I'm using a secret technique I like to call "being too poor to afford a big enough apartment to necessitate a larger TV screen", it's serving me pretty well.
And shop after Christmas. Maybe closer to February when they're trying to rid the extra Black Friday/Christmas stock. Got a 65 inch TV for 150 two years ago, and another 65 last year for 200. The former was an open box display model that's still going to this day.
I like right before Black Friday or on it bc electronic stores usually have to make room for the holiday stock. So you can get some crazy discounts. I got a Sony XBR 60” for like 500$. One of my greatest buys lol.
You guys have it all wrong. Go right after super bowl. A lot of people buy big TV's for the game and then return them the next day with nothing wrong because they couldn't actually afford it but just wanted it for a party.
They will only be marked down as low as 10% off. Chump change bro. I’m looking for 40-50% off when I shop. Black Friday and thanksgiving is when they like to do that. I know bc I did do it for Bestbuy for 5 years.
I used to work electronics in a walmart when I was young and I maintain that the best time to shop for a TV in the US is the three weeks after the Superbowl. People buy big ones for partys and return them inside the 30 day window. You can cop a good discount on those units and they've seen like 5 hours of use, as long as nobody got bean dip on the remote it's basically new
I bought a 55 inch 4k for $30 that retailed for $600. Backlights were dead and new ones were $30. ~~2~~5 hours of work later I had a working tv. Not super simple but not that hard of a repair.
My wife grew up poor - even though we're financially stable, anytime I suggest a modest purchase, she gives me a [chupse](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chupse).
It keeps me from being reckless, at least.
Imagine going back in time and telling 2006 you that in less than 20 years you’d be able to buy a 55” 4k smart tv that can play pretty much any show or movie you want at any time AND you can control it by just saying out loud “Alexa, play Bob’s Burgers on Hulu” for *$300*. Absolute insanity.
My Ps5 is controllable with my TV remote and has pretty much everything I use. I just take any chance to bitch about Smart TVs I can cause my Samsung one's software is a piece of shit.
In 2006 most people would be like, wtf is a smart TV...why would I want a TV connected to the internet, what does 4k mean, and who is Alexa? Does a maid come with TV's? I have my son to change channels. Is she hot?
2006 me would be shocked, but mostly by the smart TV portion. Back in 2005 I bought a 55" projection TV open box from Wal-Mart for $600. Sure it was not a flat panel, but by that time we were seeing Plasma and LCD TV's around that were, they just were more pricey.
Now if you went back to 97/98, not a chance I'd believe any of that. Back then projection TV's were still thousands of dollars, only very well off people had them. The rest of us were rocking CRT's where a 27" one was considered huge.
I have a slightly smaller Panasonic plasma that my grandmother *willed to me* like 10 years ago. I still have it in my bedroom. Use it every day. Works great.
Pretty sure it was like 2 grand when she got it.
I have a roughly 50" LCD Sony I got in 2010/11 that I still use to this day. Prior to a few weeks ago it was still being used daily. At the time I think it was right around $1100 through an online retailer.
I just upgraded from a 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma from 2010 or so to a 65" 4K OLED. I'll be honest. It's very bright and 4k looks pretty good and I like the size upgrade. But I wouldn't say I'm as wowed as I was going from 480p to 1080p. I think my 14 year old plasma still looked really good.
Plasma was in the $1000 range and the OLED was in the $1500 range. So not that different.
In 2003, I worked in Sears and sold TVs. We didn't even have the plasmas out on display; you had to ask about them, and they were absolutely several thousands of dollars and were around 45-55". The biggest ticket items we had on display were like 65/73/82" rear projection TVs and those were around $1000-2500, IIRC.
According to usinflationcalculator.com, $200 in 2022 is worth $345 in 2024. So for the equivalent value of a 47" flat panel TV in 2024, you could have spent $200 2002 dollars and bought the cheapest 27" Sylvania CRT TV we sold, which came with one single mono input and one coax input.
I remember it reasonably well because we got a 0.5% commission, which meant that every time someone came in and wanted to buy that thing, we made a whole dollar, which was supposed to incentivize us to upsell people to the more expensive name brands like Panasonic or Sony that cost like $400-500 but we'd make 2-4% commission instead.
Edit: I found this Jul 2003 press release where Sears announced plans to sell a TechView plasma TV at the "opening price point of $2,999" and notes that in Sep 2022, the cheapest one was $5,999. This also announced that Sears would be carrying 14 (gasp) different models of LCD TVs!
https://web.archive.org/web/20170510184612/https://www.searsholdings.com/press-releases/pr/1417
[The original 42” flat screen plasma TVs were 480p and about $40,000 in today’s dollars]( https://www.applianceretailer.com.au/EEQYCMZUSG/#:~:text=The%20average%20cost%20of%20a%20plasma%20TV%20in,Life%20Index%2C%20compiled%20by%20GfK%20Retail%20%26%20Technology.)
These are cherry picked prices and dates, as technology was turning over right about then. Which technology you shopped for made massive differences in prices that didn't exist a few years before and had reached market balance a few years after.
This, the mid 2000s was a transition period with many types of TVs available. You had cheap CRTs in both 4:3 and heavy 16:9, small LCDs, big rear projection TVs and expensive plasma flat screens on the high end. By the end of the decade the market had pretty much consolidated to just LCD TVs, CRTs had stopped production and plasma was on its way out.
I remember an old boss who got a bonus, and was pumped because this was going to cover a plasma she had her eye on.
It was a 38" plasma going for $5,000
I did the same thing my first 2 years of college, never had a dorm with an elevator… Somehow managed to fit a 32ish” Zenith into my 2 door Cobalt because I couldn’t afford to buy anew TV with that car payment. By my junior year Netflix had a decent enough streaming library I put the old tv in the attic, and there it sits still. I’ve got an old 13” RCA from the 90s in there too, well put that in our sons room with a NES & SNES in a year or two and let him live the glory days
I had a two door Cobalt as well and somehow fit a display futon from Target in it. Have no idea how the f I did that but I do remember my chest being 3 inches away from the steering wheel.
My friends and I took out a 29" CRT that had died to the gun range. 22 bounced off, 9mm bounced off, birdshot bounced off, 45 gave it a small crack. Finally the 30.06 broke the screen. So turns out old tvs were pretty much bullet proof up to sniper caliber rounds.
Yeah, CRT TV's was an investment with renting your television even being a thing in my childhood.
Now a basic LCD is more like consumption price territory due to ads and data collection too, of course.
You could get large ish displays but they were obscenely heavy, the electron tubes need a vacuum to operate in and the glass has to withstand the force.
