Looking to buy a new television
 

Is there somewhere to buy a nice tv other than big box stores? Someone to setup in my home?

Best Buy will set it up in your home for a reasonable price, but that is a big box store.

I always try to buy a television from Sam's Club or Costco because they have a 90 day return policy. Much better than Best Buy, which only has a 14 day return policy. Some TVs will have a screen defect that doesn't show up immediately, and it may not be covered by the manufacturer's warranty. In that case, the 90 day return policy is very valuable.

Agreed. It's hard for smaller stores to compete with the big box retailers because of the small margins on these televisions so there just aren't a lot of other alternatives available anymore.

Costco or Sams is the way to go.

You might give this guy a call and see what he has to offer.

Home Audio Video Sales & Installation in The Villages, Florida

It depends on what kind of TV you want to buy. If you just want a TV and don't really care about the quality, Costco and other BB stores have all the cheap TVs you want. Best Buy and Costco have the higher grade TVs as well and will install for you as well. If anything goes wrong, all these places will exchange the TV pretty much without question.

For budget TVs, TCL, Hiscense, Vizio are the brands you will see.
For mid to higher end TVs, Sony, LG and Samsung is what you want to buy.

Most of the less expensive TVs use LCD panels where the more expensive and the best TVs use OLED or Quantum Dot OLED panels.

I'm a professional TV calibrator and have worked in the industry for many years.
My recommendation for the Best TV is Sony A95K, Samsung S95B and LG C2 or G2. Especially if you only buy a TV every 5-10 years.
For anything else, TCL and Vizio are good budget TVs. The rest are not that great. Many of these $400 TVs are throw away sets.

If you like to buy online i can recommend Value Electronics at valueelectronics.com or you can call them at 914-723-3344 They sell everything at the same price as Best Buy but you don't pay sales tax outside of NY. They are premium retailers for many of the major brands so if something goes wrong they will drop ship you a new TV.

Hope this helps. I anyone has questions feel free to PM me.

Agree with Kenswing--VillagerAV-Tom is very experienced; moved the outlet up the wall, brought all the hardware and hung a huge TV for me in no time at all. I bought at Best Buy but had Tom mount 3 TVs in total. I have cut the cord and now the TVs are just suspended on the wall without any cords/cables visible. Highly recommend.

Best Buy (is that a big box??).
Install and set-up until you are happy.

:ho:

great info, thx for sharing :ho:

I don't think that Best Buy will replace a television after 14 days. They will tell you to contact the manufacturer under the warranty. Costco will replace a television up to 90 days. That is why it is better to buy it from Costco.

Costco. Great prices, great warranty. Worth the trip when you are spending big bucks. Sams Club is worth considering too.

TV
 

I bought mine from Amazon (65" OLED LG C2) - saved at least $300 over Best Buy - as a Prime member, got free unbox and setup (white glove service) in the house at NO EXTRA CHARGE. They even taught me how to use and program the remote!

Thanks for the info. This could be a business for you

Very good deal, indeed. It seems 1 poster wants people to believe they must go to Costco or Best Buy to get a high quality tv. Not so. Even Sam's has the LG C2.
Aside from Amazon, new egg also has very good electronic prices with fast free shipping.

By professional do you mean ISF Calibration using colorimeters and test pattern generators etc, where you adjust the hexadecimal parameters? I recall years ago, a quite a few ISF Calibrators posted on The Home Theater Spot forums.

I'll be ordering a LG C2 77" OLED from Costco in the next couple of weeks. I'm getting it from Costco because of their return policy, and their included 5 year warranty with Costco concierge service. If you use their Costco Visa, you get 2% back, and 2% more on your membership card. Sam's also offers a 5 year Allstate Warranty (formally Square Trade). Waiting to see what Amazon offers on the second Prime days this Oct. 11-12. I also bought a high end TV online several years ago from Cleveland Plasma with a great price, but no extended warranty. I purchased a warranty from Square Trade for it. Unfortunately, a diffuser came unglued a few months after the warranty ended, and Samsung sent me to a repair shop that wanted $2400 for a new screen.

