Refresh my setup - Sony OLED A80J VS LG OLED G1
Discussion
Hi all, I need some help and advice updating our living room TV.
I realise I've slightly lost touch with the tech having become very comfortable with our plasma and have been trying to give myself a crash course to the point of selecting two TV's and viewing them.
Existing TV
Panasonic TX-P50G20BA
Option 1
Sony XR65A80JU
John Lewis £2,524
Comes with a £50 PSN voucher.
(£2,499 RRP minus £100 for JL card holders, add £125 for additional screen burn warranty).
Option 2
LG OLED G1
Richer Sounds £2,599
Comes with free wireless headphones and flush mount TV bracket which I wouldn't use.
(£2,999 RRP minus £400 one time discount which I have a few days validity left).
Main Viewing
My eyes are calibrated to the older Panasonic, it has fantastic motion handling and gets nice and black however I know that we're really missing out on the available detail that moving up to 4k brings. This is the main priority for us and is what put me off a few years ago looking at LED/LCD/early QLED where some test viewing showed difficulty in handling motion as well as the Plasma.
Will be fed by the Sky Q box so not overly fussed on the OS unless it's a real stinker.
Main viewing is family films, we're big on family movie night and the kids are 5 and 3 so loads of animated stuff.
Grown up viewing is also alot of films and TV Series mainly from streaming services.
Gaming wise I've not yet picked up a current gen console and it's not a major focus. I used to be Xbox but like the look of the PS5 line up. I guess I don't want to shoot myself in the foot for when the consoles become more readily available (and free time increases as gaming takes a back seat to time with the family). Tbh I find handheld on the Switch to be easier to pickup and have a bash nowadays.....and the Switch isn't going to look great on any TV.
Audio isn't a big concern for the TV as I have surround sound for the serious viewing, so the speakers just need to be good enough for cbeebies etc. the Amp is old but faithful and will be optical audio fed.
LG OLED G1
I've been in to see the G1 twice now at Richer Sounds and was limited to the demo 4k disc and trialing a load of Netflix 4k stuff as the only feeds. I couldn't quite get to grips with the modes and have them settle down, IFS Bright was used mainly and scenes like the first chase scene from Baby Driver felt like the TV couldn't make up it's mind where the ultra detail was going to be, it felt very sharp but stood out as looking 'too real' and 'candy floss' sweet. My eye kept catching some motion blur/tear every so often and the first scene of Witcher S01E01 wasn't great and the beast motion was't quite right.
Sony A80
Richer Sounds didn't have one in at 65" so had to nip to John Lewis. They had the demo disk and the sales guy had a USB with a load of demo examples of various quality. They did have netflix but with around 1mb speed it couldn't really be used as a back to back on the same scenes as the G1. From what I saw the motion felt far more natural and colours were more normal and expected VS the G1 popping all the time. A limit of this viewing was having to stand so close as it was in the row upon row of TV's so closer than would be normal for viewing.
So on the first viewing of the Sony it struck me as the better panel but I can't shake the feeling that the G1 is newer and is supposed to be around £500 more so isn't it supposed to be better......not that this is how it always goes.
I need your help or experience on these two sets and the limitations I may not be thinking about such as connectivity etc.
A random but not determining factor is that from the bottom 300 VESA mount on my existing cantilever bracket to the top of the TV unit is 260mm, but my centre speaker is sitting there so the available space is actually 180mm. The G1 mouting points mean that the centre speaker would need moved whereas the Sony would fit without relocating the centre speaker (Cambridge Audio Minx22).
I think I'm leaning toward the Sony but.......I'm not sure!
Thanks all.
I realise I've slightly lost touch with the tech having become very comfortable with our plasma and have been trying to give myself a crash course to the point of selecting two TV's and viewing them.
Existing TV
Panasonic TX-P50G20BA
Option 1
Sony XR65A80JU
John Lewis £2,524
Comes with a £50 PSN voucher.
(£2,499 RRP minus £100 for JL card holders, add £125 for additional screen burn warranty).
Option 2
LG OLED G1
Richer Sounds £2,599
Comes with free wireless headphones and flush mount TV bracket which I wouldn't use.
(£2,999 RRP minus £400 one time discount which I have a few days validity left).
Main Viewing
My eyes are calibrated to the older Panasonic, it has fantastic motion handling and gets nice and black however I know that we're really missing out on the available detail that moving up to 4k brings. This is the main priority for us and is what put me off a few years ago looking at LED/LCD/early QLED where some test viewing showed difficulty in handling motion as well as the Plasma.
Will be fed by the Sky Q box so not overly fussed on the OS unless it's a real stinker.
