Promoted Philips OLED+936 and OLED+986 – continuous improvements bring a new reference performance.

Philips TV PQ

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Philips OLED+936 and OLED+986 – continuous improvements bring a new reference performance.

By Danny Tack, Senior Director Product Strategy & Planning, TP Vision


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Hopefully AVForums readers will be by now familiar with our OLED+ TV flagship products especially as we have two exciting new OLED+ sets to introduce to you - the OLED+936 and OLED+986.

OLED+ is the name Philips gives to its most premium, models that combine the very best of the company’s PQ processing with the outstanding quality of a Bowers & Wilkins created sound system.

Both Philips and Bowers & Wilkins are proven leaders in their respective fields and both are committed to offering wholescale product performance improvements through the continuous development of all key components and the upgrade of all key technologies.

And while the silhouette of the OLED+936 and OLED+986 may look familiar to their predecessor models, the combination of individual changes in each combines to offer a significant increase in performance, one more than good enough to establish a new reference quality in the premium TV market.

I will give you details on the PQ performance improvements below but will leave the many SQ changes to Andy Kerr of Bowers & Wilkins later in this thread.

The first of those improvements for both the OLED+936 and OLED+986 is the inclusion – in the 55” & 65” models of the latest, high-performance OLED panels, with a 20% increase in peak light output in comparison to previous models.

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The new panels are paired with the latest enhanced version of the Philips P5 Intelligent Dual Picture Engine to extend PQ performance to a new level - with better sharpness, more accurate colours and skin tones and better contrast for all sources.

New for 2021 is the addition of AI content classification with Film Detection and Ambient Intelligence to intelligently integrate the sets light sensor into the operation of the AI functionality.

Film Detection allows the 5th Gen P5 to automatically ‘flag’ movies and offer the viewer the option to switch to either Filmmaker or Home Cinema Mode.

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Ambient Intelligence uses a new measurement meter to intelligently adjust the presentation of both SDR and HDR content and provide the optimum contrast for the ambient light level in all viewing environments – offering better HDR performance for HLG, HDR10 & HDR10+ and even Dolby Vision sources via the Dolby Bright mode.

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The new OLED+ sets also now offer HDR10+ Adaptive which combines HDR10+ dynamic metadata with real-time ambient light information to allow automatically optimized brightness levels, adjusted to the viewing environment on a scene-by-scene basis.

The extra power of the AI Dual Picture Engine makes the OLED+ sets unique in Philips OLED range in offering AI Smart Bit Enhancement 2.0, AI Machine Learning Sharpness, and an improved Perfect Natural Reality feature.
Rather than apply one sharpness setting/level across the whole picture of the image, the AI Machine Learning Sharpness feature applies ‘local’ sharpness enhancement within the frame, applying different settings in specific regions of the image to ensure optimal sharpness over the whole picture.

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The AI Smart Bit Enhancement 2.0 feature solves the problem of losing detail when removing banding from very poor source content. By applying the extra processing power of the additional AI chip, the system can extend 8-bit video to near 14-bit precision in areas where banding occurs, resulting in smoother gradations without detail loss in other parts of the picture.

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The enhanced AI system also features an AI improved version of Philips TV’s unique Perfect Natural Reality technology which now converts SDR source content into an HDR‐like picture with 30% more natural sharpness, thanks to a new highlight detection and enhancement feature - which combines with the systems enhanced contrast - creating a visibly more realistic image with deeper details, creating more depth impression especially with reflections, making the picture truly come to life.

Both of the new OLED+ sets also feature the four-sided version of the unique Ambilight technology that combines with the superb PQ of the 5th Gen P5 to offer the ultimate, totally immersive viewing experience.

The result from the combination of the 5th Gen P5, the latest OLED panel and Ambilight is a new reference quality picture with incredible contrast, brilliant specular highlights, exceptional detail in both bright and dark scenes, market leading sharpness, vivid but natural colours, accurate skin tones and fast, realistic motion reproduction - and all continually optimised to the local ambient light level.

Philips is also unique in helping you to protect your TV investment. The 2021 OLED+ models protect their high-performance OLED panels using Philips unique anti-burn-in system. The anti-burn-in solution uses an advanced logo detection function which monitors a grid of 32400 zones to very accurately detect static content and gradually reduce the intensity of its local light output to avoid burn‐in and without compromising the output of other parts of the screen.

