Recommend me a 55-65 inch TV

JoePoulson

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I LOVE my Sony A80J, and for movies/TV/sports I can't recommend it enough. Gamers may love the LG C1's more. Seems to be the general opinion for the folks choosing between those two. Both are excellent and were the two models I narrowed my search down to.
 

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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Old man alert (55 years old, empty nester). I'm in the market for a 55" television for my bedroom. Mostly watching sports, movies and Netflix type shows. Also in the market for a 65"-75" TV for our family room that will be for similar viewing. I'd like both to be fairly high end.

Recommendations?
The LG C1 OLED is gorgeous. I and others in this thread rave about it. It comes in sizes 48-83 inches. 65 and 77 inch appear to be the most common models.
 

JoePoulson

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Agreed. It's on most of the day and I'm always blown away. Can't get enough and soon we're build a "TV station" around ours to really finish off the display.
 

cgori

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Old man alert (55 years old, empty nester). I'm in the market for a 55" television for my bedroom. Mostly watching sports, movies and Netflix type shows. Also in the market for a 65"-75" TV for our family room that will be for similar viewing. I'd like both to be fairly high end.

Recommendations?
Lots of people will tell you to buy the LG - they are definitely awesome. Just a counterpoint:

I have a Sony XBR-65A9G, it's the same OLED panel as the LG TVs of the time (2019 - I think these were LG C8 series - two generations of LG TV ago) - LG is the only manufacturer of OLED panels so any OLED TV will have an LG panel. Sony TVs have a different (I think better, when I looked at them side-by-side) processing chip, a bit deeper blacks and a bit less jaggy on some interpolations, but the differences are pretty small. I primarily got this TV because for various reasons I can't have a center speaker in the location it's mounted - the TV panel itself is a speaker, you hook it up as the center channel of your receiver. Sound just "comes out of" the TV. If you have any situation like that where you can't have a soundbar/center channel that might be worth looking into.

The Sony TV is also an Android TV, whereas the LG sets (at least the ones I looked at in 2019) were still using the LG interface which was slightly different. I happen to prefer the Android TV but that's probably a coin flip for most people.

The XBR-77A9G still exists, for your family room size, it's the same as my TV just bigger, but the A9G line has been replaced in the other sizes (55/65) by the A80J line. A 77A9G should be on deep discount if you can find one.
The XR-65A80J is an OLED, has the acoustic surface and is on sale right now. There are also 55" and 77" versions.
The Sony A90J line is LED (not OLED) - it can be brighter, which matters if you watch mostly in a heavily-lit room, but otherwise the OLED sets are better on contrast/black-level/viewing angle/response time.

Also, note that Samsung is likely coming with hybrid QD-OLED TVs early next year.

EDIT: I should point out, this is probably the nicest single piece of technology I own. It's a beautiful TV. I was replacing a Pioneer Elite 50" plasma, considered the gold-standard at the time (2009? 2010?) for watching sports, and this TV is miles and miles nicer.
 

Bleedred

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Lots of people will tell you to buy the LG - they are definitely awesome. Just a counterpoint:

I have a Sony XBR-65A9G, it's the same OLED panel as the LG TVs of the time (2019 - I think these were LG C8 series - two generations of LG TV ago) - LG is the only manufacturer of OLED panels so any OLED TV will have an LG panel. Sony TVs have a different (I think better, when I looked at them side-by-side) processing chip, a bit deeper blacks and a bit less jaggy on some interpolations, but the differences are pretty small. I primarily got this TV because for various reasons I can't have a center speaker in the location it's mounted - the TV panel itself is a speaker, you hook it up as the center channel of your receiver. Sound just "comes out of" the TV. If you have any situation like that where you can't have a soundbar/center channel that might be worth looking into.

The Sony TV is also an Android TV, whereas the LG sets (at least the ones I looked at in 2019) were still using the LG interface which was slightly different. I happen to prefer the Android TV but that's probably a coin flip for most people.

The XBR-77A9G still exists, for your family room size, it's the same as my TV just bigger, but the A9G line has been replaced in the other sizes (55/65) by the A80J line. A 77A9G should be on deep discount if you can find one.
The XR-65A80J is an OLED, has the acoustic surface and is on sale right now. There are also 55" and 77" versions.
The Sony A90J line is LED (not OLED) - it can be brighter, which matters if you watch mostly in a heavily-lit room, but otherwise the OLED sets are better on contrast/black-level/viewing angle/response time.

