Until recently I lived in the decades-old world of plasma vs LED TVs and 720p vs 1080p world!
Can somebody please explain terms like 4K, HDR, Dolby Atmos that I see thrown around now? What technicals (besides size and price!) should I worry about in this day and age? 😊
Thanks.
In: Technology
4K is 2160p — or 3840×2160.
HDR stands for high dynamic range and means that the color gamut (range/steps) available is wider than in traditional imaging. This produces darker darks alongside more vibrant colors.
Dolby Atmos is Dolby’s latest progression of surround sound audio. Instead of 7.1 surround sound, an Atmos setup adds a third dimension of sound that takes into consideration direction and reflectivity, such that the listener can be positioned anywhere in 3D space instead of just at a single location like in stereo.
Having said all that, things you’ll need to consider include whether the TV has one or many microphones, whether they can be turned off, whether the TV requires a WiFi Internet connection to function, what type of upscaling is used, what apps are bundled in the firmware, is the firmware push updated by the manufacturer, do updates actually get made available with timely security fixes, do you go ultra wide or use a curved screen, etc.
Personally I prefer dumb monitors, curved, driven by an external TV decoder hooked up to my own sound bar with Atmos support.
The first big option is LED or OLED. The big difference is picture quality as LED TVs still use backlighting where as OLED TVs have each pixel providing its own light. So an OLED can shut off individual pixels completely, giving you true black and a higher contrast ratio and a sharper, more vibrant picture.
The lighting situation of your TV rooms matters as well. LEDs work best in bright rooms because they can get very bright. OLEDs will be hard to see in bright rooms, and are best for darker rooms.
HDR is high dynamic range, referring to the number of colors the TV can produce. Newer content is starting to be broadcast in HDR formats and these TVs can handle it. Basically makes for more detailed picture.
Dolby Atmos is a audio signal format. Basically it allows for someone with a bunch of speakers to create the most dynamic audio. Unless you are planning on having 12 speakers around your room, then don’t worry about this.
VRR (variable refresh rate) and G-Sync are for gaming, specifically the new consoles like PS5 that will be played in 4K resolution. If you game, then these are a must. If you don’t game, then don’t worry about it.
HDMI 2.1 is a new format for HDMI that can transmit twice the data load as HDMI 2.0 (which is currently used). At the moment, only 8k content requires HDMI 2.1, so it’s not super important right now. That being said, 2.1 is the future, so if you want to keep this tv for many years to come it would be wise to get a TV with at least 1 HDMI 2.1 input.
I would also suggest visiting rtings.com where they have very good breakdowns of all these feature and why you should or shouldn’t care about them. They also test all TVs in a systematic way and give honest reviews.
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