It must be admitted, the 2023 Experts meet Experts event offered by TCL in Poland was a first for the members of the AVCesar editorial staff. Never, in more than 30 years of press conferences, product presentations or meetings with a brand's engineers, have we witnessed such a deployment of force: more than 40 televisions installed, including around fifteen "Jumbo TV", 85'' and 98'' specimens from the C805, C955 and X955 series, several other broadcasters displaying different LED and Mini LED backlighting systems to perfectly visualize the various processes implemented, numerous tools to the availability of media wishing to carry out screen measurements, direct and permanent access to TCL technical teams…
In short, a unique environment whose key words were “transparency” and “exchange”. This changes significantly, even radically, compared to other brands which are increasingly secrecy by not even wishing, for example, to communicate on the number of zones of their backlighting or on the light peak…
TCL 85C805, measurements
Informed of the organization desired by TCL, AVCesar was also present in force with our long-time partner, Cédric Louis (HC Calibrage) professional calibrator pictured below accompanied by his state-of-the-art and perfectly profiled equipment. With the aim of firstly measuring the performance of these screens very precisely, and then finely calibrating them to truly take advantage of what they have in their belly.
TCL 85C805, extremely bright out of the box
Before moving on to a complete test, we invite you in this news (and in two others to come on the C955 and of our benchmarking sessions. I might as well tell you right away, this first session did not start under the best auspices, we actually failed for several hours to take real measurements, the fault of an insane value of the light peak in SDR out of the box . Nearly 640 nits in Cinema mode for the 85C805, significantly more in Standard mode, i.e. figures offered by certain other televisions in… HDR.
TCL 85C805, unique tonal spectrum
Such a light peak in SDR is a first, so at the end of our first day in Warsaw, during part of the night, we had to completely rethink the initial profile of the Jeti Spectraval 1511 HiRes spectroradiometer (2 nm) whose The object is to precisely identify the tonal spectrum of the diffuser, an essential preliminary step for accurate measurements and precise calibration. Without the latter, the procedure is indeed necessarily erroneous. The screenshot below shows how unique the tonal spectrum of 85C805 is, which is why it is essential to take it into account for precise measurements and calibration.
Once the procedure was adapted to the new situation of these TCL TVs, at the start of the second day of the event, we were able to carry out our usual methodology successfully. With such a low turn-on, 636 nits in SDR and 1,356 nits in HDR (as a reminder, TCL announced 1,300 nits when this model was announced) it is for Mr. Toutlemonde to calm down the heat of the television, eye fatigue can quickly occur. And for lovers of beautiful images, calibration is therefore highly recommended.
TCL 85C805, measurements after calibration
Once this is finished, the HDR signal is set at nearly 122 nits with a Delta E of the average gray scale at 0.89, 1.21 for the gamut, perfect figures for watching TNT , DVDs or Blu-Rays.
For its part, the HDR signal displays a peak at 1,274.5 nits for a Delta E at 2.34 for the gray scale and 3.04 for the gamut, values sufficient to make speculars shine and display correct colors.
TCL 85C805, measurement of Color Volume and Color Checker
The Color Volume is indeed quite good, at 138% of Rec.709, 92.8% of DCI-P3 and 62.7% of Rec.2020. The same goes for the Color Checker, an aggregate of all the colors present in a feature film, measured here after calibration on 123 points with a dE of 0.9. Again, it's very good.
Last remark, the video processing of the TCL 85C805 TV is progress compared to last year's televisions, and very close to that offered by the C845 references. More details later.
In the end, our experience with the TCL 85C805 TV is excellent. The promises are kept, both in terms of light and colorimetric performance as well as video processing and ergonomics (fast interface). It now remains to create a complete test bench to know everything about this diffuser. But at the price currently offered (around €1,700), the TCL 85C805 stands out as one of the best value for money on the market.
