You need to know this when buying a TV

You need to know this when buying a TV

Anyone looking for a new television will be confronted with countless technical terms. We bring light into the darkness and explain the most important terms in a simple and understandable way.

The manufacturers of televisions are constantly working on new functions and picture innovations that are intended to improve the TV experience - at least that's the theory.

In practice, some highly technical-sounding neologisms turn out to be pure marketing terms instead of a new TV standard. It also happens that different manufacturers use different names for one and the same technology, making it even more difficult for their customers to get an overview.

However, it would be wrong to reject everything new in general. There are important innovations to look out for when buying a TV.

We will explain the most important technical terms and abbreviations and tell you which technical innovations will really benefit you.

 

LCD, OLED, QD-OLED, Mini-LED: Display technologies at a glance

When it comes to televisions, there are currently two primary screen manufacturing techniques: LCD and OLED. But differentiation is no longer as easy as it was a few years ago. This is mainly due to the fact that new display solutions have arrived on the market with mini-LED and QD-OLED televisions.

Plasma only exists marginally since the high production costs no longer justify the added value compared to LCDs for the manufacturers. Plasma still has certain quality advantages over LCD screens, but LCDs are steadily catching up. Apart from the price, plasma would be at a disadvantage compared to OLED.

In the comparison between LCD and OLED, neither of the two technologies scores a real plus overall. Both have their pros and cons that are similar to previous trade-offs between LCD and plasma. However, OLED technology is even younger and still relatively expensive, while televisions with LCD screens are already very cheap. Here are the main differences.

 

OLED: Perfect Black

The abbreviation OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, i.e. an organic light-emitting diode.

An OLED screen consists of pixels that light up themselves and therefore do not require an additional light source. This means that the brightness of each individual pixel can be controlled completely independently of another. While one pixel shines brightly, the one directly next to it can be completely black. In this way, extremely high contrasts are possible even within high-resolution, finely structured motifs.

Another advantage: if a pixel is to be dark, you can "switch it off" almost completely - it is immediately pitch black and, unlike plasma, does not glow. Pleasant: All new OLEDs are comparable in their basic performance, regardless of the manufacturer - there is not (yet) a less powerful, cheaper entry-level class here. If you buy a TV with OLED technology, you always get a great panel.

In addition to their positive properties, OLEDs also have disadvantages. The panels traditionally achieve a lower maximum brightness than their LCD counterparts. The dreaded OLED burn-in is also a popular argument against self-illuminating TVs. Consistent, bright content can mean that the image content can still be seen like a ghost image, especially with older OLED TVs. OLED manufacturers are using a variety of techniques to combat the phenomenon.

These are now taking effect: in a comprehensive test, the experts from HDTVTest.co.uk were able to find out that current OLED TVs have practically no more problems with burn-in. So the information display should not be used on the OLED television to enjoy films of the highest quality, to play games on the console or even to use it as a PC monitor, is without hesitation. Just be careful not to have too many consistent elements on the TV. But even in this case, OLED TVs have improved tremendously.

By the way: For a long time, the LG subsidiary LG Display almost had a monopoly in the production of OLED panels. Non-LG OLED TVs, such as Sony or Panasonic, were also built with LG OLED panels. With the market maturity of the new QD-OLED from Samsung Display, there has been an alternative for manufacturers since 2022 - more on that below.

LCD: The classic

In the case of LCD or liquid crystal screens, the display consists of pixels with individual cells containing liquid crystal. Behind the liquid crystal screen are LED lamps that shine through the screen. Depending on the arrangement of the crystals in the individual cells, the pixel becomes darker or lighter because the cell either blocks or allows the LED light to pass through.

However, the LED light can never only shine through a single cell, but always »catches« an entire group of cells. The crux of the matter is that the LCD cells are not able to completely block the LED light – some of it still shimmers through even in the darkest setting. Therefore, an actually black pixel that is next to a glowing one remains slightly brighter. The result is a suboptimal black display.

The most effective method: Individual LED lamps are located directly behind the screen (Direct LED). Several of them are combined in squares (clusters). These squares can be controlled independently of each other, so that the LEDs can be off in the top left of the picture, while in the middle they are bright. The more squares of this type are installed, the better the contrast display in the picture. However: No grid is currently so fine that it achieves the rich black display of OLED. Nevertheless, a well implemented direct LED panel comes at least close to the OLED contrasts in practice. However, this type of local dimming is complex and therefore the most expensive variant of the classic LCD TV.

Other local dimming variants work with edge LEDs. Here the LED lamps sit on the edge of the shade. With skilful dimming of these few lamps and a well-adapted circuit of the LCD cells, good results can now also be achieved here - at significantly lower prices. However, Edge-LED is not as sophisticated as »real« local dimming.

