LG OLED55B7V price hikes everywhere??

MatsyLR · 6 Feb 2018 at 20:36

I got a C7 the other week, wanted the C7 for the stand and no silver border worth the extra like £50 over the B7 prices atm for me.

Overall its nice upgrade from my old plasma, only thing I've noticed is a yellow stain on the bottom of the screen on a pure white background, its very subtitle and faint and you can only see if you deliberately put a pure white background on and look for it.

Seems to be a common problem and not many exist (at least in the B7/C7 owners threads on other forums) that have a proper uniform screen, you either get banding, yellow stain on a random part of the screen or both, design flaws in the screens it seems. Luckily the one I have is only on the bottom and is completely covered by the black bars on movies and on anything that isn't just pure white is not visible. Also if I set the color temp to Warm2 which seems to be recommended its completely gone but I like Medium....

Still alittle miffed you spend so much on a TV and its not perfect, but what can ya do if you trade in your risk getting a worse one and you start a cycle of trading and trading in the hopes you stumble across a "perfect" one, then it develops a fault some time later and you cry.

Simmz · 6 Feb 2018 at 21:46

My first panel was missing the power chord and had a chip in it if it makes you feel any better. Waited weeks for it as well, then had to wait longer for a replacement due to no stock.

Cannot however see any banding or yellow stains like you are experiencing. Have you tried running the pixel refresher at all?

Beer_MonsterUK · 6 Feb 2018 at 22:41

I used the pixel refresher and it seems to have cured my vertical line of dead pixels (or perhaps coincidence), although I'm watching it like a hawk for signs of a return.

I'm loathed to return it as the screen seems pretty nice, no banding or obvious colour distortions.

jubei · 7 Feb 2018 at 09:02

Weren't these 1350 last year or was that an older model?

Simmz · 7 Feb 2018 at 09:14

jubei said:
Weren't these 1350 last year or was that an older model?

That was mainly black Friday deals. They were floating round £1500 most of the time after a drop from £1799, but seemed to have gone up again recently.

Entai · 9 Feb 2018 at 09:45

Not all LG's OLED's have had big price hikes, this one has had an enormous cut in price.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-an...o.uk/~Contextual Targeting~277673&awid=277673

Save yourself £12,000 in fact

Down from £20k to just £8k.

Bargain of the century, if not millennium.

Ok it's 77" not 55" so might not be everyone's cup of tea

Nexus18 · 9 Feb 2018 at 09:58

^^

I'm still happy with my new e7 for £1099

I think the best deal was people who got the 65e7 for £1500/1600!

Saying that, if you can get any of these 2017 OLED panels for £1400/1500 then they are still bargains, I was happy with my c7 for £1350 but I couldn't say no to getting an e7 from a better seller and for even cheaper than the c7! Absolutely fantastic TVs for their prices.

Ayahuasca · 9 Feb 2018 at 10:24

I paid £1700 for my B7, over 6 months ago now though and don't begrudge it, haven't been able to get a TV of this calibre since the Plasma days and if you take into account inflation they were more expensive without many of the inbuilt features and ability to run 120hz @ 1080p and what have you.

I might be slightly disappointed if this years models can do 4k @ 120hz as I'll feel like I've missed the boat slightly but it is what it is and you can't wait around year after year for rumoured features.

stoofa · 9 Feb 2018 at 10:47

Every time I've been close to actually pulling the trigger on OLED I've then read a story of problems or image retention and I've stopped.
I buy a TV to last me 5-6 years, usually as long as the warranty and I don't want that purchase to be a risk. If I'm putting £1k+ on something it has to do it's job.
I can go the LCD route and I know I'll have no problems with it for that period of time. The Sony's are proving to be very capable. On the other hand, I could get the LG and 2-3 years into my 5-6 year ownership I get image retention which will not be covered by any warranty.
We are close to the point where 2017 models will be going out of stock, so if I don't grab anything now I'll be waiting until September when the 2018 models take their first price drop.

It shouldn't be this difficult!

Nexus18 · 9 Feb 2018 at 11:23

Unless you plan on using a silly oled light setting of something like 60/70+ and watching news channels 5+ hours every day, permanent image retention i.e. burn in will not be a problem.

This is the only time I ever see people seeing they have burn in on their sets. Anyone using a sensible oled light setting as well as not watching problematic content haven't reported any sign of permanent image retention.

No doubt the risk is there, but apply some common sense and you shouldn't have any issues.

Ayahuasca said:
I paid £1700 for my B7, over 6 months ago now though and don't begrudge it, haven't been able to get a TV of this calibre since the Plasma days and if you take into account inflation they were more expensive without many of the inbuilt features and ability to run 120hz @ 1080p and what have you.

I might be slightly disappointed if this years models can do 4k @ 120hz as I'll feel like I've missed the boat slightly but it is what it is and you can't wait around year after year for rumoured features.

Personally I couldn't justify more than £1500 as I am a tight *******

Was really wanting to wait for adaptive sync TVs but that likely won't be until next year and then by the time those models drop to <£1500, it would be Q4 2019 or more likely 2020, couldn't be bothered waiting that long especially when I had been saving certain tv shows and films for an OLED set thus I had/have quite the back log now.

