I’ve seen Sony’s impressive new mini LED TV backlight technology in action, and OLED TVs should be worried
Sony made a special occasion of the TV launch in 2024 and held it at the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Los Angeles. During the event, attendees, including myself, were treated to demos of Foley effects and soundtrack mixing, plus other notable examples of behind-the-scenes movie magic happening in the studio. Sony’s message was that the technology used in film and TV production through its studio and professional camera and display divisions trickles down to consumer products, and this was made loud and clear at the event.
The Sony Bravia 9 is the flagship model of the new Bravia series TVs, taking the crown from the Sony A95L OLED TV, which will remain in the lineup through 2024. Interestingly enough, the Bravia 9 is a mini LED TV. This marks a change of course for Sony, a brand that has regularly positioned OLED in the past as the most premium technology in its TV range.
Sony’s repositioning of mini-LED at the top of the TV food chain is the result of two technological developments at the company. The first is the creation of the BVM-HX3110, a professional mastering monitor with a peak brightness of 4,000 nits. Introduced in late 2023, the BVM-HX3110 replaces the BVM-HX310, a standard model for film post-production with a peak brightness of 1,000 nits.
The second development is XR Backlight Master Drive with High Peak Luminance, a new TV backlight technology used exclusively in the Sony Bravia 9 mini-LED TV. According to Sony, next-generation backlight technology is responsible for a 50% brightness improvement in the Bravia 9 over the company’s previous flagship mini-LED model, the Sony it achieves via a new, highly miniaturized 22-bit LED driver.
In addition to increasing the number of LED modules that can be placed in the backlight, the new driver’s higher resolution (other TV manufacturers use 10- or 12-bit drivers, according to Sony) combined with advanced dimming control algorithms ensures it can display images with a higher level of refinement than previously available in the best TVs. And that’s where Sony’s demo of the new Bravia 9 TV I visited comes in.
Clarity refined
Sony’s demonstration of the Bravia 9’s XR Backlight Master Drive with High Peak Luminance technology consisted of two components. The first was a comparison of the new Sony BVM-HX3110 monitor with the older BVM-HX310, using movie scenes at a peak brightness of 4,000 nits. Although most films are mastered at a peak brightness of 1000 nits, Sony says this has mainly been a technological limitation – one that has now been removed by the BVM-HX3110. When viewing the 4,000 nits images side by side on both monitors, a noticeable increase in highlight detail on the new BVM-HX3110 made the images look significantly more dynamic.
The second item was a stacked pair of Sony Bravia 9 TVs next to a stacked pair of Samsung QN90C TVs, that company’s flagship 2023 mini-LED model in the US. The TVs set up at the top had their LCD panels removed so we could see the “raw” mini LED backlight (see photo at top). When watching a series of video clips, the Sony backlight had significantly higher “resolution” thanks to the more detailed local dimming performance of the XR Backlight Master Drive. It also had a more powerful brightness level that was seen in images displayed on the normal, non-butchered versions of both TVs below. This brightness makes highlights stand out more dramatically and colors look brighter and richer.
Equally impressive in the demo was the virtual absence of ‘blooming backlight’ effects in the transitions between bright and dark parts of images on the Bravia 9. ‘Blooming backlighting’ is a common visual artifact in LED-based TVs, even TVs that are mini -Use LED technology. and it’s a key reason why OLED TVs, which have panels with self-emitting pixels that generate their own light, have maintained a picture quality edge over LED TVs.
Mini LED mastered
Another image quality comparison conducted by Sony at the event placed the Bravia 9 alongside the Sony X95L and Samsung S95C, that company’s flagship QD-OLED model from 2023. The comparison also used Sony’s BVM HX3110, which displayed the same images as a reference point, and of the three TVs, the Bravia 9 most closely followed the image on the professional mastering monitor.
While Sony hasn’t revealed maximum brightness specs for the Bravia 9 TV, its ability to accurately render highlights and shadow details in movies mastered at 4,000 nits makes it a statement for HDR. As Sony’s new mastering monitor makes its way into more production facilities and film directors and cinematographers begin to push the boundaries of what the format is capable of, any TV that can handle it will have an advantage.
@techradar
♬ Storytelling – Adriel
Sony’s move to mini-LED for its flagship TV shows confidence in the technology, and with developments like XR Backlight Master Drive, its ability to compete effectively with OLED. The 2024 crop of OLED TVs is proving to be the brightest yet, with the new Samsung S95D measuring a peak brightness of just under 1,800 nits in our tests. But the new Samsung QN90D mini-LED model is even brighter, topping out at around 2,000 nits.
There’s only so much more OLED manufacturers can do to boost brightness beyond current levels, and the display technology may have reached its peak in the latest generation of TVs. And while we’ve yet to measure the Bravia 9, mini-LED is capable of higher brightness than OLED technology, and that’s something Sony clearly had in mind when planning its new flagship. In the future we can expect films with even greater dynamic range, and mini-LED with its high peak brightness will be well positioned to deal with this.