On the Los Angeles Conference Middle, two 85-inch TVs sat aspect through aspect within the Nanosys assembly room at Show Week — a every year business-to-business conference specializing in the generation that is going into shows of all kinds. One TV used to be a mini-LED panel with tremendous quantum dots, and the opposite used to be an RGB LED — this yr’s most up to date TV development. Each TVs have been appearing the similar content material on the similar time to focus on the diversities between the 2 applied sciences — or extra in particular, to turn the possible failings of RGB LED backlights when in comparison to tremendous quantum dot (SQD), which makes use of blue LEDs for the backlight.
I will have to almost certainly point out that Nanosys made the quantum dots within the first TV.
The TV at the proper, with the Nanosys tremendous quantum dots, used to be categorised because the TCL X11L — the striped decrease grille confirming as a lot — and the opposite used to be perhaps the TCL RM9L. Nanosys wouldn’t verify as a lot, however I’ve observed the RGB LED TVs from Hisense, Samsung, LG, and Sony in particular person, and it wasn’t any of the ones. Jeff Yurek, vice chairman of selling at Nanosys, knowledgeable me that each TVs have been in Filmmaker Mode and colour used to be set to local to permit each to hit the most important gamut imaginable.
As a snappy refresher, RGB LED TVs use crimson, inexperienced, and blue LEDs grouped into zones to create a coloured backlight in keeping with the picture displayed on display screen. Theoretically, this offers the TV extra colourful and saturated colours than mini-LED TVs just like the X11L with blue backlights, without having to depend only at the quantum dots. The main possible factor is that the coloured gentle supplied through the backlight will bleed into adjoining pixels or zones that vary in colour, leading to what’s referred to as colour crosstalk. Nearly, this may purpose the crimson of a shiny blouse or hat to purpose the outside of the wearer to have a reddish hue. And that’s precisely what this demo confirmed.
All over all the demonstration, the similar video feed went to each TVs. One slide confirmed 3 rows: two rows of packing containers with the main and secondary colours — blue, inexperienced, crimson, cyan, magenta, and yellow — and the 3rd with a skinny white move on a black background underneath every coloured field. The highest row of packing containers would then trade between a forged field and one with a white move inside of it. At the RGB LED TV, because the white move gave the impression within the best row, it used to be simple to peer the colour of the world across the move get a little lighter and not more saturated. The colour crosstalk didn’t simply occur inside the best row of packing containers; the field colour from the center row additionally visibly bled into the ground row of crosses. This displays within the TVs’ BT.2020 colour gamut measurements as neatly, with the advent of the white move diminishing general BT.2020 protection, maximum dramatically with the blue and inexperienced colour issues.
However except you’re a dimension nerd like me, you don’t watch forged blocks of colour to your TV for amusing. The impact may be provide with pores and skin tones — one thing that, as people, is well spotted. Simply as the colour of the blocks bleeds into the white move, so does a coloured background into pores and skin tone; nonetheless photographs of a girl’s face with a coloured background brought about her pores and skin tone to shift towards the background colour. To ensure my eye wasn’t inflicting the colour bleed, versus the TV, I used a scope to focal point only a portion of the girl’s face, blocking off out the remaining from my view. I may nonetheless inform which background colour used to be displayed through the exchange in hue of her pores and skin.
The SQD TV didn’t showcase any colour crosstalk. It additionally had higher distinction, which comes all the way down to the collection of dimming zones. The X11L is marketed as having as much as 20,000 eating zones, even supposing consistent with Rtings, the 85-inch fashion has 14,400 — nonetheless an excellent quantity. The RGB LED TV used on this comparability has, I used to be advised, round 8,000 dimming zones. One explanation why the quantity is decrease is as a result of every dimming zone on an RGB TV, at a minimal, must have 3 LEDs — a crimson, a inexperienced, and a blue — and the ones soak up area. But if the backlight consists of handiest blue LEDs, a unmarried LED generally is a dimming zone, giving a lot finer keep watch over.
All of that is perceptible in exact content material. All over an motion scene with fast motion and speedy cuts, I may nonetheless select variations as shiny colours affected the ones surrounding them, in particular with pores and skin tones. And in night time scenes, the distinction distinction used to be notable. If the RGB LED TV used to be within the room on its own, with out the SQD TV for comparability, I don’t assume the colour crosstalk would glance as obvious. Our eyes can regulate briefly to visible problems, and we forestall noticing them. However casting off the comparability doesn’t remove the issue.
This isn’t brand-new knowledge. Trade professionals had been eager about the potential of colour crosstalk in RGB LED TVs for the reason that generation debuted at CES 2025. The ones issues have grown as extra RGB LED TVs arrive available on the market this yr. LG Show, particularly a maker of OLED panels that are in direct festival with RGB LED, produced movies a couple of weeks prior to this yr’s CES, highlighting the issues.
In fact, each Nanosys and LG Show have vested pursuits in downplaying RGB TV tech. The efficiency of 1 RGB LED TV additionally doesn’t inform the tale for all RGB LED TVs. I didn’t understand any crosstalk problems once I reviewed the Hisense UR9, even supposing the extra I see different RGB LED TVs, the extra I believe the Hisense could also be bypassing the problem and falling again to white backlighting, now not RGB, every time there have been a large number of colours on display screen. Additionally the processing features of the approaching Sony RGB LED TVs may make colour crosstalk a nonissue on the ones units. And we’re nonetheless proper firstly of the RGB LED TV tale. Because the generation continues to increase and refine, those problems will have to be mitigated. However for 2026, SQD a minimum of seems to be to have the higher hand.
