Brightness that overturns the common sense of organic EL! I fell in love with the image and sound of the top 4K VIERA "HZ2000"

“Organic EL TV” has a strong image of being thin and light.

It is true that the video panel itself is thin and light, but when it comes to TV products, it is necessary to make it robust, so it is made quite solidly. The thickness of the outermost part of the TH-55HZ2000 is about 6mm, but other than that, some LCD TVs may be thinner than this unit. The weight is also the same, and 4K organic EL TV products are surprisingly heavy.

The TH-55HZ2000HZ2000 series comes in two sizes, 65-inch and 55-inch

The thickness is 7.8 cm. The weight is about 26.5kg for the display alone, and about 34kg including the stand. The screen dimensions of the same 2020 model 4K LCD VIERA "TH-55HX950" are 123.1 x 71.6 cm (width x height), and the thickest part is 7.2 cm. The weight is about 23.5kg for the display alone and 28.5kg including the stand.

Organic EL TVs are thick and heavy because they are combined with a sturdy frame to prevent the screen from distorting, and the heat dissipation mechanism is large due to the large amount of heat and power consumption. This is due to the ease of Organic EL has a somewhat ecological image only for devices that came out after LCD TVs, but in fact it is not.

Large-screen☆maniac, I install it by myself almost every time. decided to transport. Organic EL TVs are getting heavier, but it would be nice if they could turn the rudder in the direction of lighter weight soon.

Raising and lowering to the second floor and combining work with the stand is impossible for one person unless the physique is quite good. Conversely, two people can easily win

The stand is a system that merges with the central part of the display, and the ground surface on the stand side has a flat plate design. If you put the stand in place first and snap it in, you can let go of the heavy display part for the time being. After that, screw it in this joint state and you're done. The good news is that the screen display unit does not need to be connected to the installation table by laying it face down on a soft flat surface such as the seat of a sofa.

Equipped with an advanced fall prevention mechanism

The stand of this unit is a solid flat plate type with a sense of stability.

In recent years, it has become popular to attach stands like "bird legs" to both ends of the bottom edge of the screen, but this flat plate type can be placed on a smaller installation table than the screen size.

The grounding dimensions of the installation stand are actually 49.2 x 35.0 cm (width x depth). If the screen is allowed to protrude to the left and right, it can be placed in a place of this size. By the way, this stand supports a swivel of ±15 degrees left and right. In addition, it does not work in the tilt direction.

This time it is installed on a small table in terms of area. If the screen protrudes left and right, it can be installed on a relatively small stand. To be precise, the display surface rotates ±15 degrees to the left and right

The gap from the bottom of the display is 29mm. The gap is about the size of two general Blu-ray software packages.

Actual frame width is about 10mm on the top, about 7mm on each side, and about 70mm on the bottom. It is large because there is a speaker part at the bottom. The screen seems to be at just the right height when grounded in a low-profile rack.

The display surface has a feeling of (half) glare, and the scene of the room is reflected to some extent, but it is not so strong. A level that does not bother you if you darken the lighting.

Viewing scenery under fluorescent lighting.

This unit has amazing speakers.

It has the potential to play Dolby Atmos, an object-based audio technology, with this unit alone, and is equipped with a total of 15 speakers and a 3.2.2ch system. The breakdown is 2 Dolby Atmos enabled speakers (20W + 20W), 6 midrange speakers + 3 tweeters (20W + 20W + 20W), 4 woofers (20W + 20W) for a total output of 140W. It has acoustic specs that easily surpass standard sound bars.

DolbyAtmos enabled speakers placed behind the top of the screen Main speakers are placed at the bottom of the screen Total output 140W, 15 speakers are arranged like this

A speaker system that supports object-based audio This means that it is necessary to acquire the acoustic characteristics of the installation location, but this unit has an acoustic calibration function that is not inferior to a dedicated AV amplifier.

Calibration takes about 2 minutes, and it is necessary to hold the remote control that replaces the microphone unit at your ear during the adjustment. AV amplifier products come with a simple stand to fix such a microphone unit, but this unit does not. When adjusting, it is necessary to devise a way to fix the remote control at the viewing position on your own.

Calibration setting screen During calibration, the remote control, which acts as a microphone, must be held at ear level and kept still. I put the remote control on top of a box on my chair. Don't be surprised by the loud impulses of the test sound during calibration. rice field. The surround effect when watching a movie was also great (more on that later), but simply the sound quality is good.

In addition to being able to withstand watching music programs, I was able to connect a PC and use this unit as a jukebox-like music player during the evaluation period. For users who have no plans to build a large-scale surround system and are interested in the latest surround technology, I think it would be a good idea to start by experiencing the sound system of this unit.

The virtual surround function-related settings are also substantial

The rated power consumption is 424W, and the annual power consumption is 205kWh/year. In the case of the 4K LCD Viera "TH-55HX950" with the same screen size, it is 219W, 131kWh/year, so the power consumption is nearly double. Well, this can't be helped because all products that use LG Display's RGBW sub-pixel type organic EL panel have the same tendency.

The connection terminal panels are on the left side and back of the screen.

