Greetings @Nesguy, the first post of this thread is getting a bit long in the tooth. Donāt you think an update is long overdue?
Hope all is well.
Question:
Will any OLED be just fine for CRT Emulation?
Answer:
Definitely not. OLED displays generally donāt have the standard vertical R-G-B/B-G-R striped subpixel layout that subpixel aware CRT Shaders rely on in order to map modern display subpixels to emulated CRT Phosphors.
So only a handful of low TVL Masks can be acceptably emulated and only on WOLED. Due to QD-OLEDās triangular subpixel structure, the CRT-Subpxel Mask emulation is always off/inaccurate.
Only recently OLED panel makers have started to address this.
In addition to that, accurate emulation of Masks/Phosphors and Scanlines demands that most of the pixels of the display are turned off/darkened which makes things very dark. Add BFI/Beam Simulator/Pulsar aka Backlight Strobing and it gets even darker.
The solution? Shaders which compromise accuracy for the sake of brightness or very bright screens.
MiniLED screens far outshine OLED displays in this department. Even a Mid-Range miniLED can be brighter or just as bright as the brightest OLED displays, especially in sustained brightness.
Luckily OLED panels can squeeze some more brightness out of lit pixels the more unlit pixels are off so that can offset the brightness deficit relative to miniLED a bit.
miniLED canāt do that per pixel energy conservation so must rely instead on having much higher brute force sustained brightness potential. Due to their standard subpixel structure, many more mask layouts can be properly emulated and represented via the LCD subpixel structure which is not too dissimilar from an Aperture Grille CRTās Phosphor structure.
Lastly, while modern OLED displays might be better at handling burn-in, there is always the risk of those emulated scanlines and scanline gaps wearing out unevenly.
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Related to this, if one were to buy an OLED TV in 2026 for emulation (due to the wider viewing angles and deeper blacks), which model would you recommend?
I know miniLED TVs perform better in most cases, but viewing angles still lag behind OLED TVs, so some people might prefer the latter.
Thanks in advance!
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The brightest you can get that doesnāt compromise on gaming or other features/strengths that would also benefit emulation and then secondary uses.
So any WOLED with an MLA panel, LG G3, G4. You can go tandem OLED but as stated before, itās untested and unproven if current CRT shader subpixel mask layouts would be compatible.
So there might be a little lag before theyāre actually fully supported as help would be needed from users and / developer who actually have access to the TVs to fully test the subpixel layout.
Nobody talks about this but it took years before RWBG/WOLED TVs had decent CRT shader support and advocacy to develop, test and implement them in shaders was mostly a done by a tiny handful of vocal folks who had those TVs in the community.
So LG G4, G3 would be easy recommendations although I donāt recommend OLED TVs for this.
LG G6, LG G5, Panasonic Z95B with the caveat about the new subpixel layout and uncertainty about Panasonicās tonemapping, gaming features and the OS.
I really like the OLED image for emulation, even if itās not very accurate.
I used to be afraid of burn-in, but a recent test by R-tings showed that LCDs in general suffer much more from it.
Iām starting to get burn-in on my LCD monitor myself, after only 2 years of useā¦
Interesting statement. While I also like the OLED image for emulation, have you ever experienced good CRT Shader Presets on a good miniLED display with >=720 local dimming zones, Peak 10% Window 1,466 cd/mĀ², Sustained 50% Window 860 cd/mĀ² with BFI before in order to actually compare how it might fare?
Also, not all OLED displays are incapable of accurate subpixel CRT emulation. RWBG/WOLED displays are very capable of accurate CRT emulation, however they are limited in the subpixel mask petterns that they can accurately simulate vs a display with a standard R-G-B/B-G-R vertical subpixel stripe.
No, before buying an OLED I had a regular LED, I even considered a miniLED, but I found the OLED image more pleasing.
TCL X11L
11,000+ Nits Peak Brightness, RGB Subpixel Layout, the closest LCD has come to OLED according to RTINGS and many other review outlets.
Here are some excerpts from RTINGSā review of the set.
Note: Due to the high peak brightness of the TV, we had to use different measuring equipment for many of our tests, as the TV exceeds the peak luminance of our Colorimetry Research CR-100, which we normally use. As such, we combined our CR-100 with a Colorimetry Research CR-250 when necessary, as itās designed for higher luminance measurements, but itās not as sensitive as the CR-100 in low-light conditions.
11,000+ Nits Peak Brightness anyone?
HDR Brightness In Game Mode
Peak 2% Window 11,020 cd/mĀ²
Peak 10% Window 4,547 cd/mĀ²
Peak 25% Window 3,002 cd/mĀ²
Peak 50% Window 1,571 cd/mĀ²
Peak 100% Window 805 cd/mĀ²
Sustained 2% Window 774 cd/mĀ²
Sustained 10% Window 397 cd/mĀ²
Sustained 25% Window 791 cd/mĀ²
Sustained 50% Window 562 cd/mĀ²
Sustained 100% Window 804 cd/mĀ²
Content mastered in the BT.2020 color space is where the improved quantum dots on this TV really shines, and it has better coverage of the BT.2020 color space than any other LED TV tested up until now.
