Trying to narrow it down, ~£1000-£1500 budget

[alexrose1uk]

Hi Guys,
The wife has said...probably...no to changing TV this year; BUT she has also said she might allow me to swap if we see a really good deal; as our current 55" TV is now ~8 years old; not to mention we have a high end PC quite near the set and and a PS5 and it'd be nice to use over 1080p and HDR. It also struggles a bit just to be seen when the room is bright.

Our consumption on the set is a mixture of TV/Media and Video Games, so having support at least for 4K120 on at least 2 HDMI, ideally all of them would be very useful, as I expect to have the set for at LEAST 5 years. For this reason Costco, John Lewis and Richer Sounds are really the only places I will consider. I also do not want to be the person who buys into tech and then has it immediately change, which was one of the reason I was holding out for TV sets with HDMI 2.1 across the board; unlike the mess we got last year.

We sit around 4M from the set, so really looking to go 65" over the current 55"

Due to the fact we game, part of me is put off OLED, despite the fact they have the best contrast and motion response; but at the same time I did have Plasma for a number of years and managed to avoid that getting wrecked; so I have already been down this route of panels that are less bulletproof previously, and made it through fine

Another factor leaning me away from OLED is the TV's mounting position is quite near large window doors; so sometimes there is sun coming right through; given I have heard that can also have a negative impact on the lifespan on OLED; I am perhaps leaning away from OLED more than I thought I would be. Having seen them, I am in love with the black and contrast; but given they will be in a bright room; and used for gaming; I have to wonder whether a NeoQLED (aka MiniLED) screen would be a better option; as it will have much better blacks and contrast ratio than a standard edge lit or low zone FALD set; whilst not suffering the limited lifespan issues of an OLED.

That said the LG OLED supports all the HDMI 2.1 features I could want; along with Dolby Vision, VRR, Gsync, so if it wasn't for the potential downfalls of OLED tech, it really does tick all the boxes.

Looking at the Black Friday deals so far; its looking like the LG 65C14 OLED is going to hit around £1450; I am also considering the Samsung QN85, as the 65" is available in Costco for £1380 and may drop further tomorrow. Are there other sets I should be looking at also? The QN90/95 sounds like a better all around set than the 85 (albeit still no Dolby Vision), with more HDMI 2.1 if I read correctly; but the pricing for that one looks to be a bit out of reach.

If I went a bit cheaper, the Samsung 65Q95 (non NeoQLED) is £1080 on offer atm.

I am leaning towards attempting puppy dog eyes with the wife over the OLED, but worried I may come to regret that, if the panel goes bad.

Help me AV-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope! Your thoughts, and why!

 

[alexrose1uk]

Wife agreed to let me pull the trigger on the 65C14, given the substantial discount right now out of Costco (£1440 /w 5 year warranty, down from around £2k earlier this year).

Whilst MiniLED would have alleviated the OLED wear worries and gone brighter for HDR; I just wasn't happy the Samsung lacked any support for Dolby Vision, and Samsung only provided 1 HDMI 2.1 connection in a £1400 set vs the LG supporting HDMI 2.1 across all 4 inputs; when I have 2x HDMI2.1 capable devices already in range to potentially connect up. It felt very much like an obvious cost saving measure, which I really don't want to be feeling when spending the best part of £1500 on a TV set, especially as I ideally want to keep this set for 5 years or so until 8K becomes normal and HDMI switches have always proven to be a potential failure point. Was also a bit put off hearing the Samsungs CAN sometimes be a bit of a panel lottery.

Reading the LG are now offering £200 panel replacements if a screen goes really badly also helped the decision, Costco also tend to be great for faults/failures, and having used Plasma before, I have already been got used to having to babysit a screen a little bit; also, despite the fact I regularly game, its regularly for more than a few hours at once, without getting switched to alternate content. The wife already knows she must not leave it on a static screen; and I'll be enabling all screensavers and the like to assist as well.

