2018 Samsung flagship 65" and 75" Q9FN

[Robert Zohn]

Thanks Keith! That's great news.

[keithian]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

Thanks Keith! That's great news.

...and now Mark from AVS backtracked:

"Long story short, once I pressed and parsed through it... there's not going to be a 85" or 88" Q9F, as far as my source was able to ascertain. The Q9S is what Samsung is going to offer as its premium 85". No price yet.

My source is high-level Samsung, not a "rep" but rather someone I've traveled with to Korea and with whom I've met directly with engineers. Anyhow, I've now drilled down to the point where there's nothing left. No 88" Q9F is the word I get back, just Q9S with the ole' "as far as I know" qualifier from my source.

Not clear where the chatter about an 88" started, Samsung only unveiled the Q9S and The Wall at CES, it did not discuss its TV lineup at all until the recent NYC event."

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by keithian

...and now Mark from AVS backtracked:

"Long story short, once I pressed and parsed through it... there's not going to be a 85" or 88" Q9F, as far as my source was able to ascertain. The Q9S is what Samsung is going to offer as its premium 85". No price yet.

My source is high-level Samsung, not a "rep" but rather someone I've traveled with to Korea and with whom I've met directly with engineers. Anyhow, I've now drilled down to the point where there's nothing left. No 88" Q9F is the word I get back, just Q9S with the ole' "as far as I know" qualifier from my source.

Not clear where the chatter about an 88" started, Samsung only unveiled the Q9S and The Wall at CES, it did not discuss its TV lineup at all until the recent NYC event."

8K TV, with ~10,000 dimming zones at 85”, I’m like 99% sure it’ll at least be $20K.

[rech750452]

Picture quality on these flagships look really great. I am 99.99% certain that the Q9F will be my poison.

[Blu350z]

thinking of picking up a 65" Q9FN sometime next week. So far the reviews that i've seen pop up are for the Q8FN, I want to know how many zones are on the Q9FN. I think I saw some reviewer say the Q8 has about 300+ zones. None of the reviews that i've seen so far for the Q9 really explains it.

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by Blu350z

thinking of picking up a 65" Q9FN sometime next week. So far the reviews that i've seen pop up are for the Q8FN, I want to know how many zones are on the Q9FN. I think I saw some reviewer say the Q8 has about 300+ zones. None of the reviews that i've seen so far for the Q9 really explains it.

The consensus seems to be that the Q9FN has 480 dimming zones (30 columns, 16 rows), with the Q8FN having half of that.

I’ve wrestling with myself back and forth on deciding whether to buy the 75” Q9FN to replace my LG 65” C7 but after much reading and thinking I don’t think I can go back to LCD local dimming. At least not until the number of zones reaches something crazy like 16 pixels for each zone at 4K resolution. The impact of the native contrast of OLED on me has left its mark lol.

[Blu350z]

This is for the living room, I already have a 55" A1E in the bedroom, I tested the OLED in the living room and I just can't with the glare, very bright room. This will be my entertaining TV so pretty sure people that come over, not picky in home theater so as soon as I throw a 4k BD then they'll be impressed =P

Originally Posted by samlop10

The consensus seems to be that the Q9FN has 480 dimming zones (30 columns, 16 rows), with the Q8FN having half of that.

I’ve wrestling with myself back and forth on deciding whether to buy the 75” Q9FN to replace my LG 65” C7 but after much reading and thinking I don’t think I can go back to LCD local dimming. At least not until the number of zones reaches something crazy like 16 pixels for each zone at 4K resolution. The impact of the native contrast of OLED on me has left its mark lol.

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by Blu350z

This is for the living room, I already have a 55" A1E in the bedroom, I tested the OLED in the living room and I just can't with the glare, very bright room. This will be my entertaining TV so pretty sure people that come over, not picky in home theater so as soon as I throw a 4k BD then they'll be impressed =P

Yeah for a bright room I would also opt for the Q9FN between those two. And yeah, most people would get more impressed by brightness and vividness lol.

[Robert Zohn]

I would agree with ^ samlop10 on this one.

The Q9FN has it's advantages over the mightly OLED TVs and that's mostly in the follow three attributes:

- High ambient light conditions.

- Related to the above advantage, glare and screen reflections.

- Highly saturated colors.

- Some, not all, HDR content where tone mapping and color volume in the very highest peak luminance specular highlights are important.

- Screen burn-in. I really don't like bring this up as burning in a static image is very difficult, but for those who watch the same content with the same opaque static image every day for more than 2 hrs per day can burn the image into the screen. This is the only way to damage the screen and even if you watch opaque static images every day and change the content for 1/2 of the time you watch static images burn in would not be an issue.

Most importantly with LG's 2018 OLED TV the new "static image auto dimming" greatly reduces the threat of image retention so for those considering a 2018 TV this is no longer an issue.

Here's the disadvantages of the Q9FN vs. LG or Sony's OLED:

- Moderate to low ambient light viewing, where you can see some of the blooming and hallowing that exists in local dimming TVs. The Q9FN is one of the best for local dimming, but it still is competing with 8.3 million local dimming zones vs. 480 zones.

