Best Over-Ear Headphones: Main Discussion
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- 2102-1
Yes, we do have many old TVs in our house, it is big. The oldest is from 2006, and is still working. I’m not even interested in OLED, it is a dead end throwaway technology in my opinion, yet my reddit feed is full of OLED post with dying pixels, burn in and delaminating panels.
Sounds like your mind is made up. I know everything I ever need to know is easily found on Reddit.
- 21010
It’s not a matter of issues not happening ever on a mini-led or any other TV, it’s a case of the frequency it happens, in a mini led or led TV it will MAYBE happen on OLED it WILL happen, brands go to crazy extents to delay it like pixel shifting, dimming, etc for a reason.
My simple recommendation to people is to buy what you can afford to throw away or buy insurance for it. Miniled or oled… it’s headed for the landfill someday. And the prices of these TVs today have become so cheap that it’s essentially financially irrelevant unless you’re talking about dropping big money on a large oled or massive miniled.
- 32120
I have always had LED TVs my entire life. They are all still working with zero dead pixels. Dying pixels and burn in are much more prevalent on OLED. To say otherwise is disingenuous.
Talk about disingenuous. You’ve always had led TVs your entire life and you apparently still have all of them and use all of them to make the claim that “they are all still working”? Either your sample size is very few in number or very short in years… or you just have a lot of old TVs sitting around your house.
I’ve seen no statistics on the longevity of lcd vs oled TVs over the past few years. Comparing 2025 oled against 2020 or prior oled is disingenuous, as oled tech has progressed considerably over the past several years. My anecdotal experience, equally relevant as yours, is that lcd TVs can and do have issues, same as oled.
- 10-11-1
C5, G5, Bravia 8II or the QM8K, no matter what you chose I think you’ll be happy, if you overthink it to much, you’ll always have to leave something on the table, with OLED you get picture quality but also burn-in risk and dead-pixels chance, it’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”, I recommend you do some diging on reddit, with a mini-led you lose a bit of color acuracy, worse viewing angles and higher power consuption but you get more brightness, cheaper price (if you know how to buy) and peace of mind on dead-pixels and burn-in. Either way, they’re all great TVs, something no one mentions and was one of the things that made me go TCL way was the bezell free panel and and backlit remote, two simple things but for me was what tipped the scale, I really love the design of the QM8K and having a backlit remote is a blessing. Also, I got an amazing deal on it.
You don’t think you can have pixels go bad or have a led burn out on mini led tvs? My in-laws just junked a Samsung mini led after ~4 years because one of the leds right in the middle of the screen burned out, leaving a large dark patch. Other family has had a mini led tv with an entire row of pixels turn green and stay that way. All TVs have their issues… it’s a matter of when, not if.
Honestly, I cannot think of two more irrelevant things than the semi-bezel-less design and backlit remote to select a tv. It’s shocking to me that is what got you to pick a Qm8k.
- 21010
This is also a concern for me and a turn off. Upscaling is important for me since i watched live sports and it seems very average on the tcl. I would go with hisense for that reason but their hdr accuracy is so off … So now i am thinking of spending more and go with the C5.
I spent some time comparing the c5, g5 and Bravia 8ii today. I must say that the c5 was really impressive, especially considering the value proposition. I noticed the brightness limiter on the Sony but not once on either the c5 or g5. Yes, the g5 was a bit brighter but useably so? Not for me. The reflection handling of the g5 was also better but that may not be important to you. Black level rise on the qd oleds is really overblown. Of the three TVs I liked the Sony’s reflection handling the best. It’s a very unique looking screen. It’s glossy with some properties of a matte screen… without being matte.
- 21010
Excuse me - how can Bravia 7 be better? - TCL has about 270,000 contrast versus 130,000 for Bravia 7 Blooming control is quite noticeably better for TCL (in rtings tests, there are very noticeable halos around white circles and squares) Pixel response is significantly better for TCL - there is less blur in video games Or maybe for me alone these parameters are the most important and defining? (they can’t be simply changed in the settings, but gamma/color can)
So the difference in contrast numbers are meaningless in terms of image quality at these high values. Blooming is only a minor issue off axis for the Bravia 7 and pretty much nonexistent for the Qm8k. Pixel response is better on the Sony. But none of this is to say the Qm8k is better. The Sony has better colors out of the box and overall has better motion handling and sdr/hdr upscaling. Out of the box the Sony just works and was enjoyable. I spent hours fiddling around with the tcl, ultimately getting my color calibrator out to try to get a good baseline. If I was to pick the tv I’d rather have for consuming the range of content I typically do I’d rather have the Sony… if it didn’t have pwm that causes me eye strain. Just my opinion.
- 21010
I’ve seen enough examples of dithering on the G5 that I would never ever think about getting one. It looks dreadful. Absolute no go, especially for that price. The Bravia 8ii has the same panel as the S95F, but for some reason they castrated the brightness in SDR and in game mode HDR. You need the SDR brightness in a bright room and the HDR brightness to make the highlights pop, not to cook your retinas with blinding fullscreen images. The S95F, on the other hand, has a matte display… What about the Z95B? Surely it has also something less than ideal.
