lg lcd panel issues brands

2023-01-03 12:32:11

Today we watch a repair video (see below) on an LG TV model LG55LW5600 exhibiting no images or pictures upon powering on. Power indicator blinks on but the screen remains blank. One possible cause could be a problem with the LED backlights but that was not the case here as the LEDs were clearly doing their job (as indicated in the video). Turns out, the problem was the main board and the fix involved working on the main board.

It is not always the main board that causes this type of LCD/LED/Smart TV problem on an LG or any other TV brands out there. In fact, a lot cases are caused by T-Con board problems that usually require replacement of the board. You could repair main boards or T-Con boards (Read our previous post discussing training on How to Repair T-Con Boards) but it can be somewhat daunting if you are not good doing delicate work on small circuits, and micro-soldering and such. Most of the time, the suggested fix is to replace the faulty T-Con or main boards. You may find some main boards a little pricier so the the suggestion is to buy a working main board from a TV with busted LCD panel (too expensive to repair this so owners usually just throw them out and buy new TVs). These are occasionally sold on eBay so it may be worth waiting for one there if you have the time.

The video actually shows you how to repair, not replace, the LG TV’s main board so if that is the direction you wish to take for your TV then please do carefully watch the video.

lg lcd panel issues brands

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lg lcd panel issues brands

Back in 2016, to determine if the TV panel lottery makes a significant difference, we bought three different sizes of the Samsung J6300 with panels from different manufacturers: a 50" (version DH02), a 55" (version TH01), and a 60" (version MS01). We then tested them with the same series of tests we use in all of our reviews to see if the differences were notable.

Our Samsung 50" J6300 is a DH02 version, which means the panel is made by AU Optronics. Our 55" has an original TH01 Samsung panel. The panel in our 60" was made by Sharp, and its version is MS01.

Upon testing, we found that each panel has a different contrast ratio. The 50" AUO (DH02) has the best contrast, at 4452:1, followed by the 60" Sharp (MS01) at 4015:1. The Samsung 55" panel had the lowest contrast of the three: 3707:1.

These results aren"t really surprising. All these LCD panels are VA panels, which usually means a contrast between 3000:1 and 5000:1. The Samsung panel was quite low in that range, leaving room for other panels to beat it.

The motion blur results are really interesting. The response time of the 55" TH01 Samsung panel is around double that of the Sharp and AUO panels. This is even consistent across all 12 transitions that we measured.

For our measurements, a difference in response time of 10 ms starts to be noticeable. All three are within this range, so the difference isn"t very noticeable to the naked eye, and the Samsung panel still performs better than most other TVs released around the same time.

We also got different input lag measurements on each panel. This has less to do with software, which is the same across each panel, and more to do with the different response times of the panels (as illustrated in the motion blur section). To measure input lag, we use the Leo Bodnar tool, which flashes a white square on the screen and measures the delay between the signal sent and the light sensor detecting white. Therefore, the tool"s input lag measurement includes the 0% to 100% response time of the pixel transition. If you look at the 0% to 100% transitions that we measured, you will see that the 55" takes about 10 ms longer to transition from black to white.

All three have bad viewing angles, as expected for VA panels. If you watch TV at an angle, most likely none of these TVs will satisfy you. The picture quality degrades at about 20 degrees from the side. The 60" Sharp panel is worse than the other ones though. In the video, you can see the right side degrading sooner than the other panels.

It"s unfortunate that manufacturers sometimes vary the source of their panels and that consumers don"t have a way of knowing which one they"re buying. Overall though, at least in the units we tested, the panel lottery isn"t something to worry about. While there are differences, the differences aren"t big and an original Samsung panel isn"t necessarily better than an outsourced one. It"s also fairly safe to say that the same can be said of other brands. All panels have minute variations, but most should perform within the margin of error for each model.

lg lcd panel issues brands

SEOUL, April 27 (Reuters) - LG Display Co Ltd (034220.KS) saw first-quarter profit plummet far below forecasts and warned of a further drop in panel prices as pandemic-driven demand for TVs, smartphones and laptops fades and competition heats up.

The South Korean Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier said it would shift its focus to higher-end products and gradually lower production of more commoditised LCD TV panels where it lacked a competitive advantage over cheaper Chinese rivals.

The LCD TV market shrank by more than 10% in the first quarter and Chinese competitors are pricing their products lower than LG Display"s expectations, Lee Tai-jong, head of the company"s large display marketing division, said on a call with analysts.

"Margins have been squeezed chiefly due to panel price declines and weaker demand, as consumers have already bought many screens during COVID-19 in the past two years," said Kim Yang-jae, an analyst at DAOL Investment & Securities.

The source was not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. LG Display declined to comment on client matters. BOE and Apple did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

In the first quarter, prices of 55-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) panels for TV sets fell 16% from the previous quarter while prices of LCD panels for notebooks and monitors dropped by around 7% to 11%, according to data from TrendForce"s WitsView.

lg lcd panel issues brands

The Hisense U8H matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform is a welcome addition. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.