I also thought about our viewing habits; and a lot of the time the TV is on and actively being watched is not when light is directly on the room, but rather tends to be in the evenings etc so realistically most of the time there will be a lot of light directly on the TV, it will not be in use or pushed hard, it will be off, or only used for dimmer SDR content, so the additional heat/direct sunlight won't be an issue; and even with a reflective surface, I think it should still be easier to see than our current 2013-era 55W829 which I believe only hits ~300 nits, being pre-HDR

If Samsung hadn't left support out for DV and skimped so hard on the HDMI connectivity, this would have been a much harder decision (or alternatively easier - to go for the MiniLED to avoid having to even THINK about screen wear); but I've been waiting several years now to upgrade; and there just isn't a 'perfect' set, at least not at this price point; and given it feels like MiniLED is still a few years off being 'there' on more reasonably priced sets, I didnt want to have to wait for another few years before changing set; and I didn't want to feel like Samsung was taking me as a mug for buying into MiniLED early. I also just wouldn't have had any chance in hell in persuading the wife to go up to £1600-1700 for a higher range MiniLED to avoid the issues on the QN85 range.

As it is, £1450 is already above what I'd suggest the average person is willing to spend on a TV (many households won't even spend £1000, they'll just get something large and midrange box from a more budget range/model), but I certainly don't think a PS5 or Xbox Series X (or both) are outside the purview of an average modern household; so going with 1x HDMI 2.1 at this price level seems like a really obvious, but also short sighted cost cut on Samsung's part; and just not one I was happy to make given me and the wife have a tendency to keep kit around for a number of years, so want to make sure the equipment is not going to be outdated within months; 1x HDMI 2.1 feels like just that; and can easily see HDMI 2.1 across all HDMI going up to full coverage either on next years range, or at the latest, the year after.

 

[Dodgexander]

You need to work out whether you are going to go OLED or LCD first. Don't get into the whole QLED, MiniLED, LED rabbit hole they are all LCD TVs. MiniLED is not a groundbreaking new tech like they want you to believe, and is not to be mixed with MicroLED which is.

On the subject of wanting the TV to stay relevant, Samsung will soon be moving to OLED production themselves, and will likely tail out their higher end LCD TV models over the next few years (similar to most other manufacturers).

The only viable alternatives to OLEDs like the C1 on the LCD front are the Samsung QN9xA models excluding QN90A. You won't want to buy other models from Samsung like the QN85A or QN90A since they can come with IPS type panels and have a lot worse picture quality.

QN95A will get you the one connect box with 4x HDMI 2.1, unseen on any other TV. The other QN9xA models (again, do not consider the QN90A) come with 1x HDMI 2.1.

Sony also have the X95J model, which overall is a bit worse than the Samsung models, but has 2x HDMI 2.1 ports.

 

[alexrose1uk]

Yes, I think having had a chance to stop and think, I am happy with the decision to grab the OLED
I have pulled the trigger; there are just too many things weighing against the non-OLEDs right now, and only screen wear really against the OLED.

I am really looking forward to getting it up on the wall; and as an old Plasma owner; feel a little bit like I'm going back to old friends, and as the habits from having plasma are still in the back of my mind; beyond making sure my family/father-in-law don't just sit with the TV on news channels for hours; I am not all that worried because I already got used to mixed content to prevent anything more than IR back with the plasma; so hopefully won't see any major issues with screen wear until substantially down the line (multiple years)!

 

[Dodgexander]

Good decision. Screen burn on OLED models can be avoided if you understand what can cause it. Most people who have a problem, are people who blindly use the TV without the knowledge of which content is dangerous, and regularly use dangerous content.

OLED Burn In Risk

Contrary to how it may read sometimes both online in general and here at AVF, burn in is not a common problem with OLEDs, certainly no more of a common problem than it was in the Plasma days. This forum and the internet in general is a place where people mostly come when they have a problem...

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