Shopping for a TV can be nothing short of an acronym overload with display resolutions being added to the mix every year. To help you through, here is WIRED's guide to the latest TV terminologies.
Many leading TV innovations wouldn’t have been made possible if it wasn’t for High Definition (HD) technology.
HD resolutions feature in many screens, across tablets and smartphones, but when it comes to TV display resolutions, the term HD is based on the resolution of 1,280 pixels wide by 720 pixels tall, shortened to 720p. The lower-case 'p' refers to “progressive scan” and is related to frames in the moving image that reduce the flickering people notice when watching programmes.
Full HD is a resolution that measures 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, often called 1080p. This display resolution is common on Smart TVs released in the last decade, as well as many modern phones, PCs, laptops and monitors. Traditionally, it uses a 16:9 aspect ratio (16 pixels horizontally for each nine vertically), typically described as widescreen.
The size of the screen doesn't change this resolution. Instead, the number of pixels remains the same but each pixel changes in size, so depending on whether they are smaller or larger they may appear to be softer or sharper in quality.
Read more: The best 4K TVs for gaming, movies and more in 2021
In recent years, TV manufacturers have aimed to increase the resolution of their TV displays to improve picture quality when developing larger screen sizes. This has fuelled a rise of 4K and Ultra High Definition (UHD) resolutions and although these terms are used interchangeably, they're not the same thing.
True 4K displays are used in professional production and digital cinemas with a resolution of 4,096 x 2,160 pixels. Rather than being four times the resolution of Full HD, 4K gets its name from measuring just over 4,000 pixels on its longest side.
UHD differs because it is a consumer display and broadcast standard with a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels; twice that of a Full 1080p HD resolution, and three times that of standard 720p HD. This means it falls just short of what is considered a full 4K resolution. The difference between the two exists due to a slight variation in aspect ratio between digital cameras and home displays.
TV brands and streaming services, such as Netflix and Google, refer to UHD resolutions as “4K” for marketing purposes. Some, such as Sky, prefer to use UHD to avoid confusion, while others, including Amazon, use both. When shopping for a TV, check the specifications to determine whether its true 4K or UHD.
To add to the confusion, in 2016 many TVs were being sold as "Ultra HD Premium". This badge confirms the product or content achieves high-quality colour, High Dynamic Range and audio standards in addition to its resolution, as set by the UHD Alliance's specification to be considered "a best-of-best audio-visual experience".
As companies make more affordable 4K TVs and UHD continues to rise in popularity, the next phase in high-resolution viewing is High Dynamic Range (HDR).
HDR maintains as much of the original filmed image quality as possible by displaying a wider and richer range of colours from brighter whites to deeper, darker blacks designed to give the TV picture a more "dynamic" look. Think of HDR as 4K with pimped up colour.
HDR content is delivered either from an HDR-compatible source, such as an UHD 4K Blu-ray player, or streamed over the internet from providers of HDR content. An HDR-compatible TV processes this content to display it correctly on the screen.
OLED refers to Organic Light Emitting Diode, a screen technology that emits light when a current is passed through it. By contrast, LED TV displays consist of an LCD screen that requires an LED backlight to make the colours visible. This shouldn’t be confused with LCD TVs; a much older technology that doesn’t use LEDs and instead has a fluorescent backlight.
The main difference between LED and OLED and is that the latter lights up individual pixels and non-OLED displays light up the entire screen. OLED is therefore better at displaying true blacks because the pixels that are not used can be turned off completely, meaning you get real contrast.
Another difference is response time; a measure of how quickly the individual pixels can change colour. OLED is said to be 1,000 times faster than LED-backlit TVs meaning there's no discernable blur, even with fast-moving images.
As the technologdy drops in price, TV manufacturers are bringing new and improved OLED displays to the market. Panasonic recently claimed a "world's first" with the launch of its HDR-ready, UHD OLED TV, the 65-inch flatscreen EZ1000.
“Our OLED TV also offers an Absolute Black Filter that soaks up ambient light and reflections to ensure that where part of an image should look black, it actually looks black,” Panasonic’s head of TV and video, Glenn Zanoni, told WIRED.
The latest in TV tech is QLED. At CES 2017, Samsung announced its first range of TVs to feature this technology, which stands for Quantum dot Light Emitting Diode.
The QLED screens on the Q9, Q8 and Q7 are manufactured with quantum dot material. These are tiny particles that, when supplied with energy, radiate a certain spectrum of light capable of reproducing 100 per cent colour.
"QLED makes it possible for the TV to express a significantly improved range of colour with much greater detail compared to conventional TVs," said Stephen Mitchell, General Manager TV and AV, Samsung UK and Ireland.
“This means they can express all colours at any level of brightness – with even the subtlest differences visible at the QLED’s peak luminance – between 1,500 and 2,000 nits [a term used to measure how bright something is].” It works similar to how the human eye detecs subtle changes in tone based on the amount of light shining on something.
On a QLED screen, for example, a leaf can be seen as many different colours, from yellowish green to turquoise, depending on the brightness of the light. This means that whether the scene is bright or dark, or your TV room is bright or dark – QLED TV owners will be able to see every detail at better levels of contrast.
"Samsung’s QLED TV display can capture even subtle differences in colour, drawing the viewer in and giving an incredible level of detail," Mitchell added.
According to Samsung, with Quantum dot technology, brightness no longer has to be compromised to boost colour performance. This supposedly produces consistent colour and quality from any viewing angle, so it no longer matters where you sit in the room.”
However, while QLED is the latest TV screen tech, its image quality is somewhere between OLED and LED. It might give a better dynamic colour range over LED and LCD displays, but it's still backlit and thus isn't able to manage individual pixels like OLED, so the quality isn't quite as impressive. QLED has come to fruition because OLED is a relatively difficult technology to implement in manufacturing, so is cheaper and easier to make than OLED.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK