# Teach me how to buy a television set these days **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 27, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700 "2015-09-27T15:16:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/41 "2015-10-02T17:28:23Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > What if you want a headphone jack? Are they common? Most TVs have a pair of analog audio output jacks with RCA connectors. You can get a really cheap adapter or cable to plug into the RCA connectors and then you can plug your headphones into the cable. For example, if your headphones have the standard 3.5 mm plug, [you can use this.](http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021815&p_id=5612&seq=1&format=2) There are many variations on length of cable and types of connectors available. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/42 "2015-10-02T18:21:14Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Most TVs have a pair of analog audio output jacks with RCA connectors. You can get a really cheap adapter or cable to plug into the RCA connectors and then you can plug your headphones into the cable. For example, if your headphones have the standard 3.5 mm plug, [you can use this.](http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021815&p_id=5612&seq=1&format=2) There are many variations on length of cable and types of connectors available. I am going to retract this. The output of the TV may need to be ampilified before you can listen on your headphones. I once connected a TV to a stereo receiver that had a 3.5 mm input jack designed for iPods and that worked fine. I can’t be certain it will work with headphones, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/43 "2015-10-03T01:47:02Z")
> [@Doughbag](#): > > If you are unsure about specifications, stick to brands like Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, etc… and pay the extra 100 bucks for it and you’ll usually fare well with it these days. Agreed. If you stick to the main brands and get the appropriate size for your room, you can’t go wrong. Flat screens are a proven technology. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/44 "2015-10-03T03:52:38Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > ASave money and spend it on a $50 Roku, Fire, or Chromecast stick and get a wide variety of apps. Get the $100 Roku 3 instead. It comes with a USB plug that’s very handy for xferring content from your master video HD collection. Depending on your computer and wi-fi, having the file plugged right into the Roku gives a _much_ better experience, and doesn’t drag down the network for everyone else in the house. You could just use a big HD, but I prefer a 32 GB stick. Roku’s menuing system is _not_ the greatest. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/45 "2015-10-03T05:32:12Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Get the $100 Roku 3 instead. It comes with a USB plug that’s very handy for xferring content from your master video HD collection. Depending on your computer and wi-fi, having the file plugged right into the Roku gives a _much_ better experience, and doesn’t drag down the network for everyone else in the house. > You could just use a big HD, but I prefer a 32 GB stick. Roku’s menuing system is _not_ the greatest. I think most TVs these days have a USB slot already? I don’t know about MicroSD though. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/46 "2015-10-03T09:13:54Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > Given that you have some speakers you want to use, I would guess that the A/V receiver might work for you. > > Take a look at the back of this[basic A/V receiver](http://www.crutchfield.com/p_022RXV379/Yamaha-RX-V379.html?tp=179#&gid=1&pid=3). > > There are 4 HDMI inputs on that unit. You would plug in your DirecTV unit into one, your DVD Blu Ray player into another, and perhaps a Roku box into a third. Then connect the HDMI output (labeled ‘HDMI Out’ on that receiver) to the HDMI input on your new TV. > > Then connect your CD player and Apple node to the RCA input AV2 and AV3 so you can listen to sound from those devices. (or use the coaxial or optical inputs if those devices have them). > > Then connect your speakers to the A/V receiver. You’ll use the receiver to select what you want to listen to and/or watch, and to control the volume. You’ll turn the volume on the TV speakers to zero so they won’t play at all. > > If you wanted to, you could add more speakers and a subwoofer for surround sound. Not needed, the receiver will play plenty loud through your existing speakers. > > Now, if you do this,you’ll have the remote from the TV to turn the TV on and off, the A/V receiver to select the source and control the volume, and the DirecTV remote to select TV channels. A single [Harmony](http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/harmony-remote-650?crid=60) remote will take care of all of this with one remote. Not required, but a nice thing to have. > [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > You can cut down on a lot of the equipment you have. Your DVD player is perfectly capable of playing CDs and you can get a modern AV receiver with builtin wifi connectivity, Apple Airplay, Spotify, internet radio, etc. > > If