77" Oled or 100" projector?

[K0stas]

Hello everyone! The past few months, I have been trying to decide whether to go for a 77" OLED or a 100" projector for my home theater room and I would really appreciate your input on this matter.

 

To bring you up to date, I am repurposing a big room and part of it (approximately 4.5Wx3L meters) will be used as a home theater with a proper 5.1.4 Auro 3D sound system. I was lucky enough to find speakers that sounded perfect for me but when it was time to decide on my video solution things weren't as black and white as I thought they would be.

 

There were a lot of people telling me that nothing can beat the immersion of a huge screen and then there are those who just can't have enough of the OLED perfect picture. Since I couldn't get a definite answer, I managed to find a Hi-Fi store with a home theater room and arranged a demo. The experience was.... Incomplete to say the least... The projector used was an epson TW9400 (6050UB) which was perfect and the content was... drum-roll... a netflix Grey's anatomy type series in glorious 1080p full of non-action packed grey, and some time a little bit of colored scenes. When I asked for some 4K HDR content I was told that this is the most realistic demo since most people use streaming services instead of 100gb 4K movies, which unfortunately (or fortunately) is not the case for me. In simpler words, they probably didn't have any 4K material for a proper demo. My first impression was underwhelming due to the hype I was building up for the WOW factor of the 100"+ screens but I just didn't feel what other people on forums were describing. Don't get me wrong, the huge screen was nice so I don't know if the picture quality was what made me feel underwhelmed.

 

Then there is OLED. My parents own a 55" OLED so I was able to test it thoroughly and I was also able to demo a 77" OLED since a friend owned one. The picture is unparalleled and those colors, inky blacks and shadow details make my eyes happy! The problem is.... The size I won't even bother talking about the 55", anything more than 2 - 2.2 meters away from the screen greatly reduced the immersion and that's on the 77" OLED.

 

So, after spending countless hours online, watching reviews, looking for answers on home theater forums and even seeing both a projector and an OLED up close, I am still confused and indecisive about what to choose for my home theater. Which means back to square one...

 

I will be using my home theater mainly for movies, then cinematic series and gaming and I am looking for both an immersive experience but a decent picture too for the content I will be watching. My budget is around 4 grand so NO Linus, I know I should go for a micro-led but I do not have enough organs to buy it

 

Thank you in advance

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FloRolf]

I recently bough the 77" Oled to replace my old 60" edge lit Samsung panel and the blacks where the main reason (+ the size). I really like it but for everyday use it's sometimes a little dark. You have a HT room though which I'd guess is as dark as it can get so you get the most benefit out of Oled. 

If you are as stupid as me, you will probably be bothered by the not perfect blacks and halos on any other device, such as projectors. If you are more forgiving I would go for the projector and make sure to get a good screen (I think there are black ones that improve this situation) to get the best out of it. The added size will make up for slight imperfections. 

 

Now if you wanna game as well then that's a whole new story but as far as I can tell you only want to watch movies. 

[K0stas]

10 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

I recently bough the 77" Oled to replace my old 60" edge lit Samsung panel and the blacks where the main reason (+ the size). I really like it but for everyday use it's sometimes a little dark. You have a HT room though which I'd guess is as dark as it can get so you get the most benefit out of Oled. 

If you are as stupid as me, you will probably be bothered by the not perfect blacks and halos on any other device, such as projectors. If you are more forgiving I would go for the projector and make sure to get a good screen (I think there are black ones that improve this situation) to get the best out of it. The added size will make up for slight imperfections. 

 

Now if you wanna game as well then that's a whole new story but as far as I can tell you only want to watch movies. 

Thank you for your reply!

 

I should have mentioned the lighting conditions of the room. You guessed right, I can fully control the lighting from very bright to pitch black!

 

It's not just the perfect blacks but the shadow details too! I don't know how much detail I will be missing out with a projector in dark scenes. I calibrated a budget LED TV a couple of months ago using the OLED as reference and when a dark scene appeared (A city during the night) many areas looked black and blurry on the LED but when I compared it to the OLED I could see so much detail that it blew me away. They told me that a good projector has better contrast than even a mid range TV  but I still don't know how big the difference is against an OLED.

 

Unfortunately blooming throws me off. I even had big hopes for the 86" QNED series by LG but I watched a review today and even with all those extra zones the blooming was painful. I thought it was mostly a TV problem though. From what I heard, only non calibrated projectors have blooming, can someone confirm this?

