lg lcd screen replacement tv brands

Now, let’s talk about the LG 65″ Class TV model 65UN6950ZUA, the price of this TV in the store is $568. The cost of the screen itself is $651.28 + tax + $190 installation = Not worth it.

Besides aesthetic changes, LG"s webOS hasn"t changed much over the years, which is good. A few years ago, it was, by and large, the best solution. While competition has tightened up since then, incremental and polishing updates allowed it to remain at the top. LG updated the platform in 2021 to include a full home page instead of the banner found in past models.

WebOS has one glaring issue: the inclusion of advertising sprinkled around the operating system. While we"ve yet to see them on the main screen, they"re just about everywhere else. Voice search, app store, and web browser; all will sometimes show ads in their user interface. The worst is that there isn"t a good way to disable them from within the TV itself.

The LG content store delivers just about every app one would look for on a smart TV and offers direct rental of films. Essentials like Netflix, Amazon Video, and YouTube are all installed by default, but the range is continuously expanding. Overall, LG TVs have one of the widest selections of apps available on any smart platform.

WebOS TVs that come with LG"s Magic Remote have voice control. The manufacturer redesigned the remote in 2021, but it has the same functionality as in past years. There"s a big microphone button in the center of the remote that, once pressed, prompts the search interface. It helps search for content since it goes through most of your apps and allows you to even search for actors. Unfortunately, it doesn"t have very in-depth control of the settings, like what you find on Samsung TVs, so you can"t adjust the brightness without leaving what you"re watching. The only thing you can"t do is turn the TV off and adjust the volume.

Starting in 2018, WebOS 4.0 added a new voice control processor with ThinQ AI. The system can perform advanced searches similar to Siri on Apple TV. It can identify actors, search for sports scores, and even find pictures in your favorite cloud service based on keywords. It can also communicate with a multitude of smart home-connected devices, including lights and thermostats. Newer LG TVs can also interact with Google Home or Amazon Alexa-connected personal assistants.

LG’s magic remote found on higher-end models offers motion-controlled point-and-click functionality, which makes navigating menus a lot simpler. It isn"t the smallest remote we"ve seen, but it"s nicely sculpted and very comfortable to hold.

There are many more buttons on this remote than on Samsung’s, but they"re clearly labeled and make it quicker to pick up the remote and use it – no tutorial or manual required. Some lower-end versions come with this Magic Remote, but the entry-level models have a basic remote without voice control, like the remote on the LG UN7000.

LG’s remote app, called LG TV Plus, offers quick access to most of the controls and is compatible with all LG smart TVs. It isn"t as advanced as some other remote apps, but it does stream content from your phone or tablet to the TV. It can launch apps and change inputs directly without using a navigation button to navigate the on-screen menus.

There aren"t many issues with LG webOS. The previous version had some performance issues, with occasional hiccups and frequent dropped frames in animations. For the most part, these issues have been fixed, and the latest version performs extremely well, but the interface can still hang sometimes.

To properly experience our LG.com website, you will need to use an alternate browser or upgrade to a newer version of internet Explorer (IE10 or greater).

The LG.com website utilizes responsive design to provide convenient experience that conforms to your devices screen size. In order to get the best possible experience our LG.COM website please follow below instructions. If you’re using Internet Explorer 9 or earlier, you will need to use an alternate browser such as Firefox or Chrome or upgrade to a newer version of internet Explorer (IE10 or greater).

Because life waits for no one, at LG USA we create consumer electronics, appliances and mobile devices that are designed to help you connect with those who matter most. Whether that means cooking a nutritious, delicious meal for your family, staying connected on-the-go, sharing your favorite photos, watching a movie with your kids or creating a clean, comfortable place to celebrate the moments that matter, we"ll be there for you every step of the way.

Designed with you in mind, LG products offer innovative solutions to make life good. With intuitive, responsive controls, sleek, stylish designs, and eco-friendly features, our collection gives you the power to do more at home and on the go. It includes:

Explore our complete collection of LG electronics, mobile devices, appliances and home entertainment solutions -- and find everything you need to connes and family, no matter where they are.ct with your friend

If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your old TV, you’ve got plenty of options. In fact, most TV brands on the market offer a number of impressive models with cutting-edge picture technology, incredible smart features, and myriad connections for all of your AV equipment. But when it comes time to buy, is there one brand that stands above the rest?

Let’s examine all the TV makers worth looking at, and why big brands like Samsung and LG are so good at what they do. And whether you’re looking for the absolute best TVs on the market, the best TVs under $500, or something in the Goldilocks Zone like the best TVs under $1,000, you don’t want to waste your time. We’ve put together a guide to all the best TV brands of 2022, so when the time comes to upgrade, you’ll know where to start your search.

Note: Televisions chosen for this list are representative of makes and models available in the U.S. market. Further, TVs included in this guide were chosen primarily for their picture performance, with other considerations such as operating system or audio performance as secondary considerations.

South Korea’s Samsung is the de facto market leader in the world television space, leading competitors like LG and Sony by a wide margin in terms of overall sales. That’s partly a result of the company’s size (Samsung ranks 18th on the Fortune 500), but mostly it’s because Samsung makes great TVs with a focus on accessibility.

