Ask Lemmy

Sony makes amazing TVs.

Unfortunately, I think we’re trapped in planned obsolescence. I’ve been taking the approach of looking at cost as a primary driver.

The difference between a crappy 4K tv and a quality 4K tv is hard for me to distinguish in most cases. Especially, if they’re not side by side.

Let’s say I set my max price at $550.

You can find a cheap brand Onn or TCL in a 70” range size. If you go smaller you’ll likely find “better” brands.

I don’t think there’s much that makes one brand better than others. 5-7 years is probably max life of anything you’ll buy today. Unless you’re willing to open it up and start trying to find the bad capacitors and re solder to the board.

Rule #1. The tv never connects to internet Rule #2. Rule #1 never gets broken Rule #3. Use another device to play signal (fire stick, Apple TV, cable box, Xbox, PlayStation, pc, etc) Rule #4. Use a sound system not the tv speakers. Go big with surround systems or don’t. Anything is better than tv speakers. I’ve used a 2.1 setup for decades. A soundbar with sub is simple to setup and use.

I’ve heard Roku is one to potential avoid now as I’ve heard they may require Internet connection on setup of some new tvs.

A good tv has an acceptable picture, size, and plays a video source.

No idea, but my 15 year old Sony seems to be hanging on just fine.

When it comes to electronics, reliability is determined by the quality of the electrolytic capacitors used as they are typically the first to fail in an electronic circuit. There are other considerations of course, but in general the better the capacitor used in construction the longer the item will last.

Electronics that have cheap capacitors will have about a 10 year life. Those that use higher end capacitors will last 30 years or more. I have two McIntosh amplifiers that were built in 1992 and are still working great on the original caps. They have McIntosh branded capacitors and are top tier, although I don't now who specifically makes them for McIntosh. I also have 2 Carver amps from about the same era and I've had to recap them already. Carver has great sound, but lousy build quality. Also have a Marantz receiver that was built in 2000 with Marantz branded caps that came to me with a dead amplifier, which just turned out to be a dry solder joint on a PC board. Two hours of resoldering several PCBs in it and it's working very well.

HERE is a good list of top tier capacitor manufacturers, just scroll down a bit to find it of top tier capacitor manufacturers. You'll have to do some research to find out what TV manufacturer is using what capacitor in their designs.

With that said, there is one listed there that also makes televisions and they, fortunately, have come back to the US market. That is Panasonic. I have a Panasonic Plasma that I bought in 2010 and it is still going strong. It is still my family's main television. It got hit by lightning in 2012 and I had to replace the power supply and main board in it, which was not the TV's fault. It has all Panasonic capacitors in it.

I also have a Panasonic Microwave, and cordless phone. Both of which have far far outlived their predecessors. The cordless phone will be 20 years old next April and the microwave is coming up on 13 years.

I will not say that Panasonic has the best picture, best sound, or uses unicorn farts to make the best what ever... Honestly, I don't give a damn about any of that. What I will say that in my experience if you want an electronic device that lasts a long time, buy a Panasonic.

LG seems to be ok with internet disconnected, my cousin recently got one. I have a samsung and yeah the software is atrocious, tho mine's from 2016 or so and still working pretty well.

I bought an LG in 2014 and it lasted ~10 years before the backlight died. I bought a new LG that has a bunch of smart features but I've never connected it to the Internet, and it's largely stayed out of my way and not been annoying.

So I guess LG has been good for me.

LG has been great but protip - don’t use the built in “smart” features as they seem to get outdated faster than the panel. Get an external device such as an Nvidia Shield, Google TV, Apple TV.

I don't use "smart" features my current TV is a MicroLED with local dimming zones hooked up to a full fat PC running Linux with GNOME because the GUI works well in a living room environment with a wireless trackpad keyboard. The Logitech one is best, there's not many options there unfortunately but it's a good one except the lack of backlit keys.

