Home Theater Advice - 4K, Dolby Vision, HDR, Atmos & more...

Picked up a Samsung S90C yesterday and it's a corker.

Essentially last years flagship QD-OLED updated with new firmware and only a tad less bright than this years flagship (which apparently outside of running test patterns, in real world viewing, is hardly noticeable).

I'd been on the fence last year on the S95B, but dithered over Black Friday. The year, Richer Sounds had a ridiculous pre-BF deal on, which with a (free) RS VIP membership and a Samsung cashback offer took it down to £1400 for the 65" with a free Samsung Atmos soundbar worth £450.

I'd considered OLEDs when I got my last set 5 years ago but my living room can get very bright (as seen in this post) so got a Q9FN QLED instead.

The S90C is thankfully on par for brightness as the QLED (it's actually a tad lower when both are set to max, but the QLED was only used on full brightness on the odd occasion, so I should be fine).

The colour volume is something else though, it really is stunning. I've never seen colour gradient sweeps look so clean. 

We watched the Ocean episode of Planet Earth 3 last night and me jaw was wide open. Pin sharp, the most vibrant (but not overblown) colour, and thankfully really nice motion too.

Played a bit of Spiderman 2 and Tetris Effect and they both looked incredible. Not watched a film yet but that will be for tonight.

The only issue I am having is with eARC and the Xbox. It seems to think the TV doesn't support uncompressed 5.1 and using DD or Atmos adds audio lag. Apparently uncompressed 5.1 is deactivated on the set when using Game mode, and there seems to be some weird handshaking going on. Oddly though, if I leave it as Stereo uncompressed, and then switch my amp to a manual Surround mode, from a quick test of Forza it sounds like the sound is (accurately) coming from all around, so really not sure what is going on there. I could route through my amp but that doesn't support VRR, so would rather go straight to the TV.

Overall though a very satisfied customer, and £1400 for essentially last years flagship (upgraded) is a bargain. I've finally got an OLED bright enough for my room, and used the opportunity to jump up from 55 to 65" - I always slightly regretted not going that big the first time, but the price jump was 50%.

I had an LXD70 Viera for a while (over 15 years ago) as my main TV and loved it. When I upgraded I put it in the basement and a few years back a mate needed a TV so gave it to him. He was over the moon with it and it was still better than his old one which had broken.

Have fun with the C2

It's been an incredible TV - I've only upgraded as I stupidly rubbed off the anti-glare coating after thinking is was a mark/stain on the TV.

It'll be going upstairs and linked to some old retro consoles hopefully.

That’d be the living room, so general tv, sports, movies and gaming.
We’ll have a 55” Samsung Frame in the master bedroom, and I may throw a smaller QD-OLED in my office if I have the space.

Welcome to the future.

16 years is shocking!

Haha, my gf is the same. She's coming from some no-name 55" LCD that she picked up for cheap 10 years ago. She doesn't really care about all the tech and stuff, but she can appreciate the quality difference that the new toys bring.

When I was looking at the larger sized TVs at the weekend she piped up with "I don't think we should move away from OLED".

My wife has gone from a grumpy, proud "I can't see the difference" sort to complaining that our OLEDs have absolutely ruined other TVs for her.

I still see my LG CX as a good and necessary pandemic purchase, and gaming is glorious on it, but TV-wise, once I was done with showcase content, such as the BBC's wildlife documentaries in HLG HDR, disappointments have started to seep in.

A lot of Dolby Vision / HDR content has inherently poor contrast, due to creative decisions around colour grading, so I find the OLED contrast isn't put to good use outside of gaming. Still much better than standard HD non-HDR of course, and it entirely depends on the film or TV series, but not as good as it could be most of the time.

Then there's the fact that streaming providers are still charging a premium for 4K HDR content. Instead of it becoming the norm, prices are higher than ever. I can't justify a Netflix Premium sub anymore at £18/mth.

The CX also has a couple of issues... HDR colour banding, especially when coming out of black, and motion processing issues, which sometimes causes weird artifacts. Newer models may have solved these oddities, but the last thing I expected when I dropped £1.5k on a TV was its inability to display motion and gradients correctly. My old 1080p Toshiba didn't have these issues.

I'd be interested to hear other people's nitpicks on either the CX or newer LG OLEDS.

I've only had the TV a day so can't really comment but the only issue I've noticed is the tiniest pink tint on one side when displaying bright white screens. Knew this going in though so it's not a huge deal (or nasty surprise).

I only have Disney+ too which shows things in 4K at no extra cost if possible - can't complain.

I think the C9 (and previous years) run brighter than the X series and later. That was a major cause of the burn-in issues that they've spent a lot of effort to mitigate since.
It may mean that you increase the risk quite a bit if you turn it off.

I bought the same TV this time last year and still enjoying how good it is.

For showing it off with a good demo Dolby Vision HDR and dark scenes, try the start of Andor episode 1 where he's in the bar and walking around in the city. After a long time putting up with my previously top of the range but very old 1080p Bravia, I was gobsmacked when i watched that. 

Don't feel too bad - bought my first house five years ago and mine is a 48" as I also have limited space.

Looks absolutely cracking!

I also bought the service remote. Definitely worth it, but the auto-dimming is extremely badly implemented and shouldn't be an issue in the first place.