Steps in Buying a Big Screen TV
I suppose this is kind of timely since the Super Bowl has come….and gone AND what a crazy game by the way! The steps in buying a big screen TV as mentioned in the title of this post is more of a chronicle of my personal methodology and experience. I laughed, I cried, was happy, was angry, was frustrated, and finally relieved. For several months, I was thinking about upgrading the 46 inch TV I have in my family room to a 70 inch TV.
Plus I wanted to move the location of a bigger TV to be above my fireplace. After carefully measuring the area, I realized the maximum TV size that would fit above my fireplace would be 65 inches.
Researching a Big Screen TV
Can you say OVERWHELMING?! There are so many TVs out there: different brands, features, specs, and experiences of other buyers. I didn’t know where to begin. Though my friend had told me about a site like VIZIO (going here will give you more information) and all the amazing televisions that they have, as he had just bought one for himself, I wanted to do my own research on this matter. And who knows, this could be the place that I get drawn into the most. So I began internally – within my mind body and soul. I went to the Himalaya Mountains where I found a wise old man and meditated for three days when I realized that……ok NO I didn’t do that, lol. Instead, my starting point was that I made a mental list of what I want on a TV. With this below list in place, I was able to take a more targeted approach:
- 65-inch screen size
- Major/reputable/established brand like Samsung, Sony, Vizio, LG, or Panasonic
- At least 120 hertz “Hz” (Hertz is the number of times pixel is refreshed on an image so for example 120 means it is refreshed 120 times in 60 seconds).
- Smart TV – with apps like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and other ones I can download
- Lots of good/positive customer reviews
- Needs to be a “sale” price
- Purchase limit of $1,500
Beware of Outrageous TV Deals
During my research phase, I came across a commercial from a store whose name will not be mentioned here. They said that you can get three Samsung TVs for just $1,999; a 70 inch and 2 50 inch TVs – again all three for $1,999. Of course, my wife and I were super excited and went there a few days later. When we arrived at the store and saw the TVs that were being advertised, we learned they were 60Hz (so not part of my checklist).
There were other TVs in the store that was 120Hz and 240Hz and let me tell you the difference in quality was insane! The salesman was trying to convince us to buy some other Samsung 70 inch Samsung that, I will say had awesome picture quality, but was well over my purchase limit of $1,500. Also, I felt a little pressured as he kept lingering around while I was discussing my options with my wife. And I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on the first place I went to look for a TV anyway. So I made an excuse and got the hell outta there!
Researching A TV at My Own Pace
I use a variety of online websites to find the best deals out there (i.e., Amazon, Overstock, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc.). When I came across TVs I liked, I googled them to see the best prices and highest positive reviews. After a while, I was tired and overwhelmed of reading. So I decided to view reviews on things using YouTube. There’s not a lot of reading involved and you can see the results somewhat especially for TVs. This review which has over 253,000 views ranked Sony TV the highest overall after 4 rounds after comparing it with Samsung and LG:
So after all the research was concluded I finally decided to press the trigger….rather clicked on the mouse and bought my TV. I purchased a Sony XBR65X850D 65″ 4K Ultra HD 2160p 240Hz LED Smart HDTV from Walmart.com for $1,300 (now the same TV costs $1,600, WOOHOO). I’ve had it for a couple of months and I’m very happy with the purchase. The picture is phenomenal, the menus are easy to understand and navigate and it even has voice commands so you can, for example, search videos or change channels by speaking to it!
And drumroll…..here it is on my wall!
Congrats on your new TV and awesome deal! Thank you for posting topics that are relatable and always putting a funny spin on it (Himalayas lol). Your blog is a treat to read. I’ve learned some really valuable things that I’ve put into practice, so thank you!
Yup. I learned long time ago not to take life too seriously, but TVs….oh now that’s serious lol. I’m glad you like it and thanks for stopping by!
Glad you liked your TV purchase, even if it was a few months ago!
Whenever I buy a big screen TV, I typically purchase one of the cheaper non-brand named ones with high reviews. For example, I got my parents a 55″ Emerson for $500.00. And after some color and screen calibration, it looks pretty decent.
Also, one thing to watch out for when buying are unnecessary features like 3D TVs. It’s been out for a while and things just haven’t caught up for the 3D scene and it isn’t utilized much.
Absolutely. My friend has an Emerson and the picture quality is awesome! Somebody else I know has a Hisense and that TV has a very nice picture too. I didn’t get a 3D TV because the price was out of my budget and I didn’t think the extra feature would be worth it as we do not watch action movies so regularly.
Awesome tv!!! If I could convince my wife that we “need” to upgrade our 42 inch tv we would have a new tv. It’s a 720p and it does the job but I’d love to upgrade in the future 🙂
Thank you! For me it’s worth it because I watch it regularly (although I need to cut back but I always say that). But I also have an excuse to not goto the movies and buy a ticket and popcorn because I can wait and watch on my big TV instead.
Nice TV! Sometimes I think my smart TV is really dumb. I have to turn it off and on sometimes when I want to switch from watching cable to dvd to netflix cuz it zones out.
Lol. Which TV do you have? My theory is the manufacturers put all these features and space to install apps so the processor is not fast enough to handle it.