OLED TV vs Projector 2022 edition?

[Bmoney]

Building a home theater. 
With investment. 
What is everyone opinion as of today. 
So We are entering 8k we know there is really now benefit to the HUMAN at this point. Especially with home theater sizes. OLED are now being made 90". Most home theater are 100-120'
OLED Pros/Cons
Pros:
Cost,

8k,

HDR black levels
Simple mounting
Brightness
CONS:
Size limit
Less Movie theatre feel. 

Projector:
Pros:
Its a projector
Movie feel
No practical screen size limit
Can match OLED 
8K
HDR
Cons:
OLED quality is $$$ Projector and Screen $12K Similar OLED $6K

I can simulate a movie theatre with proper lighting, audio, seating, and snacks. 

Curious though what would you guys prefer?
JVC top projector is $22k. 
Mid Range about 10K

As much as a silver screen and projector is nice. #1 priority is image quality. Which I feel is OLED's win. 
Again Silver Screen feel does that something extra. 
(It will be a black out room)

I am 100% open to being wrong. 

[emosun]

Seeing as cost appears to not be an issue and your suspected goal of just replicating a large public building is actually a factor , I would say it doesn't really matter what you choose and that a projector would technically be the only solution in replicating an old school movie theater. But if you want image quality then use a tv.

not much else to say about it

[jaslion]

Keep in mind that for a normal distance home theather seating 8k is like not needed AT ALL. Beyond overkill.

 

I mean just look at linus his setup they got an amazing projector for 5k and it's super good. The projector screen also makes a big difference in black levels here.

 

Just like audio home theather stuff is easy to overspend for very little extra.

 

SInce you have a black out room get the projector linus got it's a true epic piece of equipment in it's branch. Don't worry about overspending.

 

If you really feel like it is needed those pure pure pure blacks get the oled.

[Kilrah]

Projector won't come anywhere near something like a QD-OLED TV.

Sure it can be convenient and can give  the "big screen" impression but if you take a TV and adjust your viewing distances to be appropriate you will get a way better picture quality.

 

The contrast ratios of projectors is pretty terrible, even assuming a completely dark room. Even if the contrast ratio spec looks impressive projector manufacturers typically list the contrast ratio of the actual imaging device... but not including the contribution of the optics that can very drastically reduce it. Same for resolution, I have a 1080p pojector but regardless of how well you try to focus it the pixels are never actually perfectly sharp.

[Bmoney]

3 hours ago, emosun said:

Seeing as cost appears to not be an issue and your suspected goal of just replicating a large public building is actually a factor , I would say it doesn't really matter what you choose and that a projector would technically be the only solution in replicating an old school movie theater. But if you want image quality then use a tv.

not much else to say about it

TV. 

Cost is a factor but more in the quality per $. I have trouble justifying a $6K price difference for marginal ticks in quality. 
Like buying a $50K tuner car that can smoke a Ferrari. 

[emosun]

2 minutes ago, Bmoney said:

Like buying a $50K tuner car that can smoke a Ferrari. 

Well one could argue buying a 50k car would still be considered not an amazing price/performance ratio either.

You're already way past whats considered a smart investment on the exponentially increasing scale.

[Bmoney]

3 hours ago, jaslion said:

Keep in mind that for a normal distance home theather seating 8k is like not needed AT ALL. Beyond overkill.

 

I mean just look at linus his setup they got an amazing projector for 5k and it's super good. The projector screen also makes a big difference in black levels here.

 

Just like audio home theather stuff is easy to overspend for very little extra.

 

SInce you have a black out room get the projector linus got it's a true epic piece of equipment in it's branch. Don't worry about overspending.

 

If you really feel like it is needed those pure pure pure blacks get the oled.

Agreed. On 8k. 

I missed that episode. That looks great! Priced fair.

Yeah the Pure Blacks its ugh. Stupid first world problems. 

[e22big]

5 hours ago, Bmoney said:

Building a home theater. 
With investment. 
What is everyone opinion as of today. 
So We are entering 8k we know there is really now benefit to the HUMAN at this point. Especially with home theater sizes. OLED are now being made 90". Most home theater are 100-120'
OLED Pros/Cons
Pros:
Cost,

8k,

HDR black levels
Simple mounting
Brightness
CONS:
Size limit
Less Movie theatre feel. 

Projector:
Pros:
Its a projector
Movie feel
No practical screen size limit
Can match OLED 
8K
HDR
Cons:
OLED quality is $$$ Projector and Screen $12K Similar OLED $6K

I can simulate a movie theatre with proper lighting, audio, seating, and snacks. 

Curious though what would you guys prefer?
JVC top projector is $22k. 
Mid Range about 10K

As much as a silver screen and projector is nice. #1 priority is image quality. Which I feel is OLED's win. 
Again Silver Screen feel does that something extra. 
(It will be a black out room)

I am 100% open to being wrong. 

