UK-based independent AV retailer Crampton and Moore will hold its annual TV shootout event in collaboration with Leeds Trinity University and HDTVTest on Saturday the 23rd of July. Given the rise of HDR, this year’s theme is to anoint the best consumer-grade television for watching HDR-mastered content at this moment in time.
HDR (high dynamic range) has been a key selling point among high-end TVs in 2016, and forms the central pillar that brings about the biggest jump in appreciable picture quality compared with other UHD (ultra high-definition) features such as 3840×2160 resolution or wide colour gamut (WCG). OLED and LED LCD proponents have been arguing the respective merits of their display technologies when it comes to HDR presentation (lack of blooming/ haloing versus higher peak brightness), with the Ultra HD Alliance (UHDA) even going so far as to draw up two separate peak brightness/ black level criteria for its UHD Premium certification process.
The TVs that have been shortlisted for side-by-side comparison in this event are:
- LG OLED65E6V OLED;
- Panasonic TX-65DX902B FALD (full-array local dimming) LED LCD;
- Samsung UE65KS9500 FALD LED TV; and
- Sony KD-75XD9405 FALD LED LCD television.
All the displays will be 65″ except the Sony XD94 which is only available in one screen size of 75 inches. The presence of the LG E6, Panasonic DX902 and Sony XD9405 has been confirmed for the shootout, but because the Samsung KS9500’s release has been delayed (again) in the UK and Europe, it may not be available in time for the event. Should that be the case, Samsung will be represented by the step-down KS9000, or omitted altogether.
The shootout will take place in a light-controlled, theatre-like auditorium at Leeds Trinity University. 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. Certain snippets from several popular Ultra HD Blu-ray movies and Dolby Vision clips (for the LG) will be used to demonstrate various aspects of HDR performance to lucky attendees who will be asked at the end of the day to vote for the “Best HDR TV”.
The 2016 HDR shootout event will take place at Leeds Trinity University (post code LS18 5HD) on Saturday the 23rd of July from 1pm to 5pm GMT. The provisional schedule is as follows (though subject to change depending on time constraints, etc.):
- 13:00: Opening statement
- 13:15: HDR vs non-HDR
- 13:45: Dark-scene HDR
- 14:30: Coffee break
- 15.00: Mid-bright & bright-scene HDR
- 16:00: Dolby Vision vs HDR10
- 16.30: Q&A plus closing statement
- 17:00: Winner announcement
Attendance is free, but limited to the first 35 people (due to space constraints) on a first-come first-served basis. To register, please fill in the form below so that you can be issued with an email confirmation for entry on the day.
Would it be possible to test input lag while in HDR mode? With the coming release of Xbox One S and PS4 NEO, it would be nice to see how these sets handle input lag while in HDR mode.
if the loled was rant over this year it will definitely crash and burn next shootout when the ZD9 is present.
im almost sure that the ZD9 will kill the oled for SDR content also.
looking forward to it ;)
besides that its not that strange to see the results here.
LCDs this year have finally blacks close to oled and does the rest in the picture department as motion and uniformity way better.
one question: what brightness level was used for SDR?
i found it hard to believe that the oled scored so much better than the LCDs with SDR.
LCDs this year calibrated to 120cd/m2 does have almost oled blacks.
so if your not in a pitch black room its difficult to see any differences in blacklevel there between oled and the top lcds this year.
@Patrik
With centimeter wide zones on these crappy LCDs you will never achieve the pure picture quality of OLED.
And how is it, you speak of results? I don’t see the shootout results posted here.
Results are already posted on avforum and forbes
dont know why they havnt included the test results here.
zones or not
this year LCDs has really bumped up the contrast and lowered the blacklevel to almost oled level.
its a big difference in picture quality if you compare last years models.
comparision pictures against an modified 500M with close to 0 blacks
and this is just an Edge lit KS model.
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb192876/Samsung%20KS7005/KS7005%20VS%20500M_Oblivion1.jpg
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb192876/Samsung%20KS7005/KS7005%20VS%20500M_Oblivion2.jpg
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb192876/Samsung%20KS7005/KS7005%20VS%20500M_Oblivion3.jpg
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb192876/Samsung%20KS7005/KS7005%20VS%20500M_Oblivion4.jpg
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb192876/Samsung%20KS7005/KS7005%20VS%20500M_Skyfall1.jpg
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb192876/Samsung%20KS7005/KS7005%20VS%20500M_Skyfall3.jpg
this LCD performs better than the last 880W OLED i owned 2 years ago.
way better near black performance/uniformity and motion
crappy lcds lol
yes that was the case a few years back not now
its time that you get out of your cave man
what scene on the revenant was you checking in for near black performance?
the oled had alot of posterization in that scene.
one prick over at avforum claims its in the source and its becauce these oleds can show 0 blacks that the issues are more visible LOOOOL
its time to prove that this is not the case.
post the time stamp for that scene and i check in on my KRP-500M with 0 blacks
Marc. mods here are to fucking slow
they need to approve comments when links to photos are posted.
stay tuned for an answer about those crappy LCDs LOL
Umm ok, let’s take a step back here, take a breath, and have an objective discussion.