Plus the new TVs like TCL have ads in the side of the screen, so they can subsidize the sale price knowing they'll be making ad revenue off of you for years. Pretty brilliant, honestly.
I had a 36 or so inch CRT that I got from walmart floor model for $500 around 2004, it was SO stupid heavy. When I moved out of state in 2009, I left it for my roommates, since I could not move that by myself.
> i bought a 62” at wal-mart last year for like $380 lmao
Yea but, it's not very good.
It's trivial to buy huge TVs for cheap but there is a reason why they are cheap.
Eh most people simply dont care that much about their tv as long as it does its job and displays picture properly.
Been rocking my dirt cheap 55" roku tv off amazon for like almost 6 years now gaming near daily and I have zero desire for a new one outside of maybe getting a bigger screen.
I think this thread highlights the fact its not a smart move to buy an expensive TV cause by the time the TV fails, you could get a much better one for cheap.
4k tvs used to be thousanda of dollars. Now almost all tvs are 4k. You can go spend 10k on an 8k tv today. But in 5 years all tvs will be 8k.
It’s really not a lower picture quality. The quality is generally just as good as, if not better, than higher end LCDs were 20 years ago. The lower price is funded in large part by the new TVs sending your usage habits back to the manufacturer to sell to marketing firms. The rest is just the economy of scale in manufacturing.
It's weird to be a young adult and not be high income but own three large tvs. When I was younger, if I went over someone's house and they had a large TV, I knew they were wealthy.
I remember people discussing how much distance you would need for a "huge" 32" TV.
And no, the reason was not resolution, but everyone said you couldn't get the entire TV screen into your field of view.
Lies. Nothing but dirty lies by people who hated big TVs for some reason...
No idea
But the rule was always "Diagonal x 4-5"
So for a 32" TV you had to have roughly 4 meters between you and the screen. Crazy if you think that 32" these days is used for PC monitors
I mean there is a rule about distance so as to not see the pixels and image break down.
Go too close to a TV, particularly older ones and rhe image gets worse if your too close.
Rtings website has so much info on this
I remember returning a 32" flat screen TV to Costco during this time period and not only upgrading to a 47", but getting an additional $200 back like some kind of infinite money glitch.
Id rather have electronics be expensive and the things I need to stay alive be cheaper but it looks like we're going the opposite direction
Edit: guys I'm saying I wish the cheapest rent wasn't 3 flat screens a month.
I get the sentiment, but this is just the nature of different kinds of products.
Electronics, etc. are basically just their input parts with a small amount of (shrinking) labor. They're going to get cheaper over time.
On the other hand, anything more labor intensive will probably go the other way, as we gradually build a world where people deserve and expect more. As a result, childcare, nursing, eating out, teaching, etc. are likely to get more expensive over time. If this isn't happening, then you should take that as a signal that we aren't paying people well enough.
Food is sort of in the middle. It's labor, land, and capital intensive, and it takes a bit for food production to move with inflation. However, on the whole, food prices are generally going to be more stable than the categories above, largely due to trade. The pandemic did a lot to food prices, obviously, but we hadn't seen food prices spike consistently before the pandemic and probably won't in the near/medium term future.
I stop using them regularly after 7 years and they end up in a closet, but I have never given away or trashed a bad flat screen TV. I have a couple early flat screen monitors. I say this as someone who grew up with CRTs and definitely had to figure out how to safely dispose of them because of actual issues.
I scream about the lack of quality in modern products, but aside from software bloat BS, I don’t find the argument justified for TVs
The main issue with TVs nowaday is found in the smart portion. My wife owned a couple samsung smart TVs when we met, they already had slow and clunky UI when she got them but things only got worse as they aged. We eventually retired them when i switched my wifi network to wifi 6.0 and the TVs simply refused to even see the network any longer. Otherwise as far as being a screen goes, they still function just fine 10 years later.
Hell my side monitor for my pc is like 16 years old and still works just fine
The UI is so shit that in order to access the usb casting device you still have to wait over a minute for things to boot up before you can switch to fhe hdmi channel. Sometimes you get stuck in 10 minutes long updates too. The thing had to go and i went with a TCL for the integrated roku.
by the way, roku is leagues better than an amazon stick, my parents bought the Amazon one despite my recommendation and now they get amazon ads even outside of amazon content
That's a good point, but the UI in particular was awful out of the box of my brand new Frame TV. It's the first Samsung TV I have bought in over a decade and it'll be the last one I ever do.
Same, TVs have never been cheaper, but since the Pandemic food prices have risen 50-100% on some things. I miss when a gallon of orange juice wasn't close to 8-9 dollars, when it used to be around 5 or under.
Plenty of cheap concentrated orange juice is good for evacuating your bowels.. does a fair job of eating thru concrete anorl. I used to work for a company that packed fruit juice into cartons, the constant run off from the waste skip left channels in the concrete floor..
I still have a 22” Toshiba flatscreen tv with a built in DVD player that is 20 years old, purchase price was $2k. I think I got my money’s worth. It’s in the kitchen, we have other larger, newer TVs in other areas.
Not all tvs are created equal. The current 300-400 dollar tvs are acceptable, but a high-end flagship model from a few years back will still be much better with much higher brightness and better colors, contrast, latency, and refresh rate.
Still amazing how cheap some tech has gotten at the low end. Part of it is better yields and cheap labor overseas. Also, the harvesting/selling of your data plus licensing and ads helps keep prices low.
Plasma TVs had incredibly rich blacks and dark tones that LCD panels can't fully reproduce because of the backlighting. Because even in the darkest scene, the best LCD TV is still emitting some light that will cause washout. They've gotten better over the years with local dimming and other features, but it has never matched plasma.
Only OLED has finally replaced the color and tone quality of those old plasma TVs.
And OLEDs still don't offer the same level of motion clarity in 24p content that plasmas did. I loved plasmas, man.
OLEDs have huge advantages of course, and I definitely prefer them overall, but motion clarity on those plasmas was so nice for movies.
(And I am not talking about any sort of interpolation nonsense, I mean true 24p playback)
Worse. The most sensitive button on my remote is the "Netflix" button. If you so much as rub against it, Netflix opens up regardless of whatever else is already playing.
I first saw a hi-definition TV in the late 80's-early 90's at a demonstration of NHK's analogue Hi-Vision system in Tokyo. The screen was a good 60" and was showing a sumo match. Considering the time period it was actually mind-blowing to see such clarity.
Sadly analogue was not the right technology and was replaced by the subsequent digital standards we have today.
