Black Friday 2019

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Manabi, it's interesting that you say that, because one issue that I have is that my TV area requires that I sit reasonably close. That's why I want a relatively small screen.

If you have the opportunity to go see TVs in a store, try standing at about the distance you would be at home and see what you can see. I can tell you that I sit maybe 8-10 feet from my 24 inch tv and though I can read closed captioning set to its largest size, other things, like if a TV character is reading a note which is shown on screen, or onscreen menus for my Roku streaming stick, are tiny. Also credits at the end of a show are usually too small to see.

It's frustrating because in general the picture is big enough for what I need, it's just the text that's not. I bought the TV to fit in the cabinet I had for my previous TV. At some point I may have to give up and buy a bigger cabinet and a bigger TV.

[OtinG]

My 40" Sony Bravia is about 12 feet from where I sit and that is about the right size for me. Much bigger and I would have to turn my head from side to side to see everything. A 65" screen would be way too big for me. Much smaller than 40" and my old eyes would start to have trouble focusing on the text, although I really don’t care to read the million and one ways in which a pharmaceutical or modern day "snake oil" concoction can turn me into a zombie or worse. I would pay big money for a Big Pharma and Snake Oil advertisement blocking feature though!

I'm glad my Sony Bravia is still working great even though I bought it in 2008. It doesn't have any of the modern features like smart TV apps, WiFi, BT, or even a USB port, and definitely no 4K just 1080, but the picture blows away pretty much all of those new cheap sets I’ve seen. You do get what you pay for and I paid a king's ransom for my Bravia 11 years ago, but it still works all these years later. I’ve got a cheap 26" Vizio in my study and it is okay for occasional viewing but its smart TV apps are long since way out dated as most never get updated by Vizio, and I prefer to hookup a Fire TV dongle and Roku dongle to using the built in smart TV features. Personally, I think all that smart TV stuff is mostly gimmicky and I do better with plug-in Fire TVs and Rokus. The set top boxes and dongles can be upgraded to better models in years to come, but you are pretty much stuck with the processors/RAM/etc. that came on the smart TV, so if it sucks now with apps it will suck even worse in the future. But to each there own of course.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by OtinG

M
Personally, I think all that smart TV stuff is mostly gimmicky and I do better with plug-in Fire TVs and Rokus. The set top boxes and dongles can be upgraded to better models in years to come, but you are pretty much stuck with the processors/RAM/etc. that came on the smart TV, so if it sucks now with apps it will suck even worse in the future. But to each there own of course.

I figure TV manufacturers would be unlikely to support a smart TV with software updates very far into the future and I don't want to buy a new TV every few years. Easier just to get a basic TV and attach a Roku and/or Chromecast and/or Fire as you prefer.

[ApK]

My rationale for all my Roku TVs is that
1. They have proven to get updates and stay supported longer than many Roku stand-alone devices, so it appears they build in at least a little future-proofing capacity to the RokuTVs.

2. Assuming the displays themselves last longer than the support of the built-in smart features (sadly, by no means a certainly in the era of unrepairable , disposable goods) I could always plug in a new device and forget about the built-in stuff.

3. The Roku feature tends to only add a couple of bucks to the price of set, and when there's a sale, they could be even less, so why not. it's one less device, cable, power supply and remote to deal with. At least for a while.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

And we had to walk across the room to the TV to change the channel. Between one of the broadcast networks because there was no cable. (of course I still don't have cable, but that's by choice)

Where I live you got two channels (CBS and NBC) until the late "70s. If you wanted ABC you had to get a UHF antenna. And they usually went off air around 2:00AM. I originally ditched cable for Satellite. Now I just stream. It is amazing that there is more content available than I can possibly watch and I am not paying for all the infomercial channels I never wanted.
Apache

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ApK

My rationale for all my Roku TVs is that
1. They have proven to get updates and stay supported longer than many Roku stand-alone devices, so it appears they build in at least a little future-proofing capacity to the RokuTVs.

2. Assuming the displays themselves last longer than the support of the built-in smart features (sadly, by no means a certainly in the era of unrepairable , disposable goods) I could always plug in a new device and forget about the built-in stuff.

3. The Roku feature tends to only add a couple of bucks to the price of set, and when there's a sale, they could be even less, so why not. it's one less device, cable, power supply and remote to deal with. At least for a while.

I have two Roku TVs and am quite pleased. I buy low-end (32" 720p $98 and 43" 4K $200) so upgrades after X years aren't painful.

[j.p.s]

Do Roku devices have to be "activated" in order to work?

(Not looking for a debate or polemic on the merits of required activation, just an answer to the above question.)

[Apache]

You sign up for a free Roku account and can have as many devices and TV's on it as you want.
Apache

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Apache

You sign up for a free Roku account and can have as many devices and TV's on it as you want.
Apache

Thanks.

