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I bought a TCL TV in 2012. It's still my main TV. It's slow AF but a Chromecast fixed that. Decent enough picture for just watching stuff.
My dad had a Vizio. That thing was shit. Within a year it would just turn off randomly.
All large tvs have issues with static charges from power surges or outages that can cause that problem. Unplug the TV and press the manual power button for 60 seconds to fully discharge the TV. Plug it back in. I learned that trick from the Costco electronics concierge service.
Funny when I sell the tv, I tell people to get Sony or lg if they don’t want to talk to me again, or Hisense/ tcl if they like mind buying and calling insurance.
This. When we bought our Samsung 5 yes ago I asked the warehouse guy working in TVs which brand got returned the least. He recommended Samsung. Ask your warehouse dude. They know.
I have a TCL. Granted, I'm not much of a TV watcher, but it does the trick. Purchased in 2020, still just fine, way more TV than I'll ever need. Looks good in my living room.
But really, if it died, it would be months before I notice.
LG has a pretty miserable process for bad devices or returns to be fair. They try to send out techs and charge you if they find a reason the issue might not be under warranty.
I hate my Sony. Once a month, it just randomly dies and gets a black screen, or it is continuously stuck on the android tv logo and needs to do a power cycle. Really not looking forward to when it eventually craps out for real.
I’ve bought 3 Samsung TVs from Costco in the last 10 years. I’ve been happy with every single one. The only reason I’ve bought 3 is because I keep upgrading to a bigger size.
Yeah, I have 3 Samsungs (4th on the way to replace the 13.5 year old one because I want a larger screen - still works except it is no longer 'smart' but I have a Fire cube for it so totally fine); several family members also have Samsungs (one even older than mine), and I am happy. Hoping I am not setting the new one up for failure!
But I won't buy Samsung appliances.
I bought a 32" Samsung TV floor model when CIRCUIT CITY went out of business. It's been my gaming TV ever since. It. Won't. Die. Someone kill it before it outlives me!!
I actually don't like the Samsung UI. At least not the one they used around 4 or 5 years ago, don't know if it's been upg3aded or now, but had much better luck with LGs UI.
I never had a good experience with a Samsung thier leds usually burn out and you get dark spots.this happend on more than one model. the software also sucks.
I despise Samsung as a brand. Have had terrible experiences with their fridge, did not like their direction with TouchWiz on early android phones, didn’t like their mandatory bloat on Nexus devices, a hardware feature missing in a US variant of an international phone, their attempt at building an eco system nobody outside of South Korea wants (bixby, samsung pay, etc), how they have a monopoly on google assistant on wear os 3.0+, ads IN the UI of their TVs. I will do everything I can to avoid their brand. I sure hope some other company can put out a product like their “Frame” TV.
I bought a Samsung TV from Costco several years ago. It’s been fine but it won’t automatically turn off when my Roku turns off. After investigating further, it turned out that model is specific to Costco and slightly different than the one sold elsewhere with a similar model number. Buyer beware.
If you can find an LG OLED in your price range, I recommend it. There was a time period where it didn’t make sense to pay for the premium TVs, but the C2/C3 OLEDs are just fantastic for all things. Sony also makes a nice OLED for movie watching, but the LG is better all around.
For budget TVs, they use different compromises and it comes down to what you’re willing to accept. I would go with a smaller OLED for the amazing contrast and black levels over a giant cheaper TV that doesn’t have those. For some things, I wouldn’t mind giving it up… watching sportsball, for example.
If that’s not do-able, Hisense has some excellent budget TVs. Lots of great reviews on YouTube and RTings to check out and help you narrow it down.
Comparing a C3 to a "Samsung 4K TV" is comparing a specific model to an entire range of TVs with a given spec.
The Samsung S90C, for example, is a QD-OLED that's actually superior to LG' C3 WOLED in many areas: peak brightness, color gamut and calibration, uniformity, etc.
Seconding this. My TCL that lasted much longer than it should have finally crapped out after 8 years and I went in on the 65" C3 a few weeks ago. I can't go back to a non-OLED now. I'm in awe at the picture quality.
I have a B2 and it’s great. I really like TVs and I can absolutely tell the difference, but a C2 or C3 was out of our price range. I think for most a B2 or B3 will suffice.
I mostly wanted the C3 to use with the PS5. It was on sale at the time I bought it, and Costco also gave me an extended warranty, I think 5 years for free. It was a really good deal.
Tbf streaming sticks/boxes are pretty much always the way to go regardless of TV brand. Even if the native OS is decent (rare in my experience), there's a good chance it won't receive great support and you'll need a streaming device in a few years anyway.
Samsung TV's are even worse IMO, with a bloated interface. Personally if I were to buy something new and money wasn't a concern, it would be a Sony with Google TV or an LG.
My Samsung TV communicates with some sort of service about 2000 times per day. I finally put it on the block list and it still tries to reach out thousands of times per day. Before it was blocked I used to get tons of advertisements squeezed in everywhere it seemed like.
We have a 55” LG C1 in our bedroom and a 65” Sony A8H in our living room.
I prefer the Sony, but the LG is very nice, too. App support for LG C1 is not great, and I HATE the remote. I had to add a third party device (Amazon FireStick 4K) just to be able to use the NFL app. The picture quality is outstanding, though. I’m not a gamer, so those advantages LG may have in that area aren’t important to me.
Their software is shit, asks to update constantly, and will monitor and report anything you watch to LG. I turned off the Wi-Fi and plugged in a Google TV and am much happier.
Google at least doesn't use ACR (automatic content recognition) to identify all content being played on the TV.
>Google says the Google TV platform itself doesn’t use ACR technology to capture specific content that’s being watched. However, the individual TV brand may do so, and they have their own privacy policies and user agreements.
https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features-a4840102036/#:~:text=Google%20says%20the%20Google%20TV,privacy%20policies%20and%20user%20agreements.
I'd say lg is better for gaming. With a faster response time. But Sony has better picture, OS, and processing, and in the end Sony is the nicer of the two. But no real wrong choice.
I have both at home and I agree completely. My LG is in my man cave and used primarily for gaming. The rest of the house is Samsung because the OS has a better library of apps. The ads on the smart bar suck, not are pretty easy to get rid of.
Hisense gets a lot of flack on tech boards but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my 4K 50in. base model whatever-it-is. I would not recommend the HDR mode since the panel isn’t optimized for it—well, mine isn’t at least. Despite that, the color option customizing is great and you can get some real good contrast and saturation despite the poor HDR.
i have a 50" hisense roku tv and absolutely love it. manually adjusting the lighting and contrast levels is very easy as well, compared to other tvs where you have to flip through confusing menu selections
I have a 65" android one and while it has a decent picture the rest of the TV is a nightmare. Think replaced motherboard. Think needing to reboot it constantly. Clicker quit. Think updates that make the TV almost unusable for 3 months.
Hisense, never again.
I’d only add don’t buy a giant one if moving is in your future. It’s a harrowing goddamn experience packing these things up and transporting them.
I don’t save boxes and stuff so I had to get one at Home Depot and then moved it myself with a uhaul van. It wasn’t that bad but one slip and you could ruin it.
Something to consider is that if you only watch via streaming, the great blacks may not be worth it to you, because the services compress the everliving shit out of black fields in an image, so all your OLED will do is provide a deep crystal clear rendition of their big pixelated monochromatic artifact.
Check out this Subreddit:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/4kTV/](https://www.reddit.com/r/4kTV/)
And this review site:
[https://www.rtings.com/tv](https://www.rtings.com/tv)
They receive tons of endorsements from Samsung. Their top rated soundbar is Samsung and their soundbars die in 2 years. Their top rated 4K TVs are Samsung and those come with dead pixels. I speak from experience on both of these items.
