Bigger TV (65") Recommendations

Discussion in 'Geek Cave: Computers, Tablets, HT, Phones, Games' started by purr1n, Oct 7, 2019.

  1. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Only downside to the X950H TVs that I've read is that Sony omitted some newer features that may matter, especially when gaming:
    • HDMI 2.1
    • Automatic low latency mode
    • Variable refresh rate technology
    • No 120Hz refresh rate above 1080p
    Viewing angles also aren't the best, if that's a concern. I have no experience with it in-person, just did some basic research for a friend and realized that 2020 wouldn't be the year for me to upgrade from my Samsung plasma for use with a PS5. ;)
     
  2. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    Thanks for the reply
    I'm an old fart, so gaming is not a concern. I'd probably get the Sammy if I gamed.

    Viewing angles are pretty straight, I guess the Sammy is a little better there too.
    Will use an articulating mount, so can pull it out and angle to watch from the kitchen.

    Sony has Dolby Vision, which is on my wish list, and Sammy doesn't.
    I guess I need to decide if I want Dolby Vision or HDMI 2.1 more and 120 Hz above 1080 more.

    I'm sure either one will be a huge upgrade over what I have.

    Randy
     
  3. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    While I did my research a couple years ago when I ended up with an LG C8, a couple things I found still hold true:

    - OLED poops all over any other tech right now when outright visual quality is concerned. Perfect blacks, super wide viewing angles, etc. VA based TVs like the Sonys are decent straight on, but fall apart even on the ends of a normal couch. IPS TVs are pretty rare now since their contrast ratios and black levels can't compete any more, but their viewing angles are better than VA. My parents just got a Sony based on IPS and it is merely OK, but they have an abnormally big couch and needed better viewing angles than a VA TV could provide. And unless you have zero light control in your viewing room, most OLED panels can provide plenty of contrast for normal use. I personally like watching in as cave-like environment as possible to get all the juicy contrast I can, but we have watched with all curtains open and it has been fine. I mean even in blindingly lit places like Costco, OLEDs still stand out. Most of this research was done in person at a local electronics chain that had OLED and LCDs side by side running the same content, not just online.

    - Unless you watch the same news channel or leave game HUDS on ALL DAY, burn in with OLED is overblown (LCDs can have burn in as well). In the year I have owned mine, my SO and I have played literal hundreds of hours of Overcooked and Breath of the Wild, with no hint of HUD burn in. My LG has a built in screen saver plus a couple other technologies like a screen shift that helps mitigate burn in risks. Really, any normal use of the TV with mixed media use will avoid burn in. It is only in more extreme use cases that it is a problem. You can always run into a dud, but on current sets, the risk really isn't as high as people still think it is.

    If you time your shopping right, an OLED can be pretty reasonably priced. My LG C8 ended up at $1900 vs $1500 for the Sony (X900H I think) I was considering. So, so happy I spent the extra cash.
     
  4. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    @fraggler thanks for sharing that. I've had temporary image retention on my plasma that the scrolling function typically takes care of. After playing Mario Kart on the WiiU for a long time over the course of a couple years, it took a lot of scrolling and other content watching to remove the lap counter and flags from the HUD in the bottom corner. It was only noticeable up relatively close. Have you stuck your face up to the OLED to see if anything like that has happened?

    Separately, wanted to share a review I read on the Best Buy site for the 55" X950H a while ago and get your and other OLED owners' takes on it. I cut out the irrelevant stuff for brevity.

     
  5. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    I really do want a 75" screen, and an LG B9 OLED 75" is $4100, best price I can find. C9 is a few hundred more.
    I can darken the room a bit during the day, and I know the newer LGs have things that are supposed to make burn in less of a concern. But I don't think I'm willing to spend $4100 even with a remote possibility that I'll have burn in later on. I've read its a cumulative condition, and we will keep this TV for a long time.
     
  6. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    Obviously, with only a little over a year of use under my belt for my C8, I can't speak to cumulative effects. But everything I have read indicates that even though OLED is theoretically more prone to burn in than LCD, it is not as prone as plasma was. And for someone who doesn't game or watch tickers all day, I don't see how it will be a problem, especially given the screen savers, pixel shift, etc. I can definitely take a closer look at some point for any possible burn in so far.

