TV under $2500

[GPT]

Guys, time to replace our 10 year old plasma 42inch Samsung:lol:. Any recommendations for 55-65 inch tv's under the $2500 mark, no gaming use.

TCL seem to be good value and reviews seem good.

[C4B]

We're very happy with our Samsung Q7 55". I'd say you'd pick one up under $2.5k these days.

[white lie]

Also got the Q7 but in 65", awesome TV. Mainly got it for the Freesync ability with gaming, if I didn't want that, I'd more than likely go with an OLED.

If you don't mind buying online, you should be able to pick up a bargain with Black Friday/Cyber Monday coming up. Go to the usual stores and have a look, find what you like and then look around online.

The LG C8 and equivalent Panasonic TH-55 have been under 2k recently, usually over 2.5k so they'd be on my shortlist for sure. TCL and Hisense do make decent TV's for the price but I found the bigger names were just that little bit better. Given my last TV was a 10 year old Samsung plasma like yours, I figured I'd rather spend a bit more on it and hopefully have this one for another 10.

[Pickles]

We have an old Toshiba 47"!!!..had it for years,...it was top of the tree when we bought it all those years ago, but not now,....probably buy something like it for $7/800!!
Anyway, we normally source our stuff from a local firm that's been installing tvs, aerials, audio etc etc for 40 years I suppose, they also do a lot of motels & bigger stuff.
In the old days they swore by Phillips (if ya wanted quality), they've also sold a lot of Panasonic stuff, but recently they said not to discount Hisense who are now making an excellent product at a reasonable price & offer a home repair/pick up on their larger screens when under warranty, which can be a big help if there's a problem.....I know I couldn't fit a big screen in our car!
Pretty hard to pick what's right I reckon, ya go to JB & they all look good,...I'm told to be careful when looking at screens in shops,...invariably they've got the screen playing via blue ray which apparently enhances the picture?
Pickles.

[GPT]

Thoughts on the LG stuff, seems to be considered the higher end these days. The one issue I have with Hisense is that they are starting to charge close to Samsung /LG money. Also I have a 9 year old Yamaha surround sound system . Will this still work with today's tv's or should I just upgrade to a soundbar and woofer.

[jc_sv8]

My Sony 75" cost me about $2300 delivered. It's an android HD (not 4K). For the money it's excellent.

[shaness8]

Have a look at the Samsung nu7100 4k, i bought a 75" for under $2400 2 wks ago and love it, 65" should be around 2k.

I looked at TCL and Hisense not worth it for the little that you save.

[heavychevy]

Thoughts on the LG stuff, seems to be considered the higher end these days. The one issue I have with Hisense is that they are starting to charge close to Samsung /LG money. Also I have a 9 year old Yamaha surround sound system . Will this still work with today's tv's or should I just upgrade to a soundbar and woofer.

Hi GPT, regarding your 9 year old Yamaha surround sound system and it's suitability. It depends where you're playing your media from. I've a 4 year old Samsung PS60F8500 connected via Toslink ( optical ) to a 16 year old Onkyo TX-DS575 AV Controller. Playing bluray media files via USB hard drives connected to the TV. Works fine as TV also. No latency. The offline media management is obvioulsy TV dependent and not as elegent as media players.

[Wonky]

Around April/May 2016 we bought a Samsung UA60KU6000W 60" UHD LED LCD 4K Smart TV for $1996 (20% discount on eBay with Good Guys). I checked around and at the time around $2500 was about the going price. The occasional discount sales eBay has are genuine and funded by eBay themselves, I guess to promote business. The Good Guys still receive their original pre discounted price.

The picture quality is superb, even normal HD transmission. We didn't have a Blu-Ray player so bought a Samsung Blu-Ray player (non 4K) and with my Dolby Atmos sound system we also bought around the same time the picture and sound are brilliant. I then turned around and bought a Samsung 4K Blu-Ray player - stunning picture and sound, especially on Dolby Atmos enabled Blu-Rays!!!

As I said, that was 2 1/2 years ago and although that model is probably no longer available the equivalent model should be available for well under $2,500 now given TV prices keep dropping.

[GPT]

All great info thanks guys. Started looking at some sets on the weekend, some of the prices are crazy good. I remember our 42 plasma in 2009 was $1100 discounted , today that easily buys you 55 inch.

At this stage Sony seems to be the front runner.

