Current Events > What TV to buy? Heard QLED TVs don't have burn-in?

(+) Yeah! (+)

While burn-in hasn't really been much of a problem for me in nearly 20 years, I'd still rather avoid it at all costs, since I still remember just how bad the TV burn in was for a lot of stuff back in the day.

Will use the TV for pretty much just gaming and the occasional movie watching. Looking for Something fast and responsive to TV remote would be nice, my current sony tv has one of the slowest responses to TV remote ever, I'm literally right in front of the TV and it takes a second to turn off/turn on and switch AV channels (or I guess they're called HDMI channels now?)

QLEDs don't have burn in, but the backlighting zones can cause issues with blooming on game UIs. Need to go for the highest end with a lot of zones to minimize that

There's no perfect tech unless you have the money to hire someone to build the room for you, it's really a case of what compromise you want. That said, QLED and OLED TVs will all eventually experience image retention, although it'll be beyond the useful life of the product for normal usage. It's probably worse on OLEDs but QLEDs aren't immune.

The single biggest advantage of OLED imo has been the contrast ratio and the absence of blooming, which is really noticeable if you're in a darker room. Mini LED backlighting does dramatically improve things but it's still not as good as OLED.

With each main TV tech we consumers can buy you have to make some sacrifices. There is no perfect TV. (Although microleds is going to come close, but we regular folks can't get in on all this yet).

With LEDs (which is what QLEDs and miniLEDs is) their main things is longevity (for the non-cheap stuff anyway), and peak nits/brightness. No burn in.

With OLEDs their main thing is extremely good contrast and deep blacks (since the lights can just flat out be shut off for each individual pixel), viewing angles.

LEDs weaknesses is viewing angles and blooming (its when you see the lights come of the edges of something like subtitles or other bright objects displayed on the screen).

The higher budget modern LEDs today can achieve some deep blacks, but they can never be like.....straight up lights off black since LED TVs have a lighting system behind the panel.

OLEDs weaknesses is peak nits (modern OLEDs can get pretty bright, but they can never get as bright as the brightest of LEDs without causing harm to the screen), brightness limiting dimming system (again, they can't get too bright since that is harmful to the screen, so there is systems in place that controls the brightness for the entire screen when it is all one color. Think something like a all-white snowfield), and of course burn in. *Burn in is something that they have made a lot of strides in preventing, but it can never be gotten rid of. A OLED's screen is made of organic materials unlike a LED, which means they naturally degrade over time no matter what.*

The vast majority of TVs in the higher budget range is fast and snappy nowadays.

Now this is me personally, but after trying both a higher budget LED type TV and a OLED TV I preferred having a LED in the end. OLEDs are beautiful, but you can never quite get rid of that feeling of "maybe I should not idle on youtube too long. I better not fall asleep on this TV and display this image too long. Etc. Etc.". These TVs are very expensive, and while you have those who have learned to "not worry about it and just enjoy the TV", its still a lot of freaking money for a lot of us.

MiniLED TVs imo provide peace of mind, blacks that are still pretty damn black, and my favorite thing about them is that these suckers can get bright as hell. I'm talking playing a game at like 5 in the morning, you hit that HDR sunrise or sunset just right and the sun's rays is just straight blinding you but it feels so good type bright. I love it, and games like FF7 rebirth and last of us 2 is filled with so much of this type of HDR. You do have to deal with the TV's shortcomings like viewing angles and blooming, but if that isn't a problem then I can vouch for something like the samsung QN90B and it's yearly touch ups like the QN90D and QN90F.....TV is awesome and I don't see myself bothering with another until this one dies.

*This scene here that light was like ow my retinas but it was awesome.*
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c58fe770.jpg

How much time would something have to be static to create burn-in?

https://www.rtings.com/tv

Pick the highest rated one within your budget and be happy.

LG C5 is pretty good

sabin017 posted...

How much time would something have to be static to create burn-in?

There have been a lot of tests over the years trying to answer this and to be honest we just don't know. I've had burn in with non-oled displays after a few weeks, meanwhile I've seen tests done where years have gone by and no burn in happens.

What is the average price for a "good" tv these days? I know the price has decreased a lot, but like, is 300 dollars a crappy tv? Should I aim for like the 600+ range?

MorbidFaithless posted...

300 dollars a crappy tv?

300$ back then was mid tier. cant say for sure now if it qualifies as that.

when/if i do replace my current one, i'll spend slightly more (picture quality important over features).

MorbidFaithless posted...

What is the average price for a "good" tv these days? I know the price has decreased a lot, but like, is 300 dollars a crappy tv? Should I aim for like the 600+ range?

