[WireNut]

I'm thinking about buying my first, yes it's my first , big screen TV on a budget of $300-$400. I know that's not much.
I really don't need a Smart TV unless that's all I can find. I use a ROKU unit and my over the air HD antenna. I cut the cable a year ago, and I won't look back.
I just need a basic TV from 32-50" with a good picture.
 
What are the Pros and Cons of buying Refurbished ?

Thanks.

[GentleBender]

The prices of a new TV have dropped dramatically over the last two years. You could easily pick up a new 40"-50" 1080p unit for that much. Most refurbished TVs only have a 90 day warranty and I don't feel comfortable with that myself. They don't build them like they used to. I would go new and pick up an extended warranty for cheap in case something goes wrong.

[Early B.]

Agreed. With a $400 budget, you can buy a brand new 32" - 50" TV. Just don't call it a "big screen" TV. Today, that's kinda small.

[Doublej]

Pros: save a few bucks.
Cons: 90 day(?) warranty vs 1 year.

I would buy new and use a credit card that doubles the warranty. That way you'll get 2 years out of it. I am not a fan of buying extra warranty. Electronic equipment tends to have infant mortality (e.g. equipment dies within a few weeks if not DOA) or tends to last for years.

The best option is to buy electronics at Costco using their credit card. A friend told me that when purchased this way the warranty is 4 years and you deal with Costco not the manufacturer.  If you pay cash you get a 2 year Costco warranty.

[Doublej]

deleted...double post.

[Philistine]

I bought a refurbed Vizio from Woot about 5 years ago and it's still going strong, others who bought the same deal didn't do as well and finished up with a lemon.  So the downside is that you don't know if you're getting a dud or not, and I believe the Woot warranty at the time for these was only 90 days.

I have a couple of Panasonic plasmas that are, one day, going to die - in preparation for this I've got the Costco credit card, which takes the warranty to 4 years.  Even though I got lucky with a refurb in the past I'm not going to roll the dice again, prices have dropped so much the difference in price between new and refurb is no longer big enough to cover the risk.

[max190]

I'm thinking about buying my first, yes it's my first , big screen TV on a budget of $300-$400. I know that's not much.
I really don't need a Smart TV unless that's all I can find. I use a ROKU unit and my over the air HD antenna. I cut the cable a year ago, and I won't look back.
I just need a basic TV from 32-50" with a good picture.
 
What are the Pros and Cons of buying Refurbished ?

Thanks.

Forget refurbished.
Do a search for 'Open Box Television' at BestBuy.  This way you get the full warranty.
Do not pay for extended warranty.  More waste of money.

Good luck

[WGH]

I use a ROKU unit and my over the air HD antenna.

You have to buy local when shopping for a TV and plan to use an over the air HD antenna. Why?
Many TV's have terrible OTA tuners because almost everyone uses cable or internet. A friend bought a TV and could only get a couple of stations using a good antenna and clear line of sight to the broadcast antennas just 20 miles away. On my recommendation she returned the set for a Panasonic and she now gets 40 channels.

Just yesterday a very knowledgeable friend who was in the electronics business for decades said that Panasonic does have the best OTA tuner. But as you know every manufacturer has good and bad models within it's brand so you need the option to return the TV until you get one that works in your location.

Wayne

[Phil A]

I have no issues on any TVs (and I think I have around 9 in total of various brands, including two projectors with outboard tuners) with Roku boxes (4 of them for the systems that really get used) and an antenna system (in the garage attic) and had the same minus the Roku in the old place (where my antenna system in the attic picked up two major markets).  I always make sure that the antenna system is right for the area.  I have both a UHF HD antenna and a hi-VHF antenna (as one of the stations broadcasts on channel 11).

[Phil A]

I've bought other things from Woot but never a refurb TV.  I usually wait until there is a sale near the end of the model year or get it at the local warehouse club (and obviously with all the TVs I have if one did go bad, I'll live until I get around to getting another at a good deal and move one from a room that gets little use).  I have a 13 year old 42 inch (1080p) Vizio in the garage still going strong.  I gave away a 32 inch (720p) Vizio that was a year older last summer that was still working fine.  I bought my most expensive TV ever (not counting projectors) last year near close-out time as I wanted one UHD TV with HDR.  There's plenty of reasonable choices for 32-50 inches.

[zybar]

Pros: save a few bucks.
Cons: 90 day(?) warranty vs 1 year.

I would buy new and use a credit card that doubles the warranty. That way you'll get 2 years out of it. I am not a fan of buying extra warranty. Electronic equipment tends to have infant mortality (e.g. equipment dies within a few weeks if not DOA) or tends to last for years.

The best option is to buy electronics at Costco using their credit card. A friend told me that when purchased this way the warranty is 4 years and you deal with Costco not the manufacturer.  If you pay cash you get a 2 year Costco warranty.

