Best 55" Gaming TV for 1500€? (+Sound Bar)

[Viewtron]

Hi,

 

I am from germany and searching for a gaming TV. My budget is 1500€. Additionally I'm looking for a soundbar that would work well with that TV (is not in the budget Included). I hope you guys can help me out.

 

These are my preferred features for the TV:

- 55" with 4k

- 120hz or 144hz with VRR (I'm kinda really sensitive about input lag)

- HDR

- I'm not a fan of OLED burn-in and I'm worried because I will have long sessions of the same game (sometimes for a week or longer), so what are the other options I could go with for color accuracy? (I'm a designer, I won't be using this TV for work, but I still value accurate colors )

 

I've also got a questions about sound bars in general: Do they introduce any kind of addiontal lag? Is this irrelevenat because I can just connect the sound bar to the TV as a speaker and not route any video signal through it?

 

Thank you for your help, looking forward to your suggestions.

[jaslion]

I'd say skip soundbar and get yourself a nice sound system then for the tv. The Vizio m7 is a pretty darn great tv for the price. Next up would be the samsung QN90A.

 

 

[Stahlmann]

I'd go for the Samsung QN90A, or as a cheaper alternative the Hisense U8G if you have to fit in the soundbar.

 

But the best pick would still be the LG C1 OLED. I have been gaming for 2 years now on my C9 OLED and it doesn't have any signs of burn in yet.

[Viewtron]

7 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

I'd go for the Samsung QN90A, or as a cheaper alternative the Hisense U8G if you have to fit in the soundbar.

 

But the best pick would still be the LG C1 OLED. I have been gaming for 2 years now on my C9 OLED and it doesn't have any signs of burn in yet.

Did you play the same games over those two years, If I might ask? The thing is I will use this TV for a very long time and wouldn't buy another one anytime soon.

 

7 hours ago, jaslion said:

I'd say skip soundbar and get yourself a nice sound system then for the tv. The Vizio m7 is a pretty darn great tv for the price. Next up would be the samsung QN90A.

 

 

I might consider it, but I really like the easy setup of soundbars.

[jaslion]

9 hours ago, Viewtron said:

I might consider it, but I really like the easy setup of soundbars.

Soundsystem setup is equally easy. Either it hooks up over hdmi, LR audio out, 3.5mm audio out or spdif. All one cable solutions.

 

9 hours ago, Viewtron said:

 

 

But the best pick would still be the LG C1 OLED. I have been gaming for 2 years now on my C9 OLED and it doesn't have any signs of burn in yet.

Friend played god of war for 2 months basically exclusively for about 80 hours in total. The menu started burning in. His was the LG OLED65C16LA 2021 version. So a higher end one and well it sucked. He returned it after he played forza horizon 4 on it for a month pretty intensely and you could start to see the burn in on even non black wallpaper (since his custom ui colours are blue it burned in waaay quicker).

 

So yeah Oled whilst great is still a technology not fit for well static images of any kind.

[Stahlmann]

10 hours ago, Viewtron said:

Did you play the same games over those two years, If I might ask? The thing is I will use this TV for a very long time and wouldn't buy another one anytime soon.

I'm fairly "consistent" in what i play. Mostly RPG's and that sort of games. I'd not consider game HUD to be a big risk for OLEDs. Many games also support auto-hiding HUD, which makes games basically as "risky" as watching a movie. (So basically no problem at all)

 

Quote

I might consider it, but I really like the easy setup of soundbars.

After i bought my Samsung HW-Q80R i am completely sold on sound bars (at least higher-end ones). I'd bet it's as good as an equally expensive speaker system, but with a much quicker setup, internet connectivity (for spotify connect for example), bluetooth and great audio with a close to perfect neutral sound profile and a nice subwoofer. Sadly the HW-Q80R is not made anymore and the ones that followed weren't as good from what i read in reviews. So basically what i'm trying to say is that a good sound bar is by no means inferior to a speaker system.

 

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Soundsystem setup is equally easy. Either it hooks up over hdmi, LR audio out, 3.5mm audio out or spdif. All one cable solutions.

Well you still have to connect all your speakers to a receiver of some sort, so no, a sound system is a lot more work to setup. Depending on where you want to place your speakers you could also get into drilling holes in walls, etc.´..

 

Quote

 

Friend played god of war for 2 months basically exclusively for about 80 hours in total. The menu started burning in. His was the LG OLED65C16LA 2021 version. So a higher end one and well it sucked. He returned it after he played forza horizon 4 on it for a month pretty intensely and you could start to see the burn in on even non black wallpaper (since his custom ui colours are blue it burned in waaay quicker).

 

So yeah Oled whilst great is still a technology not fit for well static images of any kind.

