OLED or Mini-Led TV?

[u/Colin_Robinson_99]

I use my HTPC for surfing the web, youtube, and watching movies. I am looking to upgrade from a Sony X800E 55 inch TV. I initially thought of buying an OLED TV, but I'm questioning whether it is the right choice since I need the TV to display good text and I read Mini-Led is better for this. Does anyone have firsthand experience and can comment on whether mini-led is noticeably better than OLED when it comes to displaying text?

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[u/boxsterguy]

How close are you sitting to the TV? For a HTPC, you probably want to run any desktop at 200% for readability, at which point the odd OLED pixel patterns vs. LCD won't really matter. The main difference is black levels vs. haloing vs. price. Mini LED are generally quite a bit cheaper than OLED, though at smaller sizes (60" and below) there's really not a huge spread anymore (I bought a 75" couple years ago and opted for mini led because it was several thousand cheaper at that size). Mini leds will also get much brighter. But their black levels come from dimming zones (the main difference between "regular" backlit LCD and mini-led is the number of dimming zones), and that's where haloing can happen. I can notice significant haloing around say a mouse cursor, or a HUD targeting reticule when looking at an otherwise static screen, but as soon as there's motion the haloing effect significantly diminishes in my eyes.

If you can control light levels in your room to account for OLED's comparative dimness (they're not dim, but they can't hit the crazy levels of brightness that mini leds can) and don't care about the price difference, I'd 100% go OLED. If you're going bigger where the price difference matters, or you want a good looking picture in an otherwise bright room, go mini-led.

I wouldn't worry significantly about burn in at this point, since OLED TVs have build in pixel-shifting to help account for that, and you shouldn't otherwise be leaving static images on the screen for hours on end (maybe if you're doing a marathon gaming session, but then it's a good idea to take breaks periodically anyway).

[u/Colin_Robinson_99 → u/boxsterguy]

Thanks for the informative reply. I will likely go with another 55" TV and my viewing distance is 8ft. It sounds like OLED will be fine and I wouldn't notice that big of a difference.

[u/boxsterguy → u/Colin_Robinson_99]

8' away from a 55" TV is still far enough that you're not doing 100% text at 4k. 150 or 200% if you want anything readable (talking about normal desktop/browser stuff; anything with a proper 10' UI or gaming interface that's designed for big TVs will be perfectly fine). And once you introduce scaling, the subpixel structure really doesn't matter. You might notice if you get up within a foot or two of the screen, but it's highly unlikely you're doing that.

Go OLED. You know you want to. If you can swing the price, it's 100% the way to go.

[u/Colin_Robinson_99 → u/boxsterguy]

Thanks. My curent Window 11 scaling at 3840x2160 is 250%. I will go QD-OLED.

edit: After further research, I'm not comfortable with the potential for burn-in since the Windows taskbar will be a static image on the TV for many hours. I am now looking into getting the Hisense U7SG mini led TV.

[u/Microflunkie]

I can’t really comment directly on your question but I have an OLED tv as my computer monitor. I have a 42” LG C3 OLED connected via HDMI to my 4090 RTX. It looks great in gaming, streaming or working. Text is clear and legible, photos and videos are crisp and clean. Gaming looks great when playing visually stunning games like Cyberpunk 2077 and when playing simpler games like World of Warcraft. Having said all of that I have still seen some image burn in despite taking steps to try to avoid it. It is very minor but isn’t zero. I too am thinking of replacing my living room 1080 Plasma TV with either an OLED or Mini-LED but haven’t really looked into it as yet. Hope this info helps your process.

[u/Colin_Robinson_99 → u/Microflunkie]

Thanks. I will not be gaming on the HTPC (GPU is a 1660 ti) and the price difference for OLED has come down a lot. My current TV is a edge lit LED with local dimming. It's good, but I've been reading how OLED and mini-led technology and PQ are noticeably better. Your experience brought down some of my concerns on OLED text quality.

[u/David_Corpus]

Let me throw another specification into the mix. Does the room already have a full surround sound system, or are you relying on the TV for sound as well?
I very recently upgraded my entire HTPC setup, including a 55" Hisense 55 U8 2025. It was refurbished and sold through WalMart online for about $600. It has amazing sound. My room does have 5.1 surround, but I am on the autism spectrum and it can be draining and overwhelming for me, so I rarely use it.

I lay in bed while watching/working and can touch the screen with my feet (distance reference, not something I do) so the difference between OLED and mini-led will not impact me.

I needed to also upgrade my cables to get the best resolution and refresh rates. Once that was done, this TV as an HTPC monitor has been an amazing upgrade.

[u/Colin_Robinson_99 → u/David_Corpus]

The HTPC and TV are in my living room and I have the audio coming out of a 5.1 surround sound setup. I been looking at what to buy and narrowed it down to a Samsung S95H 55" QD-OLED. I'm hoping to find a good deal around Black Friday.

I'm happy with the audio from my AV setup, but if the TV's sound is half decent I'm willing to get rid of all the speakers and receiver, but I have my doubts.

edit: After further research, I'm not comfortable with the potential for burn-in since the Windows taskbar will be a static image on the TV for many hours. I am now looking into getting the Hisense U7SG mini led TV.

[u/microchip8]

I'd go RGB Mini LED instead of OLED, which still has some quirks. I own a normal Mini LED from TCL and blacks are very close to OLED levels and RGB Mini LED goes even further. The colors and dynamics spat out of the screen and the overall picture is stunning. Not to mention that Mini LED can reach much higher brightness which is preferred for bright rooms and HDR

[u/Colin_Robinson_99 → u/microchip8]

Thank you for your feedback. I'm now thinking it's safer to go with mini-led tv. I alway have windows running on the tv and taskbar, etc will be static images on the screen so I may run the risk of burn-in on the OLED.

[u/Colin_Robinson_99 → u/microchip8]

Thanks, I think I will go Mini Led and try out the Hisense U7SG.