Yep, Costco is awesome (my wife has almost 30 years at Costco).

In fact, my wife just won a 50" Vizio at her holiday party.   

George

[Elizabeth]

The main problem with flat TV now is they are all basic 'throw away' designs.
IE they are not made to be repaired.
SO buying a refurbished one is a crapshoot if it was repaired.
I would certainly not buy a 'as is' TV. plenty of flat screens have dead pixels, or a dead line in the screen. So as is really IS a terrible idea on a TV. If no return too, since most dead pixels cannot be fixed, only replacement of the entire screen.

On the other hand, many 'refurbished' are really just returns for some other reason than a failure and repair.
overstock returns, open box returns... No actual fail for the item just it was no longer brand new.
As mentioned, Best Buy has a open box type offer, where no fail, just the TV was either sold, or opened..

[smargo]

I cut the cable a year ago, and I won't look back.
I just need a basic TV from 32-50" with a good picture.
 
What are the Pros and Cons of buying Refurbished ?

Thanks.

Im not sure if you can get a good picture without high definition - isnt it only available from cable or fios or satellite

am i missing something - my picture without hi def is ok - not great - with hi def its so much better its good

[WireNut]

You have to buy local when shopping for a TV and plan to use an over the air HD antenna. Why?
Many TV's have terrible OTA tuners because almost everyone uses cable or internet. A friend bought a TV and could only get a couple of stations using a good antenna and clear line of sight to the broadcast antennas just 20 miles away. On my recommendation she returned the set for a Panasonic and she now gets 40 channels.

Just yesterday a very knowledgeable friend who was in the electronics business for decades said that Panasonic does have the best OTA tuner. But as you know every manufacturer has good and bad models within it's brand so you need the option to return the TV until you get one that works in your location.

Wayne

Hmm.
I never though about the built in tuner being junk. But I was planning all along to use my outboard tuner with my OTA antenna. I get at least 40 channels with this.
Would it work if I connected my outboard tuner with a coax cable to the coax input on the TV ?    Would that bypass the internal tuner of the TV ?

[WGH]

Im not sure if you can get a good picture without high definition - isnt it only available from cable or fios or satellite

Actually the best HD picture quality is by an over the air antenna, the video digital signal has a lot less compression. Think jpeg vs. tif, both look good when small but expand a jpeg to fit a large TV format and you see artifacts.

[WGH]

Hmm.
Would it work if I connected my outboard tuner with a coax cable to the coax input on the TV ?    Would that bypass the internal tuner of the TV ?

Should work. I once had a Samsung SIR-T351 Digital Tuner that was killer, it picked up everything.

[Doublej]

Hmm.
I never though about the built in tuner being junk. But I was planning all along to use my outboard tuner with my OTA antenna. I get at least 40 channels with this.
Would it work if I connected my outboard tuner with a coax cable to the coax input on the TV ?    Would that bypass the internal tuner of the TV ?

Maybe but likely not as you expect. The coax out of the outboard tuner is likely either a passthrough in which case you would still need the internal tuner or it is outputting a specific channel, typically 3 or 4, in which case the internal tuner would stay permanently tuned to this channel. This would minimize the work required by the internal tuner but it would still be in the picture.

What's not clear is why do you wan to use the coax into the TV. If the external box is doing the tuning than the output from it is typically sent to the TV via HDMI or component video.

[WireNut]

What's not clear is why do you wan to use the coax into the TV. If the external box is doing the tuning than the output from it is typically sent to the TV via HDMI or component video.

I don't have anything HDMI. I only have coax from my out board tuner and composite (L/R audio out / video out) from my old Roku unit.
I know I'm way behind the times in video but for the last 3 decades all my money went into audio.
I'm just getting started with video.

[Doublej]

I don't have anything HDMI. I only have coax from my out board tuner and composite (L/R audio out / video out) from my old Roku unit.
I know I'm way behind the times in video but for the last 3 decades all my money went into audio.
I'm just getting started with video.

It almost sound like your tuner is one of the boxes that was being given away for free when the OTA transmission format changed in 2009. A new TV with a built in tuner is likely to give you the same channels you have today with that box.

If you are going to play the TV audio through your existing audio system then look for a TV that can do that. The simplest approach is to find a TV that has analog out. Send it to your audio system via an RCA interconnect.

[jarcher]

Also would not buy a refurbed TV.  TVs are too cheap to clown around with waiting for something to go bad that's already been fixed once.  I know some think that BECAUSE it's been fixed it LESS likely to go bad.  I don't agree. If there's a lot of refurbs on a particular model, it's probably because it has a higher fail rate to begin with & despite the fix, likely to go bad again. Thats my logic at least.