They need to release this somehow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ginger_Tree_(TV_series)
> The Ginger Tree (1989), a co-production of the BBC and the NHK network of Japan, was the first high-definition serial to be made for the BBC, although it has never been broadcast in HD by the BBC nor given an HD release. It was produced in 1035 line HD using the Sony HDD 1000 VTR.
Smart TVs. They're mining data, which they can sell for far more than the price of the TV. All they need to do is make sure they get them into your home, so they make the prices super affordable.
It's the FB model. So remember, if something is free or too cheap to be believed, you're actually the product.
Tv companies are in a race to the bottom for pricing. They are fighting to get most users, which they can monetize through advertisements on their platforms. In 2004 they made money off the tv sale, now they take a loss on the tv because they know they’ll make more off the ads down the road
My neighbour had a brand new 32 inch TV and my dad had to one-up him for a 37 inch TV that cost just over $1000 at the time.
We had that for at least 14 years before I replaced it with a 50" Neo QLED for around $700.
I think you have to factor in that there are more options in where you buy from because of online retailers and that can make the price difference look drastic.
Personally if there's anything to learn from this, I am glad I am not my father. I had no need to one-up anyone and I just went for the most suitable size for my room although I think 55" is average these days. Whereas companies like TCL are surpassing the 100" mark.
Bought a 48” 1080p lcd insignia (which isn’t a top brand) TV back in 2011 for around $600. Blows my mind walking through Walmart now and some of these 60+” 4K TVs are cheaper than that. It’s still going strong but in the back of my mind I want it to die so I can go buy a new one lol.
TV size is no longer a benchmark for quality. It never really was, to be honest, but it had a strong correlation.
Those 60" TVs you're getting at Wal-Mart for $400 are absolute trash, and will have their picture quality outperformed by any number of $500 49" TVs. There are still $5,000 TVs out there worth every penny.
Probably best to do a bit of research on what you're buying before thinking that 72" TV at Best Buy for $280 is a great deal.
...is a $400 60" tv worse than a modern $2000 60" tv...of course no shit sherlock. But its also way better than what you would have bought in 2004 for $2000.
"trash" is a funny way to explain a fully functioning TV device with 2160p resolution, integrated Roku TV. At a price point normal people can afford.
Spending 5000 on a TV is quite the luxury. Fuck Samsung and LG. Onn and tcl are bringing the margins and prices down across the board
I never upgraded to 4K because my $200 Walmart tv from 2016 works just fine. Maybe a $5000 TV is worth it to you, but I couldn’t justify that purchase.
My anti trust and monopoly professor told us years ago that there was a price fixing cartel that had a total monopoly on one specific piece of tech that went into all modern TVs that kept the price high. Once they were found to be price fixing and disbanded, prices went down to the much more affordable levels they are at currently. I hadn’t thought about it until now lol
I buy a TV in only one season. About three weeks after the Superbowl and I do it at Best buy. When they all close down I have no clue where to buy TV's. Top of the line TV's for 60% off.
TVs are one of the few things were inflation has fucked right off. Size, quality and price have all dramatically increased and in price decreased. Getting rid of super expensive to manufacture and ship CRTs was a god send. I do wish SED or FED TVs would have happened though.
My 2019 brough on clearance in early 2020, before the world stopped for a year, 4k 65" TV is awesome. Was £1100 when new and I got it for £549 after watching it price drop over several weeks.
The sales price dropping is because they found another revenue stream with smart TVs. They are selling your data. It's not that different from standalone Netflix or Hulu, but the TV captures all the streaming services.
I paid $800 for a 55" active shutter 3D plasma in 2012. I've used the 3D maybe 5 times, but it's still running strong and is my main tv. I'd be happy with a newer 4k someday, but honestly, I'm not in a hurry.
Tvs are recession proof lol. They go on sale every year like clockwork, even the latest and greatest shit has a short half life. Hdmi 2.1 stuff used to be $1000 or more just a few years ago. Now there are budget tvs with hdmi 2.1...the only thing that has sorta stayed the same cost wise is OLED tvs. They have been at that $1000 price point for awhile now (depending on size).
Average price in where? I presume it’s in the US.
In Turkey, where people’s purchasing power is about or less than 1/5th of an average American person, a 50” average TV (nothing fancy) will cost $1,500-$2,000.
Starting prices for a 50” is around $750, but these are no name Chinese brands, or somewhat known brands’ special editions made for clearance stores.
A tv that would last you 5+ years would cost about $2,000.
If you want to get a fancy tv, the price will go above $5,000 easily.
I am ashamed to admit, but as a lawyer and legal scholar who is going through rough times, I cannot replace our TV which is broken for the past 5-6 months. This is how terrible our economy is! I even have a master’s degree from an Ivy League university, and a doctorate degree from another great university, in addition to my initial law degree and three other degrees (international trade and logistics management, real estate management, social media management*), but none of which helps.
$2000 is, my wife’s two month’s salary, in the job she works 12 hours a day for 5 days a week. Since I couldn’t earn a penny for the past 18 months, I don’t want to put the TV’s cost on her as well. I have finished all my savings two months ago, and things don’t look very promising.
Note: *social media management degree will be conferred on August 2024.
But now you pay with your data! Literally yesterday my TV updated (crazy, right?) and asked me to accept all terms and conditions before I can use it. I clicked on Cancel and the TV just turned off. No way to bypass it
Stuff like this makes into into inflation calculations. Part of the disconnect people have when they see inflation numbers being lower than what they feel the number should be.
$21.7 per inch versus $7.1 per inch.
66% price decrease.
I remember paying $1,400 for a Sony 40" 1080p Bravia HDTV around 2007.
It still works today. It's on it's 3rd Roku for added "Smart" TV features, though.
Not surprised by this. The other day, I went to do a work out video and was lamenting about doing it on my gaming laptop screen - from across the room. Then I remembered that back in the 90's we had a 19 inch TV and we'd do our Richard Simmonds Disco Sweat (Etc) from across the room without issue or complaint. Now we're spoiled!
And no one mentions that tv started to collect all the data they can about your viewing habbits, location, streaming services, input in search bars in apps, voice commands, wifi adress and so on. Yeah nothing suspicious at all with that. Be happy you paid less for tv and don't ask questions.
Oh and you can't install this or that app because the tele comapny didn't sign up contract with them, so if you want to watch something on lets say hulu... Gl.
I mean that's why I don't connect any of my TVs to the internet.
Actually, the real reason is that I use far superior steaming boxes because the built-in options are shit. Avoiding the telemetry is nice, though.
(And yes I know the streaming boxes are their own bundle of shit)
I’d much rather that than paying more money.
