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Is this the right year to buy an OLED 4K TV?

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Posted on December 11, 2016 at 21:02:37
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23694
Joined: January 4, 2002
 I'm looking at the LG OLED55B6P: 55" flat. The price at Best Buy is $2999 CDN with free wall mount and installation. I have two or three days to decide. The TV and the price are attractive, but:

1. I'm not planning on playing any 4K content in 2017;
2. Even if I was, we sit 12' away from the screen. My information is we'd see little to no difference in detail;
3. My 13 year old Pioneer Elite Pro-1000HD (50" plasma) is excellent, but lacks HDMI input - limiting it to 720p or 1080i (I prefer 720p) with TV and Blu ray;
4. Sony is entering the OLED TV market in 2017.

Really, I don't expect to save any money by waiting until next Christmas. The real risk is that the TVs at this price point will improve considerably in 2017. I doubt this, but I'm really not in a position to know. Thoughts?

 

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RE: Is this the right year to buy an OLED 4K TV?, posted on January 6, 2017 at 13:13:52
Mr Peabody
Audiophile

Posts: 1109
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Joined: August 14, 2010
 I was looking at some CES coverage and looks like waiting for OLED may be wise. Hopefully it will be in the U.S. Panasonic has also gotten back into OLED and the Flagship, I believe 1002, got the writer really excited. Apparently, they had a prior OLED model but that was news to me as well. LG has a new super thin model. The Sony was discussed but not much detail given. So maybe by waiting a while you'll be able to replace your Elite with something just as spectacular, as it was, in it's day. Especially, the Panasonic how they talk about their approach is to reproduce the type of picture quality the film maker intended. Panasonic showed the 1002 beside a $30k professional video monitor. As I said, the writer was excited at what he saw.

I hope this link works

 

RE: Is this the right year to buy an OLED 4K TV?, posted on January 7, 2017 at 10:08:00
mrdavis842
Audiophile

Posts: 274
Joined: February 22, 2013
 Your link doesn't seem to be working.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/sony-a1-oled-review

http://www.avsforum.com/sony-a1e-4k-hdr-oled-tv-at-ces-2017/

 

RE: Is this the right year to buy an OLED 4K TV?, posted on December 29, 2016 at 21:09:49
Mr Peabody
Audiophile

Posts: 1109
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Joined: August 14, 2010
 I'm guessing you waited?

Prices of the OLED did drop pretty good this year. Before I bought from anyone showing those low ball prices online I'd check with LG to be sure they were authorized and you have a honored warranty.

Being at the end of the year it is a tough decision to jump or not, I'd say it depends on how bad you want to upgrade from what you have. I suspect prices would be some lower in 2017. I also would guess the Sony models to be better than LG, at least brighter. Then again LG has been at it longer, and experience counts for something.

I think you'd notice a difference with 4k from what you are viewing now. From what I understand the "real" eye popping difference is when watching content with HDR. Which reminds me Dolby has a rival scheme, Dolby Vision, LG comes with both so that's a plus to cover any format war base.

I recently got a Samsung 4k 8000 series, but viewing 4k has been limited so far. The Sammy looks great though when upconverting even DVD to it's 4k native resolution.

Do your research on HDMI, there's no such thing as 4k or 2.0 HDMI, it's only a pipe. With that being said it will need to be "high speed" to have the bandwidth for 4k HDR content. If you want to be sure look to see what is DPL certified, brands like Tributaries or Transparent's Hardwired series are certified and reasonably priced, as far as quality brands go. Myself I will buy the higher priced cables. Some by the $5 Monoprice or whatever, but I've had better cables than that go defective. I still have Tributaries 1.3 cables that have served with no issue.

The Sammy 4k player is down to about $199.00 and Oppo is coming with their player at $549.00. I'd bet we see others at CES. Now if we'd see some discs. The LG should have apps built in to give access to 4k, from Amazon or Netflix, I'm sure others are out there, via Wyfi.

 

umm..., posted on December 31, 2016 at 21:21:55
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23694
Joined: January 4, 2002
 http://ca.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship

As you can see from the graph, with a 12' viewing distance and a 65" TV we'll likely barely see the advantage of 1080p. 4K is more of a hurdle than a feature for me.