I've almost exclusively played the Dark Souls games over the last few months, which also have static HUD. But even after about 500 hours of playtime still no signs of burn-in on my C9 OLED.

[jaslion]

4 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

Well you still have to connect all your speakers to a receiver of some sort, so no, a sound system is a lot more work to setup. Depending on where you want to place your speakers you could also get into drilling holes in walls, etc.´..

Guess you are lucky? I saw it and god of ware has very much so minimal ui layout everywhere so was kinda shocked you could sort of see it. Even worse with horizon 4 that was obvious even when you weren't looking for it.

 

4 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

 

I've almost exclusively played the Dark Souls games over the last few months, which also have static HUD. But even after about 500 hours of playtime still no signs of burn-in on my C9 OLED.

I considering a amp + 2 speakers and maybe a subwoofer very minimal setup. One speaker left of the tv one right and if a sub on the floor somewhere. Then connect to a audio out on the tv and done. 5-7 cables that need to be connected and setup is like 15 ish minutes?

[Stahlmann]

37 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Guess you are lucky? I saw it and god of ware has very much so minimal ui layout everywhere so was kinda shocked you could sort of see it. Even worse with horizon 4 that was obvious even when you weren't looking for it.

Did he turn off all the burn-in prevention features like pixel shifting, logo dimming (also dims HUD), etc.?

Did he crank the brightness all the way up?

 

(Tbf i played the Dark Souls games with W11's Auto-HDR feature enabled, so brightness is even higher than cranked SDR)

 

Unless he leaves the game running while going to sleep i don't understand how he would have so many issues regarding burn-in.

 

Quote

I considering a amp + 2 speakers and maybe a subwoofer very minimal setup. One speaker left of the tv one right and if a sub on the floor somewhere. Then connect to a audio out on the tv and done. 5-7 cables that need to be connected and setup is like 15 ish minutes?

Still, the soundbar needs 1 HDMI cable, and 2 power cables (1 for the subwoofer, 1 for the soundbar). The subwoofer connects wireless for most soundbars that come with one. That's it. I get that a sound system isn't too much work, but it's still more than a soundbar.

[Viewtron]

Well OLEDs burn-in (might not happen, but it still could) and vertical banding are not very convincing for my use cases. I think I'm the kind of person who would be worried all the time. I'll think I go with Samsung, my only concern here is the blacking out of the screen I've read about. There seems to be no fix for this other than getting a replacement unit.

A friend of mine has a speaker system and he had problems with the pc connection to his receiver all the time. But could be the brand. Thats why I'm tending towards a soundbar.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann said:

Did he turn off all the burn-in prevention features like pixel shifting, logo dimming (also dims HUD), etc.?

Turn brightness up and change the colours a bit. Nothing else was changed we looked into it too. He has in the meantime had a samsung qled but now is back on a different lg for a month and it's going ok so far.

 

2 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Still, the soundbar needs 1 HDMI cable, and 2 power cables (1 for the subwoofer, 1 for the soundbar). The subwoofer connects wireless for most soundbars that come with one. That's it. I get that a sound system isn't too much work, but it's still more than a soundbar.

Yup that is fair. Either way up to op. I generally dislike sound bars as when one part breaks it basically means it's for the bin whilst in a sound system you can change whatever you like.

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Viewtron said:

Well OLEDs burn-in (might not happen, but it still could) and vertical banding are not very convincing for my use cases. I think I'm the kind of person who would be worried all the time. I'll think I go with Samsung, my only concern here is the blacking out of the screen I've read about. There seems to be no fix for this other than getting a replacement unit.

A friend of mine has a speaker system and he had problems with the pc connection to his receiver all the time. But could be the brand. Thats why I'm tending towards a soundbar.

Probably a weird issue then as well a normal reciever is basically just a simple plug in a sound cable and boom there it goes kinda thing.

[Viewtron]

I think I'll wait for black friday next month and see if Samsung got their problem fixed.

 

Thank you both very much for your input and help.

[IPD]

I would go with a conventional LCD panel, and skip OLED altogether.  Color accuracy isn't really the issue for high-end LCD panels; it's blacks.  And personally, I can accept a "not quite black" over potential for burn-in (and experiences vary WIDELY in this vein, making me think it's a panel lottery).

 

As far as soundbar, get something that plugs in directly (RCA or 3.5mm).  I actually prefer 2.1 over a soundbar, but that's a preference thing.  Some high-end TV's may even allow the onboard speakers to function as a separate channel, rather than being overridden by the external output--but as to which can do that, you'd have to research.

[Viewtron]

8 hours ago, IPD said:

I would go with a conventional LCD panel, and skip OLED altogether.  Color accuracy isn't really the issue for high-end LCD panels; it's blacks.  And personally, I can accept a "not quite black" over potential for burn-in (and experiences vary WIDELY in this vein, making me think it's a panel lottery).

