{"id":122974,"date":"2021-02-18T05:46:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T05:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techweekmag.com\/?p=122974"},"modified":"2024-02-24T15:43:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T15:43:40","slug":"lg-oled55e9-review-a-tv-that-thinks-and-learns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/tv\/lg-oled55e9-review-a-tv-that-thinks-and-learns\/","title":{"rendered":"LG OLED55E9 : A TV that thinks and learns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The situation needs to be clarified immediately.\u00a0Artificial intelligence, namely hardware and software with elements of machine learning, began to be installed in OLED TVs of the current ninth generation, to which our today’s hero of the article belongs.<\/p>\n

But the history of the development of mass-produced OLED TVs lasts longer than nine – it is already 12 years old!\u00a0By the standards of video and computer technology, this is a whole era, although many people think that such devices have appeared quite recently.\u00a0Over a similar period, other technologies usually go from the stage of somehow working prototypes to more or less showing serial devices, which, to put it mildly, have much more to develop.<\/p>\n

But OLED is different.\u00a0If today you look even at the very first models and even more so the devices that followed them, you will involuntarily come to the conclusion that they worked excellently from the beginning.\u00a0And, let’s be honest, they show great by modern standards.\u00a0This happened because the technology itself, with the thinnest panels in which the pixels themselves glow, was initially extremely successful.<\/p>\n

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The only problem is that it very quickly reached its limits.\u00a0The contrast almost immediately became infinite with absolute black color, there were no complaints about saturation either, but brightness … It is impossible to increase it head-on – the service life of the panel will suffer.\u00a0So in order to evolve visually, but to increase the brightness, LG has improved panel control, making TVs smarter.\u00a0And now she has endowed them with artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Thinks<\/h2>\n

It is not so easy to guess about its presence in LG OLED55E9.\u00a0Externally, the TV does not really stand out against the background of its predecessors.\u00a0It is not thinner, the frame around the perimeter of the screen is no less, only the position of the table stand has changed its position in comparison with the previous generation.\u00a0In general, the design has changed little, and this is good, because it is already so beautiful that it has been awarded a couple of prestigious awards.<\/p>\n

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The OLED panel is the same, thin, with no protective glass and no polarizing layer to create 3D images, because the demand for this feature has dropped to near zero.\u00a0But the control electronics have really changed.\u00a0A new processor is installed in 2019 TVs – Alfa 9 Gen 2. It is not much more powerful, but it is equipped with significantly more memory for using the same artificial intelligence, the essence of which is to use not a pair, but thousands of patterns for adaptive image and sound processing, which stored in the TV’s memory.<\/p>\n

The most noticeable change for the user is the control interface.\u00a0The new devices still use WebOS, but already version 4.5, in which the main page and the menu for connecting with other devices in the local network have undergone the greatest changes, through which you can now organize a kind of “smart home”.<\/p>\n

It was not possible to check its operation – in the network you need to have an equally smart refrigerator, climate and other household appliances from LG, and they are not very cheap, but given the willingness of LG TVs to work with Apple applications, the prospects are very interesting.\u00a0For example, using the Magic Remote as a microphone, you can turn on appliances around the house by voice, and check its status through the interface on the TV.\u00a0You can connect and much more – AirPlay 2 is natively supported.\u00a0In general, here the transition from a simple Smart TV to a higher intelligence is obvious.<\/p>\n

The transition to another level in the new devices is expressed in another connection – now they officially use HDMI 2.1 interfaces.\u00a0It was possible to check their advantages only partially.\u00a0The TV can handle 12-bit 4K video from a player with full Dolby Vision support without any problems.\u00a0Can display 10-bit 4K video at up to 120Hz.<\/p>\n

Automatic frequency change is also supported when working with consoles and PCs when the frequency changes in the game – this is the same called variable frequency, which is often written as an advantage of HDMI 2.1.\u00a0At the same time, full synchronization with the frequency in the game does not occur: this is impossible even in professional monitors, but the effect on the screen is still better, since the simplest frame interpolation does not occur, as before.\u00a0In short, the large bandwidth of the new interface is more likely a reserve for the future, because the software will be updated more than once.<\/p>\n