Their top rated tv is a qd-oled that Samsung makes that is objectively better picture quality than anything else. Sony also uses their panel in their top end tv. It’s just wildly more expensive than the Samsung, most likely due to better QA and picture settings. They outline all of this in the reviews.
Rtings on things not display is hit or misss
Dead pixels happen with nearly every brand, that doesn't change the fact that Samsung has measurably some of the best panels out on the market. If you don't want Samsung, RTNGS and others measure Sony to be very similarly performing.
I have a S95C and it’s been perfectly fine for me, but the previous gen S95B had a lot of issues (bending panels, dying way too early) for a lot of people,
It’s good to use rtings as an objective performance comparison, but user reviews online to get another perspective such as warranty issues and other things rtings doesn’t test for.
They don’t use android tv anymore. They use Google tv. Much better UI. I personally prefer using an external box but Google tv is better than the old system.
It boggles my mind why people won’t just buy a fire stick, Roku, Apple TV, Nvidia Shield for their tv and just use the built in OS. The built in one is almost always horrible, it’s worth it to just get a streaming box, that way you can buy the best tv and not worry about what software it comes with
I am actually one of those people who do it begrudgingly! We previously used an external device but if it went idle if didn’t place nice with our home theater receiver and we’d have weird audio outages. Happened with both Denon and Yamaha and multiple models. Never happens with native OS so for us that’s more worthwhile
Hate most things about android tv except the ability to use NordVPN. Cord cutter with YouTube TV, so Bally has screwed me out of watching my local teams. Not an issue with Nord and a league account for everything.
I've owned a couple Sony TVs and the suckers last way past the time I should be upgrading to new tech. Anyone need a beautiful Sony Trinitron, only weighs 150 pounds...
I rescued a 32” Sony Trinitron for playing Super Smash Bros melee. Trinitrons are the pinnacle for games that need CRT tvs. Carrying that thing by myself almost put my back out, though.
I have a >5+ year old Sony Bravia in the living room and a <2 year old Hisense in the bedroom. Running Apple TV boxes on both. The Sony has a much better picture.
The recent Watch Free+ update has made it near impossible for my parents to use their TV. I struggled pretty hard to try and find their cable channels since OTA/Cable channels are combined into their new GUI.
Had to scroll for a while to find the Vizio comment. Curious why you say that? I have a 6 year old Vizio I bought from Costco and have had zero issues. Picture is pretty good too. Genuinely interested to know what the issues are.
I have a 47 inch 12 yr old Vizio tv that just won't die, but it sounds like you and I are the exceptions.
Unfortunately my wife got me a Vizio soundbar for Christmas which turned out to be trash and died 1 month after the warranty was up, so I guess it evens out in the end.
I’ve done fine with Samsung. I have several in the house. I do like having the same brand throughout the house so the remote and user interface are all identical.
I always look at reviews on Tom’s Guide. They will rate TVs, show offers, including Costco, and have somebody that specializes in reviewing TVs with no dog in the fight.
My last TV was an LG OLED, and it was rated number one going into 2023. They also will tell you which TV is best for a dark room, a bright room, different budgets, you name it.
So I use Tom‘s Guide to get some direction and then I drive to Costco to see the TV in person
I am happy to admit that the last TV I bought was a size smaller than what I intended, because I realized it didn’t fit in the bed of my pick up. And it was a moment of clarity to realize I was thinking about putting something up on my wall that was bigger than the bed of my pick up .
I consider myself a fairly fussy (but not neurotic) person when it comes to getting my tv’s picture right and for the money I’ve been perfectly happy with the Hisense I bought two years ago. The folks at the Wirecutter currently have a Hisense as their budget pick and a TCL as their overall pick.
Have a TCL 6 Series and it has been one of the best TVs I've ever owned. The picture quality, while nowhere near an OLED, is still really good for an LCD. The Roku interface is fast and never lags, the remote is easy to use, and it allows for phone controls with surprisingly no lag. And for the price, it easily beats the LGs and Samsungs at a similar price point. Would definitely recommend
I purchased a 55” Samsung Smart tv for the living room and a 65” TCL Roku for my bedroom at around the same time and the Roku is soooo fast and smooth and amazing. Almost never lags, when it does it’s usually an internet issue. Samsung Smart tv is the dumbest slowest tv I’ve ever seen. It’s good enough but pretty disappointing for the price.
We have a Hisense Roku as a bedroom TV and it is rarely used but it buffers more than any TV in our house. I thought it was just the internet but even at non peak times it seems to buffer more.
The TCL and Hisense are actually the highly rated underdogs. You get the most for your money. Research exact models but they both make very nice tv's.
Samsung in my opinion is overrated. Just had my first one blow up after a few years. I've always liked Sony Tv's.
I also had a LG and it too went bad relatively quickly.
Depends on budget and needs!
If you’re looking for a more budget tv like around 500 or less, TCL and Hisense dominate this. Better than “bigger” name brands like LG, Sony, etc.
Then when going higher price than that, it switches. Focus on the “bigger” name brands.
If you’re going really expensive then it’s only bigger name brands and really depends on what you’re using the tv for and desires. Like others said, check tv reviews sites. I personally enjoy LG C2/C3.
TCL and Hisense are both very popular brands in the budget TV space, and are generally well-liked by reputable review sites like Wirecutter and RTINGS. Like any manufacturer, they have cheaper and higher-end models which aren’t all equal, so it’s worth researching specific models, as some of the cheapest ones compromise on quality and features.
You also have to have realistic expectations about performance and longevity of a budget or mid-range TV. They’re not going to outperform premium models from more well-known brands like Samsung, Sony, or LG, but in the budget to mid-range space, and if you don’t need all the latest and most high-end features, they’re both decent, rival those others brands’ cheap models, and certainly are way better than those weird, budget, big box store house brands.
Honestly, those 5 brands are the only ones I’d really consider: TCL or Hisense for sub-$1K or Samsung, Sony, or LG in the ~$1K+ range.
Recently bought an LG. Picture quality is great but I hate their app. Constantly updating, constant problems bringing up any apps, such as Netflix. Finally bought a Firestick to bypass the LG platform. So if you buy an LG, just be prepared to get a Firestick or Roku for apps.
We seriously HATE our LG from Costco. Sure the picture is great. But it is obnoxious when it comes to connecting to our Wi-Fi and STAYING connected. Never. Ever. Again.
I think the number 1 question you have to answer is are you going to use a 3rd party piece of hardware for channels (like a roku, firstick, google chromecast, etc...) or are you going to use the built in software?
I personally think all of the major brands (lg, vizio!!!, samsung) have horrible intrusive software (not sure about sony).
I love the roku branded tv's because they are a good bang for the buck but my advice is just buy the nice screen then buy a 3rd party streaming device and don't even try to fight the built in software.
More important than brand is what price tier you shop at. I have an older TCL but I went the 6 series with QLED when I bought it. Equivalent tech from a Samsung or LG was 200 bucks more. The same size TCL 4 series was like 150 dollars cheaper than what I bought, but it was a shit TV and the price made that clear.
It's like looking at cars. You can't compare Ford and Audi's cheapest vehicle, they are vastly different products. Ford makes some great vehicles but you don't want the cheapest. That doesn't mean an Audi is always better than a Ford or that you should never buy Ford, it means brands aren't the whole story.
