I’ve been watching the reviews and prices of TVs at this quality level for two years. I’d had gone back and forth between the LG (C8 & C9) and Samsung Q90. I really like the one-box connect feature of the Samsung and the brightness of the QLED. But every review put the picture quality of the LG OLED on top along with the “smart TV operating system.” I happened to stumble upon an LG pricing promotion in which the C9 was on sale for the same price as last year’s C8—and several hundred dollars less than the Q90, so I went with the LG C9.
I am not a technical novice. Setting up a TV does not intimidate me at all. With that said, I became very frustrated with the entire set-up process. It was not fast and took way too long. I found myself with a headache—and I rarely get a headache! My stress seemed to be centered on the fact that I was spending “some” money on this TV and I had an expectation that I would be able to use all the bells and whistles I was paying for.
First, you MUST have TWO people to take the TV out of the box and screw on the stand.
I don’t know why, but for some strange reason… I watched the video on the Best Buy website about how to unbox the TV. I’m glad I did! The drawings on the top of the box were not exactly easy to follow. There was a small folded sheet of paper inside the box about the stand assembly. I’m reasonably intelligent, and my high school-aged son is even more so, but it took the two of us using some trial and error to put the bottom piece of the stand in the right position.
Once plugged up, the first part of the on-screen instructions/set-up seemed to go rather quickly (English/time zone/select Wi-Fi network). At this point, I’m starting to get excited -- but then the real frustration started to appear.
I connected the cable TV box, a Sonos soundbar, a LG DVD player and a Roku to the TV and found issues with each. I followed the on-screen instructions and it seemed to be fairly easy… but I kept running into small irritating problems.
Cable Box—Our city is legacy Time Warner Cable. I know we are now “Spectrum,” and I selected Spectrum for our cable TV provider. No matter how many times I went through the entire process of setting up the cable box, the magic remote would not change the channels, show me the on screen cable tv guide or power the cable box on/off. The LG TV said the magic remote was enabled but most functions did NOT work. I called the cable company, and as you can guess, after a series of prompts, I was put on eternal hold before I got unhelpful “technical support.” The agent told me the LG remote would not work with the cable box and I would have to use TWO remotes. Well that added to the frustration because I knew it simply was not true. Why did I buy a TV that is supposed to show me on-screen TV choices and offer me voice control, but the TV can’t let me use those features because it didn’t see the cable tv channel listing?
KEEP IN MIND, THERE IS NO FULL PRINTED INSTRUCTION MANUAL OR USER’S GUIDE! After 36-hours of searching the LG website for the full user’s guide (which I never really found) and searching internet chat boards, the good Lord pointed me to the answer on an internet forum: I needed to select “CHARTER” for the cable box on screen set up, NOT “SPECTRUM.” Once I did that, the TV displayed the cable TV guide, started making programming recommendations and the magic remote changed the channel and operated the power!
Sound Bar: I love my Sonos sound system. But there was one little problem that materialized that I never crossed my mind before I bought the set. I was not mounting the TV on the wall and was placing the TV on a piece of furniture. I soon realized the TV was not high enough from the cabinet surface. In other words, the three inches at the bottom of the screen was blocked by the soundbar! I tried hiding the soundbar behind the TV, but that eliminated the “line of sight” between the Sonos and the magic remote so I couldn’t operate the volume. I currently have the soundbar standing sideways/vertically beside the cabinet. I think I’m going to build a platform box to raise the TV (the soundbar will hide the platform).
LG DVD player: I was thinking there would be no compatibility issues since I had an LG DVD player for our DVD library. The magic remote does appear to operate the functions of the DVD player (play, stop, etc) but for some reason, the magic remote does NOT turn the DVD power on or off. So it looks like we will have to physically walk over to the cabinet to turn the machine on/off or use the original DVD remote.
Roku: This is the big remaining frustration. The LG TV “recognizes” the Roku. The TV flashes a message that a Roku is connected. The screen shows the magic remote recognizes the Roku. But the magic remote does not operate one single function. Internet message board suggest others have run into this same issue with the C9. I do want this figured out because if the magic remote does operate the Roku, then I would have an option of turning in the cable box and saving the monthly fee by using the Spectrum Roku app.
Now that the TV features “mostly” work, the picture really is stunning. I’ve used the Roku app to watch BBC 4K nature documentaries. I can’t stop watching African animals and colorful fish in 4K. The clarity and color are indescribable.
One quirk about the “photo gallery.” You can load pictures onto the TV’s internal memory or simply leave an USB thumb drive. I had these visions of loading hundreds of beautiful vacation photos and having the “slideshow” run on the TV when having guests over to glance at. The demo in the store showed nice “frames” around pictures. Those frames do exist but only with preloaded pictures to be used as screensavers (LG calls them “themes). My vacation pictures will rotate on screen as a slideshow, but without the pretty frames I saw in the store. Not a big deal, but not exactly how the sales people described it on the sales floor. …So another tiny disappointment.
I did not mount the TV on the wall because I didn’t want dangling cords or go to the expense and hassle of running cables through the walls. I would have mounted on the wall if I had bought the Samsung Q90 with the one connect box.
For those considering a new TV, ask yourself several questions:
1. Are you the kind who would go nuts if you had bells and whistles that you couldn’t utilize? I question whether any brand would not have a compatibility issue with at least one of your devices.
2. What is important or what are you willing to give up? The perfect picture and not being able to use all of the bells and whistles that come with the TV or accepting you won’t be able to use all of the bells and whistles so you might as well buy a lesser model and save $1,000 or more and get an excellent picture and juggle multiple remotes?
3. If you buy a deluxe TV set, even if you think you are technically minded, you may want to consider springing for the Best Buy Geek Squad to come and fully connect everything and get the TV up and running. …And don’t let them leave if they tell you multiple remotes will be needed. If that’s the case, send the TV back and settle for an excellent picture rather than a perfect picture and save some money.