55" Samsung for $498 - Is there a catch?

teejayevans said:
You need to get the soundbar too, definitely worth it.
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Which Atmos sound bar? I'm stuck between the LG and Sony!

LG has the benefit of additional wireless speakers. While the Sony is 7.1.2 with additional Atmos drivers.
 
Thanks for all the replies - we’ll probably pick one up soon. Our Vizio will then head to our pole barn!

We currently just use 3 HDMI ports. AppleTV, Chromecast and DVD player, the latter two only rare used.

I was just surprised at the price - when we last shopped a similar Samsung was about $1,200 or a bit more. I knew they were dropping in price, but I was expecting maybe $698 or so.

And, truth be told, at the distance we watch, the 47” is fine. 55” will be nice, but no real necessity to go larger than that.

As an aside, we are quite happy with a Vizio soundbar that cost about $230, IIRC. The rear channels and subwoofer are wireless, and the subwoofer’s bass can virtually shake the whole house!
 
Pulled the trigger today. From Walmart.

The plan is to wait to set it up until after the holidays. That way if we do see a lower price we can return it and score one at that lower price.

Thanks again for the input, and I’ll give a pirep once I get it set up.
 
Got the new Samsung set up yesterday. Some of the setup was a little clunky, but I got the AppleTV, BluRay and Chromecast all sorted out to the 3 HDMI ports.

SO many fewer cables than my original big screen TV - that one had a whole bundle of audio and visual cables running up to it, literally about the size of my wrist. Now its just power, the 2 HDMI cables and optical out to our Vizio soundbar. The Chromecast is powered from a USB bus on the TV.

The included base was way too wide for our mantle, so I screwed the TV mount onto a board and put rubber feet on it. It's just over 30" tall all told, and will fit our space with a couple inches to spare. Karen's not feeling well, and while the TV was light enough to easily get up on the dining room table, getting it above chest height will take some help. Once in place I'll paint the board black, of course.

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The picture is spectacular. The sharpness really makes things "pop", at times almost 3D. I have the last generation AppleTV, so no 4K source yet.

Not sure of the resolution, but here's an unretouched still taken with my iPhone of another of the AppleTV screensavers:

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I'm sure it loses something between the iPhone and Flickr, but in person its quite immersive.

Needless to say, quite pleased with the purchase so far!
 
FastEddieB said:
The picture is spectacular. The sharpness really makes things "pop", at times almost 3D. I have the last generation AppleTV, so no 4K source yet.
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Try the youtube app. Plenty of 4k there although it isn't mainstream stuff.
 
flhrci said:
Try the youtube app. Plenty of 4k there although it isn't mainstream stuff.
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I'm fuzzy on that - can either the AppleTV or the Chromecast output 4k content? I thought they could not.

Will probably get a new 4K AppleTV soon, and relegate the old one to the new property - every pole barn needs one!
 
My boss got a 4K TV and broke his ONE TERRABYTE cap on his cable in the first month. LOL.

Oh, and to answer the OPs question...

The catch is, you have to watch the crap the entertainment industry puts out, or watch YouTube now with an ad per every minute... or soon, anyway. LOL.
 
FastEddieB said:
I'm fuzzy on that - can either the AppleTV or the Chromecast output 4k content? I thought they could not.
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Requires Apple TV4K or Chromecast Ultra. Either of those boxes will output 4K

YouTube search 4K brings up a lot of content that is spectacular.
 
denverpilot said:
The catch is, you have to watch the crap the entertainment industry puts out...
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Different perspective here: we have TOO MUCH quality content from which to choose.

Binge-watched “Humans” on Amazon Prime and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on Hulu via a free month of HBO. Then there’s “Black Mirror” and “Stranger Things” and virtually unlimited documentaries on Netflix. From the traditional networks, “This Is Us” and “Life In Pieces” and “The Good Place”. And so much more, depending on your tastes.

When we sit down to watch, there’s never a time we don’t have something good to put on.
 
FastEddieB said:
I'm fuzzy on that - can either the AppleTV or the Chromecast output 4k content? I thought they could not.

Will probably get a new 4K AppleTV soon, and relegate the old one to the new property - every pole barn needs one!
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Samsung's generally have apps installed on them. If your's does not then we have discovered why yours was so cheap.
 
denverpilot said:
My boss got a 4K TV and broke his ONE TERRABYTE cap on his cable in the first month. LOL.

Oh, and to answer the OPs question...

The catch is, you have to watch the crap the entertainment industry puts out, or watch YouTube now with an ad per every minute... or soon, anyway. LOL.
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Dang, he has a data cap? No data cap here with Spectrum.
 
flhrci said:
Samsung's generally have apps installed on them. If your's does not then we have discovered why yours was so cheap.
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Lots of apps, though most duplicate what we have on our AppleTV, so we usually stick with that.

So...

...if we look up 4K content on the YouTube app on the Samsung, it will display as 4K?

We have 40mbps coming in via cable.
 
Yeah, we're certainly in a golden era of television -
flhrci said:
Samsung's generally have apps installed on them. If your's does not then we have discovered why yours was so cheap.
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The problem with Smart TV apps is that the interface is slow and generally pretty terrible (at least in Sony or Samsung's case, where I have experience). A Roku or Apple TV is a million times better in this regard.
 
