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Help Haywood Find a New Display

Haywood

Haywood

Well-Known Member
Famous
As I mentioned in the 4k thread, my 67" Samsung LED Light Engine DLP set is finally dying after nearly nine years of good service. This leaves me with a dilemma, because I had planned to wait another year to replace my display. There were two reasons for the delay. The first is that I am a little tighter on money this year, due to paying for car repairs, driver's ed, wisdom tooth removal, senior year pictures and a crap-load of other stuff. The other is that I wanted to wait for the technology to mature more and for the prices to drop a bit. Now it looks like I have to buy in the next couple of months, leaving me with less money to spend on more expensive (or obsolete) displays. I am also trying to save money for a down payment on a house while I can build a dedicated theater, so every dollar I spend on this display comes out of that. On the other hand, it will be at least 2019 before I can buy a house, so I want a display that is good enough to keep me happy.

My original plan had been to buy a 75-85" display, but my budget is limited to the $2500-3000 range. I had also been hoping that OLED would come into my price range, but that is clearly off the table at this point. A 65" LG OLED set runs about $5000 and I just can't do that right now.

The Sony sets have the best image processing and do the best job with upconversion of SD and HD content, but the majority of the Sony sets do not have HDR support. The 65" Samsung JS8500 was very well reviewed and is available for $2500. It does have HDR and all the latest connection standards. Another direction I could go would be to just forget about HDR support and go with a 75" Vizio M Series, which also got good reviews (though it needs more calibration to get the colors right). The general thought here is that most of the content available is going to be plain old HD for quite awhile and screen size may have more impact on the overall experience.

Anyone have any thoughts?
 
I've been doing some reading and the Sony XBR-75X850C might just be exactly what I'm looking for. It has HDR, the performance is only slightly below that of the more expensive 900 series and I can get a 75" set for $3000. Another plus is that the only other HDR set they make is the 940C, which has big ugly side speakers that I do not need. I would much rather have the extra 10" of screen. This could be the perfect compromise, but more research is needed.
 
I guess another question is whether or not a curved screen makes a difference to you. A large part of the reason I ended up with the JS8500 was that it was flat.

While not at all annoying standing on a showroom floor looking at a set for a few minutes I just couldn't shake the feeling of 'what if this curve starts getting annoying after a week...month...year of looking at it.

And with as much streaming etc as you do I would not forego HDR! HDR movies will become more of the norm especially for streaming services, and who knows what 4k blu ray will do.
 
I hate curved screens on television sets, so I am not even considering anything with a curve in it. My initial problem was that I was torn between wanting HDR and wanting a bigger screen. With the Sony XBR-75X850C I can have both and it is in my price range. I am pretty sure this is the set I am going to end up with.
 
I've been doing more reading on the Sony. The HDR is basically HDR Lite, because it does not have full array local dimming (it has local dimming, but uses edge lighting). The performance is definitely not on par with the 940C, however, this TV costs $3000 less (it is literally half the price). The reviews are still very good, however. Everyone seems to think this set is an outstanding value and since I am not currently made of money, it might just be the best thing I can afford.
 
Call me a music freak, but I'd rather spend $3000 on speakers and acoustic panels than on a TV.

If a TV looks pretty good, that'll work for me.
 
Flint said:
Call me a music freak, but I'd rather spend $3000 on speakers and acoustic panels than on a TV.

If a TV looks pretty good, that'll work for me.
Click to expand...

I do not have a dedicated room and have no way to set up a projector, so large TV with excellent picture is the closest I can get to a home theater experience for the next three to five years. My system is very much movies first, so the video component is a pretty high priority. I have about $5000 in speakers and more than $2000 in processing and amplification, so I don't think $3000 for a display is disproportionate. I also think a huge additional investment in speakers and acoustic treatments would be a waste, given my current room. I am saving the speaker upgrade for after I have a dedicated space.
 
That's me just stating my priorities.

In my new apartment I installed a killer sound system and bought the cheapest 38" TV I could find.
 
Flint said:
That's me just stating my priorities.

In my new apartment I installed a killer sound system and bought the cheapest 38" TV I could find.
Click to expand...

Would you do the same for your main HT at home?
 
Yep... and I kinda did. Most would consider my rig worth a display costly 4x to 10x more than I spent.

I guess video simply doesn't require as much priority.

I will say, in terms of human evolution, our brain is more capable of making visual impression make sense than audio impressions - so audio should be more accurate and realistic if you want to fool your brain.
 
I agree that great audio should be a priority and I think my sound setup is about as good as my room will allow. When I finally do get around to upgrading my speakers, I'm going to have to spend a hell of a lot more than $3000 to get a noticeable improvement. I expect the speakers for my future dedicated room will set me back at least $10-15k. I generally end up with about 25-30% of a system budget in the display, another 25-30% in electronics (including source components) and the rest in speakers. Speakers make up about half the cost of my current setup.
 
Just my opinion but if you plan on moving to a new house in 3-4 years and plan to have a dedicated room then I would look for a mid-range 60"-65" tv that will tide you over now and then will work in a secondary room once you move. A 75" TV may be too big in a secondary room once you buy the house. Plus, you can spend far less and give you more $ for the bills you mentioned above and whatever unforeseen expenses that may arise in the year to come.
 
AndySTL said:
Just my opinion but if you plan on moving to a new house in 3-4 years and plan to have a dedicated room then I would look for a mid-range 60"-65" tv that will tide you over now and then will work in a secondary room once you move. A 75" TV may be too big in a secondary room once you buy the house. Plus, you can spend far less and give you more $ for the bills you mentioned above and whatever unforeseen expenses that may arise in the year to come.
Click to expand...

I am definitely limiting my budget, but I am a little torn because it will be three to four years just to buy the house. It will likely be another year or two before I can build the theater. I'm looking at 5-7 years.

The choice at this point comes down to this. I can get a 65 inch set with direct backlight local dimming and full HDR or I can get a 75 inch set with edge light local dimming and HDR Lite. There is a performance difference between the two, but most of the reviewers say the difference is not huge in the case of the sets I'm looking at. It is an increment of improvement. Right now, I am leaning toward the visual impact of the larger screen making a bigger difference to the overall experience. If I wanted to have my cake and eat it too, I would have to spend $5000-6000 and I do not want to do that.
 
It looks like the 2015 Sony sets have issues with vertical banding, which is a bit off-putting. The 65 inch Samsung JS8500 is still in the running, despite the fact that I love the idea of a bigger screen.
 
Haywood said:
It looks like the 2015 Sony sets have issues with vertical banding, which is a bit off-putting. The 65 inch Samsung JS8500 is still in the running, despite the fact that I love the idea of a bigger screen.
Click to expand...

Then you need the JS8600!
 
Deacon said:
Haywood said:
It looks like the 2015 Sony sets have issues with vertical banding, which is a bit off-putting. The 65 inch Samsung JS8500 is still in the running, despite the fact that I love the idea of a bigger screen.
Click to expand...

Then you need the JS8600!
Click to expand...

$7000 is out of my price range.
 
Haywood said:
mzpro5 said:
I have always had great experience with Samsung so how about this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U9U9GII...lid=3AAUQOVOTWM9L&coliid=I3N9UVG32ROHR3&psc=1
Click to expand...

That one has been on my short list from the beginning and may come out on top, unless I can find something bigger with at least ballpark comparable picture quality within my budget.
Click to expand...

I would keep checking Amazon for price changes. As with many things on Amazon the price fluctuates alot. I have seen it as low as $2000 and as high as $3100.
 
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