gves

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With Black Friday deals starting to pop up I’m looking to buy a new TV under £1000. I’m looking for something in the 50-55 inch range with a primary focus on HDR performance. I plan to play content from Netflix / Prime / external hard drive.
Accurate colour reproduction is also a priority. Viewing angles not as much but If it’s possible to in the budget then that would be preferred.

What TVs would you suggest I keep an eye on over the coming weeks for deals? Take the budget of £1k as price after the discount - anything that might drop below it come Black Friday / Cyber Monday.

So far I’ve seen the 55 inch XF9005 discounted to £899, XG9505 to £999 and Q70R for £999. How do these compare?
 
If out of the box picture accuracy is a concern, particularly with HDR, the only TVs currently best suited would be the Sony XG9505/XF9005.

The LG B9 is somewhat of an unknown, the European version may have good accuracy like last years B8, but it may also have poor accuracy like the North American one. Sadly no European reviews are around for this TV.

However, as mentioned already there's a chance this will drop beneath 1000 and will be a much, much better overall TV than the others you are considering, even if its accuracy isn't up to others.

If you were to obtain an OLED that for sure has good picture accuracy out the box, the cheapest will probably be TVs like the LG C9, Panasonic GZ950 and Philips OLED754.
 
If out of the box picture accuracy...
I'm fine with spending some time calibrating the display. I notice the LCD TVs have a much higher peak brightness compared to OLEDs ( according to rtings ) On the other hand OLED have true blacks - which combination is better for HDR in a moderately bright room? What are other TVs up to say £1500 to look out for discounts in the following weeks?
 
I'm fine with spending some time calibrating the display. I notice the LCD TVs have a much higher peak brightness compared to OLEDs ( according to rtings ) On the other hand OLED have true blacks - which combination is better for HDR in a moderately bright room? What are other TVs up to say £1500 to look out for discounts in the following weeks?
Its not a case of time unfortunately, if the B9 is inaccurate as reviewed on rtings.com you need pro calibration and need to correct the white balance settings. Copying those from rtings.com may get you part of the way there, but you could also be making corrections in error as there can be differences between one of the same TV than the next.

If the room is only moderately bright you don't need to worry about an OLED not getting bright enough, but at the same time you won't be benefiting from the blacks being deeper either.

The perception of blacks when the room is moderately lit will make even the poorest LCD TVs look like they have good black levels, and since HDR is all about contrast then an LCD will definitely be more striking in brighter conditions. It can also depend on the source, with some HDR typically being mastered at lower brightness than others.

But it depends how bright the room is, and it depends on reflections too. I'd suggest viewing some OLEDs in a store to see if you feel they are bright enough for your own conditions or not.
 
How accurate is judging the entire supply of B9s on just one sample? I would love to see some European reviews as well.
 
How accurate is judging the entire supply of B9s on just one sample? I would love to see some European reviews as well.
Its not accurate at all. The B8 from 2018 also was marked down in the rtings.com review for picture accuracy whilst the one reviewed here at AVforums had good accuracy.

The concern is the B9 was marked down even worse by rtings.com, you'd like to hope the European one isn't the same as its hard to believe LG would release the TV so poorly calibrated but we just wont' know.

Good news is there is more competition this year, the LG C9 is already more competitive in price now than last years C8, Panasonic also have the GZ950 and Philips' budget OLED754 is also an option, as is the Hisense O8B although that has its own picture accuracy issues.
 
Sony XG9505 is £979 at RS (TV20)
Samsung Q70 £999
LG B9 £1099

Out of those I guess.
@Dodgexander.. Which would you advise sir out of the Sony and Q70 for the gentlemen
 
The LG C9 is already down to £1250

How much better is the C9 over the B9?
 
The LG C9 is already down to £1250

How much better is the C9 over the B9?
We don't know how the B9 in Europe scores with picture accuracy, so in this respect not sure.

Otherwise the C9 has an improved picture processor built in, so its superior if the TV is going to be handling upscaling. Marginally so.

Makes no difference mind if the the content is high quality, or if you do upscaling at the source such as using an UHD BT/Sky/Virgin tuner box.
 
If out of the box picture accuracy is a concern, particularly with HDR, the only TVs currently best suited would be the Sony XG9505/XF9005.

The LG B9 is somewhat of an unknown, the European version may have good accuracy like last years B8, but it may also have poor accuracy like the North American one. Sadly no European reviews are around for this TV.

However, as mentioned already there's a chance this will drop beneath 1000 and will be a much, much better overall TV than the others you are considering, even if its accuracy isn't up to others.

If you were to obtain an OLED that for sure has good picture accuracy out the box, the cheapest will probably be TVs like the LG C9, Panasonic GZ950 and Philips OLED754.
If you would have to choose between those 4 mentioned what would you recommend for Blu-ray s and online streaming if the price would be similar.
Including watching during the day.
 
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If you would have to choose between those 4 mentioned what would you recommend for Blu-ray s and online streaming if the price would be similar.
Including watching during the day.
Which four? The OLEDs?
If film was my primary use I'd go for the Panasonic GZ950, but the LG C9 is a better overall TV so it would be a hard decision.
 
Sony XG9505 vs Panasonic GZ950 vs LG C9 abd Philips 754 as I think they might have similar price.
 
The XG9505 doesn't come close to the others in my opinion. OLEDs, to most people have a more impressive picture than even flasgship LCDs so to compare them to a lower range model would only show the LCD up worse.

So it would be the LG C9 for me, its overall the better TV package with HDMI connectivity, features, smart TV and picture quality.

The Panasonic is a good second if you value the very best picture processing and video/film content is your main viewing. It trumps the LG a little when it comes to video.

The Philips would be best for sport, as their motion processing is very good. But its smart TV is very basic.
 
You can get price matches too, so if you find x TV cheaper with the same warranty elsewhere you can use price matching, with John Lewis in particular to get them to reduce the price and even match discount codes/promos providing its available to all customers.
 

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