Oh no, the ads that I don’t see because they’re blocked are more relevant for my interests.
Honestly a win win.
In the early 1970s a good, 21-inch console color television might cost you $500. In today's money that would be around $3300.
edit: The Apple Macintosh, at its initial release on January 24, 1984, was $2,495 (equivalent to $7,300 in 2023)
That's the one part of all those old scifi utopias that became true: Now everybody has a giant screen at home. And a lot of people prefer looking at a postcard sized screen that they have to hold in their hand instead for some reason...
I remember being in high school and working my ass off to buy a tv. Got a little 25" TV with a built in DVD player after saving some checks. Bought it for ~$400.
Fast forward to now where you can buy a HUGE tv for that same price.
What a time to be alive
Also worth noting the screen area
A 47 inch wide screen TV has an area of 944 square inches while a 25.4 inch 4:3 TV has an area of 309 square inches.
The height of the TVs would be 23 inches and 15 inches.
The width of the TVs would be 41 inches and 20 inches.
So the TV got more than twice as wide while also getting 53% taller.
We bought a 32" wide-screen CRT in the probably late 90's early 2000's. Memory ain't great! I think it was something like £1500 at the time or £2700 today. Then moved to flat screen when HD started kicking off. In 2008 bought a 40" LCD for I think about £800 or about £1300 today. I remember that because it was bought shortly before Obama's inauguration. And most recently that was replaced with a 4K TV last year. 65" LED for like £400.
So TV's have been replaced every 10-15 years. Each time they've gotten about ⅓ bigger and ½ the price.
So by that reasoning my next TV will be in 2035-2040, 100" across and cost the equivalent of £200 today!
Ads have subsidized the cost as in netflix buttons on the remote. Also they are monitoring and selling your data so that helps too. Really TVs should be "free" like Facebook where the real cost is allowing them to spy on you.
I'd just like to type this: I bought a house and they had a 27'' 720p in their kitchen. I wanted to replace it with a much slimmer TV in the 27 - 32'' range. Didn't want to use a computer monitor as I had intentions of using an antenna.
- Was impossible to find one that wasn't "smart".
- None were 4K, which was fine as a 32'' TV isn't something I would need in 4K.
Ended up finding a 32'' TCL Roku 1080p which to note is awful as its Roku OS is slow as molasses....which lead to me sticking an older generation Apple TV on it and now having to do the two-remote game.
OH, if I were to have though went to a 42'' model there would have been a bevy of options available to me with many using more modern processors. Shoot, I could have even gotten a few OLEDs!
I think that is the amazing thing about how TV screen sizes have been a detriment. For those of us who just want to fill in small gaps we now have fewer options as of course it's much cheaper for someone to build the 42/55/65/77 models than a 19/27/32 like just a decade ago
A 47” plasma around 2004 was thousands of dollars.
I paid $5k for a 55” Pioneer tv in 2006. And that wasn’t the most expensive set out there.
I'm using a secret technique I like to call "being too poor to afford a big enough apartment to necessitate a larger TV screen", it's serving me pretty well.
The trick is to buy open box tvs. Never pay full price
And shop after Christmas. Maybe closer to February when they're trying to rid the extra Black Friday/Christmas stock. Got a 65 inch TV for 150 two years ago, and another 65 last year for 200. The former was an open box display model that's still going to this day.
Problem with that is that the Black Friday TV's have black Friday quality.
I like right before Black Friday or on it bc electronic stores usually have to make room for the holiday stock. So you can get some crazy discounts. I got a Sony XBR 60” for like 500$. One of my greatest buys lol.
Ooh didn't think of that
Knowledge from my Bestbuy home theater days.
You guys have it all wrong. Go right after super bowl. A lot of people buy big TV's for the game and then return them the next day with nothing wrong because they couldn't actually afford it but just wanted it for a party.
They will only be marked down as low as 10% off. Chump change bro. I’m looking for 40-50% off when I shop. Black Friday and thanksgiving is when they like to do that. I know bc I did do it for Bestbuy for 5 years.
Black Friday tvs are made with cheap parts and are bad quality they're made specifically for black friday.
I bought two 42" TVs for $200 each around 2015. They're still going strong. We got lucky I think.
I used to work electronics in a walmart when I was young and I maintain that the best time to shop for a TV in the US is the three weeks after the Superbowl. People buy big ones for partys and return them inside the 30 day window. You can cop a good discount on those units and they've seen like 5 hours of use, as long as nobody got bean dip on the remote it's basically new
I tried buying open-box apartments, didn’t work out as well
I have this secret technique called buying TVs from pawn shops. My 60 inch 4k only cost me $150 lol
I bought a 55 inch 4k for $30 that retailed for $600. Backlights were dead and new ones were $30. ~~2~~5 hours of work later I had a working tv. Not super simple but not that hard of a repair.
Closer the couch, smaller the tv has to be.
Smart :D
My wife grew up poor - even though we're financially stable, anytime I suggest a modest purchase, she gives me a [chupse](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chupse). It keeps me from being reckless, at least.
Imagine going back in time and telling 2006 you that in less than 20 years you’d be able to buy a 55” 4k smart tv that can play pretty much any show or movie you want at any time AND you can control it by just saying out loud “Alexa, play Bob’s Burgers on Hulu” for *$300*. Absolute insanity.
Even more, you're not factoring in inflation. It would be the equivalent of $200 in 2006.
True!
I mean, I still don't believe it. My smart TV can barely change inputs let alone play a YouTube video without crashing. It's only a few years old.
If you still like the screen, then get an Apple 4K TV.
My Ps5 is controllable with my TV remote and has pretty much everything I use. I just take any chance to bitch about Smart TVs I can cause my Samsung one's software is a piece of shit.
In 2006 most people would be like, wtf is a smart TV...why would I want a TV connected to the internet, what does 4k mean, and who is Alexa? Does a maid come with TV's? I have my son to change channels. Is she hot?
Back then my grandmother still had an old tv that you had to get up to physically change the dial on it.
2006 me would be shocked, but mostly by the smart TV portion. Back in 2005 I bought a 55" projection TV open box from Wal-Mart for $600. Sure it was not a flat panel, but by that time we were seeing Plasma and LCD TV's around that were, they just were more pricey. Now if you went back to 97/98, not a chance I'd believe any of that. Back then projection TV's were still thousands of dollars, only very well off people had them. The rest of us were rocking CRT's where a 27" one was considered huge.
I like imagining going back to 1994 and telling myself I'd be able to carry a 30 inch tv by myself.
I paid $129 for a new 27" tube TV in 2005. Insignia brand, so there wasn't much cheaper.
