[size=1.1]Is peak brightness the new deepest blacks? That’s the question AV enthusiasts will be asking themselves after seeing the results of the UK-based shootout conducted by HDTVtest.co.uk and UK AV retailer Crampton & Moore. As with the recent
Value Electronics shootout at CE Week in New York City, this competition pitted four calibrated top-tier TVs against one another. Forbes
recently reported on the results, so here’s the gist of it:
The Shootout took place on Saturday, July 23, 2016 at Leeds Trinity University in Leeds, UK. It was mostly about HDR evaluation, but it included a SDR-verus-HDR segment. It even included a separate evaluation session for dark-scene HDR and mid-bright plus bright-scene HDR.
The four participants were LG’s OLED65E6V (E6 OLED in the US), Samsung’s UE65KS9500 (UN65KS9800 in the US), Panasonic’s TX-65DX902B (not available in the US), and Sony’s 75XD9405/XD94 (X940D in the US). HDTVtest founder and editor Vincent Teoh ran the show, as he has in years past.
The stage is set (photo from HDTVtest.co.uk) According this
article in HDTVtest, “Every HDR television participating in the shootout will be given adequate time to run in, then calibrated using CalMAN software to D65 white point, ST.2084 PQ (perceptual quantisation) EOTF (electro-optical transfer function) and DCI-P3 colour points within Rec.2020 container, depending on the number of calibration controls available in HDR mode on each set.” This is markedly different from the
US shootout, where the TVs used factory default settings for the HDR evaluation and were calibrated for BT.709 (SDR) video.
The 22 voters at the UK event picked two separate winners, one for SDR and one for HDR. With SDR content, 80% of the crowd found LG’s OLED to be the best, with the emissive technology’s ultra-deep black giving it an advantage with content graded for 100-nit displays. The
Samsung took the remaining 20% of the votes for best SDR picture quality.
When the voting switched to evaluating HDR performance, the tables were turned. Nine voters thought Samsung’s UE65KS9500 provided the best viewing experience. Panasonic’s DX902 grabbed six votes, LG’s E6 OLED snagged four votes, and Sony’s XD9405/XD94 earned three votes. Ultimately, Samsung’s flagship beat LG’s OLED by a 2:1 margin on HDR content.
While I certainly would have loved to attend the HDTVtest shootout, a trip to England was not logistically possible. What I find interesting is the conclusions of the voters at this event are in-line with my personal experience when comparing the best HDR LED-lit LCDs to HDR OLED: How these TVs handle highlights is just as important an image-quality parameter as how they handle the deepest shadows and blacks.
In numerous demos over the past year, I have seen Samsung’s KS9800 FALD LCD match or beat LG’s G6 OLED in side-by-side demos of HDR content playback. Concurrently, I have seen how OLED makes the absolute most of SDR content, thanks to its super-deep blacks. The results of this shootout are consistent with my experience.
To read the Forbes article “LCD Crushes OLED In Public TV Shoot Out Shock”
click here.
To read the HDTVtest.co.uk article “HDR TV Shootout: E6 OLED; DX900, XD94, KS9500 LED LCD”
click here.