2nd hand old TV advice - what to buy

• 

  Alex on 02/05/2022 - 08:05

  +2

  A few points, in order:

  • Buy a TV made by Samsung, LG, Panasonic or Sony. Cheaper brands are great value, and the panels are generally identical to (and manufactured by) the bigger brands, but they’re often let down on software, updates and support. With cheaper brands, I’ve seen remotes fail a lot, and they’re hard to replace, issues with HDR, audio, menus not working in apps, etc.

  • Aim for a relatively recent model. TVs generate a little bit of heat, and heat damages components over time. An older TV is more likely to fail sooner. I’d consider buying new, given current pricing. Can you genuinely get a better deal secondhand? Why are they selling the TV?

  • Buy the biggest size you can justify. I used to sell TVs, and I often had customers who were adamant they wanted a 40 (or even 55) inch, who came back and said they wished they’d bought bigger. I literally never had someone tell me they wished they’d bought a smaller TV.

  • In terms of picture quality, OLED is best, but older panels are more prone to burn-in. Most people selling a TV would be upgrading to OLED, and a secondhand TV might be on the market because there’s already some burn-in, and the owner wants a bit of a return. New (2020-on) models have lots of smart features to prevent it. QLED is next best - they’re standard LEDs that allow better lights and colours. LED third, but still totally fine. They get a bit less bright, and HDR won’t be as accurately reproduced, but it’ll look fine.

  • Refresh rate doesn’t overly matter to you - 120Hz is a feature on newer (2020-on) panels with new HDMI ports. Older TVs often claim to be 100Hz, 200Hz, etc., with terms like “Motionflow”, “Motion Plus”, etc.. They use interpolation (smart-ish software to smooth motion). Higher-end models tend to do that better, but they’re different things.

  • Make sure you google the model. Seriously. People will often post an ad with words like “I bought this two years ago”, but the model is ten years old. If the TV is 1080p, has 3D, “isn’t smart but Chromecast works great”, etc., probably don’t buy it.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 28/04/2022 - 15:38

  +1

  For what you're wanting to use it for you don't need 100hz, your Disney and Netflix will run at 24 to 60hz and the PS4 tops out at 60hz (60 frames per second). It won't hurt you to have a 100hz or 120hz screen, but in your case you don't need it.

  By high contrast I guess you're talking about HDR (High Dynamic Range)? A good tv with HDR makes a world of difference, it increases the peak brightness so lights will jump off the screen at you and can really improve the overall picture quality, but you need a decent model as cheaper models don't have enough nits (a unit of brightness), you need a good 700 - 1000 nits but many lower end models only have a third that number or less which makes HDR all but useless. 1080p televisions with HDR are few and far between you'll find it mostly on 4k sets.

  Use this site https://www.rtings.com/ to look up the model of television once you've found something you're interested in and see a review of it, just be aware that some brands and models are exclusive to Oceania so won't be on their site.

  Personally I'd go for a 2nd hand 4k model from no earlier than 2018, it's where you're going to get the best HDR performance vs price and even from a few meters away you're still going to notice a difference in picture quality vs a 1080p screen. The reason I say no earlier than 2018 is because one of the issues with older and cheaper led and lcd televisions is how they handle motion, say a cricket ball flying through the air for example, on cheaper or older screens it can look jerky and not one continuous fluid motion as it flies through its arc, and that kind of thing can be very distracting when every wide panning shot you watch in a film looks that way.

  Another consideration is that the panel the tv uses will affect the viewing angles, this is usually covered in reviews. Also some tv's handle bright lights and reflections on their screens better than others, again these are usually covered in reviews.

  I'd also recommend getting a tv from one of the big names, LG, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and stay away from the budget brands like Veon, Hisense, Dick Smith/Kogan, Konka, these budget tv's aren't bad per se they get the job done and that's about it really, they're cheap for a reason and that's all I'm going to say. Stay away from TCL they're overpriced budget trash trying to con people into thinking they're more premium than they actually are.

  It comes down to how much you're wanting to spend as well, I just looked on Trade Me and there are some decent tv's on there for $1500 or less, there's a 2018 65" 4k Samsung QLED smart tv on there for $1100 which retailed for $2400usd back in 2018 and would still be a very good television today.

