OT: Where to go online to make informed buying decisions

[opdigits]

This forum is one of, if not the best, online resources to come to to gather all the technical specification minutia necessary to make an intelligently informed buying decision when it comes to keyboards and their related paraphernalia.

 

So, I'm in the market for a few new TV's, cell phones, and a tablet device or two. Where do you all go to get informed without brand bias when you do your research?

 

When I research, I like to be able to check the original specs (usually from the mfgr's site), then make notes, then go online and read others comments/reviews so as to find out any pertinent info I might not have thought of, then check prices, then test the product in person, then decide and buy. And looking for sales/discounts is also in there somewhere.

 

It should be noted that I'm in a major metropolitan area so I should be able to find most of the products for testing purposes locally, after I've narrowed down my search online.

 

So where are your favorite spots online to do your research for the 3 types of products I mentioned?

 

TIA

[timwat]

Depends on the item of course. For small or cutting edge consumer electronics, I find I get the best objective advice frommy students. Undergrad college students can be trusted for very few thingsbut one of them is being on top of all 13 different opinions about that latest device, app, online workaround, that kind of thing. And how to try to submit plagiarized case studies - oops did I say that out loud?

 

TVs, automobiles and larger purchases? No, not so much.

 

 

[Brettymike]

Opdigits , I find Amazon to be excellent for finding reviews on many things I have been interested in and/or bought.

Next best place to look of course is youtube , it's been a wealth of vital information for me - along with Amazon.

 

Brett

[Mark Zeger]

Online, CNET and Amazon.

 

I go to the library for back issues of Consumer Reports. However, by the time they review TVs, the models may have changed. Sometimes new model changes are insignificant so the older review can still be valuable. CR is a better resource for reviewing kitchen appliances.

 

I have a local video/audio retailer I trust but that's not a option for everyone.

 

FWIW, after 25+ years of buying TVs, I've never been disappointed by Sony.

 

[clavjav]

I like techradar, they give very in-depth reviews. But yeh also the customer reviews on Amazon.

[Joe Muscara]

Yeah, what Mark said about CR. Amazon reviews have to be taken with a grain of salt, though. Yet, they can also be telling if there's a percentage that seems to have a common issue. Depending upon the product, sometimes you can tell if it's something that's real or you can deal with.

[Stokely]

That's the thing about reviews. Like most people I value other consumers' opinions highly--and you know the sellers know this. So especially with a low number of reviews you never know what is a shill...not to mention that if 3 people have had success with something it doesn't mean it's not a hunk of junk, it's just too small a sample size. I know this, yet 3 good reviews will draw my attention better than 150 3-out-of-5 stars will.

 

I also hate how googling anything with "review" after it gets you....everything but actual reviews. I'd seek out forums for each area as you say. For tvs, something like AVSForum etc.

[ProfD]

I read online reviews for items I'm considering whether it is cell phone provider, Best Buy, Home Depot, Amazon, etc.

 

Leaving impulse at home or in the vehicle, going to the retailers and laying hands on the items is definitely a must.

 

I'll create a spreadsheet to do spec, feature and price comparisons between items and retailers. That also makes it easier to keep track of stuff when I decide to go hunting, er, shopping.

 

The information superhighway is a blessing and curse. Everything we need in order to make informed decisions is available.

 

Unfortunately, there is a sh8tload of info out there which can lead to confusion and/or paralysis.

[MoodyBluesKeys]

My wife and I purchased three new flatpanel LED HDTV's recently as part of an overall media center package. We spent considerable time in the process of trying to determine how best to purchase. First part of the process is deciding options, since different manufacturers don't always have the same options. We were going to use all three sets (and a smaller 24" that I bought a couple of years ago) for TV, DVD & BluRay, Computer, choice of cable or off-air.

 

We did not want "Smart TV" capability - because we had a Windows 8 media computer that I had previously built with HDMI output. This is now feeding the 55" set in the living room (and is updated to 8.1). Each of our primary computers also has HDMI output - I chose a 32" set and use it all the time for both computer and TV, she chose a 39" set, using it mostly for TV, with her 19" monitor for computer (although the 39" can be selected for the computer also).

 

We wanted a high quality system, since we typically keep such items for a prolonged period (my 19" TV that I bought in 1983 was still working when I gave it away this year). The 55" replaced a 55" projection TV bought in 2001. So, 1080p, 120Hz response and at least one HDMI input rate was a requirement. Another requirement was harder to find: the ability to drive a pair of headphones for late night listening (most current TV sets larger than 20" only have digital audio outputs, usually through TOSLINK optical). Samsung was one of the few companies that have an analog audio output even in the large models (as well as optical out) - it does drive headphones, and headphones with volume controls are available.