 

I was only able to play with the 77" OLED for a bit, not properly test it the way I would like to, so I would really like to hear your long term experience with it immersion-wise. How far away is your seating position and after all this time, do you feel like the size of the TV makes blockbuster movies feel "small" or are you happy with it?

 

Gaming is not my top priority. Still, I have never played games on a home theater system before so this might change in the future but for now I will be watching mostly movies and concerts.

[tikker]

For me it's OLED hands down. The perfect blacks and stunning contrast in HDR beats everything for me. If I want to watch a movie on the big screen I'll go to the big screen. It'll depend a little bit on the room though. If it's for the family or some friends I'd stick with the OLED, but maybe once you start hitting like a dozen seats or so the projector might be a better fit.

[FloRolf]

12 hours ago, K0stas said:

I was only able to play with the 77" OLED for a bit, not properly test it the way I would like to, so I would really like to hear your long term experience with it immersion-wise. How far away is your seating position and after all this time, do you feel like the size of the TV makes blockbuster movies feel "small" or are you happy with it?

Well my "long term" has just been like 1.5 months

When I first installed it I was like "Yikes, this thing is huge!" but now it's more "How small was the old TV?" 

I am at 3,3m (10.8ft) distance, which is exactly according to science when it comes to mixed usage. For cinema you'd be looking at 8ft or 2,5m for a 77" screen. 

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship

 

Like I said, it really shrunk throughout the last few weeks haven't had many 4k movie nights unfortunately but the ones I had where amazing. Downside is 21:9 content (so most movies basically) becomes a lot smaller obviously. Maybe if you had an actual 100" 21:9 screen things would be different. 

 

If I had the chance to sit 1m closer to it when watching movies I would do it. 

 

[K0stas]

13 hours ago, tikker said:

For me it's OLED hands down. The perfect blacks and stunning contrast in HDR beats everything for me. If I want to watch a movie on the big screen I'll go to the big screen. It'll depend a little bit on the room though. If it's for the family or some friends I'd stick with the OLED, but maybe once you start hitting like a dozen seats or so the projector might be a better fit.

I am not planning a huge home theater like the ones enthusiasts build, it will be just one row with 2-3 max seats. I get what you are talking about, you have the awesome quality at home and you go to a cinema for the bigger screen which means you probably have better cinemas in your country than there are in mine... The last time I went to the cinema was about 2 years ago and that was when I decided I was never going to one again and I started saving money for a home theater system. The picture quality was dreadful and the "Atmos" sound was impressive only during the dolby demo. The worst part were some people who were talking during the entire film....  I just can't waste the experience of a good new movie by watching it in a cinema anymore... Then again I fear That watching it in a smaller screen or a projector with a lower picture quality would also ruin the experience. I just wish I could see how the 2 options would play out in the future and pick the one that I was happy with...

2 hours ago, FloRolf said:

Well my "long term" has just been like 1.5 months

When I first installed it I was like "Yikes, this thing is huge!" but now it's more "How small was the old TV?" 

I am at 3,3m (10.8ft) distance, which is exactly according to science when it comes to mixed usage. For cinema you'd be looking at 8ft or 2,5m for a 77" screen. 

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship

 

Like I said, it really shrunk throughout the last few weeks haven't had many 4k movie nights unfortunately but the ones I had where amazing. Downside is 21:9 content (so most movies basically) becomes a lot smaller obviously. Maybe if you had an actual 100" 21:9 screen things would be different. 

 

If I had the chance to sit 1m closer to it when watching movies I would do it. 

 

Well it's still better than my 1.5 hour experience

 

Based on the THX standard, for the best movie experience, the screen should cover 40 degrees of your vision. The 77" screen is about 1.7 meters long so that would translate to 2.33 meters distance. That means that you were spot on when you said you would sit 1m closer If you could. The problem is the 21:9 aspect ratio... From my calculations this aspect ratio reduces the TV size by 10 inches. For example watching a 21:9 movie on a 65" TV would feel the same as a 16:9 movie on a 55" TV immersion-wise. This is why you feel like this when you are watching movies. You are already seating 1m farther away than the THX standard for best immersion and you are watching content that fits in a 67" TV which changes the optimal seating distance to 2m!

