Flat screen TV hell

[vontar]

A few weeks ago, an OLD TV my wife has had for near 20 years died.

NO big deal, these things happen.
Good opportunity to upgrade a nice flat screen in the bed room.
 

Kinda concerned but knowing other people that have, I ordered one off the internet, about 100 bucks cheaper then in stores.  It was a refrub but in the past that has never been an issue.
 

I get the TV a week later, hook it up and found the screen was cracked on the inside.

 

I had to deal with shipping it back.   Well WOOT did cover the cost of the return shipping.

I decided not to try to have one shipped again, I am left with paying full retail.

I shop around and everyone is all about the same price, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Sears.  HH Gregg was the highest I found.

 

So I pick up one at Walmart today, and As I am un boxing it, I found a major problem.

 


So back to Walmart, to get another replacement.

Got another one, we checked it at the store, it appeared OK, took it home and it worked fine.

 

Bad Luck and Bad Odds combined to give me a double whammy.

Edited August 10, 2014 by vontar

[Raoul]

DooDoo occurs.

I used to be a big fan of Woot,but after Amazon bought them they just ain't what they used to be.

[tnhawk]

Hopefully you will many years of service from the new TV.  The picture quality, screen sizes, prices and power consumption on the new models is worth the trouble of replacing older sets.

[vontar]

This is my Second Flat screen.

 

Now I am also 2 for 2, The CAT hates both.  scared to death of them when they are on.

 

I now have no longer CRT type TV's.

the Power consumption is a big plus on LED TV's for sure.

[vontar]

I had a choice 32 inch or 40 inch.

the OLD TV was a 29 but you know flat wide screens appear smaller.  I can't explain it.

 

I worried a 32 wide screen would be 2 small, then I found all the 32s in stock was 720p instead of 1080

So that was the finally push to get me to by the 40.

 

There was no way a 40 inch TV was going to work where the OLD TV had been.

 

I spent the remaining bit of my day moving everything around in the Master bedroom.  Totally reorganized.

 

I found stuff that was probably lost 10 plus years ago.  But I believe I reclaimed more room with a better setup.

[runco]

Some 5 years ago, we made the transition to buy a great of majority of hard items like tvs, computers, ipads, etc. via the internet.  Counting Ebay and Amazon items, out of the hundreds of deliveries of items, I recall only one item I had to send back, and Amazon made it a very easy process.  The price alone is not the only reason I switched, but fighting the crowds, the traffic, and hassle of people in general is the other major reason.  In the past month, bought a brand new Whirlpool refrigerator via the internet (Homedepot.com), and it was delivered and setup, but had a mechanical issue.  Did not make ice.  It took Whirlpool 3 weeks to get a repair man out to us, but it is now fixed.  Don't think it would have been any different if we had gone into Home Depot brick and mortar, the outcome would have been the same.  I wonder how our shopping habits will be 10 years from now, never leave home?

 

I too am in the market for 40" flat panel, I will have to check out Woot. 

[peejman]

Had a similar problem with water heaters. A project that should have taken a couple hours took all day because the first two had big dents.

[Wyldk2]

Check around, There are several good times to buy a new tv. Superbowl weekend, Black-friday, christmas, etc... 

 

When checking for a new TV there are 3 different types of screens. 

 

Plasma

 

LCD

 

LED

 

I'll give you the plusses and minuses of all three.

 

Plasma offers great blacks, darker colors and offers a good viewing experience, But plasmas also have a shorter life expectancy and are not good in a room with glare( you'll need to use it in a dark room or a basement). Also it has been proven they get hotter than the other two screens. As well as bad burn in if you leave the same image on screen all the time( you'll get a ghost image permanently burned into your screen).

 

LCD is Liquid crystal display. Offers better life expectancy than the Plasma but older technology. Better viewing experience, and use less power than plasma.

 

 

 

LED is Light Emitting Diode. Instead of one bulb burning out and ruining your day, the LED has several bulbs in it and is thinner, lighter and uses less power than LCD.