Does anyone know if there is a limit, ie what the resolution of the human eye is?
 
teejayevans said:
Does anyone know if there is a limit, ie what the resolution of the human eye is?
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Not sure about the actual answer to your question, but my 55" 4K TV sits roughly 8 feet from the couch, and I'm not sure I can tell the difference between 4K and 1080p. It's certainly nothing like the difference between 720 and 1080. I'm usually a sucker for having the best resolution possible when watching content, and in this case I've been kind of 'meh' about it.
 
I found some really nice 4K demo videos on YouTube. One really nice one by LG.

“4K Ultra HD Video with relaxation music for oled tv” by 4kEye

Assuming I am seeing them in 4K using the Samsung app and HD via the AppleTV, if anything there’s a tiny difference on a 55” viewed from about 6’ away. They both look damned good. Maybe a bit more “crispness” to the detail in 4K, but either would be fine for casual, or even critical viewing. I think it’s very close to the limits of human visual acuity, and certainly my 68 year old eyes!
 
I got the 65" Samsung this morning at best buy on sale for $849.... We have a tiny little crappy TV in the living room. We have been needing to upgrade for a number of years. I usually don't watch TV but my wife does. I may get 2 hours of TV per month and its always Discovery ID :)
"Wives with Knives"
 
FastEddieB said:
Different perspective here: we have TOO MUCH quality content from which to choose.

Binge-watched “Humans” on Amazon Prime and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on Hulu via a free month of HBO. Then there’s “Black Mirror” and “Stranger Things” and virtually unlimited documentaries on Netflix. From the traditional networks, “This Is Us” and “Life In Pieces” and “The Good Place”. And so much more, depending on your tastes.

When we sit down to watch, there’s never a time we don’t have something good to put on.
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Very different. Most of that is utter crap. LOL.

I can think of all sorts of things I’d rather be doing that watching any of that. And a bunch of things I would not rather do that would still be less of a waste of time. :)

And I definitely don’t need to see any of it in 4K. Hahaha.

But lots of things float lots of people’s boats. Enjoy!
 
FastEddieB said:
Sorry our tastes are so pedestrian.

Kind of like normal people, I suppose! :p
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No, I’d say your tastes are fine. I just wouldn’t have TV in my house at all if it weren’t for my wife. Just zero interest in people acting like they’re doing stuff for cameras. Most of what I watch on YT or wherever I can find it is people actually doing stuff.
 
SaltH2OHokie said:
Get the exact model number. If you can only find it for sale at Walmart, it's likely a spec just for them. If you find it elsewhere, it's likely a standard model. Walmart moves a ton of volume. They have pricing leverage others don't. But they also have the leverage to get stuff built to their spec if they choose.
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Now and next few weeks are the biggest time of the year for TV sales... right before the Super Bowl..
 
You can search 4K on netflix and Amazon and get lots of content that is amazing.
I bought a 4k 65 inch LG last month and it is unreal compared to the 10 yr old DLP TV that finally died.

It is quite mezmorizing
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
You can search 4K on netflix and Amazon and get lots of content that is amazing.
I bought a 4k 65 inch LG last month and it is unreal compared to the 10 yr old DLP TV that finally died.

It is quite mezmorizing
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A couple er three years ago I replaced a 10ish yr old DLP with a 1080I/P. A cheapy by Sharp. It was impressive even though the green was off a bit. Fast forward two years of updating the firmware. They finally got the color balance right so I don't have to manually adjust it. Now the Sharp is as good as the smaller Hitachi I bought last year. It's nice that the linux based LED TVs can be fixed through software.
 
Whoever wants to buy me an 8000 series Samsung 4K, I will PM you my address. :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Finally got it lifted onto the mantle:

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Truth be told, with the smaller bezels, it looks like a 60" or even a 65" might fit up there in the future, depending on the base required.

But we're very pleased so far with the 55". The main improvement is in the contrast, mainly the blackness of the blacks. On the Vizio, when credits rolled you could see the pixels being lighted from the edges. On the Samsung, the blacks stay really black. It is discernibly sharper, but at the distances we watch and the content we're watching, that improvement is fairly minor. Maybe with more 4k content becoming available, that may change in the future, but merely the jump to 4k would not be worth it, IMHO.
 
FastEddieB said:
Finally got it lifted onto the mantle:

Truth be told, with the smaller bezels, it looks like a 60" or even a 65" might fit up there in the future, depending on the base required.

But we're very pleased so far with the 55". The main improvement is in the contrast, mainly the blackness of the blacks. On the Vizio, when credits rolled you could see the pixels being lighted from the edges. On the Samsung, the blacks stay really black. It is discernibly sharper, but at the distances we watch and the content we're watching, that improvement is fairly minor. Maybe with more 4k content becoming available, that may change in the future, but merely the jump to 4k would not be worth it, IMHO.
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Your homemade stand looks like it belongs there. Looks nice!
 
In case anyone lives near one and wants an nearly identical deal, I think even in fact the same TV... Microcenter in-store only, $499. Just sharing...
 
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