You Asked: OLED decisions, upscaling truths, and Dolby Vision 2

This week on You Asked, we address some of the most frequently asked questions about buying TVs right now, from choosing between the latest OLED panels from LG and Samsung to which brands handle upgrading best. We also dive into whether Dolby Vision 2 is a reason to put off buying a new TV, or whether today’s high-end devices are already good enough.

LG C5 vs Samsung S90F: Which should you buy?

@alexandervictoria7609 asks: Hey, I’ve been following you guys for years. You are the reason I bought the Sony A80K. Now my TV is damaged and I’m looking for something new. I can get a discount on my lg c5 and samsung s 90f for the same price and about $150 more than the 2024 models. What should I do?

First, you’ll have a great time with either of these TVs. Both are an upgrade from the A80K in terms of HDR brightness and peak highlights. I think we’ve put them on our list of best TVs this year.

The competition between the C5 and S90F is very close, and it probably comes down to whether or not you care about getting Dolby Vision with the C5.

Samsung doesn’t support Dolby Vision, but will you miss it? What the S90F has that LG, nor even the Sony A80K, has, is a QD-OLED panel in 55-, 65- and 77-inch sizes. It offers a slightly larger color volume than the C5 and its W-OLED panel.

The advantage of the C5 is SDR brightness, and if you’re an Xbox gamer, you’ll get Dolby Vision there too.

However, both options offer four HDMI 2.1 ports and an ultra-wide viewing angle with great contrast, thanks to OLED technology.

So my vote goes with the S90F, but you can’t really go wrong.

Which TVs have the best upscaling?

@bmj4052 asks: The biggest question I have is that I can never get a straight answer – which TV has the best upscaling for standard definition signals? any. Basic Netflix, YouTube, and other public streaming platforms that don’t stream in 4K

This is a good question. And while I haven’t personally conducted this test with a bunch of TVs playing the same thing side-by-side from a variety of different sources to precisely examine which is better, I do have some clues and evidence behind it.

When we tested the Vizio Quantum Pro a while ago, this was one of our biggest criticisms. It wasn’t good with moving up. To illustrate this, we pit it against the Sony A95K OLED. These TVs are not at the same level at all, but facts are facts.

In this test, Sony did a much better job. And since these are night and day comparisons between a cheaper Mini LED TV and a higher-end OLED set, we also tested it with the Samsung QN90C, a premium Mini LED TV introduced the same year. It was also a big step up.

From watching a lot of Samsung TV in my home, and from what I’ve seen shooting some of the best TVs from Sony, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic over the past few years, I’d say Sony. Their processing has been a favorite for years now.

This is probably also the reason why many people are afraid of the possibility of TCL taking over Sony’s TV production next year.

However, while the Sony’s processing and upscaling are top-notch, unless you put it side by side with some of Samsung and LG’s best, I’m not sure it’s something that jumps out at you from one TV to the next. Even if your basic Netflix or other streaming device is 1080p instead of 4K, if the content is produced well, it will look good on most modern, high-end TVs.

It’s blocky, grainy, poorly lit, or old content that hasn’t been remastered where you can really tell how well your TV is doing its cleaning job.

Is Dolby Vision 2 worth the wait?

@amitavraja3385 asks: In 2026 only TCL and Hisense will support Dolby Vision 2, the rest of the major manufacturers will not. I don’t think Sony will either. I suspect most major brands are taking a wait-and-see policy this year, and perhaps from 2027 they will have support for Dolby Vision 2. Don’t forget that 2026 TVs won’t be backwards compatible without a major hardware upgrade, unless they’re from TCL and Hisense. Is it risky to buy new expensive TVs this year knowing that these TVs will not be able to support DV2?!

I want to point out that I read this question as written, but I don’t know that it’s all 100 percent correct. I don’t know what some of these manufacturers have planned, and I don’t know exactly what chipsets are in the upcoming TVs and whether they will support Dolby Vision 2. What we do know is that the TVs need a MediaTek Pentonic 800 chip.

What I can offer is some perspective, especially since we learned about the TCL-Sony deal.

If I had to guess and speculate on one manufacturer that might have Dolby Vision 2 capability at some point, it’s Sony. MediaTek has been the source of the system-on-chip, and with the hype and work put into their new RGB backlit TV on the way, I find it hard to believe that Sony won’t put the latest and greatest in this model, especially if it means being able to get an over-the-air update down the line and boost sales by adding Dolby Vision 2.

So, if you have the money you’ll need to buy this premium TV from Sony, I’d probably feel good about it. And I’d bet my bottom dollar that it would be a nice TV.

This leads me to my next point. Dolby Vision 2 looks really good, and is a marked improvement over the original Dolby Vision. But you see the biggest difference between low-end and budget-friendly TVs, at least from what we showed at CES.

The difference between the high-end TVs we saw Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision 2 on wasn’t that great.

My point is: If you need to get a high-end, expensive TV, or you just want one because you’re about to upgrade, I don’t know that Dolby Vision 2 would be the reason you’re delaying that purchase.

HDR10 and HDR10+ also look great. They won’t have the Content Intelligence feature to clean up some really dark scenes, but these things still look great, and none of that is Dolby Vision 2.

Whether it’s processing and upscaling, HDMI inputs, brightness, contrast, picture quality, brand loyalty, or any other reason you come up with, there are a lot of things that can push you to buy a TV. Evaluate these things along with your curiosity about Dolby Vision 2, and make your decision based on that.