Looking for input on a new TV. Bought a 55" Insignia 2 years ago at Bsat Buy and already crapped out. Lamp or something went out. Paid around $500.00 I think. Looking to buy a new one and can't dcise whether to go cheap again w a warranty (which I didn't buy last time) or go a little higher. Anyone have any input on a good 55" in the 500-1000 range? So many options out there. Just using it for regular tv. Running appletv and YouTube tv through it.

Rtings.com

Use this site to help you narrow it down. When you have it down to 1-3 TVs, go to the AVSForums and read the owners thread.

AVS LCD Forum

AVS OLED Forum

The 55" 4K Sony X900E I bought at the beginning of football season is now under a grand and it's been stellar, was the best rated 4K set under 1400 or so that I could find when I got it.

https://amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MUG21R7/

Rtings link above is good.

Edit: sorry, skimmed your post and did not see the failure of your current TV.

That said, I'd go cheap and wait for an OLED deal this fall.

You can get Hisense, etc for < $300. I paid $270 for 55" hisense with 4k, hdr and "smart". When I can get a 55" or larger OLED for <=$800, I'll pull the trigger. I consider the Hisense a temp purchase.

OLED. I picked up an open box OLED (LG 55B7P model) on Amazon for about $1100. Came with everything (TV, stand, remote, etc) in its original packaging. It was worth the money.

Have had great luck with Samsung and Vizio over the years (just sold a Vizio that was still working perfectly after almost 10 years and still have 2 Samsungs that are 5+ & 10+ years old). Unless something changes, I'll be sticking with the same brands going forward.

I'm a Sony fan too

In that price range the best tv you can buy is a TCL.

I love my 2 LG's. Have had one for 10 years and still going strong.

agdoc2001 said:

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In that price range the best tv you can buy is a TCL.

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https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-price/under-500

I have the 65" S405 and it's a great TV for the money. My father in law is looking for a new TV and keeps asking me for advice. I keep telling him, either pony up for the OLED or just get this TCL. He keeps asking me about $1500 Samsung, Sony, etc. and I tell him I just don't think you'll get 2x-3x the TV for that (I got mine as a refurb for ~$500). TBH, he won't notice the difference regardless... he just has a hangup about getting a name brand.

My GF has that in the 55", last year's model. Got it for $400 from Wal Mart last fall. With Walmart, they give 90 days to return. So she bought it right inside 90 days of Black Friday as insurance against a better deal. Nothing better showed up.

Great TV.

Don't do the warranty. Either go cheap and be ok with potentially replacing it in a few years knowing prices will go down even more or spend some money for a nice one.

I had a 49 in plasma from samsung i love that crapped out last year and i bought a cheap westinghouse to replace it short term. The video quality is great, but the sound is garbage. I have surround sound so i don't care. It works for now. I'll upgrade to a nicer OLED once i buy a house in a few years.

Video wise you probably won't notice a huge difference between the 4k's from what you've said above, but smart factor/sound/connectors definitely vary and could matter to you.

One more thing to consider OP. The Smart part of the TV needs to be capable of supporting whichever streaming vendor you want to use.

The smart on my Hisense is frankly terrible. It doesn't have apps like Amazon, for example, and others.

I have a roku and use that for streaming service.

Yet another reason the TCLs are great. Baked-in Roku is clean, intuitive, compatible with every major service, and already familiar to many. Plus the sound streaming to a phone or tablet via Roku app is just awesome.

As mentioned, sound isn't great, but many already have a receiver or sound bar. If not, Walmart is closing out retired Samsung soundbar models for $35-109. Great deal, if you can find one in stock. I just replaced an aging Pioneer receiver with the 4.1 wireless setup (HW-KM37) and it sounds really solid.

However, if you're looking up to $1000, I wouldn't think twice about dropping another hundred on the LG B7A. Dell has a deal for $1099 after $200 rebate plus you get a $200 e-gift card. If you had a gaming system, soundbar, or other device in mind already that you can get from Dell, this would be an amazing deal. P.C. Richard has it for $1080 w/ free shipping and no hassle with rebates/gift cards.

What about this Toshiba with pre-sale offers? Any opinions?

http://bgr.com/2018/05/30/4k-fire-tv-preorder-amazon-toshiba-fire-tv/

agz win said:

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What about this Toshiba with pre-sale offers? Any opinions?

http://bgr.com/2018/05/30/4k-fire-tv-preorder-amazon-toshiba-fire-tv/

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I really wouldn't get a TV that hasn't been thoroughly reviewed on a pre-sale unless it was purely for a cheap, spare TV. The price for this certainly qualifies for the cheap part. Who knows about the quality though as Amazon could be subsidizing the cost like they do on their Fire tablets to lock you into their ecosystem.


In regards to the OP, I'm still really enjoying my TCL P607 and the R617 that is replacing it this year looks to be an even better TV (based on the Rtings review and rankings), especially at the $650 price point.

If you want to go a little higher into the price range, the Sony X900E (last year's model) can be had for under $1,000 and is an excellent TV. Based on reviews, it's not worth the extra $300 for the X900F. It's not worth going higher than the X900E without making then jump to OLED.