 

As far as soundbar, get something that plugs in directly (RCA or 3.5mm).  I actually prefer 2.1 over a soundbar, but that's a preference thing.  Some high-end TV's may even allow the onboard speakers to function as a separate channel, rather than being overridden by the external output--but as to which can do that, you'd have to research.

Today I was at shop and looked at the LG and Samsung TVs. QLEDs got a lot of dimming zones and the light bleeding wasn't really a noticeable issue for me. I think something with Mini LED is the way to go for my needs.

Thanks for the info about the soundbar, I will definitly look into that.

[Colty]

On 10/19/2021 at 8:35 PM, Viewtron said:

Today I was at shop and looked at the LG and Samsung TVs. QLEDs got a lot of dimming zones and the light bleeding wasn't really a noticeable issue for me. I think something with Mini LED is the way to go for my needs.

Thanks for the info about the soundbar, I will definitly look into that.

Mini LED, QLED, all of that... You can't really compare in a store to OLED. I was impressed with OLED at a store. I was impressed when I set it up at home. But I was blown away when I turned off all of the lights, closed the curtains, and dialed the settings in. QLED does not compare in that scenario.

Also, if you're at all sensitive to input lag, OLED is amazing. I've been using a 240Hz TN panel for PC gaming since 2018 and the OLED feels even better than that. 

Yes, burn in blah blah, RTings has a test on it. I don't abuse my LG CX, but I do play games with static HUDs. SpiderMan, COD, SoulsBorne, ect. No issues so far. The more recent models are a lot better about burn-in. It's not a new technology anymore, it's pretty safe to assume you'll get a number of years from it. And LG does have a panel burn-in warranty to ease your worry a little more. (And yes, that RTings page does have info on games with static HUDs being displayed non-stop, 24/7 for over 2 years)

As far as sound goes... Skip the soundbar. Find a used pair of floor standing speakers, a used sub, go buy a receiver with ARC/eARC, done. It will be better than a soundbar. 

EARC takes a signal from the TV, sends it to the receiver, and uses that for sound. You connect all of the devices to the TV, one HDMI cable goes from the TV to the receiver. Basically the reverse of what it used to be. 

[Viewtron]

15 hours ago, Colty said:

Mini LED, QLED, all of that... You can't really compare in a store to OLED. I was impressed with OLED at a store. I was impressed when I set it up at home. But I was blown away when I turned off all of the lights, closed the curtains, and dialed the settings in. QLED does not compare in that scenario.

Also, if you're at all sensitive to input lag, OLED is amazing. I've been using a 240Hz TN panel for PC gaming since 2018 and the OLED feels even better than that. 

Yes, burn in blah blah, RTings has a test on it. I don't abuse my LG CX, but I do play games with static HUDs. SpiderMan, COD, SoulsBorne, ect. No issues so far. The more recent models are a lot better about burn-in. It's not a new technology anymore, it's pretty safe to assume you'll get a number of years from it. And LG does have a panel burn-in warranty to ease your worry a little more. (And yes, that RTings page does have info on games with static HUDs being displayed non-stop, 24/7 for over 2 years)

As far as sound goes... Skip the soundbar. Find a used pair of floor standing speakers, a used sub, go buy a receiver with ARC/eARC, done. It will be better than a soundbar. 

EARC takes a signal from the TV, sends it to the receiver, and uses that for sound. You connect all of the devices to the TV, one HDMI cable goes from the TV to the receiver. Basically the reverse of what it used to be. 

I know what OLED looks like in the dark, I know it doesn't compare. I never turn off all the lights in my room when I'm watching TV or playing games because it strains my eyes, so I wouldn't strongly notice the difference anyway. Also it's not a matter of if the burn in will happen, but when. But I appriciate your feedback anyway.

I'll consider a sound system, but my current room doesn't have enough space for big speakers. It's good to hear that I can plug all of my devices in the TV instead of the receiver. What brands should I look for in terms of floor speakers?

[Colty]

53 minutes ago, Viewtron said:

I know what OLED looks like in the dark, I know it doesn't compare. I never turn off all the lights in my room when I'm watching TV or playing games because it strains my eyes, so I wouldn't strongly notice the difference anyway. Also it's not a matter of if the burn in will happen, but when. But I appriciate your feedback anyway.

I'll consider a sound system, but my current room doesn't have enough space for big speakers. It's good to hear that I can plug all of my devices in the TV instead of the receiver. What brands should I look for in terms of floor speakers?

That viewing experience strains my eyes as well, I have two "smart bulbs" for bias lighting which fixes the eye strain, but doesn't hinder the low light performance of the TV.

I know it's all about "when" for burn in. Five years? That'd be fine for most, two years? Not so much. Speaking of, the LG G1 models do have a five year panel warranty. And your local Best Buy would be happy to sell you a 5yr extended as well. I bought a 3yr extended+accidental warranty from MicroCenter on my CX. 