The Hisense U8H is the best LCD/LED TV for most people because it delivers the performance of a much pricier TV yet starts at under $1,000, for the smallest (55-inch) screen size. This TV utilizes quantum dots, a full-array backlight with mini-LEDs, and a 120 Hz refresh rate to deliver a great-looking 4K HDR image. It’s compatible with every major HDR format. And it’s equipped with two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs to support 4K 120 Hz gaming from the newest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Add in the intuitive, fully featured Google TV smart-TV platform, and the U8H’s price-to-performance ratio is of inarguable value.

The U8H’s brightness, black-level integrity, and local-dimming abilities make this an excellent TV for watching HDR content. The U8H is capable of playing HDR content in all of the major formats (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG), but when it comes to impressive HDR, what’s under the hood is much more important than format compatibility. The most crucial thing for good HDR is high brightness and deep color saturation, and the U8H’s quantum dots achieve the latter. It’s not as simple as just having quantum dots, however: While many TVs (even the budget options) have quantum dots nowadays, what is often not taken into account is that brightness directly affects color saturation. For example, both the 2022 TCL 6-Series and the Hisense U8H are equipped with quantum dots, mini-LED backlights, and local dimming. But because the U8H is notably brighter than the 6-Series, it also achieves a higher total color volume. During our color-volume testing, the U8H exhibited color ranges at more than 100% of the DCI-P3 color space (the range of color needed to properly display HDR content), and it is capable of roughly 10% more total color volume compared with the 6-Series.

What does this mean in real-world terms? It means that the Hisense U8H truly excels as a modern 4K HDR TV, whether you’re watching the latest episode of Rings of Power or playing Overwatch 2. While watching HDR content side by side on the U8H and on our upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90B, I was truly surprised by how similar they looked at times, given that our upgrade pick is much more expensive. That said, though the U8H achieves impressive results where light output and color volume are concerned, it also exhibited some occasional video processing and upscaling issues (see Flaws but not dealbreakers), which videophiles and AV enthusiasts may take umbrage with. But in general, the picture quality punches well above its weight, metaphorically speaking.

In terms of design, the Hisense U8H is not as svelte as our upgrade pick, but it’s plenty sturdy and doesn’t look or feel cheap. Two narrow, metal feet jut out from beneath the panel and steadily hold the TV. They can be attached in two separate spots, either closer in toward the middle of the panel or out toward the edges, to account for different-size TV stands. The feet are also equipped with cable organization clasps—a nice touch for keeping your TV stand free of cable clutter. Though the TV is primarily plastic, its bezels are lined with metal strips, providing a bit more durability in the long run. I moved it around my home, and it was no worse for wear, but we’ll know more after doing some long-term testing.

The Hisense U8H has some difficulties with banding, or areas of uneven gradation, where transitions that should appear smooth instead look like “bands” of color (sometimes also called posterization). Like many current 4K HDR TVs, the U8H uses an 8-bit panel rather than a 10-bit panel, which affects the color decoding and color presentation process. This is usually relevant only with HDR video and games. When playing games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, I saw a few instances where the content wasn’t rendered correctly and displayed ugly splotches of color on the screen. However, this almost always occurred during static screens (such as a pause menu or loading screen); I rarely spotted it during actual gameplay. Hisense has stated that it would address the problem in a future firmware update, but at the time of writing it was still present. This is a flaw that may give dedicated gamers pause, but we don’t consider it to be a dealbreaker for most people.

Finally, like most TVs that use vertical alignment (VA) LCD panels, the U8H has a limited horizontal viewing angle, which may be a bit annoying if you’re hoping to entertain a large crowd. Our upgrade pick uses a special wide-angle technology to address this.

lg lcd panel issues brands

The source was not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. LG Display declined to comment on client matters. BOE and Apple did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

lg lcd panel issues brands

The best LG TV we"ve tested is the LG G2 OLED. It performs a lot like most other OLED displays, but it features a new-and-improved OLED panel that allows it to display brighter whites than previous generations. The G2 features a unique design, as it"s designed to sit flush against the wall with the included wall mount, but it doesn"t come with a stand. If you want a TV with a stand, the LG C2 OLED is also a fantastic choice. They have the same great features as most of LG"s other OLED displays, including amazing gaming features like FreeSync and G-SYNC variable refresh rate, low input lag, and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four HDMI ports. Overall, the C2 and G2 are two of the best TVs you can get for gaming.

