It's hard to believe it has been twenty years since Robert Zohn, owner of premium A/V retailer Value Electronics, hosted the first TV Shootout, but it's true. Since 2004, every year but one, the company has hosted a competition among the top performing TVs to determine which has the best overall picture quality; which model is the current "King of TVs?"
We've been covering the TV Shootout since 2011. At first, the event was hosted in the Value Electronics store, but in more recent years, with the involvement of Dealerscope magazine, the event had expanded in scope and moved to a swanky location in midtown Manhattan. Now, with Dealerscope's closure, and the TV Shootout being fully independent again, Robert is bringing the event back to its roots. The 20th annual TV Shootout will be hosted at the Value Electronics store in Scarsdale, NY on August 3rd and August 4th, 2024.
As in previous years, the top performing TVs from multiple manufacturers will be brought together into a single room and fed a variety of challenging test patterns, images and video clips. A panel of independent judges will be tasked with scoring each set on a variety of factors in order to pick a winner. But unlike in previous years, this year's Shootout will be broken down into two separate competitions, based on the panel technology used in each model. Instead of one overall "King of TV," there will be a "King of OLED TV" and a "King of MiniLED TV" crowned at the event. Since there are currently only three manufacturers competing, it is quite possible that one company will wear two crowns.
This Year's Contenders for "King of OLED TV"
This Year's Contenders for "King of MiniLED TV"
All TVs in the competition offer native 4K resolution with multiple flavors of HDR (High Dynamic Range) including HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma). The LG and Sony TVs offer Dolby Vision dynamic HDR, while Samsung TVs support HDR10+ dynamic HDR instead. All TVs in the competition are also "Smart TVs" with access to all of the popular streaming apps and smart home features. In addition to high quality panels, the TVs feature each company's latest video processing technology for effective handling of compressed or lower resolution content as well as motion handling and HDR tone mapping. Except for the Sony A95L, which was introduced in late 2023, the competitors are all 2024 model TVs.
OLED TVs have dominated the TV Shootout for the past several years, thanks to their outstanding black levels, excellent contrast and rich color saturation. Meanwhile MiniLED/LCD TVs excel at peak brightness thanks to their ultra bright miniLED backlight elements. While MiniLED TVs make a great choice for bright environments, they've also begun to challenge OLED TVs in black levels and contrast, even in darker viewing environments, due to increases in the number of local dimming zones as well as more precise control over gradations in luminance of those lighting zones. Even so, Robert decided to separate the two technologies into separate competitions this year.
Robert explains, "MiniLED TVs and OLED TVs each excel on different content and in different viewing conditions. While a customer may prefer an OLED TV for a controlled light home theater environment, a bright MiniLED/LCD set may be a much better choice for a bright living room. With the Shootout's emphasis on controlled lighting viewing, we feel it would be an unfair comparison to pit the two different technologies directly against each other."
Having seen all of the top TVs in each category this year, I can safely say that the judges of the event will have their work cut out for them in picking the winners. Both OLED and MiniLED/LCD technologies have made great strides in picture quality over the past year.
At the 2024 TV Shootout, Zohn will share emcee duties with Jason Dustal, Field Trainer and ISF Instructor from AVPro Global. The panel of independent judges for this year's event includes professional Hollywood video colorists, film finishers, TV reviewers, and video experts. Robert and Jason will lead the judges through the test patterns and video clips but the judges will be the ones who vote to determine the winners in each category. After the votes are in, the scorecards will be tabulated to determine the winner of each competition.
Evaluation material will include test patterns, images and video clips, each selected to highlight specific areas of video performance including contrast, color accuracy and saturation, image uniformity, and motion reproduction. Sources for the content will include a professional test pattern generator, a Kaleidescape media player loaded with HD and 4K Ultra HD movie clips and Magnetar's UDP-900 flagship 4K universal media player. The Magnetar is capable of playing back all manner of physical media including DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and 4K UltraHD Blu-ray Discs.
Absent from this year's competition are TCL and Hisense, both of which have been stepping up their performance game lately, particularly in the miniLED/LCD category. Robert stated that the selection of models was informed by their own direct experience with all of the top TV models currently on the market. Robert did tell me that a fourth competitor is currently being considered for the MiniLED competition, but a final decision about that is still pending.
To ensure that each display operates at its peak performance and that they compete on a level playing field, each TV will be professionally calibrated by experienced Level 3 ISF calibrators. This year's expert calibration team includes DeWayne Davis, Cecil Meade and John Reformato. To make sure that all of the competitors get the same signal, AVProGlobal is supplying the latest state-of-the-art switching, distribution, and test equipment. For comparison purposes, Sony's latest professional broadcast monitor, the 31-inch BVM-HX3110, which sells for over $30,000, will be used as a reference for both competitions. This Sony monitor is used by movie studios and mastering houses worldwide and is considered the industry reference for color accuracy, HDR performance and contrast.
This year, the opening remarks and manufacturers' presentations will be webcast live (stay tuned for link) but the main evaluation sessions will not be broadcast due to copyright issues on the test material. After the TV Shootout is completed, Robert's team will provide video highlights of the event to content creators for distribution on YouTube and other social media platforms.
Both the OLED and MiniLED Shootout competitions will be held on Saturday, August 3rd. After the conclusion of both Shootouts, the winners from each event will be placed side by side for additional comparisons. Day two of the event (August 4th) will include a more informal comparison of several of the larger sized OLED and MiniLED TVs in order to observe, compare and discuss the performance differences of these TVs at their larger screen sizes.
We're looking forward to the event as it's a great way to see all of the top sets side by side, reproducing a wide variety of challenging material. Be sure to stop back after August 3rd for the results of this year's TV Shootout.
Find Out More About This Year's TVs or Purchase Directly from Value Electronics:
More Information:
2023 TV Shootout Crowns a New King of 4K TV