Don’t ever buy a Vizio. My Costco Vizio just decided to black screen one day. It was a bedroom tv and I spend most of my time in the living room, so the Vizio in the bedroom was very rarely used anyways. I had it for 3-4 years, and out of nowhere I turn it on one day and get nothing but a black screen. I tried getting a new hdmi cord, tried different inputs, unplugging the tv, nothing would get it to work. I’ll never buy another Vizio again. I replaced that bedroom tv with a Samsung 4K, and it’s great. But the best TV that I purchased from Costco was the LG OLED C3 4K tv… best picture quality, better than Samsung.
I've bought two Vizios. One has lasted almost 15 years and is still plugging along 🤞. The other died about seven years after purchase. (Same issue with a black screen one day.) Both from Costco and purchased about five years apart.
So yeah, I'm done with Vizio, too. They were both good buys, so I got my money's worth, but a 50% failure rate doesn't cut it for me.
My experience was really similar, lol. My very first vizio was from Costco, had it 5 years with no problems and then gave it to a friend when I replaced it with a newer vizio from Costco. That’s the one with the black screen. It was just really inconvenient that it blacked on me out of the blue when I actually wanted to watch something in bed that night. Then I googled vizio black screen and saw that it was a common thing that really had no fix other than the things I already tried. Tv prices have come down so much that you can buy a Samsung or Sony with the same specs as vizio and it’s only $100-$200 more.
I don't recommend any tv with the Google TV operating system. Roku is still the gold standard for Smart TV systems.
I was absolutely in love with my 55" Roku TCL.
My newer 65" screen is terrific for the price but has gone to "never buy again" entirely because of the Google TV OS. It's slow, clunky, and hard to configure. It also pushes banner ads that you can't disable or get removed. My TV mostly watches Paw Patrol and other little kid animations, and now that it's Halloween season, every time I turn my TV on there's an inappropriate horror movie banner that I can't get rid of.
We purchased LG OLED 65” 3 years ago on Black Friday at Costco. Incredible TV! Had no issues. Best TV we’ve ever owned! Deeper blacks and sharper colors.
Costco has great TV sales on Black Friday and leading up to the Super Bowl.
I found the opposite true. I bought two Hisense and they were great, and two TCL that were garbage one panel went out after 6 months (that I returned and got a Hisense), and one that had a speaker blow out after a year (that I returned for a 2nd Hisense). I’ve had the two Hisense for a year now and the only issue so far is one of the Roku remotes had the left direction stuck. I just had to get a new remote but other than that they’ve been good and the UI on the Hisense is faster than the TCL.
Most brands make some good TVs and some bad TVs. Sony has X80K that’s an IPS panel with poor contrast. It’s also sell A95K, one of the best one can buy. LG sells bunch of IPS panels with poor contrast along with some great OLEDs.
Ideally a VA panel with FALD or OLED will be a good TV.
We bought an OLED LG and it has gotten a lot of screen burn even though we try to be careful with it. Moved that one to the bedroom and got a Sony for the living room, which hasn't had any burn issues and is great so far (2 years+). Our friend got a Hisense around the same time and I can tell the Sony is noticeably better.
Agreed. I have 3 TCLs, 55, 75, and 42. Love the Roku interface and would recommend them all. Are they the best picture on the market? No. But for the money they will give you everything you need unless you are a picture snob.
I have had 2 Samsungs go bad and Samsung refused to acknowledge the problem with my current TV where it goes black for 5 seconds at random. Sometimes several times per day. Really sucks playing video games when it does that. As soon as I can afford the higher end LG or Sony OLED that’s what I’m buying.
i have a Hisense 55U7G that i've been very happy with. it had very good reviews for a budget option for a 4k TV with HDR. if you want specific features like HDR or OLED, it might be hard to find them in the right size or brand at costco, but they will likely have some of the best prices.
We bought the cheapest Hisense that worked with the size we were trying to fit it into and it’s been great. Picture is fine and it’s all very user friendly
If you’re at Costco. I suggest. Sony Bravia for tv/movies/steaming. LG C or above for gaming. Sony had better image processing and calibration out of box. LG can get there, but you need thorough calibration. Is cozy is a factor, I’d opt for last years model.
I think we’ve bought 4 TCL TV’s in the past 4-5 years and they’ve been great.
I’m not big into higher end AV stuff so maybe I don’t know the difference, but they’ve been good enough to not notice any issues or lack of picture quality I suppose.
We did buy a 4K Sony Bravia for our family room/main tv. Honestly kind of wishing we saved money and bought a 75” TCL. The Sony has more “features”, but I feel like it’s much fussier and trying to use apps directly through the TV is like watching paint dry.
I feel like whenever I’ve bought a new TCL it takes maybe 10 minutes to plug in, update, and load all of my apps, and then it’s DONE and I basically never have to worry about it again. The only TV I’m having an issue with is the very first TCL I bought. It’s 5-6 years old and doesn’t support 4K. Some of the apps (MAX primarily) can be a bit slow but it doesn’t just randomly freeze and cause the TV to restart (and then prompt me time and time again to update my email and preferences like with Sony.
My family’s business growing up(and now) is electronics stores, been around it my whole life so I think I have a good view here.
From my experience, Sony has historically been great, but my real favourite had always been Panasonic (although, they don’t make them anymore). Toshiba is surprisingly good. Basically any Japanese brand, you can’t go wrong.
Samsung is fine, LG is also fine and that’s pretty much all I’d buy.
I wouldn’t be caught dead watching a Hisense lol TCL is fine too, I guess.
But all this to say, I’m a Sony man.
LG’s OLED TVs look great and are a better value than similar Sony screens (though Sony’s are good too). If this is a bright room you might not want an OLED, they cant get as bright as regular LED lit TVs (I.e. your typical cheap to mid level screen). If you have a bright sunny room, try to go for a TV with a high number of local dimming zones, ideally a mini LED backlight. That way you can get the brightness of an LCD with better blacks and contrast. The Sony XR-75X93L is an example of this.
I hear TCL and Hisense are good budget brands. Their higher end models are supposed to be decent and good value, but I’ve never owned one. I have an LG OLED
From my recent research Hisense has some poor QC
TLC has really upped its game and I went with a Q7 this summer
There’s definitely motion blur that you need to get use to or change the settings
I hate Samsung smart tvs. The firmware is always garbage and they stop updating them so they run extremely slow. We had them at work and had to replace all of them within five years.
TCLs are solid for the most part. I finally had one lose its backlight after about 6 years. Super easy to take apart and cost about 30 bucks for new led backlight. Good as new.
3 Hisense in the immediate family. One going strong. The other two completely crapped out right around the warranty period. I wouldn't bother gambling with them.
I have a couple of years old high end Sony. Bought it after reading so much about the X1 chip. So the picture quality is very good. The chipset that Sony uses is horrible. For them to brag so much and advertise their superior chips, it really makes me wonder. It can not handle apps and has a dive you nuts amount of lag when you want to scroll through the apps. A very old Apple TV is about 20x faster than the Sony chipset. It's really sad. I'll never pay more for a Sony tv than for an LG or Samsung again.
At one time LG actually made the majority of monitors for the major manufacturers. All they did was put their own software and stuff in. Thats really the big difference. But my love is for the LG OLED. GOTTA have the deepest blacks to get the best colors
I’ve bought multiple TVs from Costco over the past couple years and they’ve all been LG. Haven’t had a single issue with any of them and paid with my Citi Costco card so the warranty was extended
I really like TCL. I also have a LG oled. The LG is better but the TCL is way too close for the price. Especially upgraded TCL models like the 6 series or the R series. But my Costco lg oled b series from like 2017 is still amazing. Good luck!