I’ve seen the G4, C4 and C5 in person. At more than 3-5 feet away the horizontal dithering is invisible. Put your face at a foot from the screen and yeah, you can see it.
Sdr is mastered at 100 nits. I usually set my max sdr brightness to around 150-175. But I don’t position my tv anywhere that gets direct sun or has windows directly across from it. TVs with excellent reflection handling like the G5, B8ii, and s90f help a lot in this regard. Agreed oh hdr highlights. But let’s be realistic, how bright is too bright? I’m perfectly happy watching video mastered at 1000 or 1500 nits. 2000, 3000 or more nits is fine in a bright room but totally distracting in a dark room. Sadly Dolby Vision IQ seems to be broken on the QM8k.
- 21010
Im afraid I’m also over the QM8K. I’ve been researching and hoping a 75/85” QM8K would be the replacement to my 65QN90C since the 2024 QM8 came out. I was truly hoping the QM8K was going to be a big enough improvement over last years model but after everything (including price), the biggest takeaway was that it would need constant adjustments depending on content. I’m sure it’s still a good tv, but I wanted it to be as good or better than a Bravia 9. It’s really a shame there is no word on the QM9K!!! And I’ve emailed tcl direct as well as on the forums about the status. For now, the 77” Panasonic Z95B seems to be the best all around choice for almost every category. (Except of course the high price!) I just found out there is a new Sony XR8B coming out in 77” but it’s prob just a regular WOLED panel tech. Maybe is Sony had made a 77” Bravia 8mk2. IMO, for anyone wanting miniled 75”/85” the Bravia 7/9 are still the best bets (depending on cost) followed by 98”-100” the Hisense U75QG/U8Q. Again, just my opinions. And if anyone at TCL sees this, please release the QM9K!
I agree. I had a Bravia 7 that ended up going back because the pwm caused eye strain. But overall I’d say that is a better tv than the QM8k. The only thing that the Bravia 7 struggled with was the higher reflectivity of the screen. The Bravia 9 is a beautiful tv but it was never an option due to even worse pwm than the Bravia 7.
- 21010
G5 is only an option if you’re oblivious to dithering, and the Bravia 8ii is too dark in its most accurate mode. There is no TV on the market without its downsides. I’d say the QM8K is the best value, and if the Series X bug gets sorted out, I’m more than happy with it.
The G5 (and G4, C4, and C5 for that matter) don’t have issues with dithering unless you are sitting very close. The B8ii is plenty bright for me tbh. I don’t need my retinas cooked to enjoy watching tv.
But I do agree that all tvs have their downsides.
- 21010
I’ve watched my Qn90a for about 4 straight years. I turned the QM8k on calibrated it to my liking and could instantly tell the contrast was superior, brightness was insanely brighter(especially in small highlights), and the motion handling may not be better but is definitely not worse. On top of all that my 5.1.2 surround setup actually plays back music correctly through earc now. The Samsung QN90a constantly caused the system to lose connection and randomly certain speakers would have no sound. The blooming is also considerably better, especially in actual content. Text and menus are a different story but I’ll take that trade off. Since you spend so much money why don’t you go buy the G5 or S95F and stop trashing our little peasant tv that rtngs has sitting squarely in first place for all non-oled TVs.
I’m afraid the Qm8k will be going back and a G5 or Bravia 8ii (or a95l) are top candidates to replace it.
- 21010
Interesting to me that RTNGS gave this an 8.5 which beats out pretty much every other QLED they’ve reviewed recently. They should have asked you since you are such an expert.
Again, it’s all about how you prioritize performance and the content you watch… as the rtings team has said over and over again. Their score is not the be all end all.
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- 2102-1
I’m starting to hate this TV with the new firmware! My brightness resets to 89 when my TV is off for an extended period of time although I have dynamic brightness disabled, and I can now only have one brightness setting for all presets. First the 120hz bug, now this. It’s getting ridiculous. I’m really thinking about downgrading to the previous version via USB if I can find it from a trustworthy source (if this is even possible). I’m also beginning to doubt my decision to go with TCL.
Check the eye health menu and see if your ambient light sensor is turned on. When it is on my tv defaults to 89 as well (why they chose 89 I have no idea). I agree, the more I use this tv the more I’m disliking it. At this point I wouldn’t/couldn’t recommend it to anyone. Motion handling is poor at best and the amount of artifacts from any sort of smoothing or noise reduction is terrible.
- 2102-1
Or you can watch everything at 100% brightness like I do.
I don’t know how you could possibly watch either sdr or hdr content with a full screen brightness of 600+ nits and find it comfortable. This brightness can even cause temporary afterimages in some people (>1000 nits causes some afterimage effects for most).
I’ve also found that out of the box (with the brightness set so high) the colors of the Qm8k to be absolutely horrid. Blacks raised and highlights completely unsaturated.
