List of recommended TVs for emulation

General
#24

Update:

It’s worth pointing out that there is still not a SINGLE TV available on the market that is bright enough to do scanlines, black frame insertion, AND mask emulation. You’d need about 2,000 cd/m2 sustained SDR brightness (full-screen).

It’s looking increasingly doubtful that there will ever be a modern TV capable of fully replacing the CRT in all areas of performance. There are a few displays intended for outdoor use that might be able to get bright enough, but none of them have the low input lag needed for next-frame response at 60fps.

So, hang out to those CRTs and learn how to repair them.

EDIT: I should clarify that when I’m talking about mask emulation, I mean setting the mask strength to 100%. If you’re willing to compromise on the mask strength a bit, it’s possible to get a very acceptable result when using mask + scanlines + BFI.

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#25

100 nits is a specification of SDR TV’s so I doubt you will see one get into HDR luminance territory. In my opinion, the best course of action is to use a HDR TV specced at 2000 nits and use a fitting inverse function to preserve tonality.

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#26

Can you elaborate on this a bit?

What we’re interested in is the sustained SDR brightness of an HDR TV since an emulator running in RA is SDR content. I’ve seen several that reach 2000 nits with HDR content, but 500-600 nits seems to be the max for SDR content, even among the new ultra-bright QLED TVs.

Also, what does this mean? “a fitting inverse function to preserve tonality”

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#27

I don’t own an HDR TV, you say that SDR plays on HDR TVs at 600 nits max? Couldn’t you just fake SDR content as HDR by applying an inverse function transform (and matching color space transforms) ?

If the TV applies a constant tonemapper (PQ, HLG), use the inverse of the tonemapper, this is usually an exponential function. I just don’t know by what terms an HDR TV says what is HDR and what is SDR content, or if retroarch glsl/slang has HDR support.

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#28

It depends on the TV, but yeah that’s about as bright as they get with SDR content, and it’s only the QLED TVs that get that bright (OLED has ABL that prevents you from doing this).

It’s my understanding that it doesn’t, sadly :frowning:

This is way over my head; can you run this by someone who knows about this stuff? @hunterk

If we can fake SDR content as HDR, that would be a godsend for CRT emulation.

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#29

I’m speculating, first and foremost I don’t know if the HDR transfer functions can be reverted, PQ is non linear but I recall reading on pages about converting SDR content to HDR.

Then the inverse function has to overshoot so not to cancel perfectly and reach display max nits (2000), that means a parametric inverse function and not a LUT.

And third, I guess retroarch should be HDR aware and signal that to the display.

All speculation and far fetched, but just wanted to let you know in case I might also learn something out of it.

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Please show off what crt shaders can do!
#30

Take a look at this TV and see if it warrants your attention and consideration.

You can take a look at this one as well:

Here’s one more to check out:

This is a nice review for comparisons:

And here’s one of the newer brighter OLED TVs

Take a look at this thread @Digitech. It might help you to make a more informed decision when it comes to purchasing a new TV.

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#31

Thanks a lot!, going to check em all and see if they are available in mexico.

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#32

Just thought I’d do a small update of a much needed thread.

https://youtube.com/shorts/bJJoAiZSvc0?si=PlrFpTNJoKvJQRPd

https://www.youtube.com/live/Dp1OjdbvCsk?si=dEGqAG-1XlUQjsgI

https://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-claims-to-have-solved-the-blue-PHOLED-puzzle-with-a-new-tandem-OLED-display-technology.880278.0.html

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#33

Just wanted to follow up from my previous post.

The TCL QM751G has proven itself to be an emulation powerhouse. There is no perfect TV though so the one thing I noticed that might be a bit distracting is the backlight lag and so far I’ve only noticed this in one particular scene in one game with large rapidly scrolling red text on a black background.

I haven’t seen any other instance of this, which bodes well for the tech. Most other miniLED TVs from other manufacturers perform a lot worse in this very important metric so I would say that the TCL QM751G, QM851G, Sony Bravia 7, Sony Bravia 9 would represent the baseline for miniLED models which I might choose for emulation.

