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The 6 Best TVs For Watching Movies - Winter 2024 Reviews

Updated
Best Movie TVs

If you're looking for a new TV for your home theater setup, there are a few things that you should pay attention to to get the best movie-watching experience possible. When evaluating how good a TV is for watching movies, four main criteria are considered.

Contrast Ratio

The contrast ratio is the ratio between the luminance of the brightest white and darkest black that a TV can produce. A higher contrast ratio means that the TV can display deeper blacks, improving the overall picture quality, especially when watching content in dark rooms. If your TV has a low contrast ratio, blacks will look grey when viewed in a dark room, breaking immersion when watching movies in a dark, home theater setting. Furthermore, TVs with great contrast ratios are better at emphasizing bright highlights in HDR, which is why OLEDs, which have a near-infinite contrast ratio due to their perfect blacks, typically offer the best overall HDR impact even though their HDR brightness is comparatively lower than LED TVs. LED TVs with local dimming naturally have better contrast ratios than LED TVs that don't, as they can dim dark sections of the screen while separately boosting bright sections.

You can also read our in-depth article on contrast ratio and QLED vs OLED vs LED TVs.

HDR Peak Brightness

In recent years, one of the biggest advances in TV technology has been the development of High Dynamic Range (HDR) video formats. HDR enhances the picture quality in movies and shows by displaying a wider range of colors with brighter highlights than Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) content. Peak brightness is probably one of the most important aspects of HDR. This is where high-end TVs have the biggest advantage, as HDR content uses their higher brightness capabilities to show lifelike highlights. If a TV has limited HDR peak brightness, it can't properly display all the highlights the content is supposed to show. As stated earlier, having a high contrast ratio and a good local dimming feature is also important for delivering a good HDR experience because the TV can show bright and dark highlights without losing details.

If you'd like to know more, we have in-depth articles on HDR peak brightness and HDR vs SDR.

Image Processing

When looking at processing, three main factors are important: sharpness processing when upscaling a low-resolution signal, low-quality content smoothing, and HDR native gradient handling. A TV's upscaling and sharpness processing is especially important if you're watching low-resolution content from a physical player that doesn't have its own upscaling features, like a cable box or an older DVD player. Good upscaling will accurately scale lower resolutions to the higher-resolution pixel count of the screen, maintaining fine details and delivering a sharp, clear image with no noticeable defects. Poor upscaling and sharpness processing will do a bad job of translating this detail, rendering the image blurry or overly sharp.

Low-quality content smoothing looks at how well a TV can process an image to smooth out rough areas of the content and reduce banding and macro-blocking caused by a low-bitrate signal. Although many believe streaming services are generally high-quality, they usually aren't. Even if you have the highest tier available with your streaming platform, and even if it's still sending a 4k signal, streaming services use compression algorithms to reduce the amount of bandwidth used. This results in noticeable compression artifacts, like black blocks in near-black scenes. A TV with better low-quality content smoothing will smooth out these artifacts, resulting in a cleaner image overall while preserving fine details.

Finally, good gradient handling is important for producing fine details, particularly in scenes with many different shades of similar color, like in HDR. Since detailed color is meant to be one of the benefits of HDR video, the test results are important for people interested in that kind of media. You can easily notice poor gradient handling as it takes the form of bands of color in shades of similar color when, normally, these shades should blend in and transition from one another perfectly. Banding can be caused by a few reasons, like a low-bitrate signal or a low bit depth, but a TV's processing can also introduce banding.

You can check out our articles on upscaling sharpness processing and color gradients if you want to know more.

Color Accuracy

Having a color-accurate image matters when watching any content. Still, you'll only notice minor inaccuracies if you're a movie aficionado, as scenes that are supposed to be a certain tint might have a completely different one: blue-ish scenes looking green, or vice versa, is a common example. Problems with skin tone accuracy are another example. Most TVs have accurate enough colors out of the box that most people won't see any difference. If you care about accurate color reproduction, you'll want a TV with excellent out-of-the-box accuracy so you don't have to spend too much time calibrating it. Since most TVs have near-perfect accuracy after calibration, it's important to look at the pre-calibration results.

Look up our article on color accuracy for more information on this topic.

We've bought and tested more than 425 TVs, and below are our recommendations for the best 4k TVs for movies you can buy. See our picks for the best OLED TVsbest smart TVs, and best 4k TVs, or vote on which ones you want us to buy and test. To learn more about the upcoming 2024 models, check out our 2024 TV lineup page.


  1. Best TVĀ For Watching Movies

    The best TV for movies we've tested is the Sony A95L OLED. Its nearly infinite contrast ratio makes it a fantastic TV for watching movies in a dark room. This results in deep, inky blacks and bright highlights, with no distracting blooming around bright areas of the scene. Sony TVs are well respected for their accurate picture quality, and this TV is no exception. Its excellent processing capabilities deliver a true movie experience that respects the content creator's intent, with very little banding in areas of similar color.

