OLED TVs? What's Good - What's Not?

photonic69 said:

Hi All,

Looking at updating our 2013 42" LED TV with something a lot better. Current one is fine for most things but when watching Freesat or similar we get terrible ghosting/banding/flicker in dark areas. Drive me nuts. Streaming?DVD/Blu-Ray is fine mostly. I suspect it is the Freesat box thing that is pants. It's really slow and a PITA.

So, looking at new OLEDs with built-in freesat tuner etc.

Wife is keen on this: https://www.richersounds.com/lg-oled48c14lb.html

Seems pretty decent and given that we keep things a long time and watch a lot of scifi/dark-horror/stuff with lots of black in it, then it seems to fit the bill.

Anyone got similar?

TIA

I am looking into upgrading my TV too.

I think a lot of the price difference between the TVs isn't so much in the hardware as it is in the software.

All the headline stats talk about the 4k quality but if you're watching a lot of stuff in normal (like old re-runs) or just HD then the quality of the software to scale it up for your big screen makes a big difference;

Nowadays the reviews are pretty good at letting you know strengths and weaknesses.

TheBigBean said:

Seems quite reasonably priced for an OLED. I hate the lack of darkness on LEDs, so would hope an OLED is much better.

Apparently they can be quite fragile, so might not combine well with children. Also, they suffer from burn in, but that is easily managed.

VA LCD/LED panels seem to have good dark black levels.

I did a load of research on this a few months back. OLEDs are universally regarded as the best picture, but be aware they're sometimes not the best in a dimmer room. The newer generation of Sony LEDs, the X95 and the like, offer better brightness than OLED in some circumstances.

Where OLEDs truly impress is the blacks and contrasts. It is just like a photograph, no greying around the edges which LCD/LED have suffered from.

Screen burn on modern OLEDs is a non-issue. Check out RTINGS on Youtube. They have great reviews an all the latest models and have even been testing OLEDs for screen burn, leaving them constantly on the same channel. All reviewers say there will no problems at all, with normal viewing habits.

Another good resource is Digital Trends, he's very knowledgeable with lots of honest reviews.

Not sure if you're aware but LG actually make ALL OLED panels, regardless of brand. So the real difference is the OS and processors.

I was after a 65" OLED and narrowed it down to 2 (LG and Sony are the only ones worth considering), the LG C1 you mentioned and the Sony A80J.

I felt the picture was slightly better on the Sony (although hard to spot the differences) but what swung it for me was the sound. The Sony has the acoustic surface technology, so the screen is essentially a speaker. What's really impressive is the sound comes out of the relevant place on the screen, so when someone is speaking, the noise is actually coming from their mouth!

Another reason I went with Sony is the legs are adjustable, so they can be set high enough for my soundbar. The LGs tend to sit quite low, so unless you're wall mounting, that's something to bear mind.

My mother was so impressed with ours, she has just bought the 48" Sony OLED (the A9). This costs more than the LG C1, but in truth is more equivalent to the LG G1 (top of their range) as it as Sony Masters Series TV. Again the picture and sound is awesome.

The inlaws have also just got a new Sony, a 55" X90J. They're delighted, the picture is very good, but it just can't compete with the OLEDs. Having said that it was much cheaper than the OLEDs!

Happy to answer questions, although I'm no expert, just interested!

TheBigBean said:

I think blackness is more important than brightness. I still have a plasma which has a beautiful screen.

I'm dreading my Plasma dying. Aside from the fact it works to keep the front room toasty, the picture is still better than most alternatives.

Me too soon most likely.

This is an American site, but they’re one of the more comprehensive testing and reviewing magazines around, been going a long time. This links to their OLED TV page:

https://www.soundandvision.com/category/oled-tv-reviews