In a recent CE Pro trends piece launched at the beginning of this year, we noted how microLED displays have begun to rival the King of Home Theaters, the projector, on projects. If you haven’t had a chance to look through it, I highly recommend if you have the time to read it, but if not, here’s the Cliff Notes:
Back in the not-too-distant-past of 2018, Samsung debuted one of the first residential microLED televisions on the market, shortly followed thereafter by the launch of Sony’s first Crystal LED TV for residential applications (which is just a proprietary form of microLED technology). However, since then, the market has exploded with manufacturers like LG, Quantum Media Systems, Planar, and even Savant (through its distribution of Megapixel) all now offering microLED televisions to the custom install market.
This explosion hasn’t been limited to professionals, however, as the average consumer has received more exposure to microLED televisions in the intervening years, becoming far more aware of the technology in applications outside of smart phone displays. In addition, the microLED offerings of today are far cheaper than when they first made their debut.
All of this combined has led to an increase uptake in microLED televisions among consumers, and (as per our article) it’s likely that homeowners are only going to grow more interested in these higher-end displays as time moves on. But if you’re not too familiar with the product, you might be wondering just what makes microLED such a powerhouse in the video entertainment sphere and how it might be any different from other similar technologies such as QLED and OLED.
To answer that, it’s worthwhile to look back at the history of TV display technologies and how microLED works, which is exactly what we plan on doing in this overview of microLED televisions.
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A Brief History of Displays: From LCD to microLED
Rather than jump all the way back to cathode ray tubes, this history of televisions is going to start with the technology responsible for some of the first flat-panel displays (also referred to as ‘Plasma Screens’): liquid crystal displays (LCDs). While they still see plenty of use today (just take a look at Samsung’s QLED lineup), use of LCDs has died off over the years, and a lot of that has to do with just overall performance.
All displays are made of pixels, and pixels are what come together to make the image on the screen. How the TV generates and controls those pixels is ultimately what differentiates the different display technologies from one another. For LCDs, this involved passing light through a layer of liquid crystals in order to polarize the light, which was then rotated and reflected back at the viewer to create an image.
As you might imagine, it wasn’t the most efficient process. The kicker, too, was that the lights themselves weren’t creating the image, instead it was the backlight combined with the layers of materials that made the image, which led to ‘chunkier’ designs than what we’re used to nowadays. In addition, the picture quality and brightness was a lot poorer because of the display’s reliance on a backlight. Yes, many LCDs used (and still use) LEDs, but those LEDs never generated the image shown on the TV.
It wouldn’t be until the first OLED TVs where the individual pixels of a TV would start to be directly represented by the LEDs themselves. As a result, OLEDs were a big jump in performance compared to LCDs because unlike the liquid crystals used to represent the pixels, OLEDs were self-illuminating, requiring that only a current be passed through them in order to product light.
This resulted in the pixels having far cleaner colors compared to LCD because the LEDs were directly producing the colors. Of course, there was still room for improvement, and it all had to do with the ‘O’ in OLED: ‘organic.’
Because OLEDs use organic carbon in order to produce light, they are subject to organic degradation over time. In the early iterations, this resulted in some pretty bad burn-in, however, even with the newer OLEDs not having that same issue, the diodes still break down over time, resulting in poorer picture quality the longer one uses an OLED TV.
Eventually, microLEDs would come along to fix this issue, while also introducing multiple other performance enhancements to TVs. Bursting onto the scene at CES 2018, the popularity of microLED TVs coincides with an ongoing trend in the market where homeowners have been opting to buy larger and larger televisions.
Noting this consumer preference for larger screen sizes back in episode #124 of the CE Pro Podcast, the “Video Guys” were previewing the CEDIA 2022 Expo. The experts—Joel Silver of the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), Jason Dustal of Murideo, and Robert Zohn of Value Electronics—discussed the trend in detail, and Silver noted during the episode that 65-inch TVs are the market’s new 42-inch television in terms of sales. He continued by stating that homeowners are increasingly aspiring to own 90- to 100-inch televisions.
Examining where the home AV market stands today, with the convergence of microLED technologies and the public’s desire for larger screen sizes, the timing seems perfect for the residential technology industry to adopt solutions that were originally intended for commercial applications.
However, even to this day, there’s still a pretty significant catch that has kept microLED from completely overtaking OLED in the same way the latter did with LCD.
How Does microLED Work?
In essence, microLEDs embody everything that’s good about OLEDs. Because the display pixels are represented by LEDs, microLED TVs are characterized by their rich color, clean contrasts, and unmatched brightness. However unlike OLEDs, microLEDs don’t have to worry about organic degradation.
