Watch On
I’ve but to see an LCD monitor with native dimming that I assumed was any good. However I’ve now seen a DIY LCD show with an extremely intelligent projector-based backlight resolution that demonstrates why so-called HDR displays with full-array native dimming are, in truth, full crap.
In fact, it is top-notch YouTube channel DIY Perks that is liable for this incredible setup based mostly on an historical 11-year-old LCD TV and an much more aged 14-year-old DLP projector. We have reported on some DIY Perks tasks earlier than, together with this invisible PC constructed right into a desk. However this new display is my favorite.
To chop a protracted story brief, what DIY Perks has accomplished is to make use of an outdated DLP projector as a backlight, having dismantled an LCD TV to show the rear of the panel. Basically, you mirror the show output on the projector, hearth that on the LCD panel as a backlight and—presto!—you could have native dimming with the type of precision that current TVs and displays can solely dream of.
Now, I routinely complain about how unhealthy native dimming is on displays and TVs. A thousand or extra dimming zones feels like so much. However the actuality is meaning a single zone is shared by 1000’s of pixels.
As DIY Perks additionally explains, even a display with 2,584 dimming zones solely has a backlight decision of 68 by 38. Think about how unhealthy a monitor with a decision of 68 by 38 would love. Fairly.
Consequently, the backlighting does not come near the element being displayed, leading to halos and blooming round shiny objects, plus the sections of the backlight visibly popping on and off. “I’ve a TV that makes use of this know-how and I do not prefer it in any respect,” says DIY Perks.
I agree, after which some. It appears to be like completely garbage. To be sincere, I in all probability did not lean into the shortcomings onerous sufficient after I evaluation native dimming displays just like the Samsung Odyssey G9. In mitigation, you possibly can flip off the dimming, which in truth is what I personally do.
Anyway, for this mission, DIY perks used an outdated DLP projector with a mere XGA or 1,024 by 768 decision. By trendy display requirements, that is pretty low. Nevertheless it nonetheless successfully makes for 786,432 zones when used as a backlight. And it means for a 1080p display, you are solely sharing a zone throughout slightly below three pixels on common.
Even for a 4K panel it could work out to about 10 pixels per zone, orders of magnitude higher than the 1000’s of pixels per zone of any current full-array dimming PC monitor we have reviewed.
Getting this all to work requires DIY Perks’ standard ingenuity. One neat element is how eradicating the color wheel from the projector massively boosts its brightness, which makes the distinction between a hopeless dim show and one which’s shiny sufficient to be spectacular.
However the actually intelligent bit is how DIY Perks makes use of a software program instrument known as OBS to course of the supply picture and create a luminance map. With out that, getting the picture on the projector aligned to that on the LCD panel is simply too troublesome and creates some unavoidable visible artefacts.
With the luminance map the outcomes are, properly, beautiful. In all probability essentially the most spectacular single picture is the comparability take a look at of a TV with native dimming versus the DIY display, each displaying a starfield (an actual one, not the sport).
The native dimming TV appears to be like terrible, with the panel all lit up between the person dots and the border of the enabled backlight all too apparent and the sphere of stars progresses throughout the display. It is hideous.
In contrast, pun supposed, the DIY Perks creation manages to gentle up solely the dots or stars themselves. It appears to be like incredible. DIY Perks says that the general brightness of the panel is presumably a bit missing in comparison with a contemporary OLED show however that the outcomes are nonetheless far, far preferable to traditional LCD panel, even with superior native dimming.
There are a couple of unanswered questions left hanging. As an example, are there any challenges with syncing the DLP backlight with the LCD panel? However greater than something, this mission simply underlines how unsatisfactory current native dimming know-how is.
I already knew that. However seeing simply how significantly better this DIY show is that know-how you should purchase actually drives the purpose house. It additionally begs the query as to why commercially obtainable tech is not higher.
Because it stands, current native dimming tech appears like a checkbox train. It permits display makers to assert they’re promoting a show with unbelievable dimming and due to this fact HDR capabilities that are true solely within the very strictest sense. Had been they really making an attempt to supply an awesome viewing expertise, they’d be doing one thing far more just like this DIY effort. Furthermore, if a YouTube channel can produce one thing so significantly better than large tech corporations, one thing has gone very unsuitable.
