ARTICLE: What is Micro LED?

[Steve Withers]

There has been a lot of talk recently about Micro LED and how it could change not just picture quality but also the very nature of what constitutes a TV. That sounds exciting, but what is Micro LED?
Read the article.

 

[thewhofan]

Many thanks for the article. I would have thought the biggest problem to overcome for Samsung's modular design would getting every module to display the same. For current TV tech, we always hear how every TV even after calibration displays colours slightly differently due to tolerances within the components. If they don't solve that problem then you will just have a TV with a patchwork look so having invisible seems won't even matter.
Still, can't wait to see what each manufacturer brings to the table in regards to Mircro LED. The future of TV is looking bright. 10,000 nits bright to be exact.

 

[EndlessWaves]

LED displays are a mature technology that's been around for commercial displays for years, and reducing in size all the time.

They've reached the point where a couple more shrinks could make them practical for TV use.

This isn't a new technology like OLED being built from the ground up, but an existing technology where production techniques are becoming capable enough to move into the home.

Modules are a common approach to LED displays because commercial installations often need to fit a space rather than being a fixed aspect ratio.

 

[Abacus]

Bring it on

 

[Smith2004]

Looking forward to this technology maturing. Risk of burn-in is the one thing that puts me off OLED

 

[gadget man]

Sounds great on paper but modules how can you hide the joins.
Will be very expensive at first me thinks another decade before you can get excited about this technology.

 

[Achillus]

Modules are actually not the way Samsung should put this technology on the markets. It's going to be very difficult to calibrate individual small panels in to one where you can't see colours differences. Just make one big panel of different sizes to avoid not only colour calibration difficulties but also it would eliminate as much possible visible screen lines where normally the small panels comes together.

 

[encaser]

The introduction of wide angle tech is going to be a useful brake for manufactures to hold LCD over OLEd and then miniLED to give them all time to try and perfect microLED.
MicroLED may be revolutionary but it's proving not essential just yet.

 

[heinz57]

It will be interesting to see how, with a modular design, Samsung overcomes the issue of pixels / resolution being fixed, given that any resolution is determined by the number of visible pixels on screen.

So using 4K resolution as an example (3840 x 2160) how many pixels will each individual panel have? For the sake of argument let’s say each panel consists of 384 x 216 pixels. That means you are going to need 100 of them to make a 4K screen.

Now the size of the panel will be fixed - let’s say 10cm x 10cm - so that means 100 of them will give you a physical screen size of 1m x 1m; which is great, BUT that is the only physical size you are going to get in 4K using those panels.

If you want a bigger / smaller physical screen than that then you are going to have to have different sized panels, which seems to defeat the purpose of having the panels in the first place.

Or am I missing something......

 

[Paul7777x]

I absolutely love the idea of a whole wall being a screen.

Also, the ceiling, all walls and the floor.

It would take some processing, but the possible environments to live in would be immense.

 

[Derek S-H]

Sorry Paul, I just funnied your post not because I thought it was ridiculous, but I had this image in my mind of an entire room being a screen and you could put the ceiling on the floor and the floor on the ceiling.

Or have it moving about as if you were on a choppy sea. Or you were flying in the air.

The vomit potential is high with this one!

 

[Paul7777x]

Sorry Paul, I just funnied your post not because I thought it was ridiculous, but I had this image in my mind of an entire room being a screen and you could put the ceiling on the floor and the floor on the ceiling.

Or have it moving about as if you were on a choppy sea. Or you were flying in the air.

The vomit potential is high with this one!

I agree... also, imagine a manically psychedelic affair going an after a big night out.

 

[dr no]

I’m struggling to see the modules coming to market as a genuine consumer product. I just don’t think it will be polished enough

 

[noiseboy72]

I've been working with LED screens since the first generation 16mm pitch outdoor screens (That's 1.6cm between LED clusters!!) We're now down to about 0.9mm for indoors and 1.6mm outdoors. Brightness of about 1000 Nits is quite possible, but we normally end up running them at much lower power levels as it can be quite retina burning at that level for larger screens... We can still get over 100 trillion colours out of them (according to the spec sheets!!)

Calibrating panels is normally not an issue. We used to try and get panels that were all within a specific serial number range, so that we knew that the LEDs were sourced from the same batch, but with the current generation, the difference in colour balance between panels is generally excellent and certainly beyond the ability of the human eye to see any difference. Barco's X Range is one such example and is now being used as primary displays in power stations and other mission critical applications.

The resolution thing is interesting. I do foresee a not too distant future where you will apply a screen in a similar fashion to wallpaper and resolution and processing will be sufficiently advanced that any image will be displayed at well beyond its native resolution with minimal artefacts.

