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Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

post #1 of 9
1/27/09 at 12:59pm
Thread Starter 
First I heard about this.

Where the backlight employed is LED's instead of a single florescent and can dimmed in dark and black areas to boost contrast on LCD's.

Exciting news.
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post #2 of 9
1/27/09 at 4:03pm

Re: Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

Link?
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post #3 of 9
1/27/09 at 4:16pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

LEDs Magazine - Dolby and SIM2 exploit local dimming LED backlight technology
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post #4 of 9
1/27/09 at 5:16pm

Re: Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

someone had a unit that did that some years ago.. they were sort-of one-off jobs, that I recall at the time cost about $35,000, and were water-cooled.

I suppose a different take is, when do you give up on LCD, and go with LED displays for the home?

Leo
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post #5 of 9
1/27/09 at 7:55pm

Re: Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

I don't know about the Dolby Contrast moniker, but I thought this was a big selling point of the high end Sony LCD (XBR8) and 950 series Samsungs? Both are LED backlit, and the LEDs are locally dimmed based on picture content. Both claim ridiculously high unprovable contrast numbers, like 1,000,000:1 for the Samsung (or something like that...)

Looks impressive at a casual glance in the Magnolia section of Best Buy, anyway. I still like the look of the Pioneer Elite Kuro's better, but that might be TV brand loyalty talking. My 8.5 year old Elite set is still going strong, so when replacement time *FINALLY* comes, I may look to them again.
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post #6 of 9
1/27/09 at 8:02pm

Re: Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

Quote:
I suppose a different take is, when do you give up on LCD, and go with LED displays for the home?

Huh? These are LCD displays, they are shining LEDs through the LCD matrix rather than flourescent tubes. Samsung has had local dimming LED-backlight LCDs out for over a year already.

We might go to actual LED display when OLED tech matures and is price competitive. Sony's current OLED is only 11 inches, and supposedly might get up to 27" this year. They haven't figured out how to make them bigger yet.
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post #7 of 9
1/27/09 at 8:24pm

Re: Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

"Local dimming" is the name I've heard; these sets have been for sale for a year or two. Reviews say the provide blacks approaching the best Plasma sets. But they can have downsides, like local blooming: a bright region bleeding into what should be a dark region.

There are two future goals for this that I've heard of. One is individually lit pixels for maximum contrast control (although, isn't that effectively what Plasma is?). The other is high dynamic range (HDR), using localized lighting sources to create much large illumination ranges to better simulate the incredible range we can see: think going from a dark room out to a sunny summer day. No TV can approach that range of brightness change.
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post #8 of 9
1/28/09 at 3:22am

Re: Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd Hochard
I don't know about the Dolby Contrast moniker, but I thought this was a big selling point of the high end Sony LCD (XBR8) and 950 series Samsungs? Both are LED backlit, and the LEDs are locally dimmed based on picture content. Both claim ridiculously high unprovable contrast numbers, like 1,000,000:1 for the Samsung (or something like that...)

Looks impressive at a casual glance in the Magnolia section of Best Buy, anyway. I still like the look of the Pioneer Elite Kuro's better, but that might be TV brand loyalty talking. My 8.5 year old Elite set is still going strong, so when replacement time *FINALLY* comes, I may look to them again.

Well, that 950 series Samsung sure impressed the hell out of me when I was watching WALL-E on it. I thought the black level was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, 4000 dollars for a 46 inch set impressed me a lost less.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF
"Local dimming" is the name I've heard; these sets have been for sale for a year or two. Reviews say the provide blacks approaching the best Plasma sets. But they can have downsides, like local blooming: a bright region bleeding into what should be a dark region.

I read a review where they mentioned bloomiing on the 950 series. I didn't notice any blooming on the set I was looking at. It is possible that I missed it though.
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post #9 of 9
1/28/09 at 10:34am

Re: Dolby Contrast (local dimming)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
I read a review where they mentioned bloomiing on the 950 series. I didn't notice any blooming on the set I was looking at. It is possible that I missed it though.
I keep in mind that pro reviewers are much more sensitive to major and minor display flaws than I am. And they're using calibrated displays in light-controlled rooms; who knows what you your set and environment was like? So maybe it wasn't present, or didn't see it, couldn't see it, or didn't recognize it when you did see it
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