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Panasonic Announces 1,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio LCD Panel To Rival OLED (androidauthority.com)
OLED panels have always been known to have higher contrast ratios than LCD panels, but that may be about to change with Panasonic's recently announced LCD IPS display. The display boasts a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, which is up to 600 times more contrast than some of the company's conventional LCD panels that tend to offer around 1800:1 ratios, and rivals OLED specifications. Android Authority reports: Panasonic has accomplished this through the use of its new light modulating cell technology, which allows the company to switch off individual pixels in the display using a secondary control layer. Typically, LCD backlights mean that either the entire or only large parts of the display can be dimmed at any one time. OLED panels switch off lights entirely for a black pixel to offer very high contrast ratios, and this new LCD technology works on a very similar principle. This is particularly important for reproducing HDR video content, which is becoming increasingly popular. Furthermore, this new light modulating cell technology allows Panasonic to increase the peak brightness and stability of the display, which can reach 1,000 cd/m2 while also providing HDR colors. Many other HDR TV panels top out in the range of 700 to 800 cd/m2, so colors, highlights, and shadows should appear vivid and realistic. Panasonic plans to ship the new display starting in January 2017 with sizes ranging from 55 to 12 inches.
Panasonic plans to ship the new display starting in January 2017 with sizes ranging from 55 to 12 inches.
Wow! Can't wait for my new 4K Ultra-high definition HDR.... er 12" TV...?
Mostly because they typically report dynamic contrast ratios, which really are bullshit. In this case, they basically appear to be layering on an additional LCD panel whose sole job is to control the amount of light that gets through to the regular LCD. And sure enough, if you layer two LCD panels which each have a 1000:1 contrast ratio, then you get a 1000000:1 contrast ratio.
I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be practical apart from the increase in cost and thickness this would involve.
Reading between the lines, it sure sounds like they just stacked two LCDs and bumped the brightness of the light source. Mind you, that's a very good idea. The new underneath layer probably only needs single R/G/B group resolution in order to achieve the claimed specs, making it somewhat easier to manufacture, although alignment is still going to be important to get right, as will appropriately close bonding of the two planes to control leakage from one luminance cell (for want of a better word) to the neighboring RGB cells in the color layer.
A highly-motivated enthusiast might be able to get close to the same results by merging two existing IPS monitors and bumping the light source brightness.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
To achieve a one million - to - one ratio, requires 20 bits.
20 bits would be required for a gradient, but you could still accomplish a 1,000,000:1 ratio with a 1-bit monochrome image.
What things are those? The only ones I know of (that prevented me from buying an OLED black Friday) were:
1. Cost. Thousands of dollars, LCD equivalents are now $600 for 55-65" 4k set
2. Input lag. While the physical panel is near instant, for whatever reason, the chipsets the current OLED manufacturers are using have more input lag than low input lag LCDs. Unacceptable.
3. Longevity. The LCD backlights are down to 80% brightness at 25,000 hours and will probably remain usable displays for perhaps 100k hours, give or take. (most like a capacitor will fail before the backlight does). At 25k hours the oled dyes age at different rates and the blue will be shot at that point.
4. Maximum brightness - harder to make the thin layer glow as hard than it is to throw in bigger backlights behind an LCD.
Plenty of OLED models were deeply discounted (in the sense that there are plenty of OLED models at all, which there aren't). They weren't $300-$600 like a lot of the deals on crap people got excited for, but still, many were marked down 50% or more.
Of course, a Black Friday or Cyber Monday price isn't really that good anymore. You can find deals as good as or better than those days throughout the year if you just wait and watch.
OLED doesn't sell because it's expensive and LCD TVs are marketed deceptively. "LED" on a TV means "LCD with X zones of LED back lighting" and "Full LED" or "Full Array LED" means "LCD with full array local dimming", which really means "LCD with many zones of LED back lighting".
Throughout all of 2016 we've seen a huge fire sale on 4K TVs for 3 reasons:
1 - Sales needed a boost. 4K wasn't as enticing as HD was, just like BluRay wasn't as enticing as DVD.
2 - The 4K sets out in 2016 don't fully support the new UHD spec with HDR profiles and Rec 2020.
3 - The Vizio P series shat on Samsung, Sony, etc. The budget shit brand Vizio put out better 4K TVs than the big boys at less than half the price.
I don't know what Samsung is going to do for 2017 when they truly support the new shit. They've already jumped the hark by calling their shit Super Ultra High Definition (SUHD). Maybe VSUHD or SUHD+ or XSUHD+ v2.0 PRO GOLD?