LG OLED (aka "Took the HD Plunge v3") [Archive]

nrc

11-01-17, 11:44 PM

chop456

11-02-17, 02:40 AM

I got a (cheap) 4K LG last Christmas but have no idea if it's OLED or not. I know that if I'm watching hockey at night, it's bright enough that I'll sometimes turn the brightness down. :gomer:

The interface is great and most all the smart functions that you'd want are preloaded. They have their own content provider(?) called Channel+ that has a pretty wide array of constantly streaming content. Some from traditional broadcast sources and some that are web-only. Saveur, Funny or Die, The Onion, etc. There are probably 50-60 channels of that.

[Edit] There's an app for that. http://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/channel-plus

You're welcome for the completely unhelpful answer. :D

SteveH

11-02-17, 07:57 AM

Black Friday TV Predictions 2017: 4K Prices Will Be Almost as Cheap as 1080p
(https://www.dealnews.com/features/black-friday/predictions/hdtvs/)

Perfect timing, Richard.

Insomniac

11-02-17, 09:29 AM

I got a (cheap) 4K LG last Christmas but have no idea if it's OLED or not.

OLED != Cheap

Insomniac

11-02-17, 09:42 AM

We've gotten the desired two years out of our rear projection Sony since the lamp change so it seems like a new set would be a nice suprise for ourselves this holiday season.

It looks like the LG OLED displays are the only game in town for best picture quality these days. Sony has a line that uses the LG displays but I've always liked Sony for their electronics and hated their interfaces so I don't see any reason to pay the premium there.

Anyone have experience with these? I've seen that they're not quite as bright as the best LED sets but we've been living with a rear projection for over a decade and I can't imagine they're less bright than that.

I will be buying one in the near future, so I have been looking at them for a while. LEDs will be brighter because of the backlighting. OLED however will have the better contrast ratio because the black levels are superior to local dimming. The brightness should only be a concern if you have it in a room with a lot of light, but you mentioned a rear projection TV, so I doubt that's the current situation.

IMO, it depends on how much of a videophile you are. I'd imagine either is better than rear projection.

I think this is a pretty good rundown comparing the two display types: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/led-lcd-vs-oled/

nrc

11-02-17, 10:54 AM

Thanks for the feedback, all. I'm not sure if I qualify as a videophile. I'm willing to pay for a video experience that I prefer but I don' know that it's technically the best. I preferred the picture of my rear projection to most LEDs until 4K sets hit because I didn't care for the "screendoor" affect that I saw in most LEDs. 4k has mostly solved that.

OLEDs are still at a higher price point than I'd normally jump to but since this is something that I (hopefully) will be looking at for a decade I'm willing to make the reach.

I really don't want to deal with buying something like a large TV set in the chaos of Black Friday. I'm seeing that last year prices hit their typical holiday season point the week before Thanksgiving. So I'll probably make a decision and pull the trigger the Sunday before Thanksgiving and continue my tradition of staying in bed during the Black Friday chaos.

Insomniac

11-02-17, 04:07 PM

I'd say if you're seeing the screen door effect, either you sit way too close or you're a videophile. :D

Which OLED you're thinking about?

nrc

11-03-17, 12:35 AM

I'd say if you're seeing the screen door effect, either you sit way too close or you're a videophile. :D

Which OLED you're thinking about?

I was only looking at them in stores but I generally make a point to stand the 10-12 feet away in the store when I can. That's equivalent to our home setup and I think that's the approved distance for a 50-60 inch set. :)

I'm looking at the LG B7 or C7. They appear to be functionally equivalent so I'll have to look at them in the store to decide.

Insomniac

11-03-17, 11:21 AM

I was only looking at them in stores but I generally make a point to stand the 10-12 feet away in the store when I can. That's equivalent to our home setup and I think that's the approved distance for a 50-60 inch set. :)

I'm looking at the LG B7 or C7. They appear to be functionally equivalent so I'll have to look at them in the store to decide.

You can get even closer with 4K! :D

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-jTXc00HHHBm/learn/learningcenter/home/TV_placement.html

nrc

11-03-17, 11:27 AM

You can get even closer with 4K! :D

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-jTXc00HHHBm/learn/learningcenter/home/TV_placement.html

I dunno. Some of those distances are definitely within my Mom's "you'll go blind" perimeter. :)

Insomniac

11-03-17, 12:36 PM

I dunno. Some of those distances are definitely within my Mom's "you'll go blind" perimeter. :)

I'm kind of surprised that with all the computer monitors we stare at that we all don't have bad vision. Makes me think mom was wrong. :)

(Same with keyboards and carpal tunnel syndrome.)

SteveH

11-04-17, 10:11 AM

I was in the local Best Buy last night and decided to check out the LG OLED. Dang. Gorgeous in store picture. How that appears in real life might be less so but it sure looked impressive. The demo video was primarily focused how well it displayed blacks. I did not see a price tag on the 65 inch screen I was looking at. That generally isn’t a good sign. :gomer:

nrc

11-16-17, 03:42 PM

I stopped by BB last night to finally check it out in person. It really is impressive. How much more black could it be? The answer is none. None more black.

Definitely prefer the 'C' model for the black bezel and metal stand.

My only concern is that we have a lot of windows in the TV room and those pitch blacks combined with a glossy screen mean reflections. Ah well, we've been talking about new blinds anyway.

Prices on these at the big stores and sites are pretty tied to LG's price. I see a few sites online with prices that seem to fall into the "too good to be true" category. I'm still not comfortable ordering a large, fragile item like this online.

Insomniac

11-16-17, 07:23 PM

chop456

11-17-17, 02:28 AM

Prices on these at the big stores and sites are pretty tied to LG's price. I see a few sites online with prices that seem to fall into the "too good to be true" category. I'm still not comfortable ordering a large, fragile item like this online.

FWIW, I ordered ours from Sam's Club last year and it was fine. factory box inside a shipping box with multiple layers of bubble wrap, air bags, and pieces of SAFER :tony: barrier in the corners.

nrc

11-19-17, 12:02 AM

On deal sites, they talk about buying from a local or more consumer friendly online store and then using a credit card that offers price matching/protection to bring the price down to get the best of both.

Good suggestion. I checked my preferred card and they have "Price Rewind". You register the purchase and they monitor the price for 60 days and refund any price reduction. They also provide an extra two years of warranty so that's a plus all around.

SteveH

11-19-17, 01:18 PM

LG has steep Black Friday discounts on its premium OLED TVs (https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/17/lg-oled-4k-black-friday-discount/)

nrc

11-19-17, 09:39 PM

I saw that but unfortunately they increased the B7 discount but not the C7. I really wanted the black bezel and better stand so I pulled the trigger on the C7 anyway.

My suspicion is that they're holding back on discounting the C7 any further for long as they can. Hopefully I'll catch that with price protection if it happens.

Delivery on Tuesday so I'll be spending Thursday at home setting it up well away from the mobs. Merry Christmas!

SteveH

11-19-17, 10:40 PM

:thumbup:

gjc2

11-20-17, 07:39 AM

. . . and better stand

The stand is an issue for me, I would need a TV with a center pedestal for either the living room or bed room, many TVs seem to use four legs, two at each end.

TravelGal

11-20-17, 07:48 PM

Fortunately I was reading this thread for my general interest. Lo and behold, I find myself in Best Buy today (looking for a decent sound bar to replace the awful, read: cheapo, Samsung we have). This requires one to sally over to the TV section. NOW I know what you're talking about. I was enchanted by an "upgraded" Sony 4G and then spied the LG OLED. Couldn't look at the other ones after that. Let's see $799 vs if you have to ask.....

SteveH

11-22-17, 12:48 PM

Garland Black Friday Shopper Has Been In Front Of Best Buy For Days (http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/11/22/garland-black-friday-shopper-best-buy/)

Black Friday is fast approaching, but one DFW man has already been camped out in line to get a holiday deal. Efren Garcia has been the first person in line outside of the Best Buy store in Garland since Saturday. He is hoping to save $300 on a 50-inch television.

:gomer:

TravelGal

11-22-17, 02:46 PM

Garland Black Friday Shopper Has Been In Front Of Best Buy For Days (http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/11/22/garland-black-friday-shopper-best-buy/)

:gomer:

Gomer indeed. I thought it was supposed to be Cyber MONDAY? Well, I did my deed yesterday because Best Buy has a one week (or two week?) price match guarantee. Now if I can just get it in from the trunk of the car and stuff it somewhere in the house without TravelGuy finding it! While at the store I saw the price of the LG OLED. I was surprised it was only $1499.

Rus'L

11-22-17, 04:34 PM

The best time for TV prices is during the Super Bowl week, not the holiday time.

nrc

11-22-17, 05:10 PM

Quick review: WOW.

Usually with electronics I pass on the high end in favor of finding a good spot on the price/performance curve. I did that with our last TV and while it was a great set for years, it was 720p native with just one HDMI input and that was definitely long in the tooth as 4k content became available.

So this time around I'm getting a little more out front. It was really the eyeball test that sold me on this. I'm sure sets will get better over the next decade but I have a hard time imagining that they'll look much better than this visually. With Ultra HD content image quality and dynamic range of this display is just amazing.

For sports the picture is great but from one game it appears that broadcast standards and possibly cable re-transmission are going to have sports lagging other content for now. I may need to do an A/B test of broadcast vs cable and see how much impact cable company compression is having.

SteveH

11-22-17, 07:37 PM

TravelGal

11-22-17, 09:20 PM

:thumbup: Good to hear, Richard.

Also good to know that there is now a significant jump in quality compared to when I last purchased a flat screen, 7 years ago. Not that I'm hoping it will die, but if it does at least I can look forward to an upgrade.

Exactly. Ours is about that old and still looking good. Nothing like the OLEDs but good. Still, I can wait. Other things prevail on my budget hit parade.

Insomniac

11-23-17, 12:17 PM

720p sports looks way better than 1080i sports IMO. CBS OTA always looks blocky compared to FOX OTA IMO. DirecTV retains the similar quality (they actually downgrade 1080 from 1920x1080 to 1440x1080 to save on some bandwidth).

Speaking of older sets still looking good (mine is a Samsung Plasma from 2007), does anyone catch themselves watching a commercial for a TV and think that picture looks good and realize it's your TV showing the picture? Regardless, I'm looking forward to a 65" OLED and hope they get close to $2k in the next few months.

WickerBill

01-01-18, 08:53 AM

nrc -

https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/01/lg-shows-off-the-worlds-first-88-inch-8k-oled-display/

Time to upgrade. :)

nrc

01-01-18, 04:01 PM

I guess this means it's time for a massive price drop on the current models. :) I've got a few more weeks of price protection left. So far it hasn't budged since November.

Regardless, I'm thrilled with the purchase. Picture remains stunning. The biggest problem is that it makes any compression artifacts from broadcast or cable company compression really obvious.