Value Electronics, an independent audio/video retailer in Westchester County, N.Y., hosted its annual 4K TV Shootout Evaluation event on Saturday, September 30, 2023, and the 8K TV Shootout Evaluation Event on Sunday, October 1, 2023, in NYC. The latest flagship TVs were brought together side-by-side to compare all picture quality attributes, with the winner crowned “King of TV” for 4K TVs and 8K TVs.
Top performing TVs from the premium manufacturers are selected to compete in the annual TV Shootout event. They were professionally calibrated to their best potential by a team of four respected calibrators: DeWayne Davis, Jason Dustal, Cecil Meade, and John Reformato. An esteemed panel of judges reviewed test patterns and content to carefully vote on the elements of picture quality. Master of Ceremonies this year was industry expert Caleb Denison of Digital Trends.
This year, the 4K TV Shootout included six displays, with three MiniLED TVs lined up on the top row and three OLED TVs on the bottom row. All the 4K TVs in the competition were 65-inch screen size, including Samsung’s QN95C, Sharp’s XLED, Hisense’s U8K, Samsung’s S95C, Sony’s A95L, and LG’s G3. Two reference BVM-HX310 Professional Mastering Monitors were included in the event so each stack of displays can be compared next to the reference monitor.
Although not included in the determination of “King of TV,” a section to judge each TV’s performance out-of-the-box was added to the judging ballot. Each TV was put in its best preset picture mode without professional calibration. In this segment, Sony’s A95L OLED won or tied nine of the 10 elements, and Samsung’s S95C and LG’s G3 each won or tied four of the 10 elements.
The best TV for out-of-the-box performance was Sony’s A95L OLED. The best MiniLED TV was Samsung’s QN95C.
For the 4K event, the three main categories judged were Standard Dynamic Range (SDR content), High Dynamic Range HDR content) and Preference Judging to evaluate out-of-the-box performance without calibration. In SDR, the Sony A95L OLED was the winner, taking the lead in four of five attributes judged. Samsung’s S95C QD OLED and LG’s G3 OED both were close behind, with the S95C tying for Shadow Detail/Black Level and the LG G3 winning HD Resolution. The HDR segment also had Sony’s A95L in the lead, sweeping all attributes, with the OLEDs closely following. Due to its win in most categories judged and the average of all categories for both SDR and HDR, the Sony A95L OLED was crowned the “King of TV” for 2023. The “Best MiniLED TV” was awarded to Samsung’s QN95C.
On the second day of the 2-day event, 8K TVs were brought together for the experts to evaluate. Three 8K TVs in 75-inch/77-inch class were included in the competition: Samsung’s QN900C, Sony’s Z9K, and LG’s Z2. This time the ballot was split into two categories, SDR and HDR performance. In SDR, the LG Z2 won four of the five categories, securing the win in that category. For the HDR half of the 8K event, LG’s Z2 OLED again prevailed in four of the five attributes, leading to its win for best 8K HDR TV. Sony’s Z9K was the best 8K MiniLED and won native motion in both SDR and HDR as well as UHD Resolution and High APL.
The LG Z2 OLED was awarded “King of 8K TV” for 2023 due to its win of most categories in SDR and HDR, as well as the average of all attributes.
For more information visit www.valueelectronics.com.