Technically, it’s called Samsung Smart TV Powered by Tizen, but let’s just go with Tizen. Like  Samsung’s best smartwatches, the company’s TVs run on a Tizen-powered user interface called Eden 2.0. For clarity, we’ll refer to it as Tizen, the UI’s building blocks.

Tizen places all your apps in a row along the bottom of the Smart Hub (read: home screen). It’s got all the popular streaming apps as part of a 2,000-plus app library, and it has a neat feature that activates when you select an app, showing you popular sub-categories (like Netflix shows or Spotify playlists) for that app. There’s also a Tizen Gaming Hub which supports Google’s Stadia platform, Xbox, and GeForce Now for streaming games.

Perhaps most impressive is how Tizen works with the Samsung app family, including SmartThings, Smart Connect, and Smart View. You can use those to mirror content from your phone — even iPhones — to your TV or send TV playback directly to your phone (only on Samsung phones). If you’ve got compatible smart home devices, you also can use the TV as a control hub.

Also, Samsung’s newer models — QLED and otherwise — offer some cool features like importing app logins from your phone to save time, and the Samsung One Connect box, built to simplify messy cable nests behind TVs (and to enable cleaner wall-mounting).

Samsung has so far avoided producing OLED displays like those of LG. So, instead of striking a deal to use LG’s panels, Samsung branded its own LCD tech “QLED.” For a detailed breakdown, check out our QLED TV versus OLED TV comparison, but the general gist is this: QLED uses quantum dots to enhance performance by producing a purer, full-spectrum white light than LEDs are capable of on their own. In practice, QLED televisions are brighter (better for bright rooms) than less-expensive LCD TVs, and unlike OLED, can be more affordably built into large displays (100 inches and beyond).

2022 also saw Samsung announce its expected QD-OLED TVs, which use an advanced blue light source that acts as a hybrid between QLED and OLED. We are starting to see these TVs show up in the wild now, including the stunning Sony A95K QD-OLED, and the Samsung S95B OLED, if you are looking for an OLED-like upgrade from your current set. Like other major brands, 2022 also saw Samsung unveil a new MicroLED TV line, a major LED upgrade using the latest technology for super-tiny LEDs that can achieve higher brightness levels and very accurate dimming.

Another South Korean company, LG may not be as massive as the tried-and-true Samsung TV, but thanks to its OLED TV display technology, it has minimal competition when it comes to top-of-the-line picture performance.

WebOS — currently in its sixth iteration, WebOS 6.1 — completely revamps the LG smart experience. Where past models relegated apps to the bottom of the display (similar to Samsung Tizen), LG’s WebOS 6.1 sets utilize the entire screen for apps and other recommended web content. LG’s Magic Motion Remote has also been redesigned to support voice commands for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, along with a Magic Explorer feature that lets viewers get additional info about the show or movie they’re watching, from what actors appear in the series or film to notable trivia.

As with Tizen, WebOS allows users to screen share (using Miracast), though that ability is limited to Android devices and Windows computers. The previous 5.0 update added VR capability to WebOS, in case you’ve got any 360-degree videos or photos you’d like to view, as well as support for additional devices like the Google Stadia.

It should be noted that there’s been a change in how LG will be naming its versions of WebOS going forward, and will now correspond with the year in which they’re released. LG TVs released in 2022 now come with WebOS 22, which is mostly the same as version 6 but adds profiles, smart speaker capabilities when the TV is turned off, and other new features.

OLED — Organic Light Emitting Diode — is the premier display technology today. OLED TV panels are capable of reaching black levels never before seen, with better contrast across the board, and because the pixels themselves light up, OLED televisions boast quicker response times (and less input lag) than other types of displays, and the picture integrity is stunning at any viewing distance. To see how OLED stacks up against regular old LED, take a look at our OLED vs. LED comparison.

In 2021, LG introduced OLED Evo, an improvement on OLED technology that helps increase brightness by more than 20%. 2022 is seeing even more OLED Evo TVs hit the market, including the new and well-reviewed LG C2 Evo OLED, making LG the best place to get your OLED upgrade.

Sony, standing as the last great Japanese TV heavyweight in the U.S. (sorry, Panasonic, Toshiba, and JVC), doesn’t market as many proprietary technologies as Samsung or LG, but it has all the tech it needs to create awe-inspiring TVs.

Google TV — versions of which run on many other devices, like the Amazon Fire TV family — isn’t quite as slick as WebOS, but it’s arguably more powerful. Unlike WebOS and Tizen, the Google TV home screen is laden with apps and suggestions, and you can scroll down for even more. Sony’s 2021 catalog was the first generation of sets to switch over to Google TV, an overhaul of the Android TV OS that features a faster, more intuitive user interface, complete with recommended and sponsored web content.

Google TV also has built-in support for Google Assistant (via a microphone in the remote or in your phone) and Chromecast, for both video and audio. Plus, as with Tizen, Google Smart Lock can automatically sync logins from your mobile device to your TV. You also have the ability to create separate profiles with Google TV for each person in your home. And, if that’s not enough, you can download the Logitech Harmony app to control your smart home devices from the couch.

