Sony 8G vs LG C9

[Marakk]

I was equally surprised. Even the sales guy seemed surprised. I said to him, "non-HD content to bilkul gobar hai isme" (Non HD content looks like shit in these TVs) - and he gently nodded.

Knowing LG and Sony have given best of the best in those TV - I just feel that there were not setup to handle that. Demo mode meant they did their best to play their built in demo.

Either way - I felt that the TV and its quality totally dependent on content you are pushing to it. Hotstar is 1080p and Tata Sky HD is 720 or 1080 depending on various factors. These two account for 30-50% of my viewing put together. 4K OLED, blackest of black, DV etc is not worth spending 1L extra for when my eyes won't be able to differentiate it at all.

I notice blackest of blacks and great HDR/DV everyday. I took photos of Ozark and sent to my friends to show them just how great it looks when you have the edges merge into the darkness. I'm also watching Yes, Minister, which is a really old show, not HD, and it looks better on the OLED than the Iffalcon/TCL TV in the other bedroom. 720p movie rips are upscaled quite well on the OLED. Really have no such complains. I don't get why people here insist on going to showrooms and checking TVs in an absolutely chaotic manner with god knows what settings on each. Oh well! I sense a lot of doubt in many people over OLED here that's not present on other AV forums. I wonder why...

 

[Amarendra]

I was equally surprised. Even the sales guy seemed surprised. I said to him, "non-HD content to bilkul gobar hai isme" (Non HD content looks like shit in these TVs) - and he gently nodded.

Knowing LG and Sony have given best of the best in those TV - I just feel that there were not setup to handle that. Demo mode meant they did their best to play their built in demo.

Either way - I felt that the TV and its quality totally dependent on content you are pushing to it. Hotstar is 1080p and Tata Sky HD is 720 or 1080 depending on various factors. These two account for 30-50% of my viewing put together. 4K OLED, blackest of black, DV etc is not worth spending 1L extra for when my eyes won't be able to differentiate it at all.

This is what "whathifi" says about C9 upscaling:
Throw some upscaling into the mix, whether from a Blu-ray, DVD or one of the onboard tuners, and the C9 provides an astonishingly clean, smooth image with more detail than you should reasonably expect. Some rivals go a little sharper with 1080p and 576p content, but none are as balanced or controlled.

 

[Love4sound]

Well I took my hard disk today to reliance digital and the A8 and c9 where placed next to each other. I played the same 1080p Original blu ray movies like aqua man, dead pool etc, and the A8 was very good with upscaling and picture quality was excellent. But when I played the same in c9 it was just ok and little less in picture quality compared to my current Sony w950c which is an excellent tv from Sony. I tried changing all the settings and still the blu ray file aqua man wasn’t good and for me I couldn’t bare to see it and prefer my 2015 Sony itself compared to the c9. But when I played John wick hdr 4K file it was a game changer in the c9. It was on par with the Sony. So if you are going to watch only 4K the lg c9 is a clear winner in terms of VFM.

 

[Lakeview]

@Love4sound, sorry if this post is OT. I can move it to another thread if you want.

I visited Croma on Saturday evening around 8:30. Just to review televisions and have fun. Still haven't made up my mind on what to buy - which means I had the whole ocean to explore. Being the eve before christmas, store of empty and sales guy spent his good time talking to me

Croma has a huge collection of TVs and I managed to see them all.

1. Samsung QLED Q80 65"
2. Samsung RU7100 - 65"
3. Samsung NU7100 - 75" (This is apparently 2018 model - on sale at Croma for 1.5L)
4. Sony A9G - 65"
5. Sony X80G - 65"
6. LG C9 - 65"
7. LG UM7300 - 65"
8. TCL C2 - 75"

I didn't change setting in any of the TV on display - so if showroom had any agenda with any of the TV and tuned the setting in particular manner - it'll have a bias on me. In terms of what the sales man spoke, he totally discouraged the TCL - said "chinese brand" word like 3 times. Samsung, Sony and LG were his favorites in the same order.

Most of the TV were hooked onto some 720p content that showroom was playing. Not sure if it was 720p or 480p - but it definitely wasn't FHD or above. All my assessments are based on this 720p content and not on marketing videos.

