Gizmo Guy: Tuned-in to Testing

Watching TV is serious business.

Just ask the gang at Netflix, the on-demand subscription TV giant whose new program of rating smart TVs - using Netflix - verges on the obsessive.

Results to come down below, where you'll also find this fanatic's hard-won judgements on 2015's priciest/best TVs.

When Netflix announced its program, this cynical sort thought its endorsement was mostly a branding strategy, akin to "Intel inside."

But it's also about nudging set makers to optimize the video streamer's technology and user interface.

All so Netflix becomes almost as fast and easy to "tune-in" as HBO or NBC - and thus achieves parity - if not superiority - in the minds of its 62 million subscribers.

"They've built quite the testing lab in California," said LG Electronics' Matt Durgin, director of its U.S.-based smart TV content team. "The evaluation is strenuous, and not all sets with a Netflix app make the grade."

Odds are good that you already have an Internet-connected device, maybe a video game console, videodisc player, or low-cost Web TV receiver (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Chromecast) that brings Netflix to your TV.

But in today's instant-access world, these accessories can require another remote, and be slow to boot up.

On the Netflix-recommended 49-inch LG UF7600 Ultra High Definition TV that GG has been testing, the startup is smooth, more satisfying.

A "paused" Netflix program still doesn't start playing on the LG TV as soon as you open Netflix (not part of the service's new predictive software upgrade?).

But after selection, a show resumes in less than 10 seconds precisely where you'd left it and with razor sharp, not blurry to start, resolution.

Not every Netflix-lauded TV is an Ultra High Definition model (with four times the resolution of HD.) And while it's the biggest seller of TVs in the U.S., Samsung has not a single set on the Netflix list. (A spokesman said it chose not to submit any sets to maintain neutrality with streaming services.)

Sony hits the approval mark with new Android Full HDTV models. Hisense, Insignia, Sharp, and TCL pass the grade with basic HDTVs.

Netflix gets to do a superiority dance, though, with recommended UHD sets from Hisense (the H7 series), LG (models with the webOS 2.0 operating system), and new Panasonic TVs running with Firefox OS. Because now showing up on its guide is a strip of UHD movies and shows, including Netflix originals such as House of Cards, Daredevil, and Grace and Frankie that visibly "pop" with extra presence if you sit close to the UHD screen. For a 49-incher, that would be at seven feet or less.

Surfing the Internet also proved far more pleasurable on this razor sharp, voice commandable and fast connecting TV.

Best in the land: New generation TV displays fired up with OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes) are where it's at in TV tech today.

OLED delivers blacker blacks, "the Holy Grail of TV reproduction," said "Sound & Vision" editor Rob Sabin. And in theory, it provides the most uniform brightness across the screen, with minimal drop-off in color/brightness for viewers sitting off to the sides, a major shortcoming with LCD panels.

So we were not surprised that most participants voting in the 11th annual Value Electronics TV Shootout awarded first place honors to an LG Electronics (yeah, them again) 4K OLED TV (the 65EG9600, $9,000) in a competition among flagship 4K Ultra HD TV models.

Other contenders, all LCD-based sets with local LED dimming, included the Panasonic TC-65CX850U ($3,999), Sony XBR-75X940B ($7,999), and Samsung UN78JS9500 ($10,000).

Why so costly? All are overbuilt, ready for the wider color gamut and brightness range specs still being worked out for UHD broadcasts, streaming, and videodiscs.

To this voter's eyes, the curved screen, 65-inch LG did perform best in a "Perceived Contrast" test that reveals fine differences in gray-scale gradation. I also found the LG the only TV in the pack that held up well in "Off-Axis" viewing (from the side). On competitors' models, a red test pattern faded to pale pink when viewed from the side.

But in the Screen Uniformity test - how the image gets distributed across the screen - the impressive LG suddenly showed odd image fringing on both sides of the picture, lowering my approval rating.

And in adding up my ballot tallies across seven test categories, Sony's 75-inch beauty actually nudged out the LG by two points (60 to 58) overall. Samsung was third with 56 points; Panasonic trailed with 50.

To these eyes, the Sony bested the pack in Screen Uniformity, Motion Clarity (important if you watch fast panning sports), and Day Mode (cranked up for viewing in a room with high ambient light.) The Sony was just a notch behind LG in Black Quality and Perceived Contrast.

215-854-5960 @JTakiff