• 

  Japo32 on 28/04/2022 - 12:06

  my 2 cents,

  • look for LED or possibly OLED (better). not lcd, plasma. -> LED consumes less power. OLED has better colors than LED
  • do you NEED 60"? we get by with our 43" at about 3m away. -> larger TV = more power consumption
  • get a TV with the magic cursor which looks like a mouse cursor. much easier to navigate than mashing directional buttons
  • check that it has the ports you need for the devices you plan to connect.
• 

  nzmax on 28/04/2022 - 19:28

  What is the minimum size you would want, as many people get rid of old smaller LCDs on trademe. Personally I find sony to be reliable. The problem with second hand is going to be LCD panel damage.

• 

  quebec on 30/04/2022 - 07:07

  If you want really good picture buy a used LG OLED with no burn in. What’s your budget?

• 

  umakant on 30/04/2022 - 19:38

  I got all my i think 6 TVs one in kitchen one in lounge + bedrooms from facebook market place and one from trademe about 42 inch 32 inch and 24 inch all are connected with Chromecast and i have placed Google assistant every where in my house .

  Buy a good 2nd hand tv will be say 80 to 200 nzd 1080 p size 32 to 43 inch some odd even bigger screen . I don't like veon brand they are not that good

  Lg samsung Panasonic 2nd hand 1080 are very easy to find

  I also got some cheap wall mount new do not suggest you to get 2nd hand wall mount from pb tech they give good movements to the screen
  Like 25 to 40 $ each

• 

  justaddwater on 28/04/2022 - 16:17

  -3

  buy a soundbar or better, a surround system with physically separate speakers

  buy OLED or cheapie tv depending on budget(all OLED panels made by LG, all cheapie tv probably made in the same factory too). OLED will burn in from the HUD overlay of your games

  QLED is a meme, dont buy

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 29/04/2022 - 00:36

    How is quantum dot technology a meme when it produces better colors and therefore better overall picture quality than led displays with no quantum dot layer?

  • 

    Foodie on 30/04/2022 - 10:47

    If this is the case, will QD OLED screens be a meme over OLED?

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 30/04/2022 - 16:40

      +2

      I think the person is just talking out of a hole in their head, probably saw someone say something similar that got some upvotes from dumb dumbs on a social media site and decided to parrot what they said. Their lack of any response to back up their statement pretty much proves this.

    • 

      justaddwater on 30/04/2022 - 18:07

      I haven't seen qd oled, but I wouldn't buy qled over oled from what I have seen

      • 

        Foodie on 30/04/2022 - 19:25

        Of course not, they are completely different technologies… they are not in the same price range

        • 

          [Deactivated] on 30/04/2022 - 19:44

          @Foodie: My 55" QN90A QLED retails for the same as a 55" LG C1 OLED.

          The only real difference between my QLED and the LG OLED is that bright images on dark backgrounds have a bit of blooming around them, but I only notice it when I'm using it as a monitor I don't notice it for watching movies or gaming. The reason I got the QLED was because this model can produce deep blacks to rival OLED screens and also because I wanted to use it for a computer monitor that will have static images on it for extended periods and I wanted a QLED screen so I didn't have to worry about potential image retention or burn in.

          • 

            Foodie on 30/04/2022 - 22:28

            @[Deactivated]: I thought OLEDs could literally turn off their pixels for blacks? Is it light bleeding that causes the blooming?

            I'm still rocking my panasonic plasma from 18 years ago.. so I have no real world experiences with OLED.

            • 

              [Deactivated] on 30/04/2022 - 23:38

              @Foodie: It's the QLED that I'm talking about with some blooming, not OLED, I don't own an OLED.

  • 

    ace310 on 30/04/2022 - 16:17

    Would love your thoughts on qled as meme as well. Been using qled for 2+ years and recommended to family and friends and all are pretty happy with it.

    • 

      justaddwater on 30/04/2022 - 18:09

      I just like the black of oled

      Mind you, I like watching tv with the brightness turned down

      Also OP consider tv with local dimming
      https://www.rtings.com/monitor/tests/picture-quality/local-d…

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 30/04/2022 - 19:45

        You recommended that OP buy an OLED or "cheapie" tv in your previous comment, you do realize that OLEDs don't have local dimming and neither do budget televisions?

        • 

          ace310 on 30/04/2022 - 20:31

          @[Deactivated]: Oleds don't require local dimming as they are self lit. Though they are not cheapie tv what OP is looking at.

          • 

            [Deactivated] on 30/04/2022 - 20:37

            @ace310: I know, that's why I said they don't have it dude.

            • 

              ace310 on 01/05/2022 - 04:08

              @[Deactivated]: Oops, meant to reply one comment above…