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.
Thanks a lot!, going to check em all and see if they are available in mexico.
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
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
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:
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/
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here are some renditions from my TCL QM751.
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.
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!
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.
Question:
Will any OLED be just fine for CRT Emulation?
Answer:
Definitely not. OLED displays generally don’t have the standard vertical R-G-B/B-G-R striped subpixel layout that subpixel aware CRT Shaders rely on in order to map modern display subpixels to emulated CRT Phosphors.
So only a handful of low TVL Masks can be acceptably emulated and only on WOLED. Due to QD-OLED’s triangular subpixel structure, the CRT-Subpxel Mask emulation is always off/inaccurate.
Only recently OLED panel makers have started to address this.
In addition to that, accurate emulation of Masks/Phosphors and Scanlines demands that most of the pixels of the display are turned off/darkened which makes things very dark. Add BFI/Beam Simulator/Pulsar aka Backlight Strobing and it gets even darker.
The solution? Shaders which compromise accuracy for the sake of brightness or very bright screens.
MiniLED screens far outshine OLED displays in this department. Even a Mid-Range miniLED can be brighter or just as bright as the brightest OLED displays, especially in sustained brightness.
Luckily OLED panels can squeeze some more brightness out of lit pixels the more unlit pixels are off so that can offset the brightness deficit relative to miniLED a bit.
miniLED can’t do that per pixel energy conservation so must rely instead on having much higher brute force sustained brightness potential. Due to their standard subpixel structure, many more mask layouts can be properly emulated and represented via the LCD subpixel structure which is not too dissimilar from an Aperture Grille CRT’s Phosphor structure.
Lastly, while modern OLED displays might be better at handling burn-in, there is always the risk of those emulated scanlines and scanline gaps wearing out unevenly.
Related to this, if one were to buy an OLED TV in 2026 for emulation (due to the wider viewing angles and deeper blacks), which model would you recommend?
I know miniLED TVs perform better in most cases, but viewing angles still lag behind OLED TVs, so some people might prefer the latter.
Thanks in advance!
The brightest you can get that doesn’t compromise on gaming or other features/strengths that would also benefit emulation and then secondary uses.
So any WOLED with an MLA panel, LG G3, G4. You can go tandem OLED but as stated before, it’s untested and unproven if current CRT shader subpixel mask layouts would be compatible.
So there might be a little lag before they’re actually fully supported as help would be needed from users and / developer who actually have access to the TVs to fully test the subpixel layout.
Nobody talks about this but it took years before RWBG/WOLED TVs had decent CRT shader support and advocacy to develop, test and implement them in shaders was mostly a done by a tiny handful of vocal folks who had those TVs in the community.
So LG G4, G3 would be easy recommendations although I don’t recommend OLED TVs for this.
LG G6, LG G5, Panasonic Z95B with the caveat about the new subpixel layout and uncertainty about Panasonic’s tonemapping, gaming features and the OS.
I really like the OLED image for emulation, even if it’s not very accurate.
I used to be afraid of burn-in, but a recent test by R-tings showed that LCDs in general suffer much more from it.
I’m starting to get burn-in on my LCD monitor myself, after only 2 years of use…
Interesting statement. While I also like the OLED image for emulation, have you ever experienced good CRT Shader Presets on a good miniLED display with >=720 local dimming zones, Peak 10% Window 1,466 cd/m², Sustained 50% Window 860 cd/m² with BFI before in order to actually compare how it might fare?
Also, not all OLED displays are incapable of accurate subpixel CRT emulation. RWBG/WOLED displays are very capable of accurate CRT emulation, however they are limited in the subpixel mask petterns that they can accurately simulate vs a display with a standard R-G-B/B-G-R vertical subpixel stripe.
No, before buying an OLED I had a regular LED, I even considered a miniLED, but I found the OLED image more pleasing.