Dodgexander
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Its commonly asked, so here's my own personal recommendation of HDR TV's for gaming, from first to worst.
Sony KD-65ZD9 - Seems to be the better with HDR than the Samsung but the input lag is a bit higher at around 40-45ms. Also in 75 inch. Stole the brightness crown from the Samsung KS9500.
Samsung KS9500 - HDTVtest HDTV shootout winner for HDR.
Panasonic DX-902 - A great price and great HDR.
Sony XD94 - If you need to bigger than 65" and need FALD its a good value TV for gaming and HDR. Not as good as the ZD9 though.
LG G6/E6/C6/B6 - Reclaims a place in the high end, LG have released a fix to add game mode to these models in the USA, due to be released here soon. Input lag is a respectable (and steady) 34ms on the C6. I was debating putting these at the top spot due to the OLEDs nature of having next to no motion blur vs LCDs but because the other TVs get a lot brighter, I think they may still be preferable to some. For those of you who appreciate less motion blur but don't mind loosing the extra brightness with HDR the others can provide. These will be preferred. The B6 remains to have high input lag when connected to a PC with 10bit 4:4:4 chroma and UHD. This isn't an issue for console gamers and PC gamers can tune down to 8 bit anyway.
Philips 7601 - Perhaps not as polished as the others but incredible value for a FALD TV and low input lag in HDR.
Samsung KS7/7500 - Great value HDR TV, the minimum I would buy to enjoy HDR.
Panasonic DX-750/780/800 - Doesn't have the hardware for true hdr, but does a good job displaying the signal. Unlike Sony below though these all have VA panels.
Panasonic DX-700 - Same as above except all versions have VA panels. More input lag then the Samsung's though.
Hisense M5500/M7000 - VA panels which is nice, lowish input lag and will process a HDR signal. The M7000 does a lot better with the colours than the M5500.
Sony XD8xxx series* - Copes with HDR well but lacks the brightness and local dimming of more expensive sets. Warning it's seems only the 43" XD80 (not XD83) comes with a VA panel. The rest seem IPS.
If you need wider viewing angles than 20 degree horizontally and can't afford an OLED, beware those these IPS panel tv's have worse black levels and contrast of all of the above, otherwise for HDR quality they fit in to the lower category.
LG LCDs UH770v and higher - Slightly high input lag with HDR at around 60ms probs fine for casual gamers.
Sony XD85 series - finally fixed input lag so it's around 60ms like the LG above.
Philips 6501 (bonus of having ambilight making its ips blacks look darker)!
Special mentions:
Sony XD93 - at last 60ms input lag vs over 100 made HDR gaming possible on these TVs finally. Still struggle to see why a gamer wouldn't go for the Samsung KS8000 though when it has still 3x less input lag.
Conclusion and notes:
There's no good small sized tvs for displaying HDR. The best you can get is the 43" curved Samsung KS7500. Otherwise its at least a 49" KS7000 for flat. - Its a gap in the market that I'm hoping to see filled next year.
There are lots of TV's that market HDR but are very poor at displaying it. Chances are if the TV isn't on the list it falls in to that category. Just having HDR on a TV isn't the same principle as a HDready logo, there's more to it than that.
Don't fall for the buzzwords;
10 bit = actually not as important as you think. All that counts for HDR is a wide colour gamut and % colour coverage in the rec 2020 colourspace. There are 8 bit panels with HDR capable colours and 10 bit panels without. Bit depth is not important with HDR (yet).
HDR+ = this is just a mode to convert normal SDR to HDR. Don't use it.
800hz/400hz etc - forget these fake refresh rates it means nothing with gaming. All that counts is motion blur. There are some 60hz TVs and some 120hz and even then it's not important because so many 60hz TVs already have low motion blur. Some 120hz TVs actually have more. Remember your console won't input more than 60 and it's likely it will struggle to always reach 60fps anyway.
