Question Coming from Panasonic Viera Plasma, Looking at LG OLED

thenewrick

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Good afternoon all,

I've been one of many who have been watching the progress of the LG OLEDs over the years and I'm finally in a place where I can pull the trigger on one. It is a major purchase for me, and I'm pretty picky about TV's so I've done the research and read a bit. I like to get a little feedback from forums before making a major purchase.

I'm coming from a 42 inch Panasonic Viera plasma which I love quite a bit. Its been great for about 8 years or so. I accidentally cleaned it with something harsh and wrecked the anti-glare I think so now it has these dark smudgy areas on it. That's my best guess. So I figured it's time to try something new.

I love the plasma because it's colorful, warm, smooth, friendly, great motion and has that organic feel to it. I find that other TV's typically have better crispness but at the cost of all other things. I don't need absolute crispness. From what I've read, these LG OLED's are my best fit. My biggest gripe with the plasma was that in dark scenes, it had that smudgy clunky blocky effect, think darker scenes in The Walking Dead and X-Files.

I'm a little worried about soap opera effect, and read about the new motion software on the 2019 LG OLED's and how they may have gotten better.

I mostly watch TV, Netflix, and pretty basic stuff. I don't have a high end Bluray player and I'm not looking for extreme FPS gaming. I just want the most pleasant basic TV watching experience. I'm okay with going from 42 inch to 55 inch. I'll be able to lay back in bed and see the scores now I reckon.

I saw the 2019 LG OLED prices announced recently and as always I have sticker shock. I've read the biggest improvements for 2019 were motion processing and additional motion software so I'm pretty bought into the 2019 idea.

I don't have a dedicated speaker set up for the TV, so it's nice to have a decent built-in speaker.

It's my understanding that the B9 will only have slightly worse build materials/design than the C9, and that the E9 will have better built-in speakers and have the glass panel front compared to the C9. Would this make the E9 easier to clean with simple Windex? Should I just never really clean my screens and dust with a dry cloth/duster?

Is there any real reason to get the C9 over a B9 if you don't care about style at all? Just have to wait for the B9 yea?

Coming from my plasma will this 2019 LG OLED be the closest I get to my existing experience with a modern TV? What will be some things I miss about my plasma that I haven't thought about?

If I can't really think of any major drawbacks or anything, I'll probably pull the trigger on a C9 as soon as they come out. It would be a big purchase for me so I'm just being extra careful.

I'm not really considering any other TV's at this time outside of the 2018-2019 LG OLED lineup.

I haven't considered hiring a professional calibrator. I just want something great for basic TV out of the box.

When I get a new TV, do I need to run any tests to see if there are dead pixels, banding, or other maladies? I haven't really done any of that before.

Thank you for the feedback and opinions.
 
It's my understanding that the B9 will only have slightly worse build materials/design than the C9, and that the E9 will have better built-in speakers and have the glass panel front compared to the C9. Would this make the E9 easier to clean with simple Windex? Should I just never really clean my screens and dust with a dry cloth/duster?
Never touch a display with any cleaning agent at all, just use water and a damp microfiber cloth.
Coming from my plasma will this 2019 LG OLED be the closest I get to my existing experience with a modern TV? What will be some things I miss about my plasma that I haven't thought about?
Most people find they prefer the adjustment toward an OLED easier than they do to an LCD as both displays offer more similar characteristics.
When I get a new TV, do I need to run any tests to see if there are dead pixels, banding, or other maladies? I haven't really done any of that before.
You can run test slides if you want, there are even videos on youtube now with tests. Usually I find the best test is to spend some time watching the content you enjoy though, especially when it comes to a TVs screen uniformity.

There are only really three concerns I can think of when reading your post and they would be:

1. You have expressed a great interest in the 2019 LG OLEDs, this is fine but past experience when looking at the marketing and pre-release material I would take anything they say in regards to improvements with motion or picture processing lightly, they make little improvements year to year and they often like to "big it up" in preparation for release. I personally see nothing at all that sounds like it will be worthwhile going for a 2019 model.

2. Price. Have you looked at pricing? It can cost sometimes 50% more to buy new than it will to pick up the same model from the year before. There has never been a time where the extra cost has justified the improvements made. TVs cost so much more when they have just been released.

3. Motion - There are some differences in how a Plasma TV delivers motion compared to OLEDs (or LCDS for that matter). Plasma displays are able to pulse their pixels on and off without delay. It is this that creates such natural motion on a Plasma TV without having to change any settings in the TVs menu. OLED and LCD displays are different, they have to hold the pixel in place before they turn it off and display the next one, therefore naturally they cannot display motion to the same standards.

This is generally just very technical and something that you shouldn't worry about, most people do not find a problem moving to an OLED but it is worth knowing that you may find to get the same motion quality that you have to use the settings within the TVs menu and tweak them depending on the content you watch.
Its this reliance on using the motion settings in the TVs settings to get the best motion quality that makes a difference when it comes to choosing one TV or manufacturer from the next. If you care most about motion you will probably be more happy looking at an OLED by Sony instead of LG.

Its not made easy buying a TV nowadays and generally its too difficult to draw any solid conclusions from viewing the TVs before you buy either. If you live near a helpful store who are willing to let you sample some content then great, otherwise its a case of buying from a store with a good return policy who will accept your return of the TV if unhappy.
 
I'd probably try to buy it through CostCo because they have a good return policy.

I'm still mulling it.
 
I think the biggest thing I'm waiting on now is to see the review of the TruMotion system settings. The new sets have Low, Med, High black frame insertion settings while the 2018 only had off and High. I'm wondering if that Low or Medium setting will be what I'm looking for as far as trying to recreate that comfortable smooth motion of my plasma.

I have no idea what flicker actually looks like on a TV. I'm definitely not an AV guru and pretty much just watch my two plasmas so I don't have a lot of experience with other panels.
 
Dont no if this helps but i went from a plasma to a Panasonic oled and the colours blacks and motion is second to none. Standard tv looks great as well
 
Thanks for the feedback. I've sort of decided on a 2019 C9 55 inch for the higher end processor than the B9 and for the slightly improved processing and motion controls compared to 2018.
 
I had a Panasonic Plasma (ST30) and moved to Lg oled (930v) and could not be happier, for me the motion is better but I get that people eyes see things differently. Contrast and colour is amazing and agree with above poster sd looks pretty good blown up to 55", imo far, far better than lcd, picture seems more natural
If it helps I use no motion settings and did not use them on the plasma either
 
The dark frame insertion causes flicker but most people are fine with it, especially on lower settings. Since the new models seem to be introducing better control over it it may be a big improvement.

To those that commented on their OLED motion, could you perhaps give more info on what software settings you are using? Or do you keep everything disabled.

There is a big difference in motion if you have them disabled compared to enabled and even from one setting to the next there can be differences.

Not to mention it also depends what you watch, with sports you are going to have a nicer experience using them than film.
 

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