 

We went looking at stores in our area (a small town). The only high-end models they stocked were SmartTVs. We wound up purchasing through Amazon, after doing a lot of looking and trying to get honest reviews of specific models.

 

BTW, we are well satisfied with how everything ties together and works. We can use the computer in the living room as a dual-tuner DVR, playback the recorded shows on any computer in the home or shop. We can also use Windows Media Center for sharing Videos, Music, Photos, etc. I also have a single tuner in a Win 7 computer in my shop. The computers also provide access to my wife's Netflix account.

 

All the TVs are connected through RF distribution amps to the outdoor antenna. The monthly savings in no longer needing cable should pay off the entire system in about 18 months.

 

Tablets - I came close to picking up an HP Elite Pad 64GB Windows 8 Refurb with free 2 years of WWAN (cellular data) at a VERY good price. However, my Win 7 Netbook provides all that I need for both business and personal use. I have a Nook Color, and have the N2Android 32G memory card that turns it into an unlocked Android tablet; but it gets used mostly as an ebook reader for available epub ebooks.

 

I also use the search engine duck duck go - which searches without being based on advertising like Google or Bing.

 

[The Real MC]

For large appliances, automobiles, lawn garden equipment, etc I reach for Consumer Reports.

 

You have to be very careful with online reviews. Many are written by plants hired by manufacturers. Many by people with little clue how to operate them so they write off good stuff as junk. I've found that sorting the legitimate reviews from the junk is too much time & energy.

 

I've been on many forums over the years and two of the most unreliable review sites are Harmony Central and The Gas Station. HC *used* to have a good product review database, but Musicians Friend ruined it when they purchased the website and made it an extension of their catalog, so many of the product reviews disappeared. MF also seems totally incapable of designing a user friendly website and the product reviews are now a PITA to navigate.

 

SoS seems to be one of the better sources for product reviews. I would place GearSlutz slightly behind them, although you still have to be careful of idiots claiming to be experts.

[ITGITC]

I think I could get by without TV if I wasn't married. But I am, and she enjoys it.

 

With that said, the next TV purchase will be 4K. KLONK KLONK2

 

However, Apple is coming out with something along these lines very soon.

 

I'm in no hurry.

 

And I'll wait to read as many reviews as I can get my hands on, but I probably won't produce a spreadsheet like I did to help me decide on the last automobile purchase.

 

I'm no fan of buyer's remorse.

 

[David Loving]

I do research on line, and then head for the Apple store.

[zxcvbnm098]

http://thewirecutter.com/

 

I've got a couple of friends that write/test for them. Great website....

[ksoper]

+1 AVSForum for TVs, etc.

 

Big thumbs down to Consumer Reports for a couple of reasons. 1) I bought a big Hoover vacuum back in the 90s on the strength of their review. It was enormous and was not cheap. It was poorly made and did not hold up well. I bought a Dyson a couple of years later and did the old Kirby test: vacuumed with the Hoover, then went behind with the Dyson. It was shocking. The Dyson outperformed the Hoover by a wide margin and is still in service 18 years later. 2) I bought an ATT wireless phone around the same time as the vacuum, again on the strength the CR review. The antenna wasn't worth a damn and battery life was paltry. Expensive junk. 3) A friend of a friend owned a manufacturing plant that made men's shirts. They made both brand name and off-brand shirts. CR reviewed a number of different shirts, not knowing that the one company made both branded and off-brand products. They loved the branded, hated the off-brand, even though they were identical products run on the same line with the same materials.

 

So, my experience with CR is poor. Yours may be different.

 

 

[Theo Verelst]

It isn't easy to give a good summary of a lot of modern consumer equipment, unless you've got connections with the people in charge or designers, and so on. A lot of stuff I suppose is ok, but if you want something special or exceptionally made interesting, or even in the directions of innovative beyond regular, you'd have to stick with standard options, like Apple's Retina displays, some phones with good electronics design, some reasonably made gaming computer.

 

Who's going to tell you all the special little and big things that have been built into a TV (or not), like the ability to adapt to standards, if the up sampling is good at motion estimation, if your WQHD screen will work on Linux via HDMI, if your PC will properly play a Bluray. Is the computer really suitable to run a certain piece of software, even, so many variables, so little documentation!

 

Sometimes it can help to know (or hear from informed people) there's brand so and so working on advancement, or this so and so piece of consumer equipment will do for so and so circumstances, but a lot of quality characteristics have been traded in for lame digital video and sound, and educational value of all kinds of consumer stuff is largely absent.

