Teach me how to buy the right TV

I hate dealing with electronics, but I need to replace the TV in the bedroom. I don't care about HDTV. I will never watch movies in there, occasionally sports but usually just half an hour of news before falling asleep. My eyes will be eleven feet away from the wall. The old set that I am replacing had a 20" diagonal screen. I'd like to go a little bigger, but not much. I don't want to spend a ton of money, but I will pay enough to get a good brand. I don't want to have to do this again for a long time.

GO!

From working in the cable industry, Sony, LG, or Samsung are the TVs I've seen that last the longest.

If you had a 20" and want to go bigger, 27" or 32" will probably be good enough.

Costco!
Not because I work there, but because we price well, have the brand you don't know you want yet, and will take it back for literally any reason, at any time.
For your modest needs, I'm not sure how stuck you should be on a 'good' brand.
I'm happy with everything my smrt vizio does - and I bought it as my primary teevee.

Example: 32 inch Vizio

1. Go to Sam's Club.
2. Pick a size.
3. Buy cheapest one there.

Sam's has a nice looking 32" LCD for $168. You can't beat that. I just bought my parents a 40" Sanyo there for $268.

Refresh rate refresh rate refresh rate......

I just bought a 32" Samsung for the bedroom. No smart TV or any of that, just a TV and it works fine. I got it at Best Buy (I had a gift certificate) and it was just over $200.

You can get cheaper TVs from other manufacturers, but I've had good luck with Samsung TVs so I stuck with them.

No Sam's Club around here, no Costco membership, but we do have a BJ's membership.

Just to be "That Guy" in the discussion. Get the TV out of the bedroom. I sleep better without one and it only encouraged bad habits when I had one.

I'm not anti-TV by any means, just that the bedroom should be a place of other activities than watching TV.

My .02 cents YMMV

My father...who is an electronic gadget hoarder, came up a few weeks ago and saw our regular 32" TV. That wouldn't do, so he bought us a Smart wifi'd, twin dubulator with triple chromed whippy stick 39" LED.

Go for 120Hz, and 1080p minimum. Faster and better picture.

KyAllroad wrote: Just to be "That Guy" in the discussion. Get the TV out of the bedroom. I sleep better without one and it only encouraged bad habits when I had one.

Some of us can only get to sleep with a TV (or other device)in the bedroom to make some white noise.

stuart in mn wrote:

KyAllroad wrote: Just to be "That Guy" in the discussion. Get the TV out of the bedroom. I sleep better without one and it only encouraged bad habits when I had one.

Some of us can only get to sleep with a TV (or other device)in the bedroom to make some white noise.

Agreed, we usually use a fan.

I, too, ditched the bedroom TV about 15 years ago. If I need background noise, Bubba is more than willing to howl all night long with the neighbor dogs and coyotes.

Dr. Hess wrote: 1. Go to Sam's Club. 2. Pick a size. 3. Buy cheapest one there. Sam's has a nice looking 32" LCD for $168. You can't beat that. I just bought my parents a 40" Sanyo there for $268.

Or Costco, or Best Buy, or hell, Amazon. For your needs, it's nearly impossible to go wrong. And I wouldn't spend one second worrying about resolution or refresh rate. For one thing, it's pretty hard to find anything that's not 1080p these days, and for another, most of the content out there is still 720p. For a bedroom TV, that's more than good enough. If this was a living-room or home theater TV, then yes, make sure you future-proof a little more.

As for refresh rate, we have 3 LCD TVs in our house, and they are all 60hz and they are all more than good enough. Personally, I've found that the higher-refresh-rate LCDs I've looked at have too much of the "soap opera effect" (Google it), so I don't like them anyhow. Article on refresh rate: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379206,00.asp

Anyhow, this is way more info than you need or want. Pick a size, find a cheap one with good ratings online, and buy it. Done.

KyAllroad wrote: Just to be "That Guy" in the discussion. Get the TV out of the bedroom. I sleep better without one and it only encouraged bad habits when I had one. I'm not anti-TV by any means, just that the bedroom should be a place of other activities than watching TV. My .02 cents YMMV

I knew this was coming.

No.

In reply to KyAllroad:

SWMBO demands porn access in the bedroom and 5.5" cellphone screens won't cut it for her (plus the phone is normally serving as a video recording device)

No Costco membership?

target. buy magnavox. be done for years.

i just replaced the 10+ year old 32" magnavox LCD flat screen(that i found in the trash) in the bedroom with the 8 year old philips(aka magnavox) 42" LCD from the living room. in turn the 42" was replaced with a new 55" LED magnavox from target, it was $498 on sale a couple weeks ago but it was back to $698 last week. -5% for having target card, and $25 off $150+ purchase got me out the door in the $463 range.

I have the Samsung UN32EH4003 in my bedroom. For anything smaller than 40", no need for 1080P. Chances are you will not notice the differance. IT's super light and wall mounting it was a breeze. It's under $200 just about everywhere.

Clark Howard was talking about some berkeleying insane TV deals on the radio the other day. If you've got no Costco or Sam's, drive to one, or the belly of the beast (Wally World.) berkeley best (worst) buy. Their "Draw people in with our clever name and sell them overpriced E36 M3 with an overpriced warranty on a depreciating asset" business model will be dead soon. And berkeley LG appliances. Our VIZIO has worked really well for three years now, and $1k for a 60" was a screaming deal then. I'm guessing they're half that now.

Never pay for a warranty. And if you need a wall-mount, HDMI cables, etc, monoprice.com is your friend.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to KyAllroad: SWMBO demands porn access in the bedroom and 5.5" cellphone screens won't cut it for her (plus the phone is normally serving as a video recording device)

And that is why she is SWMBO.

Seems like Samsung and Sony consistently have nice pics and have a good track record of lasting. Pick a size and find the lowest cost Samsung or Sony you can come up with in about 15 minutes of searching and pull the trigger - don't look back.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to KyAllroad: SWMBO demands porn access in the bedroom and 5.5" cellphone screens won't cut it for her (plus the phone is normally serving as a video recording device)

Agree with several above. For your needs, the cheapest thing you find at the cheapest store will do you fine. Shopping is for quality, you just want cheap and works. Walmart probably has something on sale right now for under $100.

Walmart has 40 Samsung LED for $300

http://mobile.walmart.com/ip/39405700?from=cart

This was helpful:

poopshovel wrote: berkeley best (worst) buy. Their "Draw people in with our clever name and sell them overpriced E36 M3 with an overpriced warranty on a depreciating asset" business model will be dead soon.

I share your disdain for Best Buy. What a crappy store! The new store they opened on this end of town lasted less than a year. Easy to see why. I was in it on two separate occasions and left empty-handed, shaking my head, and muttering obscenities.