CLEVELAND PLASMA 1-866-651-0049 Continental US
Chris@ClevelandPlasma.Com

Just my opinion, but I only buy Roku TVs now. I love their interface and ease of use, and the price is right.

I put an antenna in my attic, and used the existing cable in the house (live in Fenny). I receive 40+ channels. I use that and streaming services only. More TV than I could ever watch in my lifetime.

There is no reason to buy a Roku TV. You can convert any TV into a Roku TV by plugging a $50 Roku stick into one of the HDMI inputs. I use Roku sticks on all of my TVs, even the ones that are smart TVs.

OP:
What do you mean by ‘nice TV’? Modern TVs have a wide range of quality and features (and prices). Many people don’t care very much about higher quality and more features but some do. If you are more selective, you might investigate Bob’s TV in Summerfield for purchase and installation.

Try Bob’s TV on 441
 

Bob’ s gave us a competitive price last year and did a great set up and made sure we understood all the TV and Roku stick could do. Nice shop to see different TV room set ups too.

Just bought ours
 

We bought ours at Walmart. Only one plug to plug in and just step by step less than 10 min on screen set up. They have all levels of tvs. Easy peasy and our last one lasted ten years.

Call 352-388-1677. I forget the name of the business, but the owner/installer's name is Tom, and he sells and installs at a better than competitive price. His installations are extremely neat, and he will even make it so that the cords are behind the wall so they can't be seen. We have used him several times, and his work is impeccable. Believe me when I say that you will be hard pressed to find anyone better.

if you are retired military go the Naval exchange in Orlando. They deliver. No tax and good prices. Most new TVs are plug and play smart TVs.

Amazon has a wide range of TVs. Samsung has some of the best. The setup problem comes from your TV provider. There are a lot of savvy people in the Villages to help. It’s is an easy install if you know what you are doing. Many newer systems are streaming and only take a few minutes to set up. Don’t get a dish or have someone out to your house to wire it up. Everything is going streaming if you have internet.

Tom (352) 388-1677 Villages Audio Video. He is a Samsung dealer and a very professional installer. Just tell him the size TV you want and the distributor will deliver it to your door. Then he comes a day or so later to mount it and runs all the wiring in the walls. He has done this for me in two homes and I highly recommend him. He can also add audio (surround sound or whole house audio for music) if that is something you are interested in as well.

Amazon is good too. I forgot to mention it. LG and Sony are fixed price TVs. Meaning an authorized retailer cannot reduce the price on their own. They can only offer what the manufacturer gives them as a discount. Sometimes one retailer might get a better discount for a short period of time like in your case BUT be careful from buying from an UnAuthorized retailer because no matter what they say your warrenty could be void. If you are looking for professional TV calibration service here in the Villages, i can do that.

As far as the retailer warrenty. Value Electronics, Costco, Best Buy all have their "no questions" asked return policy but Two weeks is plenty of time to determine if your TV is OK or not. If there is something wrong like a dead pixel, etc, you should see it by then. Just remember many issues can arise at any time even after a generous 90 day period which is why you have the manufacturers warrenty and any additional warrenty that you can buy.

I like Costco but although they carry the LG OLED TV they tend not to carry all the higher end TVs. For warrenty, they are the best but you shouldn't need it if you purchase a quality TV.

Going back to the original question, you can purchase from a retailer who will do the install or buy on-line and there are many companies here in the Villages who can install it for you. The trick to buying a new TV is not to fall for super cheap prices like these $400 TVs becasue they really aren't very good. You need to get the best TV that your budget can support and you can't go wrong with Sony, LG or Samsung (in that order).

Bob’s TV & Audio & Video in Summerfield…same price as Big Box with personal service and EXPERT installation (not Geek Squad). We ALWAYS use ‘local’ businesses whenever possible.

Agreed about Costco. Haven't purchased any electronics from Sam's yet so I can't say.

I like Costco's automatic 2-year warranty on selected items. It is automatically added and they'll tell you that at the time of purchase. It can also be extended up to five years but you don't have to purchase the extended warranty at time of purchase: you can add it at any time, as I understand it; during the initial two-year warranty and it then goes into effect once the original warranty expires.