Difficult for the consumer: The manufacturers often do not clearly name the techniques they use, but hide them behind marketing names. Samsung calls the local dimming variant Supreme UHD Dimming, among other things, and the one with Edge LEDs only “UHD Dimming”. Philips calls one Micro Dimming Premium and the other Micro Dimming Pro. The Panasonic code is: Local Dimming Ultra vs. Local Dimming.

Confusion is inevitable and probably intentional. Another degree of difficulty: The manufacturers are also reluctant to reveal how many clusters are built into Direct-LED. Sometimes, however, there are very few, so that the effect is then only limited. Some TV sets even use direct LED and still only dim globally.

 

Mini-LED: Upgrade for the LCD technology

TVs with mini LED backlights are still relatively young on the market. They basically work like LCD televisions, but have a decisive advantage: the diodes responsible for the background lighting are significantly smaller in the mini-LED design than in conventional televisions. For example, good direct LED televisions usually offer a few hundred dimming zones, but with the mini-LED design, thousands of such zones fit behind one panel.

In addition, mini-LEDs also offer higher luminosity than classic LCD TVs. As a result, mini LED TVs can come much closer to the OLED top quality in terms of contrast, black display and brightness. Although the black values ​​are not perfect here either, this is even less noticeable in everyday TV use. Even the risk of burned-in images – albeit now more of a theoretical one – is not an issue here.

Mini LED TVs are available from Samsung, LG, HiSense and TCL, among others. They could establish themselves as an OLED alternative in the medium term.

Quantum Dots: More colors

Under the marketing terms SUHD and ULED, Samsung (SUHD) and Hisense (ULED) offer the Quantum Dot technology, which can lead to significant picture quality improvements.

Ultimately, these are also LCD TVs. The so-called quantum dots are additional, crystal-like building blocks that, as nano-particles, are just a thousandth of a hair's breadth small. Integrated into televisions, they can change the wavelength and thus the color of light. They bring the backlight of the LCD TVs even closer to the quality of sunlight, so that a purer, better color display with an enlarged color space and higher brightness on the screen is possible.

QD-OLED: The best of all worlds?

In 2022, the first televisions with a QD OLED panel came onto the market. The screens built by Samsung Displays promise to combine the best qualities of Quantum Dot and OLED screens.

To do this, the Koreans build a blue instead of a white OLED layer and then use quantum dot filters to expand the blue light to include the two primary colors green and red. So, in effect, this is a way of building OLED TVs. Compared to the classic design, QD OLED TVs promise not only an even higher color space coverage but also a higher maximum brightness - so far the biggest point of criticism, even if current OLED TVs have caught up a bit here.

The first TVs with the Samsung QD OLED panels confirm that the promises are more than hot air. At the start there are models from Samsung and Sony, further televisions with QD-OLED panels will follow. It can actually only do the market good that LG Display faces competition in OLED production.

 

Table: OLED and LCD in comparison

Here you will find the OLED and LCD technology in direct comparison with the fundamental differences in the image effect. In general, it can be said that the higher the quality of the principle, the smaller the differences.

summary

1.     LCD and OLED can deliver equivalent picture quality, but with different strengths and weaknesses.
2.     Currently, the quality differences between OLED models are significantly smaller than between LCD models.
3.     Model selection and number of price classes are significantly larger with LCD than with OLED.
4.     There are interesting new developments, especially in the premium segment, with mini-LED and QD-OLED televisions.

 

4K-UHD: Standard in all frame sizes

Ultra High Definition, UHD for short, defines the number of pixels with which images are displayed on the television. The more pixels, the more detailed and sharper the images. With UHD it is 3840 x 2160 pixels and thus four times more than with Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels). A common term for Ultra High Definition is also 4K, although originally these are two different resolutions. "4K" actually refers to all resolutions that are around 4000 x 2000 pixels. For example, the classic cinema resolution is 4096 × 2160 pixels and is therefore a little higher than the UHD resolution. Nevertheless, most televisions are labeled as 4K televisions - although they are mostly "only" UHD. The term 4K-UHD is also often used to distinguish it from the "real" 4K resolution.

UHD is not a temporary fad, but has now become practically the standard. Corresponding Blu-ray films already exist, and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and iTunes are increasingly relying on 4K content.

The subscription TV channel Sky is already broadcasting some of its channels and various sports broadcasts in UHD. It is still unclear when the public and advertising-financed private broadcasters will step up. The colleagues from Chip Online provide an overview of the different resolutions of the German-language TV channels.

Gamers now also benefit from the higher resolution. The Microsoft Xbox One X and Sony PlayStation 4 Pro consoles, which have been available for a long time, already bring a number of game titles to the screen in 4K - even if they are not always completely smooth. With the current console generation PlayStation 5 and Xbox One Series X, gaming in 4K-UHD should finally become the standard.