I were you I would try the following setup up: > > Direct TV and DVD player connected via HDMI to a new AV receiver. TV connected to the AV receiver “out” HDMI. Speakers connected to the receiver. Computers play iTunes music through the receiver via Apple Airplay or some other network connection that is built in to the receiver. > > You can get rid of the CD player and the Apple node. The receiver handles all switching, audio output, and local wifi connections. The TV is effectively just a monitor that does nothing but display the video content from the receiver. Whoa… From the point of view of “we need to replace the televisions set”, this is like having your first “atoms are little solar systems” conversation. First, this sounds nice. But, second, there went nearly a third of my budget. I guess the evolution started with how to blend television and stereo sources to share the speakers, stepped through having the receiver be the switch box, and wound up sweeping along a bundle of things I’ll have to look up, like Roku. Do AV receivers make sense by looking at their control panels and turning knobs and pushing buttons? Or do they create yet another menu system? As it is now we have multiple remotes and most of them have multiple sets of up down left right buttons, and we get lost. The idea of having a flat screen whose job is merely to display the content the receiver sends it, like a computer monitor, is very appealing. I don’t suppose you can save money by buying a “television set with the $300 receiver left out”… ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/47 "2015-10-03T09:23:34Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > One year after buying a flat screen TV no one has ever said “Gee I should have gotten a smaller screen” > On the other hand lots of people have wished that they had gone larger. Raises Hand. Actually, I kinda liked the fact that a year later the larger screen was so much less expensive and relieved I didn’t spend twice as much. I just saw a 43" 4K TV for less than I spent for a 26" non-smart TV a few years ago. And regarding that purchase, I’m happy I didn’t spend $800 for a regular 32" TV (which are now around 200 bucks). I grew up with 19-25 inch TVs, and I still have the 25" CRT TV (with no av/dvd hookups) that was a huge deal when I got it. If one of my kids don’t smash it with a baseball bat or something, I will just periodically upgrade my main TV and rotate the others through other rooms. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/48 "2015-10-03T22:43:49Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Whoa… > > From the point of view of “we need to replace the televisions set”, this is like having your first “atoms are little solar systems” conversation. > > First, this sounds nice. But, second, there went nearly a third of my budget. I guess the evolution started with how to blend television and stereo sources to share the speakers, stepped through having the receiver be the switch box, and wound up sweeping along a bundle of things I’ll have to look up, like Roku. > > Do AV receivers make sense by looking at their control panels and turning knobs and pushing buttons? Or do they create yet another menu system? As it is now we have multiple remotes and most of them have multiple sets of up down left right buttons, and we get lost. > > The idea of having a flat screen whose job is merely to display the content the receiver sends it, like a computer monitor, is very appealing. I don’t suppose you can save money by buying a “television set with the $300 receiver left out”… Well you don’t have to do it that way. You will have the best sound if you have a dedicated stereo or surround amplifier driving external speakers though, even if it is just your current stereo. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/49 "2015-10-11T12:01:44Z")
Well. We have an update. We bought a Samsung 55" television set at Best Buy yesterday, hung it on the wall, and watched some DirectV and some DVD. Here are some comparisons and contrasts with the conversation here: They had, I think, ZERO sets that were not “Smart TV”. And they only had 2 or 3 that were not 4K. I couldn’t tell the difference between 1080 and 4K, but it’s not like I could tell I was making a buying decision to spend more on 4K. Which is what we wound up with, just because other options were so limited in the 1080 models. Ours has 4 HDMI inputs, which seems like it will cover our needs. We don’t play games on it (an idea that hadn’t even occurred to me until Quartz mentioned it). There’s some kind of internet abilities built in, an area we’ve never explored. I only know of two inputs I will need at this point. Things got mighty goofy for a while: We were trying to compare TVs on the basis of how hard they were to connect speakers to, and the clerk said that fortunately there are two reps from Sony here today, and they came over. To begin with they said it was impossible to connect a composite output DirecTV box to any of these sets. I said I found converters all over the web, and they said no, I don’t understand, composite is analog and you can’t convert it to digital. Why not? Because you lose all the quality. You’ll be totally disappointed. