Why HDR Zones Matter: 1196 Zones vs 96 Zones vs Edge Lit Dimming

Awesome video. Got exactly what I was looking for. Im interested in buying 2300 zones monitor and wanted to check how many is enough. Thanks!

Does local dimming work in non HDR content?

¡Update this video, now showing 575 zones!

Well being matte will counterweight for that 1196 zones. So Spectrum still the king?

Just a a thought but in real world there is never an absolute black scene, so in this sense spectrum or inzone are the most realistic since even a little bit of light is diffused around and spread out in the area. Pure black separated from bright lights is then unnatural. Is this making sense?

this comparison is really affected by the VA vs IPS panel... can't compare VA to IPS in terms of blacks and contrast, this is the reason not every improvements is attributable to 1196 zones. I still prefer IPS to VA for general usage, VA along with 1196 zones can cause noticeable black crush... hope that the next 512 zones IPS panels will improve a little bit :)

Excellent video can you do another with top TVs like Samsung qn90b vs top monitors like neo g7 and neo g9

Its insane that the M9 is $900 when the Cooler Master Tempest GP27U exists with literally 6x the dimming zones and $100 less.

Would really like to see 500-/+ zones vs 1100-/+ zones.

A couple of other things if you fps game you do not want the alienware dont be fooled until oled reaches 240hz plus and higher res you are better going after the neo g7 g8 or 9 for now at least.

I have the neo G7 and really like it, the high end VA + high zone count is a real winner and a true alternative for those who want a brighter colour HDR experience over OLED without worrying about burn in or the dimmer brightness of OLEDs over time. That being said, there are clear points where the OLED just does it better, a good example was the mouse pointer being dimmed on the mini LED in pure black areas where as the OLED doesnt, unless you turn the mini LED local dimming to "high" which does make the smaller bright spots like this pop a bit more, the down side is it gets some interesting issues with dark mode reddit on greys and stuff, this is reall the ONLY area where OLED wins out clearly on these high array VA's, otherwise to be honest, the mini LED array VA's actually come out on top imo. Overall the G7 looks and feels incredible with videos and games, but probably isn't something i'd use as a work monitor, though I can say the same for the OLED really due to the burn in risks over time. Personally I prefer to go non-OLED for now for my monitors until I see burn in realistically not be an issue though. If people think burn in isnt an issue anymore, they should check out the Linus video where he shows the clear burn in on his LG c2 after 8 months of use, despite LG's claims burn in doesnt happen anymore.

watching this on an oled for a fair, realistic view of the problem.
i'd say the one with 1196 zones is good enough. the others definitely aren't. terrible.
but i'm fairly sure that even the 1196 is less good than it appear from this video. this camera setting is probably black-crushing it a bit. i even raised black levels on MY screen to see if it wasn't my screen doing the crushing, but nope, the video is definitely black crushed, missing the darker detail. camera needed more dynamic range or more exposure, even if it meant white crushing.

This is basically VA vs IPS comparison, in other words, panel that is able to proper stop backlight, vs panel that can be colorful or transparent, but never obscured to light. Wow, Tim finally find out about greatest IPS fault. Maybe next year he stops being such fanboy ot this faulty technology xD

watched the same video on my old 2009 samsung xl2370 which is a TN and damn, i have better colors.

why are all the monitors shaking :D

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't most of the raised blacks simply due to ips contrast vs va? The 96 zone and the edge lit look generally the same since neither can effectively show black anyways. I'd like to see this same comparison between zones but with all va panels

I'm still of the mindset that 5000 - 6000 dimming zones (somewhere in there) is going to be the sweet spot for VA mini LED. Anything over that will be heavily diminishing returns and thus not worth the extra cost. Anything too far below that amount of dimming zones will likely suffer quite a bit of blooming still. I'm honestly waiting for that moment. That's the point at which I think mini LED will truly take over OLED because otherwise mini LED just doesn't suffer almost any of the issues of OLED. The only other possible issue is of course pixel response, but that's resolved with IPS screens... and again if we bump that dimming zone count up about another 1000 from the VA displays (maybe 1500) we'll have that resolved as well.

OLED: Hold my beer.

Purchased this monitor when it was released and am using it with my PS5 and M1 MacBook Pro. So far I’m loving it except for some parts of the HDR. I say some parts because when watching movies and gaming in HDR, I notice the local dimming (when set to high) causing the image to exhibit haloing that looks different from what I’ve seen in other Sony LED backlight displays. This only happens in a pitch black room with no bias lighting but it’s actually kinda distracting. To the point where I feel like turning local dimming to low is a better option with HDR content. I find it’s most noticeable with contrasty HDR movie scenes but when you know what to look for it’s noticeable with pretty much all HDR content. You get haloing in the form of squiggly white lines that move around frame depending where highlighted objects/subjects are in the frame. Not sure if it’s just my panel but given that the monitor has none of the screen defects people have been posting online about, I want to say I have a solid panel. Just wondering if anyone can add to this discussion. I love this monitor and if this is a normal backlight consequence on a 27 inch screen, I’m willing to put up with it. But if it’s a defect, then I feel like I should swap it out while the return window is still good. Thanks all 🤘🏼

I love my Neo G7

In another video, I learned that 100 nits was the standard luminance from CRT's with 8-bit per color channel

With VESA stating 400 Nits is the minimum luminance value necessary for 10-bit HDR.

