Really surprised to see that there is no thread for this masterpiece yet.
Does anyone own a sony OLED TV? I recently demoed for a 55" and ended up ordering a 65" since finance option really narrowed the price boundary and got a really good price.
Awaiting delivery.
I demoed against the current LG C8 and LG C7 which are great by themselves.
Below are the pros and cons I saw against LG though,
Pros of Sony AF8:
1) Sony's picture processing for 4k is great. While every other scene not involving human faces can be declared a tie, human face rendering and tone mapping is top class in the sony and not so much with LG C8. This is one of the biggest factor.
2) LG USB playback seem to render PQ less than the USB playback of sony. HDMI performance and demo app performance was same. (Did LG owners feel the same?)
3) LG has no android TV and sony comes with Android 8 which is a richly supported ecosystem with Apps from official Google play-store supported. This is the next biggest factor.
3.a) Vast amount of video players and 4k HDR upscalers with different upscaling nd HDR capabilities available in sony play store, can pick and choose and use in place of sony default player (even payed ones are close to free when you compare cost of TV). With LG, you are stuck with the default LG player which I felt was not in par with even sony's default player.
3.b) Very good collection of TV playable games available from app store. Though these are not for serious gamers, it is great for casual gaming. Again, games are dirt cheap compared to the playstation and xbox games. Supports all sony game controllers and other other android certified bluetooth controllers (which is pretty much everything except xbox controller I guess)
4) No cost cutting evident from sony. The USB playback difference in LG vs sony leaves a bad taste and leaves the question on there can be other compromises.
5) Sony's acoustic surface sound is wonderful and better than the dolby atmos (!!!) sound from C8
6) Sony AF8 is a sony flagship with all software and hardware components comparable to ZD9. LG C8 is the starting range of LG and price difference between the two is less than 10k. Actually AF8 can compare to E8 and above which are more costly.
7) LG C8's rear HDMI input placement is wierd and not thought through. HDMI ports face the wall and so will have an issue wall mounting (??). Sony A8F comes with a very good HDMI port placement and enclosed wire management system to hide all the wires in 4 different compartments. Can even place small components like fire TV, external HDD etc inside the compartments and close them during installation.
8) Though I saw C7 and C8 in different shops, I felt C7's picture processing is not up to the mark. C8 was vastly superior but it could be because of the difference in room placement. But had AF8 to compare against both and C7 felt vastly inferior in processing but C8 did a very good job in rendering images close to sony. C8 also felt a bit brighter (against both C7 and AF8 with same settings).
9) AF8 comes with 16GB internal memory for apps.
10) Android phones can directly control the sony TV. Much needed since the remote is crappy. Has inbuilt Chromecast also which LG does not have.
11) Sony supports sound only mode for streaming and hearing songs with internal or external speaker. Even USB flac playback is possible through app with picture swithced off, none of which is possible with the LG (Correct me if wrong).
Pros of LG C8.
1) Really liked the magic remote and navigation, but the apps are fixed. Sony remote is retro and buttons felt downright bad in comparison. TVs from other manufacturers have better remote for TVs costing 1/4th the price. Since it has voice command, cannot fully move to universal remotes like logitech harmony also. All in all, a toally disaster of a remote in a 2L/3L+ Tv. This is something you need to hold and use everyday and sony should do something about it.
2) Felt marginally bright against sony in in-store demo.
3) LG has bluetooth song playback which the sony does not have. (But since chromecast is there it is not really needed?? IMO, wifi generally and chromecast specifically has better sound and range than bluetooth, so this might not be a con per se)
With the above, the AF8 seemed a more well put together TV with flagship standards than the C8. The price differential is also <10k (7k for 55" in my case). IMO, this year sony sales would surpass the LG for the first time because of the above reasons.
Does anyone own a sony OLED TV? I recently demoed for a 55" and ended up ordering a 65" since finance option really narrowed the price boundary and got a really good price.
Awaiting delivery.
I demoed against the current LG C8 and LG C7 which are great by themselves.
Below are the pros and cons I saw against LG though,
Pros of Sony AF8:
1) Sony's picture processing for 4k is great. While every other scene not involving human faces can be declared a tie, human face rendering and tone mapping is top class in the sony and not so much with LG C8. This is one of the biggest factor.
2) LG USB playback seem to render PQ less than the USB playback of sony. HDMI performance and demo app performance was same. (Did LG owners feel the same?)
3) LG has no android TV and sony comes with Android 8 which is a richly supported ecosystem with Apps from official Google play-store supported. This is the next biggest factor.
3.a) Vast amount of video players and 4k HDR upscalers with different upscaling nd HDR capabilities available in sony play store, can pick and choose and use in place of sony default player (even payed ones are close to free when you compare cost of TV). With LG, you are stuck with the default LG player which I felt was not in par with even sony's default player.
3.b) Very good collection of TV playable games available from app store. Though these are not for serious gamers, it is great for casual gaming. Again, games are dirt cheap compared to the playstation and xbox games. Supports all sony game controllers and other other android certified bluetooth controllers (which is pretty much everything except xbox controller I guess)
4) No cost cutting evident from sony. The USB playback difference in LG vs sony leaves a bad taste and leaves the question on there can be other compromises.
5) Sony's acoustic surface sound is wonderful and better than the dolby atmos (!!!) sound from C8
6) Sony AF8 is a sony flagship with all software and hardware components comparable to ZD9. LG C8 is the starting range of LG and price difference between the two is less than 10k. Actually AF8 can compare to E8 and above which are more costly.
7) LG C8's rear HDMI input placement is wierd and not thought through. HDMI ports face the wall and so will have an issue wall mounting (??). Sony A8F comes with a very good HDMI port placement and enclosed wire management system to hide all the wires in 4 different compartments. Can even place small components like fire TV, external HDD etc inside the compartments and close them during installation.
8) Though I saw C7 and C8 in different shops, I felt C7's picture processing is not up to the mark. C8 was vastly superior but it could be because of the difference in room placement. But had AF8 to compare against both and C7 felt vastly inferior in processing but C8 did a very good job in rendering images close to sony. C8 also felt a bit brighter (against both C7 and AF8 with same settings).
9) AF8 comes with 16GB internal memory for apps.
10) Android phones can directly control the sony TV. Much needed since the remote is crappy. Has inbuilt Chromecast also which LG does not have.
11) Sony supports sound only mode for streaming and hearing songs with internal or external speaker. Even USB flac playback is possible through app with picture swithced off, none of which is possible with the LG (Correct me if wrong).
Pros of LG C8.
1) Really liked the magic remote and navigation, but the apps are fixed. Sony remote is retro and buttons felt downright bad in comparison. TVs from other manufacturers have better remote for TVs costing 1/4th the price. Since it has voice command, cannot fully move to universal remotes like logitech harmony also. All in all, a toally disaster of a remote in a 2L/3L+ Tv. This is something you need to hold and use everyday and sony should do something about it.
2) Felt marginally bright against sony in in-store demo.
3) LG has bluetooth song playback which the sony does not have. (But since chromecast is there it is not really needed?? IMO, wifi generally and chromecast specifically has better sound and range than bluetooth, so this might not be a con per se)
With the above, the AF8 seemed a more well put together TV with flagship standards than the C8. The price differential is also <10k (7k for 55" in my case). IMO, this year sony sales would surpass the LG for the first time because of the above reasons.
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