Nobody Needs a New TV Anymore

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New TV? We don't need no stinking new TV! ;)

So if you're at this year's CES, don't be fooled by the smiles of excited TV executives introducing flashy new models with curved screens and cornea-busting resolutions. Under the surface, they're panicking — and they should be.
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You mean most people don't upgrade their TVs every 1-3 years to the latest model that costs >$1000? Gee, I never would have guessed.
 
Isn't it fucking amazing how even professional adults can assume that there are no preferences other than their own?
 
my Samsung touch of color that I bought 7 years ago still looks fantastic so yeah I get this.
 
Still waiting for the TV networks to get out of their obsolete business model mindset. NBC, I'm looking at you, with your policy of "we'll only let you watch the olympics online if you have a cable subscription." ABC, I'm looking at you, with your "we'll make you wait a week to watch online, and you still have to watch tons of ads" decision.
 
Weird I've never had a problem watching sports on NBCs web site. The only online place I've had to login to my cable account to watch online was ESPN.
 
I'm betting the Seiki people's smiles are real. The slogan on their page says it all...

4k shouldn' cost 5k
 
I can't even get full, stable 1080p service where I live through Time Warner, Dish or Direct TV.
My Blue-Ray player only does 1080p.
It took YEARS to build up my (legal) DVD collection @480p, hell I'm my own Netflix! I'm NOT buying those same movies all over again in 1080p when the talking heads are screaming 4k is the next big thing.
The consoles we're running right now, next gen, only do 1080p.

There is NO REASON to upgrade to resolutions you're not going to be able to use.
 
this new trend of curved screens is the worst new trend I've seen in a long while...curved screens suck for anyone but a single person sitting in the sweet spot
 
It's crazy how cheap TVs have become now though. You can get a LCD TV for well under a grand now. Though if you already have one everywhere that you need in the house, then yeah, you're not going to buy another one. :p

This goes with a lot of tech stuff, including computers themselves. Most people who have bought a computer in the past 5 or so years don't really have anything worth upgrading to today, because their computer is still fast enough to do everything they need. Computer companies keep pushing this thing about sales being down, but they're only looking 1 year at a time. Nobody buys a new computer every single year.
 
It's a good article that makes sense.

Look, I have a 42" Sharp Aquos and a 46 inch Sony that are just fine for my limited TV watching. Most of my TV is sports on the weekend.

My daughter watches Netflix on her laptop. My wife watches the food network.

Why would I invest in a 4K TV when my Time Warner STILL has most of their programming in 720P ?
It is rare for me to see even a few 1080P resolutions show up.:mad:
 
Funny how Lg took their 29" and blew it up for something a bit more entertaining!
 
Got a 6 year old 42" Samsung LCD, works fine for what I want, although the missus is looking to get a TV for the bedroom, I dunno why when we can watch Netflix on a phone or laptop.
 
I'll buy a new TV when the manufacturers actually improve image quality. Fix ghosting and all other image artifacts. Fix color banding especially. Make your upscaling not suck.
 
Wait i can stream at 1080p? Last time i checked i might be able to stream 720p at prime time, at a lowish bit rate. yea i need 4k tv.

Tell ya what, make a 24-27" 4k monitor, and os support for high dpi. Then we wont have to AA and AF our games to death, and text will be butter smooth.
 
the sad news in the industry is that Panasonic is quitting the plasma business. In a year where their plasma line, from top to bottom, delivers black levels most consumers have never actually seen, at any given price point.
 
I wonder how the monitor industry is doing? I bought my 22inch monitor like 6 years ago, and it's only capable of 1680 x 1050. Yet I see now reason to go buy a new one. I also got a DLP 73inch HDTV that still works, and I even took the time to remove the light engine and clean it up. Picture is now clear, vibrate, and bright. Online instructions make the process very simple.

But if companies start making products that fail within 1-3 years time, I'll never buy from them again. If they have amazing warranty then I'd have no problem with that, but a lot of companies want you to pay for shipping and give you crap about receipts.
 
Now Hollywood needs to quit color grading everything in blue and orange, so that I can actually appreciate the visual beauty of movies, on my large TV.
 
plasma has excellent reference image quality...Panasonic VT/ZT60 is close to Kuro quality...if you don't know what that means then you shouldn't buy it...too many people don't know about home theater tech and will buy whatever looks good in the Best Buy showroom
 
polonyc2 said:
this new trend of curved screens is the worst new trend I've seen in a long while...curved screens suck for anyone but a single person sitting in the sweet spot
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It doesn't make sense unless you're doing a large format screen and 2.37:1. Have a 10' or larger width screen and the curve effect is quite nice. If you're using an anamorphic lens with a projector a curve screen and help with the pincushion effect. So there's a place for it, but not on smaller tv's. However, it might not be that bad as a gaming monitor in larger format.
 
4K's pretty much the only motivator, and that technology is VERY shaky until HDMI 2.0 support is truly implemented.
Most new TV models are just older models with more "smart" features that work better on a 3rd party device like a console/PC/dongle/tablet/etc.
 