LG is one of the largest TV manufacturers in the world, and they"re one of the few companies that make both OLED and LED-backlit TVs. Their OLED TVs offer the best value and performance compared to other brands, with an amazing selection of streaming features and fantastic picture quality. LG TVs run their proprietary webOS smart interface, which is well-organized and easy to use and has a great selection of streaming apps. LG also has a unique remote called the Magic Remote that has a point-and-press feature, making it easy to navigate through the menus. LG also leads the industry in terms of gaming features. They were one of the first brands to adopt HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on their TVs, and most of their lineup, including their LED models, support advanced gaming features like G-SYNC variable refresh rate technology. On the other hand, their LED models deliver poor picture quality, especially for dark room viewing, as most use IPS panels with a very low contrast ratio and poor uniformity.

lg lcd panel issues brands

The Samsung S95B is our favorite OLED TV for 2022 because its QD-OLED design, which combines quantum dots with an OLED panel, makes it the brightest, most flexible OLED TV we’ve ever tested. Most OLED TVs excel in perfect darkness and struggle as more ambient light is introduced. While the S95B looks best in total darkness, it maintains its excellence in brighter rooms and really excels with HDR content that takes advantage of its unparalleled brightness and color production. The S95B supports the HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG high dynamic range formats (but not Dolby Vision) and has Filmmaker Mode to automatically show movies as the director intended. It’s also a very gaming-friendly TV, with a 120 Hz refresh rate and four HDMI 2.1 inputs. The S95B is only available in 55- and 65-inch screen sizes, but if one of those sizes works for you, this TV is an easy recommendation for any viewing environment.

When OLED hit the market a decade ago, it revolutionized our collective idea of what a top-tier TV could look like, due primarily to its deep black levels and high contrast. Its main performance weakness compared with LCD TVs has been its lower light output: For years, we’ve seen improvements in luminance only by inches, with 2021’s best models doing their best to hit 800 nits of brightness. Meanwhile, the best LCD TVs have soared to well beyond 1,000 nits.

The S95B’s ability to overcome that hurdle is one of the primary reasons it’s our new top pick. The QD-OLED panel keeps everything that’s great about OLED and closes the brightness gap with quantum-dot LCDs, cresting to over 1,000 nits of brightness without any of the potential downsides we see from LED backlights in LCD TVs—like blooming or glow around bright objects in a dark scene.

The S95B’s unique panel design also improves color brightness and saturation. Because it uses quantum dots, the QD-OLED panel is similar to an RGB (red/green/blue) OLED panel. Almost any other OLED TV you buy today uses an LG Displays WRGB panel, meaning there’s a white subpixel included with the usual trio of red, green, and blue subpixels. A WRGB panel is cheaper to produce and induces less wear and tear on the primary subpixels over time, but it comes at a cost to color saturation at higher brightness levels. For example, to achieve a very bright green, WRGB OLEDs (like the LG C2) use the white subpixel and the green subpixel together, combining them to make a brighter green. However, as the picture gets brighter overall, the white subpixel gets driven more, and there is an inherent reduction in color purity.

After almost a decade of seeing a WRGB panel’s handling of colors, there is a noticeable improvement with Samsung’s quantum-dot-equipped OLED. This TV can drive its red, green, and blue primaries into unpolluted luminance ranges beyond most OLED TVs from the past decade, and the end result is downright grin-inducing, though it’s occasionally a touch fanciful in the less accurate picture modes.

In direct comparisons with the runner-up LG C2, the S95B’s higher peak brightness (around 750 to 800 nits for the C2, and 950 to 1,000 nits for the S95B) makes only a small yet still an appreciable difference, but the improvement in high-brightness color saturation is quite significant. With both TVs set to the most accurate Filmmaker Mode, darker and dimmer content looks similar enough, but you can see the difference between the WRGB and RGB OLED panels when brighter, more saturated colors are on display, regardless of whether content is SDR or HDR. I noticed it while watching Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+, where the red telltales on the villains’ armor had a more vivid pop on the S95B.

Measuring the S95B confirmed most of what I was seeing while watching real-world content: The TV is bright enough for sunlit rooms. Even in the HDR Filmmaker Mode, it hits 1,000-plus nits, but the SDR Filmmaker Mode is much more subdued, topping out closer to 150 nits. In other picture modes, you’ll get a range of average brightness levels closer to 400 or 500 nits. It’s also worth noting that Samsung’s recent firmware updates have caused the S95B’s overall light output to fluctuate: It originally hit closer to 1,500 nits but has been reined in by the updates. While this dampens some of the initial excitement about the S95B’s capabilities, we think 1,000 nits (a benchmark for HDR formats) is still an achievement for OLED TVs. The decrease in brightness should also extend the panel life to a certain degree.

Whether you’re watching SDR or HDR video, the Filmmaker Mode is the most accurate picture mode for dark-room viewing. (This wasn’t true when the S95B was first introduced, but firmware updates have fixed some early accuracy issues.) Staunch videophiles may want to do a bit of calibrating, but the average viewer will be nothing but impressed. While watching Dune on Ultra HD Blu-ray in 4K/HDR, shadow details were preserved well during dark-room viewing, and the HDR Filmmaker Mode showed HDR video at the correct brightness level across most of the signal range. Occasionally, near-black details looked a little too bright, but overall the nighttime sequences on Arrakis looked invitingly balanced and subtle. There is one unusual black-level-related behavior that we’ll discuss in Flaws but not dealbreakers, but it doesn’t crop up during dark-room use.