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. We’re watching a set that has an image eleven inches high when it’s showing DirecTV content. From fifteen feet away. I can’t even read the menu guide items, much less the ticker tape on political talk shows. I can hide the entire screen with two fingers at arm’s length. Surely this will be an improvement. Then we really went off the rails. Fifteen feet away? We’re looking at the wrong sets in the first place. We need a 75" class set. 65" bare minimum. It just won’t work with anything smaller. OK, look, let’s get back to the original question, which was about which sets had which kinds of audio outputs on them. Mrs. Napier has a great deal of hearing loss on one side. She has a total loss over a wide range of frequencies, in addition to the typical loss that both of us have just because of age. It’s hard to make her hearing aid cooperate well with speakers, and we’ve experimented with more or fewer speakers and where they are in the room. Well, you can’t use the speakers in the set itself. You need an AV receiver. They start around $600 or so, but those aren’t any good, the one we recommend for you is $2500. No, no, no, this is just silly. Are you saying all the people who buy these $500 to $1000 sets also buy $2500 receivers and then start buying speakers to go with them? Well, if you really need it to be cheap, you get one of these Sound Bars. “Sound Bars?” They show us these stupid long skinny boxes that are obviously designed to sit under the screen on a tabletop, and have speakers that can’t be any bigger than 3" or so. How are you gonna get stereo out of that? It’s something like a yard long and, again, we’re fifteen feet away from it. The one guy kept saying “phase” and other things I’m sure he didn’t understand. These things are pretty obviously designed to fit in convenient packaging and not interfere with the function of the throwaway stand that comes with the set. He shows us an $800 sound bar and a $400 sound bar to demonstrate how bad the $400 bar is, and we can’t tell the difference. “No, no, you have to stand right _here_”, moving Mrs. Napier two feet to the left. “Look, we sit five feet apart to watch, it’s not going to work to tell us we both have to be right on the centerline!” “Phase! Phase! Phase, phase, phase!” “OK, I’m sure that I can spend something like $1000 and wind up with a better television set than this old CRT that we probably bought ten years ago. And you’re telling me I have to spend several times that or it just isn’t going to work.” “It’s not. I know it’s not. You can’t change facts.” “Yes, well, if you could convince me of that, we’d change plans and move on to our other errands. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to work.” And we shook hands and parted ways. Conclusion: I’m not sure what we’re going to do with speakers, as there was quite a lot of information. I wasn’t even aware that you need fiber optics to handle television set audio. OK, I guess Chris Matthews is going to take on new sonic detail or something. We’ll see how the hearing aid pans out… And apparently if I make a hobby out of “internet TV” I can access bold new worlds of content, which may be worth doing. But… wow, watching an image that was by rough calculation ten times bigger (in area) than the old one is just amazing, and I am very happy with where we got yesterday. Thank you everybody!!! ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/50 "2015-10-11T13:08:30Z")
Just try turning the brightness down a little - the defaults are designed to make it stand out in a showroom and in the dimmer light of your sitting room, it may well give you a headache. If you do a search on the full model number for it, you may well find some recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/51 "2015-10-11T15:33:35Z")
A few things : you never want to send anything but digital inputs to a modern set. It will look like utter garbage, the salesman was right about that. You don’t use the speakers in the TV, if it even has them. You can get far less expensive speaker/receiver sets than $2500, you can basically go as low as you feel like. Best Buy is not known for good prices for anything. Here’s [an example](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LU0GPAI?psc=1) of an inexpensive speaker/receiver set. You can pay more if you want more quality - obviously, if you have hearing loss, it means the good news is you don’t need to spend nearly as much. (and if you were blind, you wouldn’t need a TV at all!) If you want to get the most for your money, you should have been shopping [slickdeals.net](http://slickdeals.net) or fatwallet and bought your TV set and speaker/receiver set online. In 30 seconds, I found the most recent TV deal they had on slickdeals (I prefer it simply because the site is easier to browse) is [this one](http://slickdeals.net/f/8049229-55-lg-55lf6100-led-smart-hdtv-200-dell-egift-card-599-free-shipping?src=sticky). It happens to be “expired”, meaning people bought em all, but if you visit the site about once a day you’ll find that TV deals come up several times a week. Slickdeals isn’t run by people trying to sell you anything, the deals are found by community members of a forum like this one, and then the moderators post the deals that are historically good prices