Sony is one of a handful of companies offering OLED televisions (the list has recently expanded to include Panasonic, Philips, Hisense, and Vizio) thanks to a deal with LG allowing Sony to build TVs using LG panels. Due to the Cognitive Processor XR chip, Sony’s Bravia flagship TVs offer greater contrast, improved sound, low input lag, and faster web performance than we’ve ever seen. Sony’s newer TVs also offer VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) for gaming, particularly with the PlayStation 5.

In 2022, Sony also announced a push into mini-LED technology, announcing its first mini-LED TVs like the Z9K series. We’ve already seen mini-LED technology crop up in other devices like some Apple iPads. It’s a more affordable version of MicroLED tech where the LEDs are a bit larger, but still provide some of the same benefits, including better-localized dimming and contrast. Sony’s processor is key to this as it is designed with backlight algorithms to take the most advantage of smaller LEDs.

TCL was barely a blip on the radars of seasoned LED TV reviewers half a decade ago. Today, it’s the fastest-growing brand out there, offering up 4K UHD and HDR-capable models at preposterously low prices.

TCL isn’t the only company making Roku TVs — Insignia, Sharp, and Hisense do the same, among other manufacturers — but it has been the most successful so far. From the affordable Roku Express to the Roku Streambar, the Roku TV platform’s vast selection (5,000+) of channels and its snappy cross-app search function are second to none. Roku’s smart TV user interface is a little less slick than webOS or Tizen, but we think it works better, and it’s more straightforward.

Additionally, TCL expanded into Google TV territory in 2021 with theirpopular 5- and 6-Series panels equipped with the latest Google TV operating system. While the new sets were briefly pulled from U.S. Best Buy shelves due to software issues, a fix was issued and the retailer now stocks the popular TVs again.

If you’re on a tight budget, but you still want some buttery 4K goodness up in your TV (not to mention HDR), TCL is the way to go. They’re affordable and are equipped with the latest version of Roku OS, featuring a dedicated Dolby Access channel to show off HDR-laden trailers.

Chinese manufacturer Hisense has been steadily making moves in the TV market over the years, licensing Sharp’s brand name(and buying its North American factory outright in 2015), buying Toshiba’s business in 2017, and making TVs under all three names for the U.S. market. Hisense had a rocky start but found a rhythm in making value-conscious Quantum 4K panels. In fact, their quality has improved so much that one of the latest versions, the Hisense U7G with HDR support, is one of our new recommended picks for a TV under $1,000 — and it has new, affordable 8K TVs now as well.

Hisense is unique in that it doesn’t have a singular operating system tied to its line of televisions. Some of its TVs use Android TV, like Sony, some of its TVs use Roku OS, like TCL, and some use VIDAA U, a slick-looking software that you can learn more about here. The models we are most impressed with are currently using Android TV, although at CES 2022 the company announced that all of its newULED TVs and its A6H and A7H lines will use Google TV. And for those of us that rely on Alexa, there’s even a Hisense TV that uses Amazon’s Fire TV platform!

With choices between Roku, Google TV, Fire TV, and more, buyers can pick the smart platform they like here, with plenty of options for budget-friendly purchases. The company is also making use of its TriChroma laser tech for improved color accuracy, and “ULED” panel technology to enhance images. Its latest Google TV picks also offer mini-LED panels, while the U6H Fire comes with Quantum Dot color, so you also have plenty of panel technologies to choose from. The latest 2022 models even have FreeSync and Game Mode Plus for gamers.

Vizio was once the undisputed champion when it came to awesome picture quality at a reasonable price. And while brands like TCL and Hisense have since challenged the Mighty V’s position at the top of Budget TV Mountain, this isn’t to say that Vizio isn’t still a name to be reckoned with.

Before 2017, all of Vizio’s Smart TVs ran a system that required users to download an application on their smartphone or tablet, which would be used to cast any content to the screen. In a nutshell, they were designed for mirroring. SmartCast updated that system by automatically curating a wide selection of apps without the need to download anything. That includes major streamers from Disney+ to Netflix, plenty of individual channel apps, and a wide variety of niche apps. It’s particularly easy to use in a field where smart TV platforms aren’t always the most user-friendly.

Plus, gamers will be happy with Vizio’s announcement of a free firmware update to its 2021 models, allowing for compatibility with AMD’s FreeSync technology, which enables smoother graphics when used with compatible gaming consoles and PCs. It has also an M-Series TV specifically designed for gaming, with a 240 fps frame rate and built-in Dolby Vision Auto Gaming, among other features.

With over half a century of skin in the game, it’s weird to consider Panasonic an up-and-comer. It’s seen better days, particularly when plasma TVs were the hottest thing going and Panasonic was the leader of that bunch. But, boy, have times changed. With the fall of plasma, the company has packed up its American dream and taken it back to Europe and Asia, where scores of consumers are enjoying some of the best OLED sets available. American customers, meanwhile, will have a much harder time finding any models locally.

