TV brands often throw around impressive-sounding terms and specs for their latest models, but what do they mean? You’ve probably shopped around for a new TV and seen descriptions like Mini-LED and OLED or specs mentioning Dolby Vision or HDR10+ without knowing what they refer to or whether they make a difference.
Comparing the different smart TVs on your shopping list then becomes overwhelming and complicated as you don’t know which one to choose. I’ll clear things up today with a list of common TV standards and explanations about what they actually mean. Buying your new TV will be easier when you know what to look for.
Resolution
It’s all about the pixels
Resolution refers to the number of pixels that make up the image on your screen. More is always better because you get a clearer and more detailed image. Modern TVs usually have one of these resolutions.
Smaller budget-friendly TVs usually start at 720p (HD), which means they support 1280 x 720 pixels. You can also find many cheap small TVs with the higher 1080p resolution (FHD), meaning they support up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. This was the industry standard for many years, and you’ll also find it on many older TVs. Small TVs with these low resolutions get the job done for movies and shows, but are better as CCTV displays or digital price lists.
Most newer TVs are bigger than 50 inches and support the new industry-standard 4K resolution.
Newer TVs larger than 50 inches usually support the new industry-standard 4K resolution. It gets its name by offering four times the resolution of 1080p, with 3840 x 2160 pixels. Most TVs sold today offer 4K resolution, and it’s the best choice for watching physical media and accessing streaming services.
You’ll find some top-shelf TVs that support the highest 8K resolution with 7680 x 4320 pixels. However, the choice is limited, and many brands have stepped back from this resolution. Even if you can find one, it’s not worth the price because there isn’t much compatible content available.
Backlighting types
Contrast and brightness
Every TV has a type of backlighting to generate the onscreen visuals. Many popular options are available, including LED, QLED, OLED, and more, each with its own pros and cons for buyers.
LED: LED TVs are the cheapest and most common type you’ll find today. This technology uses a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panel on the front that’s lit by LEDs behind, which pass through filters to generate the image on the screen. LED TVs offer bright visuals for a good price and generally have a long lifespan. They are also available in every TV size.
Local dimming controls a TV’s contrast and keeps colorful areas bright, and creates deeper blacks for darker scenes.
LED TVs require local dimming to manage the amount of light on the screen. Local dimming controls a TV’s contrast and keeps colorful areas bright, and creates deeper blacks for darker scenes. Cheaper TVs usually have edge-lit local dimming, which consists of inward-facing LEDs running along the screen’s edge to dim areas of the picture. Full-array local dimming is more expensive, but offers better precision and detail in dark scenes. It works by adding more LEDs in a grid pattern, which creates zones. These zones work independently to control portions of the TV screen to improve contrast.
QLED: QLED TVs are an evolution of LED TVs, which add a Quantum Dot filter to improve picture quality. The Quantum Dot layer sits between the front LCD panel and rear LED backlighting and includes microscopic semiconductor particles that generate precise colors when lit. These TVs usually have great color accuracy and are very bright. They are worth considering if you’re looking for value, but they aren’t the first choice if you want the best picture quality.
Mini-LED: Mini-LED TVs are an evolution of full-array local dimming TVs. It uses smaller diodes spread across the screen to create thousands of dimming zones. Then the TV can more precisely control each dimming zone to create vibrant, bright colors and darker blacks. Mini-LED TVs probably offer the best performance for the price and are worth considering if you’re looking for a new TV.
Mini-RGB: Mini-RGB TVs are still new to the market and are a further refinement of Mini-LED technology. The main difference is that mini-RGB TVs replace the conventional white LEDs of older TVs with red, green, and blue ones. This creates wider and more accurate color gamuts at high and low brightness. These TVs offer impressive image quality, but are still pricey and aren’t as widely available as the other lighting types mentioned so far.
Micro-LED: Micro-LED TVs could be the next big thing, but they currently have stratospheric pricing and are only viable for commercial use. These TVs use microscopic LEDs that work independently for each pixel. The LEDs are divided into red, green, and blue sub-pixels to produce color. Micro-LED technology offers incredible color accuracy, brightness, and the best contrast because each pixel operates individually. Time will tell whether it eventually becomes viable for consumer-grade TVs, but for now, you probably can’t afford it.
OLED: OLED TVs use a different technology compared to the LED-based TVs mentioned so far. Each pixel contains organic compounds, which emit light when an electrical current passes through them. This means that each pixel provides its own lighting and doesn’t require external LEDs. OLED TVs usually have the deepest blacks and best contrast ratios. However, they aren’t the brightest and tend to be pricier than LED types. They also have a limited lifespan due to the eventual breakdown of the organic material with frequent viewing.
HDMI
The standard port on new TVs
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is the current standard for TV connections and works for consoles, soundbars, and most peripheral devices. Older TVs and budget models often use the HDMI 2.0 standard, which offers data transfer speeds of up to 18 Gbps and supports a maximum resolution of 4K at 60Hz.
The current-gen HDMI 2.1 supports data transfer speeds of 48 Gbps and higher resolutions of 4K at 120Hz or 8K at 60Hz. It also supports modern variable refresh rate (VRR) technology and eARC lossless audio. You’re better off buying a TV with multiple HDMI 2.1 ports to ensure the best performance from the devices you’re connecting to it.
The next-generation HDMI 2.2 is on the horizon, but is only expected to make its way onto devices within the next year or so.
The next-generation HDMI 2.2 is on the horizon, but is only expected to make its way onto devices within the next year or so. This standard doubles HDMI 2.1’s speed to 96 Gbps and is expected to support resolutions of up to 10K at 120Hz.
Soundbars require HDMI ports with ARC or eARC capability to transmit audio. The older HDMI ARC offered speeds of up to 1 Mbps and provided a simple solution for attaching audio equipment to TVs without requiring coaxial or optical cables. The newer eARC standard is part of HDMI 2.1 and supports speeds of up to 37 Mbps. This adds more bandwidth to support lossless audio without compression and automatic lip-sync correction.
HDR
Built-in image enhancement
High Dynamic Range (HDR) improves a TV’s contrast by boosting the color in certain areas of the screen for light and dark scenes. It makes colors seem brighter and more natural while enhancing the details of darker images. There are different versions of HDR.
HDR10: HDR10 is now found on most TVs and streaming services and is a free and royalty-free standard. It works with static metadata and provides fixed brightness and contrast settings for the movie’s duration.
HDR10+: HDR10+ is newer and is a significant improvement over HDR10. This is because it uses dynamic metadata and can adjust the brightness and color of each frame or scene.
Dolby Vision: Dolby Vision is a rival to HDR10+ that also uses dynamic metadata to adjust your picture quality. Dolby Vision is adopted as the industry standard by most streaming services, but you won’t find it on Samsung and some other TV brands because it requires licensing.