Seating distance;
HDR can be benefited from anywhere as it's features lay in brightness and colour. UHD resolution is another matter. Want your UHD TV to look better than your FHD one? Be sure to sit closer and or get a bigger screen to notice a quality difference. See:
UHD vs FHD
The latest HDMI 2.0a poses bandwidth restrictions on the new PS4 pro. This means it's not possible to send RGB with a 10 bit signal whilst using HDR. It seems current behaviour from the console is to display HDR in 8 bit in RGB or use YUV 4:2:0.
Plasma users may have to spend more than they expect to get a good gaming experience, you just can't beat the value vs pq of a plasma TV anymore. In some areas a Plasma won't be beaten by even a high end LCD. In which instance I recommend saving for an OLED.
You may ask what would I buy? I don't know, I am not lucky, nor rich enough to afford a HDR console or TV. My wisest words would perhaps to be to wait until next years tv's are released in spring onward. There may be better HDR vs bang for buck tv's then.
This is by no means any official valuation, these are my own personal recommendations based on professional reviews and user reviews. Please don't hold anything against me! Any more info or spotted an error? let me know. I'll try to keep everything updated. Feel welcome to ask questions or discuss alternatives below.
-Dodge
* The Sony XD80/83 series is a bit of a lottery when it comes to panel types right now. It seems like the 43 inch version has a VA panel but not sure about the other variants. We're still waiting for reviews in Europe of these TV. They also only seem to support HDR on HDMI ports 2 and 3.
# Some of these tv's may not all have full HDMI 2.0a inputs. The Samsung KU series for example looks like it only has 1 HDMI 2.0a and 2 HDMI 2.0. This means no HDR on ports 2 and 3. This is not the case for the KS series as all there ports are HDMI 2.0a fully supporting HDR.
High End
HDR as its meant to beSony KD-65ZD9 - Seems to be the better with HDR than the Samsung but the input lag is a bit higher at around 40-45ms. Also in 75 inch. Stole the brightness crown from the Samsung KS9500.
Samsung KS9500 - HDTVtest HDTV shootout winner for HDR.
Panasonic DX-902 - A great price and great HDR.
Sony XD94 - If you need to bigger than 65" and need FALD its a good value TV for gaming and HDR. Not as good as the ZD9 though.
LG G6/E6/C6/B6 - Reclaims a place in the high end, LG have released a fix to add game mode to these models in the USA, due to be released here soon. Input lag is a respectable (and steady) 34ms on the C6. I was debating putting these at the top spot due to the OLEDs nature of having next to no motion blur vs LCDs but because the other TVs get a lot brighter, I think they may still be preferable to some. For those of you who appreciate less motion blur but don't mind loosing the extra brightness with HDR the others can provide. These will be preferred. The B6 remains to have high input lag when connected to a PC with 10bit 4:4:4 chroma and UHD. This isn't an issue for console gamers and PC gamers can tune down to 8 bit anyway.
Philips 7601 - Perhaps not as polished as the others but incredible value for a FALD TV and low input lag in HDR.
Mid Range
HDR will still wow, but you may find more clouding and light bleed with these tvs in HDR mode. These TV's may also not have as effective local dimming to separate dark's from brights but they still do a good enough job to warrant buying one.
Samsung KS8/9000 - As good as the KS7 series but with less motion blur, worth it for gamers.
Samsung KS7/7500 - Great value HDR TV, the minimum I would buy to enjoy HDR.
Panasonic DX-750/780/800 - Doesn't have the hardware for true hdr, but does a good job displaying the signal. Unlike Sony below though these all have VA panels.
Low End
These tv's aren't great for HDR but instead are the best of a bad bunch, they will process a HDR signal and show improved colour, but in many cases it may actually be better to game on them with HDR off.
Samsung KU6400,6500 series # - Great TV for budget gaming. Will accept a HDR signal and show it with better colours than SDR but will be lacking everywhere else, local dimming and brightness is poor. KU6000/KU6300 are similar but don't have a wide colour gamut so colours will look worse with HDR. Beware 49" and 55" versions have been spotted with PLS panels. (Similar worse contrast to IPS)
Panasonic DX-700 - Same as above except all versions have VA panels. More input lag then the Samsung's though.
