not secret santa

I'm a very discriminating self gifter.

and I need your help again. I'm looking for a couple items. Some I can find but I don't know which to get, some I can't find even though I know what I want.

First.

I want a big tv. I have a couple CRT televisions here one in the living room, one in the bedroom. They're antiques practically. So, I have in mind to get a couple new ones. I can't figure out what specs are important, what is not important, that kind of stuff. Are there brands that are really good? Ones you've had a bad experience with, that I should stay away from?

The prices are in my range now. I don't have cable, but digital OTA material would be nice. We stream a ton of stuff, and game consoles, sure. So, inputs are important. I do have some legacy vhs stuff I don't know what's gonna happen with that. Also network ports. It would be cool to be able to surf or get YouTube on the big screen.

I don't have any sound system, just some radios throughout the house, I'd like to be able to listen to my music via the sound system associated with the tv. I have a couple of Roku boxes I'd be willing to reuse, and this thing, SmartStick looks super cool.

I intend to wall mount the one in the bedroom. I intend to use the one in the living room over the mantle. Bedroom,... size... heh. 46" seems like a good size. for the living room, Im thinking maybe 55" or 60".

any suggestions friends?

V, I'd suggest you visit a Best Buy store and talk with the staff there.
They are usually very well informed, and not even in a hurry to make the sale.

Of course, it's very easy to slip into "buying mode",
but if you can resist that, you're probably find out enough to start your decision tree.

Consumer Reports online has a lot of what to look for and avoid. I believe you can read that stuff without being a member.

As well as picture quality, inputs and warranties, there are some things to check.

When you push the ON button .. how long until it actually turns on?

When you change channels, how long does this take? Three or four seconds can be a bit irritating.

When turn it on, and then call up the channel/program list ... do you need to manually scroll through all the channels to get the information for each one? Or does it automatically scan them all and have them ready?

I mean, sometimes I have to wait like a whole minute to know what's on TV. Life is so hard.

V Most Tvs now days have MANY inputs , including VGA ( snag a male VGA to male VGA cable , oh make it a few feet long , the longer the betterer )
most have decent suround sound , ah good recever will help , we have an Onkyo with dolby 7 ( 10 speakers BABBY !!!)
Lots of the newer TVs can direct stream and do some rudementry web surfing , i would suggest dual moniter from a Laptop

I have heard good things about Samsung Tvs ,

we are going to shop for a Nice big flat screen in a week or so

This was good advice zippy, thanks.

I went to Best Buy, talked to Jon. He's the local pro and he did an excellent job answering my questions. We talked for most of an hour and I've decided that I want a Samsung 6900 55" for the living room and a Samsung 6500 46" for the bedroom.

I happened to have Dec 2012 Cons Repts handy, so I scanned the charts. This may reinforce your decision or just muddy the waters.

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V -- We have a 46" Samsung in the living room. We got it a few years ago, so the model is not listed in glatt's reports but I think it's the older sister to the 6500 you're planning on getting. The display is beautiful enough that we actually get compliments on the great picture when friends come over. I think you'll enjoy your two new sets immensely!

Oh and V , Dont leave the boxes on the front curb to advertise that you Gotz new toys !!!!

Wow, look at all that copyrighted material. ;)
A guy I used to work with called me awhile back. He's replacing a Mitsubishi 40 inch picture tube type TV, the biggest and best of the type, he paid over $3,000 for. He'd been trying for weeks to give it away for free and couldn't find anyone to take it.

Around here, you have to pay money to get rid of a Tube TV. 20 bucks, I think.

Here too, but trashing is a shame because it's a great TV. I believe he finally found a local firehouse that would take it for their own use.

Good choice with the Samsungs. I've been happy with my older 46" LCD top of the line model from back then. Smaller than 46" and you start losing the advantage of having high definition. Their picture quality bested all the competition, sound is excellent, and the menu format is known for being user friendly. Try it, you'll like it.

Large CRT TV set often appear on the footpath (sidewalk) here with a note saying "works fine, free, please take".

They sit there for weeks, no one touches them.