BV Contour – any long term views/opinions?

[JulianJ]

Dear Enthusiasts,

I’m considering a BV Contour 55 as the family TV. Currently on a BV 11-46, but a larger screen appeals & feel happy to loose the surround speakers in favour of a less cluttered & simpler setup.

Are there any long term contour owners that would care to share their experiences?

Thanks in advance,

Julian

[Vedet]

Greetings!

I am also considering the possibility of purchasing BV Contour 48 for a bedroom with a wall mount, so I would be glad to hear feedback from practical owners and discuss all the pros/cons, features and nuances. If there are real owners of BV Contour 48/55, I ask you to share your impressions of its operation. I would be extremely grateful.

[swestland]

If it would be for the living room, you really need to know that you lose all upgradeability with a Contour in terms of additional speakers. The price difference between a Theatre and Contour is quite big but I would really consider it. For the bedroom I wouldn’t need extra speakers but in a living it can be that you don’t want extra speakers now, but maybe in 3/4 years time.

The Contour uses the stage soundbar integrated in a nice frame together with a LG screen. Nothing wrong it, actually it looks amazing but you need to accept the implications 🙂

[Vedet]

Thank you for your attention.

Of course, the features with the use of speakers must be taken into account and I take this into account.

I am interested, first of all, in the stability of the Stage and LG software, sound and picture synchronization, the stability of the Beoremote one, the convenience of managing LG settings, the reliability of pairing the remote with LG, does the connection disappear? Is the Atmos sound and effect enough for a bedroom of 20 sq.m.?

Perhaps there are some other features that  should know.

[swestland]

Yes for a bedroom it would be perfect. Regarding surround/atmos, the stage doesn’t have any side firing woofers but have 2 small up firing woofers. It’s a 3.0 setup basically which is able to downmix Atmos content and play it. So don’t expect too much from any atmos effect. If you really need that you need to go for the Theatre or some other brand’s soundbar which are better at that. The sound is still coming from the front, but especially in a smaller room like a bedroom the stage is really nice to have. And the looks are important too 🙂

My parents have a Contour in their bedroom and it’s perfect. Integration with BR1 and LG works very nice, no problems there.

The remote is paired with the stage and managing the LG from there through eARC.

[Vedet]

swestland wrote:

Да, для спальни это было бы идеально.

Thank you, your answer is succinct, concise and very valuable to me, now I feel more comfortable deciding on a choice.

[StephenJCW]

Moved from a BV14-40 with motorised floor stand, and BL6000s, to a BV Contour 48 with the rotating floor stand, almost a year ago.

The Contour gives us:

• Far superior picture, with increased size, and picture quality (especially HDR), plus much more responsive (the BV14 was notorious for how slow it was to turn on, or not turn on at all).
• Comparable sound, without all that extra cabling to the BL6000s. It’s surprising how much cleaner it looks, and how much easier it is to clean around the Contour – we now don’t have any cabling on the floor (or any visible cabling at all). The sound quality of the Stage is equivalent (if not better) than the old setup.
• Comparable control of remote devices (Apple TV…) using the one Beoremote 1 using HDMI CEC, as we used to have using PUC on the BV14. We migrated across our Beoremote 1s from the BV14 to the Contour (our installer said it is very traditional for B&O owners to carry something across from the old to new setup).

The only aspects I miss from the BV14 are:

• Motorised floor stand. But the Contour is extremely well balanced, and takes no effort to rotate (one finger, which to visitors is almost as impressive as the motorised floor stand).
• Electronic curtains and B&O logo when the BV turned on (assuming the BV14 turned on). But you can remove the LG logo from the Contour display, visitors are none the wiser that it’s a LG screen.

I don’t miss Android TV from the BV14 at all. It was a major disappointment from Day  1, notoriously buggy and we are very happy to see it gone.

All in all extremely happy with the Contour – it is a very high quality, integrated TV that is hard to find anywhere else other than B&O. Like all great B&O designs it even looks great switched off.

I am sure the Theatre is better again (you would hope so for the extra cost). But the move from a 40” to 48” screen was enough for us, and life is so much easier without all the extra cabling.

Sorry for being late to this conversation.

[Steph]

Stephen, do you have the natural aluminium version or the anthracite?
Are you bothered by the reflections of the screen on the aluminum frame?
Some say it’s a design fault. I saw the 48″ at my dealer and it’s quite disturbing.
I saw the 55″ in anthracite too and it was less annoying.

[StephenJCW]

Hi Steph. Yes indeed we have the silver aluminium frame with light oak speaker cover. We got silver so that it stood out from the slate floor in our living room. The other option of the anthracite frame (and floor stand) would just vanish against the floor and window with garden behind.

The aluminium frame is quite luxurious, not at all flimsy, but it is a satin finish, not a mirror finish like on our old BV14. If the TV image is especially bright then a diffuse colour is reflected on the frame, but until you point it out, all it does is slightly extend some of the colour beyond the screen (it’s a very diffused reflection, that blurs with the screen edge). If I really concentrate on finding the reflection, I only notice it’s on the top edge, during bright images.

I don’t think of it as a design fault. But if we had a light floor, and the contour was against a solid wall then sure, anthracite may be a better option.

[JulianJ]

Thank you all for taking the time to share your experiences. I have upgraded from the trusty BV 11 to a Contour 55 with Anthracite frame & dark oak fret.

I would go as far to say the sound is far superior than the BV11 & BL 8000 combination. The Contour is a much neater installation & takes up less floorspace despite the larger screen size.

Picture quality is spectacular, ergonomics are great & I don’t have the need for any external devices.

Likewise I agree with StephenJCW the curtain & motorised floor stand are missed, but these factors are outweighed by the sheer quality of the Contour. Also I feel the purchase price is rather steep.

Overall a very welcome addition to my collection!

Julian

[Vedet]

Greetings!

In connection with the upgrade of Core to the Mozart platform, I wanted to ask if there is any information about the upgrade of Stage to Mozart in Beovision Contour?

And one more question – is B&O radio integrated into it? Is it possible to play it when the TV is connected to the network and, accordingly, Stage too, but the screen is not turned on or only when the screen is turned on?

[JC]

As I am also interested in a Contour;

Is screen burn-in still problem with these OLED tv’s? And what is the expected life of such a set? Also considering a second hand BV11…

 

[StephenJCW]

Our Contour is coming up to being a year old. No burn in or other faults.

As per the LG instructions, we simply leave it plugged in and it completes pixel maintenance… after we switch off the TV.

We went from a BV14 (already 4K) to the Contour (also 4K plus OLED) and it was a huge leap in picture quality. Especially impressive on any Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos programming.

[StephenJCW]

Cant comment on B&O Radio or Stage with Mozart support.

I can confirm you can use the Stage as a stand alone speaker without turning on the screen. Both the Beovision Contour (aka Stage) and Beovision TV (aka LG C2) appear as Airplay sources on our various Apple devices. They are quite responsive; taking a few seconds to start streaming from when selected; whereas our old BV14 with Android TV would take a good 5 minutes to start streaming (if at all).

[Vedet]

Thank you, your information is very useful!

[Author]

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