[QIKMIK]

Depending on how tight your budget is, the panels from Aldi seem to review ok. There's a range of sizes depending on what they decide to bring out that week. All not Smart TVs but I still have a media PC so no issue there.

Priced from $599 for the 58" through to $1700 for the 75".

Mick

[C4B]

All great info thanks guys. Started looking at some sets on the weekend, some of the prices are crazy good. I remember our 42 plasma in 2009 was $1100 discounted , today that easily buys you 55 inch.

At this stage Sony seems to be the front runner.

That is the one well known brand I would absolutely avoid.

I know three people who had Sony's (all large panel) and none of them lasted 4 years.

[GPT]

That is the one well known brand I would absolutely avoid.

I know three people who had Sony's (all large panel) and none of them lasted 4 years.

Thanks for this , will cross off list. Looks like Samsung again.

[CLUBRED]

The Sony's review well and seem great, but I've had sketchy reliability on everything Sony I've ever owned. I ended up with Panasonic FX800 over the Samsung, mainly as features aren't my priority, and I've had exceptional reliability with all my pana products previously (in fact, I've had not one failure in the almost 20 years I've been using their stuff). My 8yr old plasma is bullet proof even full of kitchen gunk (not to self, clean my cooking filters more often).

[jc_sv8]

My 10 year old 52" Sony is starting to show its age.
When I turn it on there is a ghosting down the left side that is fairly noticeable until it warms up which takes about 15 minutes.
So still going strong outside a cold solder joint or capacitor that needs replacing.
If it gets any worse I'll pull the back off and hunt down the problem, but for now it's not worth replacing.

My 75" Sony is coming up on 3 years this Christmas and has been faultless.

The other option is a 55" Kogan special for $449. I bought a 21" with DVD built in 8 years ago and it's still going strong as well. Cost me about $129

[Wonky]

Our 10 yr old 42" Panasonic plasma is still going strong, although did have one repair done under extended warranty over 4 years ago and hasn't missed a beat since. It's the tv which gets used day in, day out as it's in our family room and even though it's only 1376 x 768 the picture is excellent!!! Most people would never pick it as anything but HD.

[GPT]

I must say our Samsung plasma has never missed a beat since day one. I'm leaning towards the Q8 at the moment, the stand on the Q7 is shocking though..

[white lie]

Ours didn't either until it started developing a vertical line not so long ago. Was hoping it may just be a dirty contact but that didn't fix it and it seems rather difficult to find parts myself. Not sure it's worth fixing yet so we just got the Q7 instead much brighter picture and the anti glare coating works really well in our living room as there's a lot of windows. A lot of people say the QLED is nowhere near as good as an OLED but for our purposes, it's great.

I don't mind the stand, it's a lot sturdier than it looks but the TV also never gets touched. The one connect box also neatens things up a heap, excellent if you're wall mounting and then the stand isn't a concern either.

[white lie]

Nevermind...

[jc_sv8]

My 75" is wall mounted on a swivel so we can see it from the dining area. Works a treat!

[white lie]

If you're still looking around, the good guys eBay store has the 65" Q7 for $2695.50 (free click and collect or $55 delivery). I thought the $3k deal this weekend thru JB and TGG was good but the extra 10% off on eBay makes it even sweeter. Highly recommend it, ours is awesome.

[GPT]

Just got to hold off for a few weeks as moving interstate. I think the Samsung Q8 and the 850 Samsung soundbar package will fit the bill nicely.

[GPT]

Update. I had settled on the Samsung Q8 but for some unknown reason no JB in QLD had stock or had ordered any. In the end went with the Q7 and very happy with it. Also went with the Yamaha YSP2700 soundbar, very nice package btw.

[Pickles]

How does the soundbar work, do you have to have a special connection on your screen,..where does it plug into etc?
Thanks, Pickles.

[white lie]

The Q7 has Bluetooth so I just Bluetooth my soundbar to the TV. No apparent lag in vision vs audio.
Otherwise they usually have a digital audio input or you can use the ARC on the HDMI cable (which sends the audio back from the TV).

I found I had to play around with the factory settings on the Q7 to get sports to play properly. The processing for anti blur and whatever makes it unwatchable, ghosts like anything! But pretty much turn them off and it's a heap better.

[GPT]

This,

"Otherwise they usually have a digital audio input or you can use the ARC on the HDMI cable (which sends the audio back from the TV)."