Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Netflix audio quality

Just recently Consumer Reports came out with their reliability assessment of televisions covering the last two model years and apparently OLEDs for all brands (LG, Sony, Panasonic) were the best and by a rather wide margin. Second, were LCDs ,but, in the higher end model ranges. Third were TCL and lower LCD model ranges with the "majors" and models from Vizio, Hisense etc. were next on the model list. Of course, these were relatively short term assessments, however, like a lot of electronics, if one is going to have problems it is more than likely going to occur within the first year and within the warranty period. When one looks at it, the OLED technology is, in reality, much simpler in nature as opposed to LCDs with their multiple layers and back lighting.

Funny you mention your issues with LG. I guess everyone has had them, yet, in my case,this OLED is my third LG in the last 6 years, the previous being LCD's, very reliable and good color and still working very well. My 2018 LCD LG "Nanocell" great picture and color but, you are right about the blooming, essentially caused by not having enough dimming zones, something that this new Mini/micro LED technology that is forthcoming is suppose to solve.

In any case, whether it be LG,Sony,or Samsung, in the case of their LCD models, it is rather interesting to note that in the last couple of model years, they are ALL cutting back on their dimming zones, even in their higher end lines making one wonder what is the future of that current technology.

Truth is, as I get older, the TV and the walnut M5s offer more satisfaction than me.

Well guess I may have some fun to look forward to ... recently bought an LG washer and dryer.

The trade offs are giving me brain trauma !

Which will bring me more joy?

- best picture but smaller or
- great picture and bigger or
- really good picture, bigger and less expensive (i.e. have $$ for something else)

Well, ultimately, it is going to be your budget(and its flexibility) that determines your final choice. Since I have been absent from the Axiom forum for awhile, I am not aware of how if any, the television you are talking about is a stand alone deal or integrated into a home theater system, in which case, I suppose, the bigger the better and what you are using it for and then start from there. Of course, as you have seen just from this small sample, everyone has had different experiences with different televisions from different manufacturers so, ultimately, you can only take that advice so far.

If you have yet to start looking around and you want to point yourself in the right direction and not spend your time wandering around retailers looking at blown out, unrealistic pictures, I found YouTube has three pretty good independent minded sites for assessing the different models in various price ranges from many of the manufacturers. Clearly, there is something to be said, even with televisions, you ultimately "get what you pay for". Then again, in the LCD category, much of the newer technologies have come out of what have been perceived the "budget" companies, Hisense and TCL who are making a pretty good run at the big guys with great value. The question with them is still, reliability and availability. Vizio has been kind of left behind in all of this in terms of pricing and availability as well, yet, even Vizio has introduced an OLED in their product line.

RTings.com
HDTVTest and Digital Trends.

RTings and HDTV test are somewhat more detailed and technical in nature
with longer programming, however, they give the potential buyer some good information on the strength and weaknesses of the sets they are assessing.

Anyway, good luck and above all, have fun.

Thanks Casey,
I’m just ranting about my own indecisiveness. Although I do appreciate advise too ... I have already checked out the 3 sites you mentioned. This has led me to all this waffling back and forth. Really just using the forum to get my thinking out. Writing stuff down sometimes helps with decisions...

I’m more into audio then video but also don’t want to be upset with myself for not buying a better TV. It’s coming down to one of two thoughts
- buy a less expensive 75” for the family room and have a big screen HT right away
- get the 65” OLED for the family room and next year move it to the bed room and replace it with a 75” OLED when they come down in price

I have a larger home theater in the basement which may or may not be finished in a year. The family room is really the every day TV/HT/Gaming space.

It sounds alot like you've been going down the same mental path that i have for a few years now.
Price vs. size vs. quality (mixed with tech type - LED vs. OLED) vs. room location (daily uses differ)

I was forced into buying a LED for the main floor because our bedroom tv died (see earlier story on that). I had no choice but to move the LG we had on the main floor to the bedrom and buy something new for the main floor. Going with same size wasn't considered because it is a BIG wall and really a 65" would be a more suitable size. I couldn't do larger unless i also swapped out the media stand for something else that wasn't as tall which is too much of a snowball effect. So we opted for a high quality but LED picture; the Sony LED 65" X900E. To offset the major LED downside of crappy off angle contrast, i mounted it with a full swivel extension arm so at least if i was in the dining area or even off to the far side in the kitchen, i can pull it out and swivel it to see the picture with far less off angle. However, i still lament having people sit from the far left to the far right of the room knowing the contrast dies off in an area where the tv gets far most use (tv, gaming primarily).

Now originally the plan was to wait until OLED came out, replace the media room tv, and then as the bedroom tv failed (or main floor tv failed), move the media room tv upstairs and then finally get the crown jewel tv for the media room. That would have bought us some time to allow for large screen OLED prices to drop. Obviously that plan could not come to fruition in that order so the first OLED will be the crown jewel tv in the media room. As such, i've also been waffling between the 65 and 77" OLEDs ONLY because of price. If i knew i could get 18 years out of this tv just like we have our trusty old Toshiba RPTV, well then $8000 over 18 years is more rational. But if we have any issues with it like we had our previous Phillips and LG tvs which died after 5-7 years, then damn. That's alot of dough to drop for 5 years of use.

Ultimately if you have the cash/income and feel comfortable with your future finances, buy the larger screen.
Life can be short. If people haven't figured that out by now (cliché)...maybe covid will help some to put it into perspective much earlier in life. Enjoy life while you can (cliché).

All that life philosophy aside, you can wait forever if you keep waiting for ...the next tech...for prices to drop....for.....[insert next and unending reason here that caused me to wait 5 years and i'm still not happy with some factor which at this point is price]

Agreed.

Still, having been raised by a depression age baby It took the first half of my life to let go of the buy only value philosophy and come to the conclusion that sometimes it's best to pay more and enjoy it then shop forever and not. Unfortunately, it's also made me a bit of a schizoid on making these kinds of decisions. There are a lot of funny stories here ... mostly at my mothers expense and sometimes at my own.

My biggest block is analysis paralysis. A common occurrence for scientists trying to make a decision.
One plus about increasing age is you care far less so the paralysis relaxes because you just don't give a....kind of like when you were young before you got any education and a modicum of wisdom.