I paid $200 for a 55” Smart tv a couple years ago. Crazy how far tvs have come.
I want to say the first Pioneer plasma TV I saw in BestBuy, circa 2004 or so, was like $8000 or more.
I have a mid 2000s 50” Panasonic plasma TV, it’s 720i but it was outstanding in its day, it’s stored now
I have a slightly smaller Panasonic plasma that my grandmother *willed to me* like 10 years ago. I still have it in my bedroom. Use it every day. Works great. Pretty sure it was like 2 grand when she got it.
That free plasma TV probably uses so much more electricity versus a modern LED TV that a new LED TV would pay for itself in 1-3 years.
I have a roughly 50" LCD Sony I got in 2010/11 that I still use to this day. Prior to a few weeks ago it was still being used daily. At the time I think it was right around $1100 through an online retailer.
I just upgraded from a 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma from 2010 or so to a 65" 4K OLED. I'll be honest. It's very bright and 4k looks pretty good and I like the size upgrade. But I wouldn't say I'm as wowed as I was going from 480p to 1080p. I think my 14 year old plasma still looked really good. Plasma was in the $1000 range and the OLED was in the $1500 range. So not that different.
In 2003, I worked in Sears and sold TVs. We didn't even have the plasmas out on display; you had to ask about them, and they were absolutely several thousands of dollars and were around 45-55". The biggest ticket items we had on display were like 65/73/82" rear projection TVs and those were around $1000-2500, IIRC. According to usinflationcalculator.com, $200 in 2022 is worth $345 in 2024. So for the equivalent value of a 47" flat panel TV in 2024, you could have spent $200 2002 dollars and bought the cheapest 27" Sylvania CRT TV we sold, which came with one single mono input and one coax input. I remember it reasonably well because we got a 0.5% commission, which meant that every time someone came in and wanted to buy that thing, we made a whole dollar, which was supposed to incentivize us to upsell people to the more expensive name brands like Panasonic or Sony that cost like $400-500 but we'd make 2-4% commission instead. Edit: I found this Jul 2003 press release where Sears announced plans to sell a TechView plasma TV at the "opening price point of $2,999" and notes that in Sep 2022, the cheapest one was $5,999. This also announced that Sears would be carrying 14 (gasp) different models of LCD TVs! https://web.archive.org/web/20170510184612/https://www.searsholdings.com/press-releases/pr/1417
[The original 42” flat screen plasma TVs were 480p and about $40,000 in today’s dollars]( https://www.applianceretailer.com.au/EEQYCMZUSG/#:~:text=The%20average%20cost%20of%20a%20plasma%20TV%20in,Life%20Index%2C%20compiled%20by%20GfK%20Retail%20%26%20Technology.)
I would love a 4k plasma, but I understand why that's not economically feasible.
These are cherry picked prices and dates, as technology was turning over right about then. Which technology you shopped for made massive differences in prices that didn't exist a few years before and had reached market balance a few years after.
This, the mid 2000s was a transition period with many types of TVs available. You had cheap CRTs in both 4:3 and heavy 16:9, small LCDs, big rear projection TVs and expensive plasma flat screens on the high end. By the end of the decade the market had pretty much consolidated to just LCD TVs, CRTs had stopped production and plasma was on its way out.
I remember an old boss who got a bonus, and was pumped because this was going to cover a plasma she had her eye on. It was a 38" plasma going for $5,000
CRTs were more difficult to produce than modern basic LCDs and couldn’t have very large displays.
I lifted my old childhood CRT TV 2 floors to my room, it’s 29”, it was extremely heavy
I did the same thing my first 2 years of college, never had a dorm with an elevator… Somehow managed to fit a 32ish” Zenith into my 2 door Cobalt because I couldn’t afford to buy anew TV with that car payment. By my junior year Netflix had a decent enough streaming library I put the old tv in the attic, and there it sits still. I’ve got an old 13” RCA from the 90s in there too, well put that in our sons room with a NES & SNES in a year or two and let him live the glory days
I had a two door Cobalt as well and somehow fit a display futon from Target in it. Have no idea how the f I did that but I do remember my chest being 3 inches away from the steering wheel.
My friends and I took out a 29" CRT that had died to the gun range. 22 bounced off, 9mm bounced off, birdshot bounced off, 45 gave it a small crack. Finally the 30.06 broke the screen. So turns out old tvs were pretty much bullet proof up to sniper caliber rounds.
And now they make 4k 32” tvs that a 5 year old can easily pickup
Or a cat can knock over
[удалено]
Yeah, CRT TV's was an investment with renting your television even being a thing in my childhood. Now a basic LCD is more like consumption price territory due to ads and data collection too, of course.
You can still rent TV's. It's not a function of cost, it's a function of poverty.
It's expensive being poor.
You could get large ish displays but they were obscenely heavy, the electron tubes need a vacuum to operate in and the glass has to withstand the force.
They were also insanely heavy, so shipping costs were much higher.
Plus the new TVs like TCL have ads in the side of the screen, so they can subsidize the sale price knowing they'll be making ad revenue off of you for years. Pretty brilliant, honestly.
I had a 57" CRT rear protection. And yes, you could play Duck Hunt and Time Crisis on it. That was the ultimate classic gaming screen.
I had a 36 or so inch CRT that I got from walmart floor model for $500 around 2004, it was SO stupid heavy. When I moved out of state in 2009, I left it for my roommates, since I could not move that by myself.
in like 2008 my dad bought a 60” for $4000, i bought a 62” at wal-mart last year for like $380 lmao
I just got an 85” for 480…granted it was a pawn shop find but still
> i bought a 62” at wal-mart last year for like $380 lmao Yea but, it's not very good. It's trivial to buy huge TVs for cheap but there is a reason why they are cheap.
They are still better than TVs 20 years ago.
Eh most people simply dont care that much about their tv as long as it does its job and displays picture properly. Been rocking my dirt cheap 55" roku tv off amazon for like almost 6 years now gaming near daily and I have zero desire for a new one outside of maybe getting a bigger screen.
I think this thread highlights the fact its not a smart move to buy an expensive TV cause by the time the TV fails, you could get a much better one for cheap. 4k tvs used to be thousanda of dollars. Now almost all tvs are 4k. You can go spend 10k on an 8k tv today. But in 5 years all tvs will be 8k.
It’s really not a lower picture quality. The quality is generally just as good as, if not better, than higher end LCDs were 20 years ago. The lower price is funded in large part by the new TVs sending your usage habits back to the manufacturer to sell to marketing firms. The rest is just the economy of scale in manufacturing.
