Help me decide on a TV: Samsung vs. LG

[Frank McCormick]

Hello and thank you for your help!

I am looking for a new HDTV, and more specifically, something that will be easier on my eyes. I am replacing a 2011 HD Vizio Smart Tv. I use it for watching TV, movies, and a lot of gaming.

I have Keratoconus, which causes irregular astigmatism. With my old TV, it's not as bright as the new ones and causes eye strain- generally, the brighter the TV, the less reflections and glare, and the clearer the vision- the better I can see.

So I've narrowed it down to a few choices:


$1120: Samsung UN55KS8500 Curved 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD

$1197: Samsung UN55KS8000 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD

$1400: LG Electronics 55EG9100 Curved 55-Inch 1080p Smart OLED

$?: Other Options? I'm considering maybe a 60 inch... Samsung or LG... If it's worth it.


I can squeeze out extra money for the OLED if it's worth it, but I heard the Samsung is much brighter... I also heard since OLED is newer, there are burn-in issues, and such.

I'm struggling with curved. I heard it sucks, but when I was at Best Buy- the colors looked better and it looked more vibrant, but maybe they just had the settings changed.

So yeah, got a few choices, things I'm looking for, open to curved vs. flat and size opinions as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'll likely buy what the consensus says, or the most persuasive person!

Thanks so much!


Frank

 

[VincentP]

When comparing TVs in the store, you need to stand at the same distance as you will use it at home, and look from the right height. Standing next to a TV on a low stand will ruin the image because you are viewing from an angle vertically.
Curved is of some small benefit if the screen is large, you will be sitting fairly close and only viewing from near centre. If you want seats to the side to have a better view, I'd stick with flat.
In terms of glare, Samsung is advertising features to reduce this. I'm not sure how well it works. The best thing you can do is to block out bright light sources rather than relying on a bright screen. Turning up the brightness ruins contrast in dark images and turns black to grey.

I found this article on OLED TVs:
http/www.techhive.com/article/3018446/smart-tv/oled-vs-led-theres-just-no-comparison.html

It certainly doesn't make me want to go out and buy one. Relatively short life span, poor quality upscaling of 1080p content, and LG are the only brand selling them. I'd never recommend LG TVs for quality.

The best thing you can do is have a good look at the TVs in store. You want the same image on TVs to compare, and something with dark scenes and skin tones. They love to show animated films and nature documentaries with lots of vibrant green and blue. Even a Soniq looks ok with this content and high colour settings in the store, but they are actually terrible when viewing real content.

I haven't shopped for a TV for a while, but in the past I have been very impressed by Samsung. Hisense also make a good alternative, not quite as good as Samsung but cheaper also and still good quality.

 

[Frank McCormick]

Thank you for your input. Any other thoughts?

 

[joelfritchman]

I could never recommend LG TVs. They lie. I bought one 2 yrs ago and it advertised their touted WebOS 2.0. When I got the TV I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting all the ADVERTISED features. When I called customer service they told me my TV has WebOS 2.0 lite. Nowhere was this advertised or mentioned. It was like it was a made up thing. When I googled, I did find WebOS lite info, but it was nowhere on the TV product box, literature, etc. The company doesn't stand by their products either.