Also, note that Samsung is likely coming with hybrid QD-OLED TVs early next year.

EDIT: I should point out, this is probably the nicest single piece of technology I own. It's a beautiful TV. I was replacing a Pioneer Elite 50" plasma, considered the gold-standard at the time (2009? 2010?) for watching sports, and this TV is miles and miles nicer.
Great stuff, thank you
 

jtn46

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My LG OLED is probably my favorite possession.
My one nitpick is the TV is so short a LG branded soundbar blocks part of the screen, like c’mon guys, talk to the people designing soundbars and make your signature TV, probably the signature product your company makes now, 10mm taller so people will feel better dropping $800 on a another LG product. (I have a SP9YA, and have a riser for the TV because the 5mm of picture I was missing bugged me.)
 

JoePoulson

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The Sony mount doesn't have this issue as it can be adjusted a few different ways and is two pieces, but as has already been pointed out you can also get a third party solution for cheap that solves any soundbar placement issues.
 

Doc Zero

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The A9G is incredible, and I second everything @cgori said upthread. Sony’s processing/out-of-the-box calibration (on “Custom” mode) are pretty much unmatched.
 

Tim Salmon

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This thread has been a roller coaster for me, but it has a happy ending. Someone mentioned a MantelMount about a month ago, and it was the mount that I never knew I always wanted. So I went ahead and bought an MM540.

While I was removing my 65" TCL R625 from the old mount, I had a mishap that damaged the rear cover panel and left me with only two VESA mounting points instead of four. So I was suddenly in the market for a new TV to go with my new MantelMount. I went with this Sony A8H, and the picture has been awesome right out of the box. I probably would have gone with the LG C1 if the price had been the same, but I did a quick cost-benefit analysis and decided not to spend the extra $300 for HDMI 2.1 capability.
 

santadevil

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EDIT: I should point out, this is probably the nicest single piece of technology I own. It's a beautiful TV. I was replacing a Pioneer Elite 50" plasma, considered the gold-standard at the time (2009? 2010?) for watching sports, and this TV is miles and miles nicer.
I love my 65" C9, but I still enjoy movies on my 50" Kuro. About to sit down and watch one now
 

santadevil

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Holy shit, a Kuro sighting.
I'm going to cry when that thing dies. That was my first big purchase after my wife and I bought our first house. Took a day off work during tax and drove two hours to pick it up. Box was took big for the car, so we took it out and it fit into the car standing up. I literally held onto it, keeping it upright the entire way home

It was so good for watching movies on. It still is, but man, it throws a ton of heat
 

Doc Zero

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Oh yeah, I’d forgotten how hot they run.

Plasma always had this fascinating dithering effect that I found super cool.
 

cgori

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I was gonna make a joke about how you can turn your heat off when you turn the Kuro on. Thing is basically a space heater...
 

Jim Ed Rice in HOF

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Just pulled the trigger on the LG 65”c1 because my older LG 70” has shit the bed. Really bummed that 70” isn’t a common size but I couldn’t justify moving up to a 77” TV in our room along with the added $1,100 price bump. TV should be ready for pickup before the 4:00 games.
 

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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Just pulled the trigger on the LG 65”c1 because my older LG 70” has shit the bed. Really bummed that 70” isn’t a common size but I couldn’t justify moving up to a 77” TV in our room along with the added $1,100 price bump. TV should be ready for pickup before the 4:00 games.
Congrats! I’m still thrilled with the 65”. For whatever it’s worth: the 77 isn’t as big as you think it is. If you think it might fit and not be comically large, you’ll be happy with it. In retrospect, I could have definitely made the 77 work in my space.

Agreed that the price difference is harder to swallow.
 

Senator Donut

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I was finally able to get my 65” C1 installed on a mantle mount yesterday. Thanks to everyone at SoSH for the recommendations. My only regret is not doing this sooner. I especially love the AppleTV and HomePod setup I have, as my space cannot accommodate a soundbar or center channel. Both the stock LG WebOS and TV OS are miles ahead of my old Roku television, which was an unexpected benefit.
 

bohous

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I'm starting to look around at TVs. We probably won't shell out for an OLED/QLED so looking in the $500-$600 range. How much weight should I put into the streaming OS? It looks like LG has their own WebOS and Samsung Tizen. Does anybody have any experience with these or others like Android? Any concerns with UI, speed, updates, etc? Ideally I would prefer to stick with Roku but don't really want to go with TCL/Hisense (although the prices are tempting). I know its available on other TVs but my brief research seems to look like it's mostly these brands.

