I’m building a tv nook in my basement, with some couches so i can have friends over to watch stuff together. I’ll have space for the tv above a bookcase that’s 8" wide and 2.5’ or maybe 3’ tall.
What should i get? Should i jump on a black Friday special? I’m not a member of Costco, but my brother is, and offers to get me something from them. (I’d pay him back.)
I assume you meant 8 feet wide… The 3 foot height will limit your choices to probably 55 inch. I just bought a 55" TV and it’s 30 inches high.
What’s your price range? That makes a big difference.
I do mean 8 feet wide, not 8 inches.
My price range is flexible. I was impressed by the lettuce variation in the Costco ad my brother emailed me, and wonder why a
LG 65" Class - OLED C2 Series - 4K UHD OLED TV
Costs $1,699.99
And a
G 55" Class - UQ8000 Series - 4K UHD LED LCD TV
Is only
$369.99
Is it the OLED vs. LED? Is it the 65" vs 55"? Something else?
Did a little bit of searching, and on Costco’s site, using JohnGalt’s suggestion of 55’', the lowest price is $350. I did find one site called Capoth that has a 55’’ Roku TV for $90. I don’t specifically endorse the site, and it could be a risky move, but maybe give that a look if it intrigues you.
I currently have a… Maybe 25" tv in the den, for reference. It stands on a piece of furniture, it’s not wall mounted. So this is all new ground to me.
I’m not looking for the cheapest. I probably don’t want the most expensive, either, but i want to understand what the tradeoffs are.
Yes. OLED is a significantly better technology than LED, and also more expensive.
Take a look at a site that explains OLED versus regular LED and QLED, like this one at TechRadar. They are different technologies but the best TVs are similar in how they look, but they are all impressive. We just got an LG 55" C2 OLED as a splurge and it is indeed very nice. But your needs and wishes will vary, such as if you want a high end gaming screen.
This calculator may be of some use.
I recently bought a 55" LG LED from Costco for $367. The image looks perfect to me.
If an OLED provides a better picture than what I have I don’t think my eyes would be sharp enough to detect it.
mmm
The advice I’ve heard and also saw for myself, is go big first, then look at the feature sets/advanced picture tech. It is generally better to go to a larger size then get a better picture at the smaller size. Now there is quite a bit of wiggle room here, however due to a new TV breaking early and returned, I followed it and upsized another 5 in or so and so glad I did, the advice was sound.
I’ve never had a large TV. I’m not 100% certain i want huge. But that’s certainly what people are getting.
No one in my household watches sports, which is the one thing where even i can see that berger is better.
You also want to try to get a tv that’s an “appropriate” size for the space, based on how far away the seating is. I don’t know what the guidelines are, but it is a thing to have on your radar, and hopefully someone else has useful suggestions there.
OLEDs generate their own light from each pixel. There is no back light of white LEDs providing illumination. This allows a greater contrast between bright and dark parts of the image. The set can also be significantly thinner.
I was informed yesterday by someone who just bought a new Sony OLED set that LG sources their screens from Sony.
I’ve got an LG OLED set that’s a year or two old and it has a fantastic display. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are all built in as well.
Ah, good point. I might not need another Roku box.
I was wondering whether viewing distance is still a primary consideration for these decisions. It seems like … less than years ago, but it should still be evaluated.
This seemed like a good resource – particularly for the viewing distance piece:
If you can make sure that the room is dark, or at least doesn’t have any particularly bright spots, OLED is only topped by QD OLED. QLED would be for bright living rooms.
Get it as big as you can afford and you should consider stretching. At first, it’ll feel like it’s too big and you made a mistake. And then after a while, you’re gonna wish you’d gone bigger. I watch and play on my 65" LG C1 from about 4-5 feet away and it’s great. The image quality is 80-90% as good as the movie theater. It is superb.
LG C2 is best if you plan to also game on it. If not, the Sony OLED or QD OLED is the way to go because it has better processing for better upscaling and motion handling.
For movies, either get 4K Blu Rays or sing some shanties and creatively acquire some 2160p REMUX files. The “REMUX” means the encoding is optimized for quality because not all 4K is the same.
Look up HDTVTest on Youtube for everything you wanna know. He’s a professional TV adjuster who’s a great resource for information about displays and how to set them up.
As @GaryM said, OLED’s chief advantage is the contrast ratio, the difference between the darkest and brightest areas. Perhaps counterintuitively, this is most evident in dark scenes, so the best application of OLED is watching movies. Getting the best out of the set will take a bit of adjustment and calibration. Also, the viewing area needs to be dark and free of things that will cause stray reflections.
As for getting rid of your external Roku, don’t be in too much of a hurry. I have had Netflix and Prime Video apps on my smart TVs, but found that the interface and image quality was better using my outboard Roku. I try to use as few of the TV’s functions and features as possible.
I wish you could buy stupid monitors with no smart features in comparable sizes at comparable prices. But the mfrs get kickbacks from the content providers that lower the prices of the smart sets.
Huh, good point. In theory i could use this for gaming.
Light won’t be an issue. The room is my basement, and the only sunlight comes from small windows that are behind a hedge of yew. I never have any natural glare in there.
I’m keeping the small TV in the den, with its Roku. The question is whether to buy a second Roku. That seems like a decision i can defer.
Not just in theory. The C1/2 are among the best gaming displays right now; 4K, 120Hz with a low latency gaming mode, G-Sync adaptive refresh and several HDMI 2.1 ports.