My understanding is that projector image quality will be signifincantly worse than OLED but I am no where the expert in the field. Linus mentioned in his new home video that the projector he used, rely on several LCD filter so that it effecitvely have a local dimming - but this implying that it performs basically like a very big LCD otherwise, and should share the same issue and advantage (except for not having a black bar - maybe, but contrast ratio seems to be pretty much VA LCD level 3000:1)

 

Projector is also more tricky to set up, you need a completely black out room (even the wall needed to be painted black) to get the most out of your image quality. While with OLED, you just mount it and watch as with any TV.

 

But as already noticed, at the super large 100+ size, projector will be far more cost effective comapred to an OLED. I don't think it can compete in image quality and you need a completely black room (painted black even) for the optimum set up. The size and bright level could be a wow enough factor to consider a discount. Personally though, I would go with OLED at smaller size if it's just me or a couple of friend watching the movies, and image quality is my absolute top priority. 

[cmndr]

8K REALLY doesn't matter, nothing streams in it and blurays can be a bit of a hassle to get (Netflix DOES have a mail in service). Practically speaking 1080p is USUALLY crisp enough for movies and 4K is nice.

At some level - projector for size, TV for quality.

One advantage of a projector is that it allows for an acoustically transparent screen (this is a hit to image quality though) which enables you to use a decent tower speaker behind it as a center and possibly a subwoofer. Matching speakers is generally the way to go for HT. BUT you also have noise from the projector.

 

If you go with a TV, that isn't really an option and you're practically stuck with a center speaker either above or below the screen (and most centers suck).

 

 

Arguably the best image quality TV is the Q95b. It only goes to 65"
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/s95b-oled

Going bigger - OLED83C2PUA OLED83C1PUA and OLED83C2PUA would be 83" and reasonable choices. Going up one size higher means ~10x the cost.

 

I'd probably go for one of the larger OLEDs. It'll probably cost less overall and you can swap it out later.

[Stahlmann]

A projector won't come close to a good big-screen OLED from LG, be it in brightness or black levels. Sure, an OLED has a different feel and doesn't scream "theater" but is that really something bad if the experience is better than a normal theater?

 

Not to mention you need a projector screen and you'll have the hassle of mounting, noise and heat. And the room itself has significant impacts on a projector's image quality, which is the main reason Linus painted his home theater room in the darkest black he could find.

 

If you think 83" will be enough, then get an LG C2 OLED and call it a day. If you want to go bigger, the only choice you have is a projector. But i hardly see 83" being too small for ANY setup.

[jaslion]

7 hours ago, Bmoney said:

Agreed. On 8k. 

I missed that episode. That looks great! Priced fair.

Yeah the Pure Blacks its ugh. Stupid first world problems. 

In the end it comes down to you enjoyinf movies and I think the theather feel will end up being more important than all the technicall mumbo jumbo pure black bestest sound mega contrast stuff :p.

 

That and once you have whatever setup you choose STOP looking at new things or you will end up in a ever lasting upgrade cycle chasing the smallest upgrades (audio and visual stuff is notorious for this). Just enjoy your content and be happy not knowing the advances!

 

Speaking of content most stuff is still 1080p to this day so yeah dont worry about resolution

[Bmoney]

9 hours ago, jaslion said:

In the end it comes down to you enjoyinf movies and I think the theather feel will end up being more important than all the technicall mumbo jumbo pure black bestest sound mega contrast stuff :p.

 

That and once you have whatever setup you choose STOP looking at new things or you will end up in a ever lasting upgrade cycle chasing the smallest upgrades (audio and visual stuff is notorious for this). Just enjoy your content and be happy not knowing the advances!

 

Speaking of content most stuff is still 1080p to this day so yeah dont worry about resolution

Agree Tech FOMO is gross. 

I which the industry would back tighter standards. That make it easier to Measure. Like any discipline expert create 100s of metrics important to their field but not consumers so much. 

4k is minimum. I like future proofing as much as I can. And yes I know 8k is technically pointless especially in a 26x 21 room.
The reason I like going one step over on my tech is less stress on the components. 

I look buying used Enterprise gear because I know no matter what I personally do I can't stress them. 

[jaslion]

5 minutes ago, Bmoney said:

Agree Tech FOMO is gross. 

I which the industry would back tighter standards. That make it easier to Measure. Like any discipline expert create 100s of metrics important to their field but not consumers so much. 

4k is minimum. I like future proofing as much as I can. And yes I know 8k is technically pointless especially in a 26x 21 room.
The reason I like going one step over on my tech is less stress on the components. 

I look buying used Enterprise gear because I know no matter what I personally do I can't stress them. 

Resolution on a panel isn't stressing anything? Espeically 4k panels and projectors that tech has been nailed down for years. 8k is just coming up so if there is any tech that could have some early adopter issues it's that.

[ewitte]

On 5/29/2022 at 5:11 PM, Kilrah said:

Projector won't come anywhere near something like a QD-OLED TV.

Sure it can be convenient and can give  the "big screen" impression but if you take a TV and adjust your viewing distances to be appropriate you will get a way better picture quality.

