Remember, all CRT Shaders are not the same. A shader like Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor (or any other shader that is setup to use maximum mask strength and scanline opacity) is going to end up with an inherently darker image.
High brightness, aided by HDR or otherwise is the current brute force method to counter that and the results are quite impressive.
Mini-LED TVs, while not being as precise as OLED TVs, also have perfect blacks.
I don’t think the latency factor will be much of an issue unless the screen display is really horrible at it.
An OLED TV’s extremely low latency can actually be a disadvantage in some scenarios leading to a more jittery/juddery experience due to frames not transitioning and blending smoothly into one another.
This is noticeable on things like slow scrolling end credits in movies for example.
While the MiniLED won’t have per pixel perfect black levels the contrast ratio should be just as impressive if not even more so due to having true blacks in the areas which should be black and at the same time being able to push higher peak and sustained brightness in the highlights.
So theoretically, both should be quite impressive but it all depends on if the local dimming algorithm can keep up with the action and just works without being noticeably late to kick in or making a mess of things.
Sony has shown where their algorithm/processing is a cut above the rest by demonstrating a highly detailed greyscale map of the image using their Mini-LED backlighting system with good granularity between light to dark per Mini-LED zone.
Remember something only has to be good enough by a certain threshold before we reach the point of diminishing returns.
Now this is all hype and speculation until someone or some people actually go out and try the TVs themselves in these scenarios.
High Brightness headroom is extremely important when used with CRT Shaders to be able to use BFI.
Besides improving motion clarity on the whole the mask tends to appear as a blur on sample and hold display technology when thing start scrolling and moving fast on the screen.
Higher levels of BFI reduce this effect while improving motion clarity so that’s a possible win for the Sony Bravia 9 Mini LED in theory but we will have to see who is brave enough to put it into practice.
@Nesguy bought a 1,000 nits Mini-LED monitor but was not impressed by the local dimming in CRT shaders but the high brightness was still sufficient to provide him with a wonderful experience overall to the point where he no longer complains err…posts often about negative or unsatisfactory experiences.
This Sony Bravia 9 is supposed to represent the next level or generation of this local dimming processing but it has been hyped and marketed quite a lot so we’ll see.
Then there’s the no burn-in and possibly more accurate subpixel layout.
I would definitely give it a try if I was in the market for a new TV but either way, you should be satisfied.
Just remember this, with HDR and high brightness, coupled with highly intense scanline gaps, you introduce an almost worst case scenario for uneven wear of OLED subpixels, which is what I think eventually took place with my TV.
Modern OLED TVs are supposedly more robust but who is to say it can’t happen with them as well?
@hunterk provided me with a shader that shifts the entire screen up and down by 0.5 pixels over time, so this in theory should help the unused subpixels to be used but it might need some fine tuning because if used in timer mode the pixel shift can be jarring and noticeable during gameplay and unfortunately it doesn’t work with Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor out of the box at the moment.
Someone who knows more about these things than myself might have to be be able to figure that one out.
