Televisions can be found in most of America's homes. Multiple Televisions in many homes is very common. i'm not perfectly sure if any are still made here in America any more. Some here will buy a new one this year. As a service to this forum, I've created this thread to discuss what in most homes is not a just a luxury item, but an appliance as depended upon as a Refrigerator or a Washing Machine.

What television has the best picture?

Should the TV have good sound or is a separate sound bar the way to go?

Who makes the most reliable television?

Who makes the best "smart" TV?

What features/ (input/output ports) should a new TV have?

Which TVs work best with video games?

Respond to all or none as you please. Tell your story, supply good advice, or ask your own questions. The goal is educate ourselves and become smarter consumers.

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When I was in Colorado I was by myself for the summer while my daughter was at home. So, I went to places like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc and hung out in the electronics section. I would gently make a comment about TV cost or such to spark a discussion. If the person said something like "why the heck is this 65" TV less than the 55" TV?" I would explain the technical specifications to them as to why and whether they needed to pay the extra or not. It was a lot of fun. Quite often I got asked if I worked there and when I would say no, they'd reply "well dammit you should" lol. One couple even pulled someone from Best Buy and said you should hire this man, he knows his stuff better than any of you here. I kinda felt bad for the kid.

Anyhow, I haven't answered any of the questions posed. And that is because it is all subjective. If quality is not a huge concern, by all means roll with a 65" 60 Hz refresh rate TV with a low contrast ratio. If you want a good Smart TV experience, I suggest never buying a TV because of the applications it has and purchasing a Roku instead. Then you will have a consistent "Smart TV" experience on any TV you own.

If I were to buy a TV right now, I would probably lean towards a 120 Hz (true accurate spec) refresh rate with a good contrast ratio (e.g. 1,000,000:1) so you have dark blacks and I would probably go towards some 4k OLED over LCD and Plasma. I've always had good luck with Vizio, however, my last TV purchase was a Samsung. So far over the last year it has not disappointed me.

I know nothing about sound bars because I built a home theater system.

What inputs/outputs a TV should have is subjective to the owner. If you are going to use multiple peripherals such as gaming systems, blu-ray players, cable box, etc .. you will want numerous HDMI inputs. Let's say you don't want cable or satellite, then you will want to make sure the TV has a built-in TV tuner so you can connect your over the air antenna into it and scan for local channels.

For gaming I would definitely want OLED.

That's about all I can toss out right now.

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Great post Zero, but it's ok to be subjective. Best picture, sound quality, reliability, etc come into play for someone researching televisions.

I like LCD best and enough in/out ports to support a DVD player, a Roku device, connections for audio, and gaming is optional for me. I was in a store recently and was surprised at how low priced TV's range from. Does a low price equate to poor quality?

I'm currently looking a TVs, but am in no rush to buy. 32" is a good size for my needs.

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