OLED Ownership advice

TVConfusion

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Hi all,

I've been in the market for a new TV for a few months now. I kept putting Hisense LCDs in my basket and then changing my mind at the last minute, but as it turns out a family friend who changes tvs every year had one going spare so he sold me his 55 Sony A1 OLED for £300. Rude not to at tha tprice so I thought great, that'll be a good bedroom TV until I can get an LCD for the living room. Its a 2017/2018 model so might have some issues that 2020 models seem to have worked out? I've run it through a panel test and it looks great. There are some lines on the red panel but this is only visible when seeing full screen greys from what I can see in actual content, I can live with it. The picture is just astounding and the built in subwoofer makes for easily the best sound I've ever heard from a TV, competing with my £300 Samsung soundbar I bought 18 months ago.

Unsurpsingly I've fallen in love with it and I want to keep it as my living room TV. Thing is I had a few reasons I wasn't confident about OLED and I was wondering if anyone had advice on these?

We have young children so the living room TV gets a couple hours a day of Cbeebies. This has a yellow logo in the top right. My wife will also watch a couple of hours of daytime TV that tends to have banners around the bottom of the screen. Will these be problems? I've read that I might be best using a zoom feature to cut off the outside of the picture when used for content that has logos or banners?

We use subtitles for all content. One of our family is hard of hearing and it is great for helping the kids with their reading. i've seen on RTings that subtitles could be a problem. I've been able to change the subtitles to grey with a black background for Disney+ and Amazon (We dont use netflix) but we also watch a lot via Plex, and this doesnt have the option for dark grey subtitles. Would I be best using another colour rather than white?

Third is gaming. I love to game and one of the reasons I've been wanting to upgrade is to get in on the PS5 action. I've never seen the point of a ps5 when I was on an old 1080p TV. This tv has about 30 input lag which isnt amazing but should be ok, but if I game on it are crosshairs, health bars etc going to damage it?

The fourth issue, and perhaps the most pressing one is our TV gets a lot of use. It tends to go on about 7am and wont turn off till about 11pm. Can an OLED survive this amount of daily use without breaks? I know my wife and kids often have it on when they aren't actively watching so I could maybe get it turned off more via nagging, but not sure I can break that habit entirely.


Any tips and advice you might be able to offer is warmly appreciated. I'm not sure I've ever been so stressed over a TV, but I don't know how much of that is from the FUD over Oled panels over the years? I will of course read up on here the threads about burn-in etc, but I was hoping someone may have advice that would help me avoid problems with my specific usage patterns.
 
Forget all your concerns, at medium-high brightness settings (250-350 nits SDR -- normal levels and a requirement for daytime viewing), you get 15-20k hours before noticeable dimming. So at 16 hours a day you'll get 2.5 to 3.5 years. You could get a warranty and have the screen replaced at that time, but no guarantees they'll do it and you'd still only get another 3.5 years.

White is better than any colour for subtitles - it wears the least per brightness.

You haven't provided a detailed breakdown of how many hours you'll be gaming, watching TV, letterboxed movies. Which games you'll be playing - everything is needed. Without that, nobody can advise you on if you'll get burn in before dimming.

With varied content you don't need the 4 hour - 5 minute pixel refresh episodes. Nothing inherently wrong with running 16 hours straight

Edit: missed your bit at the beginning about it being a 2017. If it's already got problems with red, it's likely got significant hours on the panel. You should keep it for your room and not leave it on unless you're watching it. And avoid gaming on it at all unless all the static elements are lightly saturated colours or grey - 2017 and previous panels are more susceptible to burn in, and this one's used
 
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I’ve a 2017 E7.It gets lots of use.Does two 2000 hour pixel refreshes a year.That’s 4000 hours use over 12 months.I game aswell.I use it as a normal tv and don’t baby sit it.It gets so much varied content which helps but all tvs get varied content.Now I had a new panel at 2 years old due to severe banding after a 2000 hour pixel refresh.Took 2 mins to sort it under the 5 year warranty.New panel has done two 2000 hour refreshes with no problems.Picture is fantastic but most of all sound is amazing on the E7.Just get one for your living room and enjoy it.Try John Lewis and get the 5 year burn in warranty at £140 for 5 years.
 