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Philips TV’s system removes the anti-burn problem for 95% of static images including logos and gaming content.
Also new for 2021 is the Fast Motion Clarity feature, which gives a subtle but ultra-realistic, smooth transition from image to image with increased sharpness but without introducing artefacts and avoids wide-area, field-flicker by running at 100Hz rather than the more usual 50Hz.

Fast Motion Clarity (FMC) avoids the ‘sample & hold’ motion blurring effect by using 120Hz Black Frame insertion to continuously write on screen images line-by-line, for a gradual transition from one image to the next, effectively operating as a scanning backlight.

Viewers will be offered four settings for FMC: Off, MIN, MID or MAX.

Yet another major development in the 2021 OLED+ sets will be of particular interest to the keen gamers of you thanks to the inclusion of HDMI 2.1 connectivity offering e-arc, VRR for 4K content from 48Hz to 120Hz at an impressive high speed of 48Gbps (444, 12 bit) while Freesync Premium and Auto Game mode are also added to the Auto latency Mode of the previous generation sets.

The result is a minimum latency of just 11ms (7ms from the platform and 4ms from the display),
making the Philips 2021 OLED TVs among the fastest currently available.

Finally, something I’m sure will be popular with AVForums’ members, professional level calibration is also new for 2021 via the inclusion of the Calman Ready feature that brings easy access to auto-colour calibration allowing the set to be finely adjusted to ensure absolute colour accuracy to industry agreed standards.

The OLED+936 will be available in 48”, 55” and 65” screen sizes while the OLED+986 will only be available as a 65” model.

Overall, I believe the result is the best picture quality yet on a Philips TV and most probably the best TV picture quality in the market. Stay tuned, because we are going to give some of you the special chance to see and decide for yourselves.

Because better pictures always deserve better sound – Andy Kerr, Director of Product Marketing & Communications, Bowers & Wilkins.

As Danny has already mentioned Bowers & Wilkins and Philips TV share a philosophy of continual development and continuous improvement. And, although I believe we can safely say that the previous generation of OLED + models set new standards for TV audio performance, given time, there’s always more we can do to move the performance envelope further on.

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One key point to emphasise is the different approach taken to the sound system for each of the new OLED+ sets, as each of the models is aimed at a different target customer.

The OLED+936 is aimed more at a ‘cinephile’ customer, those keen on their movies and wanting to have a wide, immersive spacious sound reproduction deep into their room. The OLED+986 is more for audiophile customers who would like to replace their existing TV and hi-fi system with one product that is exceptional for both movie soundtrack and music playback.

We started from a good position with both the new OLED+936 and OLED+986: both sets feature a new and improved Dolby processor and, of course, HDMI eARC gives a more efficient and potentially higher-quality transfer of audio content from set to sound system.

And, as prime examples of classic Bowers & Wilkins engineering, both sets inherit the rigid, inert speaker cabinets of the previous models, featuring separate dedicated L/C/R enclosures, decoupled drivers and that iconic Tweeter-on-Top high-frequency housing.

OLED+936

The OLED+936 has been given an extensive list of improvements including upgrades to all drivers, their mountings and to their motor assemblies.

The separate rigid speaker enclosure continues to be constructed from thick-wall-section glass-fibre-reinforced ABS, critically braced with internal rib sections to control any unwanted resonance. The enclosure also combines with a minimalist metal angled arm to act as the set’s tabletop stand.

New higher-quality crossover components maintain signal integrity, while all three tweeters have new, improved surrounds and all four mid-range drivers have upgraded voice coils. The Atmos Elevation units also have new, improved profiles to their cones and have been slightly repositioned with the enclosure to further enhance their dispersion.

Bass performance from the dedicated bass driver has also been upgraded thanks to a new profile, stiffer 100mm x 65mm cone and more powerful magnet assembly.




The overall result for the 3.1.2. system is an increase in precision, control and power handling to improve resolution while also providing more energy and extension into the room.

The OLED+936 will automatically recognise and decode Dolby Atmos content to deliver the very best results while the new profile, repositioned elevation drivers offer a better integration with the on-screen content.

Alternatively, by engaging Movie, Game or Personal mode the TV will use its Dolby upmixer and Atmos Elevation drive units to bring the same outstanding immersion of the full Dolby Atmos experience to non-Atmos content.