 

RE: umm..., posted on January 1, 2017 at 07:40:57
Mr Peabody
Audiophile

Posts: 1109
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Joined: August 14, 2010
 If your mind was made up why ask the question?

First of all on my Samsung 4k 8000 series 55" about 10 to 12 feet we saw a difference between a 4k disc and a Blu-ray. That may not be enough to mmmake me jump right to a 4k TV. However, when I ran the HDMI directly to the TV taking advantage of the HDR 4k signal the difference is big. If you noticed in my original post I used the term "HDR", that's what will make the huge difference on 4k. You can stand a few feet at a store who has an accurate demo and see the difference. I thought the purpose of your post was to gain information to make an informed decision. If I didn't have to upgrade I'd probably be contect to wait a bit, the content for 4k needs to grow. When I did upgrade, most displays unless buying http://www.pcmag.com/article2/very cheap are already 4k.

 

Yes..., posted on January 1, 2017 at 13:29:47
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23694
Joined: January 4, 2002
 HDR is a horse of another colour, especially with an oled display.

By the way, I hadn't made up mind, but as usual when I'm tweaking my system I'm looking at information from a lot of different sources. With the power of hindsight I wish I'd bought a 65" plasma as well at close-out prices when I bought the 51" for the bedroom. But all of the oleds are 4K now, and there's no harm in having a feature I can't fully exploit. Unfortunately a number of people are having trouble with their pre-pros when they turn HDR on, especially with the Marantz AV8002A and B6 models. So I think I'm happy with waiting a year until this isn't all quite so cutting edge.

 

RE: Yes..., posted on January 1, 2017 at 14:35:38
Mr Peabody
Audiophile

Posts: 1109
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Joined: August 14, 2010
 Unless the receiver or processor is 2.2 HDCP compliant there will be an issue with passing 4k or HDR. Another nice gift from the industry. So unless I upgrade my AV8003 I'll have to go direct to the TV with 4k disc player. If the receiver/processor is 2.2 compliant and having issues it may be the person needs to upgrade the HDMI cable to a "high speed" version.

Keep in mind when you do get an OLED, or any other 4k TV as far as that goes, the display will automatically upconvert any incoming video signal to 4k, it's native resolution.

If your display is still serving you well, and you aren't set to watch 4k in 2017, there certainly isn't a rush to upgrade. It seems the early adopters always bare the expense and bugs of early generation new tech.

 

well..., posted on January 1, 2017 at 15:32:25
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23694
Joined: January 4, 2002
 The guys having trouble are using a compliant pre-pro in the 8802A and have tried it with any number of full-bandwidth cables. The problem occurs when they switch HDR on. Of course there is a workaround, but not being able to switch your video sources with the pre-pro is both limiting and a major PITA.

Likely all of this will be settled over the next year (if not the next few months via firmware), and by that time there may even be HDR content worth speaking about. In the interim it looks like a good opportunity for me to enjoy the system I have.

 

RE: well..., posted on January 1, 2017 at 18:28:02
Mr Peabody
Audiophile

Posts: 1109
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Joined: August 14, 2010
 Thanks for that info, I curiously looked into it and found the 8802a has a big issue with HDR though it's supposed to be compliant. Marantz definitely knows but I didn't find anyone who has had a fix yet. Several people were able to get their display to play HDR by bypassing the 8802a, so it has been isolated to that unit. So before I go changing processors for the sake of modernizing research will be required to be sure no issues are out there.

 

RE: Is this the right year to buy an OLED 4K TV?, posted on December 14, 2016 at 09:47:52
mrdavis842
Audiophile

Posts: 274
Joined: February 22, 2013
 This TV currently is and has been under $2235 CDN from several retailers. You can buy a wall mount for less than $25 CDN. Prices are USD. It MAY even come down a bit more for Christmas.

