On today’s episode of You Asked: What even is local dimming? Who’s gonna have the Mini LED RGB TV to beat? And why is everyone so obsessed with brighter TVs?
Why is everyone obsessed with brighter TVs?
@weirdNamja asks: Why is everyone obsessed with getting the brightest picture they can get. Is burning out your retina the new trend or what?
We get this one every so often, but it warrants a quick answer. It’s not that everyone’s obsessed with a blindingly bright TV that’s maxed out from edge to edge. Rather, a bright TV means you have a better looking HDR, or high dynamic range, picture.
So long as the TV has a local dimming feature and does a good job with it, that means the bright areas will be brighter and darker areas remain dark, giving you a beautiful image that jumps off the screen. Add in advancements in color and brightness, and TVs look better than ever.
What is local dimming, and why does it matter?
@kk77gelb25 asks: Can you explain me what Local dimming is? I have an 55” Hisense U7N TV but for some reason I can’t find good graphic settings. Default colours are way too washed for the price I paid and if I try raising contrast or saturation then I can’t see anything during dark scenes (default black are basically gray)
Local dimming is pretty much what it sounds like. It allows the TV backlight to make localized brightness adjustments instead of shining light equally across the entire frame. When light is distributed evenly, you end up with a flatter, less dynamic image. With local dimming, you get distinct areas of light and dark, and HDR highlights can really stand out. That’s another reason bright TVs are appealing.
This is also why manufacturers boast about the number of dimming zones in their TVs. The more zones you have, the more control you get over contrast across the frame. Although, as someone I know often says, it’s not about how many dimming zones you have, but how you use them.
For this particular TV, setting Local Dimming to High should help improve contrast.
As for colors looking washed out, that’s an interesting observation. If anything, TVs are often a little too saturated or less accurate out of the box in standard mode. But maybe that extra punch is what you prefer.
If the TV is set to Filmmaker mode for more accurate, creator-intended colors, you might be missing some of that impact. Or, if you’re watching in a bright room, ambient light could be washing out the image.
A good approach is to use Theater Day and Theater Night modes and make small custom adjustments for each. In a bright room, increase Brightness in Theater Day mode. At night, adjust Theater Night mode to what looks best to you. Switching between those modes, and Filmmaker mode, can help you find the setup you like most. It’s also a good idea to test these settings using dark scenes.
Mini LED, RGB LED, and the QD-OLED question
Bruce Wayne asks: Nobody makes an 83″ QD OLED panel, so I’m leaning towards the LG C6H. FYI the room I’m gonna put it in has shudders, so I don’t need blinding brightness. My question is, what Mini, or Micro RGB LED TVs do you think might be a better option? Without actually testing, what’s your gut feeling between LG, Samsung, & Sony as to who will have the best implementation of this technology? Who’s colors will be as good, or better than QD OLED? You see I have a Sony X900H, & a LG G4. I am completely happy with both TVs, but always felt like I was “missing out” on the QD OLED colors! I know the new 2.0 LG panel with the Gen 3 Alpha 11 Processor is supposed to come really close, but am wondering about the new RGB LEDs. Curious to hear your educated opinion! Thanx.
If budget were no object, the simplest answer would be to buy all of them and see which works best. But assuming a more realistic approach, the LG C6H looks like it’s going to be a big winner. Even without hands-on time, seeing how strong the LG G5 was makes an improved version of that panel very promising.
Based on past processing performance, Sony also looks extremely competitive with its RGB Mini LED TV. The Bravia 9 is already impressive, and whatever Sony does to improve on that is likely to be strong, with its own unique approach to RGB implementation.
It’s also worth keeping an eye on other brands. With Dolby Vision 2 on the horizon and support planned from Hisense and TCL, their options should remain on the short list as well.
Dolby Vision, darkness, and Dolby Vision 2
@bigbro8439 asks: I was an early adopter of HDR and DV. As soon as I used it though I was very disappointed. Watching series as ‘the man in the high castle or GOT was often enough far to dark. I even bought 2 new high end Oled Tv’s and that did not give enough brightness. As on my former Sony 83A90J the picture was still too dark. Nice that we can watch it ‘as the creator intended but not if all details disappear in a big black blob. Ok. Now Dolby comes with DV2 actually admitting that DV1 was far too dark for almost all tv’s not even talking about projectors. To enjoy this we the consumer will have to buy again a new tv that is able to show DV2 as well as probably subscribe to an even higher tear of NF or ATV.
That frustration is understandable. Viewing conditions matter a lot. Watching Dolby Vision content in a controlled, dark room on a flagship TV can be a very different experience than watching in a brighter environment or on less capable hardware.
If you recently bought a TV specifically for Dolby Vision and now find it doesn’t support Dolby Vision 2, that’s disappointing. Unfortunately, that’s how technology evolves. We don’t usually see massive leaps from one year to the next, but format updates can still leave some buyers behind.
Support for Dolby Vision 2 is still an open question for some brands, though it’s likely broader support will come over time. In the meantime, it’s worth seeing what Dolby Vision 2 looks like on TVs from brands that plan to support it early, especially if they offer more affordable options.