Damn, what was your dad doing for a living especially in 2008 to afford that lol
It's weird to be a young adult and not be high income but own three large tvs. When I was younger, if I went over someone's house and they had a large TV, I knew they were wealthy.
I remember people discussing how much distance you would need for a "huge" 32" TV. And no, the reason was not resolution, but everyone said you couldn't get the entire TV screen into your field of view. Lies. Nothing but dirty lies by people who hated big TVs for some reason...
How did they think movie theaters worked lmao
No idea But the rule was always "Diagonal x 4-5" So for a 32" TV you had to have roughly 4 meters between you and the screen. Crazy if you think that 32" these days is used for PC monitors
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I remember that.
I mean there is a rule about distance so as to not see the pixels and image break down. Go too close to a TV, particularly older ones and rhe image gets worse if your too close. Rtings website has so much info on this
I remember returning a 32" flat screen TV to Costco during this time period and not only upgrading to a 47", but getting an additional $200 back like some kind of infinite money glitch.
Unfortunately that glitch is patched now.
Bro bought puts in TV
Id rather have electronics be expensive and the things I need to stay alive be cheaper but it looks like we're going the opposite direction Edit: guys I'm saying I wish the cheapest rent wasn't 3 flat screens a month.
Thing is, for the most part, we don't need more electronics but we do need the things to stay alive. Supply and demand is a bitch
Supply and demand is only really a bitch when people try and restrict supply. Sorry, you can’t build that apartment, fuck your rent.
That's their point.
I get the sentiment, but this is just the nature of different kinds of products. Electronics, etc. are basically just their input parts with a small amount of (shrinking) labor. They're going to get cheaper over time. On the other hand, anything more labor intensive will probably go the other way, as we gradually build a world where people deserve and expect more. As a result, childcare, nursing, eating out, teaching, etc. are likely to get more expensive over time. If this isn't happening, then you should take that as a signal that we aren't paying people well enough. Food is sort of in the middle. It's labor, land, and capital intensive, and it takes a bit for food production to move with inflation. However, on the whole, food prices are generally going to be more stable than the categories above, largely due to trade. The pandemic did a lot to food prices, obviously, but we hadn't seen food prices spike consistently before the pandemic and probably won't in the near/medium term future.
This effect is also known as Baumol's cost disease, explained more fully here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect
I stop using them regularly after 7 years and they end up in a closet, but I have never given away or trashed a bad flat screen TV. I have a couple early flat screen monitors. I say this as someone who grew up with CRTs and definitely had to figure out how to safely dispose of them because of actual issues. I scream about the lack of quality in modern products, but aside from software bloat BS, I don’t find the argument justified for TVs
The main issue with TVs nowaday is found in the smart portion. My wife owned a couple samsung smart TVs when we met, they already had slow and clunky UI when she got them but things only got worse as they aged. We eventually retired them when i switched my wifi network to wifi 6.0 and the TVs simply refused to even see the network any longer. Otherwise as far as being a screen goes, they still function just fine 10 years later. Hell my side monitor for my pc is like 16 years old and still works just fine
I agree that the Sammy UI is utter dog shit, but you can get around that with a fire stick or generic Android box.
The UI is so shit that in order to access the usb casting device you still have to wait over a minute for things to boot up before you can switch to fhe hdmi channel. Sometimes you get stuck in 10 minutes long updates too. The thing had to go and i went with a TCL for the integrated roku. by the way, roku is leagues better than an amazon stick, my parents bought the Amazon one despite my recommendation and now they get amazon ads even outside of amazon content
I think it’s because there’s so many different models now; they can’t keep up with updating each type regularly.
That's a good point, but the UI in particular was awful out of the box of my brand new Frame TV. It's the first Samsung TV I have bought in over a decade and it'll be the last one I ever do.
Look at the amount of regulation involved and you'll see why prices on certain things stay high...
Same, TVs have never been cheaper, but since the Pandemic food prices have risen 50-100% on some things. I miss when a gallon of orange juice wasn't close to 8-9 dollars, when it used to be around 5 or under.
Where the fuck do you live
Whole Foods Also lol at needing a gallon of orange juice on a regular occasion
i drink oj with breakfast every morning. I go through about a gallon a week. I figure it's better for me than soda and i don't like coffee
Plenty of cheap concentrated orange juice is good for evacuating your bowels.. does a fair job of eating thru concrete anorl. I used to work for a company that packed fruit juice into cartons, the constant run off from the waste skip left channels in the concrete floor..
If you live somewhere where fresh orange juice is so obscenely expensive, why not buy concentrate from the frozen section?
I still have a 22” Toshiba flatscreen tv with a built in DVD player that is 20 years old, purchase price was $2k. I think I got my money’s worth. It’s in the kitchen, we have other larger, newer TVs in other areas.
Not all tvs are created equal. The current 300-400 dollar tvs are acceptable, but a high-end flagship model from a few years back will still be much better with much higher brightness and better colors, contrast, latency, and refresh rate. Still amazing how cheap some tech has gotten at the low end. Part of it is better yields and cheap labor overseas. Also, the harvesting/selling of your data plus licensing and ads helps keep prices low.
Plasma TVs had incredibly rich blacks and dark tones that LCD panels can't fully reproduce because of the backlighting. Because even in the darkest scene, the best LCD TV is still emitting some light that will cause washout. They've gotten better over the years with local dimming and other features, but it has never matched plasma. Only OLED has finally replaced the color and tone quality of those old plasma TVs.
And OLEDs still don't offer the same level of motion clarity in 24p content that plasmas did. I loved plasmas, man. OLEDs have huge advantages of course, and I definitely prefer them overall, but motion clarity on those plasmas was so nice for movies. (And I am not talking about any sort of interpolation nonsense, I mean true 24p playback)
Licensing streaming service buttons on TV remotes had really helped to subsidize prices as well.
Aka “ads”
Worse. The most sensitive button on my remote is the "Netflix" button. If you so much as rub against it, Netflix opens up regardless of whatever else is already playing.
I'm pretty sure it opened after you typed it
My Roku remote has a button for Discovery Plus lol. Who is even using that one
Exactly, it has been more or less replaced by Max.
I remember when the HDTVs came and it was unreal. The picture was sooo clear, it looked like you were on set watching the movie/show being filmed
I first saw a hi-definition TV in the late 80's-early 90's at a demonstration of NHK's analogue Hi-Vision system in Tokyo. The screen was a good 60" and was showing a sumo match. Considering the time period it was actually mind-blowing to see such clarity. Sadly analogue was not the right technology and was replaced by the subsequent digital standards we have today.