The thing is, we have Comcast with X1 which has most of the streaming services we use built in to the box, except Hulu and Apple TV I believe. My wife actually dislikes the X1 UI so still uses Roku most of the time anyway. I would just like to get rid of the separate Roku unit.
 

DanoooME

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I'm starting to look around at TVs. We probably won't shell out for an OLED/QLED so looking in the $500-$600 range. How much weight should I put into the streaming OS? It looks like LG has their own WebOS and Samsung Tizen. Does anybody have any experience with these or others like Android? Any concerns with UI, speed, updates, etc? Ideally I would prefer to stick with Roku but don't really want to go with TCL/Hisense (although the prices are tempting). I know its available on other TVs but my brief research seems to look like it's mostly these brands.

The thing is, we have Comcast with X1 which has most of the streaming services we use built in to the box, except Hulu and Apple TV I believe. My wife actually dislikes the X1 UI so still uses Roku most of the time anyway. I would just like to get rid of the separate Roku unit.
I have a 50" LG TV with that OS and don't have any issues. It updates often enough, and no issues with speed. The problems I tend to have are with Hulu Live and my internet, so the two items that work with the TV, but not the TV itself.
 

Doc Zero

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webOS is fine. none of these platforms are perfect, in my opinion. Roku comes closest but it’s mostly because of how zippy and relatively ad-free it is.
 

bohous

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So I ended up pulling the trigger on this basic level LG UP7670 from BJs a couple of weeks ago and been pretty happy with it overall. Its our first 4K TV and after dialing in the settings it's a huge upgrade. However, it definitely has issues with some fast movement. Celtics games in particular are pretty much unwatchable without motion smoothing cranked up. This TV is 60hz native but has 'TruMotion 120', which I guess is to compensate. The problem is the TruMotion settings are buried deep in the settings menu so it's not practical to change that every time I want to watch sports, and I don't want to leave it on Soap Opera mode. Would a true 120hz TV resolve this issue? I've looked it up a bit online but I'm a dummy and most of what I'm reading assumes the reader is not.
 

Max Power

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Are the motion smoothing settings saved per input on the TV? If so, you could get an HDMI splitter and run the cable box to two different HDMI inputs on the TV. Switching between those is usually way easier than digging into the settings.
 

bohous

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Are the motion smoothing settings saved per input on the TV? If so, you could get an HDMI splitter and run the cable box to two different HDMI inputs on the TV. Switching between those is usually way easier than digging into the settings.
Not sure how the settings are saved but interesting idea. I'll look into it but I would assume since its a TV setting the input wouldn't matter (?). I'm just surprised that more people don't see this as a need and manufacturers haven't built in a way to more easily toggle these settings, or at least make them first level settings like the color presets.
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
Our 8 year old 50" Seiki (Nov. 2013, $229 Lightning Deal) went to a black screen yesterday: On light comes on, but no splash screen, no Input info in the corner.

Luckily, we had an extra 55" ONN Roku TV NiB from BF 2020 to swap right in ($120, so it's not even worth trying to swap in new boards to fix the old TV).

What really surprised me is that the yearly est. electric bill for the old TV is under $17, the new TV is$28. Granted it's a bigger screen, but I really assumed that newer technology would have lowered the power consumption despite the bigger screen.
 

Reardon's Beard

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I'm starting to look around at TVs. We probably won't shell out for an OLED/QLED so looking in the $500-$600 range. How much weight should I put into the streaming OS? It looks like LG has their own WebOS and Samsung Tizen. Does anybody have any experience with these or others like Android? Any concerns with UI, speed, updates, etc? Ideally I would prefer to stick with Roku but don't really want to go with TCL/Hisense (although the prices are tempting). I know its available on other TVs but my brief research seems to look like it's mostly these brands.