 

8K-UHD-2: The new resolution still needs time

No sooner have 4K UHD TVs started to assert themselves in all price and size classes than TV manufacturers want to take the next step. Samsung, LG and TCL in particular are launching more and more TVs with 8K UHD II resolution. With 7,680 x 4,320 pixels, the new premium televisions quadruple the resolution again. The manufacturers promise an even better TV experience at the highest level.

The problem: Unlike 4K-UHD, 8K-UHD-II still lacks content with the appropriate resolution. Streaming platforms such as Netflix or Amazon currently have no plans for the distribution of 8K material, the UHD-II resolution will also not play a role on Blu-rays and classic television has not even jumped on the UHD train at the moment.

Instead, the manufacturers of 8K televisions rely on the so-called upscaling, i.e. upscaling, of HD and UHD content on the 8K screens. In fact, modern image processors do a lot in this regard, as they did with upscaling from standard to UHD resolution. Nevertheless, from our point of view it will at least be a while before 8K UHD II TVs are really recommendable - also in view of the high prices compared to their 4K counterparts.

summary

1.     8K-UHD-II quadrupled the pixels compared to 4K-UHD.
2.     Appropriate content will be in short supply for the foreseeable future.
3.     Currently, 8K TVs offer no real benefits.

 

The right seat pitch

Whether the high UHD resolution really brings you more detail depends on a number of factors: the size of the screen, the distance from your seat to the television - and last but not least your own visual acuity.

Because the eye's perception of detail depends directly on the viewing distance and the size of the television. To illustrate: A parrot on the hand clearly shows its fine plumage, the individual hairs and wonderful color nuances. If the same bird is sitting further away in a tree, the eye is no longer able to "resolve" the details: the plumage appears flat, the colors blur.

In order to be able to optimally perceive the difference between UHD resolution and a normal HD picture on a 40-inch television, for example, you have to sit 74 centimeters from the screen, provided you have normal eyesight. If you don't look at the television alone, it's almost impossible to keep up.

But what is the optimal seat pitch for HD or UHD televisions?

For FullHD there is a rule of thumb for the distance between the seats: »Screen diagonal in cm x 1.5«. With UHD, the factor of around 0.74 applies, which roughly corresponds to the numbers mentioned above. Only: Who wants to sit just a meter in front of a 50-inch television? Or 1.3 meters in front of a huge 65-incher? In other words: The optimal seat distance calculated based on the perception properties of the eye hardly corresponds to what can be achieved in everyday TV use.

This is probably why every guide says something different about the optimal seat spacing. Some recommend a seat distance of 109 centimeters as the optimal seat distance for a 55-inch UHD television, others between 94 and 113 centimeters, the next exactly 159 centimeters and another between 280 and 420 centimeters.

So you can give a good whistle to these recommendations. In addition, you will often only watch HD material on a UHD television, maybe even one or the other channel in standard resolution. Even though UHD TVs upscale these sources to UHD, they can't do magic either, and you don't want to move the couch every time you change channels. In practice, you have to find a compromise anyway.

So don't let yourself be confused: the right distance from the television is quite simply the one at which you feel comfortable and can still see sharpness advantages. Cinema enthusiasts like to be glued so close to a giant screen that it fills their entire field of view, while others find it more comfortable to be able to watch a film without having to constantly move their head.

The right screen size and the right distance from the seat are, as with many things, a matter of taste.

summary

1.     UHD is becoming the TV, gaming and home cinema standard.
2.     Our recommendation for the minimum TV size for UHD is 50 inches.

 

HDR: More contrast

HDR (High Dynamic Range) brings an enormous range of contrast that looks natural despite the deep black and bright white. A significantly larger spatial impression is created, the images appear more plastic. On the other hand, HDR provides additional brightness gradations that conjure up more details into the picture - especially scenes with clear brightness contrasts are better shown on the TV thanks to HDR. This also makes the motifs appear more plastic and realistic.

The TV receives the corresponding image information for all of this. This is the important difference to other contrast techniques, where the TV calculates the values, which can lead to inaccuracies and overemphasis and often makes the image appear flat and unnatural.

The bottom line is that HDR brings at least an equal improvement in image quality to the much more heavily advertised UHD resolution. So HDR is highly recommended.

In contrast to UHD, the size of the screen plays a minor role when it comes to HDR, because the human eye perceives differences in contrast even with small screens and greater viewing distances.

Practically all current UHD televisions can now process and display HDR data in one way or another. If the television is awarded this, it meets all requirements. Other quite technical terms that certify HDR capability are HDR 10, Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

The latter two in particular cause headaches for TV buyers. Both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are so-called dynamic HDR processes. Instead of using one HDR setting for the entire video, as with HDR10, they allow the HDR settings to be adjusted in each scene of the film or series. This means higher production costs, but leads to impressive results in practice.

