Televisions Thread: Almost cheaper to build your house out of TVs than wood

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Televisions Thread: Almost cheaper to build your house out of TVs than wood

ijii: Mar 17, 2007; I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.

Good time for a new thread. I have had a 19" SDTV for over 10 years now and it's time for an upgrade. I actually don't watch TV, but I do plan on buying some TV series on Blu-Ray. Clone Wars, Game of Thrones, maybe Family Guy, and probably others I'm not thinking about right now. I also plan on watching an equal amount of movies (which I have yet to buy) and playing an equal amount of computer games on the new TV. The Blu Ray discs I plan on playing in a Blu Ray PC drive. My Geforce GTX 570 can play 3d movies if necessary.

Since my PC is going to be my gaming console, media console, and internet, there's no reason to get a Smart TV right? Just a modern LED/LCD TV with a couple HDMI and USB ports and I'm good to go?

ijii fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Dec 22, 2012

# ¿ Dec 22, 2012 01:51

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:05

ijii: Mar 17, 2007; I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.

Syves posted:

Ugh, I hate to just ask this flat out, but I'm just not finding what I need.

Looking at something 60" (why not just say it. I want a 5 foot television). But I play games on it, so I want low response time; and on the flip side, it can't be something that is going to burn in, because I watch a lot of DVDs/BluRays and fall asleep during them. I'll wake up in the morning with the menu stuck on screen for several hours without me interacting at all.

I currently have a 50" Toshiba DLP, and its handled this well, but I just moved, and I need to get my TV up on a wall mount instead of taking up space on a TV stand. Current living room has an arrangement that doesn't give me much room to play with, so having a wall mount above "the fire place" (not a fireplace anymore. Was filled in years ago and just basically is a shelf built into the wall now) will give me a significant amount of space in my living room.

Any ideas other than to "not fall asleep while watching movies" (never going to happen).

3D would be nice, VERY nice, but having it missing is not going to be a deal breaker. Don't give a poo poo about smart features.

I just bought a Samsung UN60ES7500 60-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Slim LED HDTV (Black) a month ago and it's been doing very good for me. I have played games on it with no noticeable lag, just got to remember to change the resolution if you play any computer games on it. There is no burn in problem with LEDs LCDs, I fall asleep all the time on a static screen so this is a non issue. Power usage is minimal compared to any other type of TV. I have yet to try a 3d movie, but this TV has active 3d capability and four included glasses. This screen I think is about 70 lbs, so it isn't too heavy considering its size. The TV costed me about $1800 + sales tax.

My two biggest complaints so far are: 1. No power on/off button on the TV 2. Screen auto dims on power saving mode sometimes which is a little distracting.

The TV has "smart features" which most modern television have, but everybody ignores them since they're usually crap. I don't know how well they work since I never used them due to me having a computer hooked up to the TV. If you don't have a receiver, this TV has 3 hdmi ports, optical audio port, and a component port.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2013 03:34

ijii: Mar 17, 2007; I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.

Mister Macys posted:

On 2012 models, it should be located in the bottom right or left, on the back of the unit.
It's a circular four-way button, with the fifth in the middle. Push in to turn on.

Can't believe I didn't notice that, thanks! One less remote I need now. A lot of new devices have smart phone apps so I can use it as my universal remote. If I want to start watching something, I'll get off my rear end and turn it on since I have to put a disc in anyways, or I'll turn on the TV before I sit my rear end down.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 16:58

ijii: Mar 17, 2007; I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.

I've never owned a Plasma but there are some people who say that they game on a plasma just fine and others say they get burn-in issues. To me it's not really worth chancing so I went with an LCD LED. Don't forget you have to "break-in" plasmas. According to some people over the AVS forum that over time plasmas also lose brightness? If that's true, that's bullshit.

When I went previewing TVs at Best Buy, almost all the plasmas were darker than the LCD/LEDs. To me this would worry me if I had five different windows having sunlight blast through to the TV. LCD/LEDs would still have the problem too but to a lesser extent, I can see the light reflecting with just one window in darker scenes or environments in my games. Also the refresh rate is irrelevant with this issue.

I think your best bet is finding and LCD/LED with a matte screen.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2013 15:46

ijii: Mar 17, 2007; I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.

