#4 Next Wave / OLED IOLED Contrast Ratio

Part 4 of 4

Goodbye LCD

Your video source defines potential possible performance.  Connected AV components and interconnecting cable must allow the video to pass unaltered.  Your TV determines the ultimate result.  

OLED & IOLED

The organic light-emitting diode’s contrast ratio has led OLED TV to the high-performance leader.  Advanced inorganic light-emitting diode technology, IOLED, is coming.  Both consist of single-pixel points of light that range from full-on brightness to full-off. 

Nit Picking Difference   

A Nit is a measure of brightness.  For reference, the noonday sun measures around 1,600,000,000 nits.  The night sky around 0.001 nits.  UHD LCD TVs currently achieve a brightness level of 1500 nits.  OLED screens measure 540 nits. 

Whoa, LCD is far brighter than OLED.  Yes, but LCD TV can only achieve a black level of 0.05 nit, while current OLED screens achieve a black level of 0.0005 nit.  High dynamic range lies in the contrast difference. 

It’s a Difference of Ratios.  

The dynamic range of video is the difference between the darkest black level and the brightness white.  The ratio of the black level to the brightest level equals the contrast ratio. 

LCD TVs have achieved contrast ratios of 30,000:1.  Current OLED models approach 1,000,000:1.  OLED contrast ratio is the HDR gateway to a more lifelike natural colors.

LEDs and Q-Dots

Current OLED TVs border the DCI P3 color standard.  But the future lies in the REC.2020 color specification.  Steps toward that goal have begun. 

Samsung plans to ship its new QD-OLED televisions in 2021 or 2022.  The Q corresponds to quantum-dot.  The quantum dot is a molecular semiconducting particle that produces light when struct by UV or blue LED light.  Samsung uses blue LEDs to stimulate and create red and green quantum-dot sub-pixels of light.  Their remaining blue LEDs produced the blue sub-pixels.  Their QD-OLED TVs will further improve contrast and color gamut. 

They have also announced the future release of QNED TVs.  Again the Q corresponds to the quantum dot.  But the organic LEDs are replaced with inorganic LEDs.  Inorganic light-emitting diodes are substantially brighter, which further extends the contrast ratio.  QNED TVs should approach 12bit REC.2020 color.

Don’t get caught up in the numbers and acronyms.  The salient UHD HDR point — all real LED pixel-based displays can turn a pixel off while an adjacent pixel is full-on.

OLED and IOLED contrast ratio, and its expanded color gamut, plus advanced manufacturing development has led Samsung to announce their planned discontinuation of LCD production.  Say goodbye to LCD.


Pothole Warning
  Avoid bumps in the AV road.  Confirm the essential specifications of all connected electronics and interconnecting cables.  For example, if a TV does not explicitly specify a list of HDR formats, then assume it does not support HDR at all.  ULTRA HD Premium logo confirms support for Premium Alliance specs.  The best UltraHD products exceed their standards with support for HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HGL.  

Catch the Wave

A new era of AV magic lies in your AV professional hands.  It’s a mix of nits, contrast ratio, color gamut, light-emitting diodes, wide-bandwidth Internet access, audio/video streaming, and off-air antennas.  It’s a new wave of profitable opportunities.

Additional Note: 

Web Search Confusion – A web search did not easily reveal QNED as inorganic technology.  The ‘N’ in QNED stands for nanorod LED.  Inorganic tech is hidden in nanorod LED illustrations.  Look closely at the labeling.  GaN is gallium nitride.  Gallium nitride is an inorganic material.  Therefore, a nanorod LED is an inorganic LED.  And QNED is IOLED TV.

Web Search Correction – A web search produced many Samsung QNED stories that incorrectly identified quantum dots as color filters.  Quantum dots are not filters.  Quantum dots are points of illuminating light.  

Check out my website Ed’s AV Handbook & business site SandTrapAudio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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