Pondering<\/h2>\n

Artificial intelligence manifests itself most vividly when playing video with a built-in media player.\u00a0He himself has changed quite a lot.\u00a0The readability of the files has remained the same, that is, totally omnivorous – all formats are supported except for disk images in ISO, and something new has appeared, but more on that below.\u00a0It’s a pity, but switching titles and audio tracks did not make it more convenient: they do not change with direct buttons, as before, but through activating a special menu, and this is somewhat annoying, since you have to do this every time – for some reason, releasers on trackers do not set them by default what you want.\u00a0But it doesn’t really matter.<\/p>\n

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The main thing is the picture and sound.\u00a0First, about the sound.\u00a0At first glance, you will never think that it is being processed by artificial intelligence.\u00a0Everything is smooth and habitually good – as it seems, no fiction.\u00a0Understanding comes if you run the same video on an older TV – you immediately notice volume changes in films from quiet speech to explosions \/ shootings and other effects, when speech is not heard, and the effects stand out unpleasantly, and you want to constantly adjust the volume.\u00a0The new device does not have this.<\/p>\n

It’s different with video.\u00a0Processing is not disabled, and the TV always strives to improve the picture.\u00a0When watching normal, but not very compressed, without frank artifacts, Full HD video – even TV broadcasts, BD Rip or YouTube capture – everything looks smooth, clear, smooth and also without fiction.\u00a0Only after comparing with old models you notice that the upscaling is much more accurate and accurate, and minor flaws do not stick out, but are hidden.<\/p>\n

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But if you play videos with a lot of grain – for example, as in old movies – the processing may not always be stable.\u00a0That is, everything is fine for most of the film, but sometimes the TV confuses grain with other surfaces.<\/p>\n

Tellingly, this also happens on 4K video, which is not subjected to any upscaling – it is not output in its pure form without processing.\u00a0But on the other hand, the built-in player fully supports both the declared Dolby Vision and HDR10 +, and not only the core of the HDR10 signal in these video files – that is, it reproduces material with normal brightness, and not too dark, like most competitors and external players.<\/p>\n

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What pleases in this aspect is that with firmware updates the TV will \u201clearn\u201d and improve.\u00a0Moreover, judging by the experience of using other devices, a tangible increase in quality will most likely occur in a couple of months.\u00a0After all, machine intelligence, albeit artificial, like a child, does not immediately become a genius, but develops gradually.\u00a0And this is our new technological reality.\u00a0Unusual, but extremely entertaining.<\/p>\n

Measurements<\/h2>\n

When displaying test tables and blank fields, artificial intelligence does not behave very adequately.\u00a0He tries to see and identify a certain image in them.\u00a0As a result, for example, on a completely black screen, it adds a little backlight, and the black level eventually becomes higher – 0.66 cd \/ m2.\u00a0When displaying a white field, it maximally lowers the brightness – 124 cd \/ m2.\u00a0And with a decrease in the area of \u200b\u200ba white circle or square on a black background, it increases the brightness.\u00a0With 1\/9 of the “exposure” area – up to 265 cd \/ m2.\u00a0At 1\/16 – up to 295 cd \/ m2.\u00a0In general, the maximum contrast is shown only in special cases.<\/p>\n

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The color gamut is slightly larger than DCI.\u00a0That is, real HDR video displays close to the optimum.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The color balance even with the \u201cwarmest\u201d color temperature adjustment value W50 in the menu shows the prevalence of the blue component.<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>\n

Accordingly, the color temperature is far from the normal 6500K and is equal to 7925K practically over the entire range.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

With the acquisition of artificial intelligence, this OLED TV has received a lot of integration possibilities, but in terms of picture processing it has become more distinctive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The situation needs to be clarified immediately.\u00a0Artificial intelligence, namely hardware and software with elements of machine learning, began to be installed in OLED TVs of the current ninth generation, to which our today’s hero of the article belongs. But the history of the development of mass-produced OLED TVs lasts longer than nine – it is […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10402,"featured_media":122980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[641],"tags":[778],"class_list":["post-122974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-reviews"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}