Should HDR really only be qualified at 400 Nits

Dolby defines HDR at 10,000 nits with it's 4096 shades at 12-bit per color channel.

VESA, with it's linear scaling, would define the same 4096 shades at 12-bits with a Color Luminance value of 1600 Nits

Which standard is correct or more accurate, or does it not even matter and is just a different set of standards?

And I noticed the current top crop of OLED panels having trouble hitting 400 Nits consistently.

The current set of Top OLED panels have Luminance values of 127-243 Nits for SDR Mode, Max Brithness @ 100% white

While Top VA panels are in the 781-796 Nits

Top IPS panels are in the 433-536 Nits

Is OLED more accurately setup for SDR, or is the higher brightness values better for SDR and just makes them ready for HDR?

I still don't understand why Samsung does curved panels for small monitors. 32 inches is too small for a curved monitor. It makes more sense for an ultrawide, but for a regular monitor it just doesn't make sense.

I’m currently using a 55in C1 but I’m looking to downsize but after playing on oled I’m not sure what would be a good alternative.

what about monitor with minimal dimming and without it

As the screen gets larger you must need more zones. I bought a 75" qn90a with 1000+ dimming zones and blooming is extremely noticeable

I would buy the Samsung but I really don’t want a curved display

I have the Samsung CRG9 it has i believe 12 local dimming zones and an HDR1000 rating, however i dont even have HDR enabled because of how often my Windows 10 system freaks out when going between games with HDR enabled. Ill consider getting better HDR once Microsoft makes it a seamless experience

Edge lit is such crap and ain't real hdr why manufactures still make them I'll never know

Thanks a lot Tim, this is great content. NEO G7 rules in HDR content and there are no burn-in issues to worry about either. Woohoo! :)

Samsung's dimming is very aggressive, not good for picture accuracy and also looks much worse than sony.

Why don't they make a 1280x720 LED Backlight array and just downscale the luminance values of the 4K image on it, rather than having these square dimming zones?

I thought this was some knockoff channel, but man is this good content! I learned a ton about backlight dimming; thanks!

Now the real question is, how does it compare to 512/576 Dimming Zone monitors?

Why Monitor QC Matter,I am saying the G7 Neo.

You know, it would be nice if these video were in HDR

What about 500 zones? Good?

Amazing demonstration

Extremely helpful explanation of exactly what you refer to in your reviews.

This type of content is why you guys are the best Techtubers.

I'd still really like to see these comparisons with an SDR monitor in the mix

Awesome work! The detail and effort put into these videos is amazing! Next one include an oled as well to have the full gambit(almost a control of sorts as well). So surprised to see the edge and 96 zone basically trade blows depending on the content. Not even in the market for a new monitor but this is great content! Cheer!

great job you really let the audience get a good understanding of what they’re spending their hard earned money on

g7 vs pg32uqx theres your va vs ips why no comparison

i been waiting for years now hoping 1000 fald zones to become cheap.
slowly i have been spending more and more on monitors, up to 500dollar on the last one. still nowhere near the tech and quality the high end monitors have.
remember the days when 1080p 60hz lcd cost you 100dollar and it was close to top of the range....

I love videos like these unlike the ones throwing around "oh this is 1000nits so you will get the best HDR quality" but say nothing about only having only 28 zones as if it would make no difference in how the HDR picture would look. IMO contrast matters maybe even more than brightness itself which is why OLED is so popular. Oh also dimming latency is also a big thing which is why their AI processing needs alot of work TV's aren't even there yet will definitely be a few more years to see monitor hit it.

Pretty nice showing again, 1200 zones really is a sweet spot for these sizes if they can cram it in under 1K. the fact that OLEDs are beating LCDs for price, gaming, size and HDR experience, jeez. I think Sony Tops out at about 96 Zone even on their TVs, I think the algorithms are more robust and tune to do better than the inzone however.

Siempre se ajusta la cámara al más brilloso, para tener una correcta lectura de todo lo demás, no me puedo fiar del blooming real si el Sony es más brilloso y la cámara lo expone más de lo debido, es por eso que el "blooming" será más evidente, así que no, mal review

I couldn't stand my AW3821DW after having it for some time. The low contrast ratio coupled with rubbish edge lit dimming made playing any games that has night scenes very unenjoyable. Like Cyberpunk was a question of "which 50 shades of grey would you like?".