Televisions

Television sizes and the room each one suits:

sit where you will watch and measure to the wall before you choose. A 32-inch set is nearly always HD rather than 4K, no loss in a bedroom or a kitchen where nobody sits close. Past 65 inches the picture fills your view from an ordinary sofa, but the screen starts to dictate the room: it wants a wall that can take a bracket, or a stand wider than most TV furniture. A big screen also shows up a weak picture, so a budget set at 75 inches makes its grey blacks and patchy lighting far more obvious than it would at 50.

Gaming TVs and the HDMI 2.1 port:

a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X can send 4K at 120 frames a second, but only through an HDMI 2.1 port on a TV whose panel really refreshes that fast. Budget sets often print “120Hz motion” on the box while the panel runs at 60, and on many mid-range models only two of the four ports are the full-speed ones, marked on the back. Look for VRR and an automatic game mode in the specification, and plug the console into the right port.

The antenna and the TV brought from the United States:

a set bought in Miami runs on Panama’s mains without an adapter, since the voltage and the plug are the same. What it cannot do is pick up free-to-air channels. Panama broadcasts digital TV in DVB-T, the European standard, while American sets carry an ATSC tuner. Through cable, a streaming box or a Blu-ray player it works like any other, so the tuner only matters if you watch Telemetro or TVN off an antenna. In that case, choose a set made for the local market or add a small DVB-T decoder box.

Why a 75-inch television loses value so fast:

every season pushes big screens cheaper. A 75-inch 4K QLED from Hisense or TCL sits around $650 to $750 new at its regular price, and an 85-inch from Sony or Samsung goes past $1,500. That makes a used big screen a slow sale once the newer model costs little more: a working 75-inch set a few years old changes hands around $400, and the ones that go quickest still have their box and the original remote.

Power boards and the TV that died in a blackout:

outages and voltage swings take out sets that were not plugged into a protector, and it is usually the power supply board that goes, not the panel. A technician can often swap it without much expense, but buy a dead set on a technician’s diagnosis, not on the seller’s “it just needs the power board”. On a working set, ask whether it ran behind a voltage protector and watch the standby light: one that blinks in a pattern instead of staying steady is the set reporting a fault. If the set hung on a wall, check the bracket holes on the back for stripped threads and cracked plastic around them.

Selling a wall-mounted TV, or a cracked one for parts:

give the exact model number from the back label, since it tells a buyer the ports, the panel and the market the set was built for, and say plainly whether it is a local or a US model. Mention any blackout, repair or replaced board, and whether a voltage protector or the wall bracket goes with it. A cracked screen does not make a set worthless: on a big TV a new panel costs close to a whole new set, so it goes for parts, and technicians look for a working main board, power board and backlight strips. If yours still hangs on the wall, take it down before anyone sets off from La Chorrera or Chitré to see it, and tape the bracket screws to the back: a buyer who has made the trip does not want to watch you unbolt a 75-inch screen, and a set already standing on its feet can be switched on and tried in a minute.