A good, reliable 80+ inch TV to be used as a PC monitor

[LGuser1]

I’ve been using LG 55LX9500 for the last 11 years. To be honest, I really like this old TV because it has great viewing angles which is to be expected from an IPS panel, 240 local dimming zones (pretty advanced feature for 2010). Naturally, an IPS panel has its fair share of downsides, for example, elevated blacks, blooming (which is partially mitigated by a quite aggressive FALD algorithm resulting in significant loss of shadow detail). This TV supports only 1080p60 via its HDMI 1.4, no HDR, no VRR, the input lag is considerable and the panel has some screen uniformity issues, also, there’s a strange glitch with chroma resolution. Although I feed in 1080p60Hz 4:4:4 signal, test patters produce a strange softness.
LG 55LX9500 in 4:2:2


LG 55LX9500 in 4:4:4

I think the time has come to move on, so I’m in the market for a new TV. As I’ve already mentioned above, for me a TV primarily (about 80% of total usage) serves as a PC monitor for productivity work like MatLAB, MS Visual Studio, spreadsheets etc. Occasionally, I also play Xbox and very rarely (about twice a month) watch movies.

I’ll try to define my requirements for the new TV. For me, the most important factor is precise PC mode, no subpixel rendering or dithering (I’m talking to you, Samsung and Sony), ability to resolve full and honest 4:4:4 chroma at 4K120Hz. I’m not really sure about 8K TV because to achieve 8K60, DSC is mandatory – even HDMI 2.1 port with full 48 Gbps bandwidth is incapable of sending uncompressed 8K60 4:4:4 signal without the DSC due to insufficient bandwidth. I’m using dual RTX 3090’s with the NVLink. Besides Windows UI elements in 8K would look way too tiny for a comfortable usage.

The next factor is resistance to screen burn-in. I routinely leave static images on the screen for several hours, so an OLED panel could suffer from premature degradation. Although I’ve seen OLED monitors, so, perhaps, this is not such a big problem for OLED panels - I don’t know.

Wide viewing angles is another critical feature, so a VA panel without the wide viewing angle filter is not an option.

One particular model has come into my attention: the LG QNED90/QNED99. Perhaps a proud QNED90/QNED99 owner would be willing to answer some questions about his TV. Can QNED90 (and QNED99) display 4K120 4:4:4 (and 8K60 4:4:4) without any artefacts? Vincent Teoh reported on QNED99: “When it came to chroma preproduction, it is somewhere between 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 maybe because of the 8K sub-pixel structure”. Can somebody confirm this? Does this problem also apply to QNED90 at 4K120? Does QNED90/QNED99 support motion interpolation in PC mode? Does QNED90 chipset supports two HDMI 2.1 ports at full 48 Gbps? I’ve read that all four HDMI ports of QNED99 support HDMI 2.1 48 Gbps.

Another option would be Samsung QN900. Unfortunately, I had an enormous disappointment with Samsung 8K QLED TV a while ago because Q950RBTXXH in PC mode looked terrible. I would even go so far as to call it a scam and fake 8K. Are Samsung 2021 4K/8K models still plagued with this subpixel rendering?

A cheap VA panel

Samsung 8K TV



I’m also considering Sony Z9J and X95J.
I think an optimal size would be 80-90 inches diagonally, and price shouldn’t exceed, let’s say, 10’000 euros (I’m located in Europe).

I would appreciate other suggestions. Of course, there’s always an option to buy an industrial display but mu my opinion it would be an overkill in terms of price.

 

[Dodgexander]

I'd consider the Sony X90J or X95J in your situation, some TVs using last years chipsets still have problems with 4k 120hz but its a thing of the past now with models using more up to date chipsets.

Bear in mind that TVs that use IPS panels tend to be behind the curve nowadays with picture quality due to HDR. HDR just isn't a good technology to match with IPS, due to the panels flaws of not being able to harness light (as you already see with your current TV). Imagine that, but instead with 750 nits (or more) shining through from behind.

If you need good viewing angles today, check out an OLED, not a TV like LGs QNEDs that are frankly awful in my opinion.

Not sure about the Q950R. I'd be tempted to say the blurrier text is caused by the wide viewing angle/anti glare filter..but it may also be down to pixel structure. BGR isn't as clear as RGB. Although you can change cleartype in windows to support BGR instead which improves things in applications that support it.

Is there a need for you to go for an 8k model? They hardly bring any benefits, increase the cost and 99% of the content you view on the TV will have to be upscaled.

The main reason to spend more on a TV now is HDR performance.

EDIT* usual advice for this time of year applies. 2021 models are overpriced, hard to recommend until their prices come down.

 

[next010]

If using productivity software you probably shouldn't use OLED given the large number of static elements on screen, aggressive screensaver, auto hide of taskbar etc. could help but ABL would drive you nuts as well.

Only other suggestion I can make is a large Nvidia G-Sync ultimate display like Asus ROG Swift 65UQ, this is a TV panel most likely but with Asus own monitor chipset, wont have wide viewing angles though.

LG QNED's are pretty new and probably not too popular given the cost/performance, might have to look around the net to find anyone who has one and can give more feedback.