What’s the Fuss about OLED Technology in Television sets?

A lot has been said about OLED technology in Television, but what exactly is OLED – or Organic Light-Emitting Diode – is a type of display technology that makes it possible to create even slimmer TV sets than LCD or plasma, while at the same time making them more efficient and eco-friendly too.

With the recent digital migration in Kenya, OLED television is set to awaken a new experience for viewers. In addition to the lighter and slimmer sets that come with this new technology, the most important aspect of OLED technology is the picture quality and the colour depth. OLED pixels emit light directly, viewing angles are much wider, plus colour and contrast stay the same from as far as 90 degrees off Centre. Basically, in a typical Kenyan living room, every family member should be able to enjoy the same television viewing experience.

And because each pixel can be turned off individually, OLED TV’s can do their best to deliver an absolute black and infinite contrast ratio – the Holy Grail for picture purists everywhere. OLED pictures should also be brighter and can achieve response times of less than 0.01ms, which practically eliminates motion blur.

From a technical perspective, here’s how the technology works: an organic, carbon-based film is placed between two conductors and an electrical current is passed through, which causes it to emit light. This differs from LCD TVs, which require a backlight to create their brightness. OLED pixels are self-emissive and generate their own light.

There are two types of OLED technology, Passive-Matrix (PMOLED) and Active-Matrix (AMOLED). Active-Matrix requires electronics to switch each pixel on or off individually, which is better for displaying motion and therefore the type used for OLED TVs.

So far, only two manufacturers are thriving in the post-CRT Design era, LG and Samsung have already launched OLED TVs globally. But there is a crucial difference between the OLED technologies used by LG and Samsung, relating to the sub-pixel structure. In its OLED TVs, Samsung uses a traditional red, green and blue (RGB) pixel structure with no colour filters, just like you’d find on a plasma.

By comparison, LG OLED TVs use WRGB 4-colour pixel technology, which adds a fourth white sub-pixel. White light is shone through a colour filter to create the red, green and blue sub-pixels. LG says these cutting-edge results in a brighter picture.

All said and done, all you need is a future-proof bendable OLED screen from LG.