If you like getting your eyeballs blasted with horrific colors by all means… but I wouldn’t suggest (or admit) such things to others.
- 21010
I want to buy this TV, but my only concern, based on reviews, is that the QM8K is poorly factory-calibrated, and its colour accuracy is not great. According to Rtings, the pre-calibration score for HDR is 6.5 and for SDR is 6.6, which are quite low, but the post-calibration scores are much better. What are your thoughts on this? Most people would not be able to afford professional calibration.
I was similarly concerned and I’ve been somewhat disappointed with sdr colors. It’s not so bad that skin tones are noticeably off but it clearly isn’t as accurate as my 8 year old Sony was out of the box. The bigger issue I’m having is that contrast and detail in the highlights seems quite poor in sdr. The thing is also so very bright and the ambient light sensor does not seem to work well at all. Whether full sun or two 100 watt lamp illumination the brightness auto adjusts to 89 which pumps out around 400 nits of full screen brightness (more with only a small area) and it’s way to bright to be comfortable. Unfortunately there’s no way to turn it down. If you switch inputs and switch back it goes back to 89.
Furthermore Dolby Vision IQ doesn’t seem to do much of anything either. Bright room, dark room… no adaptation of brightness at all (even though the ambient light sensor is locked to on with this setting).
Then there’s the diffraction effects on the screen. They are much worse than I thought they’d be. But mostly a problem only in dark scenes. Still, even a lamp across the room causes diffraction effects all the way across the screen (75”). Not impressive.
Idk why these manufacturers need to be making such bright tvs or why rtings scores brightness like they do. Who wants to sit and watch 400-600 nit sdr (or even brighter in the highlights)? Manufacturers should be implementing ways to control brightness better rather than just blasting your eyeballs. TCL hasn’t figured that out yet.
- 21010
I’m curious how you guys are measuring flicker on this tv. Seeing your flicker results and being a pwm sensitive person I thought this would be a good tv. Sadly that wasn’t the case. I measured a very strong flicker at 720 hz with a modulation depth between 60 and 80% depending on brightness, the brighter it was the worse it was.
My finding are that this tv will not work for a pwm sensitive person.
- 21010
V240 did they update again? Or did you mean v230?
Typo on my part. V230 is what I’m on.
I also discovered that in a totally dark room adaptive brightness drops the brightness down to 14. So it seems that the adaptive brightness is either 89 or 14 and nothing in between. I’m finding that 89 is way too bright to be viewed comfortably (I’m now dealing with eye strain issues from this tv) and for the time being I’ve disabled adaptive brightness (which is equally as disappointing). I’ll give them a month to get it figured out but it will otherwise be returned.
- 21010
I have Fios on hdmi1 and Apple TV on hdmi2. With sdr from the Fios box the tv defaults to a brightness of 89, which is way too bright. I dial it back to 40, but after switching to the Apple TV and then back to the Fios box it has reset to a brightness of 89 and I have to go in and dial it back again.
Solved this issue by turning off the adaptive brightness setting in the eye health menu. Apparently it’s healthy to blast your eyeballs with bright light, and/or the adaptive brightness is broken on firmware v240. It goes to a brightness setting of 89 regardless if the room is bright with noontime sun or dim in the evening. It always goes to 89.
- 21010
I took delivery of a 75” QM8K on Friday and the last couple days of using has been a mixed bag.
I have Fios on hdmi1 and Apple TV on hdmi2. With sdr from the Fios box the tv defaults to a brightness of 89, which is way too bright. I dial it back to 40, but after switching to the Apple TV and then back to the Fios box it has reset to a brightness of 89 and I have to go in and dial it back again. Pretty frustrating that the brightness setting isn’t persistent.
Color accuracy is pretty mediocre and there doesn’t seem to be adaptive brightness other than in Dolby Vision (unlike my previous Sony)? The sound also seems to have a very narrow range where it goes from too quite to very loud 35-45. Some content from the Apple TV actually sounds quite nice, better than any other tv I’ve heard. But the sound from Fios typically sounds pretty terrible. The bass is all over the place, vocal get muddled with too much bass, plus the “subwoofers” distort frequently and have odd resonances (which may be perceived by some as a rattle coming from the housing).
The anti reflective diffraction effects are also much stronger than I was expecting. There’s a window to the side of my tv and on my previous Sony there was little to no black level rise or rainbow effect from the indirect light coming in through the window. There is clearly a rainbow effect from this display.
- 21010
8.5 build quality and yet “ After a few weeks of use, our unit developed a noticeable buzzing sound; it’s noticeable at any brightness setting. Other owners have reported the same issue online, and it seems to be worse on the 98" model.”
I had seen reports about unresolvable issues with the 98” models but now you’re reporting a buzzing sound on the 65” version. Please tell us more about it. High pitched or low pitched, continuous or intermittent. Was it loud enough to be heard at a sitting position, say 6’ away?
Given the reports on the 98” and your recent experience, it seems like people should be buying this tv with caution, and with a good return policy.