More bad news for OLED fags ! ( Sony BVM-HX3110 Master Reference Monitor )

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Sony has a new master reference monitor BVM-HX3110 capable of 4,000 nits ( my flagship Sony TV can do 3,500 nits, which is double what any OLED can do )

this new Master Reference monitor is significant because the old one it replaces ( also Sony ) was OLED and not capable of this brightness …

that means that soon people will be able to color grade movies to a brightness that can actually make use of my TV’s capability ( and that OLEDs cannot reproduce )

i already wrote ad nauseam about how OLED is not flagship tech. instead:

Micro LED > Dual Cell LED > Mini LED > FALD ( my TV ) > QD OLED > OLED > LED

so really OLED is one step from the bottom, of course that is assuming all the LED tech is implemented properly, which it never is except in Flagship Sony products.

in practice on other hand the Mini-LED screen on my ASUS laptop is so bad it’s almost worse than a CRT from 20 yeas ago, but then it’s still a good screen by laptop standards, so i am not complaining. Asus prioritized response time ( for games ) and battery life over visual quality on that screen. There is barely any processing taking place while my Sony TV uses massive processing ( which it is famous for ) that adds what feels like almost a second of delay in “cinema” mode, and even in Game mode it’s still about 10 times the delay that Asus gaming laptop has on its screen ( something like 30 milliseconds vs 3 milliseconds ).

so yes in practice an AVERAGE OLED is better than an AVERAGE not OLED, but that would be like saying electrified vehicles are slow because the most popular electrified vehicle is a Prius. i don’t care about average.

anyway back to BVM-HX3110 - it doesn’t say what tech it uses in the specs but we know it is a dual cell LED monitor. that means it has two LCD screens stacked on top of each other with the rear screen doing what local dimming does in FALD and Mini-LED screens, but with much greater precision.

the reason Dual Cell isn’t used in consumer products is because it doesn’t pass European Energy Regulations. the BVM-HX3110 for example states power consumption of up to 610 watts, in a 30" screen … by comparison a consumer level 85" TV consumes about 400 watts.

so a 30" dual cell master reference monitor consumes more power than a 85" consumer level TV. did you really think Klaus Schwab would allow you to have this tech at home ? it is simply not a right tech for home use, but it is perfect for a Master Reference Monitor, which is almost certainly not subject to European Consumer regulations since only a handful are produced for use in Hollywood studios etc.

so we have two concurrent developments

1 - Sony Master Reference monitor goes from OLED to what is basically like an ultra-high-end version of a Mini-LED screen, that is to say it’s an LCD screen with ultra advanced backlight.

2 - Sony 2024 model year consumer TVs put Mini-LED as the flagship ( Bravia 9 ) with no new flagship OLED model this year.

additionally there was never a 8K OLED from either Sony or Samsung - only from LG, who didn’t have competitive tech outside of OLED. furthermore in all TV tests Sony always wins and Samsung always comes in second, with the 3rd place being a toss up between brands like Panasonic, Phillips, LG etc.

what does all this mean ?

it means that:

1 - OLED still struggling in 8K arena
2 - even as OLED is getting brighter, being bright is a struggle for OLED so much so that Sony Master reference monitor dumped OLED tech and there are no new flagship OLED models in sony 2024 line up.

AND IF THAT WASN’T BAD ENOUGH

sony now has a new “Bravia 8” OLED which being “8” is clearly positioned BELOW “Bravia 9” which is a Mini-LED.

and Bravia 9 isn’t even 8K - it’s regular 4K, which means when the new Mini-LED 8K sony hits the Bravia 8 OLED will actually be TWO STEPS below it.

the message from Sony is clear - FUCK OLED !

which is something i been saying for a while and everybody was like " what do you mean OLED isn’t best ? everybody knows OLED is best ! " at which point i had to remind myself that people are dumb, and speaking to them is of no use.

reminds me of when i had Rogue and Eleiko bars at home ( i sent the Rogue back ) and i tried to explain to Bros on bodybuilding.com that Rogue bars are trash and they were like " what do you mean ? Rogue bars are the best ! " yes they are the best if you never tried anything better … Cadillac is also the best if you never drove Porsche.

