Buy LG C9 now or wait for next models to launch probably next year ?

[sunster]

Planning to upgrade from my 4K led LG55UH850T to the LG C9 OLED. As there are rumours of new models launching. Probably at ces 2020, would it be worth waiting for it or go for the C9 now?

 

[sachin.shiva]

for best offers and new model u need to wait till diwali 2020,if ur able to hold ur urge and manage till diwali 2020 with ur existing tv.for new models ces 2020 is platform,they may available in india around may -june 20 with highest price tag,price gets reduced from monsoon and lowest in Diwali.
FOR LG C9 U MAY GET GOOD OFFER DURING CHRISTMAS OR NEW YEAR.

 

[stick&rudder]

Either ways, the C9 is a purchase you won't regret. If budget permits, go for it!!

 

[gappa]

Don't forget Xiomi in 1 st quarter

 

[Marakk]

LG C9 is already future proof with HDMI 2.1 and better burn-in free life than ever. C10 should be an incremental upgrade only. Not worth waiting for 9-10 months for 2020 Diwali as mentioned. Wait for CES in January and then take a call.

 

[k2max6]

No point waiting. There will always be a new upcoming model, moreover c10 is months away and C9 is plenty future proof. Go for C9.

 

[Amarendra]

Planning to upgrade from my 4K led LG55UH850T to the LG C9 OLED. As there are rumours of new models launching. Probably at ces 2020, would it be worth waiting for it or go for the C9 now?

Each time there will be something new on the horizon. Buy the C9 if you get a good price and if the feature count meets your requirement.

 

[bitanshudas]

CES 2020 might not be revolutionary unless you are looking for 8K. OLED prices may come down and they may get brighter and processor gets better but apart from that shouldn't be much changes.
You can have a look at the article.

 

[gappa]

I am looking sample in ces for boe + rohinni microled tv.they are coming in 2020 .if successful great denger to lg oled and Samsung qdled

 

[sunster]

Hi all thanks for the inputs. As of now leaning mostly on C9. Yesterday I visited croma in Mumbai Oberoi Mall and the sales guy fiercely pitched Sony 9500G and the Full Array tech quoting is as good or superior to Oled. Even showing me side by side comparisons. Any inputs on that?

 

[Marakk]

Hell no, buddy! Even the FALD with 512 zones, like Panasonic DX902, can't compete with OLED, especially in HDR. Each pixel in OLED can go as high as 700 nits. Not possible in FALD at all. OLEDs deliver the most consistent HDR performance. Just check the review of C9 and X950G on Faltpanelshd or Avforums. Space movies suffer a lot on FALDs, especially with puny number of dimming zones, such as 48 on the Sony model. Plus, a lot of blooming too on that. Both the reviews I mentioned will show that. Go and read. Oh! OLED has excellent viewing angles too if that matters.

 

[sunster]

Wow Marakk... that seals it for me. Just a fleeting thought on QLED...is the Q80R a worthy alternative to the C9?

 

[Marakk]

Wow Marakk... that seals it for me. Just a fleeting thought on QLED...is the Q80R a worthy alternative to the C9?

Nope! Again, limited dimming zones. Not even 100. If you have the budget, and you watch cable TV for only 3-4 hours each day, get an OLED. It'll serve you well for 4-5 years easily without any issues.

 

[OM_2K19]

The Q80 you get in India, has 100 diming zones, it's sold as Q85 in Europe. Based on personal experience, it's a worthy alternative to C9. The Black label in Q80 can easily rival an OLED. If you are a heavy gamer or watch TV for more than 8/9 hours, get this tv. You won't regret. OLED is awesome, but I have seen units which developed dead pixels, burn-in after 10/11 months of normal usage. OLED usually starts developing problems after 4/5k hours of usage.

