A bit of a late comer, but it seemed a good time to upgrade. I bought a 32 inch Vizio HD smart TV at Best Buy to take advantage of their current sale. I looked at some bigger models and weighed prices of larger Non-smart TV and the size I got. My den is not big and the chairs we use for watching TV are less than 7 feet away, which made larger models look too close for my taste. I was not well informed about the smart TV features, but I relied on the BB salesman, who has advised me many time about what meets my needs/desires. One of the unexpected aspects is that it is WI-FI enabled and that was easy to set up on my home network. That opened up access to youtube, and I am amazed that it can be controlled by my android phone, which makes searches easier. The color is brighter and far more natural than most of the other models they had on display. Being able to look at them all at one time helped a lot.

One of my main reasons for jumping aboard was the recent upgrade to my cable package, which added all the sports channels, EPIX and HD for almost all the channels. Some how they saved me $50 a month because I had some kind of outdated package, that was more expensive for fewer channels.

Patton was the first movie I watched on it and it was outstanding, particularly with the audio now running through my old Panasonic Quad Stereo, which I bought in the '70's, with a kind gift from the estate of my godmother. It has a bass element that makes tank battles and youtube flybys awesome!

bragging mode off...

I sit about 8 feet away from my 65", and about 7 feet away from the 48" in the bedroom.
My first large screen was a 42" in 1985 or so?
LCDs are so much better than the projector cabinets that required 4 people to go up a flight of stairs...



The Jedi Master

DLP projectors weren't so bad, two guys could move a 50" without breaking a sweat.

Short lived technology, though.

Yeah, I had a 65" DLP between my 65" CRT projector (1080i, analog) and my 65" LED TV (3d 1080p). The bulbs sucked, nice bright picture when you got it, but the last few months getting pretty dim and useless in the daylight even with blinds drawn. Then one night...pop!...no picture. Hope you already had the spare!

It was easy to move, yes, lighter than a plasma even, and the picture was better than my old CRT rear projector, but it was obviously an interim technology that was surpassed by wall-mountable flat screens.



The Jedi Master

Congrats! Now go watch your favorite movies on blu-ray. That's what will REALLY show it off.

In college and just after I worked at a tv/appliance chain store. I don't miss those huge projection tv's from the 90's. We had to stack those things in the warehouse! Did our own loading for customers, unloaded the inventory trucks...I hated when those things came in. LOL

I bought a 40" Smart TV about a month ago. Built in WiFi was a breeze to set up. first thing was to sign up for Netflix. Never realized what I was missing.

I'm in the market for a TV right now.
I have a small 42" LCD Samsung right now....but I can see a dark shadow starting to form across the top of the screen.
It's going. But it's relatively old, about 8 years.

I was wondering if the LED's were better, I heard they last longer, no?

I don't want bigger, as we divided the living room, and sit about 8' away from the screen.
I want a HD picture, as good as it gets.

And I'd like it to last as long as possible, without problems.

Any suggestions?

I would look for the best price/best reviewed non-smart TV.
We hang on to TV's way longer then other gadgets so a non-smart TV matched with the streaming box/stick/gadget of your choice is a good option and then you can upgrade the gadget when needed.

You should have just got a Kloss Nova Beam projector and screen. Only draw back? The bulbs were about $120 if I remember right.

Agree with David.

The money charged extra for "Smart" features is usually crazy, and better spent on for example a Rasberry Pi or any other small streaming/internet gadget that connects via HDMI.

The new LED projection systems are pretty cute - they're
about the size of a large paperback. Just have to wait
for the LED output to double a couple more times, and
it'll be great. At the moment, you can get a 30" display
on your wall from a tablet...
Oh, yeah, and the illumination source lasts as long as
an LED.

One of the elderly ladies that my wife cares for bought herself a 42" Samsung smart TV she was telling my wife that you could surf the internet on it etc. but she didn't know how it worked so my wife asked me to find out...

First you need to get an internet connection, it won't work without it

She was a little disappointed about that!