LCD Panel Technology Explained

Mike Agerbo: If you’re ever looking for a new TV, you know how challenging that can be sometimes. It’s confusing. You walk into a store and there’s literally dozens of different types. Well, to help demystify some of that, we’ve got Brent de Waal from Sony. Thanks for coming on the show again. Brent de Waal: No problem. Mike Agerbo: So let’s have a look at how these TVs work and what we should look for. Right now we’ve got one here that you’ve taken apart. Brent de Waal: Yeah and put it back together. I think the thing that’s confusing for a lot of people, the most popular kind of TV right now is an LCD TV but there’s lots of different kinds. And what differentiates them is how you create the light. And in this case, we have a TV, this has been cut apart and put back together. You know these little fluorescent tubes, and this has been the way we’ve lit LCD TVs sort of since the beginning. And now we’ve come up with all these different ways of changing that backlight. And it’s really important because people think about the panel. They get very interested in the glass and that kind of thing but this is just one part. As you can see here, these LCD crystals go all the way across but they don’t on their own, block the light. They actually need the diffusers to spread out the light. We use polarizing filters to actually shape the light and allow you to get that color through, so how you design the TV, how bright these are, how close they are, how dark these are, allows you to make a different kind of picture quality. So when you’re wondering why TVs range so much in prices, it’s this magic recipe for getting the backlighting, the thinness, and the great picture quality all in its single package. Mike Agerbo: Well let’s go take a look at some TVs and get some more info. Brent de Waal: Ok. Mike Agerbo: So this is our first stop on our TV journey of discovering. Beautiful picture but I’m noticing this particular model. A lot thicker than you know some of the thin ones you see out in the market now. Brent de Waal: So instead of having it thin edge lit, we’ve got this cluster of LEDs. To give you an idea of what that looks like, I’ve got to cut of my son playing soccer here, and I’ll just play it once so you can see what’s going on. This is a simulation of what the backlight is doing. So you have all these individual clusters and as the picture changes, it changes the brightness and darkness to enhance the contract area by area on the screen. So I layer them together and you can see how the backlight is brighter on the horizon and on the line and where it’s darker, you’ll get a better contrast. So you get lots of contrast and detail on an LCD and those three-color LEDs give you the pure rich color. Mike Agerbo: So basically this is kind of top of the line as far as the TVs go, but you’re getting a lot more control in the various little squares. Brent de Waal: Absolutely. It’s a very sophisticated system because each one of these squares has its own sensor. It regulates itself. It keeps itself tuned, and that what I was saying about the thickness of the TV, it’s a very bright technology so you want it back farther to improve the color and the contrast. Mike Agerbo: So people looking at this TV will notice better the blacks and richer colors as well. Brent de Waal: Absolutely. Mike Agerbo: Ok let’s go have a look at the next one. Brent de Waal: Alright. Mike Agerbo: So what are we looking at here, Brent? Brent de Waal: So the XBR9 gives us the same kind of tubes that we saw on the first TV, but with a richer color again. So this gives us a great color, like the XBR8, not quite as good but still much better than your regular TV, nice thin form factor and a lot more features, so we have a 240 Hertz, so we actually quadruple the frame rate to give you a very clear, smooth motion for your sports and movies, and we also have internet enabled TV on this, so you plug the internet right in the back and you can do your Twitter and see the weather, and also surf YouTube. You know, you can watch Get Connected right off the internet. Mike Agerbo: Thank God. So let’s talk about that 240 Hertz, as far as the motion goes, because that’s been one of the things I’ve heard that LCD TVs aren’t as good at motion. Brent de Waal: Right, and so when you look at the panel, it’s all about the driver, so how we actually draw the picture on the panel, if you think of a graphics card on the computer, you can run these same panels at up to 240 frames a second. So what we do is we take the original frame, so we make three new frames in between to smoothed out any wide pans or sudden motion, but we also sharpen those images before we make the new frame, so something is actually blurred on the source, because it’s moving really fast like a football or soccer ball, basketball, we’ll sharpen that before we make the new frame so it’s smoothes it even further. Mike Agerbo: How does it know? Brent de Waal: Well, it’s MPEG, and MPEG is all about Math and blocks in motion, so right in the file itself, it’s already defining the fast moving objects, and so we take those and apply our algorithms up. I mean it’s all based on that technology we develop for broadcast. Mike Agerbo: Well, let’s have a look at the last one here which is I think a pretty cool one. Brent de Waal: Ok. Mike Agerbo: It looks like we’ve saved the thinnest for last. I mean how thick is this one? Brent de Waal: This is under a centimeter thick. It’s 9.9 millimeters. It’s actually so thin you can’t put connectors on it. The connectors run into the base in these speakers that allows us to get it nice and thin. But in this case, the lighting is actually on the edge and it shoots in so the technology trick is to evenly distribute that lighting because on all the other ones, you’ve got an even light source going forward, on this one it’s on the edge. So it’s much more like a laptop design when you have your thin laptop, you have the edge lit LEDs. Mike Agerbo: So this TV is more about aesthetics really. You know we looked at the first one there that was kind of this thick, but you’re saying the thicker one’s typically give the better picture quality. Brent de Waal: Right, so you’re going to get a color fidelity similar to a regular CCFL backlight and the other two we looked at have a higher color fidelity but obviously they don’t have this great thinnest, that is. Mike Agerbo: I don’t care because this one’s so cool-looking. But I mean when you have this up on your wall at home, you know, you’re not comparing it in the store that has 20 TVs side by side, so I mean obviously the picture quality is coming pretty good. Brent de Waal: Yes and that’s the key for all the Sony TVs, you’re looking for picture quality. And when you’re shopping for your TV, watch the things you want to watch, and that will make the choice up. You’re going to watch that TV everyday for years, so you want to make sure that you get the right TV that gives you the best picture quality. Mike Agerbo: I notice one of the features, optional feature for this is wireless HTMI because as I can imagine here this being this thin, all the connectors are down on that base. (Right.) Wireless HTMI might give you some more flexibility on where you put your Blue Ray Player and Sony play station. Brent de Waal: Right. So with your wireless HTMI, you have a module that attaches to the back of the TV and one that goes in your rack. It comes with eight IR repeaters so that you can control any device that you may have and you wirelessly transmit. It’s fast enough to play games. You use the one remote that comes with it and you can store all the components and keep them out as tight, so you can really build on this nice, thin design by not having a bunch of components all over your family room or living room. Mike Agerbo: How far can you keep those components away with that? Brent de Waal: It’s about 30 feet in the room, and sometimes you can tuck it away behind depending on the construction and the electrical wiring in your house. You can sometimes cheat a little bit farther. Mike Agerbo: So basically it’s all about, I guess, aesthetics like how far thin you want the TV, or if you’re more interested in like the, I guess best picture quality when you’re looking at these panels. Brent de Waal: Absolutely. Mike Agerbo: Brent de Waal, taking all about LCD panels and what to look for when you’re purchasing your TV. If you want some more information, you can always check out our website, or SonyStyle.CA