we’d get a speaker bar if it wasn’t. (I’d quote it but for some reason I can’t without throwing away this post.)
Rtings.com offers insanely detailed reviews of TV as well as easy overviews. However they seem to gradually be making site navigation more difficult (probably to make visitors stay longer).
Many TVs have Roku software built in. It’s literally the same code that runs in the standalone boxes, with some additions to support picture modes and a few other things specific to a TV. If you were happy (and familiar) with the Roku UI, it would probably be best to get a Roku TV.
Doesn’t help with your decision about buying a replacement, but that problem sounds like the polarization filter on the front of your screen got damaged. Many modern televisions and monitors work by switching the polarization of the individual light-emitting pixel elements. This would be invisible to the naked eye but for the polarization filter in front of the pixel elements that blocks or transmits the pixels depending on their state.
I just bought a new TV, and helped a friend by one, too.
First of all - in general, you get what you pay for. Most of the “budget” TVs have uneven backlighting and poor viewing angle. The TV manufacturers always promote essentially useless specs, like response time, which is only important if you are going to be playing games on it.
If you want excellent image quality, spend the money and get an OLED screen. There’s really no other technology that can beat that for a high-quality picture.
Good advice here and as an FYI, I know what’s wrong with your current Samsung because I had the same issue with my Samsung. There are a series of LED lights behind the screen and each is covered with a backlight lens designed to diffuse the light. They are glued on a back panel and one of them has fallen off giving you the appearance of someone shining a flashlight from behind the screen.
After I replaced my Samsung, for grins and giggles, I dismantled it (quite a challenge) to see if the lens could be reglued. It could have been but reassembling the TV was not in the cards.
When I was looking for a TV the piece of advice I got is as long as it has decent picture quality, spend your money on screen size over other features. Due to a defective TV return in buying a new TV, I upsized from that 50in to 55in and it was well worth it. Now like anything there are limits but as long as you are not oversizing it, go big. Most likely more critical as you mention your eyes are not young and high fidelity, so a larger screen will help in many ways including reading text on the screen, and thumbnail images of programing choices, which is ever so present in selecting what you wan to watch.
Should I get a receiver? or some other driver for the speakers?
How can I cut down on the number of remotes?
How do I make the most of compatibility in the future?
One particular problem with current television is the digital fiber optic cable between the set and the DVD/audio box. We keep getting audio drop out, no sound for a second or two every few seconds. Periodically I have to pull on the fiber optic plug until it’s nearly ready to let go, and lean on the cable angle this way and that, to reduce the number of drop outs. Can I avoid digital fiber optics connections in a new set?
I would strongly suggest a real AV receiver. Forget about using fiber (TOSlink). Just use good quality HDMI cables. Again, the HDMI connection will work both ways…feed video and audio to the TV, and the TV will feed audio back to the receiver when you use the TV as a source.
You seem to already have an acceptable set of speakers. An AV receiver (either 5.1 or 7.1) is going to be the biggest bang for the buck. I really dislike BT connections, line-carrier, LAN, and any other mixed methods of getting signal to the speakers. Hardwire them all directly to the receiver.
(Cue everyone telling me how great their wireless or LAN speaker systems are. I’m ready.)
My opinion would be, get the TV first and evaluate the built-in speakers. Some TVs have quite good speakers. If they work for you, that is one less remote and fewer complications.
In any case, if you end up with more than one remote, you can replace them with a universal remote so there’s only one to deal with.
In the not-super expensive category, I can recommend the Onkyo SR494. It’s going for $299 right now at Best Buy and Amazon, which is a pretty good deal.
One more thing to look at when evaluating, which is black and white. I was watching old (30s and 40s) when I got my new TV, and I was shocked how great they looked because of the better handling of blacks in an image.
And I agree that screen size is important. But the new TV, if it is not too cheap, will look tons better than the old one.
I’ve fiddled with soundbars, whole-house wifi systems, BT speakers, and just about everything else. Very few options are better than a simple hardwired receiver. An AV receiver provides better automatic sound decoding, more power, more flexibility, and better control than virtually every other option.
O my goodness me, yes! We use it all the time! In fact, I’d absolutely pay extra to streamline using captions. There are too many ways to turn it on or off, it keeps shutting itself off and we have to leave and re-enter the movie or show to turn it back on, etc etc. What’d be really sweet would be a separate little screen just for the captions, which sometimes sit on top of something important to see.