In the XX Century all that was needed was cash! A good load of cash would get you a great tv. This was true in the 80s, 90s and even in the 2000. Today and since 2012-2015 the choice (at least for me) is becoming almost impossible!

When 4k arrived after a couple of years i decided to buy a 43" inch tv in order to change my 32" living room tv. This was in 2015/2016 and it was black friday and i could not resist a deal of 399.99. Soon i realized something was wrong i could not adapt to this new tv. From red eye, to sore eye or migraines i was forced to return the tv after 1 week.

2016 Return Round 1 - LG 43" 4K - IPS panel Low/medium range - 399.99 Eur - symptoms were bad.

Still in black friday i could not help it and pull the trigger again after a big promo and search for the model specifics and same result!

2016 Return Round 2 - Samsung 40MU6445 VA Panel - Medium range- 429.99 Eur - diferent brand same result 🙁

After this first exercice i started to investigate why this "curse" is happening to me…. since the dawn of times i bought tvs and monitors without any problem. (My first monitor in the 90s was a crt sony triniton with a impeccable image)

I reached one conclusion: I need to try again! LOL

In the next year 2017 at Black Friday, AKA: "TV Return Season" i was going to do it again. This time diferent technology and bigger size: LG 49" Full Array + Nanocell. The tv was awesome……however…had to return it.

2017 Return Round 1 - LG 49" 4K - IPS panel Nanocell FALD - medium range - 699.99 Eur.

Still in Black Friday i started to reach a conclusion…. IPS = Soft on the eyes + Sony no PWM and bough a Sony 43XF85 Edge Led. WOW Finally it worked i adapted very well to this tv! My experience was sucessfull it was PWM Free TV. However lol the panel had lot a banding and grey fog effects on a black screen. Can you guess what happened?

2017 Return Round 2 - Sony 43" 4K - IPS panel Edge Led - medium range - 789.99 Eur.

Well starting on the next Return TV Season of 2018 - I decided to buy 2 tvs on a row….

  • LG B7 OLED TV 55" - Oled TV
  • Sony 49XG9005 - LED Reference TV FALD

The Oled was awesome the sound awesome the picture very good! But….very large size for me lots of sore eyes and eye stain! Regarding the Sony 49" Perfect Size for me but PWM tv…..lots of migraines and diziness 🙁

2018 Return Round 1 (Double Pack Return) - Sony 49XG9005 - 899 Euros and LG OLED B7 - 1000 Euros

Man….i am tired of writting imagine to carry all these boxes LOL

Ok ok ….this time i went to ebay and won an auction of a Sony: 43XD8099 for 250 euros- VA Panel, Flicker Free and this was been my living room tv since then! The image is very good and natural and i consider it a reference TV in the 43" size! (it is way better that the sony led best model of 2022) and surprise it was updated to android 9….a tv from 2016! 🙂

Living Room Tv since 2018 - Sony 43XD8099 - VA Panel , Flicker Free, Best 43" Tv

This was a good experience and not the first since i already bought before the Sony 32W706B for my bedroom a small gem tv with VA Panel and flicker free image. Cost me about 150 euros in ebay 🙂

Ok this was my tv since 2018 to 2021…… but i wanted more and in 2021 starts another Black Friday AKA: "Tv Return Season" and this time i made my homework!! So i pull the trigger on a Sony 50XJ85 - VA Panel from a AUO optronics (Flicker Free according to Rtings) so what could go wrong??? …..Well a lot…..This was a pseudo Hdmi 2.1 - (Shame on you Sony 2 year in a row wtf??) also the tv image was worse than my 43" 2016 TV, and i got eye strain sympthons…..i had no alternative 🙁

2021 Return Round 1 - Sony 50XJ85 - 799 Euros

And finally the point where we are! 2022 not planned to buy anything and wait for QD OLED but…. saw a deal of the Sony 48" Oled 48A9 for 1000 Euros and decided to pull the trigger!

