I feel like it used to be size, color, and clarity meant more expensive. Now I look at a 500$ 4k TV and a 2000$ 4k TV and I don’t know what the difference is. They can both be smart TVs, be the same size, and have a lot of same advertised features, but what are the subtle unspoken mysteries that justify a huge price gap?
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Mainly the color accuracy, how dark the darks are, and how bright the HDR is.
I used a $350 55" 4k TCL for five years though and it was great. I upgraded to an oled but I still have my TCL and it still looks good
I just went from a 4K 50in Hisense to a LG OLED and the difference is big imo
OLED just looks amazing
One thing to keep in mind is if you’re watching old DVD’s, pay for low-tier Netflix, or have low quality pirated content, the difference will be way less noticeable.
Blurays look 🔥
nits - overall brightness - hdr support, high refresh rates.
but. I recently got a samsung tu690T, $300ish w/ taxes! - 58" - 4k, plenty bright, good FOV… so I dunno man, I could have spent more to get a brighter set, but for the price I’m plenty happy.
Something not mentioned is that some of the cheap tvs don’t support the new dolby surround audio, that only really matters if you have a home theater.
How small the lights are in the back
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Edge-lit is just one big light, no dimming zones.
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Direct-lit are big squares of dimmable zones in the back
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Mini-led are small squares of dimmable zones, like Direct-lit but smaller
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Quantum-dot Led are even smaller squares of dimmable zones that are build-into the screen
And OLED is dimming at the pixel layer?
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aside from a lot of confoobly features and fancy internal speakers, the ability to set advanced color grading, and high-end built-in streaming features, etc., it mostly comes down to the manufacturing quality of the display and its heat resistance/dissipation. the better this is, the longer the LEDs will last and the longer your display element will last. cheap tv displays dissipate heat poorly, so the longer they’re left on at a time, the shorter their lifespan. cheap TVs may only last 2-5 years with heavy use.
Some TV’s are OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode). These tend to be more expensive, as manufacturers argue the technology has better black levels and contrast ratios (the range of brightness between the blackest black and whitest white the TV can produce). Personally, I don’t see that big of a difference between OLED and non-OLED. At least, not enough to justify spending $2000 on a TV. Hope this helps.
OLED is a massive upgrade. Each pixel is its own backlight instead of having an array of leds. So you get actual black, because there is no light there. The contrast and color is amazing.
But OLED is the new plasma. They don’t have burn in anymore, but if you don’t have it in a very dark room, the glare will make you go insane.
If you have a budget, buy an OLED.
If not, don’t look at one in person or you will feel sad .Terrible advice. If budget is a concern, then a TV with organic decay really isn’t what they should be looking at. That and with newer technologies like micro-LED, OLED is no longer the be all, end all it once was, especially when longevity isn’t a problem for these other technologies like with OLED.
Do we even need to pay attention to stuff like black level or color range anymore? I remember that being a big deal when HDTVs were newer, but now you can’t even find that information about new TVs.
In store, it’s hard to tell the difference. They run in a ”Store” / “Retail” mode that amps up the brightness and color saturation to a level that’s often unsustainable (it will damage the TV if you use it in this mode) and that doesn’t translate well to actual content because it’s too vivid.
If you’re interested in understanding more about modern TV technology / which TVs are best, I recommend checking out Rtings and HDTVTest (there’s a site, a channel on Youtube, a subreddit, etc). The former because the reviews are great; the latter because Vincent explains these things well. He talks about specific technologies like types of OLED panels, different LED technologies, different settings on TVs and what they mean, calibration, etc…
To answer your question, though: the more expensive technologies are what cost the most, and bigger versions (starting at 55”) also tend to cost more. Right now the best TVs you can buy are OLEDs - specifically, QD-OLEDs like the Sony A95L. A 55” is like $2500. By comparison, a traditional OLED (or “WOLED”) like the LG C3 is half the price - a 55” is $1300 - and nearly as good. (And a previous gen model, like the C2, will be even cheaper, if you can find one.)
branding. if you want a name brand (Sony, Samsung, LG, etc) you’re going to pay through the nose for it. the knockoff chinese brands that have weird, acronym or nonsense-sounding names are going to be able to offer a perfectly good “TV” experience for a fraction of the cost of a name brand TV
