LG OLED TV Again a Value Electronics Shootout Winner, This Time With 4K

LG Electronics’ 65-inch 65EG9600 4K OLED TV ($8,999) won a Value Electronics TV Shootout at Metropolitan Pavilion in New York during CE Week. Four flagship 4K Ultra HD TVs vied for bragging rights in the contest, which pitted the LG OLED model against three full array locally dimmed LED-lit LCD TVs. In Value Electronics’ previous shootout, last August at the retailer’s Scarsdale, New York, store (see 1408200052), a 2013 Samsung 64-inch HD plasma TV finished with the highest average score, all categories being equal. The official winner, because of a score weighted toward results in black level and contrast ratio, was also OLED: LG's 2014 55-inch 55EC9300, also an HD model. The year’s TV contestants -- which also included the Panasonic 65-inch TC-65CX850U, Sony 75-inch XBR-75X940C and Samsung 78-inch UN78JS9500 from the new SUHD family -- were 2015 4K Ultra HD TVs. The LG and Samsung TVs were curved models and the Panasonic and Sony models flat. All tested panels were concurrently fed content through a professional HDMI distribution amp from three reference Blu-ray players, a Sony FMPX10 4K media player and USB. The LG 65EG9600 won according to audience votes and votes from an expert panel that included professional TV evaluators and professional TV calibrators. Values of 1-10 were given by voters for black quality, perceived contrast, color accuracy, off-axis performance, screen uniformity, motion clarity and ambient light. Results were calculated by averaging all votes from each ballot over two days and five voting sessions, said Value Electronics owner Robert Zohn, who organized the event. The seven attributes were added for each TV and averaged for the final score, he said. Final votes from audience members were LG, 57.32 points; Samsung, 55.44 points; Sony, 54.89 points; and Panasonic, 46.79 points, said Zohn. Votes for TVs from the experts, who weren't publicly identified, finished in the same order, with slightly higher point totals, he said.