I attended the event and was shocked at how low the score was for the Sony in the calibrated shootout. If there were twenty something of us and it got 4% of the votes, I must have contributed most of the 4%.
The first clip was the Philips demo in Italy which I had seen before at past events, at first I was standing at the back left of the room, later I would switch to the back right.
Since the Phillips clip was the first clip, it starts off with clear blue skies and scenes of the Italian Town, I was first drawn to set B which I noticed had a cooler colour temperature than the other 3 sets which made the other three sets look a bit washed out and duller, but then when the girl appeared, B looked inaccurate, her skin tones didn't look right. Since there were many colourful buildings in the demo clip, I felt set A was more saturated than the other 3 and as a result fine colour detail may have been crushed. Between set C and D, I felt I may have preferred set D because I was looking at it straight on and the viewing angles may have made some sets look less bright or affected colour temperature.
Clip 2 was the Samsung Prague demo, similar observations with the blue skies appearing more vivid on set B due to the cooler colour temperature. I was too far to properly judge resolution but I assume they all performed similarly.
Clip 3 was the fast panning scene which I put no preference because 'garbage in garbage out'.
I can't remember the exact order, but the next clips were life of pi which was close although there might have been less highlight clipping with set c, orange is the new black where all 4 sets took different approaches to their presentation, my preference was to the Sony.
With the clip from the revenant, I can't remember if my observations were the same as in vivid mode where set c had the best shadow detail, set A or B had better contrast and brightness.
For brooklyn 99, and bang goes the theory, I sided with the Sony with a very slim margin, sitcom content doesn't stress the TV.
There was also hdr clips of 2001 a space odyssey and planet earth, there were more variances in the hdr clips as the manufacturers take different approaches as in Sony clips highlights for a brighter overall image but the LG tries to squeeze everything in. Again I noticed the LG had a noticeably cooler colour temperature when looking at the blue skies on planet earth, for that reason I chose set A, I can't remember why I didn't choose set D.
There was also a clip of mad max where the motion was too intense at the beginning to judge but then a man gets up from the sand.
I can't remember what other clips there were, surprisingly my observations held on second viewing, set C never stood out to me, but I felt set D looked the nicest with neutral accurate colours.
Looking at the calibrated results, ignoring no preference, set B the LG was first and set A the Panasonic was second.
My guess is because the cooler colour temperature of set B made it look more vivid, brighter and alive, and the more saturated colours of Set A made it look richer.
This goes to show why manufacturers use vivid mode in the show room, cooler more saturated colours stand out as well as higher brightness when competing next to each other. Although we all think we want accurate and reference, our eyes naturally gravitate towards a cooler more saturated picture.
As for the fast panning sequence in vivid mode, the LG and Sony exhibited tearing artefacts, however I asked Danny Tack if the clip was 24 or 30fps which he said it was 24fps. Most 24fps content is scripted and staged where the directors are well aware of the limitations of 24p and try and control their pans and limit the occurrence of judder. You're not going to get such fast pans in real world content. Broadcast TV is in 50 or 60i which is often interpolated to 50 or 60p and faster shutter speeds are used.
In vivid mode I selected set A more of the time but I didn't pay as much attention to set C as I could have, set D was fine it just didn't stand out.
Despite my preference for set D in calibrated mode, I realise the Sony is a lot more expensive and you would need a professional calibrator, if you were not looking at all the sets at once they were all great when calibrated.