Tempted to get a 85" TV this black Friday

[FADEC]

Was browsing at Costco while the Mrs. was shopping. These new 85" TV's are impressive. May have to pull the trigger this holiday season depending on the sales.

A must have is ATCS 3.0 or Nextgen TV. All the new Sony's have it as far as I know. Anyone using Next gen TV??

 

[Malo83]

You'll get your best prices prior to the Super Bowl, have a Sony 75", an 85" Sony will be my next purchase.

 

[DriveHard]

Never used Nextgen, but Samsung has been a far and away favorite of mine. I have owned Sony in the past, and NOT been impressed...but it was a decade ago, so I know things may have changed.

 

[Duffyjr]

You'll get your best prices prior to the Super Bowl

Normally I would agree with you but with the price increases going on now with everything you may get a better deal on Black Friday. I only say this because the wife needs a new TV soon and I'm not sure what to do since it's not an emergency, buy now, wait, buy now

 

[gman2304]

There’s a formula in Consumer Reports I read years ago for buying a tv as far as having the right size tv for the room it will be in. IIRC it’s based on how far you will be away from the tv, the height of the tv, the window locations to eliminate glare, etc. A friend bought an 85 inch tv recently and his seating arrangements are about 8 feet from the tv. It’s like sitting on the front row in an imax theatre, you literally have to move your head to follow all the action. A 65 inch would have been gracious plenty to fit his viewing area IMO. I’m 16 feet from my 65 inch Sony and looking back I could have utilized a little bigger screen but I’m OK with the 65 inch.

 

[Leo99]

We have a 74" and it's nice. One thing to watch out for is the base if you're going to put it on a TV stand. My TV has the legs on the far ends of the TV and therefore, requires a wider than common TV stand.

 

[Lubener]

I remember mounting one about this size many years ago. I believe it was a plasma, don't remember. It took four of us and had to reinforce the wall. What is the weight of this modern set?

 

[Oillover]

I purchased our 42 inch plasma tv about 6 years ago off CL for $100.
We don't use the TV's audio (have a 2.1 system with Polk bookshelfs and a self amplified sub).
I can't tolerate the poor audio from most TV's. I'm always appaulled when traveling and hearing the garbage most people have to listen to.
It's no wonder most folks are hard of hearing when you have to constantly crank up the volume to hear most dialogue.

6 years in and she's still doing fine! especially with those fancy 1080p TV shows and movies!

 

[RooflessVW]

I remember mounting one about this size many years ago. I believe it was a plasma, don't remember. It took four of us and had to reinforce the wall. What is the weight of this modern set?

Less than half by far.

Only two people to lift my 75" Samsung onto the hooks with no straining.

 

[BHopkins]

I remember mounting one about this size many years ago. I believe it was a plasma, don't remember. It took four of us and had to reinforce the wall. What is the weight of this modern set?

Plasma tv's weigh significantly more than a similarly sized tv made with today's technology. My 58" Samsung plasma weighs 85#. A 58" Samsung LED weighs 34#.

That said, your advice is good. From what I can see, 85" tv's are in the 90# - 110# range. You have to plan carefully, if it a tv that size is going to hang on a wall.

 

[Gokhan]

Was browsing at Costco while the Mrs. was shopping. These new 85" TV's are impressive. May have to pull the trigger this holiday season depending on the sales.

A must have is ATCS 3.0 or Nextgen TV. All the new Sony's have it as far as I know. Anyone using Next gen TV??

It sounds like ATSC 3.0 (promoted to consumers as NEXTGEN TV) is not well-established yet, and I would wait for another year before better tuners and more TV models become available. You don't want to sacrifice display quality, features, or price for a piece of new technology.

My next TV would be OLED, which is self-lit. I would steer away from QLED, ULED, LED, etc., as they are all backlit LCD technologies, and none of them come close to OLED in display quality. They are the evolution of the old, awful rear-projector technology in some sense. LCD technology has remained because of low cost. Plasma technology used to be far superior, which was now replaced with the even better OLED. Even CRT technology was better than LCD technology until it lasted. Both plasma and CRT technologies are self-lit.

You may not need an 85" TV unless you are watching it from far away. A 65" display is already huge. Displays too large can be uncomfortable to watch and can cause fatigue more quickly. It's not to mention that the price increases a lot with the display size.

There are few LG OLED ATSC 3.0 TVs at the moment, and they cost $1,000 more than for legacy ATSC TVs (~ $2,500 vs. $1,500 for 65"). Just wait for another year and the price will come down by $1,000. Don't waste your money and/or sacrifice display quality for a TV larger than 65" unless you really need it (long viewing distance).

LG OLED TVs - Experience the Power of OLED TV

Shop LG OLED TVs, Ranging in Screen Size from 42"-97". Enjoy Premium Picture Quality w/ Bright Colors & Perfect Blacks. It's Not Just OLED TV, It's LG OLED TV.

www.lg.com

 

[buster]

Never used Nextgen, but Samsung has been a far and away favorite of mine. I have owned Sony in the past, and NOT been impressed...but it was a decade ago, so I know things may have changed.