 

[Marakk]

The Q80 you get in India, has 100 diming zones, it's sold as Q85 in Europe. Based on personal experience, it's a worthy alternative to C9. The Black label in Q80 can easily rival an OLED. If you are a heavy gamer or watch TV for more than 8/9 hours, get this tv. You won't regret. OLED is awesome, but I have seen units which developed dead pixels, burn-in after 10/11 months of normal usage. OLED usually starts developing problems after 4/5k hours of usage.

None of the OLEDs in Rtings test have lost their brightness or color gamut after 9000 hours. So what exactly do you mean when you say "develop problems"? What problems are these? New sets are more burn-in resistant thanks to increase in red subpixel in 2018 and 2018. Logos started burning in on TVs in Rtings test after 2000 hours, and the deed was completely by 3000. Now from 2018, logo luminance is also there. You can easily triple this. 6000 hours. 3-4 hours of viewing with static concent everyday over 4-5 years easily. I'm erring on the side of caution. Plus, the test was at max brightness. Considering that that won't happen in most homes, the outcome looks even better. 2019 sets will be quite resilient and should last their expected use cycle.

Samsung themselves are getting into OLED btw. Investing heavily into QD-OLED. They tried to go against the tide, spent a lot on marketing, but failed. So why would of Samsung market a higher range TV as the lower model in India? What's your source on this information? Based on what I have read, they do the opposite; nerf international models. I had asked Samsung directly about their dimming zones, and they said we can't disclose that. Have you done a zone count?

Moreover, even with 100 zones, do you really think a FALD with 100 zones can rival an OLED in HDR especially? Nuh uh! Watching all these HDR/DV content, and there are literally 100s of objects each hour that are really thin or small. A FALD with even 512 zones, like the famed Panasonic DX900, can't reproduce that without lighting up areas next to them, which often don't need that light at all, or suppressing their brightness. OLEDs are the only sets that can faithfully represent HDR/DV at home the way creators wanted, because they can have one pixel at 700 and the next one at black. HDR and DV content is also mastered on OLED monitors if anyone had any doubts. Even though FALD sets can get higher at 10% peak brightness, they can't hit even half of that when objects go well below 1% in size, which they do quite often in content.

Plus, subtitles are presented with blooming even in a Q90. So if your static on screen logos are limited to 3-4 hours everyday, and that's the same logo btw, like a dth logo, get an OLED. If it's more than that, alternatives would suit you better. For me, since I don't watch cable TV at all, I expect this TV to serve me for a long time. Heck, other parts might fail before the pixels. Lol

 

[sunster]

Valid points Marakk. One of my friends has a B7 since a while and he doesn't have any issues at all. He says the TV is pristine and working fine with no burn in etc. He watches movies on the weekends with the occasional Netflix on weekdays. No gaming. If the B7 could go on without any issues being an older model I guess the C9 would do one better and last. Then again anything other than the pixels could fail like u said

 

[Marakk]

Valid points Marakk. One of my friends has a B7 since a while and he doesn't have any issues at all. He says the TV is pristine and working fine with no burn in etc. He watches movies on the weekends with the occasional Netflix on weekdays. No gaming. If the B7 could go on without any issues being an older model I guess the C9 would do one better and last. Then again anything other than the pixels could fail like u said

And if burn-in does happen for your friend on B7, LG is doing a one-time replacement as a courtesy abroad. They can easily be pushed to do so here too, or taken to consumer court, but I doubt that will be needed. Look Just some savvy convincing will do. I have taken Sony to consumer court for a defective mobile a decade ago. They didn't even contest it.

 

[OM_2K19]

None of the OLEDs in Rtings test have lost their brightness or color gamut after 9000 hours. So what exactly do you mean when you say "develop problems"? What problems are these? New sets are more burn-in resistant thanks to increase in red subpixel in 2018 and 2018. Logos started burning in on TVs in Rtings test after 2000 hours, and the deed was completely by 3000. Now from 2018, logo luminance is also there. You can easily triple this. 6000 hours. 3-4 hours of viewing with static concent everyday over 4-5 years easily. I'm erring on the side of caution. Plus, the test was at max brightness. Considering that that won't happen in most homes, the outcome looks even better. 2019 sets will be quite resilient and should last their expected use cycle.