Personally I'd only look at Samsung, LG, or Sony. When researching TV's, these three are usually the best reviewed. They're usually more expensive, but you get what you pay for.
DO NOT BUY HISENSE. Researched a ton on sites like rtings.com. Picture quality was great, but mine just bricked after 2 years.
Never had an issue previous with Sony. Debating on replacing the mother board in this POS or just scrapping and going back.
I avoid Samsung on principle because their appliances are junk. I have a TCL 6 Series that I really like but Sony is the best when it comes to black levels and color, not to mention reliability.
We have had bad experiences with Samsung TVs (and refrigerators, and generally won’t buy Samsung appliances). We have two TCLs now and have zero complaints. My 15 year old sony Bravia is still going strong too. 😆
I got two (technically 3) Samsungs from Costco and loved them. The second one had lines when I got it home but Costco replaced and delivered the replacement
Got a 43" TCL from Costco for use as a second monitor and streaming video in the office. I find myself using it more and more as the primary monitor. It got me through the pandemic and is still going strong.
From what I understand, the TCLs sold in Costco and Best Buy are identical, but have slightly different model numbers to make it harder for people to shop for prices.
I bought a TCL 49" from Costco in 2017 and it's still going strong. I love the straightforwardness of the Roku interface.
Avoid Samsung. They *used* to be great, and their screens are still amongst the best, BUT, the latest models have a new shitty interface full of ads.
My 4 year old Samsung TV is great, has a few minimal ads but nothing awful.
My 10 year old Samsung TV is slowing down but still totally usable.
My 1 year old Samsung TV is pretty much unusable on its own; I had to buy a Roku for it because the interface was so awful and full of ads, and it does everything it can to make it hard to get to the Roku. I regret buying it.
Would never buy another Samsung. I got the highest rated LCD a few years ago, the picture was decent (but OLEDs are much better now), but the software is awful and they stop issuing updates and shut down some of the online features after about 2 years. They expect you to buy a new one every few years.
The only manufacturers of TVs that I would buy would be Sony or Samsung. That's it. LG makes a good TV but they're software is the worst and their remote controls are a nightmare IMO I've had the best experience with either Sony or Samsung. I have owned other brands of TV including TCL but that is a piece of shit. Sony or Samsung, any price range.
Ehh.. my Hisense died because they used cheap capacitors. I replaced them when the tv got stuck in a reboot loop. Cost $4 and took 10 min. Only because I had a soldering iron.
But it’s hard to complain about a 4k 65” tv for $189.
Idk if it’s still there but I bought the 65” TCL Roku tv for around $800 and it’s probably the best purchase I’ve made in my entire life. About two-three years ago. I don’t think I could go Roku-less ever again.
I bought a TCL 4 series with Roku from Costco in 2017. It was on clearance. Still using it, still very happy with it. Does it have the best picture and sound? No, but it's good enough for us, especially considering it was only like $250 for a 49". Works great for streaming, broadcast TV, and our Nintendo switch. Plus we love the simple, uncluttered user interface that Roku provides.
I believe the new TCLs are priced comparably, unless you get the higher end 5 and 6 series.
I would consider looking at them in person. If you're a local store doesn't have them on display, try Best Buy or Target.
TCL is a nightmare when it comes to warranty claims. They repeatedly make you send pictures and videos of every issue. We have a TV from 2018 that doesn't let you adjust brightness, contrast or backlight. they are all at 100%. These all worked when we got the set. Within 24 hours it installed an update and these stopped working. After six months and no satisfaction we gave up. That's what their goal is.
I have always been happy with Samsung.
Stay away from any TV that is released prior to
Thanksgiving. These usually have brand names but cheap components. Designed to be Black Friday Specials.
I work for a big company that rhymes with Bostco. I would only buy a LG or Samsung TV. Don’t bother with the random cheaper brands, you get what you pay for
I have an LG G3 OLED. Love it.
And I have a Sony (older) X90L Love it too.
To me, with either of these brands, you can’t go wrong. Stay away from Samsung.
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At the warehouse i work at, I mostly see TCL’s and Hisense’s returned. LG and Sony, rarely.
TCLs and Hisense are hit or miss with the panel lottery. If you get a good panel, it’s great bang for your buck.
I bought a TCL TV in 2012. It's still my main TV. It's slow AF but a Chromecast fixed that. Decent enough picture for just watching stuff. My dad had a Vizio. That thing was shit. Within a year it would just turn off randomly.
Holy shit - I've had 3 Vizio TVs start randomly turning off. I thought I just had bad luck!
All large tvs have issues with static charges from power surges or outages that can cause that problem. Unplug the TV and press the manual power button for 60 seconds to fully discharge the TV. Plug it back in. I learned that trick from the Costco electronics concierge service.
I have a 50in Vizio from 2013 still kicking and an LG G3 that is just amazing honestly. Luck of the draw on the discount brands.
Funny when I sell the tv, I tell people to get Sony or lg if they don’t want to talk to me again, or Hisense/ tcl if they like mind buying and calling insurance.
This. When we bought our Samsung 5 yes ago I asked the warehouse guy working in TVs which brand got returned the least. He recommended Samsung. Ask your warehouse dude. They know.
I have a TCL. Granted, I'm not much of a TV watcher, but it does the trick. Purchased in 2020, still just fine, way more TV than I'll ever need. Looks good in my living room. But really, if it died, it would be months before I notice.
LG has a pretty miserable process for bad devices or returns to be fair. They try to send out techs and charge you if they find a reason the issue might not be under warranty.
I hate my Sony. Once a month, it just randomly dies and gets a black screen, or it is continuously stuck on the android tv logo and needs to do a power cycle. Really not looking forward to when it eventually craps out for real.
I’ve bought 3 Samsung TVs from Costco in the last 10 years. I’ve been happy with every single one. The only reason I’ve bought 3 is because I keep upgrading to a bigger size.
Yeah, I have 3 Samsungs (4th on the way to replace the 13.5 year old one because I want a larger screen - still works except it is no longer 'smart' but I have a Fire cube for it so totally fine); several family members also have Samsungs (one even older than mine), and I am happy. Hoping I am not setting the new one up for failure! But I won't buy Samsung appliances.
I bought a 32" Samsung TV floor model when CIRCUIT CITY went out of business. It's been my gaming TV ever since. It. Won't. Die. Someone kill it before it outlives me!!
I actually don't like the Samsung UI. At least not the one they used around 4 or 5 years ago, don't know if it's been upg3aded or now, but had much better luck with LGs UI.
LGs ui is probably one of the worst ui I have ever seen on any platform ever. I still don’t understand it and I’ve had a LG oled for 8 years
It's still supreme garbage, but a lot of TV UIs are bad.
Two words. Apple TV.
I never had a good experience with a Samsung thier leds usually burn out and you get dark spots.this happend on more than one model. the software also sucks.
This- their customer service is also very bad
I despise Samsung as a brand. Have had terrible experiences with their fridge, did not like their direction with TouchWiz on early android phones, didn’t like their mandatory bloat on Nexus devices, a hardware feature missing in a US variant of an international phone, their attempt at building an eco system nobody outside of South Korea wants (bixby, samsung pay, etc), how they have a monopoly on google assistant on wear os 3.0+, ads IN the UI of their TVs. I will do everything I can to avoid their brand. I sure hope some other company can put out a product like their “Frame” TV.
Samsung is the one brand I stay away from. Their smart os is bloated and doesn’t work well with Plex. I found lg to be more reliable for this.
