OLED dark room tear LCD TV: black beats the color of the real youren

The TV industry, which is used to being calm, has recently "learned bad things". A "battle" over which display technology is the future, OLED or ULED (an improved version of LCD TV), has intensified. Major TV companies, research institutions, industry experts, and professional media have begun to express their positions. OLED and LCD TVs each have their own supporters. From a marketing perspective, this war of words is not a bad thing for the calm TV industry. The increased attention will benefit all companies. But from a purchasing perspective, we should still explore which of the two TVs is better?

What is OLED? What is ULED? Are they the same as LED?

These questions are basically at the popular science level. Friends who are familiar with the development of color TV may not be unfamiliar with these letters, but since we want to explain what they are "tearing", let's start with the most basic concepts.

LED is actually an abbreviation for LCD (liquid crystal television) that uses LED lamps as backlight sources. It is an upgraded version of LCD that uses CCFL cold cathode backlight sources.

ULED is still a TV that relies on LED backlight to illuminate pixel points for imaging, and it still belongs to the category of LED TV, or LCD TV. At the same time, ULED TV also incorporates quantum dot technology and multi-zone independent backlight control technology, which is superior to traditional LED TV in the field of color performance.

Although OLED also has the word LED in its name, it has nothing to do with LED. OLED is the abbreviation of Organic Light-Emitting Diode, which is a self-luminous TV technology that does not rely on backlight. Therefore, it does not belong to the category of LCD TVs, but is a completely different type of TV. Due to its self-luminous characteristics, its color is generally considered to be better than that of LCD TVs.

Well, after clarifying the "family", choose a dark room and compare the colors, levels, and restoration. This experience only reflects the actual situation and does not provide purchase recommendations.

Dark field comparison: OLED has better black performance

OLED is a self-luminous pixel TV, so when presenting black, it can turn off the relevant pixels, so the black performance is very good. However, no matter how the technology of LCD TV is upgraded, its imaging principle cannot be changed. Even if the zone backlight control technology is used, it cannot control the lighting of each pixel, so the black performance is weaker than that of OLED TV. Let's take a look at the actual experience.

The same playback device is used to output the same picture to the OLED TV and LCD TV respectively through a splitter for comparison, and the difference between the two TVs can be seen. The black background of the OLED TV on the left is almost integrated with the black experimental field. The TV shows pure black, the horse's hair is bright, and the contrast between light and dark is very strong. Even without data, you can intuitively see that the contrast is very high. The black background of the LCD TV is a little gray, the horse's hair is reddish, and the mane on the back is not easy to distinguish from the background.

Comparing with the second picture, the black and white contrast of this pure black and white picture is more obvious. The black background and white letters of the OLED TV on the left are in sharp contrast, while the black background of the LCD TV on the right does not appear so pure, and it feels like it is covered with gray.

It is not difficult to see from the above two test pictures that OLED TV is obviously superior to LCD TV in terms of black expression and light-dark contrast, and the black expression of this LCD TV participating in the test is already very outstanding within the range of LCD TVs.

Color contrast: gaudy or realistic, that is the question

The most technical and professional way to measure the color of a TV is the NTSC color gamut value. OLED is said to be able to reach 100%, while LED TVs using quantum dot technology are said to be able to reach 104% to 110%. In my opinion, this professional term is meaningless to ordinary consumers. Without comparison, consumers will not feel any difference between 90% or 110% color gamut coverage, so the word color should be more of a subjective feeling.

For many years, Sony BRAVIA's red has been controversial. Some people think that BRAVIA's red is very beautiful and has strong color expression, and they buy Sony just for the bright red. Others think that BRAVIA's red is due to problems with Sony's processing of red, which makes the red too bright and prevents the image from showing its original color.

I encountered the same problem in my test today. Let’s take a look at the comparison test chart first.

The same playback device is still used to output the same picture to the OLED TV and LCD TV through a splitter for comparison. The OLED display on the left shows a clear sky with distinct clouds. The National Grand Theater is mainly purple, with obvious color transitions and clear reflections of lights on the water. The overall color of the picture on the right LCD TV is darker than the left picture, with a bluer sky, a pinker National Grand Theater, and not many reflections of lights on the water.

Comparing the two pictures on the left and right, the picture on the left has higher definition, colder colors than the right, and richer color levels. The color of the picture on the right is more vivid. From a distance of 3 meters, the strong color is more pleasing. The audience and media on the scene also have different preferences for the pictures displayed on these two TVs, so we can't accurately judge what is "good color". We can only say that the color reproduction of OLED TV is better and closer to reality. After the color technology processing, the color saturation of LCD TV is higher and the display color is more vivid.

Detail comparison: Independent pixel control slightly wins

After talking about color, let's talk about clarity and detail expression. The two TVs involved in the comparison are both 4K TVs with the same physical resolution. Logically, the clarity and details should be similar. However, although resolution plays a decisive role in clarity, it is not the only factor. The adjustment ability of the driver chip and the quality of the color engine will affect clarity and detail expression.

We still choose the picture of the National Grand Theater that we just compared colors, and this time we choose the railing on the right side of the National Grand Theater for close-up comparison. It can be found that the clarity of both TVs is very strong. In both close-up pictures, the exterior structure of the National Grand Theater can be clearly seen. Through the glass exterior wall, the Olympic five-ring logo inside can be clearly seen, and every load-bearing column can be seen in detail. It can be seen that these two TVs are currently the top products in the color TV circle.

But if you look closely at the densely structured part of the National Grand Theater, you can see that the color tone of the OLED TV in the picture above is finer, which is reflected in the clearer horizontal light lines on the left side of the theater and the clear separation of the vertical steel structure load-bearing part on the right. The night view TV in the picture below has adhesion in these two parts, and the details are not as good as those of the OLED TV.

The main reason for this situation is that OLED TVs have independent pixel illumination, and the TV display engine can control the switching of each pixel. In this way, each pixel can be displayed according to color requirements. LCD TVs are limited by passive backlight imaging, and even if the control is good, point-to-point control cannot be achieved, so a little halo will appear, which causes this difference in small details.

Finally, here are three RGB (red, green, and blue) color comparison pictures for you to get a feel for.

Final Thoughts

After experiencing OLED and improved LCD TVs, I suddenly thought of a slogan that I often see in small restaurants: "It's up to you to decide how much you want to spend, and how much you want to spend". In fact, the same principle applies to buying things. There is no fixed standard. The most suitable one is the best. Some people like real news photos that can face the world directly, while others like beauty cameras that require a 45-degree tilt. There is no difference between high and low.

Since so much anti-intellectual marketing can successfully occupy the circle of friends and be regarded as the truth, shouldn’t the standard for the quality of television be “I like it”?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.