(October 11, 2023) New York's Value Electronics recently hosted its annual 4K and 8K TV Shootout Evaluation events in Manhattan. 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 premium manufacturers were selected and 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 led by Caleb Denison (Master of Ceremonies, Editor at Large – Digital Trends) reviewed test patterns and content to vote on picture quality elements.
The 4K TV Shootout included six displays, with three MiniLED TVs lined situated on a top row and three OLED TVs on a bottom row. All the 4K TVs in the competition were sized at 65”, 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 could be compared to a reference display.
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, where 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 ten elements, and Samsung’s S95C and LG’s G3 each won or tied four of the ten elements. The best TV for out-of-the-box performance was awarded to Sony’s A95L OLED. The best MiniLED TV was Samsung’s QN95C.
For the 4K event, judged categories included 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 4 of 5 attributes judged. Samsung’s S95C QD OLED and LG’s G3 OLED 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 two-day event, 8K TVs were brought together for the experts to evaluate. Three 8K TVs in 75”/77” 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.
See the results images below for full details.