There are HDMI 1 and 2 terminals on the side, as well as a headphone terminal and a USB terminal for recording. And on the back side, HDMI 3 / 4 terminals, antenna terminals, optical digital audio terminals are lined up. There are also red, white, and yellow analog terminals, which are rare in recent products

There are four HDMI terminals. HDMI 1-2 on the side and HDMI 3-4 on the back side. In addition, only HDMI2 supports ARC/eARC.

It has a red, white and yellow analog video input terminal, which is rare for a recent TV product. There is no S-video or D terminal. The red and white analog audio input terminals can also be used for any analog audio input of HDMI 1-4. It does not support component video input terminal conversion adapters like those found in previous models.

There are 3 USB ports. The USB 3.0 terminal on the side is for recording USB hard disk connection. The two USB 2.0 terminals on the back side are supposed to be connected to camera equipment, USB memory, etc. When I put a 4K video file compressed with HEVC or H.264 in a USB memory and inserted it into this unit, I could play it normally without difficulty. Also, when I tried connecting a USB keyboard and a USB mouse, it was recognized again.

However, it is hard to say that the degree of correspondence is sufficient. When I started the YouTube app from the home menu of this unit, I could not enter the "@" mark from the USB keyboard when entering the email address when entering the YouTube account. Neither English keyboard nor Japanese keyboard works. Also, although the mouse cursor appears and can be moved, you can't click the video you want to play directly from the displayed YouTube video list.

By the way, when I right-clicked the mouse, a software remote control appeared and I could press the buttons there. On the contrary, I cannot do anything other than that. Recently, there are more and more opportunities to be asked for key input on TV, and the number of situations where icons are selected is also increasing, so if you are going to support it, I would like to hope for a solid response.

In addition, an optical digital audio output terminal, a headphone terminal, an antenna terminal, etc. are installed. By default, sound is not output from the speaker when using the headphone terminal, but by setting it, simultaneous output from the speaker and headphone terminal can be performed.

Actually, it takes about 4.0 seconds from turning on the power until the terrestrial digital broadcasting screen is displayed. Switching time between HDMI is about 2.0 seconds. It's reasonably fast.

The remote control adopts the traditional VIERA left-right asymmetrical design. Moreover, it can be called from the remote control. This makes me happy. However, it does not support two screens with HDMI inputs.

The remote control, which must be entwined with the broadcast screen for one screen, adopts the traditional VIERA left-right asymmetric shape design. The layout of the overall operation system, the central broadcast channel operation system, and the recording operation system are laid out on the top, which is familiar, but there is a [AbemaTV] button on the left side, and a [4K] button for switching the broadcast type. , and has been modified according to the times.

Built-in switches

In the past, the VIERA used to come with a voice remote control and a regular remote control, but now the voice input function is usually integrated into the remote control side, and when you press and release the [Microphone] button, it feels like a smart speaker. can be operated in natural language. "Search for Zenji Nishikawa on YouTube" works normally, and the mode is switched to YouTube to search. There is no microphone on the TV itself.

However, the voice operation with the remote control is not perfect. After taking a bath, I tried saying "Watch BS TV Tokyo" and "Watch terrestrial digital TBS", but it didn't work.

Instead, a close candidate was displayed as an icon on the screen, and I had to select it by moving the cursor with the four-way controller on the remote control. "Then I should have used the remote control from the beginning." When will we be freed from the UX experience of "with voice control"?

A small hole on the top of the remote control is a microphone. You can operate it by pressing the microphone button (center of the photo) and speaking into the microphone.

By the way, to switch to a different type of broadcast with the remote control, first press the "broadcast type switch button" and then press the "channel button", or open the "program guide" Otherwise, I can't do it, and I think it would be nice if such troublesome channel switching could be switched instantly with natural language.

Probably, many general users will definitely want to try voice control after purchasing a TV. But after a few times it doesn't work the way you want it to, you probably won't want to use it again. I would like to ask for a UX design that "operates naturally" as much as a "natural operation system" that everyone seems to use.

The “loose feeling” of the operation response that I was worried about with the previous model is completely absent with this machine.

The Amazon Prime Video app and the video playback control on the YouTube app are crisp, just like smartphones and tablets. It provided a great UX experience.

As mentioned above, this unit has good speaker sound quality. During the evaluation period, I actively watched YouTube on this unit. Until a little while ago, I couldn't do the act of watching Internet content on a TV product, but why? It's been a wonderful evolution.

Main online distribution services can be selected from the [Home] button

Setting items for image quality are almost the same as before. Those who are thinking of using it as a monitor by connecting a PC, game machine, or BD playback device would like to check the "optional function" setting.

"1080p dot by 4 dots" is a mode that draws 1 pixel of full HD video with 4 pixels of 2 x 2 on a 4K video panel, and is a function that you want to use for game video. The super-resolution processing and upscaling processing are canceled and the “dotted (!?)” display is displayed, so it is compatible with retro game images.

"1080p Pure Direct" and "4K Pure Direct" consider the input signal as YUV444 and do not perform chroma upsampling. This is a function that I definitely want to use for PC and game images. The default "off" setting may render the color boundaries ambiguous.