So ignoring the crap onboard APU and shitty TV OS, well I've never had a TV break before I've replaced it frankly...except my previous TV. OLED aren't worth it unless you don't care about them being expensive disposable items that absolutely will degrade over time.

Current TV is an 75" LG and it's fine. I wanted VRR and 120Hz for gaming. Are the dimming zones apparent when scrolling websites in dark mode? Yep but I don't care.

Obviously if you don't care about games then get a cheaper mini-PC instead.

My Samsung dumb TV is still going strong after about 10 years but the slightly newer "smart" TV is already looking dodgy and I hate the software on it.

Panasonic dumb plasma is going on 14 years. We’re hopeful we can get about 6-10 out of it.

As a few others have said -> LG Oled. I have a CX 65' for 5 years now, best TV I ever had. Bought a C4 42' for PC monitor, best monitor I ever had.

Panasonic. Bought current Panasonic TV a few years ago based on the strength of our previous one. Brilliant picture quality on both. Never connected to the interpipes

Just don't buy OLED and it won't darken, if you buy OLED get ready to replace the extensive TV every 5 years no matter what brand you buy.

As for removing bloatware I have no idea since my TV is from around 2010 and I only use it connected to the computer, but you can always just get a raspberry pi and install kodi on it and use the TV as a normal dumb TV. It's also good for your privacy.

We have a Philips 43pfs5525.

No smarts, just a chromecast plugged in and working like a charm.

I have a sceptre. Dumb as fuck, enough plugs of various types to get whatever I want on the screen. Has been working well for ~6 years now, though it's not a daily use item. I've used it as a second monitor for ~3 of those 6 years, and never noticed issues with the quality.

Reliable, or lacking in bloatware? Which is the priority here?

Somehow I've had the same Vizio for over 10 years now. Still works great.

Have you considered trying to repair it? Darkened screen sounds like failed LED lighting strips and those can be replaced. Watch a few videos on the subject to get an idea of what you are getting into. I did it on a vizio TV and it took me about an hour all told.

Philips. I've had my last one for 15 years before it died and the picture still had better colors than my sister's new ultra thin LG. Can't say much about their newer models as I haven't bought a new one yet, but I also use Philips monitors on my PC and I'm very happy with them.

Instead of a specific brand, I looked at what open box / display models the local places had available. I ended up with a Samsung model that was marked 70% off MSRP.

The operating system is probably not great but it's connected to a Nvidia Shield so I've never interacted with the OS beyond the initial setup.

I'd say this kind of decision has more to do with the user interface being easily navigable for your parents and what their technical proficiency is rather than trying to pick a television that might last a decade or more.

I've never had a TV stop working in my life

I have a 43" 4K Sharp I bought back in 2016 that's still going strong through two moves.

There will be so much “Ying and Yang” to this discussion that the answer will be … all of them..

I'm a fan of both Sony and LG. LG makes TVs that have the deepest blacks which is really nice for movies. Sony doesn't quite have the same darkness to their blacks, but the displays are very nice and the comparable Sony's tend to be a little bit cheaper than LG's. In my house I have a Sony and an LG as the main TV. I also have a Hisense if you want something that's really nice and fairly cheap go for high sense.

Zenith.

Not sure it's what you're looking for but we use a computer screen to watch stuff (DVD and, back when we subscribed to those, streaming services). To be clear, we don't have a tv and have not had any for over 25 years as we don't watch TV (but we probably could watch it on the computer screen if we wanted to by hooking some USB converter thingy to it; sorry I'm really not an expert in those questions).

Our last screen (from Dell) lasted 18 years before we had to replace it... The 'new' one, unsurprisingly, is also from Dell but I don't expect it to last as long, if we get 10 years out of it we will consider this good enough.

Today I would say that Samsung is the most reliable brand for TV's. If your tv would last longer than 5-10 years you would never buy a new one.

LG, my grandma's LG Flatscreen CRT is older than me, it is about 23 years old, works like a charm, very loud stereo speakers, ports and all important buttons in the front easily accessible, usable even without the remote thanks to the front buttons all clearly labelled