Podcast #1213: 2025 Value Electronics TV Shootout

On this week's show we discuss the 2025 Value Electronics TV Shootout. We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news. News: Nielsen: Ad-supported content dominates TV viewing  NFL sells NFL Media, including RedZone, to ESPN New Fox One streaming service to launch in August Other: How to Increase Storage on Google Chromecast With Google TV Howdy Subscription | Ad-Free Streaming | The Roku Channel Sony Crowned King of TVs for the Seventh Year Running at the 2025 Value Electronics TV Shootout For the seventh consecutive year, Sony has claimed the title of "King of TVs" at the 2025 Value Electronics TV Shootout, held at their Scarsdale, New York showroom. The winning model, the Sony Bravia 8 II OLED (K65XR80M2) $3000, emerged victorious in a fiercely competitive field of flagship OLED TVs from LG, Samsung, and Panasonic. This annual event, now in its 21st year, is a benchmark for videophiles, retailers, and manufacturers, offering a no-nonsense, side-by-side comparison of the best TVs on the market.  The Value Electronics TV Shootout Founded in 2004 by Robert and Wendy Zohn, the Value Electronics TV Shootout has become well known for its rigorous and objective evaluation process. Each TV in the shootout is professionally calibrated and tested under identical conditions—same lighting, same content, and against professional-grade Sony BVM-HX3110 mastering monitors, which are the gold standard for video professionals.  The TVs are judged on picture quality attributes like color accuracy, contrast, motion handling, and performance in both Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) and High Dynamic Range (HDR). This year's competition was exclusively dedicated to OLED TVs, with no separate category for LCDs, reflecting the industry's shift toward OLED's superior black levels and color reproduction. The 2025 lineup featured four flagship 65-inch OLED models: Sony Bravia 8 II QD-OLED (K65XR80M2) $3000 Samsung S95F QD-OLED (QN65S95F) $3300 Panasonic Z95B WOLED (TV65Z95BP) $2000 US Model is Z95A LG G5 WOLED (OLED65G5WUA) $2900 A panel of ISF-certified judges, including display and film production professionals, evaluated the TVs using a mix of Blu-ray movie clips and specialized test patterns, ensuring a comprehensive assessment of their capabilities. Sony's Bravia 8 II QD-OLED won top honors for its exceptional SDR performance and consistency. Judges noted Sony's superior video processing, which delivered cleaner images and better upscaling than competitors. Kevin Miller, ISFTV president and display consultant, stated, "Sony's video processing is cleaner and handles upscaling better than Samsung's, despite both using the same quantum dot OLED panel." This processing edge proved decisive. Panasonic's Z95B OLED marked its U.S. market return at the 2025 Shootout, narrowly winning the HDR category over Samsung's S95F by 0.01 points. Absent from the U.S. for years, Panasonic leveraged the event to showcase its OLED lineup, previously limited to Europe and Asia. Alex Fried, Panasonic's director of business development, emphasized the brand's renowned picture quality, saying, "It was great to be back in the shootout, reflecting Panasonic's legacy of top-tier performance." Samsung's S95F QD-OLED came in a close second overall, splitting HDR category wins with Panasonic and performing strongly across the board. Its quantum dot OLED panel, shared with Sony, delivered impressive brightness and color volume, but it fell slightly short in SDR due to Sony's superior processing. LG's G5 WOLED, however, was a surprising disappointment, finishing last in both SDR and HDR categories. Despite LG's pioneering role in OLED technology and its use of RGB OLED panels from LG Display, the G5 struggled with color accuracy and EOTF (electro-optical transfer function) issues. Judge Chris Boylan, co-founder of Big Picture Big Sound, noted, "The LG was a little disappointing with some processing issues that lowered its overall scores in some categories. Some of these might actually be fixable with future software updates." This outcome raised questions about LG's current standing in the OLED race, especially given its historical dominance in the category. Final Thoughts Sony's seventh straight "King of TVs" win at the 2025 Value Electronics TV Shootout reaffirms its position as a leader in premium display technology, driven by superior video processing and consistent performance. However, the tight competition—especially Panasonic's HDR upset and Samsung's close second—shows that the gap between top-tier OLEDs is narrower than ever. For consumers, this means more choices and exceptional quality across the board. Whether you're a videophile chasing the ultimate picture or a casual viewer seeking a top-tier TV, the 2025 Shootout proves that OLED is the technology to beat, and Sony's Bravia 8 II is currently leading the pack. Note - Hisense and TCL were invited to the 2025 Value Electronics TV Shootout but chose not to participate.