Panasonic isn’t known for its disruptive technologies, but it does produce a number of reliable UHD OLED models. The big problem is that its TV sets just aren’t available in North America any longer, which makes the brand very hard to recommend compared to similar, affordable TVs from Hisense or TCL that are readily available. We’ll see if that changes with 2022’s LZ2000 OLED TV showcased at CES, but for now, Panasonic isn’t worth considering unless you’re on another continent.

For most of the 20th century, Toshiba was the preeminent name in Japanese television manufacturing, having produced the first Japanese transistor TV in 1959.

Hisense spent more than $110 million to buy 95% of Toshiba’s TV business in 2017. The real nail in the coffin came in 2015, though, when (after years of flagging sales and a de-prioritization of the sector) Toshiba gave up on making TVs for the U.S. market. Reportedly, the decision came after years of trying to compete with an expanding global market by lowering prices and costs without sacrificing quality.

The decision to invest in Canon’s SED technology in the mid-aughts turned out poorly as well. For a company that once reigned as one of the leaders in the CRT (cathode-ray tube) and rear-projection TV manufacturing, it’s a shame, but Toshiba is still chugging along just fine, making other appliances and electronic control systems. Its TV line is only notable as an Amazon partner, which means they offer built-in Fire TV and Alexa voice assistant compatibility.

For all the more seasoned folks reading, RCA was once the most respected bastion in American television development, having deployed the first-ever TV test pattern in 1939 (!) and pioneered the first color TV standard, NTSC (so named after the National Television System Committee) in 1953.

By the mid-1980s, RCA had been lapped by Japanese manufacturers and was no longer the powerhouse many remembered. A massive $6 billion-plus deal in 1985 saw the entire company sold to General Electric, then, in 1988, GE turned around and sold the rights to GE and RCA-branded televisions to French company Thomson. Thomson later sold the GE rights to TCL in 2004 and the RCA rights to Korea’s ON Corporation, which currently makes RCA-branded TVs.

Magnavox may never have been the most dominant name in the American TV game, but it was a prominent player for some years following the technology’s proliferation.

In 1974, Philips acquired Magnavox’s consumer electronics division, later introducing and selling televisions under the “Philips Magnavox” brand name to try and bolster sales in the U.S. Eventually, Philips sold those rights to Funai, which now makes TVs under both the Philips and Magnavox brands. Magnavox (the company) is still a subsidiary of Philips.

JVC used to be part of the Panasonic Corp. and started manufacturing TVs in 1953. For decades, JVC was one of the most well-respected TV brands on the market. Few companies sold more CRT sets over the back half of the 20th century.

Around the turn of the millennium, JVC started seeing dwindling sales in its TV division. In 2008, the company merged with Kenwood and closed many TV manufacturing plants in the next few years. It also had to phase out TV production to increase the manufacturing of other products.

In 2011, JVC Kenwood ceased television production altogether and licensed the brand name to Taiwanese manufacturer AmTRAN for the North American market. When that license expired, the next deal went to China’s Shenzhen MTC, which currently makes TVs under the JVC brand in the U.S. and elsewhere. JVC still has a stellar reputation for projectors, which it still produces and sells.

What size TV do you need? Here are a few tips for picking the right size TV for any room, including ideal viewing distance and picture quality versus size.

TV is an important component in any home. With the technique you can always organize family movie watching, look at your vacation photos in the evening or find home entertainment solutions.

Unfortunately, the equipment wears out, and you have to buy a new TV or repair an old one. Repair TV in our company will cost you many times cheaper than buying a new TV. We have quality parts, so you won’t notice that your TV has been repaired.

Modern technologies are updated so quickly that a person, without qualified assistance, will not be able to understand why the breakdown happened. Our company selects and trains the best people to repair TVs.

We have been in the market for more than a year, we have great experience in this area and have developed screening tests for specialists whom we recruit. It really matters to us.

To repair your TV, we provide the best engineers who can easily solve any problem with your TV in a short time. They will offer several solutions and find the most suitable for you.

That’s what we found in our analysis of more than three years of Consumer Reports’ TV ratings. Our crack team of statisticians looked at prices and CR’s test results from March 1, 2019, through March 1, 2022, for a number of leading TV brands sold in the U.S. The results are shown in the charts below, broken out by screen size, which is the first factor people usually consider when shopping for a television.

As you can see, TVs from LG, Samsung, and Sony earned top scores in our testing across just about every size range. And generally, sets from these companies cost more than their competitors’ TVs.

Prices and average brand scores tend to drop off in step with each other, according to our analysis. One major change this year is that some secondary brands, including Element, Philips, and Westinghouse, no longer appearin our list. Sharp is no longer in our listing; it stopped selling TVs in the U.S. for several years but began selling them again in 2022. RCA is represented in just two screen sizes, where it has the lowest Overall Score, and in one instance the lowest price by a large margin.

In their place, we now have more models from up-and-coming brands such as Hisense and TCL, as well as from a few retailer-specific brands such as Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand) and Toshiba (sold through Amazon and Best Buy). TVs from these brands have been gaining market share at the expense of other lesser-known brands that were once regularly included in our analysis.

Although we’ve tested a few TVs from Onn, Walmart’s house brand, we didn’t test enough sets in any one screen size for it to appear. We hope to include it in next year’s evaluation.

