Once a year, for the past 15 years (11 of which have been open to the public), Robert Zohn of Value Electronics has brought the top TVs from the top manufacturers into one room for a showdown of epic proportions. It's called the "TV Shootout" and it's a great way to see the top performing, top-rated televisions all in the same room, with the same content, calibrated to their peak performance.
Normally, Robert hosts the shootout in his own store in Scarsdale, NY and invites customers, members of the press and video enthusiasts to participate in the event and vote on their favorites. This year, in order to increase exposure to the event, they've brought the TV shootout to New York City as one of the featured events at CE Week 2015. Yesterday and today, the shootout is being held in the lower level of the Altman Building on 18th St. to see exactly which TV brand and model wins the title of the 2015 King of TVs.
The pack has slimmed down to just four manufacturers this year: Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and LG, each with a single top-of-the-line flagship model in the running. Robert said other companies such as VIZIO and Sharp did not have their flagship models ready yet, so they were not able to participate. The 2015 contenders are all 4K Ultra HD models, including three LED-lit LCD TVs (all with full array LED backlights with local dimming) and one OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) set.
Models include Panasonic's TC-65CX850U ($3,499.99), LG's 65EG9600 ($8,999.99), Samsung's UN78JS9500 ($9,999.99) and Sony's XBR-75X940C ($7,999.99). The Samsung and LG models are curved while the Sony and Panasonic feature the more traditional flat panel design.
As in previous years, the TVs have been calibrated by a professional calibrator, in this case David MacKenzie of HDTV Test. After calibration, the sets are all being fed identical content - both test patterns and real world material - and the audience is invited to cast their ballots for the best picture quality. On Wednesday, June 24th Rob Sabin, Editor-In-Chief of Sound & Vision magazine was the technical presenter, taking participants through the evaluation process and helping to explain elements that contribute toward the best picture quality. On Thursday, Scott Wilkinson of AVS Forum handled these duties.
As in previous years, the sets are evaluated based on several picture quality factors including black level quality, contrast, color accuracy, motion resolution, off-axis viewing, screen uniformity and performance in high ambient light, typical of an actual living room. Each set has been calibrated for both dark room and light room environments using different mode settings. The ballots are all being collected over the course of the two days of sessions, with a winner to be announced by Robert after all the voting is final.
I attended the morning session yesterday, and, as usual, I really appreciated the opportunity to see all of the sets head to head like this, professionally calibrated, using identical content. Unfortunately at this first session, there wasn't time to evalauate the sets using native 4K (Ultra HD) content, so all tests were done using HD content (with rec 709 color calibration) and using the TV's built-in upconversion circuitry to display on the sets in their native Ultra HD resolution. Robert said they would be sure to include native 4K material in the rest of the sessions as they tightened up the presentations and flow of the demos. Also, because HDR (High Dynamic Range) content standards have not yet been defined, HDR content (which is available for the Samsung TV on a very limited basis), was not included in any of the testing.
In my opinion, the OLED TV (LG's 65EG9600) edged out the competition in terms of black levels and contrast, and also had a leg up in color saturation on the material we viewed, but its color accuracy was not quite as precise as the best LED/LCD sets (the Sony and Samsung). For uniformity, the LG OLED, Sony and Samsung LED/LCD sets were all very good, but the Panasonic set lagged slightly in thie department. Also, the LG has a strange edge artifact in lower brightness grey test patterns which causes visible distortion of the lighting at the extreme edges of the screen (the screen edges were black while the rest of the screen was dark grey). This artifact wasn't visible during normal content viewing but it's something that LG rep Tim Alessi said the company will definitely be investigating.
Where the OLED trounced the competition was in off-axis viewing. Viewed from straight on, all four sets produced a nice, vibrant and accurate image, but as you walked off to the side and viewed the LED/LCD sets from an angle, a full red color field fades to pink and then to gray as you get further off axis. This is something to consider if your specific TV viewing conditions require any off-center viewing. It will be interesting to see how much this influences the overall scores.
For those who can't make it to the live event today (the final session will be at 1:30 this afternoon), a live stream is being provided here. Of course, the stream doesn't capture the actual picture quality or performance differences between the sets, but it can at least give you a sense of how the tests are being performed and qhat questions are being asked by the audience.
When the sessions are finished, all the votes are in and the results are tabulated, we'll be sure to update this article with the details.
UPDATE (June 26, 2015): The results are in and LG's EG9600 OLED TV took home the title of "King of TV" for 2015 with the highest overall scores. Read more about it here:
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