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  • 11 hours ago
Kate got an early, up-close look at Sony True RGB, Sony’s new RGB Mini-LED display tech that could finally challenge OLED. In this video, she breaks down how True RGB works, how it compares to other RGB Mini-LED TVs, and how Sony’s processing could make a difference in color accuracy, brightness and contrast.

After following Sony’s Mini-LED development for years (starting with its 22-bit backlight system we showed you guys here on the channel) this this feels like a major step forward. If you’re interested in Sony TVs, OLED vs Mini-LED, RGB backlight technology, or the future of TV displays, this is one to watch. And because you're going to ask, True RGB isn’t in a consumer TV just yet, but it’s coming.

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Transcript
00:00I know we love to joke about the age of OLED coming to an end, but you're looking at something
00:06from Sony that's pretty much as convincing as it gets, and I don't say that lately.
00:11Not only am I one of the first people, outside of Sony of course, to spend some real time with
00:17the company's now officially branded true RGB display, but this also feels very full circle.
00:23We've kind of been on this multi-year journey together, starting back with the 22-bit mini
00:28LED driver you see here.
00:30I first showed you guys this back in the beginning of 2024.
00:35This is that, but the RGB version.
00:39If you've been following along with me, I really think you'll enjoy seeing all the pieces come
00:43together, but if not, don't worry, because in this video, I'll break down what Sony true
00:48RGB is, how it compares to competing RGB backlight tech, and more importantly, what it means for
00:55the not-so-distant future of Sony TVs.
01:01I've explained RGB mini LED here on the channel a couple of times before, specifically Sony's
01:06version, but to make things simple for the sake of this video, true RGB is the brand name
01:11for Sony's mini LED backlight that features three individual colored diodes within each
01:17individual LED.
01:18The purpose is better color performance at higher brightness levels and with OLED rivaling
01:23off-angle viewing.
01:25By this point, I've been lucky enough to see other manufacturers present RGB mini LED
01:30or RGB micro LED demos, often, you know, pitting their tech against the competition.
01:35And there's been a noticeable pattern that's emerged, and it's not necessarily a good one.
01:41In this Sony-controlled demo, a lot of the content I saw on competitor RGB technology, especially
01:48in high contrast scenes, the rivaling backlights defaulted back to whitish blue instead of using
01:54the actual intended color portion of the LEDs.
01:58Processors in traditional displays only have to manage one or two diodes per pixel.
02:02Now, with RGB mini LED, you're dealing with up to three independent diodes per pixel, all
02:08of which need precise, individual control.
02:11Sony's take is that most of its competitors just don't have the processing power to handle
02:16that reliably.
02:17So instead, the brains on these non-Sony TVs may opt to play it safe, so to speak, default
02:22to white and rely on color filters rather than accidentally produce the wrong colors.
02:27That would be very bad.
02:30Going based solely on what I saw in both this demo, the one I can show, and some of what
02:35I could not film, unfortunately, not only is Sony TrueRGB backed by the processing power,
02:40but if you remember the non-RGB version, the one on the left here, this backlight was already
02:45capable of kind of recreating the outlines of images.
02:50Now, with TrueRGB, the backlight can tone those outlines in real time.
02:54Each diode can adjust precisely to the content so that you can sort of really tell what the
02:59image is supposed to be, colors and all, just from the stripped-back backlight.
03:07Here's something else I find pretty interesting about this whole story.
03:10Sony isn't leaning on BT-2020 claims.
03:14I've said it here before.
03:14It's kind of a weird spec that a lot of brands are promoting and putting on boxes,
03:18even though it doesn't tell you that much about the real viewing experience.
03:23That said, it is a benchmark.
03:24We'll still absolutely be testing, so make sure you subscribe if you want to see the results
03:29from the first TrueRGB TV, whatever it actually ends up being.
03:35Brightness is another spec we're going to talk about more when TrueRGB makes its way into an
03:40actual Sony product.
03:41Sony claims to be achieving higher brightness with this display more efficiently.
03:46The display is constantly optimizing each LED diode for energy usage while managing strain
03:52on the backlight using heat mapping sensors and advanced control algorithms.
03:57Again, in this demo next to competitors, energy output on the TrueRGB was the lowest,
04:03while still hitting higher brightness when we did some spot tests with a spectrometer.
04:11To summarize everything I just talked about, this is a display designed for precision in
04:16ways really only OLED has been considered capable of achieving.
04:20It's about pure color, higher brightness, and accuracy closer to what the artist intended.
04:25It also helps that there are no real display size limitations like you do get with OLED.
04:30Now, Sony says that its OLED business is not going anywhere, but if we've been following this
04:35story, clearly the innovation and efforts are being put into TrueRGB, so I think that kind
04:42of speaks for itself.
04:43Okay, so maybe this is not quite the end of OLED, but I do think it's fair to say that
04:48it is the start of something bigger, and I will have more to share on that soon, so make
04:53sure to throw this video a like and subscribe to the channel so you end up right back here
04:58at the right time.
04:59Thanks for watching, I'll catch you guys next time.
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