The only weight lifting brand i would even consider besides Eleiko ( made in Sweden ) is Uesaka ( made in Japan ). I have both in my home gym, but i only have one Uesaka item which is super unique and not offered by any other company - namely special bumper plates for warming up and rehab that are made from FOAMED URETHANE. they are the smoothest bumpers i have ever used - they drop silently and do not bounce - basically the holy grail. of course this is also the most expensive way to manufacture a weight plate because pound for pound Urethane is more expensive than any material used to make weights - even Commercial weights only use urethane COATING ( to protect the steel underneath and to make the plates quieter ) on the surface while this Uesaka bumper is MADE OUT OF urethane entirely, and made in Japan on top of that - how could i pass it up ?

actually i also remember now i have some small Uesaka plates ( like 1 kilogram ) in the basement, that look like Jewelry and even an Ivanko plate machined from stainless steel ( it’s like 1/4 kg ). i never used those little ones but i wanted them for my collection.

i have a bunch of Rogue stuff as well but not proud of any of it - it’s all very crude and basic. just barely good enough to get the job done.

anyway back to TVs …

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Sony is basically saying OLED is NOT FLAGSHIP

i don’t know how to put this any more plainly than this

OLED is less energy efficient, less bright and less reliable than Mini-LED can be

can be is the important part here, because it isn’t yet …

but Sony Bravia 9 is a glimpse of the future - it is the first good Mini-LED TV on the market …

yes Mini LED was around for a while but not Sony. and yes Sony had Mini-LED on the market last year, but they were no better than my 2 year old Sony that was the last model before Sony went Mini-LED …

now finally this year Sony is starting to show what Mini-LED can really do ( with Bravia 9 that some have already declared best TV of 2024 and we’re only half way through 2024 ) and this happens shortly after Sony dumped OLED for their master reference monitor in favor of LED with advanced backlight, not unlike Bravia 9 and future Sony models …

what can i say the future is bright ! 4,000 nits bright ! but it is less bright if you’re OLED fag, in which case it’s maybe 2,000 nits at most.

( cont )

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i need to do an explainer on HDR but basically HDR can be mastered to any level brightness up to 10,000 nits but most HDR titles are mastered to only 1,000 nits - why ? because that’s about as bright as OLED can go. titles mastered to 4,000 nits were very rare.

now Sony is basically saying that going forward movies mastered at 4,000 nits should become the norm rather than exception with the introduction of both a master reference monitor that does 4,000 nits and Bravia 9 that gets CLOSE to that level, just like my Z9J gets close to that level

the difference is Z9J line at launch started from $10,000 MSRP whereas the Bravia 9 line at launch starts at $2,000 MSRP.

how significant is that ? i almost didn’t buy Z9J because i was looking for best TV on RTINGS.COM but didn’t know they had a cutoff of $5,000 and didn’t test any TVs lines that didn’t have a model under $5,000. i also had to drive 50 miles to even see Z9J in store as local stores did not have it.

Bravia 9 will be a TV that is tested by RTINGS and displayed at your local Best Buy, and that normal people will actually buy and use to watch Netflix.

i was only able to get Z9J because it hit $4,000 on Black Friday sale - i never would have been able to afford it at MSRP and it was the only TV capable of such brightness then.

NOW starting with Bravia 9 the 4,000 nits standard is going to go mainstream, and that will put OLED in a tough spot.

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I am sure Sony is doing this on purpose because both Samsung and LG make their own OLED panels while Sony has to buy them from Samsung or LG.