So OLED has deep black’s and I agree with Patrik that LED’s are certainly not far off from matching, but it’s questionable that the gap could be completely closed. Perhaps something like Sony’s beam technology in their new Flagship Z series combined with thousands of direct lit LEDs, as long as LEDs don’t bleed light into a near by zones the effect could be OLED like, still not at a pixel level but maybe at some point it would be difficult if not impossible to distinguish the difference.
Now some areas that today’s LCD’s certainly don’t match in SDR: color saturation, static contrast, viewing angles, screen uniformity on the 2016 OLEDs, and LCD’s soar spot color saturation at low light levels which still makes me cringe. All of these is what make OLED so impressive to view in person with SDR content and give it a perceptible depth of field, something I still don’t see in modern LCDs with SDR content. Certainly with HDR though there is depth there even on LCD’s. Sony’s new Z series does look like it could be one heck of a TV with HDR content, I don’t agree we’ll see it perform at or near OLED levels in SDR. Arguably the Z series may have the best image processing ever brought to bear.
Now I feel like OLED’s Achilles heal has been in the manufacturer LG. LG certainly isn’t in the league of Samsung, Panasonic and Sony when it comes to image processing and color accuracy. Sure Panasonic has an OLED out there and it’s one of the best TVs but it’s missing some features and is somewhat hampered by it’s 2015 LG panel as LG fixed several issues with their 2016 OLED panels. Now I’m not saying that LG isn’t good at image processing, just that it’s not in the same league as the top companies. I’d love to see what these 2016 OLED panels can do when matched up with top notch image processing and color accuracy, something this year’s top LCDs all have the benefit of. This leads me to the posterization comment made by Patrik, I doubt that OLED technology is to blame here but LG’s image processing.
Now this is a personal observation but am I the only who feel like manufacturers are working so hard to try to make LCD do what OLED can do so much easier. Seriously I almost feel like LG can sit back and put it’s feet up to make an outstanding OLED TV while LCD teams have to work long and hard. Ok ok, I didn’t say I wasn’t going to have any fun in this post.
At the end of the day there are strong TV’s on the market for both OLED and LCD technologies and both technologies are certainly capable of some impressive stuff. Perhaps LCD can finally come into it’s own with HDR, but in SDR in terms of contrast, color saturation, and screen uniformity of the 2016 OLED’s it can’t match up to an OLED, but it certainly has the lead in image processing and color accuracy.
Now feel free to tell me I’m wrong and correct me, but do so with class and respect and I will do the same for you.
Cheers!
What is the point of LED coming close to OLED…if the price is as HIGH or HIGHER ?!!!!
what people want is to have LED’s close to OLED for 50% LESS ! and that won’t arrive until at least 2018 when samsung launches Qled….
The point is that an LED LCD is for right now really the only option for most companies to provide a TV worthy of being called a flag ship product to consumers. LG has been the leading manufacturer of OLED producing approximately 210,000 panels a month so there in short supply although they’ll be doubling that capacity. Also equipment used for the manufacturing of LED LCD can not be used for the manufacturing of OLED displays (I will not claim that that is entirely true as I don’t know if at the very least some equipment can be re-used) so going OLED either requires a retrofit of current manufacturing facilities or all new manufacturing facilities.
Also there are use cases where you’d want a flag ship LED LCD tv over an OLED panel due to the greater possibility of burn in on an OLED. Yes burn in on an LCD panel is possible which is a little know fact, I’ve personally experienced this on 2 DELL monitors used for work. Personally the OLED panel life argument doesn’t make much sense to me as LG’s 2016 OLED panels have a panel life rating of 100,000 hours, the same that Panasonic achieved with Plasma panels. I don’t know what the life to half brightness rating is, perhaps someone else can answer that one.
QLED will be interesting for sure but we’ll have to see if this is something that manufacturers can pull off or not or if the technology will present a whole new set of challenges to manufacturers.