Current state of OLEDS vs Plasma

Soldato
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So what the current state?
I've been hanging on to my Panasonic GT50 for a number of years now. If you asked this question about a year ago some predicted OLEDS would take 3-4 years before they caught up with the blacks you get from plasmas.

Anyone with first hand experience going from a decent plasma to an OLED? Worth the plunge now?
 
We have had our Panasonic GT50 for a few years now and I still see very little to change it for. the two OLED's I have recently seen (both LG) were nice but the cost didn't seem to be worth it over what they offered over the Plasma we already enjoy.

IIRC LG will have a fab plant up and running in Korea in a couple of years which will be producing OLED panels. I can only imagine by then the technology will have matured somewhat and prices will be driven down. Also who knows 4k might actually be meaningful by then....?
 
OLED has its own problems at the moment, tints , darker edges and banding

i dont think it will take that long to perfect and prices to come down.
 
Can't see me changing my plasma until 4k and OLED are worthwhile. See no reason for change, that and I only use it for movies at the moment.
 
OLED has overtaken even the top end plasmas (ZT65) within the past year.

What you need to look at is in comparison to OLED:

How good is your current tv?

How big is your current tv?

If you have for instance a 50" GT50 (which is what I have) then your looking at minimum 60" but most likely 65" and prices for those atm are insane. The fact I paid £799 for my tv means I'm looking to pay around £1K for a 60-65" OLED before I upgrade. So I won't be upgrading for another 3-8 years. Doesn't bother me though my 50" GT50 is a beast of a tv and I don't think spending £2K atm is going to be worth it for the slight improvement.

I went from a 42" PZ85B to a 50" GT50 and albeit it was around 5 generations newer the actual PQ improvement was minimal on blu rays. It was on higher refresh rate content you noticed the larger improvements.

When you buy a premium panel that has been reviewed very highly upgrades are extremely hard to find most will be a sideways move rather than a true upgrade. That's why Kuro owners even today still haven't upgraded.

IMO it's still not worth buying an OLED if you own a premium end plasma. If you don't own a decent plasma then you should look into buying an OLED panel. If your plasma is only 42" then yeah you could probably justify a 55-60" OLED panel due to the stark difference in size.
 
OLED has overtaken even the top end plasmas (ZT65) within the past year.

What you need to look at is in comparison to OLED:

How good is your current tv?

How big is your current tv?

If you have for instance a 50" GT50 (which is what I have) then your looking at minimum 60" but most likely 65" and prices for those atm are insane. The fact I paid £799 for my tv means I'm looking to pay around £1K for a 60-65" OLED before I upgrade. So I won't be upgrading for another 3-8 years. Doesn't bother me though my 50" GT50 is a beast of a tv and I don't think spending £2K atm is going to be worth it for the slight improvement.

I went from a 42" PZ85B to a 50" GT50 and albeit it was around 5 generations newer the actual PQ improvement was minimal on blu rays. It was on higher refresh rate content you noticed the larger improvements.

When you buy a premium panel that has been reviewed very highly upgrades are extremely hard to find most will be a sideways move rather than a true upgrade. That's why Kuro owners even today still haven't upgraded.

IMO it's still not worth buying an OLED if you own a premium end plasma. If you don't own a decent plasma then you should look into buying an OLED panel. If your plasma is only 42" then yeah you could probably justify a 55-60" OLED panel due to the stark difference in size.

Same tv 50"GT50
So essentially your saying that whilst OLED PQ has surpassed plasmas to notice any significant difference it's only worth getting if one is purchasing a larger screen.

Think I'll wait until they drop to the 1 - 1.2k range which will probably be a while.
 
I'm glad that my Kuro KRP-500A is still going strong after so many years. In fact, should it fail any time soon I'd probably get another one second hand rather than anything on the market at the moment.

This will of course change in a year or so once OLED matures, or I need a bigger screen :).
 
as the other have said it's probably not the best time to upgrade from a 50" GT50 unless you just really want a bigger slightly better TV. If you buy now then you'll probably want to upgrade again in a couple of years once the main issues have been resolved.

Was just in having a look at them today for upgrading my current 42pz80. I think I'd end up with a really nice upgrade but that's also jumping from 42" to 55". Still going to wait for CES to see if there's any more companies jumping on OLED.
 
Was hoping when I read this thread for more positive answers to go to OLED.... In a couple of months we plan to redo the lounge, and I'd planned to replace the TV as part of the build, not wanting build the old one in to the wall.
Currently it's a 50" Panasonic Plasma, about 5 years old and was only available through Curry's. Can't remember the model, base model, series before the final range I think.
It's 1080p, on BD's it's very nice picture....(I'd not swap it for an LED I've seen so far)
We use an external box for HD Terrestrial and EuroSat, as it's tuner is SD only...

So I think I would gain, if I went for a LG 55EF950V, bigger viewing area, but physically not much bigger as it has much slimmer bezel. Higher res, smart features, 3D (no bothered, just curious), should be better quality pictures, don't have any gaming connected to a TV.
Hopefully they will drop below 2K soon.
 