The S95B has an extremely thin profile from the side (imagine a stack of three or four credit cards) and is equipped with a handsome, weighted center stand that takes up minimal tabletop space. You’ll find its four HDMI inputs (and other ports) around the right side of the TV. Assembly is easy, but the plastic pieces meant to pop into place on the rear of the panel and stand (to cover the ports/cables and provide a form of cable management) are finicky, and I ended up leaving the cable cover off more often than not because it was so hard to get it to sit flush. The stand is very stable, however, and holds the panel at ample height to easily fit a soundbar underneath. The stand’s cable management is good overall and makes for a clean-looking TV on your tabletop, something Samsung typically excels at.

It’s a shame that the S95B is only available in 55- and 65-inch screen sizes. Many gamers may be angling for a smaller size (42 or 48 inches) for desktop gaming, while folks with home theaters may be acclimated to a 77-inch OLED screen and don’t want to downsize. If you’re in that camp, we’d direct you to the LG C2 Series.

Every OLED TV uses a process called ABL (auto brightness limiting) to stave off issues with panel damage and burn-in, and to extend the life of the panel. This is a sudden on-screen adjustment where viewers might see the whole screen get a little brighter or darker. It can be distracting; fortunately, it’s a minor problem with the S95B. I only saw it occur occasionally, and the TV’s high brightness actually made the effect less noticeable most of the time—so most folks probably won’t see it happening.

Speaking of burn-in, we’ve seen questions and concerns about the Samsung’s potential for burn-in—which is a form of permanent image retention that can afflict any display, but OLED displays in particular. We can’t make any definitive statements about the S95B’s burn-in vulnerability without longer-term use and testing, but it’s been postulated that burn-in is less of a risk for QD-OLED models. We continue to believe that burn-in is not a major concern if you’re using your OLED TV with varied types of entertainment content. But if you’re someone who plays the same video game for hours per day, weeks on end, or you plan to use the TV as a more static computer monitor, LCD might be the safer choice. The S95B does include tools to mitigate burn-in, including a pixel refresher, a cell-cleaning process, and a screensaver that turns on very quickly when content is paused—but it’s still a fact of the technology that prospective buyers and current owners should be aware of.

I noticed that my 65-inch S95B seemed prone to a small amount of panel warp. Our sample TV clearly wasn’t new and probably made the rounds through reviewers before getting to me, but there does appear to be a very slight curve through the metal of the uppermost bezel, so be careful when you’re first assembling it.

The fact that the S95B is a new panel design may give some shoppers pause. This TV had some performance issues when it first launched, but the amount of firmware updates Samsung has rolled out over the past few months proves that the company is listening attentively to buyer feedback and addressing issues. While most of these updates focused on fixing initial accuracy errors in Filmmaker Mode and adjusting the TV’s brightness numbers, we’re hoping that future updates remove some of the smart platform’s sluggishness. But overall, the S95B is an excellent performer, and we’d gladly deal with some minor flaws on a daily basis just to keep experiencing its gorgeous picture quality.

lg lcd panel issues brands

There are plenty of new and confusing terms facing TV shoppers today, but when it comes down to the screen technology itself, there are only two: Nearly every TV sold today is either LCD or OLED.

The biggest between the two is in how they work. With OLED, each pixel provides its own illumination so there"s no separate backlight. With an LCD TV, all of the pixels are illuminated by an LED backlight. That difference leads to all kinds of picture quality effects, some of which favor LCD, but most of which benefit OLED.

LCDs are made by a number of companies across Asia. All current OLED TVs are built by LG Display, though companies like Sony and Vizio buy OLED panels from LG and then use their own electronics and aesthetic design.

So which one is better? Read on for their strengths and weaknesses. In general we"ll be comparing OLED to the best (read: most expensive) LCD has to offer, mainly because there"s no such thing as a cheap OLED TV (yet).

The better LCDs have local dimming, where parts of the screen can dim independently of others. This isn"t quite as good as per-pixel control because the black areas still aren"t absolutely black, but it"s better than nothing. The best LCDs have full-array local dimming, which provides even finer control over the contrast of what"s onscreen -- but even they can suffer from "blooming," where a bright area spoils the black of an adjacent dark area.

One of the main downsides of LCD TVs is a change in picture quality if you sit away from dead center (as in, off to the sides). How much this matters to you certainly depends on your seating arrangement, but also on how much you love your loved ones.

A few LCDs use in-plane switching (IPS) panels, which have better off-axis picture quality than other kinds of LCDs, but don"t look as good as other LCDs straight on (primarily due to a lower contrast ratio).

