What is interesting about OLED technology?
OLED (organic LED) is called the future of television technology, which promises saturated colors, including deep black, and a reduction in motion blur.
It may seem that the new technology is not much different from the more widespread LED panels on the market. But the word “organic” implies a difference in the very method of representing images on the screen.
What are the advantages of OLED screens?
LED-screen – a liquid crystal display with improved LED backlight. In modern LCD TVs, liquid crystals rotate under the action of electricity and let light through each pixel of the image. The light passes through the filters (red, blue and green) and when mixed they result in the colors from the most dark to white. If all the crystals are rotated so as not to miss any of the three colors, then the output is black.
Crystals have their advantages: low cost, fineness and lightness of materials, but there is an important drawback – the level of black color. The crystals overlap the light, but the backlight continues to work. Light falls on the “black” pixels, which makes the dark image faded.
In OLED-screens there is no backlighting – each individual pixel emits light independently during the supply of electric current to it. If the pixel does not receive electricity, then we see the absence of light – a real black color.
Absolutely zero values for color and brightness change the perception of contrast. On the OLED display, even the minimum amount of light in the dark parts of the image is perceived to be brighter than the LED screens. In addition, pixels in OLED-screens can almost instantly change color, in contrast to the delay on the LED-panels, for activation and movement of crystals which requires more time.
Another advantage of OLED technology, which follows from the level of black and contrast, is realistic saturated colors.
Do the pixels burn on OLED screens?
On old plasma TVs, pixels in those parts of the screen where there was something static for a long time, such as a channel logo or a video game menu, could burn out. Traces from such objects could be permanently “imprinted” on the display, so manufacturers added special tools to the settings of TVs so that this could be avoided.
For OLED screens, this is not typical, but if a static image is left for several hours in a row, it can “hang”, leaving a barely visible trace, for about an hour, and then completely disappear. It’s okay with the TV will not happen.
How much OLED displays are bright?
If the TV has an Ultra HD Premium sticker, then its pixels should reach a minimum brightness threshold. This value can be different, depending on the depth of black. If the black level in the OLED panel is somewhere between 0.0005 and 0.5 cd / m2, the maximum brightness for such a TV should start from 1,000 cd / m2. But if the screen is capable of an even darker color, then its maximum can begin already from 540 cd / m2.
The brightness of the OLED TV is perceived depending on where you place it, so in a room with a bright light the advantages of a screen on organic light-emitting diodes will not be very noticeable. Inexpensive OLED panels give brightness at the level of 700-800 cd / m2, whereas LED-TVs are capable of more – 1 400-1 500 cd / m2.
This year, there will be new models of OLED-TVs with a brightness of up to 2,000 cd / m2, but their price is unlikely to please customers.
At a maximum screen brightness of 800 cd / m2 its advantages over LCD TVs are noticeable at night in low light or in the daytime with closed curtains. It is only necessary to dim the light, as the influence of black on the quality of the image becomes obvious.
However, a deep black color is not a magical power that transforms any film on the screen. Sometimes, for example, in streaming services, black color can be coded not as a complete absence of light, but as its lighter version.
What are the disadvantages of OLED technology?
As in the case of color quality, the reduction in motion blur depends on the original content. Theoretically, OLED technology outperforms LCD and LED standards in motion transmission.
In practice, only specially prepared files and blur reduction mode lead to notable results. Dynamic movies with a picture frequency of 24 frames per second will not work. At the same time, it’s rather difficult to find video in 4K-resolution, with realistic colors and high frame rate simultaneously to justify the purchase of an expensive OLED panel.
Buy an OLED TV or not?
So far, for most buyers, the answer is no. If you do not need mandatory support for HDR-10 or Dolby Vision standards, then you can spend a much smaller amount on a 4K-LED TV with low blur and delay of the input signal. You do not get the most juicy image, but you can, for example, buy a good audio system.
If you still want to join the world of HDR, then in this case it is better to choose OLED-screen, but it is necessary to properly calibrate it. For large rooms, such TVs are not profitable to buy, unless you have more than $ 20,000 on a 77-inch LG model.
Low level of blur and bright colors of OLED-panels are also good for games, but it is necessary to take into account the higher delay of the input signal, which affects the responsiveness of control and is especially critical in network games. This problem manufacturers have already begun to solve the firmware updates.
HDR-standard and OLED-technologies will surprise you with image quality right now, but the content suitable for them is still not enough.