What happens or does not happen if I buy a Roku or Rokus and do not sign up for a Roku account?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by ApK

3. The Roku feature tends to only add a couple of bucks to the price of set, and when there's a sale, they could be even less, so why not. it's one less device, cable, power supply and remote to deal with. At least for a while.

Roku TVs actually seem cheaper than regular TVs probably because Roku collects data of viewing habits for ad revenue.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Roku TVs actually seem cheaper than regular TVs probably because Roku collects data of viewing habits for ad revenue.

It would sound less paranoid/tin-foil-hatty if you just said "because they make more money from ads than hardware" and would be even more true.

Not that they don't collect data (they do, just like every other connected ad supported product), but it's pretty irrelevant to the point.

[OtinG]

I suspect many of the cheap smart TVs will self destruct in a few years. I prefer to buy a good TV like a Sony and have it last 10 to 15 years. Those cheapies often look like cheapies, and if I have to replace them every few years then I’m really not saving much, if any, money in the long term. Heck my 2008 Sony Bravia was from an era when streaming was rare. Not sure when it became a thing and when Roku and Fire TV and Apple TV came around, but I think it was after 2008. A cheap $99 smart TV might last a few years, or it might be low quality from day one. My first smart devices were DVD/Blu-ray players, and the apps on those were pretty much garbage. The Amazon Prime app on my cheap Visio TV never was any good. I got super low resolution from it, and the TV’s microprocessor is too darn slow to use apps anyway. It looks pretty good with inexpensive Fire TV stick and Roku stick. Much better than using the included apps. So my philosophy is buy a really good TV that will out last the current trends in entertainment, and upgrade the external devices as they improve and change.

Streaming is now what I do. I have subscriptions to Philo TV, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu (on demand only), CuriousityStream (only $12/year), as well as having access to 80 OTA channels and free channels like Pluto TV streaming. I don’t watch much sports or news channels so no need for those expensive plans.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Well, if someone can suggest another 40% off discounted to $180, I'd be happy to consider it.

My TV is a Panasonic CRT from 1982! That's how much I watch television.

That's about the same as mine, GA. I have a 13" CRT--don't remember what brand. I have a 21" or so flat screen boxed up. My remote control with the 13" consisted of telling someone to get up off of the couch and change the channel. I've used the cable only for Internet.

This from the guy who sold the first plasma TV in this 25,000 population town, quite a few years ago now (how do I know? There were no other stores in town which sold them at the time!).

I've tried to give away the 13" TV to some charities around here--none of them will accept them, because no one will buy them in their thrift stores, and none of the "poor" people in town that they serve will accept them, even for free! I had resigned myself to leaving it at the curb (someone will almost always take something left at the curb).

A lady on FreeCycle wrote that she has three daughters, and that she needed three TV's _desperately_ (her words). I wrote her back nearly immediately, telling her that I'd give her the 13" inch TV, and I'd throw in the necessary digital converter and a nice set-top antenna for it, for free. _And_, I'd deliver it to her (she lives in a small city about 45 minutes away). I never heard from--she must not have been desperate enough to take that dinosaur.

Thankfully, through FreeCycle also, a lady said that she would accept it--I just need to take it to her house in that same small city about 45 miles away (with FreeCycle, the recipient is supposed to take care of picking things up from the donor!). I hate destroying perfectly good things, so I told her that I'd take it to her.

Every morning, when I get up out of bed, the first thing that I do is see if someone has written "SUCKER," in magic marker, across my face during the night.

As you can imagine, I have zero, zilch, nada interests in Echo's, Alexa's, advanced Kindle's (mine probably is the _original_ model--it does what I want it to do, just fine, so why change it, I reason).

I feel like I just gave an Andy Rooney monologue . . . .

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I've tried to give away the 13" TV to some charities around here--none of them will accept them, because no one will buy them and none of the "poor" people in town that they serve will accept them, even for free! I had resigned myself to leaving it at the curb (someone will almost always take something left at the curb).

You'd have to look online to find them, but there are people who prefer CRTs, for arcade game cabinets and fighting games played on consoles in particular. Fighting game pros greatly prefer them, I believe because they have higher refresh rates. 13" is probably a good size for them, since they need to tote them to tournaments sometimes.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by ApK

It would sound less paranoid/tin-foil-hatty if you just said "because they make more money from ads than hardware" and would be even more true.

Not they don't collect data (they do, just like every other connected ad supported product), but it's pretty irrelevant to the point.

That's pretty much what I meant to say (albeit being in the dental chair wasn't really firing on all cylinders).

Didn't mean to sound tin-foil-hatty. I'm an early adopter of Roku and Netflix streaming and just recently upgraded from a Gen 1 Roku to the Roku Premiere HD. Couldn't justify replacing the TVs. They all still work perfectly fine and the Plasma has better colors and deeper blacks than low end LCDs.