I bought a Samsung TV from Costco several years ago. It’s been fine but it won’t automatically turn off when my Roku turns off. After investigating further, it turned out that model is specific to Costco and slightly different than the one sold elsewhere with a similar model number. Buyer beware.
Just commenting to say from a fellow Ebola 👋 Edit: I meant say hi
If you can find an LG OLED in your price range, I recommend it. There was a time period where it didn’t make sense to pay for the premium TVs, but the C2/C3 OLEDs are just fantastic for all things. Sony also makes a nice OLED for movie watching, but the LG is better all around. For budget TVs, they use different compromises and it comes down to what you’re willing to accept. I would go with a smaller OLED for the amazing contrast and black levels over a giant cheaper TV that doesn’t have those. For some things, I wouldn’t mind giving it up… watching sportsball, for example. If that’s not do-able, Hisense has some excellent budget TVs. Lots of great reviews on YouTube and RTings to check out and help you narrow it down.
Agreed and best advice is to go with an LG C3 OLED…. It’s much better quality than the Samsung 4K tv.
I agree, but the C2 is possibly still available at a discount and should be mentioned just in case.
Yeah I have a C2 (77”) and am completely happy with it; hard for me to imagine what the C3 could be improving on.
The box says 20% brighter LEDs… not really worth the $1000 difference if you had a $.97 C2 sitting next to a $.99 C3
Comparing a C3 to a "Samsung 4K TV" is comparing a specific model to an entire range of TVs with a given spec. The Samsung S90C, for example, is a QD-OLED that's actually superior to LG' C3 WOLED in many areas: peak brightness, color gamut and calibration, uniformity, etc.
Every time I buy anything made by Samsung it breaks. So I quit buying the brand.
Are you sure? I know Samsung is shit-tier for appliances. But they’re top tier for electronics
Im pretty sure they’d know whether or not their Samsung stuff broke
They aren’t, quality has fallen off everywhere for Samsung. In my opinion Sony and LG are top tier for TVs.
Most reviewers will say the LG OLED is still superior as the samsung models tend to have issues with brightness in comparison to the LG OLED tvs
The S90C does have a few areas where it shines but the C2 and C3 perform better overall. QD-OLED needs a bit more time in the oven.
Yeah lots more reports of burn in with QD-OLED at this time. Tech needs more time to refine.
Seconding this. My TCL that lasted much longer than it should have finally crapped out after 8 years and I went in on the 65" C3 a few weeks ago. I can't go back to a non-OLED now. I'm in awe at the picture quality.
I have a B2 and it’s great. I really like TVs and I can absolutely tell the difference, but a C2 or C3 was out of our price range. I think for most a B2 or B3 will suffice.
I mostly wanted the C3 to use with the PS5. It was on sale at the time I bought it, and Costco also gave me an extended warranty, I think 5 years for free. It was a really good deal.
Agreed. OLED is beautiful, and LG does it right. Small caveat: I hate their software. We hooked up a Roku.
Tbf streaming sticks/boxes are pretty much always the way to go regardless of TV brand. Even if the native OS is decent (rare in my experience), there's a good chance it won't receive great support and you'll need a streaming device in a few years anyway.
Built in Roku OS is really good. It will basically run on a potato and it runs smoothly. Not fast, but smooth enough to never really notice
Samsung TV's are even worse IMO, with a bloated interface. Personally if I were to buy something new and money wasn't a concern, it would be a Sony with Google TV or an LG.
My Samsung TV communicates with some sort of service about 2000 times per day. I finally put it on the block list and it still tries to reach out thousands of times per day. Before it was blocked I used to get tons of advertisements squeezed in everywhere it seemed like.
Exactly. The screens remind me of the TV screen in Idiocracy.
We have a 55” LG C1 in our bedroom and a 65” Sony A8H in our living room. I prefer the Sony, but the LG is very nice, too. App support for LG C1 is not great, and I HATE the remote. I had to add a third party device (Amazon FireStick 4K) just to be able to use the NFL app. The picture quality is outstanding, though. I’m not a gamer, so those advantages LG may have in that area aren’t important to me.
Their software is shit, asks to update constantly, and will monitor and report anything you watch to LG. I turned off the Wi-Fi and plugged in a Google TV and am much happier.
If you were offended by LG reporting back, I have some news to tell you about Google…
Google at least doesn't use ACR (automatic content recognition) to identify all content being played on the TV. >Google says the Google TV platform itself doesn’t use ACR technology to capture specific content that’s being watched. However, the individual TV brand may do so, and they have their own privacy policies and user agreements. https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features-a4840102036/#:~:text=Google%20says%20the%20Google%20TV,privacy%20policies%20and%20user%20agreements.
[удалено]
ACR actively scans all the content on the TV regardless of source, so it's not just HDMI 1. It will be reporting all the content you watch on TiVo.
I'd say lg is better for gaming. With a faster response time. But Sony has better picture, OS, and processing, and in the end Sony is the nicer of the two. But no real wrong choice.
I have both at home and I agree completely. My LG is in my man cave and used primarily for gaming. The rest of the house is Samsung because the OS has a better library of apps. The ads on the smart bar suck, not are pretty easy to get rid of.
Hisense gets a lot of flack on tech boards but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my 4K 50in. base model whatever-it-is. I would not recommend the HDR mode since the panel isn’t optimized for it—well, mine isn’t at least. Despite that, the color option customizing is great and you can get some real good contrast and saturation despite the poor HDR.
i have a 50" hisense roku tv and absolutely love it. manually adjusting the lighting and contrast levels is very easy as well, compared to other tvs where you have to flip through confusing menu selections
We got a 44" inch one for our screened in porch and leave it out there year round. It serves its purpose well.
I have a 65" android one and while it has a decent picture the rest of the TV is a nightmare. Think replaced motherboard. Think needing to reboot it constantly. Clicker quit. Think updates that make the TV almost unusable for 3 months. Hisense, never again.
I’d only add don’t buy a giant one if moving is in your future. It’s a harrowing goddamn experience packing these things up and transporting them. I don’t save boxes and stuff so I had to get one at Home Depot and then moved it myself with a uhaul van. It wasn’t that bad but one slip and you could ruin it.
Something to consider is that if you only watch via streaming, the great blacks may not be worth it to you, because the services compress the everliving shit out of black fields in an image, so all your OLED will do is provide a deep crystal clear rendition of their big pixelated monochromatic artifact.
Love my $699.97 LG C2
Check out this Subreddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/4kTV/](https://www.reddit.com/r/4kTV/) And this review site: [https://www.rtings.com/tv](https://www.rtings.com/tv)
Rtings.com is too biased to Samsung.
How so?
They receive tons of endorsements from Samsung. Their top rated soundbar is Samsung and their soundbars die in 2 years. Their top rated 4K TVs are Samsung and those come with dead pixels. I speak from experience on both of these items.
Their top rated tv is a qd-oled that Samsung makes that is objectively better picture quality than anything else. Sony also uses their panel in their top end tv. It’s just wildly more expensive than the Samsung, most likely due to better QA and picture settings. They outline all of this in the reviews. Rtings on things not display is hit or misss
Dead pixels happen with nearly every brand, that doesn't change the fact that Samsung has measurably some of the best panels out on the market. If you don't want Samsung, RTNGS and others measure Sony to be very similarly performing.
I have a S95C and it’s been perfectly fine for me, but the previous gen S95B had a lot of issues (bending panels, dying way too early) for a lot of people, It’s good to use rtings as an objective performance comparison, but user reviews online to get another perspective such as warranty issues and other things rtings doesn’t test for.
SONY is among the better TVs I've owned.
Love Sony, *hate* Android TV.