The takeaway, however, remains the same: Though it’s sometimes tempting to buy a much cheaper TV, especially during big sales events, you could be accepting a trade-off in quality. And you might not have to pay much more—or even any more—to get a better television.

This information should be useful if you choose a TV largely based on brand. However, it’s smart to use this analysis as just one factor when you’re shopping. The charts below are average prices and scores. Performance can vary by series and even by model within a single brand. That means that some brands with a lower average Overall Score might have a model or two that did very well in our tests. If they’re priced lower than comparable sets from bigger brands, they might be worth considering.

Major brands dominate the top of this slice of our TV ratings, which include 70-, 75-, 77-, 82-, and 85-inch TVs. That list now includes TCL, which has become one of the three top-selling brands in the U.S.

The average price figures we show are a bit higher than the average for all big TVs on the market. That’s both because the largest sets carry a premium and because CR tends to purchase a lot of expensive, high-end sets. That allows us to test the latest features, such as Mini LED backlights in LCD/LED TVs, which can help boost contrast and reduce halos, and high dynamic range (HDR), which can produce brighter, more vibrant images.

We test these flagship models from all the brands, but with major brands there is a much greater difference in pricing between the least and most expensive sets they offer. For example, for TCL there’s a $600 difference between the cheapest ($700) and priciest ($1,300) 75-inch TVs in our current ratings. With Samsung, that difference is dramatic: $1,900. (See the best big-screen TV bargains for sets 70 inches and larger.)

You’ll see that Sony, Samsung, and LG top the list in terms of average Overall Score and average price. Given their high average scores, sets from any of these TV brands might be worth considering. Sony TVs tend to be expensive in part because the company, like LG, now offers OLED TVs, which tend to cost more, but also because it exited the budget TV market. The takeaway for shoppers is that a premium set from Sony might not be more expensive than a premium set from a competitor—the company just doesn’t compete in lower performance tiers.

TCL, Vizio, and Hisense are additional brands to consider, especially if you’re on a budget. With TCL and Hisense, higher-end sets (the 6- and 8-series TVs from TCL, and 8-series sets from Hisense) have done very well in our tests, offering a lot of bang for the buck in terms of both picture quality and high dynamic range (HDR) experience. TCL’s higher average price is due to its top-tier sets having newer technologies (Mini LED, 8K resolution), plus a push into very large screen sizes. The company also offers many low-priced sets that haven’t done as well, lowering the brand’s Overall Score. Vizio sets have done well for overall picture quality across the board, though they generally fall behind a bit when it comes to HDR.

This has become a popular screen size for people looking for a large TV. And you’ll see that LG, Samsung, and Sony top the list in average Overall Score and average price here, as well. One reason for the fine showing by both LG and Sony is they offer OLED TVs that have consistently been at the top of our ratings. Samsung’s top QLED (and Neo QLED) TVs have also done very well in our ratings, and the best of those sets now rival OLED TVs in performance. All these sets tend to be pricy.

In this size category, we again see much greater differences in pricing between the least and most expensive sets from major brands than from smaller players. For example, there’s a $600 difference between the cheapest ($400) and priciest ($1,000) 65-inch Hisense TVs in our current ratings. With Samsung and Sony, that difference is a whopping $2,400. One reason for Samsung’s large spread is the debut of itsfirst QD OLED TV ($3,000), which is now in our ratings (though it arrived too late this year for our statistical analysis). Sony TVs tend to be expensive in part because the company offers several OLED TVs, which tend to cost more, and because it stopped making lower-end LED/LCD sets. (See the best 65-inch TVs under $1,000.)

As in the 70-inch size category, Hisense, TCL, and Vizio appear to be good options for those on tighter budgets. Their better-performing sets tend to be pricier but still less expensive than comparable TVs from LG, Samsung, and Sony. Hisense has the best balance of price and performance of the group. But given the wide differences in performance and price between the best- and worst-performing models within these brands, you should look at specific models to determine the best value.

If you’re shopping for a 55- to 60-inch set, you’ll see a particularly wide range of prices and brands. That’s because some TVs this size are relatively bare-bones when it comes to features, while others come loaded with lots of features. These can include 120Hz refresh rates, full-array LED backlights with local dimming, more effective HDR performance, and special gaming features, such as low-latency modes and variable refresh rates.

Average prices go from a low of $342 (for Toshiba, which makes Fire TV Edition sets sold at Amazon and Best Buy) to a high of $1,034 (Sony’s average). As we note above, Sony focuses on higher-priced sets, and both Sony and LG’s average prices are pulled up by their OLED sets—these TVs can look great, but they tend to cost more than all but the very best LED/LCD models.

Two years ago, Vizio began offering OLED TVs, but that hasn’t yet had a big impact on its average price, because the majority of its sales are still less expensive LED/LCD TVs.

In term of Overall Score, there’s a bit of drop-off after LG. Some models from Hisense, Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand), TCL, Toshiba, and Vizio might be worth considering for less finicky viewers who are on an even tighter budget. As we mentioned earlier, some higher-end Hisense and TCL sets deliver very satisfying overall picture quality and enjoyable HDR. Many sets from the other brands do well for overall picture quality, but the trade-off is a less satisfying HDR experience. Insignia seems to be a decent choice for budget-minded consumers, earning a higher average Overall Score than Toshiba despite having a lower average price.