I think I’d also include 2023’s TCL QM850G as its a very similar TV to the QM851G.

Fast forward to 2025 and TCL has announced Zero Delay backlight technology, higher precision dimming zone control, which rivals the tech used in the 2024 Bravia 7 and 9 and most welcomed, wide viewing angle tech.

All of which are supposed to be available in the TCL QM7K and up soooo, miniLEDs in 2025 are shaping up to be really game changing tech for emulation.

I didn’t even mention the brightness, colour saturation and blooming performance improvements.

Last year, we got exceptional value with the extremely capable 55" QM751G coming in at as low as US$477 during sales!

Let’s hope this year won’t be spoiled by things which we have no control over. It would be nice to see similar value but it’s very possible that 2024 might prove to be the golden year for value or the last time to get in on the value train before things become very different for a while.

Last thing I would mention about the QM751G is that it does really well with its built-in BFI/Backlight Strobing even at 60Hz refresh rate.

I find it suitable for retro emulation content, however there is a lot of noticeable flicker at least to me on any static, progressive content which lacks scanlines. So for folks like me that makes it incompatible with things like overlays unless you don’t mind or aren’t distracted by the flicker.

What I would say about BFI and the improved motion is that it’s nice to have but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker if you’re not a purist and are not already used to it.

I used to be curious before but running at 60Hz with no BFI was still a very enjoyable experience for me.

https://www.youtube.com/live/vBghsjobYUw?si=jco4HPwIF8mothAP

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CyberLab Death To Pixels Shader Preset Packs
#34

2025 miniLED TVs are here! Excellent for CRT Emulation!

https://www.gizmochina.com/2025/03/10/tcl-q10l-qd-mini-led-tv-series-launch-specs-price/

https://www.gizmochina.com/2025/03/09/hisense-launches-e8q-pro-tvs-specs-price/

https://www.tcl.com/us/en/press-releases/tcl-qm7k-launch

This is what’s next:

Is Sony scared of TCL, Samsung and Hisense? They have all announced similar technology on the horizon.

@Nesguy would love this. Now if only they would switch the subpixel layout to RGB from BGR.

Must mention these 2:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/s/8dODITqWrq

https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/s/DVDQ2WIdt1

This is probably one of the best TVs you can buy for emulation right now:

  • Precise Dimming Series Up to 5184 Zones
  • · HDR 5800 nits (Peak Brightness)
  • · CrystGlow WHVA Panel (excellent native contrast ratio, black levels and wide viewing angle technology)
  • · 144Hz Native Refresh Rate

Also, based on the reviews of the QM8K which also uses a Crystal Glow WHVA panel, it should have an RGB subpixel layout!

This is the future though:

https://www.youtube.com/live/gMnXc3WfSWs?si=D-mwHjICJ7K0eCX0

I recently learned that the display in the iPad Pro M4 uses tandem OLED but doesn’t have a white subpixel.

According to this the TCL QM851G is brighter than the TCL QM8K making it one of the best TVs for CRT Emulation given its other strengths, however the TCL QM8K is still very bright and it sports better viewing angles and a more CRT-like R-G-B subpixel layout.

What a hard choice.

Hopefully 2026’s offerings or possibly the QM9K will be better than the QM851G in every possible metric. One thing though is that it will always be tough for the newer models to beat the QM851G one price/performance as they’re mostly more expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/live/_14yVGa73k8?si=1r49b2TQyidpJxFC

https://www.gizmochina.com/2025/09/17/tcl-sqd-mini-led-tech-explained/

https://www.gizmochina.com/2025/09/15/tcl-x11l-sqd-mini-led-tvs-launched-specs-price/

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#35

Thank you very much for your insightful posts. So, @Cyber and @Nesguy, which TV would you buy today if you wanted the best experience emulating and using shaders? If you could contemplate budget, mid-range and expensive options separately, it would be great.

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#36

You’re welcome.