The Tv is very good is a Master series Tv, Image is good, sound is big surprise. Big let down is the MOTION 🙁 was not expecting this! TV is the second version 2021 sony KE48A9. I am at the Second day of use! Started to play with configs and create another post in this forum. For now Cinema mode and everthing off, only get some diziness or migraines no eye strain, let me see if i can adapt to this ….. if not …oh man…. 🙁 i dont want to return this tv …its a master series! Tomorrow will try new TV cable box and new hdmi cables to see if i get pass the migraines.

Update - returned the sony 48A9 master series oled - reason : headaches + migraines

This was my story regarding TVs…. phones and monitors no problem if i buy flicker free ones!

Thank you for reading and thank you for this great comunity!

To the TV makers - "This is frustrating…."

raven83 changed the title to Finding a usable 4k TV? My case history! .
8 months later

caoyirui thanks but tried the x85j it is the same panel and i found the tv weak in image quality. It has a 8bit plus frc panel. I recomend only 10bit panels. Now i have a xe9005 49 inch….not perfect and has pmw but will keep it for a couple of months until new upgrade to qd oled or something in the range of 48 to 50 max max

Thank you

    7 months later

    New updates…

    In late 2022 early 2023 i bought a used sony 49xe9005….for 500 euros in ebay. Initial times were dificult but i was able to adapt! This is a fald and pwm tv….wtf? This was a surprise but i managed.

    After severall years trying i managed to adapt to a fald and pwm tv….and the only thing i remember doing was trying….and change configs.

    After one month i was watching tv like a pro. This was in my living room tv until now….

    However…..

    I lost my mind and bought a Sony 55A95k (qd oled samsung panel) for the living room and a Sony 42A90k (oled lg panel) for my bed room.

    I am a bit scared as this tvs were expensive but this is an experience of severall weeks or months since i decided not to return the tvs lol

    It is a Dream : two Sony master series tvs in my house.

    Results by now….

    Living room tv distance 3,5 almost 4 meters - 55 inch

    Bedrom tv distance 3 meters - 42 inch

    Day one:

    No red eyes

    Some diziness

    Left sore eye

    I will keep updates trough this expensive and painfully experience lol 😅

    20 days later

    Update …

    I had to return the sony a90k 42 lg oled panel. Headaches were very bad. Conclusion Oled tv its not for me period.

    Regarding the sony a95k samsung qd oled panel also struggling. Decided to risk and already outside the return period. So if i cant adapt i am going to sell the tv…at a loss for sure!

    I had one ok week with this tv but had to:

    Put the color temperature red green blue on bright scenes at -40 or -35 …with this and contrast 45 or 50 and brightness at 15 i managed to hold…but the image is very dim and washed out.

    As soon as i rump things up….i get incredible headaches that last for days its horrible! A bit better than lg oled but also bad….

    Will try and experiment for another month but not much hope….

    I am already think in sell and try a new mini led tv like the new sony xr70 in 55 inch in the end of the year black friday time.

    The problem with oled and qd oled is a choice of sore eyes and headaches choosing from motionflow on or off and ajusting is strengh will give you sores eyes in off and headaches in on!

    I have to say this after experience 3 oleds and 1 qd oled …..motion is a mess in oled! Every tv i tried sony and lg the motion is horrible! This is the problem!

    For sure i will go led again! Oled never again! Qd oled will try more but few hope…

    Will be putting updates here.

    Any suggestion is welcome

    Thank you

      I'm tempted to give the new Samsung S95D QD Oled a shot. For me, reflections also were part of the eye strain I encountered as the screens even slightly hurt my eyes when turned off. So the new anti-reflective coating might work for me. Did also try the S95B two years ago and that was not perfect, but getting there. For me, better than the C1 & C2 from LG.

      Also tried one mini-led from LG and that was worse than the OLED's. Think it was an 85QNED series (55" for all tvs mentioned above).

        MvDoorn We pass our lifes trying tvs we should be reviewers 😛 Eye Strain Reviewers lol

        Based in my experience i dont recomend oled or qd oled.

        I am trying the A95K but….. but…its been hard lol

        I am thinking in try mini led the new xr70….

        Where do you find the mini led worse than oled? For me the oled motion is horrible! I think it is that giving me headaches…

          5 months later

          MvDoorn did you ever try the Samsung S95D?

          I also have strain when looking at glossy TV screens when they are off, so I am keen to give this TV a go.

            dev