I've gone into the service menu to have a look and it's been used for 3874 hours. That's not a huge amount for any TV is it?

The red thing is hard to describe. It's kind of artifacting? Can't be seen in normal content, only on a full screen red test and grey fullscreens which I presume use all the pixels in tandem.

I've attached a photo.
 

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I've gone into the service menu to have a look and it's been used for 3874 hours. That's not a huge amount for any TV is it?

The red thing is hard to describe. It's kind of artifacting? Can't be seen in normal content, only on a full screen red test and grey fullscreens which I presume use all the pixels in tandem.

I've attached a photo.
That full screen red isn't bad. OLEDs start to look non uniform after a dozen seconds or so with fully saturated colours. Especially yellow and purple make it obvious.

4000 hours isn't bad, the panel is only around 25% worn. I have the same amount on my 2019 A8G. Pandemic tv watching lol. I'm usually way under 3 hours.

Grey pixels are mostly white with a bit of red to make the right colour temperature.

Still need how many hours of gaming you'll do + screenshots of the huds. And how much letterbox movies as a % for burn in probability.

You don't have the option to buy a warranty now obviously. If you bought the TV new, you'd probably be doing a panel replacement about now, even if your usage didn't lead to burn in per se.. Considering that you'll be paying easily over 1000 for a new panel in 2-3 years (if they're even available then), maybe you want to keep the oled in your room?
 
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Well my E7 has approx 12,000 hours useage but that’s on two panels.First one did 8,000 hours and the replacement now 15 months old has about 4,500 hours on it.No problems the picture is fantasti.My tv is on 12 hours everyday in my house.No children’s channels and no news or breakfast news channels but that’s through choice we never watch them.
Id say my tv proves how resilient Oled actually are and can last.Only a banding defect caused my panel replacement.Yes the pandemic has caused more useage.
 
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Forgot to mention - cartoons age the panel 2-4x faster, maybe more because of heating. A 65 inch panel with normal SDR content (so TV shows shot with a camera) pulls 50 watts on average, peaking at 150. With cartoons the average is 125-175, peaking at 370. This is with white at 350 nits.

Edit: that is just the panel - 60 watts subtracted for the TV's other electronics

Games are usually just a bit brighter than normal TV. Highly dependent on the game though. Games with bright saturated colours are just like cartoons
 
As Michael7877 said, " 2017 and previous panels are more susceptible to burn in, and this one's used".

Here is some additional information that you may find useful:
OLED BURN IN - Developing an Informed Opinion

This was written by Dodgexander an AVForums moderator before the 2018 OLED TVs were marketed
 
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Forgot to mention - cartoons age the panel 2-4x faster, maybe more because of heating. A 65 inch panel with normal SDR content (so TV shows shot with a camera) pulls 50 watts on average, peaking at 150. With cartoons the average is 125-175, peaking at 370. This is with white at 350 nits.

Edit: that is just the panel - 60 watts subtracted for the TV's other electronics

Games are usually just a bit brighter than normal TV. Highly dependent on the game though. Games with bright saturated colours are just like cartoons

I'm a fan of movies so I'll probably watch 4 or 5 a week and they are pretty much always letterbox. Most of my evening viewing is youtube and catch up TV.

I game really lightly generally. I can go weeks without playing but once something gets its hooks in me I will give it 2 or 3 hours a night until I finish it. I Don't play anything long term like fifa etc so most games would be hitting the TV for 20 hours or so, maybe 30-40 for the likes of final fantasy.

Thanks for all the replies thus far.
 
This is a similar question on rting.com. Their tests were with 2017 OLEDS like your TV.
LG says OLED TVs are good for a 100,000 hours. That’s 11.7 years at 24 hours a day.

 
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Thank you all for the advice. I think I've decided to keep it as the main TV and let the chips fall where they may. It's a great stopgap. If it lasts a few years then maybe my next tv will be OLED, if not then miniled are looking like they may be a great choice also.
 

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