    HDR movies look incredible on this TV thanks to its high peak brightness in HDR, near-infinite contrast ratio, and wide color gamut. Colors look vivid and lifelike, and bright specular highlights stand out. It also supports features like Dolby Vision and DTS:X audio, ensuring you get the best movie experience possible. It's compatible with Sony's BRAVIA CORE streaming service, which offers a wide selection of movies to stream at a much higher bit rate than most streaming services, ensuring your movies look the best they possibly can.

    See our review

  2. Best Bright Room TV For Watching Movies

    If you want a TV that looks amazing in dark and bright rooms, check out the Sony X93L/X93CL. It's an impressive TV for watching movies, and although it doesn't have the same deep, inky blacks as the Sony A95L OLED or LG C3 OLED, it still looks great in a dark room. There's some blooming around bright specular highlights in dark scenes, but it also gets extremely bright, so bright flashes of light in HDR stand out incredibly well, and content looks fantastic even in the brightest of rooms.

    Like the top pick, this Sony TV supports Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby and DTS advanced audio formats. HDR movies look incredible, thanks to the wide color gamut and high peak brightness. Plus, you get Sony's amazing image processing, so movies look fantastic whether they're from DVDs, Blu-rays, or streaming services. For those with deep pockets, the higher-end Sony X95L is the best LED TV on the market but is only available in an 85-inch size in North America. Plus, as amazing as it is, it's not worth the price increase over the X93L for most people.

    See our review

  3. Best Upper Mid-Range TV For Watching Movies

    If you like the deep, inky blacks that only an OLED can produce but find the Sony A95L OLED too expensive, the best upper mid-range TV for watching movies is the LG C3 OLED. Like the Sony OLED, it displays perfect blacks in dark rooms without blooming, offering a fantastic movie-watching experience. Even though the Sony has brighter and more vibrant colors than the LG and also has slightly better picture processing, the LG's very good HDR peak brightness is certainly enough to make smaller highlights stand out. The LG is a better value and is available in many more sizes than the Sony, but it's a step down when it comes purely to movie watching.

    The LG removes 24p judder from any source, which helps with the appearance of motion, and it can interpolate low-frame-rate content up to 120 fps. It supports Dolby Atmos audio passthrough and DTS audio formats, which many Blu-rays use. You could also opt for the very bright and sleek-looking LG G3 OLED. It's brighter than the C3 and even the A95L, although the Sony has better overall color vibrancy. The G3 is much more expensive than the C-Series LG but less so than the Sony OLED. Still, while it's a bit better than the Sony if you want a TV for other uses than just watching movies, the Sony has it beat for a pure home theatre setup.

    See our review

  4. Best Mid-Range TV For Watching Movies

    If you'd like an OLED but don't need four HDMI 2.1 ports or high HDR peak brightness while still wanting stellar image processing, the Sony A75L OLED is a great mid-range TV and can serve as an excellent entry point into the OLED market. The TV has all the features of the much more expensive Sony A95L OLED but is much dimmer and less vibrant due to it having a WOLED panel versus the QD-OLED in the more expensive model. The A75L still delivers outstanding picture quality, especially in a dark room, with its near-infinite contrast ratio delivering deep, inky blacks with no distracting blooming. The TV is available in a narrower range of sizes than the more expensive Sony A95L, with the only options being the 55-inch and 65-inch models.

    Still, this TV has a wide color gamut and is relatively accurate without any calibration, so movies look mostly like the content creator intended. It has Dolby Vision HDR, supports DTS advanced audio formats, and has very good image processing, making it a fantastic mid-range home theater OLED. If you're disappointed in this TV's narrow choice of sizes, consider the extremely similar but slightly more expensive Sony A80L/A80CL OLED, which also comes in a 77-inch and 83-inch model. It's built slightly better than the A75L but is otherwise almost identical. 

    See our review

  5. Best Lower Mid-Range TV For Watching Movies

    If you want high-end performance but don't want to spend high-end prices, or if you watch movies in mostly bright rooms, check out the Hisense U7K. It's cheaper than anything recommended up to this point but delivers picture quality that is almost as good as the Sony X93L/X93CL. It has a great Mini LED backlight, letting it simultaneously provide incredibly bright highlights and deep blacks, with barely any blooming around bright objects in dark scenes. HDR content looks great, and it supports both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+ for the best HDR experience possible, as well as advanced audio formats, like DTS:X over eARC, for the best sound when watching content on physical media. Even better, the U7K has very good image processing overall, making it a cheaper option for a home theatre setup than the more expensive models from LG and Sony.