Hi all ,I'm new to this forum ,just thought i,d give you my thoughts on this,as a long term plasma owner Panny G20/30/50/60 and lastly the ZT65 ,i,m now the owner of a 55in LG 950 oled ,which is better than the ZT in every respect ,from picture quality to streaming /online services!
Right ,thats the good bit out of the way ,the bad bit is the fact that i,ve been through 3 960,and 2 950 oleds to find one that i found worth keeping !!
These sets have all had problems with handling near blacks /3D crosstalk /yellow banding ,it really is a panel lottery with them ,i was ready to give up if my last replacement had issues ,thankfully it has no yellow banding ,3D is fine (i wasn't a great believer in 3D but on these sets its outstanding),and the near black issue rears its ugly head very rarely .
If you get a good set then they are fantastic ,mine handles football etc much better than my Calibrated ZT ever did ,and i don't regret selling it at all !!
 
Same tv 50"GT50
So essentially your saying that whilst OLED PQ has surpassed plasmas to notice any significant difference it's only worth getting if one is purchasing a larger screen.

Think I'll wait until they drop to the 1 - 1.2k range which will probably be a while.

What I'm saying is the difference in PQ alone isn't enough for me to justify upgrading. The difference isn't as big as reviews make them out to be.

When I upgrade tv I usually like to have a big increase in PQ and size, otherwise what is the point?

So for me it would have to be minimum 60" OLED preferably 65". The 55" isn't even worth considering tbh if your current tv is 50", a 5" increase isn't enough to call it a proper upgrade IMO.

So I'm personally waiting for a 60-65" OLED to drop to £1K or below before upgrading and until then the GT50 will do. The fact is the GT50 is better than what 99% of other people have in their homes I've only met 1 person so far with a better tv than it and he spent 3 times what I did so he can have that title. I prefer to go for bang for buck rather than outright quality.

I am thinking about getting mine pro calibrated but I don't see how I could justify spending £300 which is more than a 1/3rd of what the tv cost so I'll probably avoid it and put that money towards the next tv.


Hi all ,I'm new to this forum ,just thought i,d give you my thoughts on this,as a long term plasma owner Panny G20/30/50/60 and lastly the ZT65 ,i,m now the owner of a 55in LG 950 oled ,which is better than the ZT in every respect ,from picture quality to streaming /online services!
Right ,thats the good bit out of the way ,the bad bit is the fact that i,ve been through 3 960,and 2 950 oleds to find one that i found worth keeping !!
These sets have all had problems with handling near blacks /3D crosstalk /yellow banding ,it really is a panel lottery with them ,i was ready to give up if my last replacement had issues ,thankfully it has no yellow banding ,3D is fine (i wasn't a great believer in 3D but on these sets its outstanding),and the near black issue rears its ugly head very rarely .
If you get a good set then they are fantastic ,mine handles football etc much better than my Calibrated ZT ever did ,and i don't regret selling it at all !!

what possesses you to upgrade your tv every year?

and i'm not surprised that someone who buys a tv every year is advocating to others to buy an OLED tbh I could have guessed that after the first line.
 
What I'm saying is the difference in PQ alone isn't enough for me to justify upgrading. The difference isn't as big as reviews make them out to be.

When I upgrade tv I usually like to have a big increase in PQ and size, otherwise what is the point?

So for me it would have to be minimum 60" OLED preferably 65". The 55" isn't even worth considering tbh if your current tv is 50", a 5" increase isn't enough to call it a proper upgrade IMO.

So I'm personally waiting for a 60-65" OLED to drop to £1K or below before upgrading and until then the GT50 will do. The fact is the GT50 is better than what 99% of other people have in their homes I've only met 1 person so far with a better tv than it and he spent 3 times what I did so he can have that title. I prefer to go for bang for buck rather than outright quality.

I am thinking about getting mine pro calibrated but I don't see how I could justify spending £300 which is more than a 1/3rd of what the tv cost so I'll probably avoid it and put that money towards the next tv.




what possesses you to upgrade your tv every year?

and i'm not surprised that someone who buys a tv every year is advocating to others to buy an OLED tbh I could have guessed that after the first line.
Who said I buy a TV every year ? And I,m not telling anybody to buy an OLED ,just stating my personal opinions .
Although I suppose the part where I said it took me 6 sets to get a decent OLED could be misread as go out and buy one !!
 
Panny plasma owners remind me of windows XP users, fight to the death before giving it up. Things have moved on, and before you hate I owned two of them. Time to upgrade lads, oled crushes them.
 
I used to have a Panasonic VT plasma and it was great at the time but the LG ef950 OLED destroys it in every way. it simply is the best picture quality available on the market today and i was very lucky to get a good one as its a panel lottery with these.
Mine is one of the most uniform ones iv seen. The 3D is incredable and the general picture is outstanding.
I had a 55 inch sony LED before this and i hadn't played with the 3D for years on that as it was rubbish but the 3D on the OLED providing you get a good one breaths new life into it and in the 10 days iv had this TV iv bought 5 3D blu rays just because of how good it is.

The black level is of course amazing and the best you can get.

The one downside is the fact that its a lottery with these and you might have to try 2/3 untill you get a good one.

Is it worth it at the moment? That depends on how much your willing to spend on a TV and if your willing to wait untill more 4K content is available.
 
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I am thinking about getting mine pro calibrated but I don't see how I could justify spending £300 which is more than a 1/3rd of what the tv cost so I'll probably avoid it and put that money towards the next tv.

You're probably not aware of it but the more they age the more the picture develops a red/green cast on most Panasonic Plasmas. Most people dont experience a lovely neutral picture. Let alone seeing all the shadow/white detail.

Same goes for most "the next new tv".

Personally I'd love to experience an RGB OLED set with a Lumagen.
 
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