OLED doesn"t have the off-axis issue LCDs have; its image looks basically the same, even from extreme angles. So if you have a wide seating area, OLED is the better option.

Nearly all current TVs are HDR compatible, but that"s not the entire story. Just because a TV claims HDR compatibility doesn"t mean it can accurately display HDR content. All OLED TVs have the dynamic range to take advantage of HDR, but lower-priced LCDs, especially those without local-dimming backlights, do not. So if you want to see HDR content it all its dynamic, vibrant beauty, go for OLED or an LCD with local dimming.

In our tests comparing the best new OLED and LCD TVs with HDR games and movies, OLED usually looks better. Its superior contrast and lack of blooming win the day despite LCD"s brightness advantage. In other words LCD TVs can get brighter, especially in full-screen bright scenes and HDR highlights, but none of them can control that illumination as precisely as an OLED TV.

The energy consumption of LCD varies depending on the backlight setting. The lower the backlight, the lower the power consumption. A basic LED LCD with its backlight set low will draw less power than OLED.

LG has said their OLED TVs have a lifespan of 100,000 hours to half brightness, a figure that"s similar to LED LCDs. Generally speaking, all modern TVs are quite reliable.

Does that mean your new LCD or OLED will last for several decades like your parent"s last CRT (like the one pictured). Probably not, but then, why would you want it to? A 42-inch flat panel cost $14,000 in the late 90"s, and now a 65-inch TV with more than 16x the resolution and a million times better contrast ratio costs $1,400. Which is to say, by the time you"ll want/need to replace it, there will be something even better than what"s available now, for less money.

OLED TVs are available in sizes from 48 to 88 inches, but LCD TVs come in smaller and larger sizes than that -- with many more choices in between -- so LCD wins. At the high end of the size scale, however, the biggest "TVs" don"t use either technology.

If you want something even brighter, and don"t mind spending a literal fortune to get it, Samsung, Sony, and LG all sell direct-view LED displays. In most cases these are

You can get 4K resolution, 50-inch LCDs for around $400 -- or half that on sale. It"s going to be a long time before OLEDs are that price, but they have come down considerably.

LCD dominates the market because it"s cheap to manufacture and delivers good enough picture quality for just about everybody. But according to reviews at CNET and elsewhere, OLED wins for overall picture quality, largely due to the incredible contrast ratio. The price difference isn"t as severe as it used to be, and in the mid- to high-end of the market, there are lots of options.

lg lcd panel issues brands

When it comes to modern TV screens, two display technologies reign supreme — QLED and OLED. Companies like Samsung, TCL, and Hisense tout the incredible brightness of their QLED TVs, while LG, Sony, Panasonic and others brag about the impressive contrast and black levels of their OLED TVs.

As cool as quantum dots are, a QLED TV still produces light the same way as a regular LED TV: by using a backlight made up of hundreds (or in some cases thousands) of LEDs, with that backlight layer sitting behind an LCD panel layer. The backlight shines through the LCD panel, which in turn shapes that light into the images that you see on the screen. It’s these LEDs that give LED TV (and QLED TV) its name.

The LCD panel — essentially millions of tiny shutters that open and close too quickly to see — in conjunction with the color filters, create the picture you see by letting just the right amount of light and color escape and reach your eyes. It’s a clever system, but it relies on a combination of dimming the LED backlights and using the shutters to block the remaining light to produce accurate on-screen blacks — and it doesn’t always succeed. We’ll discuss this more below.

Curiously, it’s the use of QLED as a marketing term that started a war between LG and Samsung in 2019. In a complaint to South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC), LG claimed that Samsung’s so-called QLED TVs aren’t real QLED TVs at all. That’s because, according to LG, a true QLED TV would use quantum-dot LEDs that emit their own light, and not the quantum-dot film over an LED backlight that Samsung uses.

OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode. Somewhat surprisingly, the “Light Emitting-Diode” part of that name has nothing to do with an LED backlight. Instead, it refers to the fact that every single individual pixel in an OLED panel is a teeny-tiny LED light — but one that is incredibly thin and can produce both light and color in a single element. In other words, OLED TVs don’t need a backlight because each OLED pixel produces its own light. If you want to impress your friends, you can use the industry terms for these kinds of displays: emissive or self-emissive.

Only one company makes OLED TV panels: LG Display. It sells those panels to its sister company, LG Electronics, which uses them to build some of the very best TVs you can buy. But LG Display also sells OLED panels to companies like Sony, Vizio, Philips, and Panasonic, which is why you’ll see OLED televisions from these companies, too. Even though the panels themselves are essentially identical, the image processing that Sony, LG, and others do is proprietary, so you’ll still see differences in picture quality from one OLED TV to another.

In 2022, Mini-LED is now mainstream. In addition to TCL, you’ll find Mini-LED TVs from Samsung (under its “Neo QLED” moniker), LG (which brands these models as “QNED“), and Sony, which claims that its Mini-LED TVs are superior to all others thanks to its exclusive backlight control technology.

