Reviews

Review: B&O BeoVision Eclipse 55 Ultra HD OLED TV

BeoVision Eclipse
What do you get when you combine the years of experience of B&O in the field of sound with LG's OLED imaging technology? Bang & Olufsen BeoVision Eclipse 55 is the impressive result of this collaboration.
4.4/5 - (442 votes)

What do you get when you combine the years of experience of B & O in the field of sound with LG’s OLED imaging technology? It must have been a question that both companies found intriguing, because the B & O BeoVision Eclipse 55 is the impressive result of this collaboration.

B & O BEOVISION ECLIPSE 55 – specifications

  • What: Ultra HD OLED TV
  • Screen size: 55 inches (139 cm), flat
  • Connections: 7x HDMI, 1x optical minijack in, 3x USB (1x 3.0), 3x antenna, 4x Power Link, 6x, PUC, Bluetooth
  • Extras: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, 6 class D amplifiers + speakers (3x 100 Watt midrange / bass drivers, 2x 50 Watt full range drivers and 1x 50 Watt center tweeter), WiFi (802.11ac) built in, WebOS 3.5, USB / DLNA media player, DVB-T2 / C / S2, CI + lock, Airplay (2), Chromecast, motorized stand
  • Dimensions: 1.390x 1235 x 518 mm (including foot)
  • Weight: 58.3 kg (including foot)
  • Consumption: 162 / 0.5 watt (Energy Label A)
  • Recommended retail price: 9.750 euros

B & O BEOVISION ECLIPSE 55 – design

With a name like Torsten Valeur behind the design of the Eclipse you can expect an exceptional piece. The man already signed a whole series of B & O products, such as BeoLab 17 and 18 to name but two, and has won a whole series of awards.

And yet, to us, the Eclipse is a design that falls into the ‘love it or hate it’ category. The device stands out because of its gigantic sound center (B & O refuses to speak of a soundbar) that is even wider than the screen, and because of the glass plate below the sound center. It gives the impression that the screen goes straight through the loudspeaker. Personally, we find the whole a bit too big and bombastic, but that is undoubtedly due in part to the fact that the current design trend strives for minimalist images. We realize all too well that taste is a personal thing, so see and judge him for yourself.

The actual screen is a LG 55C7V, something that B & O does not make absolutely secret. The execution is identical except for the color choice. The unobtrusive screen edge is black, just like the cover of the back, on the LG version are those gray and white. You can personalize the television by adjusting the speaker cover plate. The fabric grille is available in five colors: black, Forged Iron, Infantry Green, Parisian Night and Purple Heart. Or you opt for the premium grille in silver-colored aluminum. For the installation you can choose between a fixed or motorized wall bracket, and a motorized floor stand. The wall bracket is an impressive piece that connects perfectly to the sound center and keeps the whole structure up with minimal-looking attachment to the wall.

Our test sample was delivered with the motorized floor stand, a slender column and round base plate, made of silver aluminum. The engines do their work quietly. The television can rotate around its vertical axis, but that is not all. The column is eccentric on the base plate and can also move. So you can move the whole structure forwards or backwards and turn the screen to almost 90 ° left and right. You can also set a number of positions that you activate at the touch of a button. By default, you set a ‘stand-by’ and ‘active’ position during the first installation.

Connections

The device does not offer exactly the same connections as on the LG C7V. On the TV itself there are only three HDMI connections available, the fourth is connected to the sound center where you get four extra HDMI connections, for an impressive total of seven. The TV still offers three USB connections (one of which is USB 3.0) and three antenna connections which are brought to the bottom of the device with the help of a special extension cable supplied. This is more convenient for cable management. The network connection is also moved downwards in the same way.

At the bottom of the BeoVision Eclipse 55 you will also find eight RJ45 connnectors. Four of these serve as Power Link, on which you can connect two BeoLab speakers per connector, three for PUC (Peripheral Unit Control), and one for a future microphone for automatic calibration of the sound.

It is striking that the optical digital output (somewhat superfluous given its musical abilities), but also the headphone output on the TV are not active. There is a minijack at the sound center that can be used for analog stereo line-in as well as for optical. He also has Bluetooth built in, but that only serves to connect sources, not for headphones.

B & O BEOVISION ECLIPSE 55 – ease of use

B & O has opted to use WebOS, but of course it had to make some changes, for example to control the sound part and to compensate for the absence of the Magic Remote. The end result is not always as intuitive as the pure WebOS version, but it is a very solid compromise.

For example, the HDMI connections are no longer available as tiles in the Home Menu, which you should now select from the remote. The quick menu that appears in WebOS on the right and with which you quickly adjust image and sound has disappeared. All settings can now be reached in two steps. The first menu shows an icon for the LG settings, followed by three icons for specific B & O settings (Sound, wireless speakers and speaker groups).

