SO I thought about a new thread on asking for advice on stuff we wanna buy-- just getting other peoples thoughts and maybe do's or not do's

I'll go first - I am thinking about buying a new tv-- or maybe a projector for the basement-- I found where I can get several 65" TVs for anywhere between 350-550- used on line-- or new for $500 and up-- I also saw a few 75 inch tvs for sale for really not much more-- that is 4k smart tvs. Thoughts? I already know What Some of you have. Just wondering others thoughts? Was the 75" 8k worth it? Would you get a different projector-- What would you do different. Or are you so happy that you could just explode?

 

I asked for a demonstration of an 8K TV and wanted to compare it to the 4K. The salesman said "I work here every day, and try to compare it to the 4K, and the only times I can see the difference is if I am standing 3 feet in front of it."
I don't plan to sit 3 feet in front of it, so that extra resolution is not necessary.
I really like my 4k TV. I would be more than happy to show you a demonstration of ours in a real world application, if that helps you make up your mind.

 

My case is different in some ways but maybe the same in others. I have a 55" in my living room and a 40" in my bedroom. I have antena tv not cable. Both are hooked up to the same antena that is on top of my house. I can watch channels on my 40 that the 55 cannot or will not find. And I some times have trouble streeming on both but the 55 is a bit worse. So the memeory or processors or what ever they are called can be better or not so much. I have had my laptop go down in the past and can connect to the web on both but they both cannot do this well enough to be used for that. Again the same 55 is worse than the 40. Don't know if they make a smarty pants tv with enough internals to act the same as my laptop but something I was going to look into for my next buy. Sometimes it would be nice to just acess the web with the tv instead of digging out my laptop. But I am not a phone guy and don't have it with me a bunch of the time and I do not have a data plan and would be of no help if I did have it with me. So tv's are different and features and internals for conecting and binge watching differ.

 

Our smart TV can be used like a PC to a certain extent. It has an internet link. I don't think it has a lot of brain power and would be somewhat limited.

If you wanted, you could buy a used phone as a controller for the TV without buying the cellular data, and cellular contract. You would just have to get it signed on in your name and then use its wifi features.
You could project videos and whatnot up to the TV with it if you had one that was capable. However I have found that the clarity is not quite as good when you do it that way.

What is your internet speed? This, or the age of your wireless access point can sometimes be a factor on how well your items do on your system.

 

I think it is the TV's brain power. I just bought both on price and did not research either one. As they are both on the same wifi and have close to the same wifi signal strength. The 55 that does worse actually has a bit better wifi signal strength. Just turned in all my old phones. My only one is my flip phone. It can do data but is low end. So I will do some research before I get another. I can turn them off when they have trouble after running for a kong time and return to non buffered streeming. As said neither will work for internet access and the 40 with go a bit farther before it locks up. I have some other lap tops I could use but would need to up grade them for this. They are low end as far as memory and speed also. Just thought it would be nice to have a TV with enough brain power to do all of that. Don't know if they make them. Just in case folks are like me I thought I'd post for some more tech savey folks to look at.

As an added thought even a smart tv that can be hard wired to internet conection.

 

You can "rejuvenate" any old TV by adding a Roku device to one of the HDMI ports. It is essentially the "smart" part of a smart TV and provides dedicated hardware instead of using the TV's hardware. It never goes outdated (I'm actually using Roku's "streaming stick" that is around 7 years old) unlike the built-in apps in any major manufacturer's smart TV. We also have the Roku "Player" in the living room that is their best model, and the Roku "Express" in the garage which is the lowest performance unit available. Both work flawlessly and have great reception, even out in the garage. We have also bought Roku TVs for our bedroom and the kid's also, which is basically the Roku hardware integrated inside the TV and remote. They are all 4k, around 40", and usually less than $200. The brands aren't anything spectacular, but they all have great picture and performance. Here is further info on their models: https://www.roku.com/products/players

On the projector vs. TV debate, my big factor is how the room is put together. If you're in the process of building the room, or have easy access to the ceiling and possibly walls, I would seriously look into a projector and possibly in-speaker surround sound. The picture size and sound quality is pretty unrivaled but you're also at least $2k in it for the whole project unless you go with an HD instead of 4k projector (like I did). Huge smart TVs are soooo cheap now (like the one I checked on for you at Best Buy Chad, how is that even possible!) that usually it's easier just to buy a nice TV\mount for under $1k and be done with it.

