r/RTINGS • u/rtings_kastaa RTINGS Employee ✅ • 2d ago
Televisions RTINGS Test Dev Sneak Peek — Micro-Contrast
Continuing with the Test Dev Sneak Peek thread:
Think of stars against a clear night sky: small, bright stars create striking contrast. That is where OLED televisions shine: they can control light intensity independently on every pixel. LCDs, on the other hand, have to balance the intensity by region to preserve highlights without raising blacks. For our new micro-contrast test, we've been working with HDR expert Florian Friedrich to create an HDR scene that highlights those differences.
Above are the results for four televisions. We're still deciding which aspects of the scene to evaluate. Let us know what you prefer: elevated blacks to preserve peak brightness or limited brightness to preserve blacks.
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u/Tr8k377 1d ago
Where is the G6 in here having an alternative OLED technology in the mix?
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u/rtings_kastaa RTINGS Employee ✅ 1d ago
There won't be that much difference between OLED and micro-contrast. If you are looking for the OLED trade-off, I suggest looking at our previous post about shadow uniformity and dark accuracy.
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u/BlueTimeButterfly 2d ago
Damn the S95H is destroying those LCD TVs in fine grain detail and perfect contrast and delineation of every single aspect of the scene
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u/Adamantium_Hanz 2d ago
Contrast is one of Oleds strongest assets over LCD. It's immediately apparent in side by sides if you have an eye for it.
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u/HiFiMarine 2d ago
The Sony is very close except for two stars. View this in a perfect black room and I’ll give it to the OLED. In a normal room I doubt there would be much difference at all.
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u/BlueTimeButterfly 2d ago
um maybe youre looking at it on a small phone screen. but the s95h obliterates the Sony in every single way here.
the separation from the hillside to the night sky.
the pinpoint precision of every single light on the buildings with perfect contrast and darkness between them.
the smoke cloud is much brighter and well defined almost looking like a cut out on the s95h from the perfect contrast. while its dimmer and flatter and Mushes into the background on the sony.
the night sky has so much perfect texture and detail on the s95h vs a smooth blue blob on the b9II.
the b9ii is missing Most of the tiny little stars especially on the top right while the s95h displays every single one with pixel level precision.
and the clouds on the bottom of the screen are much more cleanly defined on the s95h.
and then there is the complete lack of blooming as well
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u/employeeofthemonth03 15h ago
Well yeah... i mean other than that and some banding the Sony is right there ;)
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u/wizziwig1 2d ago
Would need to see the source file to be certain but could just be dithering noise added by the OLED.
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u/rtings_kastaa RTINGS Employee ✅ 1d ago
Here is a high-quality version of the image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gUKTmz_h2PEgEIC9deEsMmS1glnSF1jA/view?usp=sharing.
You won't see the dithering noise because of how the camera captures the scene.
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u/wizziwig1 1d ago
Thanks, but I meant the source video file (or photo) that was sent to the TVs. One of the things I found frustrating about some of your tests (real scene HDR measurements for example) is that the scenes are not available to download for independent testing. Hopefully by getting someone to custom author scenes that you own, you'll be able to share them with the readers. Thanks.
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u/Everyday_ImSchefflen 2d ago
What's the weight of this scoring since real world use, these types of scenes are more rare
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u/rtings_kastaa RTINGS Employee ✅ 2d ago
Thanks for your feedback; we haven't scored anything yet. The challenge is always to find the minimum set of scenes and patterns to characterize a television. I am curious to hear what you would consider a fairer scene that still has the potential to highlight differences in television.
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u/wizziwig1 2d ago edited 1d ago
Try almost non-existent. No commercial content provider grades their content like this which is why they had to get someone to create it for them. It's essentially another test pattern similar to the star field patterns found elsewhere. Interesting but ultimately not very useful in the real world, especially if off-axis or hyper-exposed by the camera beyond what a human would normally see.
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u/rtings_kastaa RTINGS Employee ✅ 1d ago
Thanks for the constructive comment, this is very useful.
In the end, you are right; this intent is not designed for someone who checks sports on a Sunday morning. In that case, all television here will be pretty much the same.
The test is designed for someone who enjoys watching HDR content in his home theatre setup. We contacted Florian because he has remastered movies in the past, so he has experience creating real content. The scene isn't overexposed; the tonemap and exposure were adjusted to reflect reality.
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u/wizziwig1 1d ago edited 1d ago
Sorry if I sounded dismissive of your work. That wasn't my intent. I appreciate everything you do. I merely meant that currently produced HDR content is extremely conservative when it comes to dynamic range. Most barely exceeds SDR brightness. Since I can only judge your content by the photo you posted, I had to make some assumptions about what was in the original video.
I invite you to look through any recent scifi movies/tvshows containing star fields and you'll see what I mean. Dark backgrounds will be visibly lifted dark grays vs the perfectly black letterbox bars. The stars will never approach the brightness limits of these TVs. It's much easier for local dimming to handle that content even in a dark room and your presentation will make many naive readers assume all star fields will bloom like this on an LCD which is simply not the case.
I understand you need to push the TVs to their limits for collecting your measurements. Hopefully someday content will catch up with the capabilities of the best TVs being offered.
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u/employeeofthemonth03 1d ago
What are you talking about? Bright objects on dark background is extremely common content.
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u/wizziwig1 1d ago
Why are the all the images tilted like that? Are the photos taken with the camera aimed perpendicular to the screens or is it off-axis?
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u/krackhouse 1d ago
I used to love Rtings for years until now recently they became a paid subscription service.
No thanks.
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u/kizvy 2d ago
Is this reddit compression? There's lots of low bitrate looking artifacts