Thursday, January 3rd 2019
VESA Introduces DisplayHDR True Black High Dynamic Range Standard for OLED Displays
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA ) today introduced its new DisplayHDR True Black high dynamic range (HDR) standard, a variant on VESA's widely adopted High-Performance Monitor and Display Compliance Test Specification (DisplayHDR). The new standard has been optimized for emissive display technologies, including organic light emitting diode (OLED) and future microLED displays.
DisplayHDR True Black allows for up to 100X deeper black levels in addition to a greater dynamic range and a 4X improvement in rise time compared to VESA's DisplayHDR 1000 performance tier. This enables a visually stunning experience for home theater and gaming enthusiasts in subdued lighting environments. DisplayHDR and DisplayHDR True Black are the display industry's first fully open standards specifying HDR quality for LCD and emissive displays, respectively.
VESA also announced today that it has added a new 500 performance level to both the DisplayHDR and the DisplayHDR True Black standards to address the need for thin, ultra-lightweight HDR laptops. The new 500 level includes local dimming as well as the same color gamut, black level and bit-depth requirements associated with the 600 and 1000 levels with a small decrease in luminance compared to the 600 level, to bring about better thermal control in displays for super-thin notebooks. While the new 500 level is optimized for very small, ultra-slim displays, it actually applies to all resolutions and screen sizes, including those used in monitors.
Accelerated DisplayHDR Adoption Sets Stage for True Black
Since its introduction a year ago, VESA's DisplayHDR standard has seen widespread and growing adoption among LCD display OEMs. To date, nearly three dozen displays across nine display OEMs have been released to market with DisplayHDR certification. Many more are expected to be introduced in the coming months. With the introduction of the new DisplayHDR True Black standard, VESA anticipates a similarly strong adoption curve among OLED display OEMs as has occurred with the DisplayHDR standard.
"Embracing the new DisplayHDR True Black standard, OLED is the ideal display technology for mixing bright highlights with deep, true blacks, so consumers can create extraordinary content or simply appreciate incredibly breathtaking imagery on their PCs," said Jeremy Yun, vice president, OLED Marketing Team, Samsung Display Company. "The new standard, when coupled with VESA's DisplayHDR logo program, will show consumers that True Black represents a highly important step in enhancing gaming, TV or movie watching, as well as viewing and editing of photos and videos. Users can see and feel a dynamic range that yields a superior high-end HDR experience."
Deeper Black Levels with DisplayHDR True Black Standard
On LCD displays, what is considered "black" is actually a dark grey tone, which is a result of minor light leakage common with these displays. VESA defined the new DisplayHDR True Black specification with emissive displays in mind to bring the permissible black level down to 0.0005 cd/m2 - the lowest level that can be effectively measured with industry-standard colorimeters. For gamers and movie watchers in subdued lighting environments, displays adhering to the DisplayHDR True Black specification can provide incredibly accurate shadow detail and dramatic increases in dynamic range (up to 50X depending on lighting condition) for a truly remarkable visual experience.
"When VESA unveiled the original DisplayHDR standard, we recognized that display technologies were quickly evolving, and we immediately set to work on developing a new open HDR standard for OLED and other emissive display technologies," stated Roland Wooster, chairman of the VESA task group responsible for DisplayHDR, and the association's representative from Intel Corporation for HDR display technology. "On behalf of all of the VESA member companies that contributed to the DisplayHDR True Black specification, I'm pleased to say that we are fulfilling our promise with today's announcement. We're extremely proud of this incredible, high contrast and high dynamic range standard. Consumers benefit from the transparency of the DisplayHDR True Black specification and logo, which makes it clear that they're getting a display that yields huge performance improvements in subdued lighting environments."
Added Wooster, "We're also very excited to include the new 500 performance tier for the DisplayHDR and DisplayHDR True Black standards, which provides true local dimming, high color quality and a high contrast ratio at the lowest price point and thermal impact for display OEMs. This combination makes the 500 level ideal for ultra-thin notebook designs, but it's equally applicable to monitors as well."