 

T.

[Brettymike]

What is almost impossible to find out with reviews , is lifespan and/or "serviceability" of a lot of things.

These days , far too many appliances may work well , but are purposely made with "junk" construction - ridiculous , and plain bad in every way.

It's too much relying on consumption and profit for the shareholders.

 

Brett

[Michael Wright]

For large appliances, automobiles, lawn garden equipment, etc I reach for Consumer Reports.

Me too.

[opdigits]

Thank you for all the tips and links and advice. I appreciate it and it will help!

[theGman]

FYI that theWirecutter.com website is great. Don't let the name fool you.

[Joe Muscara]

Big thumbs down to Consumer Reports for a couple of reasons. 1) I bought a big Hoover vacuum back in the 90s on the strength of their review. It was enormous and was not cheap. It was poorly made and did not hold up well. I bought a Dyson a couple of years later and did the old Kirby test: vacuumed with the Hoover, then went behind with the Dyson. It was shocking. The Dyson outperformed the Hoover by a wide margin and is still in service 18 years later. 2) I bought an ATT wireless phone around the same time as the vacuum, again on the strength the CR review. The antenna wasn't worth a damn and battery life was paltry. Expensive junk. 3) A friend of a friend owned a manufacturing plant that made men's shirts. They made both brand name and off-brand shirts. CR reviewed a number of different shirts, not knowing that the one company made both branded and off-brand products. They loved the branded, hated the off-brand, even though they were identical products run on the same line with the same materials.

 

So, my experience with CR is poor. Yours may be different.

 

While I advocated earlier for CR, this reminds me of some issues I have had with them.

 

1. Their car reviews suck. Hear me out. They seem to review cars for old people. They will complain that a sporty car has bumpy ride and/or is noisy. People who buy sporty cars like me don't care about that stuff. "Bumpy" is really firm and good handling (usually). I will give them the fact that their compiled user reviews on cars does help give you an idea of the quality of particular cars, though.

 

2. We've bought some things on their recommendation that I've not been happy with. Cordless phones that had zero range, and vacuum cleaners with crappy designs (we bought one and while it works fine, it has lots of little annoyances that would have made me not give it a top rating).

 

3. They review food. I find this hilarious. "We found the Berrinti's pizza to have more flavor and a better crust than the others." I mean, is there anything that's more subjective than food?

 

4. When Apple was having the "Antennagate" issues with the iPhone 4, they gave it excellent ratings on everything, but 'couldn't recommend it because of [the Antennagate] issues.' That was just stupid. It was a great phone and lots of people didn't have issues. Also, for those who did, the fix was simple.

 

I guess it's like any other reviewers or review sites - some things are very useful, and others are worse than useless. I'll go back to saying that I like when they have long term user reports like they do for cars and appliances. I truly wonder sometimes if CR reviews have only one unit. That would be a terrible sample size...

[Jazzmammal]

This forum is one of, if not the best, online resources to come to to gather all the technical specification minutia necessary to make an intelligently informed buying decision when it comes to keyboards and their related paraphernalia.

 

I would use this forum right here. You've been on here long enough that you've gotten to know several folks you trust even if you've never actually met them.

 

What exactly are you looking for? For example when you say TV's give us the details like size, smart set or no, what will you be using it for, budget, etc.

 

Musicians tend to be a pretty tech savvy group.

 

For cell phones I'll give everybody a tip right now, Republic Wireless. You pay cash for the phone up front then it's 19 bucks a month unlimited everything. They have an interesting concept based on wifi calling plus the Sprint network. Of course they only have two phones and they may not have exactly the features you want but nineteen bucks a month? My total cell bill including taxes is $22.40. It was a no brainer for me. Just Google it, they come right up.

 

Bob

 

[opdigits]

I'm upgrading three TV's (all tube flat screen models), two for bedrooms, and one for the family room.

 

Bedroom A needs connectivity for satellite box and playstation, I'll add a sound bar with ipod capability for music listening, prefer LED, smart, and wall mountable 32"'ers will be fine, budget $600 tops.

 

Bedroom B - 32" wall mountable, LED, smart desired but not required, will add sound bar, same budget.

 

Family room - as large as possible (read: within budget), wall mountable, will connect to existing hone theater setup, LED, smart, budget +-$1,200.00.

 

I want tablets for my better half (business (childrens hospice nurse), IOS or android OS) and personal applications), my youngest (17) daughter (teenage whatEVerrrrr applications, IOS OS), and myself (music and personal applications, Android OS). Budgets are not on the upper end of the scale here, and cheaper is better (probably no more than $300-400 ea).