The 90-day no-questions-asked return policy is also a bit flexible. I bought a Sony Bravia TV from Costco in Altamonte Springs winter before last. I use headphones when I watch TV (my wife doesn't watch TV and if she does we have two other sets in the house). Brought it home, set it up with the headset I had bought previously--and no problem. Come spring we were expecting some grandkids who watch a lot of TV. About a week before they came I found out that you can't toggle between the TV speakers and the headphones with the remote: you have to reach around the back of the TV and unplug the headset from the port in the TV (which for some reason is dead in the middle of the set). Only then can you get sound from the TV speakers, and I was not thrilled about having to move a 65" TV off an entertainment center that butts up against a wall whenever I wanted to switch from Headphone to speaker. I called the company and confirmed that that is the only way to do it, then called Costco about returning the TV. Trouble was, it was about 110 days from the date of purchase and the floor manager of that section wouldn't do it. I requested to speak to the store manager and explained the issue. I also told him that I wasn't looking to return it for a refund, but that when I returned it I'd buy another set, probably even higher-priced than the Bravia (which had been on sale when I bought it). I encouraged him to look up my purchase history with Costco (Executive member for 12 years running ). He said he'd call me back, which he did that afternoon. No problem! Bring it in and we'll take it back. I did--and walked out with a 75" Samsung QLED That set me back about $600 more than the Bravia, but which works perfectly and with which I've been happy with ever since.

I did make it a point to write a letter to Costco, Inc. corporate headquarters (somewhere in Washington) in which I described the situation and made it a point to praise the store manager in Altamonte Springs for how he handled the situation.

Bob’s TV Service

I'm a big fan of BestBuy and the Geek squad....you get what you pay for!

Check This Out
 

Home Audio Video Sales & Installation in The Villages, Florida

Very professional and know what they're talking about. Had them install our 75" on wall. Complete job, no wires showing at all, provided all materials with price quote for install. Couldn't be more pleased.

L
 

Second this … Just purchased a Tv from Tom. Highly recommend!

I know you said no big box store, but I used Best Buy for numerous purchases and they're pretty good. The Geek Squad is very good !

Tv
 

I have a Samsung 65 inch for sale that is a couple of years old, but dat unused. Smart tv. I would set it up for you at your home, depending on where you live. Price is $400. Samsung. Steve

Costco or Sam’s Club will. Hope this helps. At least check it out!

Yes professional TV calibration using colorimeters and test pattern generators.

That number is for villagerav.com

Note that, if you want to buy a top-of-the-line model TV, you will probably need to buy it from Best Buy or online. Sam's, Costco, and Walmart have good TVs and good prices, but they usually do not sell the most advanced model from the manufacturer. Also, if buy a TV at a Black Friday sale, you will most likely be buying last year's model or even one that is 2 or 3 years old.

New TV
 

Bob's TV (352/753-5950) is THE BEST! I have lived here for 17 years and they have supplied ALL my A/V needs quickly, professionally, and at a reasonable price.

There certainly is if your old one has died. I use the sticks as well, but if you need a new TV buying it with the Roku interface built in integrates the OTA input, and provides you with a cable-like channel guide to boot. I get the voice remotes so I can jump to channel, app, and input by just talking.

As for the price, I've found them to be generally the same or less that similar non-Roku TV's.

I have a Roku TV and two other non-Roku TVs with Roku sticks. I really don't see much difference in their available features. All of them have the live TV channel guide and the voice command feature. It also appears as though the Roku remote or a universal remote can be programmed to switch the TV inputs. I agree that it is convenient to have everything built in to the TV, but, I think you can achieve the same functions using the proper Roku external device. Also, I like the fact that you can always replace the Roku stick with the latest upgraded device without buying a new TV. Personally, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy a Roku TV.

Great advice.

I've heard horror stories about people buying their "dream TV" at a Black Friday sale and then getting it home only to find it has only one USB port or a similar lack of a feature that the "dream" set did have. Of course they should have checked, but in the heat of the moment--several hundred dollars below what the "dream" TV did cost--easy to do.

Caveat emptor!