 

He mentioned 90 inch we know it is not QD-OLED they max out at 65 right now.

[Colty]

88" LG Z9 - nothing else will compare at that screen size, but it's absurdly expensive. 

83" Sony A90J or LG G2 - Great at everything, not stupid expensive, but still $6-8k. 

[e22big]

On 5/30/2022 at 2:49 PM, Stahlmann said:

A projector won't come close to a good big-screen OLED from LG, be it in brightness or black levels. Sure, an OLED has a different feel and doesn't scream "theater" but is that really something bad if the experience is better than a normal theater?

 

Not to mention you need a projector screen and you'll have the hassle of mounting, noise and heat. And the room itself has significant impacts on a projector's image quality, which is the main reason Linus painted his home theater room in the darkest black he could find.

 

If you think 83" will be enough, then get an LG C2 OLED and call it a day. If you want to go bigger, the only choice you have is a projector. But i hardly see 83" being too small for ANY setup.

Eh, I am pretty sure a projector can beat OLED brightness easily, it's essentially an LCD after all

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, e22big said:

Eh, I am pretty sure a projector can beat OLED brightness easily, it's essentially an LCD after all

It could match the brightness, but the contrast will be terrible in comparison. That's the whole thing with OLED, you can have one pixel at 1000 nits and the next one at 0. For a projector to illuminate something at 1000 nit at the same size as a TV it'll have to be a 3500 lumen model, and... being bright and having the imperfections of a lens in the way it's never going to come any close in terms of contrast, something close to that bright point can't be dark.

[e22big]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

It could match the brightness, but the contrast will be terrible in comparison. That's the whole thing with OLED, you can have one pixel at 1000 nits and the next one at 0. For a projector to illuminate something at 1000 nit at the same size as a TV it'll have to be a 3500 lumen model, and... being bright and having the imperfections of a lens in the way it's never going to come any close in terms of contrast, something close to that bright point can't be dark.

Isn't that the same for any LCD though. To be fair, I am not that well worse in projectors, basically just saw Linus talking about the similar thing for his home

[Stahlmann]

13 minutes ago, e22big said:

Isn't that the same for any LCD though. To be fair, I am not that well worse in projectors, basically just saw Linus talking about the similar thing for his home

Projector black levels are even worse than LCD in my experience. You can also see it in LTT's newest video. I have no idea how they can say "impressive black levels" with a straight face while seeing this; it just looks washed out.

[Kilrah]

31 minutes ago, e22big said:

Isn't that the same for any LCD though. To be fair, I am not that well worse in projectors, basically just saw Linus talking about the similar thing for his home

LCD can at least have local dimming, projectors don't even have that.

[e22big]

4 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

LCD can at least have local dimming, projectors don't even have that.

Linus mentioned that his projector have local dimming by the virtune of having multiple laser projector on the same LCD layer. But like I said, not really know projector enough to say anything other than what listed on paper.

[Kilrah]

3 minutes ago, e22big said:

Linus mentioned that his projector have local dimming by the virtune of having multiple laser projector on the same LCD layer. But like I said, not really know projector enough to say anything other than what listed on paper.

Yeah maybe some top of the line models can start having that... haven't watched that video yet.

 

Also a lot of the contrast reduction comes from the optics design, not the display element. That actually causes manufacturers to "cheat" by quoting the "FOFO" contrast ratio i.e. the contrast ratio of the actual display element (usually a DMD) which is at values like 100'000:1, while TI (manufacturer of said display element) says that a good optics design will typically reduce that to about 2000:1 in practice...

 

https://www.ti.com/lit/an/dlpa068c/dlpa068c.pdf

[e22big]

13 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Projector black levels are even worse than LCD in my experience. You can also see it in LTT's newest video. I have no idea how they can say "impressive black levels" with a straight face while seeing this; it just looks washed out.

Well, camera don't always captured what your eyes saw, there's a video show a massive blooming on iPad mini-LED for example, turn out they just crank up ISO so that the blooming became more visible, it's pretty much invincible in a realistic use case.

 

So I dunno, It could be good enough in real life but projector is not my cup of tea, never find the picture quality impressive personally.

[Stahlmann]

2 hours ago, Kilrah said:

It could match the brightness, but the contrast will be terrible in comparison. That's the whole thing with OLED, you can have one pixel at 1000 nits and the next one at 0. For a projector to illuminate something at 1000 nit at the same size as a TV it'll have to be a 3500 lumen model, and... being bright and having the imperfections of a lens in the way it's never going to come any close in terms of contrast, something close to that bright point can't be dark.

I bet a 77" or 83" LG G2 would look a lot better in pretty much any way. It can do over 1000 nits, which is enough to deliver dazzling highlights. Especially when the rest of the screen is black, making your eyes adjust to the lower overall brightness level. That significantly boosts the perceived brightness and is the reason why OLED HDR looks so great - especially in a light controlled room - even though there are LCDs that can get over twice as bright.