Sony is essentially a boutique TV brand now, whereas Samsung is mainstream and LG is budget. Every hotel i was in had an LG TV and my gym locker room has LG TV that is smashed in the center.

i NEVER seen a Sony flat screen used ANYWHERE except both my TVs are Sony. this is for the same reason why when you go to Enterprise to rent a car you see Toyotas and not Porsches. because Porsches belong in a garage, not rental parking lot. and Sonys belong in a home theater not hotel room or gym.

more importantly though Sony is a TV studio. this is why you see “sony” on buildings in Blade Runner:

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because Sony made that movie.

Sony also makes the Cine Alta cameras that movies like Top Gun Maverick were shot with. those are Sony cameras in the image below:

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and of course they make the master reference monitors.

so Sony may not have the market share of Samsung or LG when it comes to disposable trash for use in Hotel rooms they are still very much the benchmark.

same as how Porsche may not be able to match Toyota in unit sales but they are very much the benchmark.

and just like when Porsche releases a new car the entire industry is put on notice it is the same when Sony releases a new flagship TV like Bravia 9 or a new master reference monitor like BVM-HX3110

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when i say “Flagship” i mean Flagship among 4K models. some people do not want 8K because only YouTube currently has 8K content. there is no 8K content from Hollywood or Netflix yet. because of this i accept that 4K TV can be “flagship” even when there are more premium 8K TVs from the same brand.

two years ago 4K TVs were severely crippled in both Samsung and Sony line ups in order to push people to buy 8K TVs.

in my case i said OK, i understand you’re not going to give me your best TV in 4K because you want to make me pay more - i will then just wait for a Black Friday sale and get the 8K at the price of 4K.

but most people said - fuck that ! we’re going to get 4K and pretend we never even knew you had 8K TVs … which you can’t blame them for considering in case of Z9J it was neither on display in the stores nor reviewed by RTINGS and there wasn’t even any real reviews and instead i really just had to extrapolate from circumstantial evidence to determine that it was the best TV, and then i managed to track one down on display and it did look better than any other TV in the store so i got it …

but for the most part nobody bought the Z9J and Sony learned their lesson and accepted that if you reserve your best performance for only 8K models then people will simply not buy your best TV …

Samsung learned a similar lesson …

so this year you don’t need to go to 8K to get flagship level picture, which in case of Sony you get with Bravia 9.

this is why i call Bravia 9 “flagship” even though i would never buy a 4K TV myself.

once you go 8K you don’t go back.

yes it looks the same as 4K from further than about 6 feet away but when i use the TV as monitor i sit closer than that.

and Blackmagic Design has now released a camera that shoots in 17K resolution, up from their previous 12K and of course all Sony has two separate lines of Cine-Alta cameras that shoot in 8K and even cameras designed for stills, rather than video from both Sony, Canon and Nikon can now shoot 8K ( although for only a few minutes before overheating and running out of card space )

the point is just because hollywood movies aren’t made in 8K yet and probably won’t be for a while doesn’t mean that 8K isn’t worth it.

there is a big difference watching Google Satellite View in 8K and 4K. there is a big difference in the way avatars render on social media in 8K and 4K. and in the future there will only be more and more examples where 8K looks better than 4K.

for me 4K is already obsolete. but if you don’t believe in 8K then Bravia 9 can be your ticket.

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So if the 30" reference monitor consumes up to 610 watts, an 85" TV using the same technology would consume up to 4880 watts. That would require a 240 volt 50 amp circuit fit for a welder. Maybe the reason dual cell LCD isn’t used is because it’s very inefficient and there’s no way to make a TV that can get bright and also be plugged into a home socket.

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OLED’s keep getting brighter every year. I don’t know how they do it without cooking the panels, but it seems to be working.

