Philips OLED+934 Review & Comments

I think you should post both written and video reviews together, even if it means the written is a few days late, nobody likes to see "coming", whats the purpose of staggering these?
A lot of hard work goes into writing and editing these reviews and videos, which as a reader of AVForums you have access to for free. It takes time and as such, we decided to get the reviews out in written form first so AVForums members can read them straight away. The videos will follow a little while later.
 
indeed and we appreciate your very hard work, I still think they should come out at the same time though, just feels odd to me, much better package to have the choice there and then of either or both, people may not bothe to revisit the review a second time to watch the video where they might view both if they are out at the same time.

I prefer to watch the video first and then dip into the written for more detail if required.
 
A lot of hard work goes into writing and editing these reviews and videos, which as a reader of AVForums you have access to for free. It takes time and as such, we decided to get the reviews out in written form first so AVForums members can read them straight away. The videos will follow a little while later.
Cheers for the review of the 934.

But I'm a tad concerned about this part, 'but watching sports over time will see it dim as time goes on'. As a potential buyer of a Philips 2019 OLED and quite a frequent sports watcher it might put me off. Could you expand a little on the issue with sports. Does it keep progressively dimming as every 15 mins goes by or something.

Did it happen on the 804/854 as well?
 
I got the TV this morning and after playing around with it for a few hours am really impressed with the picture and am generally loving it.

There’s just a couple of minor issues. UK catch-up app support is poor and restricted to iPlayer only, but I’m guessing/hoping that this will be sorted soon and isn’t a big deal for me and my viewing habits.

The one bigger disappointment is the Netflix app. Nothing is showing as Dolby Atmos when the same movies do via my Apple TV, (for example ‘Bright’). I’m really surprised by this as I thought one of the selling points of this TV was the Atmos soundbar.

In the grand scheme of things these are minor niggles which should get sorted with updates.
 
I got the TV this morning and after playing around with it for a few hours am really impressed with the picture and am generally loving it.

There’s just a couple of minor issues. UK catch-up app support is poor and restricted to iPlayer only, but I’m guessing/hoping that this will be sorted soon and isn’t a big deal for me and my viewing habits.

The one bigger disappointment is the Netflix app. Nothing is showing as Dolby Atmos when the same movies do via my Apple TV, (for example ‘Bright’). I’m really surprised by this as I thought one of the selling points of this TV was the Atmos soundbar.

In the grand scheme of things these are minor niggles which should get sorted with updates.

Thanks for this information - this is one of three TV's on my list. How good is the soundbar in terms of volume, bass & voice clarity and how aggressive is the ABL?
 
I’ve added a sub as I had one anyway so that helps. Volume is loud, the separation is ok and impressive for a soundbar but is obviously no match for a dedicated separate Atmos system. Voice clarity is really good, but I noticed in the ‘personal’ sound option there is a ’clear dialogue’ setting so that’s always there as a back up, I have it on ‘movie‘ at the moment and dialogue sounds fine.

As for ABL I haven’t watched it long enough to notice it, but is something I’m conscious of, so will be looking out for it in the coming days.
 
Saw this TV at the Philips event yesterday. As an avowed LED HDR fanatic (with my favourite light cannon) I have to say that OLED is really beginning to grow on me.

The picture quality in SDR mode is what you would expect from OLED but the "Vivid" mode features they have does do the SDR to pseudo HDR conversion extremely well, and I mean extremely well.
Again HDR and DV were what you expect but Philips use the 3rd Gen P5 in a novel way again creating a Dolby Vision Bright mode which includes all the advantages of Dolby Vision but with extra processing. We were at Dolby HQ with Dolby engineers so this tech does have their blessing.

What's impressive is that we were comparing the TV to "the" Dolby Pulsar* 4000 nit broadcast monitor at Dolby HQ**. For one particular scene it brought the Philps a little closer to the Pulsar than I think any other TV could reach. For another dark but very colourful scene it actually matched the Pulsar because of the inherent advantages of OLED over (probably) the best LED TV on the planet.

All in all this has been my most enjoyable event so far (even if as usual I didn't win anything).
Thank you AVForums (Cheers Phil). Thank you Philips (Danny was great as usual). Thank you Dolby HQ (I'm now the kid on the tricycle from the Incredibles :)).