Both Sony and LG OLED did a crappy job in up-scaling and there wasn't any visible signs of motion handling. I asked if upscaling in turned off in them and sales guy said "NO". I still doubt if he told me the truth, or he knew the truth. The built-in marketing demo video looked like playing on a different TV compared to the 720p video. This was an eye-opener for me. Those OLEDs are being reviewed with a specific content which makes them great - your content is not going to be the same. The choice of TV depends a lot on what content you are going to use it for.

Compared to both OLEDs, Samsung QLED did a better job in up-scaling. With a non-HDR 720p content, the visuals were slightly better than those OLEDs.

Now talking about other LEDs. Sony definitely had an edge with their triluminous display and image processor on X80G. Samsung RU7100 stood very close and to me I liked Samsung better as I felt the upscaling was better and colors were more natural and appealing. LG UM7300 was just fine. I mean you won't be disappointed with it but the nanocell were not making any decisive impact.

Talking about 75in TV - for both the TV(Samsung NU7100 and TCL C2), the backlight was turned down. It was turned considerably down and you could easily make it out from the screen. NU71 did look like of last year as RU71 certainly seemed to have better colors and better up-scaling. Now the difference could have been in the 10" screen size but who knows. It was clear that watching a 480p or 720p on these 75in TV will never be a good idea. But then TCL C2 surprised me. It produced nice natural colors (which were looking slightly washed out due to toned down backlight), and had great up scaling. The 720p content looked lot better on this TV vs other OLEDs, QLEDs and flagships brand TVs. Plus the motion flow - boy, I could see the better motion flow or MEMC (not sure what TCL is calling it) - than any of the TVs I saw.

Now I know this may not tell us anything. But it is important for us to keep in mind the content that is going to be watched. I watch Prime, Hotstar mainly (yet to convince myself of 800 bucks a month for Netflix) or the TV from my Tata Sky HD box. My mom watches only TV. So this factor needs to be looked at as well.

I do have a Vu75 in office and I know it produces good colors. I have seen some HDR videos off Youtube and I have been happy. The challenge with TCL and Vu both is stupid remote and not so great android TV UI. Also - the service is a nightmare. Both these brands have started expanding in India recently and they seem to focus more of sales and nothing on service. The bad service stories all all over the internet.

I do feel that Samsung and LG are catching up with VU and TCL brands with both LG 7600 and Samsung RU7100 available within 1L for 65in. Given another 4-5 months - they'll come even further down.

I am yet to demo a Mi 4x TV though. That is one TV I have high hopes on. With 10bit, LG IPS panel - I do feel it'll have good things to offer.

Samsung is sharper when compared to the OLED. Did you notice any lack of brightness on the TCL? I am contemplating on TCL 85 inch if the picture quality is decent. My budget is 1.8l. will wait for this year models. In any case, my priority is the screen size.

 

[Lakeview]

I notice blackest of blacks and great HDR/DV everyday. I took photos of Ozark and sent to my friends to show them just how great it looks when you have the edges merge into the darkness. I'm also watching Yes, Minister, which is a really old show, not HD, and it looks better on the OLED than the Iffalcon/TCL TV in the other bedroom. 720p movie rips are upscaled quite well on the OLED. Really have no such complains. I don't get why people here insist on going to showrooms and checking TVs in an absolutely chaotic manner with god knows what settings on each. Oh well! I sense a lot of doubt in many people over OLED here that's not present on other AV forums. I wonder why...

Infinite contrast is not the only determinant while choosing a TV. As stated already, it looks great on demo content but you don't perceive a massive difference on normal content. Wide color gamut, brightness, sharpness, motion, cost, abl, fear of potential burnin etc also should be taken into account. Of course, it's all subjective. You don't buy a TV just to watch empty dark space, do you?

 

[Amarendra]

Infinite contrast is not the only determinant while choosing a TV. As stated already, it looks great on demo content but you don't perceive a massive difference on normal content. Wide color gamut, brightness, sharpness, motion, cost, abl, fear of potential burnin etc also should be taken into account. Of course, it's all subjective. You don't buy a TV just to watch empty dark space, do you?

Infinite contrast is not everything but it is magical. I changed my non OLED 4k tv to C9 and atleast for the first few days i was just watching it for the infinite blackness. If one doesn't want the perfect picture one should save some money and get a normal 4k tv like LG 7300. It has a lot of features and is cheap. Samsung has disappointed this year with inaccurate colours.

