I have the Costco swivel mount. I would say it seems fine at 45-60 degrees with a 65-inch TV, but 90 degrees feels like a lot of torque on the wall bolts. It screws into joists with four heavy duty bolts, so I mostly believe it’s weight rating.
That really needs to be over a dorm bed. Would probably not get away with attaching it to the wall in the dorm, though.
I picked up LG’s new 65 GX, which mounts flat on the wall (zero space between) on Monday and absolutely love it. Since I was wall mounting in the “nice” living room, vs. setting it up in the library where I have the full 7.1 sound system, game consoles, etc. (ie: my personal “nice”), the premium for the flat wall mount feels justified. The set looks just amazing on the wall, and it’s so unobtrusive.
The wall mount is ingenious, but it does not go up as easily as in the LG video, at least not if you have to mount the TV higher. First problem was the horrible cheap plastic drywall anchors LG includes with the mount, which invariably popped into the wall as I tried to screw them in. I replaced those with eight 3/16 all-metal hollow wall anchors (the studs, alas, were badly placed for where the set needed to go) and they worked great and the mount is now super-solid.
Once the mount is up, getting the set onto it is pretty easy if the set is at chest level, not so much if the bottom of the set is about 4 feet up, because the set is large, fragile, and nearly 70 pounds. It was hard to line up from that angle while holding it that high. The key ended up being getting one of my son’s friends to help hold it up while my son eyeballed the mounting location from the top on a small step ladder.
Once it was set up… Wow. The visuals are pretty much identical to the LG CX (the cheaper ‘traditional’ design, they’re as wonderful as you’d expect. Uniformity is perfect, and no obvious problem pixels. It supports 120Hz, GSync,. Freesync, and all of the HDMI 2.1 frame rate stuff that the 2020 consoles should be bringing to the table.
What really surprised me, though, especially given how thin it is, is how rich the stock audio is. I don’t think I’ve used a TV’s built-in audio since I had a Sony Trinitron. My library LG set is backed by a Denon/Klipsch/Hsu surround setup. I hadn’t planned to use built-in audio here, but I was having trouble figuring out the best way to set up audio since the room’s not conducive to a component system and a soundbar would be silly with this thin set. So I figured I’d try the audio as a stopgap and I have to say, it’s amazingly rich and clear, and the Atmos actually works to a degree. Both movies and Xbox One X games had surprising clarity and volume. It’s not room-shaking like the setup upstairs, but for the usage here, I may be happy with it. It seems to take advantage of its flush mount to use the walls to enhance the audio.
I’d considered adding Bluetooth surrounds by the couch just to add more dimension, but apparently doing so disables the Atmos—and I can’t imagine it doesn’t have some delay penalty.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the apps. The processor in this thing is so fast that the apps feel as responsive as the ones on my Apple TV, Fire, Xbox One, etc. Am I missing some limitations, or am I right in thinking I can actually use the smart TV part of my smart TV for once? Netflix/Hulu/Plex/Disney/AppleTV+/CBS all seem pretty good, and I have to assume they’re optimized for the set’s capabilities, no?
Anyway, really pleased with my purchase. For any other room in the house I’d absolutely say save the money and get the CX. (Or grab a C9 while the rebate’s on, it has 95% of the fancy HMDI 2.1 stuff but no ATSC 3.0.) But for an unobtrusive wall-mount set, the GX is a beauty. Put the masterpiece slideshow on and it looks like an oddly glowing piece of art.
Why a new set? Tax refund + coronavirus-quarantined teenager who’s been hogging the library gaming setup. :)
Congrats Denny, that sounds awesome (and a good reason to buy from a place that does installation!)
Congrats & that sounds awesome!
You certainly can use the built-in apps well enough. Though I personally wouldn’t since Smart TVs are known to spy on us / sell our info.
Diego
I’ve been using the apps on my older LG in lieu of a box since I got it. That said, it’s not a perfect situation. MLB.tv dropped support last year. Google Play doesn’t do 4K HDR unless you have a Chromecast. But generally it’s s lot better than switching between devices.
It does not disable Atmos if you’re using a capable player, like your xbox one x and have the Dolby audio app installed. If you’re using a receiver in between the console and the TV, the receiver also needs to be Atmos capable.
And congrats on nabbing such a wonderful TV! Completely agree on the apps being much better this generation and definitely workable - I routinely use the Amazon, Netflix, Youtube and UFC apps. Heard the Disney + one is good too, but I haven’t tried it.
