FEATURE | MON I TOR I NG
technology being able to deliver brighter peak whites at 1000 NITs over a large area. Unfortunately, the viewing angle seems to be much narrower compared to [OLED] which is a real problem when you are grading with clients. Having a client sitting off at an angle from the monitor and commenting on the grade while seeing something slightly different to the colourist who is sitting directly in front is obviously not manageable.” Sony has, naturally, consulted with the post-production world and is aware of the concern. Dubreuil: “From the experience I had from some of the post houses I visited... some of them think they can accommodate it because they understand the performance compared to the X300. Some of them are strict on the viewing angle. In the long term it will depend on the customer... people want to see it, people want to compare it with the X300, we do side-by-side comparisons. Most of the time they are convinced. When you do a side-by-side comparison it’s very obvious, the advantage of the new tech.” LIGHT MODULATING LCML may offer advantages beyond sheer imaging performance. Flanders’ Desmet suggests that, “any time a display technology doesn’t have that consumer market, manufacturers don’t get involved and you don’t get economies of scale.” Referring to the high-power backlights, he says that “nobody needs a 55in, two-foot- thick TV. They draw more power, they
OLED SCREEN BURN
most of the time. After 4000 hours, the TVs testing this content displayed the mark of these logos on the screen, even when the content wasn’t being played. It is for this reason in part that Samsung decided to stop using OLED technology in its TVs in 2012 and proceeded to develop the new QLED technology. Samsung claims that their QLED TVs’ picture quality lasts for the lifetime of the product and there will not be any visible deterioration in colour over time due to the advanced Quantum dot technology – QLED uses inorganic Quantum dot material which is known to be durable and stays burn- in free. On the other hand, the organic material of OLED TVs potentially wears out over time. As such, Samsung QLED and LED TV sets have received a perfect score (10/10) for image retention in RTINGS’ test. The impartial tests seem to prove that Samsung’s QLED and Dynamic Crystal Colour UHD TVs aren’t susceptible to screen burn like other TVs and potentially monitors on the market, and as such Samsung is offering a market-leading ten-year screen burn warranty as a testament to the confidence in its QLED technology. produce more heat. Every single one of them is going to have at least a few fans built in because they do generate a fair bit of heat.” Even so, it’s likely to be easier to make than OLED. “You can use a lot of the same basic infrastructure you can use to make normal LCDs. You can afford to do this in small runs without having these giant facilities dedicated to nothing but top emission RGB OLED.” Finally, Desmet suggests that someone may work out how to make very bright OLEDs reliably, but it may not be soon. “We have several semiconductor manufacturers that are trying to make their own RGB OLED. We may have large RGB OLEDs in the future. Even though it’s dead at the moment it may not be dead in two years... there are at least two panel manufacturers that may commercialise next-generation RGB top emission, but it would be kind to even call those nascent technologies at this point.” Given all that, the availability of LCML seems well-timed, and it’s likely to fulfil at least some of that need for the perfect display that’s always seemed just out of reach.
Tests by influential technology reviews site RTINGS, have found screen burn can set in as quickly as two years after buying a new OLED television and by association, monitor. That’s much quicker than previously expected in OLED TVs. Screen burn, or burn-in, refers to an effect where part of an image that is no longer displayed is still visible on a different image, such as static logos that stay on the screen when running timecode, watching news channels and playing video games. The latest tests by RTINGS tested OLED for burn-in on a variety of content, from news and general TV to sports and gaming. During the testing period, the technology reviewers assessed and reported on the screens’ brightness and colour renderings every two weeks. The channels and content were respectively displayed in intervals of a five-hour ‘on’ period and one-hour ‘off’ period during a cycle that was repeated four times per day. The tests found that when the TVs were set to maximum brightness and were showing gaming content and news channels, they were most affected by burn-in, as both pieces of content feature static logos on screen
People want to compare it with the X300. When you do a side-by-side comparison it’s very obvious, the advantage of the new tech
50 DEF I N I T ION | JANUARY 20 1 9
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