The TV Selection Game

[audio bill]

Originally Posted by Yamaki

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Fast forward a few years and the backlit LED technology looked quite different and started to drop in price. This improving feature was named OLED (organic light emitting diode) and you saw all sorts of trade names pop up
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All through this back lighting evolution the LEDs became smaller and smaller...and now we see QLED technology making a bid to be the big dog in TV technology. QLED, I believe, is trademarked by Samsung and they describe it as their quantum dot light emitting diode technology.

While what you posted about most displays being marketed as LED are actually LCD panels illuminated by LEDs (either at the edge or back panel) is true, OLEDs are a completely different technology. Instead of an LCD panel which passes a light source through it, Organic LEDs are an emissive display technology in which each pixel is its own light source with no edge or back light used. As such it has the best black levels since it can entirely turn off individual pixels to create blacks, rather than attempting to block the light like an LED/LCD panel does which never achieves as true black levels.

Samsung's QLED technology is their unique implementation of LED/LCD panels which create a wider color palette than more typical LED sets, but does not have the advantages of an emissive display which OLED has. As you'd expect they market it as the latest and greatest technology, but most reviews find OLED to be the superior technology in its present implementation.

LED LCDs do have an advantage over OLEDs though in their ultimate brightness levels are higher. So when used in a brightly lit room some viewers will prefer the brighter output of an LED or QLED set compared to the softer picture which OLED produces. OLED displays tend to have higher contrast and a more vivid image primarily due to their better black levels.

Similar to most things in high end audio, there is no best on an absolute basis. Deciding on which technology is best for any individual generally involves weighing the tradeoffs and determining which are most important in a given setup.

Hope this helps clarify some of the confusion around LED/LCD/QLED TV technology!

[crwilli]

Is there data out there on longevity or MTBF of the technologies?

My 2002 Phillips Plasma is still running in. Buddy’s basement. My Panasonic Plasma from 2012 is also running everyday.