Casual Conversation @lemm.ee Grogon @lemmy.world 4mo ago

I miss the days just buying a TV in a shop without worries

So my last TV I bought I pretty much woke up, drank a coffee, walked to the tech store that isn't around anymore and got pretty much what I needed and went home happy and had a TV.

Either it is me in general but I hate having to upgrade tech nowadays. Even if it is just a friggin' smart phone I tend to go to deep into the subject and go through points I shouldnt care about because I'm not the target audience.

Like I don't care how great the cameras are now on phones. Yet when I have to upgrade duo to missing upgrades after 5 years I upgrade and then I read through all that non sense just to get the best out of the money I'll be dumping for features I won't ever use.

Ill compare Samsung S23, S23+ and Ultra and what ever and then read comments about how bad X is and company Y does better for the money and then it's to late.

Then I dump 12 hours into researching on youtube, trying to filter the company fanboys and the real talk people just to find out they are all "bought" and only 5% of the reviews aren't bought.

Now I am sitting here wanting to upgrade my 2011 TV and have to choose between LG G4, Samsung S90D, S94D, S95D and every single one of these tvs has negatives and pros and I am lost.

Might not just buy a tv and go drink coffee and play computer.

I personally would have went with the S95D from Samsung because I personally like matte screens more but funny enough most reviews critics are because it is a matte display and not glossy lol. I have huge windows behind my sofa and thought it might be cool but now I am not sure anymore duo to almost everyone saying how bad matte screens are for OLED TVs.

The dude in the shop said I should go with the S95D because it is cool if I have a lot of light sources and yes it has it's downsides because of the matte screen really bright scenes can create a "white cone" around the edge duo to matte screening but he also said it's something you won't notice or pay attention too when using it. I am not comparing G4, S90D and that TV when watching a movie.

I also don't watch a lot of TV at daylight but when I do I know reflections are annoying. And I also saw that the S95D performs great in the dark as well against other glossy OLED TVs even if it has a matte screen.

This again is probably a subject I shouldn't care about. It's like my TV right now is just displaying grey instead of black and I lived with it 12 years (happy). Either TV will be a huge upgrade for me. I could just save my time and buy the tv and be happy but no, I am here researching way to long for a friggin' TV. I am so deep in the TV subject now that I even know the S90D Series has a Panel Lottery because some TVs have OLEDs and some have QD OLEDS panels... like... honestly, if no one told me I would have been happy without QD panel and wouldn't have known but now that I know.... dunno not gonna buy.

55 comments

Then I dump 12 hours into researching on youtube

There's your problem!

Notebookcheck for phones and laptop is god tier. RTIngs is great for TVs.
From what I've experienced the newer TVs aren't built for longevity. That's been a real disgusting revelation. I mean.. FFS.. you're expected to shell out a ton of cash but you can't have the peace of mind that it'll be there in working order 7 years from now. And even expecting that... There's almost an air about it that "what do you expect.. it's been 7 years, upgrade!"

So I feel you. Sorry for the rant.
- Yeah probably keeping my currently well running 2011 TV in the basement lol.
  
  I managed to find a 65" 1080p Non-smart TV with a VERY feint line on the right quarter-inch of the edge of the screen. (the blue pixels only) Lady said she'd take $75. I never got money out of my wallet so damn quick. Been happy with it for years. I wouldn't upgrade unless I had the money to plop down on a very large commercial display that didn't have any of the smart features.
- When I bought my Chiq, the local tech who services them said that they'll last a long time if you don't crank the brightness all the way.
  
  That may hold true for other sets as well.
I've not met anyone who enjoys buying things these days. Reviews aren't trustworthy, and even as I type this my hands burn from using a (checks notes) standard web browser app (Firefox, Android) - possibly my own fault for using Blokada VPN but iirc I've shut it off before and the issue still persists. On a Samsung Galaxy S22 for fucks sake!?!?!?

My next phone will probably be either a Fairphone, dumb phone (except I really need Google Maps rarely but occasionally), or maybe I'll get a pihole (or sth) on my home network and buy an iPhone, except I don't want to pay premium prices for just a handheld web browser attached to a phone and Maps device.

Anyway, companies don't sell what we want, only what they can extort from us to buy. If we don't like that then... well no, that's it, we have no choices between "become god-tier expert in every subject that we might ever want to make a purchase in, even once a decade", and "we enslave ourselves to the whimsy of chance to do with us what it wills".
- If you need google maps mostly in the car then my dad has been very happy with an external devise only for maps and gps, no need for a subscription, no need for internet, etc.
  