Hisense M5500/M7000 - VA panels which is nice, lowish input lag and will process a HDR signal. The M7000 does a lot better with the colours than the M5500.
Sony XD8xxx series* - Copes with HDR well but lacks the brightness and local dimming of more expensive sets. Warning it's seems only the 43" XD80 (not XD83) comes with a VA panel. The rest seem IPS.
If you need wider viewing angles than 20 degree horizontally and can't afford an OLED, beware those these IPS panel tv's have worse black levels and contrast of all of the above, otherwise for HDR quality they fit in to the lower category.
LG LCDs UH770v and higher - Slightly high input lag with HDR at around 60ms probs fine for casual gamers.
Sony XD85 series - finally fixed input lag so it's around 60ms like the LG above.
Philips 6501 (bonus of having ambilight making its ips blacks look darker)!
Special mentions:
Sony XD93 - at last 60ms input lag vs over 100 made HDR gaming possible on these TVs finally. Still struggle to see why a gamer wouldn't go for the Samsung KS8000 though when it has still 3x less input lag.
Conclusion and notes:
There's no good small sized tvs for displaying HDR. The best you can get is the 43" curved Samsung KS7500. Otherwise its at least a 49" KS7000 for flat. - Its a gap in the market that I'm hoping to see filled next year.
There are lots of TV's that market HDR but are very poor at displaying it. Chances are if the TV isn't on the list it falls in to that category. Just having HDR on a TV isn't the same principle as a HDready logo, there's more to it than that.
Don't fall for the buzzwords;
10 bit = actually not as important as you think. All that counts for HDR is a wide colour gamut and % colour coverage in the rec 2020 colourspace. There are 8 bit panels with HDR capable colours and 10 bit panels without. Bit depth is not important with HDR (yet).
HDR+ = this is just a mode to convert normal SDR to HDR. Don't use it.
800hz/400hz etc - forget these fake refresh rates it means nothing with gaming. All that counts is motion blur. There are some 60hz TVs and some 120hz and even then it's not important because so many 60hz TVs already have low motion blur. Some 120hz TVs actually have more. Remember your console won't input more than 60 and it's likely it will struggle to always reach 60fps anyway.
Seating distance;
HDR can be benefited from anywhere as it's features lay in brightness and colour. UHD resolution is another matter. Want your UHD TV to look better than your FHD one? Be sure to sit closer and or get a bigger screen to notice a quality difference. See:
UHD vs FHD
The latest HDMI 2.0a poses bandwidth restrictions on the new PS4 pro. This means it's not possible to send RGB with a 10 bit signal whilst using HDR. It seems current behaviour from the console is to display HDR in 8 bit in RGB or use YUV 4:2:0.
Plasma users may have to spend more than they expect to get a good gaming experience, you just can't beat the value vs pq of a plasma TV anymore. In some areas a Plasma won't be beaten by even a high end LCD. In which instance I recommend saving for an OLED.
You may ask what would I buy? I don't know, I am not lucky, nor rich enough to afford a HDR console or TV. My wisest words would perhaps to be to wait until next years tv's are released in spring onward. There may be better HDR vs bang for buck tv's then.
This is by no means any official valuation, these are my own personal recommendations based on professional reviews and user reviews. Please don't hold anything against me! Any more info or spotted an error? let me know. I'll try to keep everything updated. Feel welcome to ask questions or discuss alternatives below.
-Dodge
* The Sony XD80/83 series is a bit of a lottery when it comes to panel types right now. It seems like the 43 inch version has a VA panel but not sure about the other variants. We're still waiting for reviews in Europe of these TV. They also only seem to support HDR on HDMI ports 2 and 3.
# Some of these tv's may not all have full HDMI 2.0a inputs. The Samsung KU series for example looks like it only has 1 HDMI 2.0a and 2 HDMI 2.0. This means no HDR on ports 2 and 3. This is not the case for the KS series as all there ports are HDMI 2.0a fully supporting HDR.
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