tftcentral - OLED monitor black level vs LCD panels

[Scott_Arm]

The OLED Black Depth Lie - When Panel Type and Coating Matters - TFTCentral

Testing and evaluating the perceived black depth and contrast on different OLED and LCD panels, in different lighting conditions. Does technology or panel coating really have an impact?

tftcentral.co.uk

Really good article showing how much ambient light affects different types of OLED displays/monitors that are currently available vs typical LCD configurations. I think I'd probably lean towards the WOLED screens vs the wider gamut of the QD OLEDs, but I do generally play games in a dim to dark room.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The OLED Black Depth Lie - When Panel Type and Coating Matters - TFTCentral

Testing and evaluating the perceived black depth and contrast on different OLED and LCD panels, in different lighting conditions. Does technology or panel coating really have an impact?

tftcentral.co.uk

Really good article showing how much ambient light affects different types of OLED displays/monitors that are currently available vs typical LCD configurations. I think I'd probably lean towards the WOLED screens vs the wider gamut of the QD OLEDs, but I do generally play games in a dim to dark room.

That's been my experience as well that black levels on Samsung QD-OLED panels are pretty bad if there's any light in the room with bright rooms being especially bad.

What's surprising is that in a brightly lit room their black levels are actually worse than many LCD panels for Gen1 and worse than matte VA LCDs for Gen2. OUCH!

Hopefully, Samsung fixes that in version 3 of their panels. They're obviously working on it as seen with the improvement between Gen1 and Gen2, but it's still a lot worse than WOLED.

Granted Samsung panels are brighter, but all the brightness in the world is not worth it to me if blacks appear more grey than black.

Regards,
SB

 

[Scott_Arm]

I feel like I want contrast more than a wide gamut, but I’d probably have to compare a dark movie or game and then a bright one with a strong hdr implementation.

Usually I feel like my SDR display is lacking in dark scenes more than bright ones.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I feel like I want contrast more than a wide gamut, but I’d probably have to compare a dark movie or game and then a bright one with a strong hdr implementation.

Usually I feel like my SDR display is lacking in dark scenes more than bright ones.

For me, I'm already reducing the brightness of my LG CX (calibrated for my room), so anything brighter would be a waste for me. Of course, I don't use my panel in a brightly lit room so I don't need a super bright display to compensate for, say, daylight coming through the window and shining directly on my display.

Regards,
SB

 

[orangpelupa]

Maybe that's why some manufacturers listed 1:5 million or something like that for their oled displays?

 

[Pressure]

Monitors have always been at the mercy of the users' ability to control lighting in the room.

That's why you usually see monitors with "sun hoods" or very controlled lighting in any professional context, especially when it comes to photography, printed media and color grading.

 

[Davros]

Once upon a time there were 3 bears - no I mean I used work for a company that had green screen monitors (old mainframe) and they had screen filters that were made of a black mesh and they really did improve contrast
I dont know if these things work for colour monitors or if you can still buy them but they worked..

 

[Albuquerque]

Something else which can help with glare, at least for your TV: buy a high quality wall mount which permits tilt adjustment (nearly all do...) Depending on the size of the TV itself, mount it between six and twelve inches above the vertical centerline of a person in a seated position, and then tilt the screen down to "aim" right where you'd normally be seated. This allows two things: you're dead-center in the viewing space so you get maximal quality out of any screen tech (LCD obviously matters the most for this) and the slight downward angle helps deflect intrusive light.

My Sammy Q95B (mini-LED, not OLED) has what might be the very best antiglare coating I've ever seen in my life. It isn't a matte finish either, but there's some sort of diffusion effect that works incredibly well and I've never seen anything quite like it. It also gets STUPIDLY bright if you want it to, and the blooming is pretty tiny and really only visible in very specific scenes (not even credits rolling, more like pinpoints of light, such as the starscapes in The Martian.)

 

[xz321zx]

The OLED Black Depth Lie - When Panel Type and Coating Matters - TFTCentral

Testing and evaluating the perceived black depth and contrast on different OLED and LCD panels, in different lighting conditions. Does technology or panel coating really have an impact?

tftcentral.co.uk

Really good article showing how much ambient light affects different types of OLED displays/monitors that are currently available vs typical LCD configurations. I think I'd probably lean towards the WOLED screens vs the wider gamut of the QD OLEDs, but I do generally play games in a dim to dark room.

Let's just say these are nothing like the peer reviewed ACR (ambient contrast ratio) numbers.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Let's just say these are nothing like the peer reviewed ACR (ambient contrast ratio) numbers.

Got any links? Measuring black level shouldn’t be super difficult and Tft central has been a reliable monitor reviewer for a long time.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Got any links? Measuring black level shouldn’t be super difficult and Taft central has been a reliable monitor reviewer for a long time.

I mean it doesn't get much easier than putting both displays side by side and making note of which one looks grey and which doesn't. Obviously it's not the OLED pixels themselves as this happens when both displays are turned off. The Samsung OLEDs themselves are capable of true black, just the coating they use is, for my purposes, absolute crap. That said, they are also better at reducing reflections but it comes at the cost of grey blacks if there is any light in the room.

Regards,
SB

 

[davis.anthony]

I've moved from a W-OLED to a QD-OLED over the last 3 days and not noticed a drop in contrast

What I have noticed though, is the far superior image quality and clarity the QD-OLED has.

 

[RobertR1]

I had WOLED's and now since launch had a QD OLED monitor; AW3423DW and a TV 65inch S95B. Just picked up a 77inch S90C and did the mod to turn it into a S95C.

Unless you have a strong and direct light source on the screen, you're not going to run into the lifted blacks on a QD OLED. Normal light, lamps etc are fine.

When the panels are off and you have a direct light source, you'll see it behave worse with the pint/red and black level lift.

Also important to note that if you room is sun drenched, perceived contrast is already down the drain so now you're just talking theory vs what your eyes will actually see.

A real example: I had to turn the monitor directly into a massive front yard window to show the level of light it takes to dilute the blacks. Even then you can see the left half of the screen is fine as it's able to handle the light being angled and not directly at the window while the right half which is directly taking on the outdoor lighting is suffering. If that's your primary use case, just buy the cheapest monitor you can with the best AR coating.

The window I pointed the monitor at:

In reality, its much brighter as this was mid summer but iphone auto exposure is trying to correct it.

 

[davis.anthony]

This is my Alienware QD-OLED with the blind open and the monitor itself is not turned on.