Add in Philips’ four-sided Ambilight technology, which we believe is an excellent complement to the Dolby Atmos listening experience, and the OLED+936 gives the most immersive TV viewing experience currently available.

OLED+986

As with its predecessor model, the OLED+986 is often referred to as a ‘statement’ product and a true flagship, one we believe offers outright audio performance far beyond any other TV set.

In addition to our philosophy of continuous improvement we also follow a policy of debuting our new technologies on our reference models and then working to move them down to our lower ranges over time.

The familiar Tweeter-on-Top technology is one clear example – now, the audiophile-quality OLED+986 features a second ‘trickle down’ technology, by including Bowers & Wilkins proprietary Continuum cones, also found in our iconic, flagship 800 Diamond Series speakers – the preferred choice of our and TP Vision’s partner, Abbey Road Studios.

Inside the OLED+986, there are three independently isolated speaker enclosures, with the left and right-hand enclosures also featuring decoupled, baffle-mounted tweeters positioned to the far ends of the speaker system to ensure outstanding immersive sound with exceptional clarity and detail. The centre speaker enclosure is partnered by a Tweeter-on-Top driver, which now features a new surround and our famous metal Nautilus tube to improve heat dissipation from the increased power output of the new amplifiers. The decoupled Tweeter-on-Top mounting ensures that high frequency performance is delivered without the blurring associated with cabinet diffraction – caused when tweeters are mounted in larger cabinets.

The three 100mm mid/bass drivers now feature Continuum cones plus a higher specification voice coil and crossover components. The new system can be driven harder to create a larger, more spacious soundstage that tracks dialogue accurately to the centre of the screen while providing, higher resolution, lower-distortion, room-filling sound.




For even more bass extension, if the customer or the room requires it, both the OLED+986 and OLED+936 include the option to connect an external active subwoofer. Both sets also offer the option of wall mounting.
 
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Would be good if there is also a review coming from AVForums itself :)
 
Will be buying after a price drop or in a sale, Can see this in shops at £1800 for the 55 in the near future
 
A 65" review sample was delivered to AV Forums yesterday so a review should hopefully be with us fairly soon.
Richer Sounds currently has limited stock of the 55" OLED+936 while general availability of the 55" & 65" models should be in about a week with the 48" to follow soon after.
Prices are £1800 for the 48", £2100 for the 55" and £2999 for the 65"
 
A 65" review sample was delivered to AV Forums yesterday so a review should hopefully be with us fairly soon.
Richer Sounds currently has limited stock of the 55" OLED+936 while general availability of the 55" & 65" models should be in about a week with the 48" to follow soon after.
Prices are £1800 for the 48", £2100 for the 55" and £2999 for the 65"
Great news. Do you have any info about the mentioned issues in the other threads about VRR, eARC and Dolby Vision issues? And the 23.976fps issue mentioned in Vincent Teoh's video about the OLED806?
 
How about making a version of the 936 without the fancy soundbar (just using some normal builtin speakers), as a way of reducing cost as most people on here probably have a decent AV amp anyway?
 
How about making a version of the 936 without the fancy soundbar (just using some normal builtin speakers), as a way of reducing cost as most people on here probably have a decent AV amp anyway?
And in addition to this question, maybe there could be a way to use the built-in speakers of the Philips OLED(+) TV's as a Center just like Sony does with their higher-end OLED's.
 
How about making a version of the 936 without the fancy soundbar (just using some normal builtin speakers), as a way of reducing cost as most people on here probably have a decent AV amp anyway?
I agree, I am going to be sitting with a grands worth of redundant equipment that i might have to sell
 
As Philips might also be listening, what about a 77" version or even better an 83" version, and maybe that 8K OLED that was rumoured??
 
If the review unit is coming directly from Philips I hope its not a cherry picked one...

Nevertheless I am really really looking forward to a review of the 936...was hoping a Philips oled+ would be a replacement to my ZT plasma but that sound bar just wouldnt work in my setup...
 
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As Philips might also be listening, what about a 77" version or even better an 83" version, and maybe that 8K OLED that was rumoured??
Philips TV has been consistent in saying that the company will not add new screen sizes just to have them in the range. Any consideration before launch has to take in likely panel supply volumes, product cost and consumer demand. The company has included a 77" as part of the OLED806 range this year because it reached the required criteria. Larger sizes and 8K remain a possibility but only when they reach prices and volumes that isn't strictly niche. Hope that helps.
 

Philips TV PQ - Thank you for being on these forums and for being 'available' for our feedback, questions and concerns. Really REALLY looking forward to these sets and the AVForums and Vincent Teoh reviews.​

Outside of the audio side of things... what other differences are there in the 936 to the 986?
Have my eyes (and ears) on the 65 incher! :)
 

Philips TV PQ - Thank you for being on these forums and for being 'available' for our feedback, questions and concerns. Really REALLY looking forward to these sets and the AVForums and Vincent Teoh reviews.​

Outside of the audio side of things... what other differences are there in the 936 to the 986?
Have my eyes (and ears) on the 65 incher! :)
Hello. The OLED+936 and OLED+986 both have the more powerful twin chip versions of the P5 AI picture processor. The extra power is used to offer an enhanced version of the Perfect Natural Reality feature - to give non HDR content HDR type performance - and adds SmartBit Enhancement and Machine Learn Sharpness to the AI functionality. Dual chip also allows for a more sophisticated anti-burn in system - monitoring 32,400 zones within the picture.These features are mentioned in the thread above. Hope that helps.
 
Hello. The OLED+936 and OLED+986 both have the more powerful twin chip versions of the P5 AI picture processor. The extra power is used to offer an enhanced version of the Perfect Natural Reality feature - to give non HDR content HDR type performance - and adds SmartBit Enhancement and Machine Learn Sharpness to the AI functionality. Dual chip also allows for a more sophisticated anti-burn in system - monitoring 32,400 zones within the picture.These features are mentioned in the thread above. Hope that helps.
Thank you! That's fab.
So it is only the audio that is different between the two models?
Thank you again!
 
Is it possible to add wireless or wired rear speakers to the 936+ tv to get a better surround effect?
 
@Philips TV PQ

Could you please confirm the main technical differences between the 936 and 806 models (apart from of course the B&W soundbar)? Things like peak brightness, chipset, PQ, etc. would be useful to understand for decision making.

Unfortunately, it seems if wanting a 77 inch screen size in OLED guise with Philips, the 806 is the only choice. Hence, the toss up and question above...unless there are plans to release a 77 inch version of the 936? 🙏
 
The 936 has higher spec OLED panel with a 20% increase in peak light output. The 936 also has a more powerful twin chip version of P5 AI processor that adds machine sharpness and smart bit ehancement features into the AI functionality (see the feature above) and also allows for a more sophisticated anti-burnin feature. There are no plans for a 77" 936.
 
Thank you! That's fab.
So it is only the audio that is different between the two models?
Thank you again!
Yes, that's correct the 986 has very different sound system to the 936 - plus the design with the floor stand etc. PQ is the same. I should also clarify that the 936/986 panel has 20% higher light output than the 806. Sorry if that wasn't clear
 
I was pleased to receive my 55OLED936 last Tuesday, after receiving a marketing email from Philips that linked to their website with a ‘buy from Richer Sounds’ link, really helpful as I’d kept asking I wanted one when available to update from my 2017 55POS9002…
After quite a bit of picture tuning I’m exceedingly impressed with HD, UHD HDR and Dolby Vision.

Odd issue with BBC iPlayer:
The TV had an update after install and I was pleased to see UHD HLG worked with the iPlayer…
… then on Saturday there was update TPM211EA_R.001.001.233.012.
After this update the iPlayer App had disappeared from the Home screen and when I searched for it and found the App the page said something like “this version is not compatible with your device“.
The good news is that I can still get into the iPlayer and UHD HLG still works, but I have to press ‘green’ or ‘red’ buttons while watching a BBC 1 or 2 programme and get back to its main menu…
any idea why it’s missing from the Home screen?
It‘s also not in the the Philips collection or when searching the Google store.
The iPlayer App is updating so this is only an inconvenience.
 
These new Philips models certainly look very interesting. Provided they offer a good range of streaming service apps including: BBC iPlayer, itvHUB, All4, My5, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney, NOW and even Apple TV), either model will be on my list...
 
No BBC iPlayer for me since I am TV licence free, shame you can't delete the BBC iPlayer app
 
Out of interest... Do you access any 'linear' TV services via say, DVB-S/S2 or DVB-T/T2?
 
One thing I have been wondering is when it says it has dual chips, does each 936 / 986 have two Mediatek MT5895 SOCs or is it another custom SOC that there are two of?
 

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