This years models can only do 4k @ 120HZ via USB/apps, not via HDMI etc. Probably won't get that until next years sets. Biggest improvement for this year is probably the much larger sub pixels which should increase the longevity of oled even further as well as making them even more resistant to burn in/image retention.

2018 models have some nice improvements but nothing ground breaking. 2019/2020 sets will be the year for the real improvements.

Ayahuasca · 9 Feb 2018 at 11:27

That's good to know, I'll probably be comfortable upgrading in 2020 but it depends how my current set is doing and whether I'll actually be playing games enough to warrant the 4k 120hz and adaptive sync.

JediFragger · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:04

Nexus18 said:
Unless you plan on using a silly oled light setting of something like 60/70+ and watching news channels 5+ hours every day, permanent image retention i.e. burn in will not be a problem.

Saw one guy with a B7 complaining he had some burn-in after 6/7 months, turned out he was running the OLED light at 90!!!!!!!!! :eek:

stoofa · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:14

There is obviously a reason why OLED brightness can go as high as it can. Are you sacrificing brightness to make sure you don't have a problem with the panel?
So for example, this guy has his brightness at 90, is that because he wanted it at 90? Because that gave him the best image quality?
And that by running it lower, so as to have no image retention issues, he isn't actually getting the best from the panel? Using to preserve panel rather than to give the best possible quality?

signs · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:20

£699 for a soundbar !! you could get a real Atmos setup for that

hornetstinger · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:27

signs said:
£699 for a soundbar !! you could get a real Atmos setup for that

LOL.

£700 just for a center speaker mate, or one pair of ceiling speakers.

Ayahuasca · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:35

stoofa said:
There is obviously a reason why OLED brightness can go as high as it can. Are you sacrificing brightness to make sure you don't have a problem with the panel?
So for example, this guy has his brightness at 90, is that because he wanted it at 90? Because that gave him the best image quality?
And that by running it lower, so as to have no image retention issues, he isn't actually getting the best from the panel? Using to preserve panel rather than to give the best possible quality?

Not really, LCD/LED screens brightness can go to 100, doesn't mean it provides the best image quality unless you're watching the set outside in sunlight, then the OLED light at 90 is a detriment to IQ nevermind the panel. I even find some scenes bright with the light at 30 so god knows what 90 looks like.

stoofa · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:42

Guy - hope nobody thought I was just "bashing OLED" or anything. I am genuinely in a position to make a purchase, my 5 year old Samsung 40" has reached "end of life" and I'm currently looking for a 55" to replace it with. Just worried that although OLED is "the best" that I might end up regretting the purchase if I have to compromise on image quality to preserve screen or I end up with something that is "damaged" before I've had it 5-6 years without any comeback.
Cheers for all the comments.

Nexus18 · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:42

JediFragger said:
Saw one guy with a B7 complaining he had some burn-in after 6/7 months, turned out he was running the OLED light at 90!!!!!!!!!

Think I saw that post (iirc, he also had the colour + contrast turned quite far up too) and he wonders why...... iirc, wasn't his usage mainly watching news channels too.... :rolleyes:

I don't know why people buy these TVs and do the likes of the above, just get a LCD if you are going to be that type of user.

I've also seen people who zoom in on anything with black bars.....

stoofa said:
There is obviously a reason why OLED brightness can go as high as it can. Are you sacrificing brightness to make sure you don't have a problem with the panel?
So for example, this guy has his brightness at 90, is that because he wanted it at 90? Because that gave him the best image quality?
And that by running it lower, so as to have no image retention issues, he isn't actually getting the best from the panel? Using to preserve panel rather than to give the best possible quality?

Just because you can put a slider up to 100% doesn't mean you should. If anything, turning the OLED light to ridiculous levels like that will do more harm to the IQ.

OLED light is very much a subjective thing and depends entirely on your setup with regards to lighting. If you are someone who watches TV during a bright sunny day i.e. big window with sun shining right in and you're not closing curtains (especially if watching dark content) then yes, you'll need to use a high OLED light, although still, even 90 seems over kill.

Bear in mind when calibrations are done, the recommended luminance is 120.

In my experience, I wouldn't go above 40 (for SDR) at most (and my room is pretty bright [big window that gets the sun for most of the day]). I even have my LCD monitor set to a rather low brightness setting i.e. luminance setting of 100 (which equates to 10% on the monitor OSD)

hornetstinger · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:49

There are settings for panels, use the right terms

Backlight - LCD. How bright the actual backlight is
Contrast - White level.
Brightness - Black level. Not to be confused with backlight.
Saturation - Colour
You also have HDR mode which exceeds your calibrated "normal" contrast setting

Even contrast is messed up term, because contrast ratio is not the same as contrast.

Nexus18 · 9 Feb 2018 at 12:53

Yup true that, for these OLED TVs, we should be referring to "brightness" as "OLED light", at least that is what LG call it in their menus, no idea what sony, panasonic etc. call their luminance/brightness setting.