 

[Lakeview]

Infinite contrast is not everything but it is magical. I changed my non OLED 4k tv to C9 and atleast for the first few days i was just watching it for the infinite blackness. If one doesn't want the perfect picture one should save some money and get a normal 4k tv like LG 7300. It has a lot of features and is cheap. Samsung has disappointed this year with inaccurate colours.

I agree, who doesn't want the best possible contrast. But it's all about what you are prepared to compromise on. Personally, I wasn't overawed while watching regular content as I prefer a brighter and sharper picture. OLED makes the sun look like a lamp, no brightness around it. It's not the perfect picture yet but it is no doubt a great option.

 

[Marakk]

Infinite contrast is not the only determinant while choosing a TV. As stated already, it looks great on demo content but you don't perceive a massive difference on normal content. Wide color gamut, brightness, sharpness, motion, cost, abl, fear of potential burnin etc also should be taken into account. Of course, it's all subjective. You don't buy a TV just to watch empty dark space, do you?

Wide color gamut: among the widest available to consumers

Brightness: each pixel can hit 700 nits. Best for HDR according to reviewers, and you do know that many color grading houses are also using OLEDs as bigger reference monitors to show to clients?

Sharpness: Errr...as good as any other. Every reviewer has acknowledged that. Sony is just a tad better upscaling. A tad. Not much at all.

Motion: LG has almost caught up with Sony. Pretty darn good, according to reviewers and users too.

ABL: Can be turned off in LG with contrast at 80. Sony is more agressive.

Fear of potential burn-in: Not going to happen for 7-8 years unless there's the same static element on screen for 3-4 hours every day.

Anything else?

 

[Marakk]

I agree, who doesn't want the best possible contrast. But it's all about what you are prepared to compromise on. Personally, I wasn't overawed while watching regular content as I prefer a brighter and sharper picture. OLED makes the sun look like a lamp, no brightness around it. It's not the perfect picture yet but it is no doubt a great option.

The best grading monitor available, the one on which DV and HDR titles are mastered, is an OLED. If that's how OLEDs are showing it, that's how the creators wanted it.

 

[Marakk]

Samsung is sharper when compared to the OLED. Did you notice any lack of brightness on the TCL? I am contemplating on TCL 85 inch if the picture quality is decent. My budget is 1.8l. will wait for this year models. In any case, my priority is the screen size.

Nonsense! Samsung Q90R, and this should apply to Q80 too as it also comes with wide angle filter, the two Samsung sets can be bought instead of OLEDS, hav lower effective resolution and less detail than OLED sets. Feel free to read underneath. Oh! Did I mention, OLEDs have the best viewing angle too. If one gets a 75-inch TV with VA panel, even sitting dead center will mean that the sides and corners especially will suffer thanks to bad viewing angles of VA panels. This is why it's better to remove as much subjectivity as possible and trust objective reviews.

Samsung Q90R review

We have reviewed Samsung's 2019 4K flagship. Q90R has new wide viewing angle tech, FALD, and an external One Connect box

www.flatpanelshd.com

 

[Lakeview]

Nonsense! Samsung Q90R, and this should apply to Q80 too as it also comes with wide angle filter, the two Samsung sets can be bought instead of OLEDS, hav lower effective resolution and less detail than OLED sets. Feel free to read underneath. Oh! Did I mention, OLEDs have the best viewing angle too. If one gets a 75-inch TV with VA panel, even sitting dead center will mean that the sides and corners especially will suffer thanks to bad viewing angles of VA panels. This is why it's better to remove as much subjectivity as possible and trust objective reviews.

Samsung Q90R review

We have reviewed Samsung's 2019 4K flagship. Q90R has new wide viewing angle tech, FALD, and an external One Connect box

www.flatpanelshd.com

I am basing my opinion on what I have seen. If you think otherwise, then good for you. I don't care what LG or any other company say about burn in, unless they provide the warranty, it is deemed not suitable for certain type of content. If you are willing to take a risk then you should certainly go for it. OLED picture is great but not perfect. Off angle viewing is not accurate as per some users.

 

[Marakk]

I am basing my opinion on what I have seen. If you think otherwise, then good for you. I don't care what LG or any other company say about burn in, unless they provide the warranty, it is deemed not suitable for certain type of content. If you are willing to take a risk then you should certainly go for it. OLED picture is great but not perfect. Off angle viewing is not accurate as per some users.

