Looking for TV recommendation

by Albert_kk96

Hi! So, I finally got my own place and am looking to buying a new TV - however I'm currently weighting two options.

  1. Buying a TV and an Android TV device separately. (NVIDIA shield maybe because I have a PC with NVIDIA gpu)
  2. Buying a TV with Android TV built in.

My concerns with the second option are the future update for the TV as I read some manufacturers not pushing out the update and also the general fluidity of the OS because I've seen some horrible ones :/ but I get why people would prefer one with built in Android TV to make things neater.

As for my budget I am looking at below $1k AUD and would really love to jump on board the 4k hypetrain and a good picture quality is high on my priority list.

Hoping to hear recommendations from fellow Redditors, cheers :)

Edit 1: would really appreciate if someone could link me to the particular TV model recommended

alaninsitges

Don't worry about smart TV features, most sets have them these days. They all pretty much suck: underpowered processors, buggy implementations, poor or nonexistent updates. Note that in many cases more expensive/extra features don't yield a better picture quality.

Buy the picture quality and size you want and then get a Shield. Your TV's remote will control it over HDMI-CEC and you don't even need to know it's not built in.

And whatever you do, stay far the fuck away from anything that says Philips on the front. Those TVs are literally worse than cancer.

npaladin2000

If you get a TV running Roku or AndroidTV, then that's probably fine. They'll stay up to date, and you can probably skip an external device unless you want the extras that come with one (such as a SHIELD's gaming and PLEX server capability) A Vizio SmartCast is essentially a Chromecast, that'll also stay up-to-date but not everyone is into using a phone or tablet to cast from.

Samsung and LG TVs run a custom platform (Tizen and WebOS). For now they have the popularity to be kept up-to-date but who knows how long they'll stick it out versus adopting Android or Roku (or making a deal with Amazon). Once their support stops you'll need an external device.

If it's some other custom app platform, ignore it and buy an external device.

TL;DR: It's best to stick with a standard OS that people are developing for.

MNTwins420

Get one of the Sony 4K tv's, they're awesome!

Claustrophobopolis

I bought a Sony 49XD8005 (49X800D in the USA) a couple of weeks back in Europe. I was in the same dilemma as you thinking about whether I will have to get a shield for game streaming.

It's AndroidTV works great. Its got Kodi v17, Twitch, Plex, Netflix and Googlecast all pre-installed. Those are just a few of the things i've had time to check out. For game streaming I've found someone recommending a free app called Moonlight streaming. It works well and all you need is to turn on the stream from your PC's Geforce Experience menu. I will need to tweak it next time since i had problems with 'double mouse icon'.

I was looking for a 40" or 43" but for HDR/4K you really need 50" or above, so I got a 49"er.

I think this is a Aussie equivalent - http://store.sony.com.au/KD49X8000D.html#product-specifications

I also looked at other brands including HiSense, but in my budget the best image quality (HD movies, sports etc) was from the Sonys (8000 series) or Samsungs (6000 series). The AndroidTV OS (Sonys) has a better chance of future updates and is more open than Sammy's Tizen OS.

SticklerX

Dumb TV, always. You'll have the monitor much longer than the current OS. Spending 100—200 to completely upgrade makes more sense than spending another 1000. Smart TVs do not age well.