Remote control

The BeoRemote One is a particularly stylish and especially slim zapper. Made from solid aluminum, it is very comfortable to hold. The layout is fine. The keys have slightly different profiles, or an accent line so that you can identify them relatively easily by touch. Nevertheless, we had appreciated lighting, because in the dark, incorrect attack can not be ruled out.

It may not be a Magic Remote, so there is no pointing function like on the LG remote, but you get a number of other functions. To begin with, it is a BT-remote, so you do not have to focus on the TV. The remote is also equipped with a small screen at the top. Via that route you quickly choose a particular source, or you can quickly adjust all sorts of settings via the ‘list’ button. That is also the ideal way to quickly choose another image or sound feature.

Furthermore, the BeoRemote One can be used as a universal remote. The devices you want to control so you have to connect to one of the four HDMI connections on the sound center. The sound center then sends the IR signals via an IR extender that you connect to one of the three PUC connections (two IR blasters per PUC). Finally there is a ‘MyButton’ that you can configure yourself to choose a specific position, speaker group, source and picture and sound settings.

B & O BEOVISION ECLIPSE 55 – features

Smart TV platform

You get the handy, fast and intuitive WebOS environment. It contains all important services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube, Google Film and TV, Deezer, and so on. In terms of functionality and smart TV applications, very little has changed.

Smart functions

The BeoVision Eclipse 55 is equipped with a dual TV tuner for DVB-T2 / C / S2 but only has one CI + lock. Recording and at the same time viewing another channel is possible, but only if one of the two channels is available unencrypted. Of course you can record to a USB hard drive.

Some features from WebOS 3.5 seem to be missing. The Quick-access function is not available and YouTube 360 ​​videos do not work either (the latter may still be possible via firmware). The media player is very extensive and could handle all of our test files. In addition to all Chromecast functionality, the TV is also equipped with Airplay (and Airplay 2), Spotify Connect, TuneIn Radio and Bluetooth. This gives you a very wide choice of music sources.

B & O BEOVISION ECLIPSE 55 – Image quality

The B & O Eclipse is essentially an LG C7V integrated with a B & O SoundCenter. In terms of image quality you can expect exactly the same performance as in our review of the LG OLED55C7V.

Main settings

 

General Advanced operation Image Options
Picture mode: Cinema
Setting aspect ratio: Original *
Energy saving: Off *
OLED Light: 80
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 85
Sharpness: 10
Color: 50
Hue: 0
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Superresolution: Low
Color range: Auto
Improve edge: On
Color filter: Off
Gamma: 2.2
White balance: Warm2
Noise reduction: Off *
MPEG noise reduction: Off *
Black level: Low
Real Cinema: On
Motion Eye Care: Off
TruMotion: Clear (or customized)

Explanation of main settings;

  • The Cinema setting delivers the best start. If you want an institution that is slightly more focused on looking at obfuscation and during the daytime, choose the Expert presets as the start.
  • The effect of Superresolution is very limited. You can leave it safely activated.
  • Noise reduction and MPEG noise reduction: if you look at an older source (DVD or YouTube at low quality), activate it. The Minimum mode can be left on without much risk.
  • TruMotion: Most detail you get in the Fluent mode, but then you have many artefacts. Clear use your best as minimum position. A personal setting between Clear and Fluent, with deblur between 8 and 10, and the adjudge between 6 and 9.
  • Aspect Ratio: Turn on Scanning, otherwise the TV will cut the outer edge of the screen.

General image properties and image processing

One of the few differences with the C7V series from LG is the lack of the recently added Technicolor image presets and the ISF presets. The ISF presets are actually still there, they now carry the name ‘Expert’ presets. Because the added value of the Technicolor mode is very limited, we certainly do not see it as a defect.

Because in all other areas you get with the Cinema image preset, exactly the same results as on the C7V. That means excellent image processing, with reliable noise reduction, good upscaling of both SD and HD sources and excellent motion sharpness. The ‘Fluent’ preset of Trumotion shows a little too many image artefacts, choose ‘Clear’ or if you want an interim solution, select ‘User’ and put the jumper between 6 and 9 and the blur between 8 and 10.

The screen also shares the same small defects as the C7V. In some color gradients or dark images you may see very slight banding. And depending on the panel it may be that vertical stripes are visible, although we repeat that this is rarely visible in practice, and only stands out on uniform test images.

Calibration of the BeoVision Eclipse 55 is even better than that of the C7V. We may therefore speak of a reference result. The gray scale is absolutely perfect, with a neutral tone across the entire line and a perfect color temperature. Even the color range can hardly be better. The saturation patterns show a perfect result. It is therefore no surprise that the general color test and skin color test also score at reference level. Black and contrast are of course oled-level, absolutely excellent. There is a lot of black detail visible, although if you look in a lot of light, you can consider putting the ‘brightness’ to 51 or 52. In general, however, that is not necessary.

