I just can’t believe it has been 10 years since I bought my first high definition television which was the 40 inch Samsung LN-R408D. I remember buying it so that I could watch high definition movies in 720P and 1080P which were novelties and very hot topics back then. But more specifically I bought it because of the Xbox 360 console so I could play the new games in high definition. Ah oh boy I had some very good memories late nights back in 2007 and 2008 playing Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare on Xbox Live.
So a decade have gone by and now there is a new high definition coming to standard which is called 4K (2160p). So now that 4k is becoming mainstream I decided to keep the same tradition and upgrade my TV and console around the same time. More importantly August 2nd 2016 saw the release of the Xbox One S (an upgrade from the Xbox One released back in November 22 2013) which can output HDR and 4k from Netflix and via its 4K Blu-Ray disc drive.
So is the LG OLED55B6P worth it?
So I’ve been playing with this TV for almost 2 months and the answer to that question is a definitive YES but there is some issues. Here are the pros and cons of this TV:
Pros
1) The picture quality of this TV is second to none when watching 4K and even 1080p HDR content running at a high frame rate. The visual spectacle is a true work of art hence the eighth wonder of the world!
2) OLED TVs have an infinite contrast ratio because they can produce true black. That is because the pixels individually turn on and off unlike the LED technology which uses a backlit panel. This means that the colors pop more.
3) And speaking of colors my old TV from 2006 could output 16 million colors. The OLED55B6P can output more than a billion colors! This makes for a more rich viewing experience.
4) Adding to the vivid 16 billion colors this TV has something called High Dynamic Range (HDR) which produce even more details when the content was filmed or the game was created properly. Currently there are 2 HDRs battling for supremacy (similar to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray from a decade ago) called HDR-10 and Dolby Vision and this TV support both. Really good HDR mixed with a wide color gamut and 4K is very noticeable and is really the selling point here. Here’s a video from Linus Tech Tips to showcase this:
5) Playing Xbox One games on this TV brings tears of joy to my eyes. Even some Xbox 360 games looks good on this TV such as Ninja Gaiden 2, Dante’s Inferno and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. I can’t wait next year to see what the games from the Project Scorpio (the new more powerful gaming console from Microsoft) will look like running in native 4K and HDR!
6) The design of this TV is gorgeous compare to its siblings the E6, C6 and G6. That is just my personal preference because I don’t like the curve of the C6 and don’t need the speakers at the bottom of the G6 and E6. Why pay more for something you don’t need or like?
7) Watching Netflix movies and shows is good when True Motion is turn ON. Netfix movies looks way much better when watching on the Xbox One S compare to the Xbox 360.
8) Input lag was my main concern before buying this TV and I am happy to say that I did not notice anything significant or different while playing on Xbox Live.
Cons
1) Sometimes perfection can create problems. The motion on this TV is so good that watching low frame content or playing low frame games creates something that can be perceived as judder. For movies and TV shows this can be fixed by turning on True Motion but the movies will look like if you are watching a soap opera!
Update: Microsoft has released an update on December 4th on the Xbox One which greatly improve the judder issue when True Motion is off. Although not perfect it is still a great improvement!
Update: There is a user setting where I can increase and decrease the judder from 1 to 10. I set the user judder to 2 and got a cleaner motion without the soap opera look!!!!!
2) This TV does not have 3D capabilities compare to its other siblings. Now I am not worrying too much because the 3D craze was failure and a lot of new TVs are removing that feature. Nonetheless I would like to experience Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 3D in my living room. So why didn’t I just bought the E6? Because I like the look of the B6 better. As a matter of fact I was tempted to buy LG’s 2015 OLED model called the EF9600 which had the look I like and 3D but the 2016 models are more refined and supports both HDRs while the 2015 models only support HDR-10.
3) Watching regular DVDs on this TV does not look as good compared to a 720P TV.
4) Just like plasma televisions, this TV suffers from temporary image retention and possible image burn-in issues if a static image is left for too long. You really should not use it as a PC monitor!
5) Although 4K is the new thing, it is very hard to notice the differences between 4K and 1080p on a 55 inch screen. But on a 65 inch and above and if you are sitting close enough you will notice a slight difference. That slight difference is not as dramatic like a decade ago when I switched from 480i to 1080p.
Conclusion
Because I am mostly playing games, the image quality is outstanding, the 43 second input lag did not affect my online gaming experience and in my case I desperately needed a new TV because my 2006 Samsung was just not holding up anymore, I can say this TV was definitely worth it. But if you have a TV that is less than 5 years old and is still working fine I would recommend that you wait for the cons of the current OLEDs to be fixed. LG will release new OLED models in 2017 (W7, G7, E7, C7, B7) as well as Panasonic and Sony. If they are better you should go for any one of them but if not or if you don’t want to wait you can buy the LG OLED55B6P from Amazon from the link below.
Click Here To Buy The LG OLED55B6P From Amazon
