View Full Version : TV died.
Our 8 yo Samsung bit the dust last night. Looking for a 70in , in the $ 5-600 range.
Cant afford much more. There is a Vizio V-series for $599 at Best Buy.
Wifey likes the Apple airplay option. We don?t know shit about shit when it comes to TV?s.
Advise and experiences ?
.455_Hunter
02-03-2020, 20:12
Our smaller 31 inch Vizio's have been trouble free for 7 years (kitchen and bedroom duty). We have had a 70 inch Sharp for about 5 years (main living room) with no problems to date.
They to avoid some westlinghouse,RCA, elements.
We have old 60" vision down stairs and newer TCL. TcL wifi casts much faster than LAN vizio e series tv.
Also backlight got bad after 4 year.
I will probably take a look at TCL for cheaper options.
Buy a smaller TV and sit closer?
I blame the corona virus.
Buy a smaller TV and sit closer?
Whoa. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
Did my wife talk to you !? Lol.
Stronger glasses and sit at the same distance? [Coffee]
second the tlc brand- not the best picture but one of the better values, you can get a 55” for under 300
Sorry about autocorrect on my previous post.
Fix the old one?
Unless the panel has physical damage of course.
Microcenter usually has decent deals
BPTactical
02-03-2020, 20:58
I blame the corona virus.
Wouldn't that be the cornea virus?
Wouldn't that be the cornea virus?
I'm pretty sure it's the Chroma virus.
That price point is going to be pretty tough to hit for a 70" if you want something decent.
70 vizio refurb for $500
https://www.microcenter.com/product/615096/vizio-e70-f3-70-class-(695-diag)-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-smart-led-tv---refurbished
Get a bare bones, no apple, no chromecast, ect. Those features are dead after 4-5 years as support and updates cease. Get a firestick or roku stick for streaming. After a few years,you'll toss a $30 stick away instead of a $500 tv.
Visio, tcl, samsung. Are cheap and basically the same screen. Just different features. You may have to sacrifice HDR, but you may not care.
Or you get the stuff built-in and go to the stick later. Good luck finding a 'non-smart' TV these days.
SideShow Bob
02-03-2020, 21:18
What exactly do you mean died ?
There are some easy fixes depending on what the actual symptoms are.
I?ll be glad to take you into Costco if you want to get the best deal possible (in my opinion).
Lowest price for a 70" at Sam's Club is $829. Costco's website has one 70" option, a Vizio M series for $699.
I saw the title of the thread and was like yea TV died somewhere back in the 80's. Don't make shows like they use to.
Great-Kazoo
02-04-2020, 01:08
Get a bare bones, no apple, no chromecast, ect. Those features are dead after 4-5 years as support and updates cease. Get a firestick or roku stick for streaming. After a few years,you'll toss a $30 stick away instead of a $500 tv.
Visio, tcl, samsung. Are cheap and basically the same screen. Just different features. You may have to sacrifice HDR, but you may not care.
Follow his advice, as i was going to post.. That smart screen stuff has (IMO) too many back doors in to ones house.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/protect-smart-tv/
All the smart TVs that Consumer Reports reviewed required users to forfeit their viewing data to use the device’s connected features. “We found that it’s not always easy to understand what you’re agreeing to as you proceed through the setup process,” the report says. “And if you decline permissions, you can lose a surprising amount of functionality.”
Most smart TVs use automatic content recognition (ACR), a technology that enables manufacturers to identify and classify the content you’re viewing. This includes cable, over-the-air broadcasts, streaming services, and even DVDs and Blu-ray discs. ACR collects audio, video and metadata samples from your TV and sends it to the manufacturer, which then analyzes the data to understand your preferences and recommend other shows that you might be interested in watching. But it also uses this information for advertising and marketing purposes. “You can’t easily review or delete this data later,” Consumer Report says.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/01/fbi-smart-tv-security/
Or you get the stuff built-in and go to the stick later. Good luck finding a 'non-smart' TV these days.
^ THIS
If someone wants a privacy [tinhat], simply DO NOT plug in to LAN or Wifi.
Same goes with the tablet for just e-reader, or laptop/PC for word processing.
Skywalker
02-04-2020, 12:25
COSTCO. 80038
UncleDave
02-04-2020, 12:49
Do you have DirecTv? I have their device protection and they have replaced a 65” Samsung and a Bose sound bar, no issues, and repaired another Samsung. It is a $50 copay, but I have gotten my money’s worth.
COSTCO. 80038
Yeah, 65" it's easy to meet the price goal.
...but that wasn't our quest. [Shield]
Hmm. I just looked at Best Buy and it looks like they have three different ones under $600 and a couple more around $650.
Looks like it shouldn?t be too hard to find something in your price range.
If those are Best Buy prices I bet you could find something cheaper at Walmart.
And you probably just missed some great deals right before the Super Bowl.
And you probably just missed some great deals right before the Super Bowl.
On the flip side, you might be able to score an awesome open-box deals when Bob returns his perfectly-fine 75" TV the day after...
GilpinGuy
02-04-2020, 18:15
COSTCO. 80038
We are thinking of getting this exact TV. Our TCL is crapping out after just under 3 years. 8 days before the 3 year "Walmart service plan" expires. Called in a claim today. If they fix or replace the TCL it will go in the bedroom and the bigger Samsung will go in the LR.