 

Personally I don't mind sitting closer to the TV to get a more immersive experience, for example when I am watching a movie on my parents TV I seat around 1.7m away, but the placement of the sound system becomes a problem. You can't seat too close to a speaker and expect a good sound experience and ~2 meters away is just pushing it (that's based on my research, I will have to test it when my sound system arrives). The 83" OLED would be perfect for me but it costs 6 grand too so unless there is a crazy black Friday discount it's out of the question...

 

 

[SolarNova]

Quality over quantity (or size in this case).

 

If need be, sit closer, or shake ur wallet harder and get the 83" C1

[tikker]

1 hour ago, K0stas said:

I am not planning a huge home theater like the ones enthusiasts build, it will be just one row with 2-3 max seats. I get what you are talking about, you have the awesome quality at home and you go to a cinema for the bigger screen which means you probably have better cinemas in your country than there are in mine... The last time I went to the cinema was about 2 years ago and that was when I decided I was never going to one again and I started saving money for a home theater system. The picture quality was dreadful and the "Atmos" sound was impressive only during the dolby demo. The worst part were some people who were talking during the entire film....  I just can't waste the experience of a good new movie by watching it in a cinema anymore... Then again I fear That watching it in a smaller screen or a projector with a lower picture quality would also ruin the experience. I just wish I could see how the 2 options would play out in the future and pick the one that I was happy with...

Honestly the cinema doesn't hold a candle to my "only" 55" C9 in terms of picture quality. It's just the scale experience of such a huge screen and huge audio setup. Talking during the movie is not done here and I hardly ever encounter people doing it.

 

Like @SolarNova I'd go with quality over quantity here as well. My pick is the 77" OLED.

 

1 hour ago, K0stas said:

Personally I don't mind sitting closer to the TV to get a more immersive experience, for example when I am watching a movie on my parents TV I seat around 1.7m away, but the placement of the sound system becomes a problem. You can't seat too close to a speaker and expect a good sound experience and ~2 meters away is just pushing it (that's based on my research, I will have to test it when my sound system arrives). The 83" OLED would be perfect for me but it costs 6 grand too so unless there is a crazy black Friday discount it's out of the question...

Eh, I have a 5.1.2 setup and my fronts are ~2.1 m away from the main listening position. Those are the furthest and not once have I felt I was sitting too close to the speakers.

[K0stas]

4 hours ago, SolarNova said:

Quality over quantity (or size in this case).

 

If need be, sit closer, or shake ur wallet harder and get the 83" C1

The problem with the 83" is the massive jump in price. A 55" costs 1400€, the 65" 2300€ and the 77" 3500€ which is an average of 100€ per extra inch. And then there is the 83" which costs 5400€ which is an extra 2 grand for 6 inches or about 320€ per extra inch. I can't really justify the price jump, especially when the bigger screens are more likely to have problems such as the dirty screen effect. If the price drops around 4 grand during black Fridayu then I will go for it but at the moment I would rather sit 30cm closer than pay that huge premium.

 

4 hours ago, tikker said:

Honestly the cinema doesn't hold a candle to my "only" 55" C9 in terms of picture quality. It's just the scale experience of such a huge screen and huge audio setup. Talking during the movie is not done here and I hardly ever encounter people doing it.

 

Like @SolarNova I'd go with quality over quantity here as well. My pick is the 77" OLED.

Yeah, I know what you mean! When my parents got their 55" OLED they actually got used to the perfect picture to the point that my father told me that it's just another TV and he didn't know if it was really worth its price. That was until we bought a smaller secondary LCD TV and put them side by side to calibrate it. My father actually thought the LCD was defective or the seller oversold its picture quality (for its price of course). I had to explain to him that OLEDs are just that good using a cheap car vs a Tesla analogy.

 

4 hours ago, tikker said:

Eh, I have a 5.1.2 setup and my fronts are ~2.1 m away from the main listening position. Those are the furthest and not once have I felt I was sitting too close to the speakers.

 

I am glad to hear that this is possible but that could not be the case for me since different speakers have different dispersion or different room requirements. Usually normal speakers for movies are more plug and play since their position around you is more important than their sound quality. I will be using proper Hi-Fi active speakers for the 5.1 surrounds because I am really into high resolution surround music and if creating a sweet spot for a stereo Hi-Fi system is challenging, adding 3 extra speakers will keep me busy for a couple of days.. If I am lucky and I can move the sweet spot close to the screen like you then everything will be fine, otherwise I will have to move the screen towards me which is not recommended...