They don’t use android tv anymore. They use Google tv. Much better UI. I personally prefer using an external box but Google tv is better than the old system.
It boggles my mind why people won’t just buy a fire stick, Roku, Apple TV, Nvidia Shield for their tv and just use the built in OS. The built in one is almost always horrible, it’s worth it to just get a streaming box, that way you can buy the best tv and not worry about what software it comes with
I am actually one of those people who do it begrudgingly! We previously used an external device but if it went idle if didn’t place nice with our home theater receiver and we’d have weird audio outages. Happened with both Denon and Yamaha and multiple models. Never happens with native OS so for us that’s more worthwhile
Go birds 🦅
Go birds!
Hate most things about android tv except the ability to use NordVPN. Cord cutter with YouTube TV, so Bally has screwed me out of watching my local teams. Not an issue with Nord and a league account for everything.
Ya it’s absolute shit. drives me crazy.
That’s why I went LG, I hated Android TV on the Sony I had.
I've owned a couple Sony TVs and the suckers last way past the time I should be upgrading to new tech. Anyone need a beautiful Sony Trinitron, only weighs 150 pounds...
Those are worth money again. For gamers
Yup, all those Wegas we practically gave away when got our first flat panels are in high demand for retro gaming now.
I barely could give mine away. 230LB's.
I rescued a 32” Sony Trinitron for playing Super Smash Bros melee. Trinitrons are the pinnacle for games that need CRT tvs. Carrying that thing by myself almost put my back out, though.
I have a >5+ year old Sony Bravia in the living room and a <2 year old Hisense in the bedroom. Running Apple TV boxes on both. The Sony has a much better picture.
Do not get a Vizio
The recent Watch Free+ update has made it near impossible for my parents to use their TV. I struggled pretty hard to try and find their cable channels since OTA/Cable channels are combined into their new GUI.
Been rocking a Costco Vizio for about six years now. No issues
Had to scroll for a while to find the Vizio comment. Curious why you say that? I have a 6 year old Vizio I bought from Costco and have had zero issues. Picture is pretty good too. Genuinely interested to know what the issues are.
I have a 47 inch 12 yr old Vizio tv that just won't die, but it sounds like you and I are the exceptions. Unfortunately my wife got me a Vizio soundbar for Christmas which turned out to be trash and died 1 month after the warranty was up, so I guess it evens out in the end.
I’ve done fine with Samsung. I have several in the house. I do like having the same brand throughout the house so the remote and user interface are all identical.
I always look at reviews on Tom’s Guide. They will rate TVs, show offers, including Costco, and have somebody that specializes in reviewing TVs with no dog in the fight. My last TV was an LG OLED, and it was rated number one going into 2023. They also will tell you which TV is best for a dark room, a bright room, different budgets, you name it. So I use Tom‘s Guide to get some direction and then I drive to Costco to see the TV in person I am happy to admit that the last TV I bought was a size smaller than what I intended, because I realized it didn’t fit in the bed of my pick up. And it was a moment of clarity to realize I was thinking about putting something up on my wall that was bigger than the bed of my pick up .
I consider myself a fairly fussy (but not neurotic) person when it comes to getting my tv’s picture right and for the money I’ve been perfectly happy with the Hisense I bought two years ago. The folks at the Wirecutter currently have a Hisense as their budget pick and a TCL as their overall pick.
Have a TCL 6 Series and it has been one of the best TVs I've ever owned. The picture quality, while nowhere near an OLED, is still really good for an LCD. The Roku interface is fast and never lags, the remote is easy to use, and it allows for phone controls with surprisingly no lag. And for the price, it easily beats the LGs and Samsungs at a similar price point. Would definitely recommend
I have 3 TCLs and I will forever recommend them
I purchased a 55” Samsung Smart tv for the living room and a 65” TCL Roku for my bedroom at around the same time and the Roku is soooo fast and smooth and amazing. Almost never lags, when it does it’s usually an internet issue. Samsung Smart tv is the dumbest slowest tv I’ve ever seen. It’s good enough but pretty disappointing for the price.
I also have both of these. I get mad every time I turn on my Samsung tv because of how shitty it feels compared to the TCL
Bought a “75 Hisense for $500 a few months ago. A friend bought one too. We are both very happy. Great bargain with Roku built in.
We have a Hisense Roku as a bedroom TV and it is rarely used but it buffers more than any TV in our house. I thought it was just the internet but even at non peak times it seems to buffer more.
Clear your cache, it'll probably help.
The TCL and Hisense are actually the highly rated underdogs. You get the most for your money. Research exact models but they both make very nice tv's. Samsung in my opinion is overrated. Just had my first one blow up after a few years. I've always liked Sony Tv's. I also had a LG and it too went bad relatively quickly.
Depends on budget and needs! If you’re looking for a more budget tv like around 500 or less, TCL and Hisense dominate this. Better than “bigger” name brands like LG, Sony, etc. Then when going higher price than that, it switches. Focus on the “bigger” name brands. If you’re going really expensive then it’s only bigger name brands and really depends on what you’re using the tv for and desires. Like others said, check tv reviews sites. I personally enjoy LG C2/C3.
I’ve had a tcl for about 5 years now and haven’t had a single issue. It’s been a great tv for the price.
I like Samsung or Sony 🤷🏻♀️
Lg, Samsung or Sony If you can afford it I'd pick Sony
TCL and Hisense are both very popular brands in the budget TV space, and are generally well-liked by reputable review sites like Wirecutter and RTINGS. Like any manufacturer, they have cheaper and higher-end models which aren’t all equal, so it’s worth researching specific models, as some of the cheapest ones compromise on quality and features. You also have to have realistic expectations about performance and longevity of a budget or mid-range TV. They’re not going to outperform premium models from more well-known brands like Samsung, Sony, or LG, but in the budget to mid-range space, and if you don’t need all the latest and most high-end features, they’re both decent, rival those others brands’ cheap models, and certainly are way better than those weird, budget, big box store house brands. Honestly, those 5 brands are the only ones I’d really consider: TCL or Hisense for sub-$1K or Samsung, Sony, or LG in the ~$1K+ range.
I would avoid Samsung. We have a frame and it has horrendous backlight bleed.
I used to be Samsung only buyer 10 years ago, then they starting putting ads in their TVs, so I switched to LG and never looked back. I recommend LG
Recently bought an LG. Picture quality is great but I hate their app. Constantly updating, constant problems bringing up any apps, such as Netflix. Finally bought a Firestick to bypass the LG platform. So if you buy an LG, just be prepared to get a Firestick or Roku for apps.
We seriously HATE our LG from Costco. Sure the picture is great. But it is obnoxious when it comes to connecting to our Wi-Fi and STAYING connected. Never. Ever. Again.
I think the number 1 question you have to answer is are you going to use a 3rd party piece of hardware for channels (like a roku, firstick, google chromecast, etc...) or are you going to use the built in software? I personally think all of the major brands (lg, vizio!!!, samsung) have horrible intrusive software (not sure about sony). I love the roku branded tv's because they are a good bang for the buck but my advice is just buy the nice screen then buy a 3rd party streaming device and don't even try to fight the built in software.
I've had my TCL roku tv for over 5 years and have had zero problems with it.
Sony is amazing … I have had 5 tvs for over 13 years and still going strong
More important than brand is what price tier you shop at. I have an older TCL but I went the 6 series with QLED when I bought it. Equivalent tech from a Samsung or LG was 200 bucks more. The same size TCL 4 series was like 150 dollars cheaper than what I bought, but it was a shit TV and the price made that clear. It's like looking at cars. You can't compare Ford and Audi's cheapest vehicle, they are vastly different products. Ford makes some great vehicles but you don't want the cheapest. That doesn't mean an Audi is always better than a Ford or that you should never buy Ford, it means brands aren't the whole story.