The South Korean products have come a long way since the 90's. Most products coming out of Korea these days are very good.

I've had good luck with Samsung TVs.

 

[Danno]

Have had a Sony 85" 900 series TV for about 18 months now. From Costco with their excellence value warranty.
About 12' viewing distance.
Amazing picture, almost 3D. It has back lit LEDs.
Its a 4K TV and most of the feeds are 1080P. It upscales to 4K really well.
Next one will be a 100" Sony if they get there with panel TVs.
As for LED vs OLED, entirely happy with this Sony and its "subpar" LED technology.
Bigger, with great picture quality, is definitely better when it comes to TVs in my opinion.

 

[willbur]

It sounds like ATSC 3.0 (promoted to consumers as NEXTGEN TV) is not well-established yet, and I would wait for another year before better tuners and more TV models become available. You don't want to sacrifice display quality, features, or price for a piece of new technology.

My next TV would be OLED, which is self-lit. I would steer away from QLED, ULED, LED, etc., as they are all backlit LCD technologies, and none of them come close to OLED in display quality. They are the evolution of the old, awful rear-projector technology in some sense. LCD technology has remained because of low cost. Plasma technology used to be far superior, which was now replaced with the even better OLED. Even CRT technology was better than LCD technology until it lasted. Both plasma and CRT technologies are self-lit.

You may not need an 85" TV unless you are watching it from far away. A 65" display is already huge. Displays too large can be uncomfortable to watch and can cause fatigue more quickly. It's not to mention that the price increases a lot with the display size.

There are few LG OLED ATSC 3.0 TVs at the moment, and they cost $1,000 more than for legacy ATSC TVs (~ $2,500 vs. $1,500 for 65"). Just wait for another year and the price will come down by $1,000. Don't waste your money and/or sacrifice display quality for a TV larger than 65" unless you really need it (long viewing distance).

LG OLED TVs - Experience the Power of OLED TV

Shop LG OLED TVs, Ranging in Screen Size from 42"-97". Enjoy Premium Picture Quality w/ Bright Colors & Perfect Blacks. It's Not Just OLED TV, It's LG OLED TV.

www.lg.com

Thank you for the excellent advice

 

[ecotourist]

There’s a formula in Consumer Reports I read years ago for buying a tv as far as having the right size tv for the room it will be in. IIRC it’s based on how far you will be away from the tv, the height of the tv, the window locations to eliminate glare, etc. A friend bought an 85 inch tv recently and his seating arrangements are about 8 feet from the tv. It’s like sitting on the front row in an imax theatre, you literally have to move your head to follow all the action. A 65 inch would have been gracious plenty to fit his viewing area IMO. I’m 16 feet from my 65 inch Sony and looking back I could have utilized a little bigger screen but I’m OK with the 65 inch.

We sit about 11' from the TV and a 50" flat screen TV works quite well. I don't think I'd want one any bigger.

We bought a Samsung from Costco and it's been good.

 

[JustN89]

I've had Samsung TVs for 8 years now and couldn't be happier. Great TVs. 85" is pretty large. My dad has an 85" Samsung in his theater room. You sit about 8' from the TV at the center of the room and it still looks big. I'm actually not sure that I'd want to watch a TV that large all of the time, but it is magical when you're watching a movie or a big time football game!

 

[ecotourist]

I purchased our 42 inch plasma tv about 6 years ago off CL for $100.
We don't use the TV's audio (have a 2.1 system with Polk bookshelfs and a self amplified sub).
I can't tolerate the poor audio from most TV's. I'm always appaulled when traveling and hearing the garbage most people have to listen to.
It's no wonder most folks are hard of hearing when you have to constantly crank up the volume to hear most dialogue.

6 years in and she's still doing fine! especially with those fancy 1080p TV shows and movies!

We use 2 KEF 101 bookshelf speakers on either side of the TV (no center or rear speakers) powered by a Yamaha integrated amp. It might sound odd not to have a center channel speaker but the KEFs image really well and the sound seems to come out of the right places on the screen.

We might get a self powered sub at some point but to be honest we don't miss having one. Our amplifier has 5.1, 2.1, and 2.0 capability.

 

[atikovi]

Did you get permission from the Mrs?

 

[FADEC]

Did you get permission from the Mrs?

Yes. Actually my 5 year old Samsung is flaking out a little bit. Seems a lot of the Samsung plus channels won't come in anymore as well as my Weather channel streaming app.

 

[Skippy722]

Whatever you get, avoid anything with an IPS panel like a plague. I bought a 65” LG with an IPS panel for my downstairs living room (which is now the kids room) because it’s kind of wide and long and wow that thing sucks. It doesn’t get very bright while also not being able to achieve deep blacks so there is next to no contrast. I ended up watching stuff almost exclusively on my MacBook instead.

I do recommend some bias lighting, it seems to help (for me at least) with eye fatigue if you watch in a dark or dimly lit room. Plus it just looks cool!