It's that time of the year again when members of the UK public are invited to vote on the best TV of 2018 for picture performance in a free-to-attend shootout event.

Now in its fifth year, the 2018 HDTVTest shootout event will take place in Greater London on Sunday the 15th of July. Four 65in 4K Ultra HD televisions from the leading TV brands in the United Kingdom will be compared, namely (in alphabetical order):

LG OLED65C8PLA;
Panasonic TX-65FZ952B or TX-65FZ802B (to be decided);
Samsung QE65Q9FN; and
Sony KD-65AF8.

The organisers are aiming to have two Sony BVM-X300 professional broadcast monitors at the event, so each TV can be compared directly beside a reference display for colour accuracy, not to mention shadow detail and specular highlights rendition.

All TVs will be given adequate time to run in, and calibrated to the common standards used within the film and broadcast industry for day, night, game, HDR and (where available) Dolby Vision modes, with help from two experts from Portrait Displays who develops the industry-leading CalMAN calibration software. A selection of content (4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, recorded terrestrial broadcast, HDR games, etc.) will be shown on all the TVs through a HDMI distributor kindly supplied by CYP Europe who will also provide technical support, and attendees will be asked to rate the TVs (1 to 5 scale) in the following categories (subject to change):

* Contrast performance;
* Colour accuracy;
* Motion;
* Video processing;
* Uniformity;
* HDR;
* Bright-room performance; and
* Gaming.

The TV which receives the highest score across all categories will be crowned the "Best TV of 2018". Awards will also be given out for the “Best Home Theater TV”, “Best Living Room TV”, “Best HDR TV” and “Best Gaming TV”.

The HDTVTest 2018 TV shootout event will take place on Sunday the 15th of July from 10.30am to 3.30pm at Harefield Academy, Uxbridge, UB9 6ET, United Kingdom. Attendance is free, but registration is required, and places are limited to 50 seats on a first come, first served basis. To register, please fill in the form at https://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/shootout