 

Just my personal experiences on these as I used to work at an electronics store.

 

I wouldn't getin on the hype of a 4k( not for $3,000 and up). Eventually they will come out with an 8k and the 4k tvs will come down.

 

Vizio is ok, just i heard it was composed of lesser LG components.

 

Personal favorites are Samsung, Sony and LG.  Those are the big three and those offer the better choices of options and quality.

 

Much better than an Emerson or Coby( coby has since dropped their warranty, since being  bought out).

 

Personally, I only buy my big electronics at brick and mortar stores. Hate having to ship anything big back to the online entity.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Wyldk2

[Mike.357]

tv shmeevee.

 

I have a 43 inch over a 40 inch .  The boys use the little one with the play station.  I sometimes am allowed to use the other.

 

TV's in bedrooms suck.

 

when I do watch TV it is usually in the garage on an old ass 13 inch set.

[tnguy]

I had a choice 32 inch or 40 inch.
the OLD TV was a 29 but you know flat wide screens appear smaller.  I can't explain it.

They are smaller. It's because of the change of the aspect ratio. Most notably in the vertical direction but you're also losing square inches too. I think I sized our set to match our old 28" vertically and it came up as a 32. On the upside, you tend to lose less to the bezel.

On the whole, it's mostly upside but just something to be borne in mind.

[macville]

 

 

When checking for a new TV there are 3 different types of screens. 

 

Plasma

 

LCD

 

LED

 

 

LCD is Liquid crystal display. Offers better life expectancy than the Plasma but older technology. Better viewing experience, and use less power than plasma.

 

 

LED is Light Emitting Diode. Instead of one bulb burning out and ruining your day, the LED has several bulbs in it and is thinner, lighter and uses less power than LCD

 

This isn't accurate. There are other types of screens still...like projection, but the others aren't popular.

 

However, my main correction is that LED TV's are actually LCD TV's. The difference is that the traditional LCD has a florescent backlight while the LED models use LED's as the backlight. The advantage is a brighter backlight, more even light, and the LED's will last a lot longer.

Honestly, if anyone wants the best color reproduction and picture quality, Plasma is the way to go. It doesn't show artifacts like LCD's do. Much better color rendition. And a much smoother picture. They supposedly only last 100,000 hours...but that's a crap load of hours. And yes, they are not supposed to be good where it's bright, but that's a load of crap. My Panasonic is in a room with huge windows and brightness has never been an issue. The anti-glare glass these days is great. Of course, it's harder to find a plasma these days and especially in larger sizes. So if you need 60"+ a LED LCD is the way to go.

[blewbayou]

Wait a year for OLED. Prices should start to come down by then.

[Wyldk2]

This isn't accurate. There are other types of screens still...like projection, but the others aren't popular.

 

However, my main correction is that LED TV's are actually LCD TV's. The difference is that the traditional LCD has a florescent backlight while the LED models use LED's as the backlight. The advantage is a brighter backlight, more even light, and the LED's will last a lot longer.

Honestly, if anyone wants the best color reproduction and picture quality, Plasma is the way to go. It doesn't show artifacts like LCD's do. Much better color rendition. And a much smoother picture. They supposedly only last 100,000 hours...but that's a crap load of hours. And yes, they are not supposed to be good where it's bright, but that's a load of crap. My Panasonic is in a room with huge windows and brightness has never been an issue. The anti-glare glass these days is great. Of course, it's harder to find a plasma these days and especially in larger sizes. So if you need 60"+ a LED LCD is the way to go.

I knew I forgot something. Projectors are not popular. I remember only selling maybe 2 in the 6 months i was working at EE. Though newer technology( glass) has made some things better, I still would not waste my $$ on a plasma. As those are on the way out. LED or OLED( when it is affordable) is the way to go.

 

You could go for one of those fancy curved screens or a 4k tv but the curved thing looks nice but it's way expensive. and there is limited programming for the 4k tvs.