The catch in the whole thing is that between Dolby Vision and HDR10+ there is a format war with different stakeholders, which is unfortunately typical of TV history. TV manufacturers as well as film studios and streaming services each prefer one technology or the other. HDR10+ was initiated by Samsung as an answer to the high licensing costs of Dolby Vision and is used on TVs from Samsung, Panasonic and Philips, but most of them can also handle Dolby Vision. LG and Sony, on the other hand, rely almost exclusively on Dolby Vision.

But the HDR content has to come from somewhere, too, and it's confusing here too. For example, Netflix uses Dolby Vision for its own productions, while Amazon uses HDR10+ (although with exceptions). Apple supports Dolby Vision 4K on its top smartphones and the Apple TV and also produces the content in its streaming service with the dynamic HDR format. Disney also delivers most of the content on Disney+ with Dolby Vision and seems to be moving its studios away from HDR10+.

From the customer's point of view, the overall situation is still unsatisfactory, but Dolby Vision seems to be slowly but surely gaining ground. Nevertheless, even the "simple" HDR10 provides a decent image upgrade for films, series or compatible console games from the PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X generation. The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S also support Dolby Vision gaming, which ensures stronger contrasts and colors on compatible televisions even when gaming - so this is definitely an argument for gamers to use a Dolby Vision-enabled TV.

Can it be a little more complex? Then we refer to the most recent advancement of Dolby Vision, namely Dolby Vision IQ. However, this is not directly another HDR implementation that film studios and TV buyers have to deal with. Instead, a Dolby Vision IQ-enabled television "only" ensures that the HDR display should also come into its own in brightly lit rooms. To do this, the televisions automatically adjust the picture settings. Depending on the Dolby Vision content and the space used, the effect can actually bring an advantage in terms of image quality, but in our opinion Dolby Vision IQ is not an absolute selling point.

Important: HDR-capable TVs can also have HDMI inputs that are not HDR-capable. Only inputs from the HDMI 2.0a generation are fully HDR-capable – but practically all current TV models offer them.

 

UHD Premium, Netflix Calibrated, Filmmaker Mode: seals of quality with varying significance

From time to time, the TV makers advertise with well-sounding functions or seals of approval that are intended to indicate special quality. In 2016, for example, the UHD Alliance presented the UHD Premium logo, which identifies televisions with a certain basic configuration.

The logo guarantees the following important points on TVs:

1.     Screen has UHD pixel count
2.     TV masters HDR 10
3.     Screen shows at least over 90 percent of the extended DCI P3 color space
4.     The screen meets the minimum values ​​for dark black display and brightness
5.     TV can accept UHD and HDR image signals via HDMI
6.     TV can accept UHD and HDR image signals via the Internet
7.     UHD TV reception is guaranteed

For Blu-Ray players, on the other hand, the following is important:

1.     Player outputs UHD pixel count
2.     Player outputs HDR 10
3.     Player outputs an extended color space up to BT.2020

The problem with the matter: There are televisions that meet the UHD premium requirements, but do not have a corresponding logo on the box. So the presence of the logo is helpful, but its absence does not necessarily mean that the TV is bad.

The same applies to other logos. For example, some televisions, such as Sony or LG, promise the so-called Netflix Calibrated mode. If this is activated, the television activates a series of picture settings that promise an optimal picture for the in-house productions of the popular streaming service. Filmmaker Mode, initiated by Hollywood makers, pursues a similar goal. Here, too, the various image enhancers of modern image processors are deactivated and the color settings are adjusted in order to create a film experience that is as authentic as possible.

In practice, the corresponding modes can actually enhance the picture experience. However, since TV and film makers come up with new modes every few years that don't support older TVs, you shouldn't base your purchasing decision too heavily on them. Because even without Netflix Calibrated Mode, it is possible to achieve an excellent picture on Netflix and Co. with good televisions.

summary

1.     The logos and modes can help identify high quality TVs.
2.     Support is helpful, but not mandatory.

 

Twin tuner: TV twice

If you want to record one show and watch another on another channel at the same time, you need a twin tuner. This means that two receivers are available for each reception path.

You can also record two shows at the same time. And if you like zapping during commercial breaks, you can even show an additional image: With one image you can zip through the channels, with the other you can see when the commercial break is over.

With some TVs with streaming mode, you can also watch a program on the TV and transfer another via WiFi to a tablet, smartphone or a second TV, provided it is equipped accordingly.

There are now even external TV receivers that offer more than two receivers. Depending on the overall equipment, the options described above increase accordingly.

Twin reception should not be confused with the term triple tuner, which is also used by manufacturers. It means that one receiver is available for each reception path (satellite, cable, antenna). But this is now common and not particularly worth mentioning.

summary

    Watch or record two programs at the same time

    comfort equipment

    Triple tuner indicates the three types of reception