I feel like it used to be size, color, and clarity meant more expensive. Now I look at a 500$ 4k TV and a 2000$ 4k TV and I don’t know what the difference is. They can both be smart TVs, be the same size, and have a lot of same advertised features, but what are the subtle unspoken mysteries that justify a huge price gap?

  • Maestro
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    1411 months ago

    Have you seen them side by side? The difference between backlit LCD and OLED is massive. It’s a much greater jump in quality than going from 4k to 8k (which IMHO is barely noticable)

    • @Weirdfish
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      711 months ago

      In a controlled environment, side by side, yes there is a noticable difference.

      I work in AV, and have seen the top end stuff for sure. Maybe I’m old and my sight isn’t what it was, but for home use I just don’t care.

      With HDR in a dark room w a “properly calibrated” LED I get as good an image as I could want.

      • @thrawn
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        211 months ago

        This is actually pretty crazy to me, I watch <1hr of TV a week but can immediately tell OLED from LCD. It’s the perfect absence of light on black screens, though I’ll admit I don’t see a lot of LCD and may just be encountering only mid ones.

        I’m ex-tech so I don’t use my devices, barring my phone, a lot these days but I can’t unsee the difference. I always get OLED when available; had a “next best thing” miniLED iPad that was unbearable in the dark. But I’d rather not care like you do: objectively speaking you miss out on nearly nothing and don’t have to frown at remaining non-OLED devices like car screens or laptops. Even going weeks without computer usage I’ll still notice, and honestly after typing all this I’m kind of jealous.

        And y’know, perfect black aside, I don’t think I’d notice otherwise. Really unfortunate thing that my brain notices without thinking about and it’s cost me thousands + fear of static screens causing burn in

      • @QuarterSwede
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        111 months ago

        Aside from excellent color on OLED tvs, in a brightly light room (sunlit), you can’t really tell. However, in a dark room you’d have to be blind not to instantly notice how much better OLED looks due to the inky blacks which makes the colors pop. A properly calibrated LED tv is still going to look washed out in comparison. Even my neophyte wife thinks our theater OLED tv looks a lot better than our daily use LED tv and they’re in different areas of the house.

        Saying that, I would never buy current OLED tvs for a brightly lit room as they aren’t bright enough to overcome the sun. That’s where LED tvs shine (pun intended).

    • Bizarroland
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      411 months ago

      One thing about 4K and 8K is there’s not a lot of media available for that format.

      Most streaming media is going to come in at 720p or maybe 1080p unless you are comfortable with paying top dollar for your streaming.