Upgrade to OLED C6 or wait?

[glugwine]

Rather a dilemma, my daughter is setting up house for the first time and I offered her my 50" Panasonic Plasma TX-P50G20, which is about 7 years old. I was thinking of jumping to a larger screen, a 65" model, we sit around 7 feet away and we watch mostly Netflix\Amazon prime plus blurays - hardly watch any terrestrial unless in HD. So we have access to HD content and we have fibre BB.

After reading the forums (its been rather a while since I looked) I was looking at the Panasonic 65DX902, liked all your comments and reviews but its too wide for my nice glass and wood stand!!

I really wanted an OLED - been and seen them but the only one readily available is the curved C6. I liked the flat new 7 series but far too expensive at the moment.

In hindsight I think offering my daughter the Plasma was a result of too much wine
I do have an older 40" awful LCD sitting in our bedroom so she could have that....

I am tempted to get the C6, we do have 4K content available and I like the idea of the larger screen - but do I get rid of the plasma, nice TV but does have some motion issues and wait a while longer

Any help appreciated from my 'learned friends', C6 will not be around for long though I expect.

 

[Dodgexander]

Now is the best time to buy if you can still find one. Just be sure to view OLED motion in the shop first if you can, it's pretty limited vs many plasma tv's.

You can also buy your own table top stand for a TV so you aren't necessarily stuck to choices based on the stand they come with.

 

[glugwine]

Thx for that - saw the C6 earlier today at Currys and was impressed. Just thought the blacks looked 'too black' and hid detail slightly, but perhaps that was the content that was showing. Watched some 'normal' HD bluray on there and that looked great.

 

[SyStemDeMoN]

The OLED's have a shop mode which make the panel brighter and so the PQ is not at its best in a shop. After you have your set just look at the best PQ settings that are in the tv review on this site and it will show you how to get the best out of this TV. After that go to the dedicated thread where other users post their settings.

 

[youngsyp]

Thx for that - saw the C6 earlier today at Currys and was impressed. Just thought the blacks looked 'too black' and hid detail slightly, but perhaps that was the content that was showing.

If you noticed that, you should definitely wait for the 7 series OLEDs to drop in price, which they're already starting to do. Just look at the B7 prices now.
I've had my B6 for a number of months now and I've spent around twice what it cost again to get the best from it (via a dedicated video processor), plus hours of calibration work.
The fact is, and the pro calibrators will agree, you can't get perfect shadow detail and perfect blacks on the 6 series models. You get one or the other.
That said, you can get very good shadow detail and perfect blacks with some careful tweaking and the rest of the PQ these OLEDs can provide is very much superior to LCD displays.
However, I'll still move to a B7 or Sony A1 when their prices fall in line with what I paid for my B6.

Paul

 

[Dodgexander]

It is important not to judge from what you have seen in a showroom, but also don't assume you won't notice when you don't get it home either.

Calibration can be performed to increase shadow detail, but it is one of the areas the new OLEDs perform better, although even they still have some crushed detail noticable to some.

To be honest, I really doubt you will notice it (most people don't) and paying for calibration is a good idea, but if you can first be sure to get a demo of one in a dark room before buying...and if not make sure you are able to return the TV if you aren't happy with it.

 

[glugwine]

If you noticed that, you should definitely wait for the 7 series OLEDs to drop in price, which they're already starting to do. Just look at the B7 prices now.
I've had my B6 for a number of months now and I've spent around twice what it cost again to get the best from it (via a dedicated video processor), plus hours of calibration work.
The fact is, and the pro calibrators will agree, you can't get perfect shadow detail and perfect blacks on the 6 series models. You get one or the other.
That said, you can get very good shadow detail and perfect blacks with some careful tweaking and the rest of the PQ these OLEDs can provide is very much superior to LCD displays.
However, I'll still move to a B7 or Sony A1 when their prices fall in line with what I paid for my B6.

Paul

Well I need a new TV unless I give my daughter the awful Samsung 40" and tell her she cannot have the plasma
I cannot see the B7 dropping to price of C6 until Christmas, so I will probably take the plunge with the C6

 

[Paul7777x]

The OLED's have a shop mode which make the panel brighter and so the PQ is not at its best in a shop. After you have your set just look at the best PQ settings that are in the tv review on this site and it will show you how to get the best out of this TV. After that go to the dedicated thread where other users post their settings.

Absolutely. A tv picture in a shop bears not the slightest resemblance to how it will or should look in your home.

And if you do buy one or similar I'd recommend considering a professional calibration sir.

 

[Deleted member 79803]

Now is the best time to buy if you can still find one. Just be sure to view OLED motion in the shop first if you can, it's pretty limited vs many plasma tv's.

You can also buy your own table top stand for a TV so you aren't necessarily stuck to choices based on the stand they come with.

The C6 really appealed to me too but couldn't find one on display locally and talk of OLED motion issues meant I wasn't comfortable ordering blind.

Did see the B7 in my local John Lewis and was really impressed with it in terms of blacks, viewing angles etc. Admittedly running in showroom mode so less than ideal conditions.

Didn't see any motion issues but they were likely showing cherry picked content designed to create a wow factor and perhaps mask any weaknesses. If I can get a proper demo are there particular sources or content that motion issues manifests itself more than others and should settings like True Motion be disabled?

Thank you!

 

[Dodgexander]

One of the areas the new 2017 models don't improve is with motion. They will be much the same on the 2017 OLEDs too...even the same as Panasonic and Sony OLEDs too, as long as motion settings aren't turned on in the menu.

That is the important thing to remember, most TVs have motion settings in the menu but 90% of people don't turn them on, either they feel motion is fine without them or simply like the picture better without them.

If you don't notice it in the flesh it will likely be fine for you, but I wouldn't trust the content they loop on there, try and find a demo of football or formula one or something like that to test motion.

 

[glugwine]

Thankyou all for your help and advice, I did indeed purchase the C6 yesterday evening after returning to look at it again and to try out further HD content. All looked fine to me but I take the point about having it calibrated after its delivered and setup. I will also read through the forum section on the unit.

 

[Dodgexander]

You can always look for settings in the owners thread/review thread on here, but there is a reason AVF don't publish their settings anymore and thats because they can differ between each individual tv and greatly differ depending on viewing conditions. They should know as calibrators themselves.

But at least copying the settings will give you a much better idea of how much you can improve the picture quality. You can also go through the usual steps to begin with for basic adjustments such as those here: Picture Perfect TV setup guide

I honestly think you will love the TV, great purchase and a great time to buy, costing half its release price pretty much. I am glad you are not one of the fools that spent too much extra money on a 2017 model, congratulations!

 

[JN79]

Seen one of these TV's on display in shop today this certain one had next to no DSE and watching football was just beautiful on it.

 

[Dodgexander]

DSE is a result of bad screen uniformity, something you won't get with an OLED as much as with LCDs.