OLED panels can’t compete on a pure brightness basis. Their light-emitting individual pixels simply can’t produce the same amount of light. In a dark room, this isn’t a problem. In fact, we’d argue it’s preferable because OLED can achieve the same contrast with less brightness, making viewing in a dark room a less retina-searing experience. (That’s in addition to being that much easier on your power bill.) But in well-lit environments, or where lots of daylight streams in through windows, QLED TVs are more visible — especially if you’re playing HDR content under these conditions.

LG says you would have to watch its OLED TVs five hours per day for 54 years before they fell to 50% brightness. Whether that’s true remains to be seen, as OLED TVs have only been out in the wild since 2013. QLED is even newer, but its source of backlighting — the LED — has a long and proven track record. For that reason and that reason only, we’ll award this category to QLED.

LG, as the biggest maker of OLED TVs, acknowledges the potential for image retention within its user manuals for its OLED TVs but says that under normal viewing conditions it shouldn’t happen.

So what constitutes “normal” viewing conditions? Well, for one thing, keeping your TV on the same channel for 10 hours a day, two months in a row, is apparently not normal. One of our readers did this by watching MSNBC on his LG C8 OLED TV, which created what he claims is a burn-in shadow of a portion of the MSNBC peacock logo and a portion of the “Live” graphic that often accompanies it in the bottom-right corner of the screen (see image above).

As you’re now very much aware, OLED panels don’t require a super-bright backlight. Those backlights consume a fair amount of power, which means OLED TVs are inherently more energy-efficient. They also emit less heat than QLED TVs.

In today’s viewing age, it’s possible to spend hours staring at TV screens with few breaks in between. Eye fatigue is a real symptom of the act, and it’s usually caused by excessive blue light production. LED-based sets tend to show more intense blue light than anything, and this is true even in scenes that don’t feature gobs of the shade. Go too far, and your irritable eyes could eventually lead to sleeplessness, which itself can contribute to a whole range of health problems. That’s why some OLED makers — most notably LG Display — are now seeking Eye Safe certification for their panels.

Created by German safety testing firm TÜV Rheinland and previously marketed under the less-exciting “Eye Comfort Display” and “Ocular Guard” monikers, Eye Safe certification tests a range of elements in TV panels to determine whether they’re too harsh on the eyes.

In theory, OLED TVs should offer better overall eye comfort than QLED and any other LCD-based screen, because OLED produces significantly less blue light than LED-backlit QLED TVs. It’s nothing a special pair of glasses can’t handle, but if you want to ensure you have the safest viewing experience possible that doesn’t require purchasing new glasses, OLED is your champ.

Once upon a time, this category would be handily won by QLED TVs, but OLED TVs have come down in cost, and since we’re talking all-premium here, comparable QLED TVs cost about the same (or more, depending on the size). Next year (2023) will see the greatest number of OLED-based TVs to date, and as is always the case, when production numbers go up, prices come down. In 2021, LG’s largest, 88-inch OLED TV cost $30,000. In 2022, its larger, 97-inch model costs less ($25,000).

lg lcd panel issues brands

Let’s examine all the TV makers worth looking at, and why big brands like Samsung and LG are so good at what they do. And whether you’re looking for the absolute best TVs on the market, the best TVs under $500, or something in the Goldilocks Zone like the best TVs under $1,000, you don’t want to waste your time. We’ve put together a guide to all the best TV brands of 2022, so when the time comes to upgrade, you’ll know where to start your search.

South Korea’s Samsung is the de facto market leader in the world television space, leading competitors like LG and Sony by a wide margin in terms of overall sales. That’s partly a result of the company’s size (Samsung ranks 18th on the Fortune 500), but mostly it’s because Samsung makes great TVs with a focus on accessibility.

Samsung has so far avoided producing OLED displays like those of LG. So, instead of striking a deal to use LG’s panels, Samsung branded its own LCD tech “QLED.” For a detailed breakdown, check out our QLED TV versus OLED TV comparison, but the general gist is this: QLED uses quantum dots to enhance performance by producing a purer, full-spectrum white light than LEDs are capable of on their own. In practice, QLED televisions are brighter (better for bright rooms) than less-expensive LCD TVs, and unlike OLED, can be more affordably built into large displays (100 inches and beyond).

Another South Korean company, LG may not be as massive as the tried-and-true Samsung TV, but thanks to its OLED TV display technology, it has minimal competition when it comes to top-of-the-line picture performance.

WebOS — currently in its sixth iteration, WebOS 6.1 — completely revamps the LG smart experience. Where past models relegated apps to the bottom of the display (similar to Samsung Tizen), LG’s WebOS 6.1 sets utilize the entire screen for apps and other recommended web content. LG’s Magic Motion Remote has also been redesigned to support voice commands for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, along with a Magic Explorer feature that lets viewers get additional info about the show or movie they’re watching, from what actors appear in the series or film to notable trivia.