HDR

The BeoVision Eclipse 55 inherits from LG a broad support for HDR : HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG. Whether he will get an update for Technicolor HDR just like LG is not yet clear. Given the provisionally very minor importance of that standard, that is certainly not a stumbling block.

The performance is also in line with that of the C7V. In HDR Cinema mode we achieved a maximum brightness of 776 nits, after more than 20 minutes. The screen has 620 nits from the start. That is of course measured on a 10% window. If we make the entire screen white, the electronics intervenes and the maximum falls to about 124 nits. These are all typical values ​​that we measure on all OLED screens.

As with SDR content, the HDR calibration is excellent. The gray scale is nicely neutral, and the screen tries to keep the maximum required brightness as good as possible, including all white detail. With content with a very high maximum white value (4000 nits) this results in a somewhat darker image. You can, for example, choose the Cinema Home preset if you want to boost the brightness slightly, even if that costs a minimum of white detail. The color reproduction is very good, thanks to a wide color range (97% DCI-P3 and 71% Rec.2020).

Again, the Technicolor preset is missing, but that is not a big loss. As mentioned above, you should choose between the Cinema and Cinema Home image presets, the latter is better suited for viewing in a lot of light. Making HDR content from SDR content with the HDR effect remains moderately low for the time being.

Reflections and viewing angles

Like all OLED screens, this B & O also has a very wide viewing angle, both for contrast and color reproduction. The new anti-reflection film is neutral gray, instead of the earlier wine-red effect that you had on models from last year. Reflections are well-turned, but of course never completely eliminated.

Gaming

In cinema mode, we measure a lay of 88.4 ms, quite high, even for a casual gamer. In game mode the lag drops to 21.4 ms which is an excellent result. We also see these two results in HDR mode. The screen is a decent choice for gamers.

B & O BEOVISION ECLIPSE 55 – Audio quality

The SoundCenter of the BeoVision Eclipse 55 is definitely not just a soundbar. You consider him better as a kind of AV receiver. This way you can connect eight Beolab speakers via the Power Link connectors. Or you can expand your set with up to eight wireless speakers for a full surround setup. All those extra speakers can be accommodated in 30 freely selectable speaker groups. For example, you can use a separate speaker group for stereo and one for surround, or you can even select another group when you are in the living room or dining room. The Soundcenter also fits in the multiroom environment of B & O. In other words, it is the heart of a complete, to taste and expand audio environment.

But do not worry, even without further expansion, the Soundcenter is a phenomenal audio solution. There are six drivers: a 1 inch tweeter (50W), two 2.5 inch full range drivers (2x 50W), and three 4 inch midrange drivers (3x 100W). These are each controlled by their own class D amplifier. The result is audio that you blow from your socks. Do not let the volume knob creep too high, or the neighbors will go upset (or curious).

There are nine sound modes available to adjust the sound to your taste, and these are then fully configurable. B & O gives you enormous possibilities to adjust the spatiality, stereo separation and sound color. Whether you like listening to thunderous soundtracks, subtly classic, playful jazz or rough metal, the Soundcenter has everything to charm you.

Review equipment

For the lag measurement we use a Leo Bodnar Display lag meter. For all other measurements we rely on a Spectracal C6 colorimeter, Xrite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, an AVFoundry HDMI Pattern Generator , an HDFury Integral and HDFury Vertex for HDR patterns and the Spectracal Calman for Business software.

B & O BEOVISION ECLIPSE 55 – Conclusion

Let’s go straight to the door, the B & O BeoVision Eclipse 55 is expensive. For the motor floor stand you pay 1.455 euros and the television (including Sound Center) costs 8.295 euros. That is a huge step above the Sony A1 and LG E7 and even well above the Loewe Bild 7. And yes, the sound that comes from this set is fantastic, you can perfectly integrate it into a larger B & O setup, and it has a number of unique features, but the fact remains that this television is not for the average buyer. With a softer price you would see the score rise a full point.

WebOS 3.5 provides an excellent user experience, albeit with a small limitation here and there due to the required integration between B & O and LG components. The video content offer is huge, and with the presence of, among other things, Airplay, Chromecast and Spotify Connect, you are also chiselled on audio surface. Those who can release the prize will receive a television that combines LG’s oled image quality with the B & O sound experience. Top view, ample HDR support, excellent image processing and phenomenal sound, in short a TV to say nothing about.

Cons

  • price
  • Light banding possible in dark scenes
  • Less clear than top LCDs

Pros

  • Phenomenal sound
  • Image quality
  • Contrast, black value
  • Spacious HDR support