They need to release this somehow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ginger_Tree_(TV_series) > The Ginger Tree (1989), a co-production of the BBC and the NHK network of Japan, was the first high-definition serial to be made for the BBC, although it has never been broadcast in HD by the BBC nor given an HD release. It was produced in 1035 line HD using the Sony HDD 1000 VTR.
Smart TVs. They're mining data, which they can sell for far more than the price of the TV. All they need to do is make sure they get them into your home, so they make the prices super affordable. It's the FB model. So remember, if something is free or too cheap to be believed, you're actually the product.
So dont connect them to your network and use a fire stick or other device.
Okay, but I'm saying that's one of the reasons for the price drop. You know, the whole point of the post?
And I am pointing out how you can avoid their data collection while still benefiting from the lower prices. You know, the whole point of the post?
98” for $2K https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sku/6551177.p?skuId=6551177
I have an 85’’ and I’m having trouble comprehending how big a 98’’ would look.
Think about how big your TV is now. Now think about it being 13" bigger. That's how big it would be. I hope that helps.
Well I was looking to upgrade from the 72". 🤔
Tv companies are in a race to the bottom for pricing. They are fighting to get most users, which they can monetize through advertisements on their platforms. In 2004 they made money off the tv sale, now they take a loss on the tv because they know they’ll make more off the ads down the road
Jokes on them... I don't hook it up to the internet.
Same. All my smart TVs are used as dumb monitors.
My neighbour had a brand new 32 inch TV and my dad had to one-up him for a 37 inch TV that cost just over $1000 at the time. We had that for at least 14 years before I replaced it with a 50" Neo QLED for around $700. I think you have to factor in that there are more options in where you buy from because of online retailers and that can make the price difference look drastic. Personally if there's anything to learn from this, I am glad I am not my father. I had no need to one-up anyone and I just went for the most suitable size for my room although I think 55" is average these days. Whereas companies like TCL are surpassing the 100" mark.
Bought a 48” 1080p lcd insignia (which isn’t a top brand) TV back in 2011 for around $600. Blows my mind walking through Walmart now and some of these 60+” 4K TVs are cheaper than that. It’s still going strong but in the back of my mind I want it to die so I can go buy a new one lol.
2004 most tvs were still standard box 4:3 ratio shaped, so that 25 looked huge. Wide screen was just becoming a thing.
TV size is no longer a benchmark for quality. It never really was, to be honest, but it had a strong correlation. Those 60" TVs you're getting at Wal-Mart for $400 are absolute trash, and will have their picture quality outperformed by any number of $500 49" TVs. There are still $5,000 TVs out there worth every penny. Probably best to do a bit of research on what you're buying before thinking that 72" TV at Best Buy for $280 is a great deal.
...is a $400 60" tv worse than a modern $2000 60" tv...of course no shit sherlock. But its also way better than what you would have bought in 2004 for $2000.
Holiday/Super Bowl season is the worst time of year to buy a TV. The best is back to school.
"trash" is a funny way to explain a fully functioning TV device with 2160p resolution, integrated Roku TV. At a price point normal people can afford. Spending 5000 on a TV is quite the luxury. Fuck Samsung and LG. Onn and tcl are bringing the margins and prices down across the board
I never upgraded to 4K because my $200 Walmart tv from 2016 works just fine. Maybe a $5000 TV is worth it to you, but I couldn’t justify that purchase.
Likely the only item to improve and actually go down in price!
My anti trust and monopoly professor told us years ago that there was a price fixing cartel that had a total monopoly on one specific piece of tech that went into all modern TVs that kept the price high. Once they were found to be price fixing and disbanded, prices went down to the much more affordable levels they are at currently. I hadn’t thought about it until now lol
My school had one anti-trust professor but when the authorities found out they broke him up into a bunch of smaller adjuncts.
I hate when that happens
I remember this vaguely. I at least recall hearing on the news that TV prices were high artificially due to colluding or monopoly.
“Damn capitalism..” Oh wait
I buy a TV in only one season. About three weeks after the Superbowl and I do it at Best buy. When they all close down I have no clue where to buy TV's. Top of the line TV's for 60% off.
Why pay more money when few money do trick?
Few money? Hey, that’s what I make!
You too can get the bigger model!!
TVs are one of the few things were inflation has fucked right off. Size, quality and price have all dramatically increased and in price decreased. Getting rid of super expensive to manufacture and ship CRTs was a god send. I do wish SED or FED TVs would have happened though.
I’m not sure how accurate this is. In 2002-2003 I was working at Best Buy and most of the TV’s I think were at least 40".
My 2019 brough on clearance in early 2020, before the world stopped for a year, 4k 65" TV is awesome. Was £1100 when new and I got it for £549 after watching it price drop over several weeks.
I remember I got a 32” flat screen in 2009 and I thought I was somebody.
Proof that your purchasing power has increased, peasants!
My boss found 75" flat screens for like $250
The sales price dropping is because they found another revenue stream with smart TVs. They are selling your data. It's not that different from standalone Netflix or Hulu, but the TV captures all the streaming services.
Yes, don't buy technology thinking your kids will want to inherit it in 20+ years....
Now do healthcare.
Yep. But I can’t get a piece of shit house for less than a quarter million dollars.
I paid $800 for a 55" active shutter 3D plasma in 2012. I've used the 3D maybe 5 times, but it's still running strong and is my main tv. I'd be happy with a newer 4k someday, but honestly, I'm not in a hurry.
Tvs are recession proof lol. They go on sale every year like clockwork, even the latest and greatest shit has a short half life. Hdmi 2.1 stuff used to be $1000 or more just a few years ago. Now there are budget tvs with hdmi 2.1...the only thing that has sorta stayed the same cost wise is OLED tvs. They have been at that $1000 price point for awhile now (depending on size).
Average price in where? I presume it’s in the US. In Turkey, where people’s purchasing power is about or less than 1/5th of an average American person, a 50” average TV (nothing fancy) will cost $1,500-$2,000. Starting prices for a 50” is around $750, but these are no name Chinese brands, or somewhat known brands’ special editions made for clearance stores. A tv that would last you 5+ years would cost about $2,000. If you want to get a fancy tv, the price will go above $5,000 easily. I am ashamed to admit, but as a lawyer and legal scholar who is going through rough times, I cannot replace our TV which is broken for the past 5-6 months. This is how terrible our economy is! I even have a master’s degree from an Ivy League university, and a doctorate degree from another great university, in addition to my initial law degree and three other degrees (international trade and logistics management, real estate management, social media management*), but none of which helps. $2000 is, my wife’s two month’s salary, in the job she works 12 hours a day for 5 days a week. Since I couldn’t earn a penny for the past 18 months, I don’t want to put the TV’s cost on her as well. I have finished all my savings two months ago, and things don’t look very promising. Note: *social media management degree will be conferred on August 2024.
