What is OLED TV?
Fairly new on the market, OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, and is also sometimes referred to as an organic EL (organic electroluminescent) diode, and is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current.
A TV screen is composed of many thousands of organic LED’s are put next to one another and switch on and off independently. In this way they can produce complex, hi-resolution coloured pictures that take account of changes in contrast and can react quickly enough to create highly detailed images.
OLED TV’s can produce dazzling, bright pictures with smooth motion, deep blacks and vibrant colours, the key features of OLED’s are deeper blacks throughout, brilliant contrast, ultra-thin devices, and less weight than other designs.
What Drives an OLED Display?
OLED’s employ thin layers of organic material are placed between two conducting elements, and this arrangement gives off bright light on the application of current. When an external potential (current) is applied between the cathode and anode terminal, a flow of current is observed from cathode to anode terminal but this flows through the two films which are named as the conductive and emissive layer between them.
By comparison, an LED TV uses a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel to control where individual points of light are displayed on your screen. Of course, OLED TV’s require a fair amount of processing power to drive graphics of these levels, but systems such as the Panasonic HZ2000 series OLED’s are running the impressive HCX Pro Intelligent Processor and can create the most vibrant and well-defined images around.
What Are the Advantages of OLED TV?
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to call OLED’s the TV’s of the future. The OLED system is currently the state of the art when it comes TV’s and it is unlikely that there will be such a significant leap in technology for some time to come. OLED’s represent a level of viewing that is superior to the best LED’s.
Black Levels. When it comes to viewing, black levels are critical since they effectively increase the contrast. With an image display device such as a TV, the contrast is the difference between the blackest blacks and the whitest whites, and a device that can produce the greatest contrast is going to be a winner in terms of viewing experience. OLED technology makes the most of this difference to create truly astonishing contrast.
Viewing Angles. Obviously, the best way to view any TV, the best viewing angle is always straight on, but that isn’t always achievable, depending on seating and how you have your TV mounted. The new Swivel Design allows the TV to rotate slightly towards people sitting to the side of the main viewing position, giving them a chance to enjoy the picture too. Ideal for family and open-plan living, even when you sit in different places.
How Do I Clean My OLED TV Screen?
Having spent out on a new – and fairly expensive – TV with a 4K or higher resolution, you certainly don’t want your viewing experience ruined by a patina of dust, so you will want to be cleaning it regularly and properly.
You should make cleaning your TV a part of your normal cleaning routine, and you should always do this with the TV turned off. You will want to give it a good wipe down first to remove any dust and potentially abrasive materials from the surface. This is best achieved using a clean microfibre cloth. Panasonic themselves recommend a dampen a soft cloth with clean water or diluted neutral detergent – Usually 1-part detergent to 100 parts water – for really stubborn stains, however, be very careful not to rub hard.
Next, you can take off any light marks using specialist screen-cleaning cloths, which have been formulated to clean the delicate screens of OLED and LED TCV’s. Do not be tempted to use commercial window cleaner products or water since this will certainly damage the delicate anti-glare surface of your screen.
What OLED TV to Buy?
Panasonic are fast becoming the most prolific manufacturer of OLED TV’s in this higher end of the market. And since the actual technology used to create OLED’s is now well understood, this can only have a good impact on the prices presented to the consumer. It means that it is fast becoming easier to own a high-end TV, that will deliver breath taking performance, and prices will only come down as OLED’s become more commonplace. Panasonic are currently offering some of the best OLED around and with the HZ2000 premiering at CES2020, other manufacturers have all the work to do to catch up.
Panasonic has set itself apart by offering dedicated HDR support, with the HZ2000 receiving the same HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision and HLG formats as found on the mid-range HX800 LED, and that means meaning you're always going to get the best possibly quality.
What really sets Panasonic OLED models apart is the intense sound system. With immersive 140W speakers, split between upward-firing drivers, this is possibly the closest you'll get to cinema sound without investing in an expensive external system.
What is burn-in and how can I avoid it?
Screen burn-in, sometimes known as screeen burn, ghosting, or just burn-in, is a discoloration of areas on an OLED display caused by cumulative non-uiniform use of the pixels, such as high contrast for a relatively long period of time. Burn in can affect the viewing experience by overlaying the ghost image on top of the other images presented on the screen.
There have been concerns regarding burn in with OLED TV’s, and this can be a real issue. Burn-in occurs when a persistent part of the image on a screen - usually something quite high contrast - remains once the screen has change and the ghost of the image remains. Panasonic TVs all have a feature that detects a still image on screen and moves or dims it slightly to avoid burn-in.
Panasonic recognise that this is potential issue, and have developed two means of limiting the cause of burn-in´s and preventing long-term problems with it.
PIXEL ORBITER: Panasonic OLED TV´s are fitted with a system called Pixel Orbiter, which moves the image on the screen by a single pixel after a certain time limit. This movement tends to be roughly circular in so that high contrast images are always being shifted to a new position.
PANEL MAINTENANCE FUNCTION: Panasonic OLED TV’s offer two panel maintenance functions that operate in the background to prevent burn-in. The first equalises the load applied to each pixel and keeps the performance of the panel constant. It runs automatically when the power is turned off with the remote control after the comulative viewing time exceeds a fixed time. Total function time takes about 10 minutes to compleate and an amber LED lamp indicates that panel maintenance is being carried out.
The second maintenance function analyses tha state of each pixel and corrects them as necessary to keep the panel´s performance constante. Once the total viewing time exceeds some mounths, the function will be executed automatically when the power is turned off with the remote control. The function will do this its own accord and does not need to be set up.