To OLED or Not to OLED

[fourstardan]

This is my question.

I'm on a Samsung LED screen at the moment that is starting to burn, not sure why but it does seem to be getting a tad worse.

So, in upgrade terms, the pricing on 4k HDR LCD's is far less than OLEDs and I am wondering if i'd benefit from saving the cash on OLED here.

I'm looking at the LG B7, which Richer sounds will do on 18 months IFC, not that this is the incentive, but it softens any blow on future drops in price a little bit.

So, do I splash on OLED here or save and possibly even go for a bigger size with LED for less price?

Just thinking...i've got the Gran Turismo to play The Masters next month, The World Cup and the rest of Gomorrah to finish without even getting into 4K world on Netflix

[Chris Stott]

If you can afford OLED it's the way to go at the moment... significant PQ advantage over LCD.

Current models are about to get replaced by a new range, so you might see some discounts in the coming months.

[davek_964]

I've had a 65" LG OLED since November 2016. The picture quality is fabulous - even people who aren't really interested in TVs comment on it - although it took me several months of tweaking the settings to get it that way.

I have decided I want a bigger TV for the bedroom - but don't really want a 55", which is the smallest OLED. I figured Samsung QLED was probably what I needed, and 49" is probably the perfect size. So I went to Curry's a couple of weekends back to take a look - and was totally underwhelmed. I will not be buying one of them.

When I was considering it a couple of weeks ago, Currys and Richer Sounds had offers which meant the 55" B7 came in at just under £1,500. I'm waiting for that kind of offer to come up again - I doubt it will be long - and assuming I can convince myself that a 55" TV will not look ridiculous in my bedroom (it will) - I'll probably buy one.

For me - although it's only a bedroom tv - I want a newer one because sometimes I want to finish watching something in bed, but I don't because I don't want the drop in picture size / quality. Even if I bought a bigger non-OLED screen, I'm 99% certain I still wouldn't want to switch to that half way through something.

[rossub]

That’s definitely one for the first world problems thread

[fourstardan]

Samsung QLED is just LED with a thing called quantum pixels, its marketing baloney after UHD ones.

Mine is sammy and tbh at the time it was one of the early LED models, ultra thin etc, i'll be looking to put that in the bedroom too as the one at the moment i've got is a 32 inch LCD i bought in the year 2000 LOL...still going strong mind.

I'd buy OLED without even seeing one tbh, but i will probably pop into a store to see, i've seen the B&O one and it looked pretty nifty on dark contrasts....they'll give me 1800 trade in on there model but it then goes down to 8K LMAO...it's the same OLED Screen made by LG ffs

I think i'll bite the bullet on the B7, couple of hundred quid when its on the never never won't make much difference monthly.

Edited by fourstardan on Thursday 8th March 18:43

[jmorgan]

I saw several next to each other and even with the shop settings dialled in, the OLED ruled the roost. Pretty hard act to follow when blacks are so good, you cannot tell when it is turned off.

However, that is me. Someone else will like the Samsung or Sony, best way is to go and look and possibly play your own material from a data stick.

Edit. Viewing distance as well will play a part.

Edited by jmorgan on Thursday 8th March 21:57

[davek_964]

jmorgan said:

....and possibly play your own material from a data stick.

Definitely do this.

When I bought mine, I nearly bought a non-OLED. With shop settings (which are obviously crap) playing demo's to make them look as good as possible - I could see very little difference between the LG OLED and another TV (think it was Panasonic).

But then I played some scenes from a USB stick - and the difference was much more apparent. If I hadn't done that, I think I'd now own a Panasonic non-OLED.

[Lazadude]

After a lengthy decision ( see thread here), I went for a 55B7.

So happy I did, step up in quality over the 4k LG LCD in the bedroom.

[jmorgan]

davek_964 said:

jmorgan said:

....and possibly play your own material from a data stick.

Definitely do this.

When I bought mine, I nearly bought a non-OLED. With shop settings (which are obviously crap) playing demo's to make them look as good as possible - I could see very little difference between the LG OLED and another TV (think it was Panasonic).

But then I played some scenes from a USB stick - and the difference was much more apparent. If I hadn't done that, I think I'd now own a Panasonic non-OLED.

Both Samsung and LG seemed to have their goto demos. At the time of looking for me (2016, bought a 2015 model just before the 2016 range was released) Life of Pi was Samsung whilst LG was doing its own filmed scenery and city scapes etc. You can find them online.

They are certainly different types of images that would show the screens in the best light for the manufacturer, Samsung wanted the range of colours and how bright they could be ("nits" were used to sell, a rather misleading measurement) and for me the colours were cooked. OLED on the city scapes really did show up the definition more and in a less "cooked" chroma way and for me that was more important. There may like the Samsung, horses for courses.

It was also interesting to note that when a certain retailer seemed to be pushing Samsung, all the other sets in the shop were set to that shops proprietary advert run and all the top of the shop Samsungs were playing Life of Pi.

However, I can set mine back to the shop display settings, it is built in to the menu and as an option, just ask the shop to put it to the standard setting if it is not already there. Gives you a chance to play with the remote, the menu (software) and see what is in there.

That raises a few issues though as many sets will come on with standard settings enabled that will make the picture worse. No idea why this is done. Took me a short while to go through the set at home to find them and disable them but then I had a pretty good idea what I was looking for.

