OS when considering a TV?

[mcad64]

I have begun the search for a replacement for my 42 inch Panasonic Plasma. I will be going somewhere in the 55" range as it still has to fit in a cutout in our living room entertainment unit. I have decided on OLED. I recently talked to a gentleman at a big box store who told me LG makes the OLED panels and sells them to other companies. Don't know if this is true or not. But we got on the discussion of which OS is running. Sony being Android, LG being WebOS, Panasonic being Firefox OS. How much does OS really matter? While at yet another big box electronics store a while ago I ran into a gentleman who happened to be a Sony employee who was setting up and calibrating Sony displays and he was more than willing to talk to me (in fact I think he may have been on amphetamines.. talking a million miles an hour). But it was an interesting session about local dimming, OLED Versus QLED and such(informative for me). But what really kicked his amphetamine filled brain into overdrive was talking about the chip inside the Sony tv. The X1 Extreme (I beleive thats what he said..again he was talking a million mph) which he said won an award at Cedia. His words "The chip won not the tv". It used to be TV's were dumb devices...not so much anymore. So does the the OS running the TV really matter?
Mike

 

[Flint]

The X1 chip isn't running the OS the smart TV platform uses. The X1 is a closed system which does image and motion processing like no one's business, which is why it won awards.

The OS you are asking about is the Smart TV client OS. Really, that shouldn't matter at all and I am surprised it is even listed as a feature. What matters is the client used. Some use Roku, others Fire TV or Google TV, and still others use a proprietary client built by the manufacturer. Check those out and decide which you want to deal with on a daily basis, assuming you will use the internal smart TV streaming client.

 

[jomari]

i like my LG OS, and is much more responsive than our older samsung tv. i constantly recieve updates for it too, but the picture on my LG isnt the best, since it uses edge lighting.

Mcad64, are you buying a new tv? did you read into the newer hisense h8f tvs? they have their version of an alternative OLED. i cant pay for a super expensive tv, and with my kids, well, i think this is a good alternative.

heres a bit of a introduction to what their technology is about...

and here is linus showing the technology showing their UHD stuff...

 

[Haywood]

I am a HUGE fan of Android TV, though there are a few things about Sony's implementation of it that annoy me. Sony does use LG panels, but it has way better processing and that makes a noticeable difference.

 

[mcad64]

i like my LG OS, and is much more responsive than our older samsung tv. i constantly recieve updates for it too, but the picture on my LG isnt the best, since it uses edge lighting.

Mcad64, are you buying a new tv? did you read into the newer hisense h8f tvs? they have their version of an alternative OLED. i cant pay for a super expensive tv, and with my kids, well, i think this is a good alternative.

heres a bit of a introduction to what their technology is about...

and here is linus showing the technology showing their UHD stuff...

Isn't the Hisense Uled essentially the same thing as what Samsung is doing with Qled. Which are both completely different than OLED?

 

[mzpro5]

I have had an LG 65" OLED set for 1.5 years and it is a great set.

 

[Flint]

It appears microLED will replace OLED in the coming years.

 

[mcad64]

It appears microLED will replace OLED in the coming years.

If it has taken OLED this long then I would imagine microLED won't be mainstream affordable for quite a few more years?

Apparently the X1 Extreme wasn't woohaa enough for Sony, now they have the X1 Ultimate. I love marketing terms!!

 

[Flint]

If it has taken OLED this long then I would imagine microLED won't be mainstream affordable for quite a few more years?

Apparently the X1 Extreme wasn't woohaa enough for Sony, now they have the X1 Ultimate. I love marketing terms!!

1) there are some micro LEDs on the market today but they are still new tech. I'd say 3 years before reasonable high end versions are available.

2) The X1 has been around awhile, they put two in the ultra high end DSLR cameras a few years ago. Now they are improving them

 

[Akula]

My parents have an OLED- it's beautiful and they love it. I have a QLED- it's beautiful and I love it. I'm honestly not sure there's tons of difference between them. On the OS front, I pay little attention to it. I don't really like the bundled apps on the set itself- I find set top boxes like AppleTV or Roku to have better user interfaces and better features.

 

[jomari]

Isn't the Hisense Uled essentially the same thing as what Samsung is doing with Qled. Which are both completely different than OLED?

yes and no,
1. ULED is in many ways the same as QLED and LG's version too. If i can think straight right now, its their proprietary technology, with their proprietary name, but the same horse. sorry just woke up. no coffee yet. its in the first video.
2. OLED is different technology, like microLED is.

