Two LG 4K TV Reviews — OLED 65″ and UHD 43″

by | Jun 11, 2017 | Component Reviews

LG 4K TVs — OLED65E6p and 43UH610A

 

The OLED series from LG comes in various models (A, B, E, and G) and sizes. This E model is the second from the top. The upscale G model has a better sound system, at a $1700 up charge; it also has a curved screen OLED series. I opted for the E series, because I use my main stereo system or a sound bar.

(For more information about OLED technology, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED)

The main features that the E model has over the lower models is it supports both Dolby Picture and HDR (high dynamic range) 10.  HDR10 uses and 10 bit color depth, where Dolby Vision uses 12 bit color depth. (The 10 bit has 1 billion possible colors; the 12 bit has 68 billion). This gives Dolby Vision a clear advantage, with more brightness and color variations. Currently it is only useable for anyone making players, cameras, TVs or discs using it as a standard in their product—with an associated licensing fee—though it is expected to be more common in the nearer future.  HDR10 is an open source standard with no licensing fee. It still has an advantage over with 10 bit color depth instead of the 8 bit used by UHD. UHD gives about 400 nits of brightness. HDR 10 gives about 1000 nits of brightness. Dolby Vision gives about 4000 nits of brightness. To take full advantage of HDR 10 and Dolby Vision the source video must use these standards.

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) has various advantages over LED back lit LCDs. First of all, each OLED can be turned off or on, in contrast to LCD back lit TVs which can only have the full LED panel dimmed or brightened—though there are some LCD sets have local back lighting.  Having pixel-level control gives the OLED better blacks and better color control. Since the OLED emits its own light while the LCD has LED has light projected through it, the OLED has a better viewing angle. The OLED also has better contrast and colors, along with better detail. The one downside of OLEDs is that is not as bright as the LED-LCD sets.

After much research, I bought this TV at a local dealer. This particular TV is available for under $4000; a newer model has come out recently—the 7 series—and goes for about $4000. The main differences I see are the addition of Dolby Atmos and WebOS3.5. Hooking up the TV was straight forward. Calibration was a different matter. I suggest for the best picture that you hire a person to calibrate your set or use calibration from  the internet setting. My previous TV was the Sony XBR929.

Warning to TV buyers: the picture you see in the stores is not a good example of what you will see at home. Usually the stores have the TVs set at the show room setting. This means that the contrast and brightness are turned up full. Then they use a very high quality video that is not screwed up by these setting. The picture you see is impressive, but not what you will see with normal videos. Demo videos have gotten to be hyper realistic. Slight difference in settings makes a big difference in picture quality.

For sound, the quality of this TV is much better than my old Sony. I still do feel that the use of a sound bar—or even better, hooking up to your stereo system—is highly recommend

The picture, on this set, is as good as I have seen—on very high quality videos it looks amazing. The best video quality is with a close up of a colorful well-lit subject. Unfortunately most movies are not shot this way. Good Blu-rays look great; even good DVDs are watchable. By contrast, downloaded 4K videos can be breathtaking, and down loaded videos can also show big differences in the cameras used and the quality of the video. I went to several stores to compare the new model 7 series against the new Sony OLED and against my 6 series. I found one store that had both of the new OLEDs next to each other and playing the same 4K video. I didn’t see much difference in picture quality between my 6 series and the new 7 series. The comparison between the LG and Sony was very close, but I liked the LG slightly better. It is interesting that Sony gave up on OLED a number of years ago and has come back to it this year. Sony uses the LG panels with their own processing. Most 4k sets will give you a good picture. The main things that the higher TVs sets give you are better colors and color saturation, better blacks, better detail and more sense of texture.

Internet Access—I really like this feature of the LG. Once you put your search in, it was faster than my computer. The remote also has a voice command for search, making searches much faster. It has an arrow cursor with Magic Remote to enter letters and numbers for the search box.  It also has the up/down/side arrows used for keyboard navigation, as found in the lower-end TVs series.  For 4K video content, the internet is the main source; Youtube has incredible amounts of stream-able videos and music, with amazing sound quality—even making an audiophile happy.

The only thing I would like to see on this TV is a second audio out, so I could put one to my sound bar and one to my preamp.

Should you buy this TV? This is dependent on your budget and your picture quality standards. Most new name brand 4K TVs have a picture that will satisfy most TV watchers and can cost a lot less. But if you seek the best picture you can get at a reasonable price, I would suggest the LG E7P series. I have seen it at Video Only for about $4000, with a $500 gift certificate. You might find an even better deal E6P series if you can still find one, for less than $3000. The Sony goes for about $1400 more and does not have Dolby Vision. Some of the abilities of the set can’t be fully used at this. There is not much HDR or Dolby video material at this time. It is however a good hedge toward the future. 4K is expensive to implement at this time. Without the internet, you must have the right equipment—you will need a 4K player and HDMIs capable of 4K, as well as a preamp or receiver that can handle 4K or have a pass through for video. The 4K discs run about $30 each.

For specs and information go to: https://www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-OLED65E6P-oled-4k-tv

43UH610A   4K TV

I bought this TV for my bedroom. It is a smart 43 inch 4K television; the picture is quite good.  The areas that differ from the more expensive sets are: fewer black levels, a little less color saturation and not quite as much small detail.


Although does not have HDR10 or Dolby Vision, it does have HDR. It uses the arrows for entering searches, and does not have voice search. The sound is quite decent, but needs a sound bar for any real sound excitement. This TV is a good product for a bedroom or smaller rooms. At under $400 it is a good buy and will make most TV watchers happy.

 

 

For specs, got to: https://www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-43UH610A-4k-uhd-tv

—Clay Swartz

 

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