# Looking for a 50" Cheap TV Recommendation



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

I'm looking for advice on a 4K television. This is going into a home office, so picture quality should be defect, but not "home theater" quality. I'm very much interested in a Roku TV for it's apps. So far, I'm considering the following:


TCL 50S423 - $270 - 3 HDMI inputs
Hitachi 50R81 - $280 - 3 HDMI inputs
TCL 50S425 - $280 - 3 HDMI Inputs

As you can guess, I'm looking at a very disposable television. The Roku apps that I'm interested in, in this order, are:

Plex TV
Netflix
Criterion Channel
Amazon Prime
Hulu


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

I got a 32 TCL for a guest room and it's been great. The built in ROKU eliminated the need for my Amazon Fire Stick so it moved to another room. TCLs, although inexpensive, have been receiving very good reviews. For the prices you mention you can't go wrong. Also, the pic is really good!


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## glrush (Jun 29, 2002)

I have a couple TCL screens in my man cave (a 65" and a 55", both 2018 models). For the money, they are hard to beat. I went with TCL not only because of the price, but because Roku is built in and I use both for streaming an off-air. I would recommend TCL without hesitation.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Mark Holtz said:


> I'm looking for advice on a 4K television. This is going into a home office, so picture quality should be defect, but not "home theater" quality. I'm very much interested in a Roku TV for it's apps. So far, I'm considering the following:
> 
> 
> TCL 50S423 - $270 - 3 HDMI inputs
> ...


I'd buy a TCL. In fact, I did. A 43" model. Bought it for my granddaughter. She likes it. It's a Roku based TV set. Not a bad picture. You can't beat the price.

Rich


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

I have had a TCL 55-inch set for two years, bought at Costco. I've been very happy with the set. It's amazing how many different streaming channels Roku offers. That includes the five channels mentioned by the OP. My TCL remote has dedicated buttons for Amazon and Netflix.

Roku phone app can replace the TCL remote. If you plug in a headset to the phone you can listen to the TV audio without disturbing others in the room.


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## west99999 (May 12, 2007)

Samsung has a 50" 4k smart tv at walmart for $327. It has a great picture on it.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/SAMSUNG-50-Class-4K-2160P-Ultra-HD-Smart-LED-HDR-TV-UN50NU6900/584196702

I had a 12 year old 42 inch samsung go out and premier protection plan replaced it with this 4k and its great especially for the price.

I am in the industry and I wouldn't have any of those brands you posted about. I see a lot of problems with them.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

west99999 said:


> Samsung has a 50" 4k smart tv at walmart for $327. It has a great picture on it.
> 
> https://www.walmart.com/ip/SAMSUNG-50-Class-4K-2160P-Ultra-HD-Smart-LED-HDR-TV-UN50NU6900/584196702
> 
> ...


Yeah, for about 50 bucks more you get a much better set. I was gonna suggest the same set on Amazon but I figured the price might be more than he wanted to spend.

Rich


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

The key deciding factor is the built-in Roku. It's more for my mother than anything else even though it's going into my office. No argument that the Samsung is a better TV, but it has it's own proprietary platform.

Also.... I'm paying the mortgage at the moment, so the budget is tight.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Mark Holtz said:


> The key deciding factor is the built-in Roku. It's more for my mother than anything else even though it's going into my office. No argument that the Samsung is a better TV, but it has it's own proprietary platform.
> 
> Also.... I'm paying the mortgage at the moment, so the budget is tight.


Get one of the Roku TVs if things are tight. Having the Roku platform on it makes life a bit easier.

Rich


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## Getteau (Dec 20, 2007)

In early December I bought one of the 50" Hisense R7 TV's from best buy for right around $300 (looks like it's on sale for $269). I had narrowed it down to the TCL and the Hisense and when I went to Best Buy, I thought the Hisense looked slightly better. Plus the I got a little scared by the all the TCL reviews that mentioned that it was almost the luck of the draw in getting a TCL panel that didn't have issues out of the box. I know a lot of people like the TCL's, but the bad panel issue seemed pretty prevalent in the reviews of verified purchasers on the Best Buy website. 

As far as the Hisense is concerned, it's in a guest room on top of a dresser and the picture looks great when the lighting is dimmed and you are directly in front of the TV. For a guest bedroom, the sound from the TV is fine and I actually think it sounds better than the Sony 850F in my living room. If you get off center of the TV, it does get washed out. As expected, the Roku interface is pretty simple to navigate. I was also able to connect one of the DTV 4K clients to it and watch 4K programming.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

I purchased the Hitachi television from Sam's Club. I also will be purchasing a 32" TCL 1080p television from Costco for her to use. (She stole my home theater room for her office ). 

The future plans is to move the 32" Television to the kitchen, and put in a QLED television in as part of a home theater system. But that is several years down the road.


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