  I would think the map would need to be refreshed at some point, as new roads are built and such, but possibly that can be done manually somehow or at worst a trip to a mechanic.
  
  But for me I sometimes need a device while traveling to another city I've never been to before. I suppose a laptop would mostly work.
- You can just buy something like a used s10e and install a custom rom (without gapps) and osm (if specifically maps isn't required). It makes a practically dumb phone with a browser plus maybe some apks.
  
  That's a great idea. I almost bought an A22 but it took ~6 whole seconds after pretty much any button press to respond (I thought no way, but confirmed at a store first and it was true) - some kind of horrible software update that has since been corrected iirc and thought I needed something reliable so I spent more for the more premium phone.
  
  My S22 is pretty much the only device I've ever gotten that works as they seem to have intended it but I actually regret purchasing. I hate Samsungs now, based on this experience. Maybe it's bc I didn't go big enough for the S22+ that cools better, more likely it's bc I won't make a Samsung account and this is their way of punishing me, by constantly checking a thousand times a second for if I've done that yet - in that case maybe I can root this one and get a whole second, better life out of it!?
  
  I've had a replaced OS on a Nexus 5 as my daily driver before and loved it, but in general I'm very hesitant to do that with a non-Google phone that I NEED to function as my only phone. Except nowadays Google phones are only super-premium cameras attached to the shittiest specs I've ever seen on such an expensive phone.:-(
  
  For my work I travel very rarely, sometimes not even once a year, but I don't want to be in a city I've never been in before without a reliable phone, maps, even an app to schedule an Uber (unethical company issues aside), plus subway/train/bus connection apps. Likewise if I have a 5-year-old phone (w/ 5-year old battery) that gives out on me halfway through the day... so then I'm looking at either carrying a giant charger block and spending time at an outlet, or getting like a second battery replacement thingy to swap out, either way an extra hassle.
  
  Phones didn't used to be this way. My Nexus 5 would last all day, especially if I had a charger at work, and while I guess I did buy it at half price as it was discontinued, even the original price wasn't a fucking thousand dollars like phones are today.
  
  But there's definitely all kinds of non-premium phones out there, if only the reviews could be trusted or we roll the dice and hope it lasts a little while.
They also don't last. I've bought 6 flat screens since 2006. 4 have died, all in the second year of ownership. 3 of those died on month 13, 1 month after the warranty. 1 of those died the day after the warranty expired...

I swear they plan for them to die right after warranty or I just have the worst luck. Doesn't matter if I spend $500 or $3000+ on name brand. I started saving money on the last two that died by insuring them. At this point I'm just leasing them until they die.
- Check with your credit card if you bought it that way. A lot of them offer warranty extensions that can double warranty length (up to an extra year). I've used it before once for a camera and it's a bit convoluted but it works. I think the process for me was to call the credit card company to confirm it would be covered, then getting a repair estimate from an authorized repair place. Then they either approve it and pay for the repair or pay you the original value if the repair would cost too much.
  
  That is a good point, will have to check my benefits. Thanks!
- I am still mad about a horrible botched update on a Vizio TV that I bought back in 2017.
  
  Turns out the fix was to call customer service and listen to them for an hour until they finally sent you the old firmware so that you could downgrade it, but until they sent me that and I went through that rigmarole pressing the source button would take an honest 15 seconds just to show the sources, it was so laggy and horrible that it just murdered me to use
  
  That being said, after getting the fix it has been a good dumb TV. I run an old laptop I got from a pawn shop for $50 through it and it does all of the media viewing that I need.
  
  Whatever TV I get I will not be connecting it to the internet. I probably won't buy a Vizio again, not going to get an LG or a Samsung, don't really know what my choices are but I'll figure it out when I get there
  
  The one that didn't die right array was also a botched update. Never got the firmware over email (Hisense). Vizio, Sony, and Samsung were the ones that died right after warrenty.
  
  I use an external media box so I don't update them anymore.
If it helps, I'd go for the LG G4. Or C4 if you want to reduce the cost a bit.
I've sworn off Samsung, just for the sheer levels of anticonsumer bullshit they pull.
I've had my CX off the network for its entire life. The Apple TV handles internet and playing media properly, the TV handles taking an HDMI lead and displaying the picture accurately.
The anti-glare it does have was still miles better than my previous plasma, even though the screen is glossy.