The thing is, we have Comcast with X1 which has most of the streaming services we use built in to the box, except Hulu and Apple TV I believe. My wife actually dislikes the X1 UI so still uses Roku most of the time anyway. I would just like to get rid of the separate Roku unit.
Hey there, Vizio is a great bet in that range for either the V or M series depending on deals, timing, and size. I have a 65 (v) and 75 (m) inch on those and have been quite content for the price point. The native Vizio interface has also been great and they run updates on regular basis when needed. Regularly use AppleTV, Peacock, Disney, etc.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Are there any cable systems/boxes that do 4k and HDR? I'm lucky if I get 1080i on my Charter system (I think their World box has a few channels that do 1080p but that's all I know of).
FiOS latest cable box does do it. There's very little content (almost entirely sports), but there are 3 channels dedicated to it where if something is broadcast in 4K it will be simulcast on one of these channels for the duration of it's program. If I tune to something on an HD channel, I will get a little pop up that says "This is also available in 4k. Press enter to switch." I would see it frequently (about 1/2 the time) for the prime college football games of the week. I would see it rarely (once random game every other week) for the NFL.

I believe it may not be true 4K, but an upscale of a 1080p broadcast (which is still better than the 720p that most stuff is broadcast as). I believe there are some marquee broadcasts (like the Superbowl) that they also use HDR for. They didn't last year (supposedly due to Covid), but I think did two years ago.
 

Red Sox Physicist

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I believe it may not be true 4K, but an upscale of a 1080p broadcast (which is still better than the 720p that most stuff is broadcast as). I believe there are some marquee broadcasts (like the Superbowl) that they also use HDR for.
The MLB All Star game, the ALDS, the ALCS, and the World Series were broadcast in 4K HDR-HLG last year. It was an upscale of 1080p. I recorded them with my HDHomeRun Prime on FIOS. HDR-HLG looked great. The games were also available in 4K HDR-HLG through the FOX App 0on my Roku if you don't have a cable box that supports it.

There was a discussion with the FOX Sports VP about why they're upscaling to 4K when they could just broadcast the 1080p signal in HDR and let the TVs upscale it. His response was "For us, our goal is to provide 4K. That’s what the distribution networks are looking for as they continue to provide this kind of programming. So, our goal is that when we switch over to full 4K production that it is transparent to the home viewer."

Some of the Tokyo Olympics were also available in 4K HDR, but the $K broadcast was delayed by a day on FIOS in the MetroWest area.
 

Senator Donut

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FiOS latest cable box does do it. There's very little content (almost entirely sports), but there are 3 channels dedicated to it where if something is broadcast in 4K it will be simulcast on one of these channels for the duration of it's program. If I tune to something on an HD channel, I will get a little pop up that says "This is also available in 4k. Press enter to switch." I would see it frequently (about 1/2 the time) for the prime college football games of the week. I would see it rarely (once random game every other week) for the NFL.

I believe it may not be true 4K, but an upscale of a 1080p broadcast (which is still better than the 720p that most stuff is broadcast as). I believe there are some marquee broadcasts (like the Superbowl) that they also use HDR for. They didn't last year (supposedly due to Covid), but I think did two years ago.
As far as I can tell, we only get the following events in 4K (or upconverted 1080p HDR)

Fox stand-alone NFL games (i.e. Thursday nights but not Sunday afternoons)

Fox MLB games

Fox/FS1 college football and basketball, about two or three per week

ESPN college football, one game a week, usually a mid low-tier game (e.g. Oklahoma at Kansas)

One ESPN college basketball game, I think their featured Saturday night matchup (it was Duke-Syracuse this weekend

Notre Dame football home games on NBC (upconverted 1080p like Fox)

One or two EPL games per week, global feed production, so no Arlo White and we get nothing if they show the match selected for 4K production on Peacock.

Out of nowhere, NBA TV had OKC at Cleveland in great looking 4K Saturday using the OKC Bally Sports feed. No idea what their plans are going forward.



Some local RSNs may have 4K, but not NESN or NBC Boston yet, so I’m not tracking it. In the past NBC had featured hole coverage of the US Open in 4K, not sure what their plans are going forward. NBC will also have some Olympics in 4K, but I haven’t seen the details yet.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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As far as I can tell, we only get the following events in 4K (or upconverted 1080p HDR)

Fox stand-alone NFL games (i.e. Thursday nights but not Sunday afternoons)

Fox MLB games

Fox/FS1 college football and basketball, about two or three per week

ESPN college football, one game a week, usually a mid low-tier game (e.g. Oklahoma at Kansas)

One ESPN college basketball game, I think their featured Saturday night matchup (it was Duke-Syracuse this weekend

Notre Dame football home games on NBC (upconverted 1080p like Fox)

One or two EPL games per week, global feed production, so no Arlo White and we get nothing if they show the match selected for 4K production on Peacock.