Main viewing is family films, we're big on family movie night and the kids are 5 and 3 so loads of animated stuff.
Grown up viewing is also alot of films and TV Series mainly from streaming services.
Gaming wise I've not yet picked up a current gen console and it's not a major focus. I used to be Xbox but like the look of the PS5 line up. I guess I don't want to shoot myself in the foot for when the consoles become more readily available (and free time increases as gaming takes a back seat to time with the family). Tbh I find handheld on the Switch to be easier to pickup and have a bash nowadays.....and the Switch isn't going to look great on any TV.
Audio isn't a big concern for the TV as I have surround sound for the serious viewing, so the speakers just need to be good enough for cbeebies etc. the Amp is old but faithful and will be optical audio fed.
LG OLED G1
I've been in to see the G1 twice now at Richer Sounds and was limited to the demo 4k disc and trialing a load of Netflix 4k stuff as the only feeds. I couldn't quite get to grips with the modes and have them settle down, IFS Bright was used mainly and scenes like the first chase scene from Baby Driver felt like the TV couldn't make up it's mind where the ultra detail was going to be, it felt very sharp but stood out as looking 'too real' and 'candy floss' sweet. My eye kept catching some motion blur/tear every so often and the first scene of Witcher S01E01 wasn't great and the beast motion was't quite right.
Sony A80
Richer Sounds didn't have one in at 65" so had to nip to John Lewis. They had the demo disk and the sales guy had a USB with a load of demo examples of various quality. They did have netflix but with around 1mb speed it couldn't really be used as a back to back on the same scenes as the G1. From what I saw the motion felt far more natural and colours were more normal and expected VS the G1 popping all the time. A limit of this viewing was having to stand so close as it was in the row upon row of TV's so closer than would be normal for viewing.
So on the first viewing of the Sony it struck me as the better panel but I can't shake the feeling that the G1 is newer and is supposed to be around £500 more so isn't it supposed to be better......not that this is how it always goes.
I need your help or experience on these two sets and the limitations I may not be thinking about such as connectivity etc.
A random but not determining factor is that from the bottom 300 VESA mount on my existing cantilever bracket to the top of the TV unit is 260mm, but my centre speaker is sitting there so the available space is actually 180mm. The G1 mouting points mean that the centre speaker would need moved whereas the Sony would fit without relocating the centre speaker (Cambridge Audio Minx22).
I think I'm leaning toward the Sony but.......I'm not sure!
Thanks all.
Some things to consider:
G1 doesn't come with feet, these are bought separately
A80J has better out the box colibration, and is better for graduation - better picture basically
G1 doesn't do DTS over optical (or ARC/EARC) - only Dolby
The LG has more gaming features, like ALLM, VRR, and 4x HDMI 2.1 ports.
All OLEDS will have some 24p judder due to the very fast response times of the panels, these can be smoothed out - the sony has better smoothing.
The Sony has Google TV which I think is better than the LG OS, but that's my own opinion. If you've not bought into Google home yet you may prefer web OS.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/compare/lg-g1-oled...
At the end of the day, they're 2 TV's that are basically the best you can get right now (the A80J only being beaten narrowly by the A90J) so it's going to come down to price, and the small things like VRR support, how many hdmi 2.1 ports, DTS over optical support, Web OS vs Google TV...
I'm also in the market for a new OLED, last TV I owned was a 42" Panasonic G10 plasma. Things have moved on...
G1 doesn't come with feet, these are bought separately
A80J has better out the box colibration, and is better for graduation - better picture basically
G1 doesn't do DTS over optical (or ARC/EARC) - only Dolby
The LG has more gaming features, like ALLM, VRR, and 4x HDMI 2.1 ports.
All OLEDS will have some 24p judder due to the very fast response times of the panels, these can be smoothed out - the sony has better smoothing.
The Sony has Google TV which I think is better than the LG OS, but that's my own opinion. If you've not bought into Google home yet you may prefer web OS.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/compare/lg-g1-oled...
At the end of the day, they're 2 TV's that are basically the best you can get right now (the A80J only being beaten narrowly by the A90J) so it's going to come down to price, and the small things like VRR support, how many hdmi 2.1 ports, DTS over optical support, Web OS vs Google TV...
I'm also in the market for a new OLED, last TV I owned was a 42" Panasonic G10 plasma. Things have moved on...
I think even when writing my initial post I was realising that the Sony has edged it for me during the viewings, so will be hunting down the John Lewis stock.