As far as Q90 and Q80 are concerned, the proof is right there. They are not as sharp or detailed as OLEDs. Fact. I already have an OLED. Viewing angles are as good as it can probably get in a TV. Nothing better exists on the market. What users? Rtings has objective measurements. We can check. Doesn't get better. Fact.

 

[Love4sound]

Well I have been auditioning A8 and C9 for the past 3 days and have visited nearly 10 showroom. I sat and thought why I am looking for a tv upgrade the answer is for size and not for picture quality as I am already 100% satisfied with my current w950c. After doing countless audition I feel 55 inch is small. So now I am thinking of 65 inches and oled os out of budget. So now I am looking at Sony 65 inch 9500g which is a full array led display.

 

[Lakeview]

As far as Q90 and Q80 are concerned, the proof is right there. They are not as sharp or detailed as OLEDs. Fact. I already have an OLED. Viewing angles are as good as it can probably get in a TV. Nothing better exists on the market. What users? Rtings has objective measurements. We can check. Doesn't get better. Fact.

Well, what more can I say. I don't want to sound like a teenager.

 

[Love4sound]

My viewing distance is 8-9 feet. Will 65 inch be correct?And also my LCR will be kissing the tv will it affect the display? My speakers aren’t magnetically shielded

 

[Lakeview]

My viewing distance is 8-9 feet. Will 65 inch be correct?And also my LCR will be kissing the tv will it affect the display? My speakers aren’t magnetically shielded

Yes, you can even go bigger than that. You can find a chart online if you want a reference. But no harm in going bigger.

 

[Marakk]

Well, what more can I say. I don't want to sound like a teenager.

If you have seen the video, Vincent mentions that Samsung looks softer in retrieving details later in the video, which is exactly the opposite of what you're claiming. He isn't going into the effect of the filter. Flatpanelshd is doing that, and showing you proof too, but maybe your infantile brain can't process basic facts.

From flatpanelshd:

"As you may have guessed, sub-pixel rendering does have drawbacks, with the main one being lower effective resolution when the wide viewing angle system is active. When examining the pixel structure more closely, we found that the LCD panel has a gate pattern that negatively affects picture details. The photo to the right illustrates the same picture section from Samsung Q90R and Sony A9F, revealing that you some of the finer details (i.e. the pupil) in the picture are lost, and that color gradients or contrast transitions (around the hair) appear with dithering artefacts.

For you as a viewer, the effect will be hard to spot from a normal viewing distance in a sofa, which may in some sense revive the discussion around whether 4K resolution is actually too high in typical viewing situations. The effective resolution of Q90R will be somewhere between full HD and 4K - in some picture modes. Whether this is a big thing or not, is probably up to the individual buyer but we must conclude that the improvements in viewing angle come at the expense of resolution."

 

[rksingh1]

@Love4sound, get the dimensions of the TV and measure it on your wall to get an actual feel of how will it look. Looking at TVs in showroom makes the sizes look relatively smaller than what they'll actually be at home.

Sony 950c was a flagship model of it's time and when I had demoed it, it had amazing motion and PQ. If it's just the dimensions, be careful to get what suits your need. Getting Sony 950G in 65in will still cost close to 2.3L, which is same as C9.

If you are crossing 1.7L for 65in TV, then put your money on C9 I'd say. Sony TVs are still more expensive than comparison.

C9 is good TV, but it's fanboys are.....agh. They remind me of FIAT fanboys.

 

[Lakeview]

C9 is good TV, but it's fanboys are.....agh. They remind me of FIAT fanboys.

Lol

 

[Love4sound]

@Love4sound, get the dimensions of the TV and measure it on your wall to get an actual feel of how will it look. Looking at TVs in showroom makes the sizes look relatively smaller than what they'll actually be at home.

Sony 950c was a flagship model of it's time and when I had demoed it, it had amazing motion and PQ. If it's just the dimensions, be careful to get what suits your need. Getting Sony 950G in 65in will still cost close to 2.3L, which is same as C9.

If you are crossing 1.7L for 65in TV, then put your money on C9 I'd say. Sony TVs are still more expensive than comparison.

C9 is good TV, but it's fanboys are.....agh. They remind me of FIAT fanboys.

c9 upscaling isn’t good.I have Blu-ray file aqua man which I always use to test the video quality and it was not good . 4K HDR John wick was awesome. LGc9 is definitely a winner for 4K but not if you will play 1080p contents so I am planning to avoid the c9.