Samsung themselves are getting into OLED btw. Investing heavily into QD-OLED. They tried to go against the tide, spent a lot on marketing, but failed. So why would of Samsung market a higher range TV as the lower model in India? What's your source on this information? Based on what I have read, they do the opposite; nerf international models. I had asked Samsung directly about their dimming zones, and they said we can't disclose that. Have you done a zone count?

Moreover, even with 100 zones, do you really think a FALD with 100 zones can rival an OLED in HDR especially? Nuh uh! Watching all these HDR/DV content, and there are literally 100s of objects each hour that are really thin or small. A FALD with even 512 zones, like the famed Panasonic DX900, can't reproduce that without lighting up areas next to them, which often don't need that light at all, or suppressing their brightness. OLEDs are the only sets that can faithfully represent HDR/DV at home the way creators wanted, because they can have one pixel at 700 and the next one at black. HDR and DV content is also mastered on OLED monitors if anyone had any doubts. Even though FALD sets can get higher at 10% peak brightness, they can't hit even half of that when objects go well below 1% in size, which they do quite often in content.

Plus, subtitles are presented with blooming even in a Q90. So if your static on screen logos are limited to 3-4 hours everyday, and that's the same logo btw, like a dth logo, get an OLED. If it's more than that, alternatives would suit you better. For me, since I don't watch cable TV at all, I expect this TV to serve me for a long time. Heck, other parts might fail before the pixels. Lol

I’ll say Rtings won the ‘Pannel Lottery’ during their test. In my experience (C9, 55”), there is no way to get around the image burin-in. A decent few hours of cable viewing and you will end up having the burin-in issues. LG India doesn't cover the Burin-In issues under warranty. Another annoying behavior with OLED is the near-black vertical stripes. It simply ruins the whole viewing experience. QLED has its own problem with screen uniformity know as DSE, although it’s not a dealbreaker with Q80/Q90.

Although LG has introduced a lot of measures to tackle the Burn-In/Image Retention issues like ‘Logo Luminance’/’Pixel Refresher’ but their effectiveness is yet to be proved. There is no independent study yet available shedding light on the effects of these new measures.

Now coming to the 2nd bit, you can see the details of Diming Zone in the Samsung Service Menu. No of the diming zone is just one part of the story. It’s the Algorithm which really makes the FALD a viewing Pleasure or Pain. And Samsung has really done a great job to keep the subtitle blooming at a minimum. At times it does crash the black level details so as OLED while displaying near black contents. The FALD can never match the Pixel Label Diming of OLED, but the gap is closer than ever.

Coming to brightness, OLED is just not there yet. Bright room viewing is pathetic on C9 due to low brightness level and screen reflection. OLED can never reach full 1000 nits brightness (due to ABL) and believe me, it does matter. Especially with the brighter scene with higher (APL), Q80/90 just does the wonder. Moreover, LG OLED comes with a W-RGB sub-pixel structure to boost white, and due to this, there are reports of screen artifacts with HDR/Gaming contents.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to your viewing habit. If you play games/view NEWS/HDR contents for longer hours and have a brighter room, OLED is not the right choice. With a mixed viewing (3 to 4 hours a day) in a darker room, I don’t see any reason why one shouldn’t get an OLED.