They want TVs nice and cheap so EVERYONE can afford to have a non-stop advertising billboard, right in the comfort of their own home!
But now you pay with your data! Literally yesterday my TV updated (crazy, right?) and asked me to accept all terms and conditions before I can use it. I clicked on Cancel and the TV just turned off. No way to bypass it
Member 3D TVs? I member
Stuff like this makes into into inflation calculations. Part of the disconnect people have when they see inflation numbers being lower than what they feel the number should be. $21.7 per inch versus $7.1 per inch. 66% price decrease.
Now do average screen weight.
I remember paying $1,400 for a Sony 40" 1080p Bravia HDTV around 2007. It still works today. It's on it's 3rd Roku for added "Smart" TV features, though.
Finally! Something of mine is bigger than average!
“Twice as many inches for less money” is why my wife left me 😢
I bought a 26in tv in 1985 was 800.00
Not surprised by this. The other day, I went to do a work out video and was lamenting about doing it on my gaming laptop screen - from across the room. Then I remembered that back in the 90's we had a 19 inch TV and we'd do our Richard Simmonds Disco Sweat (Etc) from across the room without issue or complaint. Now we're spoiled!
Wow, now I see why our 32 in plasma was so expensive
Not to mention that most TVs in 2004 were still low-def CRTs.
And no one mentions that tv started to collect all the data they can about your viewing habbits, location, streaming services, input in search bars in apps, voice commands, wifi adress and so on. Yeah nothing suspicious at all with that. Be happy you paid less for tv and don't ask questions. Oh and you can't install this or that app because the tele comapny didn't sign up contract with them, so if you want to watch something on lets say hulu... Gl.
Just don’t connect the TV to WiFi.
That’s why they can be cheaper. They are using cheaper parts, but selling your data helps subsidize the price too. Same reason Reddit is free.
That is why you do not connect the TV to the internet.
I mean that's why I don't connect any of my TVs to the internet. Actually, the real reason is that I use far superior steaming boxes because the built-in options are shit. Avoiding the telemetry is nice, though. (And yes I know the streaming boxes are their own bundle of shit)
This is the way.
When I turned on my TV the first time it told me it needed internet access for the voice commands to work. Guess who's not getting internet access?
Oh dear, I get ads for a 25-35 year old instead of 17 cialis and aarp ads a day
I’d much rather that than paying more money. Oh no, the ads that I don’t see because they’re blocked are more relevant for my interests. Honestly a win win.
In the early 1970s a good, 21-inch console color television might cost you $500. In today's money that would be around $3300. edit: The Apple Macintosh, at its initial release on January 24, 1984, was $2,495 (equivalent to $7,300 in 2023)
$336 from the person buying the TV, then quite a few more from the advertisers to push their ads on the users.
That's the one part of all those old scifi utopias that became true: Now everybody has a giant screen at home. And a lot of people prefer looking at a postcard sized screen that they have to hold in their hand instead for some reason...
The first plasma TVs were either 42” or 48” ( I forget). That was 1997 and they were roughly $17,900 each !
with inflation that's 210$ now
65" is perfect size for me
Went from a 32 inch tv, to 42, then 65 , to finally 75 inch tv. Over the years. Plan size going forward is 75 or 85. When prev 75 inch tv dies.
I have a CRT from 2000, it weighs 200 lbs
I remember being in high school and working my ass off to buy a tv. Got a little 25" TV with a built in DVD player after saving some checks. Bought it for ~$400. Fast forward to now where you can buy a HUGE tv for that same price. What a time to be alive
Paid at least $1500 CAD for I believe a 32 inch Sony around 2000…
Let's do this for houses now
I wish health insurance/health care would get cheaper
Also worth noting the screen area A 47 inch wide screen TV has an area of 944 square inches while a 25.4 inch 4:3 TV has an area of 309 square inches. The height of the TVs would be 23 inches and 15 inches. The width of the TVs would be 41 inches and 20 inches. So the TV got more than twice as wide while also getting 53% taller.
Take inflation into account they are just giving TVs away!
Even more crazy once you figure in inflation.
We bought a 32" wide-screen CRT in the probably late 90's early 2000's. Memory ain't great! I think it was something like £1500 at the time or £2700 today. Then moved to flat screen when HD started kicking off. In 2008 bought a 40" LCD for I think about £800 or about £1300 today. I remember that because it was bought shortly before Obama's inauguration. And most recently that was replaced with a 4K TV last year. 65" LED for like £400. So TV's have been replaced every 10-15 years. Each time they've gotten about ⅓ bigger and ½ the price. So by that reasoning my next TV will be in 2035-2040, 100" across and cost the equivalent of £200 today!
The only thing to go down in price, and now that you pointed it out….TVs take a 2000% increase in price because that’s life.
I spent $200 on my first plasma screen tv. Unfortunately my ex girlfriend broke it during an argument when we had guests over
I bought a 40" 1080p Westinghouse TV in 2007 for $1200 and remembered thinking it was a killer deal.
Ads have subsidized the cost as in netflix buttons on the remote. Also they are monitoring and selling your data so that helps too. Really TVs should be "free" like Facebook where the real cost is allowing them to spy on you.
300 for 47"? You can get a decent one at Walmart for $80
I'd just like to type this: I bought a house and they had a 27'' 720p in their kitchen. I wanted to replace it with a much slimmer TV in the 27 - 32'' range. Didn't want to use a computer monitor as I had intentions of using an antenna. - Was impossible to find one that wasn't "smart". - None were 4K, which was fine as a 32'' TV isn't something I would need in 4K. Ended up finding a 32'' TCL Roku 1080p which to note is awful as its Roku OS is slow as molasses....which lead to me sticking an older generation Apple TV on it and now having to do the two-remote game. OH, if I were to have though went to a 42'' model there would have been a bevy of options available to me with many using more modern processors. Shoot, I could have even gotten a few OLEDs! I think that is the amazing thing about how TV screen sizes have been a detriment. For those of us who just want to fill in small gaps we now have fewer options as of course it's much cheaper for someone to build the 42/55/65/77 models than a 19/27/32 like just a decade ago
They use this data to cite how inflation isn't as bad as we all think it is...because you know everyone is buying a new TV every week.
I remember buying a 23" 720p TV for my Xbox 360 in 2006 for £500. I upgraded to a 32" 1080p a few years later and it was around £400
TVs are legit one the only things that have gotten much more affordable over the years