Check out AVForums for TV reviews, and just as a general thing, Which.
Though Which do sometimes struggle with comparing the technical details that matter.

And get it from somewhere that offers a decent warranty. If costco is the same in your area, you get 5 years on TVs so long as you maintain membership.
- I agree with this. I had a slew of Samsung's and they've been getting worse. Post purchase they installed apps that can't be removed and there's no space on it already. Ads in the fucking menu system and the tv isn't responsive like the older models. Fuck Samsung for TVs. They've fallen hard.
The more I learn about the horrors of modern smart TVs and their ads and privacy breaches, the more I am convinced that I lucked out when I went to the store some years ago and picked up "any" TV that fit my requirements (and I didn't have many requirements).

I bought a pretty cheap Samsung. My todler broke the old TV, so I needed a new one on short notice. I wish it had one of those RF remotes instead of IR, but it's fine. The only "ads" I see is that when you turn it on, it defaults to a streaming service named Rakuten, and they always show Andromeda episodes. All of my kids know how to start their streaming service of choice, so nobody really cares.
- The last TV I had was a 55' inch dumb one. Absolutely NO smart features bullshit. And I had to leave it behind when I moved to a different country. The sound sucked, but that was fixed with a sound bar.
  
  I miss that TV.
- Use it as a dumb panel. Don't connect it to the web.
Then I dump 12 hours into researching on youtube, trying to filter the company fanboys and the real talk people just to find out they are all “bought” and only 5% of the reviews aren’t bought.

To me, getting this kind of info in good faith without corporate sponsorship has been one of the most important functions of Reddit and something I hope Lemmy can take up as it grows. Even now, astroturfed content is much more common on Reddit than it was, and forget about any article with SEO good enough for one to even find on a search engine. At least Fakespot helps a little with the AI-generated reviews out there, but it's not going to catch anything written by a human in bad faith.

For what it's worth--and for posterity--the screen on the Samsung TV my father bought a few years ago is still going strong, but holy crap has the smart TV side of it been bad. One of the apps I used regularly (Steam Link) was outright discontinued and a couple others just stopped working. For whatever reason, it wipes out the app list on its own every few months or so, too. I ended up buying him a Fire Stick. At this point, all the smart TV functionality he's getting out of it is getting served ads on the menu. 🙄
I snapped and instead bought a large computer monitor, Edifier speakers + fossi BT amp, and use a computer running kodi to watch media now.

No apps, no end of support life, no subscriptions, no shitty UI, no ads etc. I power on and yay my shows. Can also play the radio/music through it and retro video games when feeling nostalgic, control through phone if needed.

Cost more (TVs subsidised because they sell your data) but I don't have to worry about that or learn some manufacturers bespoke and bizarre settings.
- Same, I haven't bought a TV since the 90s, it was a CRT ("tube"). Now I just do monitors hooked up to a linux box, or a Mac mini before that.
I was in a good spot when I got my tv. Literally two requirements: not a god-forsaken LG, and it had to have feet that would fit on an existing IKEA stand which was maybe three feet from end to end. Best Buy promptly showed me to the TVs for Poors aisle, and we measured the Samsung tv bases for the widest possible feet under 36”. Got an absolutely brain-melting 43” screen. Honestly very happy with it.
duo

due*

You tripped me up with this one. I thought you were talking about Duolingo for a bit.
I think the difference isn't the TV tbh, it's you. People have always had the ability to dive deep into the differences in tech of various devices. There have always been in depth reviews of every item or phone.

The difference is the last time you purchased a TV, you didn't seem to care about all that. Guess what? You still don't. You could absolutely walk into any store that sells TVs, buy one on a whim that looks ok, and be perfectly fine. They are all just TVs. Sure, they have their differences, but they mostly function the same.

The same could be said for smartphones. Just grab one that looks decent and they mostly will have the same experience as one another unless you're some sort of power user.

Really, there are a butt load of people who actually don't know all the tech details. They stroll in the store and just buy something that looks ok within the price range they are willing to spend. Non-internet people are far more inclined to do this. Sometimes places like Lemmy and Reddit don't realize how little the general public knows or cares about tech...and they all manage to get by just fine.

If it bothers you to be this into tech reviews, just don't. Be spontaneous. They are all going to basically do the same thing.
- Just grab one that looks decent and they mostly will have the same experience as one another unless you’re some sort of power user.
  
  My only big requirements for a phone has been that it has a physical headphone jack, a slot for a physical SIM, and a slot for a microSD card (since I usually have >100gb of music saved on my phone). That ends up taking the overwhelming majority of phones out of the running. I used to require a removeable battery, but I don't think those exist on any phones now.
  