[tikker]

2 hours ago, K0stas said:

I am glad to hear that this is possible but that could not be the case for me since different speakers have different dispersion or different room requirements. Usually normal speakers for movies are more plug and play since their position around you is more important than their sound quality. I will be using proper Hi-Fi active speakers for the 5.1 surrounds because I am really into high resolution surround music and if creating a sweet spot for a stereo Hi-Fi system is challenging, adding 3 extra speakers will keep me busy for a couple of days.. If I am lucky and I can move the sweet spot close to the screen like you then everything will be fine, otherwise I will have to move the screen towards me which is not recommended...

I'm using proper HiFi speakers. Dali Zensor 5 for the fronts, Dali Spektor Vokal for the center, Dali Spektor 1 for surrounds, Dali Alteco C1 for Dolby Atmos and an SVS SB1000 Pro for the sub. I've got them set up close to Dolby spec regarding angles w.r.t. to the main listening position (center of a small two-seater couch) and everything I said earlier holds for me. The sound field is pretty well filled and I don't feel too close to a speaker at the distances they are.

 

Of course it may get trickier regarding placement and such if you want massive towers for each speaker or something like that.

[K0stas]

6 hours ago, tikker said:

I'm using proper HiFi speakers. Dali Zensor 5 for the fronts, Dali Spektor Vokal for the center, Dali Spektor 1 for surrounds, Dali Alteco C1 for Dolby Atmos and an SVS SB1000 Pro for the sub. I've got them set up close to Dolby spec regarding angles w.r.t. to the main listening position (center of a small two-seater couch) and everything I said earlier holds for me. The sound field is pretty well filled and I don't feel too close to a speaker at the distances they are.

 

Of course it may get trickier regarding placement and such if you want massive towers for each speaker or something like that.

Oh, you have a proper home theater sound system, with front tower speakers and everything, nice! That's more reassuring then since my speaker setup will be similar to yours. If the result is similar too then seating closer to a 77" OLED might actually do the trick and save me the extra $$$ I would have to spend for a bigger screen!

[tikker]

5 hours ago, K0stas said:

Oh, you have a proper home theater sound system, with front tower speakers and everything, nice! That's more reassuring then since my speaker setup will be similar to yours. If the result is similar too then seating closer to a 77" OLED might actually do the trick and save me the extra $$$ I would have to spend for a bigger screen!

Yep, at least lockdown is good for something (not the wallet though...) The room and amount of stuff in it will always dictate how good you can get it of course (e.g. living room vs dedicated room), so it never hurts to start off with a nice stereo setup and go from there. Just don't make the mistake I did if you like matching speakers and buy them on end-of-production sale haha. Got a good discount on the Zensors, but they were discontinued shortly after so I couldn't match the rest without overpaying.

[e22big]

In the footstep of Linus Sebastian, you, my friend, need the Wall lol

[K0stas]

3 hours ago, tikker said:

Yep, at least lockdown is good for something (not the wallet though...) The room and amount of stuff in it will always dictate how good you can get it of course (e.g. living room vs dedicated room), so it never hurts to start off with a nice stereo setup and go from there. Just don't make the mistake I did if you like matching speakers and buy them on end-of-production sale haha. Got a good discount on the Zensors, but they were discontinued shortly after so I couldn't match the rest without overpaying.

Ha, I know what you mean, I just wish the pandemic waited for me to get my system first My speakers will be custom made by a really good speaker maker in my country and they will be perfectly matched, this is the only reason I went straight for a 5.1.4 system.

 

2 hours ago, e22big said:

In the footstep of Linus Sebastian, you, my friend, need the Wall lol

I might be in his footsteps but not in his wallet unfortunately   Watching him rehearsing excuses during the wan show to get the wife approval and justify his decision to buy the wall reminds me of me when I am trying to explain to my friends and relatives why I need a behemoth TV  and extra speakers over the surround speakers. He knows it's an over the top purchase,, he knows it's expensive beyond reason, he knows he will be buying a new technology which is on its first steps with all the problems that might come with it (something he is constantly advising us to avoid) but he still doesn't care, and neither would I If I could afford it Massive screen, Ultra blacks, brightness comparable to a small sun, no burn in and suddenly we lose our self control and become mindless consumers 

[CTR640]

77C1 all the way! I've seen it in a store and boy, that thing looks lit!