Out of nowhere, NBA TV had OKC at Cleveland in great looking 4K Saturday using the OKC Bally Sports feed. No idea what their plans are going forward.



Some local RSNs may have 4K, but not NESN or NBC Boston yet, so I’m not tracking it. In the past NBC had featured hole coverage of the US Open in 4K, not sure what their plans are going forward. NBC will also have some Olympics in 4K, but I haven’t seen the details yet.
This is great. Definitely a layer more analysis than I've done.

Quick question since you also must be on FIOS, do you find that the DVR box isn't quite as responsive when watching 4k content? If I'm watching purely live it's fine, but if I DVR or pause to hit the rest room and am trying to use the 30 second skip or FF it's a bit of a mess (almost better off just watching HD). I skip 30 seconds forward and it freezes for 10-15 seconds and then I'm 45 seconds forward and I missed part of what I wanted and then trying to rewind just makes it even worse.
 

cgori

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On Comcast/Xfinity, I looked this up the other day: https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/uhd-4k-faqs

You need to ask them to upgrade your set-top box, unless you are a very recent installation. There's this very helpful (my sarcasm) note:

Note: X1 4K TV Boxes (XG1v4 and Xi6) aren’t available to order online, and the Xi6 is not available in Xfinity Stores. The easiest way to receive an X1 4K TV Box is to contact us to order a Getting Started kit. The only way to receive an Xi6 is to request a Getting Started kit.
I haven't done this yet, because I just discovered my receiver doesn't do HDCP 2.2 and so a lot of the sources (presumably this one too) won't output 4K without HDCP 2.2, even though it is supposed to be a 4K passthrough receiver. (It's a ~6yr old Denon.)
 
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cgori

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I haven't done this yet, because I just discovered my receiver doesn't do HDCP 2.2 and so a lot of the sources (presumably this one too) won't output 4K without HDCP 2.2, even though it is supposed to be a 4K passthrough receiver. (It's a ~6yr old Denon.)
So, I got them to upgrade this box for free, and interestingly the Xfinity XG1v4 (4K set top box) doesn't seem to care about HDCP 2.2 - but I haven't found any natively broadcast 4K content to really test. The box is outputting/upscaling to 4K always though, and my receiver is passing it through to the TV.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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What is that? haha
One of the reasons Plasma and now OLED's are considered to show better picture is because of the contrast and how "black" blacks are when on the screen. If you look at your TV when it's off, and then were to look at it when it's on, but projecting a black image that gives you a sense (and the Netflix app with a dark background is a great example of this). Traditional LCDs because of their backlighting could never produced great deep blacks, and will show more greyish picture.
 

NortheasternPJ

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Ahhh, interesting. I will check it out.

Thanks again, gents!
Bad black levels also cause a ton of darker scenes on LCD's to appear washed out our unclear.

For example:


So if you're watching I think second to last Game of Thrones episode that was super dark, an OLED's going to be able to better display the darks and lights separately and produce a more vivid image. If you're watching space based things, it drastically increases the contrast between the dark space background and foreground objects as they're meant to be seen.
 

The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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Any tips for dealing with overall screen darkness? I've calibrated things according to AVSforums and it's a little better, an the colors and HDR highlights really pop, but some detail seems to get sucked into the black hole of OLED darkness. I've played around with settings, including changing the gamma (which does bring out some of the detail from the blackness, but at the expense of the highlights), but am not sure if there is a best of both worlds tweak.
 

Bowhemian

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OK I am going to need a recommendation. I am renovating my basement and will need a decent TV. I am looking for a 65" TV, and not looking to break the budget. I am a plug and play kind of guy, and it doesn't have to be anything fancy. My budget is <$1k, and honestly not wanting/needing to be at the top of that range, nor do I want to buy a cheapo. There are 2 windows (that face east if that matters) and it is a pretty dark area (I mean, it is a basement afterall), so glare is likely not an issue. Aside from walking into Best Buy and grabbing something off the floor, anything I should look for?