    Now for black details, when I get some time, I can go to the scenes that the review mentions and see what I can or cannot see. I can't stand cloudy or gray blacks and prioritize outright contrast over absolute detail, but still value the detail obviously.

    I will say, that in general, I like Sony's processing engines. I would have gotten Sony's OLED had it not been closer to $3000 than to $2000 at the time. I am sure the X950H will be an excellent choice, especially if viewing angles aren't a concern. At 75" I do believe they added some extra tech to help with the angles.
     
  7. sphinxvc

    sphinxvc Gear Master (retired)

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    I walked into TV shopping last year thinking 75" was a must after 6 years of living with 100-120" projector rigs, but the market and sales steered me toward an OLED 65", which was (and probably still is?) the sweet spot as far as price/performance. It's worked out. After living with it for about 4 months now, I would also say the burn-in protection insurance money I paid was a waste/not necessary.

    For those looking at smaller sizes, it's useful to keep in mind that a 55" TV translates into about 45" with cinemascope content, 65" to about 55", so on and so forth.
     
  8. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Now that we've watched a few 4k UHD Blu-Ray movies I'm loving the Nano 9 even more. The colors are insanely good. The Full array local dimming is really great when you're watching HDR content. We watched Far From Home on Saturday and the Dolby Vision looked awesome. The scene where spiderman is sitting on a building at night and a train is going by behind him with headlights reflecting off of it was very cool. This tv can get about 3-4 times brighter than our old TV.

    Allot of reviewers talk shit about the black levels on the Nano 9, and being an IPS panel it's not going to be the best, but I haven't been bothered by it at all, and it's a massive increase from our old TV. I'll take the OK black levels for the better viewing angles and basically 0 risk of burn in.

    I still need to drag my PC into the living room to test out the 120hz 4K VRR.

    For the open box price ($509 + tax) I'm extremely please.
     
  9. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    I was considering a 65" oled, can get a b9 for $1900 right now.
    I'm sure it would be an upgrade over what I have, and at less than 1/2 the price for the 75" oled.

    Decisions.
     
  10. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    Getting a mobile stand or extendable wall mount for your TV can help with perceived viewing size. Mine can safely extend at least 2 feet from the wall, which makes a pretty big difference in my admittedly small room. 65" was the max I could fit on my wall, but with it extended, I am easily getting a 75" equivalent viewing experience.
     
  11. randytsuch

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    Went to Best Buy at lunch. Its a sort of new and large one with a Magnolia inside.
    But sometimes hard to compare because not all playing same content, and even though they offer cal I wonder if the sets were calibrated.

    In general, I thought the Sony oleds looked better than the LG's, but they are more expensive and they were playing different stuff so maybe I just thought they should be better lol.

    In Mag area:
    There was a sony 65" A9G oled next to a 75" X900H playing lion king. Oled seemed a little dark. With my untrained eyes, each had advantages, and I could live with either. I would pick the 75" just because it was bigger and the Oled wasn't better enough to overcome the size difference, IMHO.
    There was a Sammy Q90T 75" in the same room, but playing Sammy canned content so hard to compare. I thought it looked good though, and could live with it too.

    In main area
    They had a bunch of Sammys, LG and Sonys
    There was another Sony 65" OLED next to a 75" Sony 800 series, and the OLED was obviously better here. If that was my choice, I'd go OLED.

    So I'm still leaning toward the 950H. I might stop at another BB on the way home, see how things compare at that one.

    EDIT: I also wonder about how much to trust looking at sets at BB vs reviews. Reviews seem to be too tilted towards measurements, and trying to compare at BB wasn't conclusive at all.

    Randy
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2020
  12. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    Went to a different BB after work on the way home, but they don't have a Magnolia inside.
    They did have a Sony 65" oled next to a Sony 900 (either F or H). In some ways the oled looked better, but I also noticed the oled had bleeding (right term?) with white text on a dark background where the 900 text looked a lot better.
    So again, don't know if it was a setting thing, or a compromise. If it wasn't for the text thing, I would have said the oled was better.

    And again the Sammy's were playing different content, so hard to compare.

    Decided to go for the 75" 950h, ordered for delivery next week.
     
  13. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    I also ordered a sanus articulating mount from Lowes, the LLF122

    Sanus has this height finder tool which is pretty cool. You tell the tool the TV model, mount model and height of center of tv and it tells you where to drill the mounting holes.

    I care more about the height of the mount because I have an AC outlet behind my existing TV, and need to make sure the new mount clears the outlet. Between the mounting hole location of the Sony and the LLF122, I have a couple inches of clearance to work with, more if I cut the outlet cover plate down.
    Other mounts probably would have worked too, but the sanus tool made it easy and I don't have to hope for the best.
     
  14. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    Just make sure you are into at least 2 studs!
     
  15. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    That's nice and all but how does Blade Runner the Final Cut look on it? This is important to me as its one of my favorite films and I watch it a few times a year. My calibrated plasma is a feast for the eyes. If I'm going to upgrade the TV has to be atleast 75". I just love the motion of a plasma, reminds me of CRT which is still my favorite screen tech.
     
  16. SineDave

    SineDave Friend

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    If anyone is looking for a TV during COVID, PM me and i'll put you in touch with a great dealer. He calibrates in store and ships to your house - all for the same price you'd pay buying from Best Buy usually. He's also a LG Premier dealer (one of 10 in the US), so he gets way better stock allocations. I buy all my displays from him - and will never go back.
     
  17. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    I bought a 75" sony X950H from Wally world (they were only ones with stores around that also had stock at the time.
    Got it, setup and pulled off the cardboard cover and screen was cracked. So returned for refund.
    Ordered another one from BB, and hired a guy to install because I was worried about breaking it. Its big, and seems fragile.

    Had it for a couple weeks. It really looks nice. I just entered someone's cal settings from AVS forum. Think the colors are pretty accurate. Was thinking about buying a meter and trying to cal it, but I'm pretty sure I'll just use these settings because I don't see anything wrong. I guess I'll buy a setup DVD, and try that out.

    Screen is pretty reflective, but the only windows in the room have shutters and there are no lights close to the TV, so I have pretty good light control. You can still see the light coming through the shutters if you look for it, window is directly behind sofa.

    I was tweaking the settings this weekend, and then had some sound glitches. Figured out I needed to change Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital. I receiver may be too old to understand Plus, but works fine with Dolby Digital.
    I use the TV toslink output, convert to digital, then run a coax line from back of TV to receiver.

    I had seem people complain about android TV, but I don't have a problem with it. Its responsive, and is working fine for me. I also have a Roku connected to the TV, but don't really need it. I have the TV hard wired with a ethernet line.

    Watching movies at night on this is pretty impressive. Not cheap, but I'm happy with my purchase.

    Next year I'm going to upgrade the receiver, and add speakers for Atmos, will post later in appropriate thread as I start working on that project.
     
  18. M3NTAL

    M3NTAL Friend

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    Nice set! I have an older XBR that I have mostly loved minus some of the normal issues with LED

    @SineDave is helping me pick out a set (LG CX). I haven't purchased a new TV in almost a decade and 4K and 8K now exist and there is almost some worthwhile 4K content other than pr0n :D
     
  19. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    As part of this TV upgrade, we dropped DirecTV.
    Using the built in AndroidTV or Roku box to watch streaming services instead. We have netflix, hulu (with commercials cheapest plan), Amazon and Disney+.

    With the money saved from direct, added HBOMax and SlingTV (blue).

    Using locast for local stations. Unfortunately I live in the hills and can't get OTA reception.

    Makes it more complicated than just direct, but I now have a lot more content to watch now for less money.
    BTW, I also have a couple months free Philo, but I like Sling blue better so will pay a little more for Sling.
     
  20. ergopower

    ergopower Friend

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    Maybe I'm not understanding how far out in the boonies you are, but I gotta believe there is plenty of signal out there. The antennas you get in Best Buy or wherever are shite. If you've got a little bit of space to mount it, build a Hoverman. This is one designer's take, there are plenty of others if you Google. I built a single-bay with no reflectors out of copper wire stripped from Romex mounted on a piece of wood, and it does great for me. Cost < $10. If you go all in for the 2 gauge with reflectors that some folks use, mount it on a pole, etc., etc., yeah it could get to > $100.
     

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