Today’s televisions are saturated with various technologies, and manufacturers are more than ever trying to use more such technologies to better compete with other companies. Amidst such a deluge of information, one can easily get lost and fall for marketing slogans.
In the article below, you will find out which technologies currently used in TVs make a difference and what you should pay attention to when buying new equipment.
Google TV
Up until recently, the pain of even the most top-of-the-line TVs was the poor proprietary operating systems “put” into them by manufacturers. Moreover, it sometimes happened that a pretty good receiver became basically useless after a few years because the operating system manufacturer decided to turn off support and abandon the old model. Nowadays, there are still at least a few proprietary OSes on the market, but what stands out against them is Google TV.
The OS from Google not only guarantees pretty good smoothness of operation even on cheap hardware but also makes life easier for all movie and TV series buffs. Among its most important features is the ability to search for all content, no matter where it can be viewed. Imagine that you are looking for war movies.
Until now, you have had to browse the relevant categories on all VOD services based on the algorithms proposed by their creators. Now Google TV offers a much simpler solution – aggregating all content in the main menu of the TV.
Looking for romantic comedies, thrillers, or war movies, just type the desired command into the search bar (or say into the built-in microphone on the remote control), and the TV will show the selected materials, no matter what platform they are on.
HDR / Dolby Vision
The HDR is probably the most widely advertised standard at the moment, enhancing the look of the picture, but that is no coincidence. The high tonal range is now a key technology; without it, viewing movies or TV series (and even playing games) begins to lose meaning. Content creators are optimizing their works for HDR-enabled TVs because every new TV boasts support for this standard.
A key issue when choosing a TV is to find out what version of HDR the receiver you are interested in has. The most common standards on the market are HLG, HDR 10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.
Instead, HLG is now a relic of the past, enabling both HDR and SDR TVs to play the signal. However, with the former, viewers get a much better contrast and a more significant number of colors. The solution is still used by most TV stations broadcasting in HDR.
The HDR10 and HDR 10+ guarantee that there will be much more detail in the frame, the colors will be more vivid, and with “demanding” scenes, the bright image will not blend into the background. Simply put, we get a huge difference between the brightest and darkest parts of the picture. HDR10+ is an enhanced version of basic HDR10 (the difference is mainly the use of dynamic tone mapping), & if you have the opportunity, go for devices with HDR10+.
Dolby Vision is an HDR standard developed entirely by and licensed exclusively to Dolby (HDR10 and HDR10+ are open sources, no licensing fees required). It offers several times more hues and higher maximum brightness than HDR 10.
If you are looking for the best image quality, look to Dolby Vision. Not all picture sources can support this standard. Still, higher-end TVs support several different HDR technologies, which is the optimal solution.
High maximum brightness
When considering buying a TV, it’s essential to know what you will use it for and where besides deciding on specific features. Suppose the unit goes into a dark room without access to windows, or they will be generally covered. In that case, you do not have to worry so much about the maximum brightness of the device.
Conversely, the receiver should go, for instance, to a glazed living room, where you will use it mainly during the day. It is worth thinking about a TV with a really high maximum brightness. This way, you will see all the details even in the sunlight.
Also, as mentioned earlier, nearly every modern TV is equipped with HDR. However, this doesn’t always mean that you will get the full potential out of this HDR. In basic, low-cost receiver models, maximum luminance usually reaches 300-350 nits. It is understood that at least 500-600 nits of brightness is needed for comfortable viewing of HDR materials.
The bright elements stand out from the rest, and the entire picture acquires “life”. The ideal values are those close to 1000 nits – then we can talk about HDR at the highest level. TCL 65C835, which we tested, has up to 1500 nits of maximum brightness. Then all the details, including even the smallest details of the scene, should be visible on the screen.
Dolby Atmos sound
While watching a movie in the theater, you’ve noticed many speakers in the room, and the music and dialogues come at you from different directions. This happens due to the use of surround sound, which is reproduced in sync with what you see on the screen. That means that if, for instance, someone calls out a character from the left in a scene, your left ear is the one that will hear it. Similar technologies have also been used for some time in televisions. Still, these do not have a system of 20 speakers surrounding your head.
More often than not, this “magic” is due to Dolby Atmos surround sound. The technology from Dolby allows for a sound that seems to surround you from all sides. This happens because an appropriate sound mixing technique creates the illusion of a “three-dimensional” sound.
This results in a feeling of being thrown into the middle of a theater room, enveloped by the speakers, while playing movies and TV series. Of course, the quality of this effect will depend largely on the quality of the built-in speakers, so check their power in addition to Dolby Atmos certification.
Zone illuminating
Zone backlighting is a concept that is talked about relatively little. But this is not because it is an unnecessary or unimportant technology – quite the contrary, it’s essential. Manufacturers, however, tend to put it only in more expensive models because its implementation is simply very expensive and raises the final price of the device.
How does the zone backlighting work? In simple terms, it can be said that it is responsible for local brightening and dimming of the image and guarantees phenomenal contrast. With Mini LED screens, such impressions are guaranteed by thousands of small LEDs controlled by the device.
Due to the zonal blanking of individual groups of pixels, the television can turn off the areas of the screen that are “unnecessary” at the moment and illuminate only those where you can see an image.
This makes it possible, for instance, to show subtitles accurately on a black background without the so-called “halo effect”, to display very bright points on a dark background and generally improve the visibility of the image on a black background. Similarly, things work in bright scenes, with all screen areas illuminated as the content creators planned.
While LED TVs equipped with zone backlighting do quite well with zone blanking, you’ll see the best results if you buy a TV made with Mini LED or OLED technology.