For those shopping for a TV in this size range, CR’s analysis shows that Samsung, Sony, and LG again tend to have the highest-performing TVs—along with the most expensive ones.

Of these three brands, LG sets seem particularly attractive, with a high Overall Score and an average price below these two other brands’ average prices. In last year’s analysis, however, LG’s average price was much closer to the lower-tier brands’. This could be in part because of LG offering 48-inch OLED TVs. This year, there’s a bigger price spread between the major and secondary brands. That could be because major brands tend to adopt the newest technologies first.

In fact, the price range is fairly narrow in this size category once you get past those top three brands. Hisense and TCL emerge as good possible options for those on the tightest TV budgets because their average price is actually lower than a few brands’, such as Vizio and Toshiba, that have lower average scores.

There’s also a pretty big spread in both price and performance in this screen size, with prices ranging from $226 (Hisense) to more than $568 (Sony). One reason is that in this size category, you’ll find a mix of both 4K and more basic HD sets.

There aren’t a lot of surprises—Sony, Samsung, and LG offer the best performance. The least expensive of these brands is LG, but Insignia also emerges as an especially attractive option, given its average price and an Overall Score just a point away from LG’s. In Insignia’s case, the average price is actually below several brands’ that have lower Overall Scores.

Remember, though, that the price and performance averages are for entire brands, not specific models. The best way to see how individual TV models perform is to check our ratings, which are based on extensive testing and evaluation.

These days, 32-inch TVs have largely been commoditized; most are either 720p or 1080p regular high-definition TVs rather than 4K models, and there are even some low-priced basic models that lack a smart TV feature.

You may notice that Samsung is missing from this size category; there weren’t enough tested models in our analysis this year for it to be included. It’s the only brand in our current ratings that offers 32-inch 4K TVs with HDR, but those sets are more expensive, and consumers don’t seem to want to pay for the higher resolution in sets this small. Samsung does offer a number of less expensive HD sets, which are in our ratings. Shoppers seem to buying based on price rather than brand.

As you can see in the chart, with Samsung absent, along with Sony, LG becomes the clear top brand based on performance, and its average price isn’t all that much higher than prices on other brands.

Apart from LG, there’s not much of a difference among the other brands in either average price or performance, but Hisense has the lowest overall average price, while Vizio has the highest.

With both price and performance averages so closely packed among the brands, smart shoppers are likely to look to other criteria in our TV ratings, such as screen resolution, sound quality, or reliability, or features such as built-in access to streaming content, to help make a buying decision.

In addition to TV performance, there are a few more things to consider when choosing among brands. One is how easy it is to get the TV repaired in a timely manner. Major brands typically invest in parts and service networks, so you’re more likely to find an authorized repair center nearby.

Reliability problems appear to be less of an issue, based on our surveys, because TVs are among the more reliable products Consumer Reports analyzes. But not all brands do as well as others, which is why you should check a brand’s reliability in our TV ratings.

Because most sets are now smart TVs that connect to the internet, we’ve added privacy and security scores to our ratings. We evaluate the various ways TV brands collect, use, and share consumer data; how well they protect it; and how transparent they are about their data practices.

Last, consider the manufacturer’s warranty, which could be shorter with an off-brand TV. Most of the TVs in our ratings carry 1-year parts and labor warranties, but that can vary, so check before you buy.

@consumerreports An inexpensive TV is no bargain if the picture quality disappoints you. See ratings and reviews at cr.org/tv #techtok #tv #shoppingtips #tvtech ♬ original sound - Consumer Reports

I"ve been a tech journalist for more years than I"m willing to admit. My specialties at CR are TVs, streaming media, audio, and TV and broadband services. In my spare time I build and play guitars and bass, ride motorcycles, and like to sail—hobbies I"ve not yet figured out how to safely combine.

Television (TV) is a telecommunication device used to transmit moving images. Televisions can display photos or videos in monochrome (black and white), or in color, and in either two or three dimensions. The term ‘television’ can refer to a television set or a television show. Televisions are commonly used for entertainment, advertising, news, and sports.

By 2013, almost 80 percent of the world’s households owned a television set. The first televisions were cathode ray tube (CRT) devices. CRT televisions contain potentially lethal high-voltage capacitors, significant amounts of lead, and glass-walled vacuum tubes that can break violently. Beginning in the late 1990s, CRT displays were replaced with more compact, energy-efficient flat-panel televisions with liquid-crystal displays (LCDs, both fluorescent-backlit and LED), organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, and plasma displays. By the mid-2010s, most television manufacturers discontinued CRT, DLP, plasma, and fluorescent-backlit LCD televisions. OLED displays began to gradually replace LED displays in the 2020s. Some television manufacturers have announced that they will increasingly produce smart televisions with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions.

