caster wrote:just make sure whatever make/model you buy has an ultimate processing speed
It depends what you want the tv for and also whether you believe in electronic tricks to "improve" the picture.
If you are watching internet or streamed content then a fast cpu is probably important, but if you have connected the tv to a blu-ray player or digibox then the cpu is less relevant.
Many manufacturers try to convince you that more frames/second is better. Models at the bottom of the range will do 100 Hz, higher up 200 Hz or 300 Hz. It's pointless in my opinion. The original material will be 24 Hz, 50Hz or 60Hz. The higher speeds just try to manufacture intermediate frames with software. It's a fake, just like cololourising black and white movies. I turn all those frame interpolation features off. If something is filmed at 24 fps then your tv can't invent extra things that the original film didn't capture.
Happily the race for thinner and thinner tvs ended a few years ago. The manufacturers realised that people noticed that the thinner the LCD tv the harder it was for the backlight to be even.
I would rate the most important feature to be back illumination instead of edge illumination (the LED's are in a grid behind the tv, not stuck on the top and bottom edge). Ask yourself where the light for the middle of the panel comes from. There are plenty of low end models with back illumination.
As for "old stuff 2014 models": don't assume that this years model is better than last years model. Here are two quotes from reviews of Sony top end HD models (same website):
There’s just no sugarcoating this: the KDL-55W955B is the worst-performing Sony Bravia flagship HDTV we’ve reviewed in terms of picture quality. It’s a disappointing departure from the excellent heritage of high-end Bravia TVs
The Bravia KDL-55W905A is yet another fantastic HDTV from Sony that flies the LED LCD flag high. ... accurate out-of-the-box greyscale and colours which, on the whole, ranks as the best we’ve measured on any 2013 flat-screen television so far. That the display hits 2.4 gamma by default in its most accurate [Cinema 1] picture preset is just icing on the cake, delivering pictures that are lusciously rich in image contrast
The first review is for the 2014 model, the second review is for the equivalent 2013 model! Every review of the 2013 model said it was one of the best HD TV's going. Every review of the 2014 replacement said it was a disaster.