I've been mostly for my primary TV's a
Sony XBR customer since my first one in 1994 and never minded paying the usual Sony tax all along especially when I went to someone else's crib that didn't have a Sony ,decent Samsung or a decent plasma and then there is the usual Sony XBR build quality .
Aside from the legendary 1080p Samsung 64f8500 plasma out front here my last 2 Sonys still here are a 2013 1080P Sony Bravia (decent 1080P set with a Samsung SPVA panel ) in another room now and the 2015 4K Sony XBR Triluminous wide color gamut HDR ready 55X850C in here with an AUO WGG panel and Sony Triluminoous lighting and that Sony XBR build quality , up scaling and Sony color.
That X85C Sony XBR can put a lot of 2016 TV's to bed in a minute and nobody does Sony color and 4K Up-scaling like Sony on an LCD but Samsung is close and good enough and they can usually get full HDR bright and look pretty good too me and this Sony X85C has virtually the same color gamut as the more expensive 9xxx Sonys and Samsung's anyway . .
The problem with 8 bit bt709
LED/ LCD backlit /edge lit panels or any
4K SDR LED panel is (the light spectrum) they make lousy primary colors especially the reds and greens and lousy and not many color gradations and have too much color banding compared to a
modern 10 bit 4K Wide color gamut HDR panel even on 8 bit 720p/1080i/p HDTV content thats why I bought my
Samsung 64f8500 plasma in 2013 it put all the LCD sets to bed and can still do that to
any SDR LCD TV today that thing ain't no joke and neither were the Panny Plasma's .
You can re map regular bt709 8 bit color or
CATV/SAT color stripped HDTV to a plausible wider 10 bit color gamut that can make anything look better. (DVD and Blue ray too ) on any
wide color gamut Sony or Samsung
HDR or HDR ready wide color gamut TV .
FWIW decently up scaled 720P /1080p adds details to the picture and much less blooming with 4 x the pixels of 1080p and a wide color gamut 10 bit panel has many more color gradations within 8 bit content it's no contest at all 10 bit color is 1.07 B vs 16.7 M at 8 bits . and you probably cant get a 10 bit 1080p panel anymore anyway but if I was buying a 1080p SDR LCD set it would be a Sony or Samsung .
Note there are less expensive 4K HDR ready sets even from Samsung and Sony that don't have
the wide color gamut panels and WCG is king .
ppfftt....OTOH .we can see 14 bit color (
4 trillion shades !) as opposed to 1.07B at 10 bit color and a sunny day is 11,000 NITS so a lot is to be done yet but they just brought out a
spendy flagship Sony 4K Triluminous ZD9 65" and 75" and maybe bigger LCD TV with maybe
4000 NIT and better processing all around that is way ahead of anthing else like that and can put an OLED to bed or that stillborn Vizio R model and ofc. I'm presuming Samsung will be right there very soon as well
For primary 2016 LCD TV I would only consider a 4K HDR or HDR ready set with a wide color gamut panel like a Sony 4K XBR 800/850 D or better or a Samsung SUHD set if I could afford it.
Vizio may be a value proposition but they cant do Sony color or as wide of a color gamut as Samsung or Sony and they don't have OTA tuners or much of a feature /app set like a Samsung and Sony app/ feature set and premium experience. Vizio doesent do premium well IMO but they are priced accordingly. and may be a good value for a lot of folks .
ppffttt.. OTOH setting all the Vizio reviews and the value proposition aside lets not kid ourselves you get what you pay for and outside of 4K HDR OLED that I've not seen for 2016 yet I'll take a Sony or Samsung .