    Unfortunately, its viewing angle is sub-par, making it a bad choice for a wide seating arrangement. It runs the Google TV interface, which is fast and easy to use, and it has a great selection of streaming features, so you're sure to find your favorite shows. It's available in four sizes: 55, 65, 75, and 85 inches. If you want a brighter TV, go for the higher-tier Hisense U8K. The U8K is incredibly bright but has the same features as the U7K.

    See our review

  6. Best Budget TVĀ For Watching Movies

    The best budget TV for watching movies we've tested is the Hisense U6/U6K. It's a great TV for the price, with excellent contrast resulting in deep blacks in a dark room, although there's noticeable blooming around bright objects due to the TV's functional but sub-par local dimming feature. It's also very good for watching movies in HDR, as it has a wide color gamut and decent color volume, so HDR content looks vivid and lifelike. It has just okay peak brightness in HDR, so bright highlights don't stand out as well as on more expensive TVs like the Hisense U7K, but it's good enough for a great dark or moderately lit room movie experience. Like the more expensive Hisense, this TV supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, although it doesn't support advanced DTS audio formats.

    Unfortunately, its image processing is significantly worse than on the U7K, so there's visible digital noise when watching low-bitrate content from streaming platforms. However, its upscaling is satisfactory, so low-resolution content is decently sharp, and the TV preserves fine details well. The built-in Google TV interface has a huge selection of apps and an easy-to-use interface, so you won't have to buy an external streaming box. The TV removes judder from most sources automatically, without the need for any additional motion settings. If you're a Costco member, consider getting the much cheaper Hisense A6/A65K. It doesn't get as bright as the U6K, and its contrast isn't as good due to the lack of a local dimming feature, but its feature set is very similar overall.

    See our review

Notable Mentions

  • Samsung S95C OLED: The Samsung S95C OLED delivers similar picture quality to the Sony A95L OLED when watching movies, and it's a bit cheaper. However, it doesn't support Dolby Vision or DTS audio formats, and the Sony TV has better processing, so it's much better overall for watching movies than the Samsung. See our review
  • Samsung S90C OLED: The Samsung S90C OLED is an amazing TV and is overall the best value OLED you can get. However, the Sony A95L OLED and LG C3 OLED are better for watching movies due to their advanced audio format support, Dolby Vision support, and better image processing, so they're better for a home theatre setup. See our review
  • TCL QM8/QM850G QLED: The TCL QM8/QM850G QLED is a fantastic TV for watching movies, as it looks great in a dark room while simultaneously being the brightest TV on this list. However, its accuracy pre-calibration is mediocre, so you'll have to spend time calibrating it or hire a calibrator to have your movies look their best. The TV also has significantly worse image processing than competing models. See our review
  • Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED: The Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED is an amazing TV. It's even brighter than the already bright Sony X93L/X93CL and has a slightly better viewing angle. However, the Sony TV has the edge when watching movies due to supporting Dolby Vision HDR and DTS audio formats and having better image processing. See our review
  • TCL Q6/Q650G QLED: The TCL Q6/Q650G QLED is a decent TV and competes with the Hisense U6/U6K. While the TCL is the better gaming TV, the Hisense is better for movies due to its local dimming feature, giving it much better contrast and the ability to emphasize highlights better than the TCL. See our review
  • Sony X90L/X90CL: The Sony X90L is a great TV that competes with the Hisense U7K and provides an impressive movie-watching experience. Bright highlights in HDR content pop more on the Sony due to its higher HDR peak brightness, and it has better upscaling, but the difference is marginal and isn't worth the extra cost for most people, so the Hisense U7K is a much better value. See our review

Recent Updates

  1. Feb 01, 2024: Confirmed that all picks are accurate and available to purchase, and updated text for clarity.

  2. Dec 05, 2023: We've expanded this article's introduction to give more information about which criteria to consider when shopping for a home theater TV. Plus, the Sony A75L OLED replaced the Hisense U8K as our 'Best Mid-Range TV For Watching Movies' pick due to being a bit better overall, and the newer Sony A95L OLED replaced the outgoing Sony A95K OLED as 'Best TV For Watching Movies'.

  3. Oct 20, 2023: Replaced the Hisense U8/U8H with the newer Hisense U8/U8K and the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED with the Hisense U6/U6K due to the TCL being unavailable.

  4. Aug 24, 2023: Replaced the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED with the Sony X93L/X93CL as the 'Best Bright Room TV for Watching Movies', added a few Notable Mentions, and refreshed the text for accuracy and consistency.

  5. Jun 28, 2023: Replaced the LG C2 OLED with the LG C3 OLED as the 'Best Mid-Range TV For Watching Movies', added the Samsung S90C OLED and LG G3 OLED to the Notable Mentions, and refreshed the text for accuracy and consistency.

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best TVs to watch movies for most people in each price range. We factor in the price (a cheaper TV wins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no TVs that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).

If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our TV reviews. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no TV is perfect, most TVs are great enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.