It should be noted that there’s been a change in how LG will be naming its versions of WebOS going forward, and will now correspond with the year in which they’re released. LG TVs released in 2022 now come with WebOS 22, which is mostly the same as version 6 but adds profiles, smart speaker capabilities when the TV is turned off, and other new features.

OLED — Organic Light Emitting Diode — is the premier display technology today. OLED TV panels are capable of reaching black levels never before seen, with better contrast across the board, and because the pixels themselves light up, OLED televisions boast quicker response times (and less input lag) than other types of displays, and the picture integrity is stunning at any viewing distance. To see how OLED stacks up against regular old LED, take a look at our OLED vs. LED comparison.

In 2021, LG introduced OLED Evo, an improvement on OLED technology that helps increase brightness by more than 20%. 2022 is seeing even more OLED Evo TVs hit the market, including the new and well-reviewed LG C2 Evo OLED, making LG the best place to get your OLED upgrade.

Sony, standing as the last great Japanese TV heavyweight in the U.S. (sorry, Panasonic, Toshiba, and JVC), doesn’t market as many proprietary technologies as Samsung or LG, but it has all the tech it needs to create awe-inspiring TVs.

Sony is one of a handful of companies offering OLED televisions (the list has recently expanded to include Panasonic, Philips, Hisense, and Vizio) thanks to a deal with LG allowing Sony to build TVs using LG panels. Due to the Cognitive Processor XR chip, Sony’s Bravia flagship TVs offer greater contrast, improved sound, low input lag, and faster web performance than we’ve ever seen. Sony’s newer TVs also offer VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) for gaming, particularly with the PlayStation 5.

In 2022, Sony also announced a push into mini-LED technology, announcing its first mini-LED TVs like the Z9K series. We’ve already seen mini-LED technology crop up in other devices like some Apple iPads. It’s a more affordable version of MicroLED tech where the LEDs are a bit larger, but still provide some of the same benefits, including better-localized dimming and contrast. Sony’s processor is key to this as it is designed with backlight algorithms to take the most advantage of smaller LEDs.

Additionally, TCL expanded into Google TV territory in 2021 with theirpopular 5- and 6-Series panels equipped with the latest Google TV operating system. While the new sets were briefly pulled from U.S. Best Buy shelves due to software issues, a fix was issued and the retailer now stocks the popular TVs again.

Chinese manufacturer Hisense has been steadily making moves in the TV market over the years, licensing Sharp’s brand name(and buying its North American factory outright in 2015), buying Toshiba’s business in 2017, and making TVs under all three names for the U.S. market. Hisense had a rocky start but found a rhythm in making value-conscious Quantum 4K panels. In fact, their quality has improved so much that one of the latest versions, the Hisense U7G with HDR support, is one of our new recommended picks for a TV under $1,000 — and it has new, affordable 8K TVs now as well.

With choices between Roku, Google TV, Fire TV, and more, buyers can pick the smart platform they like here, with plenty of options for budget-friendly purchases. The company is also making use of its TriChroma laser tech for improved color accuracy, and “ULED” panel technology to enhance images. Its latest Google TV picks also offer mini-LED panels, while the U6H Fire comes with Quantum Dot color, so you also have plenty of panel technologies to choose from. The latest 2022 models even have FreeSync and Game Mode Plus for gamers.

As with Samsung, Vizio is big on quantum-dot-powered panels. This is especially evident for the brand’s 2022 models, especially when it comes to the MQX and P-Series Quantum X series. And on top of quantum-enhanced colors and contrast, while you won’t find mini-LED tech on these 2022 models, the sheer number of traditional LED local dimming zones that are in place make for a totally arresting image packed with brightness, color detail, lifelike contrast, and minimal light blooming.

lg lcd panel issues brands

LG Display (NYSE:LPL) is one of the biggest manufacturers of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (“TFT-LCD”) panels. However, the market for LCDs is experiencing difficulties with not enough demand to offset the increased supply. As a result, prices for LCDs have been falling, which makes it hard for manufacturers such as LG Display to remain profitable. LCD manufacturers have been feeling the heat and it’s not clear that improvement is to be expected anytime soon.

This is a worrisome development for LG investors because displays are the company"s bread and butter. However, LG has come up with a potential solution to its problems in the LCD market that it hopes will revive its fortunes and maybe calm down investors. What that solution is and how likely it is to solve LG’s woes are will be discussed next.

Prospects of a turnaround in the LCD market are low because LCD manufacturers in China such as BOE and CSOT are ramping up LCD production. There are several 10.5G and larger fabs that have recently started production in China or are close to it. With so much capacity coming online, it’s hard to see how LCD prices can recover.

For example, according to Witsview, 32-inch LCD panels are in oversupply for the month of July and prices could even fall below cash costs. The situation is not much better with larger sized panels. Supplies of 65-inch and 75-inch panels will exceed demand due to new production from BOE and CSOT with their 10.5G and 11G fabs. Not only is excess inventory going up, but prices are also trending down.