I personally like the soap opera effect too, but I'm not too picky about it. I do have a 60 inch 240Hz Samsung TV that has a CMR of 840 so I'm not sure how much a difference there are between 480 and 240. There are different settings for auto motion plus: off, clear, standard, smooth, and custom. I have mine set on smooth and there's definitely a notable difference between off and smooth while I was watching On Stranger Tides - chapter 2, which had a lot of camera movements. To me there isn't that much blurring or at least not enough for me to give a poo poo. The smoothness looks good to me, so I'll keep it on.

There's also a setting below auto motion plus; led motion plus which I haven't tinkered with yet, it's been turned off.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2013 03:29

ijii: Mar 17, 2007; I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.

-Blackadder- posted:

e3: Ok, I just realized it would probably be even easier for him to stream BTN Football games from the net with a Smart TV. Anyone have any thoughts on the VIZIO E291i-A1 29-Inch 720p 60Hz Smart Slim LED HDTV? It fits his size specs and would allow him to stream the internet through wifi. Much simpler than hooking up a HDMI cable and DisplayPort to HDMI Adaptor to his Laptop. I also just spoke with him again and he seemed open on pricing so if there are better Smart TVs out there in 29 inch range I'd like to look at them. I checked out the Samsung Smart TVs but couldn't find one in 29 inches. However I checked out his cabinet and the space is limited by the front closing doors sliding back on either side. So if I took those off and put the hinge on so they can't slide back he could go up to a 32 inch. Which brand generally have better Smart TV's Samsung or Vizio?

I don't think streaming football games using the Samsung Smart TV web app is a good idea. Using their included web app I tried streaming Hulu.com (free version) and southparkstudios and neither of them worked. I only used my Smart TV's web because my computer went haywire. The web app leaves a lot to be desired for browsing the internet. I'd avoid unless you know of a good another good web app.

ijii fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Sep 24, 2013

# ¿ Sep 24, 2013 00:10

ijii: Mar 17, 2007; I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.

KingKapalone posted:

Does anyone know if the Smart features on this TV actually require the add-on Magic Remote? That seems stupid http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-50LN5700-50-Inch-LED-LCD/dp/B00BB9OPR8/

Like others said, it's not required. If you plan on using the Smart TV capabilities a fair amount, it might be a good idea to pick up a cheap wireless mouse and keyboard. My year old wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard worked just fine when I plugged the usb adapter in the TV.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2013 03:43

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:05

ijii: Mar 17, 2007; I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.

Buff Skeleton posted:

Anyone know if there are TVs or devices that have phone apps for searching / selecting things instead of a remote? I don't like slow, cumbersome TV interfaces, but love my Galaxy S4. There's the built-in WatchON app, but it's designed for regular TV, and all I'll really use the TV for is Netflix and games from my PC since I don't have cable.

Should I get a regular TV + Roku, then hook it up to my PC via HDMI, or are there Smart TVs that allow you to search Netflix/Hulu/whatever with your phone instead of a remote? I've searched around and can't find a clear answer to this. I'm guessing that most of the time, the phone is supposed to use IR output and thus send commands one at a time, which is slow, rather than communicating over wifi. Wifi communication would be awesome; isn't this what the Roku can do?

Similarly, anyone have suggestions for a ~46-50" TV under $1000 that can do this (if possible)? Not interested in 3D or 120hz so those aren't necessary features.

I'd also appreciate any insight on how HDMI audio out would work from my PC video card if I have a dedicated sound card, since I've never done that before but I know it's possible. I have a GTX460 and an Asus Xonar DG sound card if that is significant.

Any info would be muchly appreciated! I'm pretty out of the loop on TV stuff from the past few years.

A week late reply here, but here it is anyways:
I went from an SDTV to an HDTV earlier last year and there are lot of options. I bought a Samsung SmartTV and they do have apps that can use with your smart phone that can be used as a remote control, but only if your TV and phone are connected to the same network. There's also a third party app options for some Samsung SmartTVs too. I know that with Samsung SmartTVs they do have both Netflix and HuluPlus apps, but have no idea if they're a pain to use or not. Unfortunately I don't subscribe to either Hulu or Netflix, so not sure if the apps are easy to use or not with remote. From my experience of using other kinds of apps on the TV is generally slow and crap, but may not be the case with Netflix and Hulu. If you're going to connect your PC to your TV, might as well use it instead for watching Netflix and Hulu.

Wish I could give you more info on PC audio to integrated TV speakers, but that seems like a pain. I went the A/V receiver route with separate surround sound speakers.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2014 02:31

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Televisions Thread: Almost cheaper to build your house out of TVs than wood