DisplayHDR True Black allows for up to 100X deeper black levels in addition to a greater dynamic range and a 4X improvement in rise time compared to VESA's DisplayHDR 1000 performance tier. This enables a visually stunning experience for home theater and gaming enthusiasts in subdued lighting environments. DisplayHDR and DisplayHDR True Black are the display industry's first fully open standards specifying HDR quality for LCD and emissive displays, respectively.
Accelerated DisplayHDR Adoption Sets Stage for True Black
Since its introduction a year ago, VESA's DisplayHDR standard has seen widespread and growing adoption among LCD display OEMs. To date, nearly three dozen displays across nine display OEMs have been released to market with DisplayHDR certification. Many more are expected to be introduced in the coming months. With the introduction of the new DisplayHDR True Black standard, VESA anticipates a similarly strong adoption curve among OLED display OEMs as has occurred with the DisplayHDR standard.
"Embracing the new DisplayHDR True Black standard, OLED is the ideal display technology for mixing bright highlights with deep, true blacks, so consumers can create extraordinary content or simply appreciate incredibly breathtaking imagery on their PCs," said Jeremy Yun, vice president, OLED Marketing Team, Samsung Display Company. "The new standard, when coupled with VESA's DisplayHDR logo program, will show consumers that True Black represents a highly important step in enhancing gaming, TV or movie watching, as well as viewing and editing of photos and videos. Users can see and feel a dynamic range that yields a superior high-end HDR experience."
Deeper Black Levels with DisplayHDR True Black Standard
On LCD displays, what is considered "black" is actually a dark grey tone, which is a result of minor light leakage common with these displays. VESA defined the new DisplayHDR True Black specification with emissive displays in mind to bring the permissible black level down to 0.0005 cd/m2 - the lowest level that can be effectively measured with industry-standard colorimeters. For gamers and movie watchers in subdued lighting environments, displays adhering to the DisplayHDR True Black specification can provide incredibly accurate shadow detail and dramatic increases in dynamic range (up to 50X depending on lighting condition) for a truly remarkable visual experience.
"When VESA unveiled the original DisplayHDR standard, we recognized that display technologies were quickly evolving, and we immediately set to work on developing a new open HDR standard for OLED and other emissive display technologies," stated Roland Wooster, chairman of the VESA task group responsible for DisplayHDR, and the association's representative from Intel Corporation for HDR display technology. "On behalf of all of the VESA member companies that contributed to the DisplayHDR True Black specification, I'm pleased to say that we are fulfilling our promise with today's announcement. We're extremely proud of this incredible, high contrast and high dynamic range standard. Consumers benefit from the transparency of the DisplayHDR True Black specification and logo, which makes it clear that they're getting a display that yields huge performance improvements in subdued lighting environments."
Added Wooster, "We're also very excited to include the new 500 performance tier for the DisplayHDR and DisplayHDR True Black standards, which provides true local dimming, high color quality and a high contrast ratio at the lowest price point and thermal impact for display OEMs. This combination makes the 500 level ideal for ultra-thin notebook designs, but it's equally applicable to monitors as well."
28 Comments on VESA Introduces DisplayHDR True Black High Dynamic Range Standard for OLED Displays
This True Black standard is even more pointless since it's just another label + price hike to slap onto OLED monitors.
My "10 bit" monitor is actually 8 bit FRC that can't be used for HDR. But it has a big 10 bit slapped on.
Price hike? Sure, if the quality is there, why not? You pay extra for that panel anyway, at least now we have a common yard stick.
www.techspot.com/review/1738-philips-momentum-43/
It's not really suitable to be used as a monitor at all because "it uses a non-standard subpixel structure, which causes a bit of text blurriness in Windows."
As for lacking FALD:
And btw why my account techpowerup account missing ? I have registered in here since 2009
pcmonitors.info/reviews/philips-436m6vbpab/
But hey, I'll play... Can you explain what exactly is that difference that HDR is "10 bit but not 10 bit"?
Because all those guys in the industry don't seem to agree yet to what HDR really means.
Mind you, it's kind of the same as THX, and what a joke that turned into when they lowered the specs so that Chinese junk could be included... $79 desktop speakers with 3@ drivers, THX certified! yeah baby, I'll take 3!