It displays dark, saturated colors well, and bright highlights arenāt washed out by whites at all.
Panel Technology
Panel Type: LCD
Sub-Type: VA
Subpixel Layout: RGB
The TCL X11L uses a combination of new panel technologies, including an improved color filter, a new WHVA 2.0 panel structure, and improved quantum dots, which TCL calls Super Quantum Dots.
The spectral power distribution shows the impact of the SQD layer. Compared to the TCL QM8K, we can see that thereās no change at all to the blue backlight, but the green peak has shifted 10 nm towards blue. The biggest change is with the reds, which are far more powerful and more precise, and the center wavelength has increased by 20 nm. This results in a far greater separation between green and red, resulting in more precise, saturated reds.
HDMI 4 (4x HDMI 2.1)
HDMI 2.1 Rated Speed 48 Gbps
ATSC Tuner 3.0 (NEXTGEN TV)
USB Ports3
USB 3.0 Yes (1)
Audio Out 3.5mm 0
Wi-FiYes (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz)
Ethernet Speed 100 Mbps
Composite In 0
Digital Optical Audio Out 1
The TCL X11L is the first TCL TV on the market to feature four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports. Thereās also an additional USB port on the side bezel of the TV.
Running the AIDA64 app on the TV confirms that itās powered by the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset, with 2.5GB of RAM and 48GB of internal memory.
What do you think about TCLās claim of āup to 100% BT.2020 coverage, with a possible deviation of ā¤5%,ā in relation to your measured results?
Exact copy and paste from their website: *100% BT.2020 refers to a typical value of the area ratio under the BT.2020 color gamut standard. The test data comes from TCL laboratories. Due to differences in test environments/test standards/test equipment, as well as other reasonable and objective factors such as different products/production batches, a deviation of ā¤5% may occur.
Thatās most likely referring to flat color gamut coverage, whereas our test looks at gamut rings instead. Theyāre not comparable. Itās not just different methodology or equipment; itās a completely different test.
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While it sounds great on paper, Iāve read some concerns about this TV regarding input lag and motion blur. Do you think these two aspects could affect this TVās potential as an emulation TV?
I donāt rush to believe everything I read or see in a review. I take stuff like that along with anecdotal accounts with a huge helping of salt. Sometimes itās user error, laziness, a user just not understanding a new or different design choice from they were accustomed to, a firmware bug e.t.c.
So I try to look beyond stuff like that and see if thereās a fundamental issue with the hardware and technology itself that would be the underlying cause of such.
Iāve seen people say all sorts of things about certain TCL models, while other users have not had the same experiences.
Some TVs or systems in general may perform to oneās liking out of the box while others may need some adjustments.
Iām saying this also from the perspective of someone who has used high end and mid-range TVs from multiple manufacturers who now owns and uses a TCL QM751G as my daily driver.
Based on most of the reviews I looked at on YouTube, there doesnāt seem to be any cause for concern in that regard. There was one very vocal reviewer who had negative things to say about that one area you mentioned but what is the context of those statements?
Different people are sensitive to different things, firmware is still relatively early as well. Iāve had an extremely positive experience with the updates Iāve received on my QM751G over the last year and a half.
In closing, there was nothing in the RTINGS review which was any cause for concern especially when it came to motion and gaming performance.
āOn paperā measurements are very important metrics as they help to rule out conclusions based on potentially subjective, biased and flawed testing.
Another thing about that TV and my reason for including it here is the mere fact that we have reached to this point in our history where we have more than enough brigtness headroom for accurate CRT emulation, in a TV with an R-G-B subpixel layout and probably the largest colour gamut, contrast and blooming performance of any LCD display before it!
Look at the price of that thing though. Itās hardly a mainstream offering. So I look forward to seeing what the QM8L and QM7L can bring to this space.
I also await more reviews and updates regarding RGB miniLED technology. One camp is saying that there are issues with colour crosstalk but Sony just revealed their offering and that phenomenon was nowhere in sight and those who witnessed it had nothing bad to say about that. If Sony can figure it out maybe other manufacturers can as well.
Iām sure youāre aware that TCL recently acquired Sonyās TV and consumer electronics business. So letās see what that brings to the table in the not too distant future.
One thing I wanted to add, itās TCL, a company known for making great budget TVs which gamers have enjoyed for over a decade which have excellent input lag. The TV uses the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 SOC which is a more powerful processing chip than the ones in its predecessors. Weāve seen WHVA 2.0 in action before in the QM8K and QM9K.
Itās input selection is finally on par with LGās boating 4 full bandwidth 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 ports.
What would have to happen under the hood for it to have issues with input lag and motion blur?
The only thing that comes to mind besides immature firmware is probably heat. Maybe the internals get so hot that it can affect the SOC performance under certain conditions? Who knows? Itās still early days though and the vast majority of reviews didnāt seem to have any of those issues.
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