*About the Dolby Pulsar, I understand what Vincent is talking about now. I never realised how limited many bright window shots are until I saw the Pulsar. Whereas on film, you get can get a bright window with light streaming through it, on the Pulsar you go an actual window, just like in real life where you can still see all the detail outside that window with natural light coming in. It was completely different. This is where all the tone mapping and processing in the world couldn't match the raw 4000 nit power of the Pulsar.

** Man, what I would give to watch some films in "that" Dolby Cinema. Easily and I suppose, obviously ,the best Dolby Cinema in the country. There's a film that I'm just not interested in seeing, maybe even if it was free. But I would pay to watch it at Dolby HQ.
 
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I’ve added a sub as I had one anyway so that helps. Volume is loud, the separation is ok and impressive for a soundbar but is obviously no match for a dedicated separate Atmos system. Voice clarity is really good, but I noticed in the ‘personal’ sound option there is a ’clear dialogue’ setting so that’s always there as a back up, I have it on ‘movie‘ at the moment and dialogue sounds fine.

As for ABL I haven’t watched it long enough to notice it, but is something I’m conscious of, so will be looking out for it in the coming days.
The speaker system isn't designed to replace a sound system or even a sound bar, although it definitely could replace the latter, but the sound is very impressive for a TV. Add a subwoofer and you're pretty much set. But the most impressive thing is that the sound genuinely sounds like it is coming from the screen and not from the speaker. So without the "potentially in my eyes" picture quality affecting Sony technology you get the same effect.
 
How good is the soundbar in terms of volume, bass & voice clarity

Also interested in this, thinking of downsizing from a full surround set up and whilst don't expect or want the same quality would like it to be decent :)
 
Also interested in this, thinking of downsizing from a full surround set up and whilst don't expect or want the same quality would like it to be decent :)
As long as you don't care about surround per se, then this is a great sounding system. It's produces a very spacious sound that expands beyond the TV. It's also got a bit of intelligence too in that it only fires up the left and right speakers for stereo sources, and then all three speakers for multi channel sources.
 
Just to say that I am very very happy with my "Baby ZD9", mainly because I get extremely impactful HDR images. I'm sure I've said something similar to this before, but, with it's tricked out Dolby Vision mode, the Philips might actually be the very first OLED where if given the option, I would "seriously" consider swapping my awesome "Light Cannon" for. Although I feel this feature raises the contrast floor just a tad, being OLED I would consider that being less of an issue that if it was an LED TV. So if I had the cash, this is the OLED that for me, comes closest to the dream of getting impactful HDR along with the depth from proper black.
 
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Do you connect a sub in the same way you do on the GZ950 - i.e. via the headphone socket?

downsizing was mentioned last night at the Philips event by the Bowers & Wilkins engineer who demoed the TV with and without a sub switched in.
If I didn’t have a surround sound system and was downsizing or just had the money for a TV in a separate room I’d be more than happy with both the picture and sound from this TV
 
Why do Currys only have a 2 year guarantee with Philips OLED TVs? Really put off by this!
 
Currys, John Lewis and Richer Sounds all have stock at this moment. I'm so tempted! £1699.00 for 55, which is £500 off the RRP.
 
Ordered today from John Lewis who did say they’d honour any Black Friday price drops.... RS said they wouldn’t so lost the sale.
 
Ordered today from John Lewis who did say they’d honour any Black Friday price drops.... RS said they wouldn’t so lost the sale.
That's a shame as I understand it Richer Sounds would refund the difference.
 
No Apple TV+ yet Mr THX.

I contacted Philips as page 75 of their manual states that you can access Freeview Play, but this isn’t available. Their disappointing response is below, which maybe a deal breaker for some who are considering this TV.

“Dear customer,
We would like to inform you that only BBC iPlayer should be available in the model OLED934. Unfortunately, other catch-up apps is not supported on this model.

With kind regards,
Philips TV UK Technical Support Team”
 
Cheers Chuck, mines now arriving tomorrow so looks like me buying a ATV 4K 😯
 

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