- Dolby Vision HDR capability. This one is important as Netflix and Amazon along with most UHD HDR BD titles embrace DV.

- Frame-by-frame tone mapping of HDR10. LG and Sony OLED TVs look at each frame's peak luminance and tone map the content to the TVs peak luminance ability. Nice feature that I wish Samsung would adopt.

- Off axes viewing.

- Minimum luminance levels with excellent tonal detail all the way down to pure black.

- Motion resolution, 2018 LG and all Sony OLEDs TVs have better motion resolution.

- Up-conversion, the nod goes to LG OLED and even more-so with Sony's X1 Extreme processor OLED TVs.

- 55" class screen for those who can't use the 65" minimum screen that the Q9FN starts at.

[alexanderg823]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

- Frame-by-frame tone mapping of HDR10. LG and Sony OLED TVs look at each frame's peak luminance and tone map the content to the TVs peak luminance ability. Nice feature that I wish Samsung would adopt.

Thanks for the comments and thread, Robert! A couple of things.

1: Sony doesn't do frame by frame tone mapping of HDR10, it just clips.

2: The 2018 Q9 actually does do frame by frame tone mapping when HDR+ mode is selected for HDR content. Took me a few days of testing on various HDR content and different modes and settings to figure this out. HDR+ mode also needs a few tweaks such as lowering color as its oversaturated in default settings, but it adds the frame by frame tone mapping akin to Active HDR on the LG OLED.

[Robert Zohn]

Thanks for correcting me on Sony's frame-by-frame dynamic tone mapping of HDR10 content. My Sony display engineer buddy says otherwise, but I don't doubt you. I'll ask again.

We agree 100% on LG's benefits of properly setting up the HDR on the 2018 OLED TVs. We see beautiful HDR picture quality performance after calibration.

[alexanderg823]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

Thanks for correcting me on Sony's frame-by-frame dynamic tone mapping of HDR10 content. My Sony display engineer buddy says otherwise, but I don't doubt you. I'll ask again.

It takes only took me a few minutes to throw up an HDR test pattern on their TVs to verify they don't - No shades of white are displayed beyond their spec brightness speak, 100% evidence and proof of that no frame by frame dynamic tone mapping is going on.

A1E, Z9D, and 940E all exhibit this behavior. Those are the only ones I've used.

I've seen this thrown around various forums about the performance of the Sony TVs, and I think I've seen a Sony rep use this too. I think somewhere along the line is confusion of what dynamic frame by frame tone mapping is. I consider LG Active HDR frame-by-frame dynamic tone mapping - Not what Sony is doing.

[Robert Zohn]

65" Q9FN just went on sale for $3,497. Supply is constrained, but they are flowing in steadily in limited volume.

[Blu350z]

I'm still debating between a 75" Q8FN or a 65" Q9FN. UGH

[gizbug]

I am trying to decide between the Q9FN 75" and the Q8FN 75". The price difference for me is about $1000. Is the extra $1000 worth it though? Viewing will be in a well lit great room. Mainly for daily TV shows, AppleTV/Netflix 4K content, 10ft distance from TV. The tv will be wall mounted, so the One Connect box isn't really essential for me, as I have jacks behind where the tv would be mounted for power and HDMI.

Has anyone gone from one model to another, or regret not getting the other model? Any info appreciated.

[Robert Zohn]

@Blu350z, tough decision, but I would say if you are 10' or further back from the TV go for the 75" Q8. The main difference between the two models is the amount of local dimming zones. The 75" Q9FN has 480 zones and the 75" Q8FN has 240 local dimming zones.

@gizbug, Another tough call, but for me I'd go for the Q9FN as the blacks, and minimized blooming of bright objects on dark backgrounds is something you will appreciate every time you use the TV.

This advice also applies to Blu350z.

[Blu350z]

For almost the same price I was considering size over quality but I do want to get the Best Buy can’t justify another $1000

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by Blu350z

I'm still debating between a 75" Q8FN or a 65" Q9FN. UGH

Most best buys now have the 75Q8 and 65q9 side by side. Both look superior picture quality wise to the 65Q8 on the left to them. Both the 75Q8 and 65q9 were brighter and sharper than the 65q8. Really can't go wrong with either.

[alexanderg823]

Originally Posted by gizbug

I am trying to decide between the Q9FN 75" and the Q8FN 75". The price difference for me is about $1000. Is the extra $1000 worth it though? Viewing will be in a well lit great room. Mainly for daily TV shows, AppleTV/Netflix 4K content, 10ft distance from TV. The tv will be wall mounted, so the One Connect box isn't really essential for me, as I have jacks behind where the tv would be mounted for power and HDMI.

Has anyone gone from one model to another, or regret not getting the other model? Any info appreciated.

i was in the same situation and went with the q9fn 75 inch. the zones are what you pay for in a tv like this, and double of them is really double the most important feature of the tv.

[LSZ]

I just received my 65Q8FN. Well, second one actually as the first came with a scratch on the screen. Thankfully, Samsung replaced it and it looks great. Going from a JU7500 to this. Just pump the true HDR into my veins.