I'll take an affordable 1080p OLED TV over a 4k screen any day (once they fix the image retention and blue pixel lifespan issue)...wake me when cable providers and Blu-ray specs support 4k
 
Still using a Sony Bravia 40" 60Hz LCD from 2007. Cost me $1,300 back in the day!

Still looks fantastic, although I don't watch TV all that much.
 
Yeah I agree here.

I think we will see more than a few TV makers drop out of the market in the next year or two. They have saturated it and over-stuffed the channels.

There are always exceptions, people who get really into these sort of things, but they are a small minority, and probably not enough to sustain an entire industry.

Most people, once they get a decent sized 1080p flatpanel TV of any variety are probably going to keep it until it dies before they get another.

4K resolutions are still little more than a gimmick, as you have to sit unnaturally close to a large screen to tell the difference between 4K and 1080p. Even if this weren't the case, there is very limited 4k content out there. I don't see 4k pushing a lot of people to upgrade.

3D is nothing but a huge gimmick as well. If it hasn't already died, it's on it's deathbed.

I also don't see anyone buying a new "Smart TV" to replace their existing HDTV because they want Netflix, when they can just buy a ROKU box, or hook it up to one of the current or next gen consoles...
 
chameleoneel said:
the sad news in the industry is that Panasonic is quitting the plasma business. In a year where their plasma line, from top to bottom, delivers black levels most consumers have never actually seen, at any given price point.
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Agreed. My 60" Panny TC-60PU54 Plasma, even though it is one of their lower end models, has fantastic blacks. it's a great TV and the fact that I only paid $800 for it still surprises me almost a year later.

Hopefully once OLED screens hit the market in quantity we will see blacks rivaling Plasma's again.
 
polonyc2 said:
plasma has excellent reference image quality...Panasonic VT/ZT60 is close to Kuro quality...if you don't know what that means then you shouldn't buy it...too many people don't know about home theater tech and will buy whatever looks good in the Best Buy showroom
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Couldn't agree more as way too many people watch their sets in "Torch" mode.
 
only reason I switched from plasma to an lcd tv was because I didn't have a dark room to watch it in and it was like a mirror :(
 
dangerouseddy said:
only reason I switched from plasma to an lcd tv was because I didn't have a dark room to watch it in and it was like a mirror :(
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Yeah, my room isn't terribly dark either, but I rarely watch TV when it's light out anyway. Mostly it's for "movie night" use.
 
I'm quite happy with my Current TV.

Lets get that lag down to CRT levels please, that'll get my attention.
 
dangerouseddy said:
only reason I switched from plasma to an lcd tv was because I didn't have a dark room to watch it in and it was like a mirror :(
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The heat factor has been an issue for me.

I have a 60' Panasonic Plasma (~2 years old) in my living room and it radiates an incredible amount of heat.
 
Still rocking a 42" Hitachi plasma that is probably 7 years old and a 42" Hitachi LCD 120MHZ around 3 years old.
They make great TV's, never had any issue.
The plasma pulls some juice but it does not put out much heat and it's well ventilated.

Course they dropped out of the plasma panels as did everybody else except LG I believe and Samsung.
 
what a horrible article. No insight. No vision.


Might as well say, 'No need to buy a new computer because the one i have is good enough and always will be'.
 
Zarathustra[H];1040525913 said:
Agreed. My 60" Panny TC-60PU54 Plasma, even though it is one of their lower end models, has fantastic blacks. it's a great TV and the fact that I only paid $800 for it still surprises me almost a year later.

Hopefully once OLED screens hit the market in quantity we will see blacks rivaling Plasma's again.
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I'm pretty sure that's the model that I got last year...$600-something on a pre-black friday sale. Great buy, especially seeing as how Panasonic is getting out of the plasma business now :( Movies look phenomenal on this thing (I do have it in a very light controlled area,) and games do as well although I have to be a little careful about IR.

The only other TV in the house is an old sony rear-projection "3lcd" 55" 720p set. Even that, while obviously technically lacking now, isn't really worth upgrading as I'm still pretty pleased with the picture on it for what I use it for. Although, when the lamp finally burns out, I will have to decide if I want to drop a couple hundred on a lamp, or 2-3x more for a new 1080p set. Not worried for now.
 
dangerouseddy said:
only reason I switched from plasma to an lcd tv was because I didn't have a dark room to watch it in and it was like a mirror :(
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You mean like this, like in my TV Watching room? :p

943670_10101347384587372_790941955_n.jpg
 
ep0x73 said:
Still rocking a 42" Hitachi plasma that is probably 7 years old and a 42" Hitachi LCD 120MHZ around 3 years old.
They make great TV's, never had any issue.
The plasma pulls some juice but it does not put out much heat and it's well ventilated.

Course they dropped out of the plasma panels as did everybody else except LG I believe and Samsung.
Click to expand...

I think Panasonic is about the only company that still makes (made) Plasma TVs. I read a report somewhere that they were getting out of it, not sure when that was supposed to happen.
 
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