GoKawiilMatthew Murray/ZDNET
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The first commercial TVs were five to seven inches long and displayed grainy black-and-white pictures. Now, the best TVs can reach a whopping 98 inches (or more) and feature color technology that creates rich, realistic images with individual pixels, AI processors, and even ambient light adaptation to make your movie nights feel immersive.
Also: The best TVs: Expert tested
TVs are only getting better and better in color and picture every year, so we decided to put them to the test. ZDNET tested seven flagship TVs from popular brands like Samsung, LG, and TCL in our Louisville-based lab. The lab team's goal was to evaluate each TV's color reproduction in different picture modes using the industry-standard display color calibration software, Calman.
The TVs that stood out above the rest were the LG C6 for the most accurate SDR color reproduction and the Hisense U8 for the most accurate HDR color reproduction. We chose to separate these awards and TVs because SDR and HDR are two distinct picture formats that are calculated slightly differently, so we wanted to designate a winner for each.
How we tested TVs
We tested the TVs in our lab using Portrait Displays' Calman software, the industry standard used by Hollywood film studios, broadcast networks, and more to validate color accuracy. The lab team chose two different ways to test each TV's color: color gamut and color accuracy.
Also: Get better color accuracy on your TV with these simple steps
Color gamut is the amount of colors that the TV is capable of displaying, measured in a percentage of the broadest color gamut (rec.709 for SDR and rec.2020 for HDR). Every color has a numerical designation determined by three different numbers in red, green, and blue. Calman measures where it thinks a perfect red should be, for example, and measures where the TV's closest approximation is relative to that, as shown in the image below.
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