Mike, I have quickly put together this guide to hopefully help you when looking at TV’s. by explaining the technolodgy I may have refered to over the course of the the thread. As a general rule of thumb the further you go down this list the better the TV is overall.
<p style=”text-align: center;”>LCD/LED TV’s</p>
LCD TV’s- use to use CCFL lamps (Fluroescent tubes) to provide the backlight for the LCD panel. Depending on the the budget of the TV would depend on whether 2,3 or 4 cold cathode lamps were used. These couls be edgelit or backlit
LED TV’s- just means LED’s are now used as the backlight for the LCD panel. LED provided advantages in technolgy in higher end TV’s:
Edge-lit – as the name the LED srip is provided at one side or both or around the entire edge shining into a light guide that spreads the light out behind the LCD panel.
Direct-lit – means the backlight is behind the LCD panel lighting it up.
Full array – means there is an array of many LEDs behind the LCD panel lighting it up.
Mini LED – means there is an array of far more LED’s behind the LCD panel lighting it up than there are in a full array TV. These are the latest technology and are extremely bright with peak brightness well over 1000 nits.
Quantum Dot – Without going into the specifics, QD is a filter nanometers in size having optical and electron properties sandwiched between polarised filters . The important bit it enhances the coulour with better blacks and white. There can be edge lit QD sets or full aray QD sets that also have local dimming. Dont confuse yourself QD is not OLED.
FALD- Full array local dimming/zones, as the name suggests the TV has a full array of backlighting and also has local dimming zones. In a nutshell the more local dimming zones the better.
Processing – How the TV processes picture/motion handling etc. As a gude a high end TVwill have better processing. Motion interpolatin is often required.
Anti Glare coating – As the name suggests this is a coating this aids in preventing glare from bright rooms or direct sunlight.
IPS or VA panel – In a nutshell thisrefers to the type of screen. A VA panel is saidto be better because it has a superior contrast ratio and blacks overall . On the flipside an IPS panel has better veiwing angles of around 178 degrees. However some of the newer VA panels have as good viewing angles when viewing off axis. A VA panel is also better for watching movies and night time viewing.
As you can see there is likely wide difference between budget – mid- high end LED TV. It is important to stick to your budget and find the best of the above within that price.
<p style=”text-align: center;”>OLED TV’s</p>
An Organic LED TV have there pixels sandwitched between to layers of flexible organic material, rather than using numerous polarisation filters seen on a LCD/LED TV’s.
An OLED TV does not require a backlight – each of the 8bn pixels (LED) has its own light source and is abe to generate it own colour, tone or brightness, each ixel can either be on or off.
OLED TV’s do not suffer from motion lag or motion blur as an LCD panel. OLED technology has the fastest response rate time due to utilizing TFT active matrix (AMOLED) technology with the organic LED’s.
OLED TV screens have near perfect viewing angles when viewing off axis. as before Organic ligt emitting dodes create light and are emissive rather than a block light seen in a LED. Every pixel is lit independently and that light will be seen from off axis viewing angles easily and accurately.
OLED TV’s produce accurate vibrant colours and colour depth, which provide ink like colours. Producing levels accurate to the DCP colour garmut. OLEDs have an excellent contrast ration with deeper blacks, They do not suffer from halo effect around objects, due to their ability to turn off each and every pixel.
Oled TV’s have a electric charged plexiglass layer which makes the screen easier to clean the screen than that of an LCD display. Due to the plexiglass layer it is possible to use thinner material and allow OLED panels to be flexible in devices like folding smatphones.
Like Plasma in its day OLED is able to produce what the film maker intended and is often the the choice of film buffs.
There is not such a big difference in a cheap vs expensive OLED TV as there is with LCD, as each display seen in OLED TV’s is made by – you guessed it LG panels. These TV’s also command a much higher retail price north of £1k.
Whils’t OLED can’t get reach the high peak brightness seen in higher end LCD TV’s they are bright enough are bright enough for the majority of homes producing between 800-1000nits. In comparison the latest technology with mini LED TV’ produce an easy 1500 nits but, these TV’s are expensive. Mini LED TV’s are getting close to producing OLED quality and in the future will supass them. On a personal note I suffer migrains and would like to be watching such a bright set in the evening.
My uncle use to own a Pansonic authourised service centre, from the age of 10, I use to help my uncle after school and on a Saturday. I continued to this fore some 35yrs before, after work and on a Saturday untill he died, finding faults repairing TV’s, VCR’s and photography equipment. At the age of 16 I qualified to level 3 in electronics and appeared in an electronics magazine (will have to dig it out) for doing so. When he died I was offered to take c0- ownership of the business with my cousin, he wasn’t bothered and had never shown any interest in it, leaving it to me and my cousin would be silent in the company. I decided agains’t believing we were in a throw away world plus my cousin was a dick! Plus I was earning good money in my then current job.
I would not unwillingly suggest a TV if I thought it didn’t suit your needs or it was crap 🙂
With your permission I ma ask @wmcforum to attach the guide part to your initial post so its easy for you to refer to when searching.