Podcast #698: 2015 HDTV Shootout

2015 HDTV Shootout Each year Value Electronics, an audio/video integrator with a showroom in Scarsdale New York, pits the top TVs from big name manufacturers against each other to determine the  King of HDTV. This year there were four contenders:   Panasonic 65” Pro 4K Ultra HD Smart TV 240hz- CX850 Series- TC-65CX850U $3,200 Studio Master Drive- Helps 4K TV’s reproduce more detail and richer, more natural colors during dark scenes An advanced LED Backlight Design, DCI 90-98% Color Space, which produces a wider color range Firefox© OS to ensure ease for you to access smart apps and content Voice Assistant Pro allowing to operate your TV just by talking to it with a remote control Netflix© Recommended TV   Sony XBR75X940C 75-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV  $8,000 HD is upscaled to impressive 4K Ultra HD Our best contrast ever with up to 3x brightness range Brilliant, expanded color with TRILUMINOS™ display Streaming 4K Ultra HD is enhanced for improved clarity Android TV with Google Cast, voice search & Play Store apps Powerful front-facing speakers and built-in subwoofers Precise motion clarity with Motionflow™ XR 1440 Stream PS3® games directly to your TV Black levels of plasma, brightness of LED   Samsung UN78JS9500 Curved 78-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV $10,000 Experience our Most Superior Level of Color, Contrast, and Brightness Enjoy a Brighter, More True-to-Life Picture with a Wider Range of Colors Experience the Full Vibrancy of your Favorite Media and Entertainment Experience a Greater Sense of Depth with Optimized Contrast   LG Electronics 65EG9600 65-inch 4K Ultra HD 3D Curved Smart OLED $7,000 Curved 4K OLED TV webOS 2.0 SMART TV Magic Remote Harmon/Kardon Sound Netflix Recommended TV   The competition was conducted over two days with both professional and consumer evaluators. All in all just over 80 judges rated the TVs for Black Level, Contrast, Color, Off Angle Viewing, Screen Uniformity, Motion Clarity, and Day Mode viewing on professionally calibrated sets. Each category carries equal weight. The average scores for each category and overall average is listed below. Observations   Consumers were tougher than the experts in their ratings except for when it came to off angle viewing. This translated to lower overall and average scores when rated by consumers. However the difference was small, less than percent or two. The difference between the best TV and the worst TV was 1.51 | 1.38 The price difference between the number one and two TVs are $3,000. With the number two Samsung costing more! The lowest scoring TV and highest scoring TV’s price difference is $3,800. You can decide if the curved OLED is worth it based on the scores. LED technology has come a long way in off axis viewing but apparently it still has a ways to go. OLED beat the other TVs by a wide margin. As far as color accuracy goes, OLED was tied for last with the SONY when viewed by experts but it won the category when viewed by consumers. If you do a lot of daylight viewing of TV you may want to go with the Samsung although the other TVs are only about a point lower in rating. OLED had the worst screen uniformity. OLED really won this competition based on three categories, Black Levels, Contrast, and Off Angle viewing.