The low-latency mode "Game Mode" is a pure direct ON that can be set at the option function. Pure Direct OFF, in which this display is transmitted as image data. When chroma sampled, extra false colors appear. I want to select according to the video source

It is interesting that this unit can make HDMI-related settings as finely as a monitor. However, the HDMI-related setting menu is divided into the "video adjustment" side and the "device setting" side, making it a little difficult to understand.

First of all, on the "video adjustment" side, you can change "HDMI image quality interlock setting", "HDMI EOTF setting", "HDMI Coloimetry setting", "HDMI RGB range setting", and "HDMI YCbCr range setting".

Let's pick up what you think needs explanation and explain it.

"HDMI EOTF setting" can select settings such as "PQ" and "HLG" for HDR video gradation mode selection, but be aware that if you want to use HDR10+, you must set it to "Auto".

I don't know what "HDMI Coloimetry setting" is for a moment, but in a nutshell, you can select "Rec.709", "Rec.2020", etc. in "Color space mode setting". It is maniac that "Rec.601" can also be selected.

"HDMI RGB range setting" and "HDMI YCbCr range setting" are equivalent to HDMI gradation level setting, but being able to set RGB and color difference separately is another maniac.

You can set "HDMI auto setting", "HDMI HDR setting" and "HDMI 2.1 setting" on the option function menu HDMI Coloimetry setting

"Device setting" side.

"HDMI auto setting" selects the HDMI transmission speed, and you can select "Mode 1" for 10.2 Gbps or "Mode 2" for 18 Gbps. 4K game consoles such as UHD BD players, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S cannot take advantage of their performance unless "Mode 2" is selected.

"HDMI HDR setting" allows you to set each of "HDR setting", "HDR10+ function" and "Dolby Vision".

In "HDR setting", "Normal" ignores metadata for HDR video control, and "Dynamic" corresponds to it. "Off" is processed as SDR video. "HDR10+ function" is set to "Off" and even if HDR10+ video comes, it will be treated as HDR10 video.

The "Dolby Vision" setting may be a little difficult to imagine. Dolby Vision is a format originally created by Dolby, so "Mode 1" receives it as-is on this unit and decodes it on the unit side. Mode 2”. The "Mode 1" setting is more flexible, so you can set it to "Mode 1", but if you feel that the image display is strange, select "Mode 2".

HDMI HDR setting Dolby Vision mode setting

"HDMI 2.1 setting" is a setting to enable/disable automatic low delay mode "ALLM" born with HDMI 2.1 and "eARC" corresponding to high band audio transmission. . Unfortunately, this unit does not support 120Hz (120fps) input or variable refresh rate (VRR), so don't worry.

In addition, when I connected the PlayStation 5 and this unit, I confirmed that ALLM and eARC were working properly. This is a setting menu that new-generation game machine users must check.

Let's also touch on the "burn-in" problem of organic EL TVs, which is often asked.

Settings related to burn-in countermeasures are lined up in this unit's "Image Adjustment" - "Screen Settings". "Screen wobbling" is a subtle movement of the entire screen in 1-pixel units for the purpose of averaging the deterioration of each pixel over time. People who frequently use it for PC and game video display want to turn it on and use it regularly. It is also on by default.

"Logo Brightness Control" does not limit the brightness of the logo display of the broadcasting station. for controlling

It should be noted that the "VIERA" logo becomes "dark" when set to "high". Even so, I'm not the only one who thinks that this item is easier to understand if it is "screen saver brightness setting".

"Panel maintenance" is a process that attempts to eliminate the burn-in on the screen. The time required ranges from 10 minutes to 80 minutes, so timing such as before going to bed would be appropriate.

Organic EL is the same as liquid crystal, and if the same color pixel is displayed for a long time, the charge balance of the drive electrode on the TFT circuit that drives each sub-pixel will be lost. This is the first symptom of burn-in. "Panel maintenance" corrects this. It should be noted that burn-in due to aged deterioration of the organic material that is the source of light emission cannot be eliminated.

"Panel maintenance message" prompts panel maintenance at the timing when panel maintenance is required on the system side. Details will be described later, but since the display of this unit is a special specification, although it has high brightness emission characteristics, it should be easy to burn in in exchange for that. It is safer to turn it on for people who frequently use it for displaying images on PCs and games.

The display delay was measured with the new weapon "4K Lag Tester" introduced this year.

The measurement screen mode has a resolution of 4K/3,840 x 2,160 pixels at 60 Hz. The measurement result is 119.5 ms when the video mode (image quality mode) is "standard". Delay of about 7.2 frames at 60fps conversion. When "Game Mode" is enabled, this is 18.6ms, which is a delay of about 1.1 frames when converted to 60fps.

As has been introduced many times in this series, LG Display's organic EL panel has a burn-in prevention mechanism in the final stage of the display process, so a one-frame delay cannot be avoided. In that sense, it is admirable that the display delay in game mode is extremely close to the theoretical value of 16.66ms.

Aside from eSport titles that don't allow even a 1-frame delay, a 1-frame delay is enough to play a typical game.

Standard latency is 119.5ms Game mode latency is 18.6ms. A value very close to the theoretical value is excellent