Sponsored post: How OLED technology works and how it can provide better blacks

Chris Price 4K, Home cinema, TV, TVs
Share


Sharper blacks. On the left an LCD TV screen, on the right LG's OLED TV
Better blacks. On the left a traditional LED backlit LCD panel, on the right LG’s OLED TV

In the world of TV there’s always been acronyms. CRT, LCD, LED being just some of them from the last few years. Now we have OLED, or Organic Light Emitting Diode technology to add to the list. But before you say ‘here we go again’ and start rolling your eyes it is definitely worth bearing with us on this one.

Despite sharing three of the same letters with LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology there is actually a world of difference between how the two technologies work. Whereas LED requires an external light source like a giant backlight, OLED panels emit their own light when electric current is passed through.

And while the downside of the technology used to be a high failure rate of the panels, investment and innovation in the new technology now makes it much cost effective for manufacturers like Korea’s LG to produce OLED TVs as well as more affordable for us to buy them.

But what does OLED actually mean in terms of picture quality. One of the key advantages is better blacks. As you can see from the image above, the differences between the two technologies are evident.

On the left we have a standard LED-backlit LCD panel. You can clearly see how the backlight panels bleed the image, creating light where there shouldn’t be any. But on the right we have an OLED display with black levels that you would expect to find in cinemas when watching typically dark movies like Batman or Star Wars.

Light Pollution artwork
Light Pollution artwork

Nor are better blacks the only advantage of OLED. The high contrast ratio of OLED TVs means that colours really stand out too. And because OLED’s sub-pixels self-luminate OLED TVs don’t require a bulky backlight either. This, in turn, makes them both more power efficient and slimmer too.

In the YouTube video below entitled ‘Colourful Sensation in Black’ you can see a number of men running and jumping through a Hungarian city while wearing black clothes in order to emphasise the colours of whatever they stand behind, just as the LG OLED TV does.

Whether it’s an attractive woman at a bus stop or a classic Mercedes on the street, the men in black are there to make the images really stand out from the crowd!

To find out more about OLED TV click here.

This post has been sponsored by LG, but all thoughts are our own

Chris Price