I currently have a Vizio 48" (either a E480i-B2 or E550i-B2).
It still works fine as a TV but isn’t that smart anymore. A number of the apps no longer work because of updates that the TV can’t handle. E.g., I can no longer stream Youtube videos. According to the interwebs, there was some update to YT that caused the app on the Vizio TV to no longer work so the app was removed from the TV altogether. I only used it to stream our church services.
Netflix still works. Amazon still works. Those are the only ones that are regularly used. At Christmas time I was able to use Yahoo (I think) get to jouluradio.fi…maybe Pandora, too. I think Pandora is gone now as well.
Apple TV never worked, but I have a year of that, too.
TV-recption-wise, I just get ota coverage via an indoor-antenna.
I have no idea what I even want - brand, type, size, features.
Width-wise, it could be up to 63", so I guess the 85" is out.
We sit about 12’ away from the thing.
Your advice & ideas are welcome.
Costco, Best Buy, Target, Circuit City…doesn’t matter.
Just go to CostCo and buy a TV you like. We bought a cheap Roku tv recently and it seems to be working fine. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t shopped around, but I didn’t see a reason to do a bunch of research on a TV. I just went to the store and picked one.
If you are sitting 12’ away and are limited to TV’s up to 63" wide, I’d go as big as possible in your space. Seems like most manufacturers jump from a 65" diagonal to a 77" diagonal, and the 77" might be too big for your space. If I were buying I’d consider OLED models and 4k.
If you don’t already have separate speakers for your TV, I’d consider adding a soundbar too.
We were happy enough with the Samsung we bought last fall that we bought a second this spring. I think they are the 3rd & 4th tv’s we have bought in our 34 year marriage. We bought ours at Sam’s Club but I imagine Costco would be similar.
I got a Samsung 55" one about 4 years ago, wish I had gone for the 65" one and will do that next time (previous TV was a 32" so it seemed like, and was, a huge increase in screen size). I like the Samsung TV with one exception - the Paramount+ app on Samsung TV has a lot of issues. Enough so that I cancelled my Paramount+ subscription. They blame Samsung, but every other streaming app works just fine, but if you only watch Paramount then get a non-Samsung for now until they figure it out.
We use an external box on all of our TVs and this don’t use the smart TV functions. Boxes are updateable, TVs are not. Then u can pick whatever TV you want.
I would buy a Roku. We’ve had a Roku and a FireTV and liked the Roku much better. Right now we use an Xbox One to play all our TV apps even though we have a smart TV, so that’s an option too if you have one.
We got a Sony Bravia somethingoranother last year, when an older TV finally bit the dust.
We chose it primarily because of the built-in “Google TV” (Chromecast) as its smartness platform. We don’t have cable/satellite, have lousy OTA reception. We use streaming apps.
Nice upgrade in picture from our early HD TV, but the sound quality was disappointing. A soundbar was very quickly added.
Super thin TV’s are almost mandatory now for manufacturers, which means they can’t fit a decent speaker in the unit anymore. A cheap soundbar is a huge upgrade for most new TV’s.
It looks like a Roku is more of an on-demand entertainment sort of thing…kind of like amazon prime video where there’s some free stuff & some pay stuff & it’s going to be a variety of programs available.
…whereas, the FireTV is a dvr and all you can watch are ota shows that you’ve previously recorded.