The Richer Sounds staff have been fantastic, and have offered to meet the John Lewis cost even putting in for the PSN voucher value however can't offer the extra coverage for the burn in cover which John Lewis has. Although I'd like to support Richer Sounds I don't think I can pass up the peace of mind that £125 cover on a £2.5k TV is going to give me and would feel a fool if something happened a few years in.
I watched this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkQPHxh1ypc a few minutes before leaving for the second viewing on the G1 (actually had the intention to purchase on that visit) with Richer Sounds which I found helpful, and particularly points at 01:39 and 04:36. It validated my take away feeling from the first viewing that something just wasn't right for my taste (it is subjective!), and my wife agreed having viewed both on the same day.
There was a scene from The Mandalorian which just looked spot on with the Sony, really cinematic while nailing the detail, my viewing experience with the G1 on scifi still looked glorious however it felt like it was amping up details and drew your eye to metals etc which was a visual feast while taking you out of the 'realism' of the scene particularly when motion was mixed in.
Here's a before shot, will follow up with an after and initial impressions.
Speakers may be a little askew due to living room football with the kids getting out of hand now I see that photo.
Thanks for the feedback.
The Richer Sounds staff have been fantastic, and have offered to meet the John Lewis cost even putting in for the PSN voucher value however can't offer the extra coverage for the burn in cover which John Lewis has. Although I'd like to support Richer Sounds I don't think I can pass up the peace of mind that £125 cover on a £2.5k TV is going to give me and would feel a fool if something happened a few years in.
I watched this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkQPHxh1ypc a few minutes before leaving for the second viewing on the G1 (actually had the intention to purchase on that visit) with Richer Sounds which I found helpful, and particularly points at 01:39 and 04:36. It validated my take away feeling from the first viewing that something just wasn't right for my taste (it is subjective!), and my wife agreed having viewed both on the same day.
There was a scene from The Mandalorian which just looked spot on with the Sony, really cinematic while nailing the detail, my viewing experience with the G1 on scifi still looked glorious however it felt like it was amping up details and drew your eye to metals etc which was a visual feast while taking you out of the 'realism' of the scene particularly when motion was mixed in.
Here's a before shot, will follow up with an after and initial impressions.
Speakers may be a little askew due to living room football with the kids getting out of hand now I see that photo.
Thanks for the feedback.
Edited by Goa'uld on Wednesday 21st July 15:09
So this is as far as I made it last week.
Second step of the unboxing is to remove the plastic plugs at the four corners to release the box, however as you can see they aren’t there and the cardboard hasn’t even been punched though.
There is no screen protector which from other unboxing so understand is normal, but the bag covering the TV was torn throughout and the polystyrene was broken. It must have had some odd forces on it as there were bits of polystyrene throughout the package. I didn’t fully remove the TV but it had a distinct curve on the panel. The only thing holding the tv box together was the two webbing straps and it seemed to have had a pretty rough journey.
Despite having good warranty coverage from John Lewis and having gone for the extra accidental damage cover I rejected the TV as I’ve no idea what it’s been subjected to in transit. They picked it up this week and the new one comes on Friday. So fingers crossed for the next one!
I was surprised at John Lewis replacement policy though. You have to pay for the second one and will get the refund on the first a few days later so there’s £5k exposed here until I get the refund. Not everyone will be able to do this and if it was a hot product you could in theory lose your place in the queue and lose out on a product. That policy is fine for a £40 pack of Lego but really needs looking at for more expensive products.
And lastly, don’t worry - it’s the perspective and box that make it look like it’s not going to fit, it definitely will!
Second step of the unboxing is to remove the plastic plugs at the four corners to release the box, however as you can see they aren’t there and the cardboard hasn’t even been punched though.
There is no screen protector which from other unboxing so understand is normal, but the bag covering the TV was torn throughout and the polystyrene was broken. It must have had some odd forces on it as there were bits of polystyrene throughout the package. I didn’t fully remove the TV but it had a distinct curve on the panel. The only thing holding the tv box together was the two webbing straps and it seemed to have had a pretty rough journey.
Despite having good warranty coverage from John Lewis and having gone for the extra accidental damage cover I rejected the TV as I’ve no idea what it’s been subjected to in transit. They picked it up this week and the new one comes on Friday. So fingers crossed for the next one!
I was surprised at John Lewis replacement policy though. You have to pay for the second one and will get the refund on the first a few days later so there’s £5k exposed here until I get the refund. Not everyone will be able to do this and if it was a hot product you could in theory lose your place in the queue and lose out on a product. That policy is fine for a £40 pack of Lego but really needs looking at for more expensive products.
And lastly, don’t worry - it’s the perspective and box that make it look like it’s not going to fit, it definitely will!
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