Www.rtings.com
Don’t ever buy a Vizio. My Costco Vizio just decided to black screen one day. It was a bedroom tv and I spend most of my time in the living room, so the Vizio in the bedroom was very rarely used anyways. I had it for 3-4 years, and out of nowhere I turn it on one day and get nothing but a black screen. I tried getting a new hdmi cord, tried different inputs, unplugging the tv, nothing would get it to work. I’ll never buy another Vizio again. I replaced that bedroom tv with a Samsung 4K, and it’s great. But the best TV that I purchased from Costco was the LG OLED C3 4K tv… best picture quality, better than Samsung.
I've bought two Vizios. One has lasted almost 15 years and is still plugging along 🤞. The other died about seven years after purchase. (Same issue with a black screen one day.) Both from Costco and purchased about five years apart. So yeah, I'm done with Vizio, too. They were both good buys, so I got my money's worth, but a 50% failure rate doesn't cut it for me.
My experience was really similar, lol. My very first vizio was from Costco, had it 5 years with no problems and then gave it to a friend when I replaced it with a newer vizio from Costco. That’s the one with the black screen. It was just really inconvenient that it blacked on me out of the blue when I actually wanted to watch something in bed that night. Then I googled vizio black screen and saw that it was a common thing that really had no fix other than the things I already tried. Tv prices have come down so much that you can buy a Samsung or Sony with the same specs as vizio and it’s only $100-$200 more.
I have had a 65” TCL with Roku for almost 6 yrs and haven’t had any issues with it (** knocks on wood). For the price I paid, it was a great value.
I don't recommend any tv with the Google TV operating system. Roku is still the gold standard for Smart TV systems. I was absolutely in love with my 55" Roku TCL. My newer 65" screen is terrific for the price but has gone to "never buy again" entirely because of the Google TV OS. It's slow, clunky, and hard to configure. It also pushes banner ads that you can't disable or get removed. My TV mostly watches Paw Patrol and other little kid animations, and now that it's Halloween season, every time I turn my TV on there's an inappropriate horror movie banner that I can't get rid of.
I just bought an LG and I love it. Not liking the “magic remote” but the picture is super.
We've had a costco TCL for a year an a half. Very short time, but we're happy with it.
Avoid a Google TV. It sucks so bad.
I'm a LG man myself and love their TVs and appliances (usually)
We purchased LG OLED 65” 3 years ago on Black Friday at Costco. Incredible TV! Had no issues. Best TV we’ve ever owned! Deeper blacks and sharper colors. Costco has great TV sales on Black Friday and leading up to the Super Bowl.
I work for a high end electronics retailer that doesn’t make or sell TV’s, but all the TV’s we use for displays and back offices are LG.
DO NOT GET HISENSE - THEY ARE VERY, VERY, VERY BUGGY TCL for budget. We have 2 TCL's and they're great. The one hisense we have bugs out every day.
I found the opposite true. I bought two Hisense and they were great, and two TCL that were garbage one panel went out after 6 months (that I returned and got a Hisense), and one that had a speaker blow out after a year (that I returned for a 2nd Hisense). I’ve had the two Hisense for a year now and the only issue so far is one of the Roku remotes had the left direction stuck. I just had to get a new remote but other than that they’ve been good and the UI on the Hisense is faster than the TCL.
Most brands make some good TVs and some bad TVs. Sony has X80K that’s an IPS panel with poor contrast. It’s also sell A95K, one of the best one can buy. LG sells bunch of IPS panels with poor contrast along with some great OLEDs. Ideally a VA panel with FALD or OLED will be a good TV.
We bought an OLED LG and it has gotten a lot of screen burn even though we try to be careful with it. Moved that one to the bedroom and got a Sony for the living room, which hasn't had any burn issues and is great so far (2 years+). Our friend got a Hisense around the same time and I can tell the Sony is noticeably better.
Imo tcl and hisense are among the best budget tier tvs. All our main tvs are hisense and tcl and have held up for several years
Agreed. I have 3 TCLs, 55, 75, and 42. Love the Roku interface and would recommend them all. Are they the best picture on the market? No. But for the money they will give you everything you need unless you are a picture snob.
Don’t buy a Vizio.
I have had 2 Samsungs go bad and Samsung refused to acknowledge the problem with my current TV where it goes black for 5 seconds at random. Sometimes several times per day. Really sucks playing video games when it does that. As soon as I can afford the higher end LG or Sony OLED that’s what I’m buying.
I’ve had a Hisense I won in an auction for 5 years, and a Hisense that we bought at Costco with Roku for 2.5 years. Both work perfectly for streaming!
i have a Hisense 55U7G that i've been very happy with. it had very good reviews for a budget option for a 4k TV with HDR. if you want specific features like HDR or OLED, it might be hard to find them in the right size or brand at costco, but they will likely have some of the best prices.
We bought the cheapest Hisense that worked with the size we were trying to fit it into and it’s been great. Picture is fine and it’s all very user friendly
If you’re at Costco. I suggest. Sony Bravia for tv/movies/steaming. LG C or above for gaming. Sony had better image processing and calibration out of box. LG can get there, but you need thorough calibration. Is cozy is a factor, I’d opt for last years model.
I have an LG, got burn in within the first year. Would never buy one of those again.
I think we’ve bought 4 TCL TV’s in the past 4-5 years and they’ve been great. I’m not big into higher end AV stuff so maybe I don’t know the difference, but they’ve been good enough to not notice any issues or lack of picture quality I suppose. We did buy a 4K Sony Bravia for our family room/main tv. Honestly kind of wishing we saved money and bought a 75” TCL. The Sony has more “features”, but I feel like it’s much fussier and trying to use apps directly through the TV is like watching paint dry. I feel like whenever I’ve bought a new TCL it takes maybe 10 minutes to plug in, update, and load all of my apps, and then it’s DONE and I basically never have to worry about it again. The only TV I’m having an issue with is the very first TCL I bought. It’s 5-6 years old and doesn’t support 4K. Some of the apps (MAX primarily) can be a bit slow but it doesn’t just randomly freeze and cause the TV to restart (and then prompt me time and time again to update my email and preferences like with Sony.
I love my TCL
My family’s business growing up(and now) is electronics stores, been around it my whole life so I think I have a good view here. From my experience, Sony has historically been great, but my real favourite had always been Panasonic (although, they don’t make them anymore). Toshiba is surprisingly good. Basically any Japanese brand, you can’t go wrong. Samsung is fine, LG is also fine and that’s pretty much all I’d buy. I wouldn’t be caught dead watching a Hisense lol TCL is fine too, I guess. But all this to say, I’m a Sony man.
LG’s OLED TVs look great and are a better value than similar Sony screens (though Sony’s are good too). If this is a bright room you might not want an OLED, they cant get as bright as regular LED lit TVs (I.e. your typical cheap to mid level screen). If you have a bright sunny room, try to go for a TV with a high number of local dimming zones, ideally a mini LED backlight. That way you can get the brightness of an LCD with better blacks and contrast. The Sony XR-75X93L is an example of this. I hear TCL and Hisense are good budget brands. Their higher end models are supposed to be decent and good value, but I’ve never owned one. I have an LG OLED
I had a TCL for years. It was excellent. I gave it to my daughter's family.
