For what it's worth, I bought a high end TV recently, the Sony Bravia A90J. I've left out some of the full product name, but this info is all you need if you care to look up that TV.
When I was looking in physical stores, at physical devices, I noticed that there were important differences between the [A-Z][8-9]0[A-Z]s, when I would research the model numbers online. 80 vs 90 indicated jumps in overall quality, depending on the other letters in the model name, which usually meant that the product was created specifically for the store (like Best Buy vs Costco vs buying direct), and would have other minor differences from the 'true' version.
A regular person would have probably just looked at the TVs in-store and decided based on whatever looked best, but I happened to have some specific features I wanted, and the weird-ass model names helped.
TV naming is especially crazy. They have variants for everything from geopraphical location to specific sales events.
My TV lacks the ability to transmit audio via Bluetooth (no, I can't enable it, I think it actually lacks the module). Nobody could have told me that before I bought it, the marketing material and manuals all claim that it has it. There is precisely NO documentation for my specific model.
I'm starting to think that they're actively counting on people not completely testing their devices after getting them.
I bought a TV from Fry's. There's no mention in the English manual, but according to the internet, this model has a DVR built-in, but it only activates if you tell it you're in Brazil when you first set it up.
The A90J is the top model right? Was looking at those myself recently. Amazon warehouse occasionally has a cheap deal on one but I am always scared those probably have dead pixels.
I really wanted a Panasonic Plasma but it looks like the sole importer may not be getting them anymore or might be getting less. But from what I understand the A90J and the top end Panasonics are the best in that they have a much better heatsink
A90J is, by the research I did and the word of the person who sold it to me (a family friend, has owned a TV business for 25 years, and gave me his at-cost price), the best. I absolutely love it. And yes, the panel + heatsink are top notch. Some other models/brands use the same panel, but lack the stronger heatsinks, and aren't able to utilize it as best as possible.
It runs Android TV, which may or may not be a dealbreaker for you, but I enjoy it enough. I just wanted to be free of a vendor-specific TV os, in order to give myself more flexibility when I try to set up a pi-hole in the future. There's also a hardware switch to disable the TV's microphone.
Also, the sound comes out from the panel itself, and is (to me) great. It calibrates itself using the microphone within the remote, by having you hold it a certain way when performing setup.
Finally, there's an incredibly posh and satisfying 'click' noise when you turn it off. I don't know why, but this makes me like the TV more.
When I was looking in physical stores, at physical devices, I noticed that there were important differences between the [A-Z][8-9]0[A-Z]s, when I would research the model numbers online. 80 vs 90 indicated jumps in overall quality, depending on the other letters in the model name, which usually meant that the product was created specifically for the store (like Best Buy vs Costco vs buying direct), and would have other minor differences from the 'true' version.
A regular person would have probably just looked at the TVs in-store and decided based on whatever looked best, but I happened to have some specific features I wanted, and the weird-ass model names helped.