Display Lab
Every Display Explained,
Without the Marketing BS
TN, IPS, VA, Mini-LED, QLED, OLED, QD-OLED, MicroLED, QDEL. The names change every year. The physics doesn't. This is every display technology shown by how it actually works, and where each one hits its wall.
On
Perfect
Every screen does one of two things. A backlit panel (left) shines one sheet of light and the pixels act as shutters, so even “black” stays faintly lit. A self-emissive panel (right) makes light in each pixel, so off means truly black.
The Big Idea
Two ways to make a picture. Everything else is a variation.
Strip away the brand names and every modern TV falls into one of two camps. Understand the split and the whole market suddenly makes sense.
Backlit
A light source sits behind the panel and lights the whole screen. The pixels shape the image by blocking light rather than creating it, like blinds on a window. Some light always slips through, so blacks are never perfectly black. LCD, LED, Mini-LED, QLED and RGB backlights are all refinements of this one idea.
Self-Emissive
Each pixel creates its own light and switches fully off when it needs to be black. That kills the glow backlit screens fight, giving perfect contrast and instant response, at the cost of brightness limits and aging. OLED, QD-OLED, MicroLED and QDEL all chase this ideal in different ways.
The Story, Part One
Backlit: pushing a single sheet of light to its limit
Each step fixes the last one's flaw and introduces a new one, until LCD simply runs out of room.
Backlit / LCD lineage
The Story, Part Two
Self-Emissive: letting every pixel make its own light
The only real way past the backlight. It is also where displays started.