Understanding the difference between glare and reflections !

[dcweather]

I am trying to find a 43-50"TV that handles direct reflections well and has a reasonable viewing angle. The problem is that whenever I Google it they want to talk about glare as if it is the same as direct reflections. I am not worried about loss of contrast as room isn't that bright or sunny. The problem is with my current high gloss screen LG43UJ670V is that in any dark scene you see reflections of anything else in the room even when not well lit. The best test as far as I am concerned is how reflective is the screen as a mirror when turned off. The LG is currently being repaired and the excellent Richer Sounds have kindly lent me a Samsung AU7100 which is somewhat better although the viewing angle is very poor. The useful Rtings site rates the Samsung very poor for reflections but then it rates semi-gloss screens worse than gloss. I can see this is possible combating sun glare in bright rooms but struggle how that is the case for direct reflections. The favourite seems to be the LG A1 48" OLED on both reflections and viewing angles according to them. It's hard to see as in Curry's it seems very reflective although that would be worst case scenario in showroom. Is it possible that the contrast is so much higher with the OLED that the black can still overcome the reflections in the room?
All views on this welcome.

 

[desinho]

I am trying to find a 43-50"TV that handles direct reflections well and has a reasonable viewing angle. The problem is that whenever I Google it they want to talk about glare as if it is the same as direct reflections. I am not worried about loss of contrast as room isn't that bright or sunny. The problem is with my current high gloss screen LG43UJ670V is that in any dark scene you see reflections of anything else in the room even when not well lit. The best test as far as I am concerned is how reflective is the screen as a mirror when turned off. The LG is currently being repaired and the excellent Richer Sounds have kindly lent me a Samsung AU7100 which is somewhat better although the viewing angle is very poor. The useful Rtings site rates the Samsung very poor for reflections but then it rates semi-gloss screens worse than gloss. I can see this is possible combating sun glare in bright rooms but struggle how that is the case for direct reflections. The favourite seems to be the LG A1 48" OLED on both reflections and viewing angles according to them. It's hard to see as in Curry's it seems very reflective although that would be worst case scenario in showroom. Is it possible that the contrast is so much higher with the OLED that the black can still overcome the reflections in the room?
All views on this welcome.

Most reviews will tell you that OLED's generally have a less intense reflection than your average LCD tv but they are less diffuse so may come across as more reflective (when technically they aren't). In the sub-50" category, there are no LCD's with special anti-reflection filters so a 48" OLED might be your best option in your viewing situation.

Here is a 'chart' from one of the most recent reviews (LG B1) by the French review site LesNumeriques:

"Measure of reflectance expressed as a percentage relative to a mirror."​

Here are two of their articles on this subject (in French so you may want to run it through google translate)

• Labo – TV Samsung Q85R : un filtre antireflet impressionnant
• Labo TV : la mesure des reflets fait son apparition

The danish Flatpanels review site also covers this in their reviews and consistently put OLED's in the top:

• "LG Display’s OLED panels are some of the least reflective display panels on the market. The glossy coating ensures that colors and contrast stay very vibrant even in bright living room environments. However, there are reflections in the panel and there are no significant improvements to report this year."
• "LG Display’s OLED panels remain some of the least reflective display panels available in TVs, partly due to the nature of OLED's integrated structure. The anti-reflective coating is glossy and you will see reflections in a brightly lit room but the same coating helps maintain colors and contrast under those same viewing conditions."

You might want to go through some more of their (OLED) reviews to read more remarks List: Best HDR TVs

 

[dcweather]

Thanks for all that useful information . But it seems the approach is still mainly preventing loss of contrast in bright rooms from glare. My room is not bright by any stretch and it must be typical of most homes. They do not really seem to be talking about the situation of say, seeing the reflection of a white coffee cup or piece of paper on a coffee table when there are just blacks or even dark colours across the screen. OR are we saying that when the TV is on the blacks will reflect much less than the black of the screen when the TV is off because the contrast somehow overcomes it?

 

[desinho]

Thanks for all that useful information . But it seems the approach is still mainly preventing loss of contrast in bright rooms from glare. My room is not bright by any stretch and it must be typical of most homes. They do not really seem to be talking about the situation of say, seeing the reflection of a white coffee cup or piece of paper on a coffee table when there are just blacks or even dark colours across the screen. OR are we saying that when the TV is on the blacks will reflect much less than the black of the screen when the TV is off because the contrast somehow overcomes it?

The loss of contrast prevention is only mentioned as the reason for a glossy finish. In terms of reflections of the type you mentioned you can see for yourself in the various reviews on those sites that OLED's do better than most LCD's (see the graph above and the picture below). Majority of LCD's like your LG and the Samsung AU7100 are like the leftmost picture in this situation. I see the AU7100 is even on the chart as fourth from the bottom.

https://assets.afcdn.com/video60/20191218/v_629754_HD.mp4

Here is another 'conventional' LCD (Samsung Q60R iirc) up against the Samsung Q85R (rightmost in the pic above) taken from yet another website (hdtvpolska). Just to illustrate how good that filter was (the above pic however is the type of reflection you were wondering about; see the video link as well to see the setup used and how bright it actually was):

From another Flatpanels review: "Reflections in OLED panels are still some of the least problematic for any TV-type on the market (due to the one layer OLED structure) so it is a minor concern."

Found another direct comparison pic in this review of LCD vs OLED Sony A9F (AF9) OLED review

 

[dcweather]

Many thanks again for taking the trouble to look into this. It does seem to be a bit of a minefield but at least the guy reviewing those 4 sets in the video understands the issue. Of all of those above the Samsung QE65Q85R looks the best to me but I see the very similarly named other Samsung QLED QE65Q80T is very poor. Also I need decent viewing angles that these don't have. Does the latter lack the filter or is there some other reason. Very confusing naming of their sets by the way but I can't have more than 48" anyway. So it looks overall an OLED will be my best bet and because of price it would probably have to be the LG 48" A1 series.