To see a really excellent LED screen, check out the Piccadilly Circus installations or the Intu shopping centre screens. The colour balance, brightness and uniformity of these is just stunning and shows what Micro LED might well be able to do in the home in the coming years.

 

[mt1980]

Can imagine the posts on here..

So, I just got a magnifying glass out and noticed I have 3 micro pixels stuck, do you think John Lewis will exchange it. I can't see it normal viewing but I know it's there.

 

[Paul7777x]

I’m struggling to see the modules coming to market as a genuine consumer product. I just don’t think it will be polished enough

It could be polished enough. As with most things technological, once it can be done then refining it to top spec takes intense effort, research and experiment. And therefore, lots of hard cash.

I agree it seems a huge task at the moment to me at least, and only the engineers will have any idea of its eventual success. And the bean counters whether or not they can sanction the outlay. I hope so.

 

[Scotland11]

The potential of Micro LED excites me far more than 8K but there is no hint of a timescale for delivery. I don't really like the modular idea but as a screen technology it seems to be the best way to have true blacks and the brightest of images along with wide viewing angles and no burn-in. HDR without any scaling. Sounds good. Just hope the manufacturers can surprise us and launch something in the next year or two.

 

[davidcrofter]

Sounds great on paper but modules how can you hide the joins.
Will be very expensive at first me thinks another decade before you can get excited about this technology.

Yep I think it is complete fantasy if Samsung think that they can produce consumer TV's using this process. It just won't happen because once you spot the seams then that is solely what you will be focussing on even at regular viewing distances ... that is before we even get into dead pixel territory.

 

[Har-One]

I’m struggling to see the modules coming to market as a genuine consumer product. I just don’t think it will be polished enough

Another possible issue is assembly. Most typical users, no members from this forum, have problems connecting devices. Joining panels might be a step too far for many. A friend of mine got a DVD player as a present because had none, asked me to help to get it connected. There was a Panasonic DVD recorder already that out-spec the present.

I find it exciting but they will need to convince the general public.

 

[stevelup]

P0.5 LED panels now available which is beginning to get interesting for home use.

You could do a 3840x2160 display at 1.92M x 1.08M which is 87" diagonal.

Spectacularly expensive though!

Or, if you went for P0.67, you could do a 4K display at 116" diagonal which is a decent size for projector replacement.

So this stuff already exists, right now. Myself or Noiseboy could install one in your home next week.

What Samsung et al are working on is turning it from an expensive and somewhat bulky commercial product that requires a certain degree of capability to install and commission, into a cost effective plug+play solution that will look sexy on your wall.

The sizes / pixel pitches they have demonstrated are not actually that ground breaking.

 

[ivagiglie]

@stevelup @noiseboy72
Very interesting reply guys, thanks for adding so much info!

Quick question: are single "RGB pixel blocks" easily addressable on the firmware/driver level?
I mean, if a single led burns out or is stuck, by simply disabling that specific 3-led block you would be able to minimize the impact, basically the block would be black and naturally dithered by the other blocks around it.

 

[Stinger69]

One thing that concerns me is how these 10,000 nits will be used. Please film producers/directors, no full white screens at full power, or cameras pointed straight at the blazing sun. I know I'm quite sensitive to very bright lights, but even with my Sony XF90 at very conservative settings there are times that hdr is quite painful. For me anyway. When done well with specular highlights etc it can look stunning though.

Andy

 

[Roohster]

10,000 nits is ridiculous.
According to Google, The Sun is only 5,000

 

[Paul7777x]

P0.5 LED panels now available which is beginning to get interesting for home use.

You could do a 3840x2160 display at 1.92M x 1.08M which is 87" diagonal.

Spectacularly expensive though!

Or, if you went for P0.67, you could do a 4K display at 116" diagonal which is a decent size for projector replacement.

So this stuff already exists, right now. Myself or Noiseboy could install one in your home next week.

What Samsung et al are working on is turning it from an expensive and somewhat bulky commercial product that requires a certain degree of capability to install and commission, into a cost effective plug+play solution that will look sexy on your wall.

The sizes / pixel pitches they have demonstrated are not actually that ground breaking.

Out of interest, what would it cost for the best currently available, at say 87” to be installed domestically?

 

[mjcairney]

I see lots of comments in previous posts about how could Samsung join individual panels together with no visible lines on the end product, and how they would be able to calibrate them properly to ensure no patchwork quilt effect? I have no doubt they are pouring in billions of South Korean Won (bearing in mind that GBP1 = approx SKW1500) to ensure that those problems are negated, else they will never sell their product).