for the product in question to that front page. You can ignore the “featured” deals at the very top, I think advertisers do pay for placement there. $600 up front, with a $200 gift card to more stuff on Dell’s site. 55", 1080p. You would be better served with 1080p because it effectively makes things like digital onscreen displays larger. The reason is because since it has 1/4 the pixels, every element with a fixed pixel size is effectively 4 times bigger. I would recommend that you return the set to best buy and purchase online. You’ll literally get twice as much for your money. I myself have been shopping for a 65" 4k set, and I’ve seen numerous ones come up on slickdeals, ranging from $1000 for an LG to $1700 for a Sony. I want 4k because I intend to use it like a computer display. 4k is essentially worthless for use as a TV at the present time, as the 4k blu ray players just released last month, and you can get 4k through Netflix, but there will not be common 4k content for several more years. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/52 "2015-10-11T15:44:00Z")
I apologize for not posting what I just did earlier. I feel we as a forum have let you down. In essence, 1. Shop slickdeals or fatwallet to find a set that is on sale relative to actual market prices 2. Check the reviews for any set you consider. Trust online reviews by credible sites (and check several), not shady best buy salesmen. 3. Buy the biggest set you can afford or will fit in your house. 4. You are only buying the display, anyone who buys a quality TV will also want to buy quality speakers for the sound. This means you need a “receiver” (a box that converts the digital output of the blu ray player to analog and amplifies it) and speakers. All in one kits exist. Soundbars are a scam, get real speakers. 5. 4k is useless unless you plan to use it with a computer. By the time 4k is useful you should buy another set, modern TV purchases are not meant to last for decades, but about 5 years (although the displays themselves will last for much longer, most people put their old sets into the bathroom or something) 6. 3d is also useless for most people, the technology to show you 3d on a TV set basically doesn’t work. 7. IPS is the best screen type on average and the one you should buy 8. Best Buy is not, and is just about the most expensive place you can buy anything. Anyways, you need to return what you bought to best buy and start over. Sorry we let you down. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/53 "2015-10-11T15:55:37Z")
Oh, a couple more things 1. You want “full array dimming” if you can afford it. This does improve the picture by dimming the backlight in portions of the image to make the black levels more…black. (4k and 3d do not improve the picture, OTOH, for available content) 2. “Smart” TVs are a dumb buy. You are buying just the panel that shows a picture. Not the part that makes the sound, and not the part that generates the image. Instead, you want to buy an external box - an Apple TV, Roku, Google TV, etc etc etc, whatever it is you prefer, if you want to watch Netflix and other internet video. If you just wanna stick with cable/satellite, you will have to use their box. In no way does the “smart”-ness of the TV matter. A “smart” TV integrates the technology in one of those boxes inside the TV itself - this sounds good, but in reality, the TV’s smart features will become obsolete years before the TV itself is unable to display a good image. So you want to buy the box separately, and it’s usually cheaper as well. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/54 "2015-10-11T16:01:57Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > 1. “Smart” TVs are a dumb buy. You are buying just the panel that shows a picture. Not the part that makes the sound, and not the part that generates the image. Instead, you want to buy an external box - an Apple TV, Roku, Google TV, etc etc etc, whatever it is you prefer, if you want to watch Netflix and other internet video. If you just wanna stick with cable/satellite, you will have to use their box. In no way does the “smart”-ness of the TV matter. A “smart” TV integrates the technology in one of those boxes inside the TV itself - this sounds good, but in reality, the TV’s smart features will become obsolete years before the TV itself is unable to display a good image. So you want to buy the box separately, and it’s usually cheaper as well. Nah, buying a dumb TV is like trying to buy a cell phone without a camera. You may not want it, you may not use it, but chances are the TV you purchase will have it. When I bought our latest 65" TV I couldn’t care less about it being “smart”, however when I narrowed down the features I actually did want, there were no “dumb” options. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/55 "2015-10-11T16:03:27Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Nah, buying a dumb TV is like trying to buy a cell phone without a camera. You may not want it, you may not use it, but chances are the TV you purchase will have it. > > When I bought our latest 65" TV I couldn’t care less about it being “smart”, however when I narrowed down the features I actually did want, there were no “dumb” options. We’re saying the same thing. I’m really saying “don’t pay $500 more for the model that supports 4k netflix streaming” when you can get a separate box that does the same thing a lot cheaper. I’m not saying “don’t get a phone with a camera”, I’m saying “buy the best phone, and don’t look at how good the camera is.” Except that isn’t even a good analogy - you want a good camera on a phone because you have to lug the phone around, and you don’t want a separate camera. A TV stays where it is put, and 8 extra boxes attached does not really make it any less useful. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/56 "2015-10-11T18:56:46Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Nah, buying a dumb TV is like trying to buy a cell phone without a camera. You may not want it, you may not use it, but chances are the TV you purchase will have it. > > When I bought our latest 65" TV I couldn’t care less about it being “smart”, however when I narrowed down the features I actually did want, there were no “dumb” options. This certainly seemed to be the case yesterday. It’s not like we get to pick the various features independently. I gather we could get a separate box that handles internet television content, but we’ve never done any internet television, and I’m just starting to read a little about it. I think maybe we want to get Netflix, and it sounds like the “smart TV” I bought can probably handle it, and I’d be surprised if we did any more than that. So, although I actually said I preferred a set that wasn’t “smart”, now that I wound up with it I may have eliminated what would otherwise have been another box. And another cable. They may actually have done me a service. The “4K” business, on the other hand, still doesn’t look like it does anything for me. BTW my set does have an audio out port, just a stereo analog port, that I can use with a little amp I happen to have available, and some speakers I have on hand too. I bet that does for no new cash outlay what they were telling me I should be spending $800 or more on. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/57 "2015-10-11T19:20:30Z")
OK smart guys - figure out the best thing for me: smallish room, with no wall to mount the TV, so it must be free-standing it must be from Best Buy, because that is where all the gift cards are from (don’t ask) there is _zero_ room for speakers anywhere it doesn’t have to be the TV we marry. When we move it will be relegated to the guest room. current TV has cable, Tivo and DVD player running into it. zero interest in “home theater” at this time. We just want a sharp TV that won’t cut off the score dingus when we are watching MLB. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/58 "2015-10-11T23:38:33Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > OK smart guys - figure out the best thing for me: > > smallish room, with no wall to mount the TV, so it must be free-standing > it must be from Best Buy, because that is where all the gift cards are from (don’t ask) > there is _zero_ room for speakers anywhere > it doesn’t have to be the TV we marry. When we move it will be relegated to the guest room. > current TV has cable, Tivo and DVD player running into it. > zero interest in “home theater” at this time. We just want a sharp TV that won’t cut off the score dingus when we are watching MLB. As I mentioned earlier, just go to [slickdeals.net](http://slickdeals.net) about once a day. Wait until there’s a deal on a set at Best Buy. Buy it. Mount it on a cart or something, using the stand that goes on the bottom. Mount the front 2 channel speakers on the same cart. Stick the other surround channels on the wall behind you, and you should get wireless speakers (not battery powered, just they don’t need a wired connection to the receiver) for the surround. You do want real speakers, but they can be pretty small. Room dimensions - how far you are seated from the display - determines the maximum size display you can fit. Either get the biggest display that will practically go in the room or the biggest display you can afford, whichever is smaller. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/59 "2015-10-12T01:19:43Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > We’re saying the same thing. I’m really saying “don’t pay $500 more for the model that supports 4k netflix streaming” when you can get a separate box that does the same thing a lot cheaper. I’m not saying “don’t get a phone with a camera”, I’m saying “buy the best phone, and don’t look at how good the camera is.” Ah yes fair enough, we do agree. I actually ended up using the TV for Netflix rather than the Playstation 4 anyway. The PS4 has a better interface than the TV but the difference isn’t enough to warrant turning it on and locating the controller (besides, if I turn the PS4 on I just end up playing games ;)). ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700/60 "2015-10-12T22:53:37Z")
The Best Buy salesmen were probably full of crap, but “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” They may have not been trying to rip you off. They may have been (shudder) audiophiles, and they really do believe that you can hear things too subtle for the ear to detect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-buy-a-television-set-these-days/732700.md?page=4)