As an example, LG has stated that its OLED TVs have a lifespan of roughly 30,000 hours while Samsung’s The Wall microLED display has a lifespan of around 100,000 hours of use.
Additionally, as the name implies, miroLEDs are small–“microscopic” according to Christopher Simpson, Senior Business Development Manager Samsung Electronics America. As a result, each pixel is often represented by a single diode. This allows microLEDs to have incredible dynamic color range even when rendering blacks because all microLEDs have to do is turn themselves off, and you have the purest black possible.
MicroLEDs are also capable of getting really bright–way brighter than OLEDs can–which allows a microLED TV to maintain good picture quality and color when viewed at off angles as well as in areas with high ambient lighting, something that practically no other display technology is capable of nowadays.
MicroLED vs. OLED
Based on that description, you might still be wondering why microLEDs haven’t completely overtaken OLEDs as a display technology. Despite there being clear advantages the more you dig into the technology, at first blush, microLEDs and OLEDs are actually very similar. So, when someone asks the question, “Is microLED better than OLED,” rather than there being a distinct answer, it really depends on the situation.
MicroLEDs, while amazing for brightness and picture quality, are incredibly tedious and costly to manufacture into a television display. Remember how each pixel in a microLED display is controlled by a single diode? Consider that an average-sized TV display can contain tens of millions of pixels that make up the image shown on the screen. That means each pixel needs to be manufactured and installed one at a time. Even with the latest in robotic manufacturer, this makes manufacturing microLED TVs a very time-consuming and costly process.
Translation: until a better manufacturing process is found, a microLED display is always going to cost more than an equally-sized OLED counterpart.
MicroLEDs, however, will last longer. They’re also more power efficient, and they can be manufactured at thinner sizes than OLEDs, which lends themselves to some incredible applications, like C Seed’s foldable N1 outdoor television, which uses multiple microLED panels to create a shapeshifting outdoor TV and motorized lift in one.
OLED displays, on the other hand, are incredibly easy to manufacture compared to microLEDs with their only fault being that limited lifespan. The biggest issue with that is that it’s not like the TV goes out all at once. Picture quality degrades, dead pixels start to pop up: it’s a slow rotting rather than a full shutdown and once one element becomes noticeably off, many people would just opt for a new TV.
Overall, it could be said that, in the short term, OLEDs win out over microLED, especially within indoor environments, where ambient lighting is usually more controllable. To the naked eye, they provide pretty much the exact same picture quality.
It’s when you start to look beyond that where microLED begins to shine, literally. The screens last longer, can stand up to more intense requirements such as in a home theater or in an outdoor entertainment space, and can be manufactured into more versatile solutions compared to OLEDs.
Where You Can Buy microLEDs Today
It wasn’t until 2018 that Samsung and Sony both graced CEDIA Expo with the first instances of microLED in the residential category. Of course, back then, products like The Wall were still being viewed as commercial market products. That didn’t last long though, with Samsung coming back to CEDIA Expo with a residential version of The Wall in 2022, followed shortly thereafter by the first residential install of The Wall.
Since then, microLED tech has made tremendous inroads with the home entertainment space. From the aforementioned The Wall to LG’s impressive dvLED (Direct View LED) technology or Sony with its Crystal LED TVs, most of the major display manufacturers on the market currently have some kind of microLED product to fit consumer tastes. What might be even better for professionals is that the market shows zero signs of slowing down.
Sensing consumer appetite for such products, LG announced it will be shifting a lot more of its focus into its large-screen display offerings. Samsung, in the ongoing evolution of its own offering, introduced The Wall All-in-One at CEDIA Expo 2023 to much applaud from the professional community. Meanwhile, newcomers like Just Video Walls are injecting some fresh blood into the market with their dealer-centric approach to developing microLED solutions.
Really we could go on for a lot longer, but we’ll stop it there. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive look at microLED TVs on the market today, you can check out our list on some of the top microLED TVs that goes into greater detail on what’s currently on the market and who’s making it.
What’s noteworthy, however, is that now, instead of being relegated to those aforementioned ultra luxurious home theaters, microLED displays have become way more accessible to the average homeowner. As such microLEDs as a residential home entertainment option have really begun to take off, which brings us back to the start of this article.
MicroLEDs represent a fantastic evolution of home entertainment, but it’s also something that needs to be seen to be believed. Like with all new technology demonstrations, if you’re showcasing a microLED TV to a client, you want to make sure you have some viewing material that can really highlight the performance these displays are capable of, so be sure to check out our article on some of the best movies and shows to watch on microLED.
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