LG’s response to the situation in the LCD market is to not engage in anall-out price war where it’s not certain that there will be a winner, but to redirect focus towards the LCD alternative known as organic light-emitting diode (“OLED”) displays. To be more exact, LG is focusing on large panels suitable for big-screen TVs because people are still interested in upgrading to bigger TVs that offer superior picture quality compared to older generations.

This is where OLEDs come into play. While OLEDs have a number of disadvantages compared to LCDs, most people find the picture quality of OLEDs to be superior to that of LCDs. For example, OLEDs have much better contrast because they can display the color black in a way that approaches the real thing. OLEDs are able to do this because they can turn off each pixel, which also reduces power consumption.

On the other hand, LCDs have a much harder time with the color black due to their need for backlights, which can result in light bleeding through. The black in LCD displays comes closer to the color gray for this reason. The ability to accurately display black is one of the most, if not the most, important factors in determining how good the picture quality is of a display. If you want the best picture quality in a TV, then OLED is generally regarded as the number one choice as long as you"re willing to pay higher prices.

Since most people tend to highly value picture quality when watching TV, LG’s decision to focus on OLED makes sense. Unlike LCDs, there are not that many giant fabs cranking out OLEDs and the supply/demand outlook for OLEDs looks much better than the one for LCDs. Manufacturers such as LG should be able to better sustain their margins in OLEDs and hence profitability. At least, on paper. TV panels are also the biggest source of demand for LG as the table below indicates. Panel segment 2018

To take advantage of OLED TVs, LG has invested over $4 billion to increase OLED production capacity. LG is currently conducting a test operation of its new 8.5G OLED fab in China with mass production expected to start in August. An LG official has stated to the media that “the operation of the Guangzhou plant will boost the production of glass substrates from 70,000 units per month to 130,000 to 160,000 units per month.”

An additional benefit of the new plant according to the same official is that it’s not subject to the export restrictions that Japan has recently imposed because the factory procures display parts locally. These export restrictions could potentially be a problem for LG in South Korea. But assuming that there are no hiccups with the new plant, LG will be able to drastically increase its supply of OLED TV panels in the very near future.

LG’s strategy looked sound when they first proposed it, but recent developments have cast some doubt on its viability. For starters, Chinese display manufacturers, BOE in particular, are making much faster progress with OLED than previously anticipated. If BOE continues to progress at its current pace, it may be able to flood the market with large OLED panels much quicker than previously thought. The production capacity of OLEDs is still nowhere near LCDs, but it’s something worth watching.

A second problem is a technological one. Chinese LCD manufacturers have come up with a new type of LCD technology. Manufacturers have figured out how to stack two LCD panels on top of each other and bond them together to create a level of picture quality that was previously unobtainable with LCDs. These dual-layer LCDs threaten the very advantage that OLED was relying on to sway customers towards buying an OLED over an LCD.

By bonding two LCD panels together back to back, manufacturers are able to display “real” black in an LCD. Something that is very important for picture quality as previously stated. The drawback of course is that by using two LCD panels instead of one, the cost goes up. In addition, more circuitry and chips are needed, which also raises costs. LCD TVs that incorporate this new technology will therefore be more expensive than traditional LCD TVs.

However, despite the extra cost of producing these new LCD TVs, they’re still expected to be cheaper than OLED TVs. An extra benefit is that since they’re LCDs, they do not suffer the problem of burn-in like OLEDs do. The first TV model using “BD Cell” LCD technology from BOE will be released by HiSense in the second half of 2019. If they can match OLEDs in picture quality at a lower price, then the future of OLED TVs may not be so bright after all.

Last year was not a good year for LG as the company ended the year with a loss. If one U.S. dollar equals 1180 South Korean won, then revenue and loss in 2018 came in at $20.6B and $152M respectively. A sharp turnaround compared to the year before when revenue and profit amounted to $23.6B and $1.6B respectively. Unit: million won 2017 2018

The slide has continued in the first quarter of 2019. LG reported $4.98B as revenue and a loss of $53M in Q1 2019. Considering the fact that panel prices have continued to go down in Q2, it’s almost certain that LG will report another loss for Q2. Hence the need for LG to find a new growth driver that can get the company out of the red. Unit: million won Q1 2019

LG has been banking on OLED TV panels for a turnaround, but that looks more and more unlikely. Instead, LG may get hit by a double whammy. Rival manufacturers in China are making faster progress with OLED and OLED demand may be reduced because LCDs remain a competitive option due to technological innovation.

If OLED is not the answer to its problems in the display market, then there is no reason to go long LPL even though the stock is at multi-year lows. All indications are that the worse has yet to come in the display market. LG will have to find another solution to become profitable again. OLED is unlikely to be it.

lg lcd panel issues brands

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