My New $8,000 LG OLED TV - A HUGE Living Room Upgrade
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,859 words · ~9 min read
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it's been more than a month since I replaced the LG 65 eg9600
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65in curved OLED 4K TV in my living room
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with LG's brand new Signature Series OLED 65
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g6p thanks LGBT dubs the birthday cake
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was cool but this is better now last time around I was blown away by the
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massive improvements to image quality compared to my old 1080p LCD that were
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made possible by the switch to OLED pixels and four times as many of them at
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that but have we reached the point of
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diminishing returns or is the 2016
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Flagship another Quantum Leap Forward thanks to the industry's next big
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buzzword HDR let's
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discuss Corsair boasts unrivaled comfort
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and Universal compatibility on its void surround headset featuring a genuine
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Dolby 7.1 headphone USB adapter check
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out the link in the video description to learn more the G6 as I'll be calling it
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for the rest of the review cuz it's fly is gorgeous in ways that I've always
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been able to appreciate like the way the organic light emitting diodes the oleds
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are so close to the surface of their glass backing that they almost seem to
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be floating there dramatically improving resistance to glare and viewing angles
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to new ways I mean it's funny how your
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perspective changes over time there was a point in my life not long ago mind you
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that a display a monitor or a TV was all
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about the panel it could be in a cardboard box housing for all I cared as
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long as the image quality was the best that I could get for as few dollars as
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possible and yet now that I'm older I
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find it a easier to appreciate the value of a
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beautifully designed enclosure for my TV because I view it as a piece of
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furniture as much as a window to my Netflix fix and B easier to justify the
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price increase that comes with better industrial design because of how much
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the pieces surrounding it managed to cost without having a TV inside them and
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people judge you if your stuff sucks being an adult is kind of a bummer
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unless you have the sexy toys on the block though right the first thing I was
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blown away by with the G6 was its thinness feels like we're saying this
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every year doesn't it but this time it's different the protective piece of
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cardboard in the box is almost the same
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thickness as the entire display assembly
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at least that is until you get down to the somewhat blocky integrated Soundbar
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power supply and video input box stand
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thing at the bottom I mean let's face it putting all that stuff down there then
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calling your display 2.57 mm thick is a
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bit of a hack isn't it though this does
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raise the question do I care if they hack whether it's Samsung's one connect
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or LG's bulky power input base everyone
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is pulling stuff out of the TV now because it no longer physically fits in
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order for them to hit new thinness targets but I just don't
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care but if I don't care about that and
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likely neither do you did I care about
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the rest of it being thinner in the first place what kind of TV could they
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make if they didn't stress out about that I'll probably never know so I'll
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just have to live with LG's approach which isn't terrible since they did a
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lot of things right including using
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their hack to have the integrated Harmon Cardon co-branded speaker bar fired
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directly at The Listener instead of downward the next thing they did right
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is the image quality I still lack an HDR
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capable pattern generator to measure this stuff exactly so for now all I can
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really do is put it in the words of my wife with whom I did blind AB testing
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between an SDR and an HDR master of
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Sony's camping demo clip my first instinct is this one looks better
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referring to the HDR one it feels like I can see more detail even though the
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scene seems darker the colors look almost more vibrant and that's HDR in a
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nutshell it took me a while to wrap my
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brain around this but it doesn't manifest so much as a difference in
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color as it does as a difference in
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contrast that makes a dark scene with bright lights for example look less
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washed out because it's not trying to cram everything into this narrower
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contrast and color space it's more about
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how it feels more natural and more true
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to what it would be like if you were if you were sitting there though taking
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advantage of this requires that the content is mastered in HDR at all then
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beyond that that it's mastered in HDR in a way that you the viewer will find
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pleasing I was really struggling with my
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comparison between my old set and the new one watching Marco Polo on Netflix
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colors Skies landscapes skin tones were
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all clearly better on the G6 but I had
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to crank the OLED brightness even in the bright HDR preset to make out any
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details in the shadows at all well I don't know if it was the G6 firmware
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update or the Netflix app update but instead of just saying HDR in the top
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Corner partway through my time with the TV it's started telling me if it was
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hdr10 or the competing Dolby Vision
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standard the G 6 supports both and the
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Netflix app doesn't allow you to manually choose so watching hdr10 only
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content like LG's chess demo side by
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side the superiority of the newer display is obvious in the reflections
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off the king's armor and the glistening off all this Chinese stuff which means
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then that I just don't seem to like the Dolby Vision master of Marco Polo as
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much as the HDR 101 that was the problem
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thankfully unlike most manufacturers LG at least supports both of those
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standards but I would like to see them take it one step further and allow me to
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set a preferred one and or switch between them at will because other than
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that the thing looks amazing which
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doesn't mean that they didn't do anything wrong the first one is a
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relatively minor one but what the actual F moment for sure the power cord is
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permanently attached I mean I guess
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anyone who can afford an $8,000 TV can also afford a $5 extension cord but come
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on and the second one is much bigger LG
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and other TV makers too need to wake up
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to gaming there simply isn't any excuse
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anymore I don't expect anyone to give a
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rat's ass about the half dozen people other than me that are running gaming
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PCs in their living rooms but in 3 years since it launched the PlayStation 4 has
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sold over 40 million consoles stop IGN
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ignoring this maybe if everyone complains they'll deal with it next year
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that's apparently why the curve screen is gone by the way and the G6 follows
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directly in the footsteps of its predecessor astonishing image quality to
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the point where anything else just kind of looks me but if it appears that a
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conscious decision has been made by LG to say screw it to input leg in favor of
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concentrating almost entirely on image quality then it's because that's exactly
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what happened even in game mode it's slow so the bottom line then is the G6
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is a fascinating product the onboard processor is tangibly faster that same
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air mouse Magic Remote interface that I really like is still here LG's software
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isn't Android TV but it has a Plex app and a Netflix app which is pretty much
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all that I really need and while OLED burning continues to be a concern to the
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point where LG's interface even has an image quality restore routine that takes
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an hour to run my year old panel with adequate care continues to behave well
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which leaves us with the bottom line would I pay $8,000 for this TV
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no the law of diminishing returns hits pretty hard once you've crossed over
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into OLED territory at all but would I
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say it's the best viewing experience I've ever had if you simply don't care
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about money and you're willing to compromise on gaming then yes yes I
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would which isn't to say that you always have to Fork out a ton of money to get
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this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link
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to where to buy the stuff we featured at Amazon in the video description I think
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if you buy this TV I'll get like
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$300 as a commission that's insane anyway also linked in the video
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stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button in the top right corner to check out our
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