And the Winner Is...
As has sometimes occured in past shootouts (notably, at the 2013 shootout), there was a bit of a split decision on the winner. This year, the calibrators scored the Samsung KN55S9C OLED TV highest overall, but the audience favored the LG 55EC9300 OLED TV in contrast ratio, black level and overall picture quality. If you simply add up the scores for all of the TVs involved and take the average, then the Samsung PN64F8500 plasma TV actually took home the prize for highest overall score for the second year in a row. So not only were the LG OLED and Samsung plasma sets the least expensive TVs in the shootout (by far), but they earned the highest overall scores.
On Value Electronics' Facebook page, Robert has declared the LG 55EC9300 OLED TV the winner of the contest, due to its superior scores in black level, contrast and overall picture quality as rated by the audience. As Robert has said (and most journalists and reviewers would agree), contrast ratio -- the ability to display bright colors against an inky black background -- is the single most important element in creating a lifelike and almost three-dimensional image. But we do hope he acknowledges the Samsung F8500 plasma for winning the overall (unweighted) popular vote for the second year in a row.
UPDATE: Robert sent out an updated message this afternoon to attendees of the event declaring a tie between the LG OLED and the Samsung F8500 plasma. Considering how close the scores were, we think this is pretty fair handling of the situation.