For me it would be a range that I would consider with pros and cons of different options. I think I have already listed what I think might be good options but I’ll try again.

For OLED LG G5, Panasonic Z95B with the caveat that the subpixel layout may not match currently available CRT shader Mask Layouts so some updating and catching up might be required. I think it should be as simple as swapping the subpixel order from the old WOLED layout to the new one but that would probably provide the best overall experience using the very few Mask Layouts that would be supported by those TVs.

LG G4, G3. Those have the advantage of being compatible with current WOLED Mask Layout options while being bright as well.

OLED TVs do suffer from burn-in and ABL does kick in and dim your screen during gaming, especially if you like leaving the TV in the options menu while listening to video game music.

miniLED TVs - Extremely Bright miniLED TVs also provide the best experience but in different ways to OLED and in ways that OLED TVs probably can’t match yet. They’re generally much more flexible in terms of the Mask Layouts and CRT TVLs that they can competently emulate and their brightness is second to none, which is very important for CRT emulation, especially when motion clarity enhancing techniques are used. The downsides are mainly in the poorer viewing angles and blooming which can be noticed in less than ideal viewing conditions, for example off axis viewing and in dark environments.

TCL QM9K, TCL QM8K - Among the brightest TVs ever made, Wide viewing angle technology and R-G-B subpixel layout.

TCL QM851G - One of the brightest TVs ever made. Better specifications and performance than the very good TCL QM751G. I would have a hard time choosing the TCL QM8K over this because it is brighter than the QM8K. That additional brightness headroom can be useful when trying to improve motion clarity by the use of BFI or the CRT-Beam Simulator. I like that the QM8K has the R-G-B layout though, that’s cool.

Sony Bravia 9, TCL QM751G, TCL QM7K, Sony Bravia 7 - The Sony Bravia 9 is among the most accurate TVs in existence and I have the TCL QM751G so I know it can pass the test. The QM7K is actually slightly dimmer though and it also has less (albeit higher precision) dimming zones.

The Sony Bravia 7 should be a decent alternative to the TCL QM751G/QM7K but it has less dimming zones and I don’t think it’s brighter than either of them either.

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#37

It depends on how realistic you want to get with shaders. For fully accurate mask emulation, you want 100% mask strength, which can reduce brightness by more than 90% in some cases. This means you need brightness, lots of brightness.

The DisplayHDR 1000 spec is what you should be looking for. This is pretty much exclusive to MiniLED. (It’s on a few FALD LCDs but you want MiniLED- it’s basically the same thing with more dimming zones and the current tech)

If you can afford it - DisplayHDR 1000 True Black. This is only possible with the latest OLED tech and currently only found on a few high-end small screen devices (laptops, tablets).

https://displayhdr.org/certified-products/#tab-1000

I’m currently running a KTC M27P20P.

It doesn’t have the greatest build quality, and quality control on this brand is abysmal, but it has the DisplayHDR 1000 spec, and it’s affordable.

DSE is very bad on these. I had to play the panel lottery several times - out of 8 displays they sent me, only 2 were acceptable in terms of backlight uniformity. So be prepared for that. I bought this last year, so there are likely better options, now.

Shaders on this monitor absolutely blow away anything else I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been doing this stuff for about 15 years.

Black level with local dimming off is a bummer, I’ll admit. But HDR1000 True Black will be affordable soon, give it 5 years.

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#38

Once again, thank you very much, @Cyber and @Nesguy! I think all the bases are covered with your posts. I’ll let you know once I buy something, and I will post pictures here too, in order to help others to decide.

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#39

Here are some renditions from my TCL QM751.

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#40

Damn, I should have waited! lol.

@yepes you may want to check this one out. This is the one I wish I had waited for.

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#41

Sorry for late reply. I’ll check it out!

For my future setup, I’ll probably use a TV, since it will be used by my family too, but since I’m in need of a second monitor for my PC I may end up getting your recommendation!

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#42

#43

Greetings @Nesguy, the first post of this thread is getting a bit long in the tooth. Don’t you think an update is long overdue?

Hope all is well.