AV forums will probably also have a thread on any set you pick up on, you get a heads up on issues etc.


https://www.avforums.com/categories/tv-forums.297/

[red997]

my 2p
I've been a life long plasma fan, but thew time came to replace.
Spent ages going round stores looking at tv screens
and being very underwhelmed
Then, happened upon a LG B7 OLED screen, that wasn't running a demo mode, just normal TV (4K)
bit of research showed this screen to be a bit of a bargain(!) at £1500 (55").
So, bought one.
Certainly looks very very good now I've set it up properly
Again, like a post above, everyone thats seen it has been very impressed - even the wife
(and yes, I'm a fussy bugger - I've worked in the design side of Digital TV since it started in the '90s)

[gizlaroc]

There is no money to be saved, an LCD that gets 75% of the way there will cost as much or more.

[chilistrucker]

red997 said:

my 2p
I've been a life long plasma fan, but thew time came to replace.
Spent ages going round stores looking at tv screens
and being very underwhelmed
Then, happened upon a LG B7 OLED screen, that wasn't running a demo mode, just normal TV (4K)
bit of research showed this screen to be a bit of a bargain(!) at £1500 (55").
So, bought one.
Certainly looks very very good now I've set it up properly
Again, like a post above, everyone thats seen it has been very impressed - even the wife
(and yes, I'm a fussy bugger - I've worked in the design side of Digital TV since it started in the '90s)

Handy to know as I have also been researching TV's of late and size, performance and budget wise this is looking like the one for me.

[RobDickinson]

Had my b7 year and a half. Still blown away with it. Image quality is superb and the interface/smart aspect is slick.

[toasty]

I’ve just gone full council and bought an LG65E7 to replace my old Pioneer plasma which has given 12 years of sterling service.

I think it’s going to take a while to get used to the jump in size.

If anyone is interested, LG are giving £800 cash back on this model and with my work discount it was only £2700, roughly the same as the b7 and c7 versions

[Hilts]

RobDickinson said:

Had my b7 year and a half. Still blown away with it. Image quality is superb and the interface/smart aspect is slick.

Does it have the dirty screen effect when watching football or motorsport?

I have an LG 55 860 LED and it's pretty bad.

[silobass]

RobDickinson said:

Had my b7 year and a half. Still blown away with it. Image quality is superb and the interface/smart aspect is slick.

My friend has this and is amazed by it. I want one too, should I get one? The Mrs is going to be less than impressed if I do but Currys are doing 18 months interest free and she wont let me move house so I need something nice to happen.

I'll might go for the C7 for a different look to my mate if I get one.

[chilistrucker]

silobass said:

My friend has this and is amazed by it. I want one too, should I get one? The Mrs is going to be less than impressed if I do but Currys are doing 18 months interest free and she wont let me move house so I need something nice to happen.

I'll might go for the C7 for a different look to my mate if I get one.

I was just in Curry’s having another look at it, and it’s down to £1499.00 at mo, if I had my payout i’d have probably bought it there and then.

[Miocene]

It annoys me it hasn't got twin tuners I'd need to spend £2k on a Panasonic to get this.

We use our current PVR a lot and were hoping to be rid, but instead record to a HD (mainly kids films etc and series links). We don't use catch-up TV much, but perhaps this will change if it's more straight forward (currently stream from laptop to tv via Chromecast).

Expensive way to find out though!

[Funk]

Hilts said:

RobDickinson said:

Had my b7 year and a half. Still blown away with it. Image quality is superb and the interface/smart aspect is slick.

Does it have the dirty screen effect when watching football or motorsport?

I have an LG 55 860 LED and it's pretty bad.

As a contrary opinion to most of PH, I looked at the B7 OLED and decided against it. I originally went for the Sony XD9305 although this was swapped out under warranty when I ran into an issue with it; Sony replaced it with the newer XE9305 model which was a significant step up.

I found that OLED can look phenomenal with decent sources, undisputedly the best there is. However a lot of what I watch isn't from 4k HDR Blurays and with anything average, OLED crushed the blacks and made it look poor. The Sony has excellent upscaling and is also not a million miles off OLED on the blacks - it's never going to match or beat OLED for that but it is excellent for an edge-lit panel. I also found the colour on the OLED to be a bit over-saturated and it could end up looking a little 'cartoon-y' (I think the same on Samsung phones with their AMOLED - I'm one of the few that I think prefers the less saturated PLED display on my Pixel 2 XL).

Overall the Sony was better across more of the types of thing I watch. Adding in a c.£500 saving vs. the B7 at the time and it was a bit of a no-brainer. I would be very interested to see Sony's new A1 OLED panel though.

[DoctorX]

chilistrucker said:

silobass said:

My friend has this and is amazed by it. I want one too, should I get one? The Mrs is going to be less than impressed if I do but Currys are doing 18 months interest free and she wont let me move house so I need something nice to happen.

I'll might go for the C7 for a different look to my mate if I get one.

I was just in Curry’s having another look at it, and it’s down to £1499.00 at mo, if I had my payout i’d have probably bought it there and then.

I did just that at the weekend, fantastic picture and very pleased with it (although apparently I won’t see the benefit without the £70 “HDR compatible” HDMI cable )

Some of the Marvel stuff on Netflix with Dolby Vision looks crap, but I suspect thats nothing to do with the TV.