Yeah. Unfortunately the TVs around 300 is just going to be in that "glad it works" tier. HDR isn't going to matter for TVs in this range, and if you wanted features like VRR or 120hz capability via some HDMI 2.1 ports and hardware then you can forget it in this range (if these is put into a budget TV, then there is a extremely high chance its not going to work good at all/feel shoe-horned in).

*What TV manufacturers don't tell you is that HDR will literally do nothing and actually make your image worse if your TV does not have both the software (different TVs have different algorithms when it comes to stuff like what should be dimmed at the right time and whatnot) and hardware to do anything with it. A TV having HDR on it's box when it comes to budget black friday type TVs around 100 to 300 dollars or so is basically "this TV technically supports a HDR container and so we aren't lying. We can't be sued" type of thing.*

You can get a good TV just spending like 600 to 700 dollars. It depends on the specific model (not manufacturer. Like sony, samsung and LG all makes some pretty crappy TVs, so buying one just because one of the "big 3" is the manufacturer isn't the way to go) of TV though.

In north america TCL and hisense with vizio coming in a little behind tend to have the best "affordable" TV options compared to the major 3 guys sony, samsung and LG.

RTings (a great site to use to look up specific TV models) thinks that TCL made the best mid-range priced TV this year in the TCL QM7K.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl/qm7k

It is a miniLED TV (out of the different LED types, miniLED TVs are considered the best type of LED TV to have) who's 55 inch version is currently priced at 699.99.

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/tcl-55-class-qm7k-series-4k-uhd-hdr-qd-mini-led-smart-tv-with-google-tv-2025/J36QYTQTCP

Doing a quick look-over this TV would get you the basics of what you need for HDR to actually be noticeable on a LED TV. Good input lag, actually has some VRR support with some HDMI 2.1 inputs so you would be able to make use of 120hz for console or PC gaming, got a good bit of dimming zones, a algorithm that looks to be good for the money you pay, and real good contrast and dark levels.

If I had to limit myself to 700 dollars I would totally go for that TCL QM7K.

Wait for the QM7K to have a sale at $600 for the 55 inch.

The LG G5 is a dream, sparks of light look fucking amazing.

Thank you for the comprehensive reply! I really need to get a new tv and this should help.

Mad-Dogg posted...

*What TV manufacturers don't tell you is that HDR will literally do nothing and actually make your image worse if your TV does not have both the software (different TVs have different algorithms when it comes to stuff like what should be dimmed at the right time and whatnot) and hardware to do anything with it. A TV having HDR on it's box when it comes to budget black friday type TVs around 100 to 300 dollars or so is basically "this TV technically supports a HDR container and so we aren't lying. We can't be sued" type of thing.*

This should be emphasised. If the screen doesn't have some form of local dimming, HDR is basically worthless. "HDR Ready" basically just means the screen can recognise an HDR signal, it doesn't mean it can actually do anything with it.

I've found LG displays have the best looking colors

Ive had an LG OLED since the end of 2019 and Im still in awe of how great it looks

Just to clarify I didn't mention LCD TVs but that doesn't mean I don't want them, I don't want to limit my options, especially since LCD used to be the better option between plasma back in the day. I only singled out qled because I heard it doesn't have screen burn-in but if it does have it after all, then really that and the speed thing is the only stuff I care about, since HD is HD, and I don't care for any other features aka HDR/smart features etc.

The blooming effect could be a problem, if I understand what that is correctly. So let's say I watch that game of thrones longest night episode, does blooming make it so that episode becomes visible and like daylight? Does it light up all those blacks and dark lights?

Also money is of no object so that's not something holding me back either. It's more about accounting for space in the living room and deciding on hanging the TV vs placing on a stand, since modern 65+ TVs are way too big to be placed on a TV stand comfort wise and still fully enjoy, they need to be mounted unfortunately.

I personally went with a high end Samsung QLED (Q80). It was $500 cheaper than the comparable LG OLED (CX) back then.

kingdrake2 posted...

300$ back then was mid tier. cant say for sure now if it qualifies as that.

I'd say mid tier is at least double that price

saspa posted...

The blooming effect could be a problem, if I understand what that is correctly. So let's say I watch that game of thrones longest night episode, does blooming make it so that episode becomes visible and like daylight? Does it light up all those blacks and dark lights?

A good miniLED won't have nothing this drastic. (That is what a good backlight system and algorithm is for).

Blooming is something that happens when those backlights/dimming can't quite catch the finest details in a difference of contrast....this is one of the limitations of LED tech. Its commonly seen coming off of white subtitles in a completely black picture.

Even then, in most cases its not something that is going to be like, blatantly noticeable. Just like how OLEDs made some nice advancements in peak nits (brightness), LEDs actually had some pretty good strides in bloom control over the years. The higher budget stuff in the 1,300 dollars+ range is going to be damn good at it.