A television showing a blue, green, or black screen is most likely caused by a lack of signal. Make sure that your satellite or cable box is powered on and the television is set to the correct output by pressing ‘Input’ —> ‘Source’ —> ‘TV/Video’ on your remote control. Press the button to cycle through the input options until your TV gets a picture back. Also, check behind the TV for any loose connections, and re-plug anything that is not connected properly. If your television is still not receiving a signal, reset the cable box by unplugging it and plugging it back in. There may be an issue with your signal or the box itself, so try switching the connections to another device. If the picture works with another device, contact your provider for service for the box itself.

If you are hearing an echo with your television’s audio system, you most likely have a separate sound system like a soundbar or surround sound system that is playing sound while the television’s speakers are also playing audio. To prevent the echo, disable or mute the audio for your TV speakers and use only your external sound system, which is likely much higher quality than the TV’s built-in speakers.

If the television’s picture is squashed, stretched, or cropped, something is most likely wrong with the picture size settings (zoom, wide, aspect ratio, or picture). In many cases, the best setting is ‘Direct’ or ‘Just-Fit,’ which instructs the TV to show the video as it receives the signal. If you are using a DVD player or an old gaming system connected to the television, set the video to 4:3 (otherwise, the television will stretch the picture to the modern 16:9 ratio). If you are using a computer connected to the television, turn off Overscan to avoid strange cropping.

If the television screen has lines or looks cracked, pull up the TV menu. The television’s panel may need to be replaced if the lines run through the menu, or if the screen is cracked.

If the television will turn on from the remote but not from the cable box or satellite box, the box is not communicating with the TV properly. Turn the television box off and unplug it for at least 15 seconds before turning it back on again.

The Hisense U8H matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform is a welcome addition. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.

The Hisense U8H is the best LCD/LED TV for most people because it delivers the performance of a much pricier TV yet starts at under $1,000, for the smallest (55-inch) screen size. This TV utilizes quantum dots, a full-array backlight with mini-LEDs, and a 120 Hz refresh rate to deliver a great-looking 4K HDR image. It’s compatible with every major HDR format. And it’s equipped with two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs to support 4K 120 Hz gaming from the newest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Add in the intuitive, fully featured Google TV smart-TV platform, and the U8H’s price-to-performance ratio is of inarguable value.

Chief among the U8H’s many strengths is its impressive peak brightness. When sending it HDR test patterns, I measured an average brightness of 1,500 nits, with peaks just north of 1,800 nits (a measurement of luminance; see TV features, defined for more info). To put that into perspective, consider that the 65-inch version of our budget 4K TV pick (the TCL 5-Series) typically costs around half as much as the 65-inch U8H but achieves only around 30% to 40% of its brightness. On the other side of the coin, the 65-inch version of our upgrade pick (the Samsung QN90B) costs almost twice as much as the 65-inch U8H, but it achieves only nominally higher brightness. Adequate light output creates convincing highlights and image contrast and (when necessary) combats ambient light from lamps or windows. It is a necessity for any TV worth buying—especially if you hope to watch HDR movies or play HDR games—and the U8H simply outpaces most TVs in its price range (and some in the next price bracket up, too).

Key to this functionality is the U8H’s employment of mini-LED backlighting with local dimming, which allows this TV to produce very bright light while still maintaining satisfyingly deep black levels that are typically free of blooming (or light bleed that’s visible around bright objects against a dark backdrop). This not only ensures impressive image contrast, it also makes the U8H a viable choice for most rooms, whether they’re brighter than average or dimmed down like a movie theater.

That’s not to say the U8H has pixel-precise light control—it’s not an OLED TV, after all—but it does a terrific job most of the time. In fact, in our tests, the U8H bested last year’s upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90A, in certain scenarios: The intro to Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix features the filmmaker against a pitch-black backdrop. Though last year’s QN90A failed to maintain perfect control over dimming elements during this scene (the black backdrop brightened distractingly once a sufficient amount of brighter content appeared on screen), the U8H did not. (For the record, the newer QN90B also passed this test.) The U8H’s mini-LEDs also help the screen look uniformly bright: Although the U8H is still not as good as an OLED TV in this respect, it shows very little indication of being a backlight-driven display, even during tricky scenes with large swaths of dim lighting.

The U8H’s brightness, black-level integrity, and local-dimming abilities make this an excellent TV for watching HDR content. The U8H is capable of playing HDR content in all of the major formats (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG), but when it comes to impressive HDR, what’s under the hood is much more important than format compatibility. The most crucial thing for good HDR is high brightness and deep color saturation, and the U8H’s quantum dots achieve the latter. It’s not as simple as just having quantum dots, however: While many TVs (even the budget options) have quantum dots nowadays, what is often not taken into account is that brightness directly affects color saturation. For example, both the 2022 TCL 6-Series and the Hisense U8H are equipped with quantum dots, mini-LED backlights, and local dimming. But because the U8H is notably brighter than the 6-Series, it also achieves a higher total color volume. During our color-volume testing, the U8H exhibited color ranges at more than 100% of the DCI-P3 color space (the range of color needed to properly display HDR content), and it is capable of roughly 10% more total color volume compared with the 6-Series.