 

Better half just bought the latest iPhone so that's covered, and I need a new touch screen phone that'll sync to my tablet and PC/Laptop (windows/android phone is ok). Budget would be "look for a low down payment plan that pays off over time."

 

OTOH, I'm considering going satellite-less and using a wi-fi/PC/smart TV solution, so things may change.

[Jazzmammal]

OTOH, I'm considering going satellite-less and using a wi-fi/PC/smart TV solution, so things may change.

 

I'm laughing my butt off, this sounds like me...

 

I'll tell you what I just did a few months ago. I dumped DirecTV for Verizon Fios with a cable card going into a HDPrime cablecard tuner connected via USB to my computer. HDMI from the PC to my 50" big screen Sony Grand Wega with the Toslink audio going from the TV to my Sanyo home theater receiver. I'm using Windows Media Center now and it's great. The model HDPrime I have has 3 tuners but you can get 6 tuners. That's usually enough for a whole house like you're describing. I won't go into all the details of setting that up and using it unless you're really interested in that. If so, I'll be happy to give you all the gory details.

 

Financially this is saving me right at a hundred a month because DirecTV didn't have a good bundle for internet and TV while FIOS does plus the no cablecard issue. A settop box costs about $15 a month for one and if you have multiple boxes then the WMC method can really add up because no settop box is needed. As to pulling the plug completely on sat or cable that's a different issue. I looked into that carefully and there's just too much stuff I like watching that is simply not available online plus some that is available is liable to be pulled at any time like what's happened recently at Hulu and Netflix. So, I went with the complete FIOS bundle and that works for me.

 

As for the TV's themselves the smaller ones you're talking about I would basically go with price and forget about it. They're all so cheap and good now just price them out and buy them from somewhere you can return them if you don't like them.

 

However for your main HT one I've been shocked, shocked I say, by the prices right now. Man, 65" for around a grand? You kidding me? My Sony is about 6 years old and in TV years which is worse than dog years, even though the picture is still good (I did replace the lamp for $39 last year), this thing is about 60 years old now I think. I'm using it right now to write this. I have a complete setup in my bedroom with another Sony a 32" Bravia, but I rarely use it because once I set this whole thing up I'm doing everything both TV watching and all my computer stuff right here on my living room couch. I'm loving it.

 

My only comment about using a big screen HDTV as a computer monitor is some TV tech systems are better suited for that than others. I've read that plasma's are terrible for that for example. My Sony is the last of the LED projectors and depending on what website I'm on the text can be a little wonky. But as an example the text on this forum is perfect. If I'm having a problem I just go to the top of Firefox's browser and hit View and zoom in one click and that clears it up so no biggie but I've read that if you're planning on getting a new TV anyway read some reviews that talk about using it as a monitor. Might as well get one that is better for that as long as the regular TV viewing is basically the same.

 

I'm not a tablet user so I'll leave that one for others.

 

Bob

 

 

[opdigits]

Thanks for that input Bob, it helps a lot, and, glad I could make you laugh!

[duff beer]

For car reviews:

 

http://www.truedelta.com/

[Jazzmammal]

Since I mostly talked about using WMC for everything there is one caveat that might affect you. I keep losing my HDMI audio every time I turn the TV off. I use my Roland Sonic Cell in the bedroom as my audio interface so it is my audio device in the Sound Devices window. Every time when I open that up the HDMI audio shows "device not plugged in". Just hovering the mouse over that without clicking anything reinitializes it. I've been all over the web about this and it appears to primarily be an ATI Radeon problem and the ATI audio driver not having a complete connection with Windows.

 

You sound pretty savvy with tech stuff and computers and your setup will be completely different than mine so this may never affect you but this is just a heads up.

 

The workaround for me at least if it bugs me too much is to treat my living room sound system the same as my bedroom home studio sound system and run the audio output cables from my mixer along the wall and direct to my receiver in the living room thereby bypassing the HDMI for audio. I'm just too cheap to go out and buy two 25 foot audio cables so I'm living with losing the connection every time I shut off the TV. If the TV stays on however, no problem.

 

Bob

[opdigits]

....but this is just a heads up.

OK, noted. Thanks Bob!

[Cowzar]

So, I'm in the market for a few new TV's, cell phones, and a tablet device or two. Where do you all go to get informed without brand bias when you do your research?

The Australian internet and technology discussion forums

Whirlpool Forums

 

Its in Australian English... which I believe can not be translated yet.