 

[mcad64]

It's too bad they don't make tvs without speakers (at a discount) for those who are just going to hook it up to their home theatre system anyway. Sony is raving about how good their Acoustic Surface Audio+ is. I doubt I would even use it.

 

[Haywood]

It's too bad they don't make tvs without speakers (at a discount) for those who are just going to hook it up to their home theatre system anyway. Sony is raving about how good their Acoustic Surface Audio+ is. I doubt I would even use it.

My Sony was the last model year they built in really good speakers on their flagship. When I say really good, I mean comparable to a decent soundbar. They even have separate enclosures if you look at the back of the screen and are capable of being paired with a sub.

The only time I used them was in the middle of a move when there rest of my gear was packed and the TV wasn't.

 

[mzpro5]

I have had my current TV for 1.5 years and have never used the TV speakers. No idea what they sound like.

 

[mcad64]

So yesterday I went back to Bestbuy and luck of all luck who was there this time...an LG rep. I must say he was very persuasive, however, he did tend to rag on the competition more than the Sony guy. When I asked him about the X1 Extreme chip winning at Cedia, his reply was "Yes but the TV didn't ..that tells him poor implementation." I did like the remote better and the Web OS was nice. I don't think I will be disappointed either way . Price is a wash as both the Sony A8G and LG C9 are the same price (at least here in Canuckistan.)
Mike
PS:I flagged down a Bestbuy employee and he said the SONY's upscaling was phenomenal!! He also said that he thought that LG would be getting rid of WEBos in the next couple of years?? Who knows.
PSS: Waiting for my Visa rewards gift cards to come before I make a purchase. Apparently there are often good sales around Labour day.

 

[Haywood]

My personal experience has been that Sony does a better job scaling HD and SD content than anyone else.

 

[Akula]

Is scaling even that big of a deal anymore? I remember years ago writing up something on S&V about scaling and whatnot. Pretty much any HDTV looked great when fed an HD signal, but only certain brands had scalers that were worth squat. Nowadays the computing hardware needed to scale a video signal is dirt cheap and readily accessible. Combined with the much greater availability of HD programming (very little broadcast TV, whether OTA or cable, is in 480i anymore) and cheaper/better scalers for low end sets, I've just not noticed any scaling issues even on bargain sets. Going from even a normal HD resolution to 4K just doesn't present an issue on sets that I've seen.

I wonder if we have finally reached the point where displays are just about fully commoditized and there's simply not that much difference between most units on the market. Sure, there's some space between the different technologies (LED lit LCDs, QLEDs, OLEDs, etc.), but even then a well executed version of one can generally keep up with the others.

 

[Huey]

Is scaling even that big of a deal anymore? I remember years ago writing up something on S&V about scaling and whatnot. Pretty much any HDTV looked great when fed an HD signal, but only certain brands had scalers that were worth squat. Nowadays the computing hardware needed to scale a video signal is dirt cheap and readily accessible. Combined with the much greater availability of HD programming (very little broadcast TV, whether OTA or cable, is in 480i anymore) and cheaper/better scalers for low end sets, I've just not noticed any scaling issues even on bargain sets. Going from even a normal HD resolution to 4K just doesn't present an issue on sets that I've seen.

I wonder if we have finally reached the point where displays are just about fully commoditized and there's simply not that much difference between most units on the market. Sure, there's some space between the different technologies (LED lit LCDs, QLEDs, OLEDs, etc.), but even then a well executed version of one can generally keep up with the others.

I do notice a difference in picture quality when switching from my Roku and my Sony UHD player. The Sony scales everything to 2160, while the Roku outputs only 1080 and the tv upscales at the point, and I do feel the upscaler in the Sony is better than the one in my Samsung tv. Not night and day differences, but streamed content from the Roku looks softer than on the Sony.

 

[jomari]

thats the thing right, does upscaling a picture once, versus upscaling a number of times adversely affect the PQ?

just curious. i remember this problem with projectors back then. thats why i bought the oppo back then and loved it.

 

[Flint]

I've come to the conclusion that with modern gear, the video image quality it so good that it hardly matters if one setup is slightly better than another. They have gotten so good and presenting incredible video to us, even with low cost gear, that it is almost pointless to spend a ton or worry about which source upscales.