Inverted Ghosting – After weeks of research, and getting the Xbox Series X, I was finally ready to pull the trigger on the Q80T. It has every feature I want to get the full next-gen console experience.

Within days of owning it, I noticed this strange ghosting around nearly every object on the screen when gaming, I dug deep into the TV settings, watched YouTube clips of the best settings, but still, it was there. When panning the camera, a tree, for example, would project a purple ghosting outline in the direction of the movement. This was extremely distracting, and the faster the camera pan, the further out the purple ghosting effect would project away from the object.

Once I noticed it, there was no going back.

I tested every game I had, it was on all of them, some worse than others, and especially visible in dark scenes as the screen would light up with this purple ghosting artifact.

I hit the forums, within minutes of searching, found other user posts about it, I was gutted. The TL:DR of it; it's been happening since last year's model, Samsung claim they fixed it with firmware updates, if you disable VRR (Freesync) and 120hz mode it's barely visible (but why would you, isn't this why you purchased this tv?).

The issue is an over-aggressive screen overshoot algorithm and the VA panels Samsung uses. The firmware could fix this, but if that's the case why hasn't it been done already?...

I had to call the retailer, then visit the retailer in person, where they tried everything to ensure it was user error, going so far as to say the Xbox Series X's included HDMI cable couldn't display 4k120 and suggested I purchase an outrageously expensive HDMI 2.1 48GB cable from them to test it ($160), which I did, then returned it because it worked so poorly I had to factory reset the TV. They also tried to tell me it's the games I was playing, that somehow games not optimized for the Series X was the issue.

From there they referred me to their technician, who told me I was the 3rd person this week with the issue, I explained the issue to the technician and there were some back and forward calls for a couple of days. I had to call Samsung and lodge a fault, then had to read up on my consumer rights on the ACCC website... There is a line under the returns section subheading "Major Problems": -it has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if they’d known about it -it is substantially unfit for its common purpose and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time -it doesn’t do what you asked for and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time You may need to quote these to the retailer, they assume you don't understand your consumer rights.

Eventually, the sales rep from the retailer asked me to bring the Xbox down to test it on the exact display model they had. Annnnnd success, for me that is, inverted ghosting everywhere, I pointed it out to him and explained it to him, he saw it straight away, asked me to test other games which I was happy to (Thanks for Quick Resume Microsoft). Other sales reps would walk past and add their 2 cents like "Oh my mates got one of those TVs and says it's mint", or "The Xbox included HDMI cable cant do over 60hz". We then tested it on another TV, the LG CX OLED... No ghosting, not nothing, just perfect, beautiful 120hz VRR at 4K.

I managed to get a refund, note that you do not have to bring a TV back or pay for it to be picked up if it's being returned to the retailer, it states that also on the ACCC website "When a product is too large, too heavy or too difficult to remove, the business is responsible for paying the shipping costs or collecting the product within a reasonable time of being notified of the problem. Examples include: -a wide screen TV"

I will never buy a Samsung TV again, and I will always do more research into known problems with TVs first.

The sales rep that sold me the TV, and had me bring the Xbox down for testing, was extremely helpful, and genuinely appeared to be the only member of the retailer that wanted me to have a good outcome and get to the bottom of the issue, for that I am grateful.

GG