As for the 8k vs. 4k, I'm not even looking at 8k for probably the next 5+ years due to pricing and lack of content to watch. I've been wanting a 4k projector for years, but even now I'm coming around to just being happy with the HD projector and waiting for it to croak. The mustang project has a lot to do with it, all my "play" funds seem to have dried up as soon as it parked in the garage

 

I understand that I can say take an old lap top and install supper fast processor and tera bite memory or use the devices you suggested. But for the sake of connecting and powering more devices and having more clutter with more wires I would want a new tv purchase to have the fast processors and large memory so as not to have any add on's. Been trying to find processor speed and memory specs on smart tv's and just can't find it. If the tv has a good fast processor and large memory apps can be accessed over the web conection and you would not be limited at all. My current TV's do not have an earthernet port for hard wireing. Just the thought of haveing a TV that I can also access the web and check e-mails without having to dig out my laptop or go to the desk top. If I did have a message I needed to respond to I could fire up my laptop or go to the desk top but most times that is not the case. I just check out sites like this and read a bit. I also read books on my kindle app on my laptop but would rather have that on a tv screen than setting on my lap. The Roku site did mention quad core processors but did not give speed numbers or memory size. I maybe asking for a TV to do more than they are capible of now. Or maybe they are out there some place. But really good information on the Roku stuff for folks who have the room and don't mind the additional wires and clutter.

 

You actually can't tell that there is a Roku attached to any of our TVs. There is zero wire or clutter since they are all mounted on the back of the TV and the wiring is all bundled up and out of sight, the Roku Player actually has an Ethernet port built in also. I can "cast" my windows 10 laptop to the Roku player by selecting the screen mirror option, shown here: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/roku-sc...view-3575.html

 

I can use a HDMI cable and conect to my tv but again the idea is not to have other devices running. So with the Ruku box behind the tv can you access the web and will it load this site so you can read posts with no other devices powered on?

 

The Roku would eliminate the need to connect the HDMI from your laptop to the TV, and instead "cast" the signal from your laptop to the Roku which would feed it through the Roku's HDMI output.

The Roku doesn't actually browse the web, it just projects what's on your laptop to the screen. This is assuming your laptop is running Windows 10, and has the built-in hardware to support casting. That I couldn't say for sure, and could be an issue so using your HDMI cable may be your better setup.

 

Both of my Roku boxes are wireless to the internet- and are voice activated (as I found out yesterday) Plus I downloaded an app on my phone to have a remote control on my phone. The phone app (which is free) also automatically found all my roku devices and can do the volume and power on all the tvs- too. It was a pretty cool discovery. I can stream anything from my phone to the tvs as well- and since my phone runs off the wifi at the house - no minutes being used (even though I have unlimited txt and everything anyway). So no more looking for remote. and when searching for a movie or looking for a video on you tube I can type it in my phone-- which is way better then the browser and using the remote to click on the letter a-- the letter b and so on. I noticed one of the tvs had a quad core intel processor it was bragging about-- so i bet it is pretty fast.

Wifey mad the decision that she doesn't want to spend over 500 for a tv or projector-- and she is not keen on projector- so it looks like a larger tv is in my future- I will set the Bose system up and hook it to the tv- so I will have decent sound. Now she is talking about moving walls and what not--- UGH.

 

this one maybe? https://www.fullcompass.com/prod/582...iABEgIXDvD_BwE

 

Looks great! Go ahead and throw one in for me too when you order

 

:-)--- Actuall I found a project (1080P) plus screen for $130 bucks-- So I might go that route. We'll see.

 

Nice! I hope it works out well for you

I will say, buyer beware on the cheaper no-name brand projectors. Our Epson HD projector at the bank was getting older and the speaker was wearing out, so we ordered this unit below since it was HD and had great reviews:


I will say that the no-name projector is not nearly the same high quality display as the nearly 10-year old Epson. The bulb brightness is noticeably dimmer, and the keystone can't be adjusted much at all so it's impossible to get a perfect "square" display unless the projector is pointed directly at the screen (which is impossible with nearly all home theatre mounting scenarios)

It's a crapshoot though trying to figure out what's good and what's not, good luck!