 

[Love4sound]

Black levels on Samsung qled can match oled? No not even close. There are so many videos done side by side in dark rooms. May be in a bright room it can match but in a dark room you can easily see the blooming effect. Coming to brightness I wouldn’t say it is pathetic. I am actually finding it too bright for my liking and mine is a bright room. Only problem is I find the screen to be reflective. But most of them who go for a tv for their HT set ups make sure to have the room brightness minimised by using curtains which solves this issue. I also got a dark black screen and my room is very dark now. For a HT purpose oled should be way better. And if u want a big bright tv in a hall with just a soundbar then may be qled is good

 

[Marakk]

I’ll say Rtings won the ‘Pannel Lottery’ during their test. In my experience (C9, 55”), there is no way to get around the image burin-in. A decent few hours of cable viewing and you will end up having the burin-in issues. LG India doesn't cover the Burin-In issues under warranty. Another annoying behavior with OLED is the near-black vertical stripes. It simply ruins the whole viewing experience. QLED has its own problem with screen uniformity know as DSE, although it’s not a dealbreaker with Q80/Q90.

Although LG has introduced a lot of measures to tackle the Burn-In/Image Retention issues like ‘Logo Luminance’/’Pixel Refresher’ but their effectiveness is yet to be proved. There is no independent study yet available shedding light on the effects of these new measures.

Now coming to the 2nd bit, you can see the details of Diming Zone in the Samsung Service Menu. No of the diming zone is just one part of the story. It’s the Algorithm which really makes the FALD a viewing Pleasure or Pain. And Samsung has really done a great job to keep the subtitle blooming at a minimum. At times it does crash the black level details so as OLED while displaying near black contents. The FALD can never match the Pixel Label Diming of OLED, but the gap is closer than ever.

Coming to brightness, OLED is just not there yet. Bright room viewing is pathetic on C9 due to low brightness level and screen reflection. OLED can never reach full 1000 nits brightness (due to ABL) and believe me, it does matter. Especially with the brighter scene with higher (APL), Q80/90 just does the wonder. Moreover, LG OLED comes with a W-RGB sub-pixel structure to boost white, and due to this, there are reports of screen artifacts with HDR/Gaming contents.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to your viewing habit. If you play games/view NEWS/HDR contents for longer hours and have a brighter room, OLED is not the right choice. With a mixed viewing (3 to 4 hours a day) in a darker room, I don’t see any reason why one shouldn’t get an OLED.

Rtings don't have one TV in their test. They have 6! Plus one more in the previous one. 7 OLEDs with similar results. That's not a lottery. The red sub-pixel is now almost twice the size. Burn-in in oleds happens because of pixel degradation. Twice the size means twice the life easily, if not more. It's just physics. Half-life will be way longer.

Dirty screen effect is visible in more content than dark grey uniformity. I had a bad panel, and it was visible in less than 1% of the shots. LG still replaced it. New one is better. DSE effect on my TCL TV or IPS glow; visible in almost every shot. It's crazy to say dark grey uniformity ruins the experience when DSE is more visible by a huge amount.

Yes, OLEDs are limited to 700 nits right now. However, they have an advantage in HDR that FALD sets just can't do; light up one pixel to max brightness while the rest are shut off. So many shots have bright areas that are way smaller than the zone size of even a FALD sets with 500 zones. That's the reason HDR is graded on OLED reference monitors, plus for client viewing, OLED TVs are used. They represent the image faithfully. Even Q90 suppresses specular highlights when the area is smaller. No way around it. FALD sets are a compromise. If you're worried about burn-in and your usage will put OLEDs at risk, go for them, but until and unless mini-led comes with thousands of zones, FALD will remain a compromise. Brightness fluctuatuons also happen in FALD sets with limited zones.

During day hours, I have my OLED light at 35. I don't need it to be any brighter. It gets eye piercingly bright even now for SDR. Barring super-bright rooms with lots of reflections, OLEDs will work just fine.

Also, just for the sake of pointing it out; if I read correctly, you have a 55 C9? And you're using that as experience anecdote for burn-in? Geez! How? Why? It makes no sense. Have you had burn-in? I bet not. Then how does your experience matter here? This forum is filled with fallacious arguments. Every other person comes in shouting their mouth off with silly stuff.