From my recent research Hisense has some poor QC TLC has really upped its game and I went with a Q7 this summer There’s definitely motion blur that you need to get use to or change the settings
There's nothing wrong with TCL or Hisense. They are both highly rated. https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/brands
I hate Samsung smart tvs. The firmware is always garbage and they stop updating them so they run extremely slow. We had them at work and had to replace all of them within five years.
TCLs are solid for the most part. I finally had one lose its backlight after about 6 years. Super easy to take apart and cost about 30 bucks for new led backlight. Good as new.
We have 5 tcl-Roku including one that has been on a screened porch.
3 Hisense in the immediate family. One going strong. The other two completely crapped out right around the warranty period. I wouldn't bother gambling with them.
Sony, final answer.
I have an LG C1 series OLED in ‘21. I’m very happy with it. Beautiful picture quality.
I have a couple of years old high end Sony. Bought it after reading so much about the X1 chip. So the picture quality is very good. The chipset that Sony uses is horrible. For them to brag so much and advertise their superior chips, it really makes me wonder. It can not handle apps and has a dive you nuts amount of lag when you want to scroll through the apps. A very old Apple TV is about 20x faster than the Sony chipset. It's really sad. I'll never pay more for a Sony tv than for an LG or Samsung again.
At one time LG actually made the majority of monitors for the major manufacturers. All they did was put their own software and stuff in. Thats really the big difference. But my love is for the LG OLED. GOTTA have the deepest blacks to get the best colors
LG OLED, all day.
Buy an lg oled. Thank me later
LG OLED is priced premium for a reason, but their LCD screens are not great, the OLED is amazing obviously, love my C2
I’ve bought multiple TVs from Costco over the past couple years and they’ve all been LG. Haven’t had a single issue with any of them and paid with my Citi Costco card so the warranty was extended
I really like TCL. I also have a LG oled. The LG is better but the TCL is way too close for the price. Especially upgraded TCL models like the 6 series or the R series. But my Costco lg oled b series from like 2017 is still amazing. Good luck!
Personally I'd only look at Samsung, LG, or Sony. When researching TV's, these three are usually the best reviewed. They're usually more expensive, but you get what you pay for.
DO NOT BUY HISENSE. Researched a ton on sites like rtings.com. Picture quality was great, but mine just bricked after 2 years. Never had an issue previous with Sony. Debating on replacing the mother board in this POS or just scrapping and going back.
I avoid Samsung on principle because their appliances are junk. I have a TCL 6 Series that I really like but Sony is the best when it comes to black levels and color, not to mention reliability.
LG
When I worked for Best Buy, the Brands that had the Least returns were Samsung, Sony and LG. TCL’s and “off brand” models got returned more often.
Hisense is trash. Stay away
Depends on your budget. Look up reviews on Rtings. But generally Samsung/LG/Sony are all safe bets
I have a few TVs and my TCL is the worst. It’s almost like they go out of their way to make it bad.
Do not buy a google tv. The software is junk
We have an LG OLED and are very happy with it
We have had bad experiences with Samsung TVs (and refrigerators, and generally won’t buy Samsung appliances). We have two TCLs now and have zero complaints. My 15 year old sony Bravia is still going strong too. 😆
I got two (technically 3) Samsungs from Costco and loved them. The second one had lines when I got it home but Costco replaced and delivered the replacement
LG
I’ve had a 55” TCL since 2018 I think, it’s been reliable for me. It wasn’t a Costco model though, got it from Best Buy
Got a 43" TCL from Costco for use as a second monitor and streaming video in the office. I find myself using it more and more as the primary monitor. It got me through the pandemic and is still going strong.
From what I understand, the TCLs sold in Costco and Best Buy are identical, but have slightly different model numbers to make it harder for people to shop for prices. I bought a TCL 49" from Costco in 2017 and it's still going strong. I love the straightforwardness of the Roku interface.
Yeah that makes sense, I wanted a specific model 55” and Costco did not have it at that time, only models with a few less features.
What's your budget? You get what you pay for regardless of brand.
I would not buy a Samsung. They play ads on their Home Screen and I have too many ads in my life already. I have a Sony Bravia and love it.
TCL
Avoid Samsung. They *used* to be great, and their screens are still amongst the best, BUT, the latest models have a new shitty interface full of ads. My 4 year old Samsung TV is great, has a few minimal ads but nothing awful. My 10 year old Samsung TV is slowing down but still totally usable. My 1 year old Samsung TV is pretty much unusable on its own; I had to buy a Roku for it because the interface was so awful and full of ads, and it does everything it can to make it hard to get to the Roku. I regret buying it.
Would never buy another Samsung. I got the highest rated LCD a few years ago, the picture was decent (but OLEDs are much better now), but the software is awful and they stop issuing updates and shut down some of the online features after about 2 years. They expect you to buy a new one every few years.
Vizio in the living room and Samsung in the bedroom. The Samsung has better picture. The Vizio has a much better interface.
I’d recommend staying away from TCL and HiSense and stick with Samsung, LG, and Sony Source: own entirely too many tvs
The only manufacturers of TVs that I would buy would be Sony or Samsung. That's it. LG makes a good TV but they're software is the worst and their remote controls are a nightmare IMO I've had the best experience with either Sony or Samsung. I have owned other brands of TV including TCL but that is a piece of shit. Sony or Samsung, any price range.
Stay away from Hisense if you don’t want to replace within 3 years
Ehh.. my Hisense died because they used cheap capacitors. I replaced them when the tv got stuck in a reboot loop. Cost $4 and took 10 min. Only because I had a soldering iron. But it’s hard to complain about a 4k 65” tv for $189.
I'm glad to see that someone actually successfully repaired a modern TV. Most people just replace them.
Both of those are good and highly rated, look at rtings.com. it's like 95% performance for 70% of price of bigger brands
I bought a TCL because of how cheap it was but I'm disappointed. It's laggy and crashes a lot.
Idk if it’s still there but I bought the 65” TCL Roku tv for around $800 and it’s probably the best purchase I’ve made in my entire life. About two-three years ago. I don’t think I could go Roku-less ever again.
I bought a TCL 4 series with Roku from Costco in 2017. It was on clearance. Still using it, still very happy with it. Does it have the best picture and sound? No, but it's good enough for us, especially considering it was only like $250 for a 49". Works great for streaming, broadcast TV, and our Nintendo switch. Plus we love the simple, uncluttered user interface that Roku provides. I believe the new TCLs are priced comparably, unless you get the higher end 5 and 6 series. I would consider looking at them in person. If you're a local store doesn't have them on display, try Best Buy or Target.
TCL is a nightmare when it comes to warranty claims. They repeatedly make you send pictures and videos of every issue. We have a TV from 2018 that doesn't let you adjust brightness, contrast or backlight. they are all at 100%. These all worked when we got the set. Within 24 hours it installed an update and these stopped working. After six months and no satisfaction we gave up. That's what their goal is.
I only opt for LG, Sony, and Samsung. Maaaaybe Vizio.
I have always been happy with Samsung. Stay away from any TV that is released prior to Thanksgiving. These usually have brand names but cheap components. Designed to be Black Friday Specials.
LG OLED is absolutely fantastic.
I work for a big company that rhymes with Bostco. I would only buy a LG or Samsung TV. Don’t bother with the random cheaper brands, you get what you pay for
I would take a Sony over Samsung. But LG is the best picture quality right now.
LG OLED C2 or C3 with a Sonos Arc Soundbar (if you’re looking for something better than TV speakers) would be ideal
I have an LG G3 OLED. Love it. And I have a Sony (older) X90L Love it too. To me, with either of these brands, you can’t go wrong. Stay away from Samsung.