A/V retailer Value Electronics and Dealerscope are partnering up once again this year for an exciting annual event: The 2022 TV Shootout. They’re putting the latest TVs (and TV technologies) to the ultimate test. Flagship 4K and 8K TVs from Sony, LG and Samsung will be put into a room, optimized for their top performance then mercilessly judged by a panel of experts to determine that age old question: Who is the King of TVs?
Representing all of the latest technologies — 4K OLED, 8K OLED, Quantum Dot (QD) OLED, MiniLED, Quantum Dot MiniLED — these sets will undergo full professional calibration then industry experts will be asked to evaluate the sets using a series of video test patterns and movie clips. The content has been selected to highlight material that can be challenging for any TV to reproduce well. We’ll see high contrast images like bright stars in the blackest space, color fidelity and saturation tests like fields of flowers fluttering in the breeze, fast moving images like car chases and competitive sports ball events and surely a variety of skin tones representing all of the great peoples of the world.
The event’s Masters of Ceremonies this year is our friend (and industry expert) Caleb Denison of Digital Trends. Caleb will help explain the various TV technologies and test material to local and remote attendees of the event. He’ll also probably try to make a few jokes. TV reviewers are not known for their jokes. We’re rooting for you, Caleb! Engineering experts and executives from the TV manufacturers will also be on hand in case attendees really want to dive into the nitty gritty. Let’s hope they don’t try to make jokes.
The final roster of TVs may change but at press time, we’re expecting to see the following models in the competition:
- LG’s G2 Gallery Series 4K OLED TV
- Samsung’s QN95B Quantum Dot 4K MiniLED TV
- Samsung’s S95B Quantum Dot 4K OLED TV
- Sony’s XR-A95K Master Series 4K QD OLED TV
- Sony’s XR-X95K 4K MiniLED TV w/Backlight Master Drive
- LG’s Z2 Signature Series 8K OLED TV
- Samsung’s QN900B Quantum Dot 8K LCD/MiniLED TV
- Sony’s XR-Z9K Master Series 8K MiniLED TV
To keep things on a fairly level playing field, the event will be broken into two sub-competitions: 4K TVs on Day 1 and 8K TVs on Day 2. So actually, two kings will be crowned. Let’s hope they can keep things civil.
The event’s creator, Robert Zohn, president of Value Electronics, had this to say about the event: “This is a must-see event for all who are interested in the best video displays. We are excited to have two separate categories, 4K and 8K TVs, so the public can see how each display compares in these competitive classes. At the conclusion of the second day we will put the winners of the 4K and 8K TV Shootout next to each other to demonstrate the visual perception of the differences we can all see between these two top of class 2022 TVs.”
The 4K TV Shootout event will be held at The Company Building in Manhattan on Saturday, July 30, 2022 (9:00am – 6:00pm) and the 8K TV Event will follow on Sunday, July 31, 2022 (10:00am – 5:00pm). And while I’m sure many of our readers would love to attend in person, the hosts are limiting invitations to just a few select journalists and VIPs (of COURSE I’ll be there!). Having attended several of these in the past (all the way back to 2011), I can tell you the TV Shootout really presents us with a great opportunity to see the highest performing displays side by side, so we can really see how each of them performs against the competition on the most demanding visual content.
So why am I raving about what a great event it is, if most of the people reading this won’t be able to attend? Well, as in previous years, the entire event in all its gory details will be streamed online, this time with moderated Q&A available to remote attendees. Score! You can check it out here on both days of the event: youtube.com/SpareChange
And for those with #TLDR syndrome – once it’s over, we’ll be sure to share the results.
If you’re feeling nostalgic for those heady pre-COVID days, check out my coverage of the 2019 TV Shootout on Big Picture Big Sound.
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Phillip Weissburg
July 24, 2022 at 1:00 pm
There is about 1% of programming in 4K…none in 8K…this is meaningless at best…the Marketing goal is to make consumers unhappy with what they have and buy new….nothing more…the best value is the TCL 4k, smart tv….Sony is yesterday’s news…when they moved from Japan to China…they shot themselves in the foot.