Love to talk all-things OLED (now have 3 in a condo under 1100 sq ft, lol), so please reach out if you want a reality check on anything or otherwise have Qs.
It does on current gen LGs like Denny’s. Since the Gen8s in 2018, I think.
You can get a relatively cheap (but good, and the top wirecutter choice) Denon receiver like the AVR-S750H Receiver if you want to add surround, but (important) you will also need separate Atmos speakers (and if you only have one set of Atmos speakers, which is more than enough for anyone, they should be positioned with the front speakers, not the rear ones).
But you might as well just take the built-in audio for a thorough test drive - also depends upon room size, etc. – but it’s surprisingly capable as is, and it’s nice to have the Atmos effects built in. I have a receiver set up for my main TV, but for my home office I’m just using the native audio in the C9 55" - I was going to add bluetooth speakers as well (which I thought I’d get additional utility from as surround sound speakers for my main PC), but don’t think it’s necessary in that context, and I don’t want to lose Atmos or have to add 2 more speakers. For my bedroom TV (an older, 65" E6, which has significantly worse built-in sound, although it’s not abysmal), I have a simple wireless surround sound setup with soundbar (https://www.target.com/p/vizio-36-34-5-1-sound-bar-system-black-sb3651-e6/-/A-17303189), but that TV doesn’t have atmos so it was an addition without compromising anything.
Thanks, @Desslock! This is actually my second OLED. I bought a 65" C8 as my “divorce TV” summer of 2018. That’s set up in my media room, backed by a Denon S-930H receiver and Klipsch Atmos setup. (Our setups sound really similar, except my bedroom TV is a crappy $200 Element LED set.)
This one is my “Quarantine TV.” I bought the GX because the 17-year-old and his friends by default hang out in the media room where all my AV stuff is. When I let them have the room, watching in the bedroom on the small Element set wasn’t exactly a great AV experience. Now my girlfriend and I can watch the GX in the living room. Plus I have a second Xbox One X, which is the only thing connected to the GX. And the GX will be great for the Series X and PS5 when they happen.
Turns out I’m really happy with the sound on the GX. I wouldn’t have expected they could get such rich audio out of a 0.8 inch-thick TV, but there’s an audio setting for indicating if it’s flat on the wall, and I assume their audio engineers are actually taking advantage of the wall surface for sound distribution. I like rich audio for movies and gaming (see setup above ;) so I’m pleasantly shocked that the built-in sound is good enough here.
Still have some playing to do with the settings, but overall I’m blown away.
Awesome, man, those are great setups. I also bought my first OLED (the
E6) shortly after divorce, FWIW. I guess it’s the modest sports car of our gen of gamers.
Note to self: When you get divorced, get a nice big OLED TV and a nice sound system.
I got a C9 and an awesome sound bar without getting divorced. Apparently I’m doing it wrong
Same here. Heck, I was looking at a cheaper Samsung set for my office/man-cave and my wife was the one who insisted on springing for the C9.
Well, my girlfriend wholeheartedly supported the GX purchase. We watched Avatar on it tonight; I hadn’t seen it since my theatrical viewing. Not deep, but beautiful, and good for showing off OLED!
I think I gotta see if she’s seen Fifth Element…
Isn’t it amazing without the 3D? I was blown away by how much more detail I noticed in that movie without the 3D directing my attention to specific spots. The 3D was great, but the 2D version was amazing.
My OLED65C7P that I bought in 5/18 (not quite 2 years old) is getting crappy. There’s slight burn-in on the bottom from static image (my fault for ignorance) but even worse is the yellow in the center of the screen is out of whack. The yellow is muted out it affects red, orange, and purple. It’s totally noticeably and super annoying and there’s nothing that I know of that can be done about it - pixel refresher did nothing to improve.
That said, Congrats on that GX!! It looks great but out of my price range so I’m thinking about either the C9 or CX. C9 is a bit cheaper and the CX is a bit newer. Then it’s a matter of who to buy it from? Buying directly from LG is more expensive than say a NewEgg and BB etc.
Get somebody to install it if you can. They aren’t heavy, but they are so stupidly thin and without bezels to speak of they are bloody difficult to handle. I was terrified handling ours.
I bought an OLED65B7A at the same time & I’d be super-pissed if it was already worn-out at 2 years. It’s an expensive purchase (even at a discount) for something that only lasts that long. Would seriously make me reconsider buying the tech despite how great it looks.
Diego