Black Friday

Scott Wilkinson on Home Theater

Scott Wilkinson

Episode 1545

Over Black Friday weekend, shoppers used their mobile devices to buy over a billion dollars in products. Total retail sales for November is 38 billion dollars. Are TVs better to buy during the Super Bowl, rather than Black Friday? Scott says maybe. They are later in the product cycle and the deals are to clear out models for the new models. So TVs are a better bargain the week before the Super Bowl. But Black Friday deals are pretty good for TVs if you need one.

When should I buy a 4K TV?

LG OLED B7

Episode 1483

CJ from Whittier, CA

CJ is really into 4K HD Blu-rays, and he wants to know if he should buy a 4K HDR TV now, or wait until Black Friday? Rich says that streaming is the future and Blu-ray discs are going away. He's going to want to get 4K HDR with Dolby and HDR10. Those are the two standards. He can wait until Black Friday, but the best time to get a TV is just before the Super Bowl.

Black Friday Sales Numbers Show Rise in eCommerce

Online shopping

Episode 1443

Though Monday is known as "Cyber Monday," the day people take to the internet to find great online deals for Christmas, Black Friday sales figures show a rise in online shopping, including a double-digit increase in using mobile devices to buy goods. The average order was $135, up from last year.

Phone sales were also big this year, with deals on the iPhone X that offered gift cards if you bought one. Walmart gave a $300 gift card.

Cyber Monday is expected to be even bigger, by 10-20%.

Scott Wilkinson on Home Theater

Scott Wilkinson

Episode 1442

Scott says that most of the door buster deals on Black Friday were for store brands or captive brands like Element and others. But LG put all of their LCD TVs on deep discount this time around, so there were great deals there to be had. The LG B7 and C7 are nearly identical with the higher end LGs because they have the same panels. So get the lower cost ones. The performance will be similar, the only difference is processing speed and power. Sony also put the X900E TV on sale as well.

Black Friday Vs. Cyber Monday

Black Friday

Episode 1442

We survived another Black Friday. Braving fist fights for deals on last year's models, Leo says that traffic was terrible for Black Friday, and there were plenty of deals to be had. Cyber Monday is coming, where people shop for special deals online. Leo wonders if after Net Neutrality rules are tossed next month if ISPs will charge a toll for visiting sites like Amazon next year.

Find Black Friday Deals Online

Finding Black Friday sales can be overwhelming and stressful, but Thrifter.com is focusing all of its energy to find the best deals for you. Every item on the site has been vetted by their team, and there are tons of categories to look through. This tip comes from Rene Ritchie, Editor in Chief at iMore.com, a site that's owned by the same parent company.

Dick DeBartolo, The Giz Wiz

Dick DeBartolo

Episode 1343

This week's gadget is the Vizio M Series 50" Ultra HDR TV with Dolby Vision. Somes with SmartCast, which is Google Chromecast built in. Also comes with a 6" Android tablet as it's ultimate remote and Chromecast interface. Four HDMI ports to connect Cable/Satellite boxes, Bluray/DVD players, Gaming Consoles and Computers. You can even use the virtual keyboard on the tablet to name the inputs. Be aware though this is what VIZIO calls a Tuner-Free Display. Since most households today stream or watch live TV from cable and satellite boxes which don't require a tuner, you probably won't care.