Disappointed with Richer Sounds OLED demo

Sab

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Last Saturday, I went for a demo at Richer Sounds for the latest OLED TVs. I already have a 49 Inch 4K Sony LED tv but I wanted to see if there really was a big upgrade with the latest OLEDs. Obviously there are now Black Friday sales.

I took with me two 4K Blurays: FOTR (Lord of the Rings) and Life of Pi. The sales assistant played both discs on his 4k Bluray Player with the same picture going to all the TVs on display. There were the latest TVs from Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG. There was hardly any difference in picture quality, with the picture on the 50 inch Panasonic LED TV looking almost identical to the 55 inch Panasonic OLED TV and also other OLED TVs.

Why is this? Does Richer Sounds use cheap HDMI cables and Blu Ray players to display their TVs? Why is the picture on my own Sony LED TV at home better than any of their OLED TVs?
 
Did you set the TVs up properly?
 
Have you watched it in pitch black? :D

Oleds are the best and that much better but it is sometimes misleading when you try to judge it in the shop.
 
To be honest when I saw the same OLEDs at my local Currys, the picture looked a lot better but they were playing the "shop demo".
 
Last Saturday, I went for a demo at Richer Sounds for the latest OLED TVs. I already have a 49 Inch 4K Sony LED tv but I wanted to see if there really was a big upgrade with the latest OLEDs. Obviously there are now Black Friday sales.

I took with me two 4K Blurays: FOTR (Lord of the Rings) and Life of Pi. The sales assistant played both discs on his 4k Bluray Player with the same picture going to all the TVs on display. There were the latest TVs from Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG. There was hardly any difference in picture quality, with the picture on the 50 inch Panasonic LED TV looking almost identical to the 55 inch Panasonic OLED TV and also other OLED TVs.

Why is this? Does Richer Sounds use cheap HDMI cables and Blu Ray players to display their TVs? Why is the picture on my own Sony LED TV at home better than any of their OLED TVs?

Hi there,

I was sorry to read your thread concerning to recent poor demo experience you had at one of our branches.

So that I may investigate further, and help resolve the matter to your satisfaction, please could you drop me a PM with more details?

Sincere apologies again, hope to hear from you soon.

Tom Griffiths
Head of Customer Services
Richer Sounds
 
Last Saturday, I went for a demo at Richer Sounds for the latest OLED TVs. I already have a 49 Inch 4K Sony LED tv but I wanted to see if there really was a big upgrade with the latest OLEDs. Obviously there are now Black Friday sales.

I took with me two 4K Blurays: FOTR (Lord of the Rings) and Life of Pi. The sales assistant played both discs on his 4k Bluray Player with the same picture going to all the TVs on display. There were the latest TVs from Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG. There was hardly any difference in picture quality, with the picture on the 50 inch Panasonic LED TV looking almost identical to the 55 inch Panasonic OLED TV and also other OLED TVs.

Why is this? Does Richer Sounds use cheap HDMI cables and Blu Ray players to display their TVs? Why is the picture on my own Sony LED TV at home better than any of their OLED TVs?
I find it hard to believe the Mines of Moria sequence would look the same on an LCD and Oled.
Unless the TV's had bright lights or windows behind them so yours eyes were scrunched up against the light with your iris closed. Otherwise the black bars should have been nearer grey on the LCD.
And the you shall not pass Balrog sequence a mess of greys rather than blacks around the flames.
 
Buy the OLED and get a HDMI splitter and run them side by side at home in the evening, you will notice a big difference.
 
The trouble with a lot of the shops is they are very bright inside and so LCDs sometimes look better than they would in a home environment.
 
I would expect (hope!) RS had their demo systems set up properly - that's one reason I'd visit them rather than Currys - and were using decent cables, etc.

As others have said, a shop floor with loads of TVs all playing at once and under industrial lighting isn't ideal. Do they offer the option to view TVs in a special room, like they do when you test audio equipment?
 
Viewing a tv in a "special room" in isolation is waste of time; any premium brand higher-tier TV will look great. And it'll look the same whether it's a £1.99 ebay special or a £50 cable.

You (jdxav) may scoff at my suggestion but you will notice the most difference and can judge best in your home environment, it's where OLED's really look noticeably different and especially when most television is viewed in evenings.

IMO, just get the OLED, it is a nice viewing experience. Size for size currently you now have to pay MORE for an LCD of similar quality so it's a no brainer.
 
Viewing a tv in a "special room" in isolation is waste of time; any premium brand higher-tier TV will look great. And it'll look the same whether it's a £1.99 ebay special or a £50 cable.

You (jdxav) may scoff at my suggestion but you will notice the most difference and can judge best in your home environment, it's where OLED's really look noticeably different and especially when most television is viewed in evenings.

IMO, just get the OLED, it is a nice viewing experience. Size for size currently you now have to pay MORE for an LCD of similar quality so it's a no brainer.
If they'll all look great it doesn't matter which one you buy, then :) They're all the same!
 
The key word here is "isolation". On their own, all top tvs will look great. Which is why they have shoot-outs with them side by side, it's the only way we can perceive the differences of top-tier tvs from OLED/LCD (except those with IPS panels which give themselves away a soon as you switch them on).

But I honestly think OLED is a no-brainer if you're considering it for a TV. My only reservation is use for gaming.
 
Sounds like RS did the best they could, bar from switching off all the other TVs and turning off all the store lights so its pitch black so you can compare properly :laugh:
 

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