Delfuego
02-04-2020, 20:22
Step up to the Vizio "M-Series" It's a good picture for the cash.
Step up to the Vizio "M-Series" It's a good picture for the cash.
That’s exactly what I was reading today. Thanks for the replies everyone. We are gonna window shop the next few days and see what our eyeballs think. I’ve been doing tons of “learning “.
Still curious to find out what the failure mode of the old one.
Sorry. Black screen. Regardless of input. Audio is there. No menu , nothing. Unplugged for 10 hours. Just black. Different box and player , hdmi cables. Nada.
Sorry. Black screen. Regardless of input. Audio is there. No menu , nothing. Unplugged for 10 hours. Just black. Different box and player , hdmi cables. Nada.
If you shine a flashlight at an angle on the screen while you are on a known good input (you hear sound) and you can see shapes, it's likely the backlight or backlight board is dead. Cheap.
I'll pick it up if you want to send it to TV heaven.
GilpinGuy
02-04-2020, 23:44
If you shine a flashlight at an angle on the screen while you are on a known good input (you hear sound) and you can see shapes, it's likely the backlight or backlight board is dead. Cheap.
I'll pick it up if you want to send it to TV heaven.
Don't mean to hijack, sorry. So this backlight board....does it usually just crap out or gradually fizzle?
Background: Our TCL just started to have the left 1/4 or so of the screen go real dark for a few seconds, then come back to normal. It's intermittent and not a "flickering" affect. This seems to happen when the unit is on for a while and not when first powered on. First 2-3 hours or so seem fine. Even when just music is on and it's on screen saver it does this.
Weird thing - when on the phone with tech support about our claim, he had me do a few things and it made it worse (darker). He had me reset to factory defaults for everything and unplug power, then hold the POWER button for 30 seconds to discharge any residual power saved for memory, etc. After all that, the entire screen was much darker than before and the left 1/4 still went dark intermittently.
Don't mean to hijack, sorry. So this backlight board....does it usually just crap out or gradually fizzle?
Background: Our TCL just started to have the left 1/4 or so of the screen go real dark for a few seconds, then come back to normal. It's intermittent and not a "flickering" affect. This seems to happen when the unit is on for a while and not when first powered on. First 2-3 hours or so seem fine. Even when just music is on and it's on screen saver it does this.
Weird thing - when on the phone with tech support about our claim, he had me do a few things and it made it worse (darker). He had me reset to factory defaults for everything and unplug power, then hold the POWER button for 30 seconds to discharge any residual power saved for memory, etc. After all that, the entire screen was much darker than before and the left 1/4 still went dark intermittently.
From some quick reading around, on the TCL TVs, a failing power board can cause the backlight to start shutting down after a few minutes. You have local dimming on that panel, so you are seeing a partial backlight fail.
Of course, this really depends on the exact model and more research would be required. The ifixit forums are a good place to start.
Little Dutch
02-05-2020, 12:31
Just going to second the opinions stating not to worry too much about the smart TV features. A $40 Amazon Firestick will be more responsive and has been, so far, immune to the dropped app support issues I've had with my smart TV's and Smart Blu-ray players.
This just reminded me about a Panasonic TV I have that went out of support. Amazon emailed me;
Hello GMan,
Amazon will no longer be supporting the Prime Video app on your Panasonic TV as of September 26, 2019. We are continually upgrading our service and this occasionally means we can no longer support certain device models.
To help you to continue streaming your favorite content, we’re offering you a $25 discount off MSRP towards select Fire TV devices which will allow you to continue to stream your favorites from Prime Video. To redeem, add a Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K, or Fire TV Cube to your cart and enter the below promo code at checkout. This offer ends on November 1, 2019.
I thought that was pretty cool.
The Fire TV devices go on sale several times a year. I went with the Fire TV Stick 4K on my TVs for some future proofing and it was on sale for $24.99.
it's likely the backlight or backlight board is dead. Cheap.
Yep, that's exactly what ours did last year, instant black screen with sound. I took it to a TV shop in Parker and it cost a little over $200 and only took him 2 days to have it fixed. Tech Said it is very common.
GilpinGuy
02-08-2020, 01:59
Well, we have a new TV on it's way to us. Exact one we have now that starting to fail. The protection plan was $30 when I bought it and this thing started going bad about a week before that expired. Win!
Somebody screwed up. The self-destruct timer is supposed to go off the week *after* the coverage expires. [emoji6]
GilpinGuy
02-27-2020, 00:23
Well, we have a new TV on it's way to us. Exact one we have now that starting to fail. The protection plan was $30 when I bought it and this thing started going bad about a week before that expired. Win!
Somebody screwed up. The self-destruct timer is supposed to go off the week *after* the coverage expires. [emoji6]
Weird. We went through the process of getting a replacement TV sent to us - the exact same one - and by the time we got it, the problems just went away. No bullshit or scamming here. The old TV is totally fine, so far. The new one they shipped to us is still in the box 2 weeks after we received it. I'm still waiting for the symptoms to resurface....I know if I send it back it's shit the bed the next day.
Intermittent problem and you have a replacement? Swap them and call it good. TVs are not self-healing. ;-)
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