At least some people get it. The fact they need all those standards is a bad attempt at 'HD ready' scam practices once again.
So far, DisplayHDR seems even less useful and qualitative of a measure than 80Plus is for PSUs. Now if it were formalized similar to Cybenetics' certification (created out of necessity due to 80Plus' lack of details and moral integrity), which has sound scientific-like in-depth test methodology with all of the testing data and details freely available, explained and easily readable; then it would make sense. I would absolutely love for someone to actually test rise/fall times, backlight flickering and RTC overshoot, using an oscilloscope and proper (constant and repeatable) lab conditions, and then compile that along with color gamut, color accuracy, contrast stability, power consumption, etc. into one or more performance category certifications. There are already websites that host reviewers/testers who do many or all of these things, but they are relatively few and there are not enough commonalities between them to be directly comparable in terms of end results.
Should we as (primarily) consumers rally together, propose a unification of the best approaches from existing test platforms and have reviewers sit down together and propose a standardized battery of tests? Because as I see it, the industry as a whole - meaning developers, manufacturers, distributors and resellers - shows no intent nor interest in doing anything of the sort.
This thing passed the level of a bad joke a while ago... calling it a dumpster fire would be an understatement.
There's nothing stopping VESA from requiring 10,000:1 static contrast and true 10 bit panels. But then nobody would be able to built a certified device. Because, you know, having a standard does not improve the parts quality.
LCD today can't do much better that 3,000:1 and that's not enough for HDR. How would you have gone about this?
Also, you can't have a 10bit panel for less than $2,000 or $3,000. They are simply a no go in the consumer space.
Now what I'd like to point out is that the OLED specs are geared towards OLED's deeper blacks. So you'd have to be watching in a pretty dark room, otherwise ambient light will kill dark details.
From what I see the only difference is in the maximum luminosity of the panel (nits). My 10 bit monitor is only 300 nit, below the required 400 (or 600) for HDR.
A big difference is in who is charging the "HDR" certification money, and that's what nobody seem to agree on.That's more poetical, but is what I was also trying to convey.
AMD got into this HDR game too:
www.pcgamesn.com/amd-freesync-2-hdr-standards
www.techpowerup.com/245533/amd-comments-on-freesync-2-hdr-controversy
HDR is mostly about obscene contrast ratios and you get those obscene contrast ratios by having bright backlights and LCDs that can block most of it from passing through.
HDR certification verifies claims manufacturers make in regards to the monitor's capabilities: no more, no less.
Similar to how ray tracing can make rendering a scene more straightforward and yield more realistic results, HDR can work towards eliminating all sorts of perceptual approximations and make it easier to determine what info to retain in a scene. Sure, the approximations we use (in both cases) are quite good and getting the hang of the new workflow will not be instantaneous, but generally, the fewer approxiamtions/reductions employed, the better the result.
TVs get between 5000:1 and 6000:1 static contrast easy from VA. Why do most mid to high end TVs (LG excluded since they only have OLED or IPS) use VA panels? Because that's the only way you get proper HDR outside of OLED, which only LG makes. Why is this different for monitors? Because IPS is predominant here with OEMs, especially ones that put in a ton of effort into IPS development (AU Optronics, Sharp, and LG most notably) and ignored everything else. Samsung is probably the only major player in monitor panels that's still improving VA tech.But why is it possible for TVs? Why are you able to buy a true 10-bit TV many times the size of computer monitor for under $2K? OEMs are neglecting the computer monitor space so the tech is years behind as well as super expensive. That's why. VESA is only aiding the OEMs with their rushed and crud DisplayHDR specs as a me too move.
There are plenty of more issues with the whole HDR thing most specifically with content, but that's another discussion. VESA's DisplayHDR spec for OLED is pointless due to the nature of OLED, and the LCD one is just garbage since it requires local dimming for 600 and up.
It makes not as bright screens viable.
Both DisplayHDR and UHD Premium certifications, while not ideal, do what they were created to do: address HDR confusion.
As for local dimming, no thanks, neither on TV nor on monitor.