Adorama (eBay store) - $1449 + Free Shipping (click on See price on checkout). Currently out of stock but they have gotten them back in stock in the past:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LG-Electronics-55-Class-4K-UHD-Smart-OLED-TV-with-webOS-3-0-OLED55B6P-/391612997532?hash=item5b2df41f9c:g:0N8AAOSw4GVYGMTj&rmvSB=true&afepn=5335869999&afepn=5335869999&rmvSB=true
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Abe's of Maine - $1499 + FS, you might be able to get BB to price match:

http://www.abesofmaine.com/LG_Signature_B6_Series_OLED55B6P_-_55_OLED_Smart_TV_-_4K_UltraHD_1029778.html?l=CJ&kbid=4485850-11652608-af58b71ac21c11e68c5b3a9735d29f560INT
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ielectrica (eBay store) - had it for $1499 last mo. + FS, currently $1696 + FS:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LG-Electronics-OLED55B6P-Flat-55-Inch-4K-Ultra-HD-Smart-OLED-TV-/182179278948?hash=item2a6abb3064:g:0jMAAOSw2xRYTx~V
-------
echo-and-optics (eBay store) - had it for $1449 last mo. + FS; currently $1696 + FS:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LG-OLED55B6P-Flat-55-Inch-4K-Ultra-HD-Smart-OLED-TV/272285069096?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38530%26meid%3Ddbbdd8afa67345048b873a4a99e0a0d3%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D182179278948&rt=nc

 

good deals..., posted on December 14, 2016 at 19:31:20
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23694
Joined: January 4, 2002
 What does "Does not ship to Canada." mean to you?

 

RE: good deals..., posted on December 14, 2016 at 22:17:03
mrdavis842
Audiophile

Posts: 274
Joined: February 22, 2013
 Mainly I was letting you know the price you quoted was pretty high. I didn't check shipping, some things you got to do for yourself but both Adorama (orders from their website) and Abe's of Maine ship to Canada. I also suggested you might be able to get YOUR Best Buy to price match Abe's of Maine.

P.S.: "Does not ship to Canada." means to me that you should move to the US to get great deals.

 

Wait as long as you can..., posted on December 13, 2016 at 17:25:18
kSpace
Audiophile

Posts: 191
Joined: July 12, 2002
 If you have the bug, no advice will slow you down.

If you are willing to wait, prices always go down and technology always improves.

As you said, from your viewing distance you will probably not see the difference in resolution. I do think you will see improvement with 1080p or 4k over 720p or 1080i, but it will be subtle. The video processor can make a huge difference. Five inch increase in size is not a big jump. I might consider getting a bigger screen at 1080p and fewer bells and whistles for more bang for the buck... Love my 65" Samsung 1080p plasma.

my 2ç

 

RE: Is this the right year to buy an OLED 4K TV?, posted on December 12, 2016 at 04:26:17
Jack G
Audiophile

Posts: 9740
Joined: September 24, 1999
 That's a good price. My guess is that they are selling it at a loss just to get the technology out there. I haven't researched OLED in a while, but I believe they still have some issues. Image retention being a big one.
I would be surprised if you find anything better in that price range in 2017.
Jack

 

bought..., posted on December 14, 2016 at 19:34:47
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23694
Joined: January 4, 2002
 Their Geek Squad will even take my 100 pound Pioneer Elite Pro-1000HD down off the wall.

 

Very good, posted on December 15, 2016 at 11:17:07
Jack G
Audiophile

Posts: 9740
Joined: September 24, 1999
 Break it in and have it calibrated-or do it yourself with a cheat sheet.
Let us know what you think.
Watch out for image retention.
Jack

 

RE: Very good, posted on December 15, 2016 at 14:50:02
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23694
Joined: January 4, 2002
 I paid for calibration on the Pioneer Elite 13 years ago; but then again I paid $13,000 for it too. When I bought a last chance plasma for the bedroom two years ago (Samsung PN51F5500)for $600 I just used cheat sheets from AVSforum and I'm very happy with the results.

 

RE: Very good, posted on December 16, 2016 at 04:41:29
Jack G
Audiophile

Posts: 9740
Joined: September 24, 1999
 That's pretty much what I did with my Panasonic plasma.
enjoy,
Jack

 

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