And you don't really need big floor speakers. A good sub and a good set of bookshelf speakers will outperform a similarly priced soundbar setup. It requires a bit more knowledge and effort, but a soundbar has never impressed me further than "that's good for simplicity and space." 

[jre84]

lol. i find it funny people saying they experience burn in on a oled tv......on youtube there is 1 video proving this out of the 3 billion visitors..short cool story go oled or go home bro

[IPD]

On 10/26/2021 at 4:51 PM, jre84 said:

lol. i find it funny people saying they experience burn in on a oled tv......on youtube there is 1 video proving this out of the 3 billion visitors..short cool story go oled or go home bro

Not when I'm spending that kind of money on it.  I'll gamble with your money, not mine.

[Colty]

1 hour ago, IPD said:

Not when I'm spending that kind of money on it.  I'll gamble with your money, not mine.

There's no "gamble." Either use the built in features to negate it, and/or get the G1 with the 5yr warranty, and/or get an extended warranty. 

This isn't panel lottery like LED/LCD backlight bleed, this is understanding the technology and working within that understanding or deciding to put extra money towards what is basically insurance on it. 

[IPD]

I will never buy a display thinking "if it goes 5 years without an issue, i'm fine with that".

 

I don't want dead pixels in 5 years, and I don't want burn in in 5 years.  I want at least a decade out of a display--without a hiccough.  The industry keeps "disappearing" all the aspect ratios and panel resolutions and panel curvatures that appeal to me--so it is quite literally "buy it now and hope it lasts", because offerings of equivalent or higher quality will not  be available in the future.

 

To me, OLED is just another dead-end technology that will eventually go the way of plasma TV's.  Too many inherent flaws to be overcame, and faster progress being made by competing technologies.  In fact, I'd wager than in 5 years or less, we're going to start seeing per-pixel lighting become as mainstream as RGB+W lights are becoming (or close to it...maybe 4 pixels per light).  And at that point, every advantage of OLED is virtually gone and every disadvantage of conventional LED is mitigated.

[Colty]

14 hours ago, IPD said:

I will never buy a display thinking "if it goes 5 years without an issue, i'm fine with that".

 

I don't want dead pixels in 5 years, and I don't want burn in in 5 years.  I want at least a decade out of a display--without a hiccough.  The industry keeps "disappearing" all the aspect ratios and panel resolutions and panel curvatures that appeal to me--so it is quite literally "buy it now and hope it lasts", because offerings of equivalent or higher quality will not  be available in the future.

 

To me, OLED is just another dead-end technology that will eventually go the way of plasma TV's.  Too many inherent flaws to be overcame, and faster progress being made by competing technologies.  In fact, I'd wager than in 5 years or less, we're going to start seeing per-pixel lighting become as mainstream as RGB+W lights are becoming (or close to it...maybe 4 pixels per light).  And at that point, every advantage of OLED is virtually gone and every disadvantage of conventional LED is mitigated.

You're not wrong about new tech coming, but we're still waiting for that.

As someone who was using 15+ year old plasmas until I got my OLED a year ago, I didn't have any issues and it would still be my go-to budget display. I think I've had 4 of my own, still have one, my dad still has 4 he uses. No issues. Two were bought new, two were bought used. He's also flipped a handful of the Pioneer Elite's which are still sought after. (And for good reason)

Yes, I took care of them, but since my main 55" plasma display was only $40, I didn't care too much about burn-in and never had an issue with it. (Well besides the heat output in the summer lol) Regardless though, that's a different subject. 

You can get something now (QLED or whatever) and wait for better tech later when everything is resolved. I got a microcenter plan to be extra safe (which you could also do on QLED), I can have any issue (including accidental damage), bring it in, get a gift card for my purchase price, and get a new OLED or a whatever individually lit pixel tech is out at that point.

And I'll admit, that was something I needed to have. I wasn't going to risk it, I too expect 15yrs out of a display based off of how long my plasmas and CRT's lasted. 

[IPD]

But what's the best case?  Warranty claim...only to find out that you cannot get the same thing as before, because it's out of production?

 

I mean, I've been looking for a 40"-50", 4k, curved, 16:9 panel for over 18 months....and they just aren't a thing anymore.  I'm pretty much set on the idea of 20" vertical on my monitor, and even if I were willing to turn a panel sideways, doing so would negate the purpose of the curve.

 

That's why longevity is primacy to me, and the YMMV nature of OLED and Plasma has made me steer clear.

 

---

 

Anyways, OP, I would just get some 2.1 speakers and a cheap pair of speaker stands to put them on.  Space constraints will never be so restrictive that I would ever recommend a soundbar over some good quality 2.1.