  I only know of one, the Samsung XCover6 Pro. They don't even advertise it because it is one of those "rugged" phones or whatever meant for work crews moreso than regular consumers. But it apparently has swappable battery, headphone, SD, and dual SIM so I'm thinking of giving it a shot. Haven't pulled the trigger yet though.
Whatever you end up buying, and from wherever you end up buying from, make sure it has a liberal return policy, and don't destroy the box, padding when unboxing. Get it home, hook it up, check it out, and if you don't like it, send that sucker back from when it came.
For me, it's relatively simple because Sceptre is basically the only brand left that sells modern TVs that aren't "smart".
- You know that you don't need to give your television your WiFi password, right? A "smart" TV that isn't hooked up to the internet can't do shit that you don't tell it to. Plus, you can still hook it up to an HDMI cable and stream video from your laptop.
  
  For my Samsung 85" TV, entering the wifi password was a requirement - without wifi access, several weeks after installation, the TV stopped displaying video from any input. The only solution was to enter the wifi password, at which point the TV immediately returned to normal operation.
  
  Just because it appears to be optional to connect the device to internet does not mean the basic functionality will work.
If you were happy enough with your tech to hold onto it 5 years past its updates anything on the market today will please you.

I was looking at computer upgrades and started getting too in the weeds before remembering that anything available will be better than what it is replacing.
- Performance and general usability wise, yes, but I'm not sure that holds up for other aspects. What if I care about buying stuff that:
  
  I can properly own
  
  Is made to last
  
  Is repairable
  
  Doesn't bundle spyware (or bundles less of it)
  
  Doesn't remove features I like (e.g. audio jacks)
  
  Doesn't support shitty companies (or does so as little as possible)
  
  And so on. You add up all those tiny worries and suddenly buying things becomes a nightmare, even if every option seems better on the surface.
  
  I'm much more aware of this stuff now than I was over a decade ago and, sadly enough, I can't forget it. Ignorance was bliss.
  
  This is the hard part. I don’t care about picture quality or specs or anything. But I don’t own a tv or computer right now because it seems there is nothing out there that will be guaranteed to 1. Be compatible with everything I want to use it with and 2. Not make my life suck in sneaky, other ways. I just want things i can disconnect from the internet and plug other things into easily. It’s gotten so hard that it’s just not worth the money for me to own either.
  
  No devices have that anymore. I was looking for a phone for my cousin and the only decently preforming normally priced phone without permanent oem lock and a headphone jack was a poco f5. And it doesn't have a sdcard slot. If you are ok with practically e-waste, you can still buy a redmi/galaxy a15 and the overpriced xperias still have some legacy features. And if you want something as simple as usable battery pull-tabs, the only manufacturer still doing that is Xiaomi or maybe nokia's e-waste. And don't even mention the fairphone, as you can't justify the price.
I don’t know too much about TVs these days. I know I’ve been happy with my mid level TCL I got prob 6 years ago. The black levels aren’t fantastic but I was long overdue for an upgrade.

I don’t think I saw this in your post but how big of a TV are you looking into purchasing?
Have you tried not buying Tvs? I wonder the average number of TVs per household is in America?
- The number of TVs - Rapidly declining.
  
  The number of screens - Rapidly increasing.
Who cares? TVs won’t last long anyway, and they’re basically carriers for advertising anyway. If you’re only watching streaming content, buy an apple tv or similar and a decent monitor. Both will last much longer than a regular smort TV and are way better adaptable to your needs.
I still go to Best Buy to buy a TV. whatever you do, don't get a Vizio. they look good, but the firmware is shit and if you update it to try to fix it, they break something else with every update
Planned obsolescence, I would suggest checking what your bang for buck is, but make sure the coverage plan or warranty is also good as well.

It seems you are just looking at the high-end stuff when it comes to phones and TV, so any choice should last a good amount and perform well enough; it just goes back to the niche features and new PR names they are using to sell the next big thing.

Last time I bought a TV, it was an LG cheap one just for the living room. We have curtains to darken the room when we watch movies, and it does the job. It cost me around $400 bucks.

It has smart features and other stuff, but I mostly connect a dongle or internet connection with a VPN so I can stream whatever I want, especially if I don't want ads and all the other 'bloatware'.
Why even the newest stuff? Get an LG C2 or LG C3, save a ton of many, be happy and move on.

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