What does this mean in real-world terms? It means that the Hisense U8H truly excels as a modern 4K HDR TV, whether you’re watching the latest episode of Rings of Power or playing Overwatch 2. While watching HDR content side by side on the U8H and on our upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90B, I was truly surprised by how similar they looked at times, given that our upgrade pick is much more expensive. That said, though the U8H achieves impressive results where light output and color volume are concerned, it also exhibited some occasional video processing and upscaling issues (see Flaws but not dealbreakers), which videophiles and AV enthusiasts may take umbrage with. But in general, the picture quality punches well above its weight, metaphorically speaking.

And thanks to Hisense’s inclusion of Filmmaker Mode, it’s easy to rein in the U8H’s brightness abilities for a more-subdued and filmic experience in a darker room. Our measurements revealed that this mode has a very accurate white balance, mostly accurate colors (green is a bit oversaturated, but not egregiously so), and a perfect “dark room” gamma (which controls how quickly the video signal transitions from dark to light). Additionally, the TV’s 120 Hz refresh rate means it can play Blu-ray discs at 24 fps without the judder that’s usually present on TVs with 60 Hz refresh rates.

The TV’s higher refresh rate also reduces motion blur in faster-moving sports and allows for smoother, more stable motion in games. Two of the four HDMI inputs support 4K gaming at 120 Hz. The U8H measured low input lag while playing in 4K resolution, and Hisense’s helpful GameZone setting in the picture menu allowed me to confirm the presence of 120 Hz playback and variable refresh rate during games.

The onboard Google TV smart platform is another feather in this TV’s cap. As usual, however, it will be much more satisfying to use if you have a Google account and already take advantage of Google’s connected services, like Photos. The experience of navigating the TV’s smart features—scanning QR codes to sign into apps, using the onscreen keyboard, and browsing your Google Photos to set a photo as a screensaver—was very satisfying in terms of responsiveness and speed. Powering on the TV and booting into an app took just seconds. The included Bluetooth remote is also equipped with a handy “Hey Google” button, allowing you to pull up Google’s assistant and use voice commands to search for content or set a reminder. If you have multiple users with their own Google accounts, you can designate separate profiles (attached to a Gmail account) so that each user can customize the experience to their liking, as well as access their own Google Drive or Photos. While some reviewers have reported instances of momentary freezing while using the U8H’s platform, I didn’t personally experience any instances of slowdown that were egregiously worse than with any other smart-TV platform.

In terms of design, the Hisense U8H is not as svelte as our upgrade pick, but it’s plenty sturdy and doesn’t look or feel cheap. Two narrow, metal feet jut out from beneath the panel and steadily hold the TV. They can be attached in two separate spots, either closer in toward the middle of the panel or out toward the edges, to account for different-size TV stands. The feet are also equipped with cable organization clasps—a nice touch for keeping your TV stand free of cable clutter. Though the TV is primarily plastic, its bezels are lined with metal strips, providing a bit more durability in the long run. I moved it around my home, and it was no worse for wear, but we’ll know more after doing some long-term testing.

The Hisense U8H has some difficulties with banding, or areas of uneven gradation, where transitions that should appear smooth instead look like “bands” of color (sometimes also called posterization). Like many current 4K HDR TVs, the U8H uses an 8-bit panel rather than a 10-bit panel, which affects the color decoding and color presentation process. This is usually relevant only with HDR video and games. When playing games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, I saw a few instances where the content wasn’t rendered correctly and displayed ugly splotches of color on the screen. However, this almost always occurred during static screens (such as a pause menu or loading screen); I rarely spotted it during actual gameplay. Hisense has stated that it would address the problem in a future firmware update, but at the time of writing it was still present. This is a flaw that may give dedicated gamers pause, but we don’t consider it to be a dealbreaker for most people.

I also saw occasional instances of banding with TV shows and movies, though they were few and far between. The U8H isn’t the best at upscaling sub-4K content, so videos with a 1080p or lower resolution looked a little soft. You can get better overall video processing and upscaling by springing for our upgrade pick (this is one reason it’s more expensive, after all).

Although the UH8 TV has four HDMI inputs, only two of them are fully HDMI 2.1–compatible. And one of those is designated as the eARC input (intended as an audio connection for a soundbar or AV receiver connection). So if you’re pairing an external audio system with the U8H, you may have only one input remaining that can support HDMI 2.1 features like 4K 120 Hz playback, variable refresh rate, and auto game mode; this could be a dealbreaker if you own more than one current-gen gaming console. If you’re in that boat, you may want to splash out some extra dough for our upgrade pick. Additionally, folks using pre-HDMI source devices—like the five-cable composite connector with green, red, blue, and red/white audio inputs—should be aware that this TV requires an adapter to allow those devices to connect, and an adapter is not included in the box.

Finally, like most TVs that use vertical alignment (VA) LCD panels, the U8H has a limited horizontal viewing angle, which may be a bit annoying if you’re hoping to entertain a large crowd. Our upgrade pick uses a special wide-angle technology to address this.

For gaming, use the game picture mode (the TV should switch into this mode automatically when paired with the newer game consoles), and then go into the Gaming submenu to make sure the right settings (VRR) are enabled. We recommend leaving the HDMI setting in “auto,” unless you notice that your game console is incorrectly identified.