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there was one made about 2 years ago by a Chinese company - don’t remember if it was HiSense or TCL - but it was pretty pointless because it was dim. it was basically like a bad OLED.

the reason these dual cell units consume so much power ( or are dim ) is in part because the second panels drops efficiency by a factor of 3X or so, and in part because these screens do not use local dimming …

without local dimming the entire backlight must be on if there is even a single pixel lit up on the screen …

by combining dual cell with mini-LED you could have somewhat reasonable power consumption in a TV - still about double what normal mini-LED TVs consume - but manageable from perspective of finding an outlet that can handle.

not acceptable though when it comes to European Energy Regulations which have even killed off some 8K models because 8K screens consume maybe about 30% more power than 4K screens ( smaller pixels are less efficient ).

but the biggest reason there will never be consumer dual cell TVs is because they are not needed. you can get same performance by simply increasing number of individually controlled LEDs on a mini-LED screen, and that would come with BETTER efficiency, not worse.

and beyond that there is Micro-LED.

the reason we don’t see super-great Mini-LEDs yet is because it is bad business to give the customer everything he wants right away - you have to tease him. give him a little this year - a bit more next year and so on.

every year a Sony flagship TV only has to accomplish two things

1 - be the best TV on the market this year
2 - be better than last year’s version

it has to accomplish both of these by the thinnest of margins - otherwise it is cannibalizing the sales of the next year’s model as nobody will upgrade from a TV that is already perfect.

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yes when i looked at pixel structure of OLED panels i noticed there was room left for improvement

here is Samsung QD OLED

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there is still some room to make the pixels larger …

and Sasmung doesn’t use MLA ( Micro Lens Array ) like LG, which would make it brighter still.

and the new iPad uses two layers of OLED stacked to increase brightness …

but the fact we are even talking about such desperate measures to increase brightness suggests to me that brightness is a fundamental limitation of OLED - even if it can still be improved, maybe even significantly …

the only reason the new mastering monitor is 4,000 nits and not say 10,000 nits is because it has to make OLEDs sweat but not so much that the industry will reject this mastering monitor knowing that most videophiles currently use OLEDs … in other words it can’t single handedly defeat OLED - it can only shift the odds in favor of Mini-LED - the Film Making Industry and the Consumer, not Sony, will have the final say. All Sony can do is demonstrate superiority of their technology - they cannot force anybody to adopt it.

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i was being overly dramatic painting OLED as dead - but my reasoning is simple - it is much harder to make improvements to OLED tech than it is to simply keep increasing the number of dimming zones in Mini-LED which simultaneously improves highlight brightness, depth of blacks, smoothness of gradation, and of course the biggest complaint people have with Mini-LED - the Halo-ing around bright objects.

both technologies will keep improving side by side but let’s be real - people didn’t buy OLED because of the blacks - they bought it because of the thin-ness. Edge-LIT LED TVs were very bad and FALD were thick. now Mini-LED allows for thin screens as well as a clear path for improving performance every year.

OLED is also thin and also improves performance every year but these improvements are arguably somewhat of a struggle for them in that every time they manage to do it everybody is surprised, whereas with Mini-LED we know they could have had that level of performance a decade ago but they keep holding back because they have a few aces up their sleeve

1 - Size ( Mini-LED TVs go up to 115" whereas OLED only up to 88" )
2 - Resolution ( 8K Mini-LED TVs start at 10% of the cost of 8K OLED )
3 - No Burn In

for OLED just getting 8K or 85" size is a struggle whereas Mini-LED accomplishes this easily.

OLED has advantages too

1 - Blacks
2 - No Blooming
3 - Response Time ( for gaming )

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the reason Mini-LED allowed OLED to beat it on performance for this long is because true Cinema fans will not accept a small TV, and for a very long time OLED meant small. i remember when OLED first came out it was limited to 55" and when QD OLED came out two years ago it was limited to 65" - these are not serious sizes for “flagship” technology.

OLED is only now finally starting to reach sizes that true Cinema fans can accept. i had that conversation with ThaVillaMan ( YouTube Home Theater Influencer ) at Value Electronics store in Scarsdale, NY. I was there to look at the Samsung QD-OLED that just came out at the time but was available only in 65" max … it was right next to a 98" Samsung Mini-LED on display - i told ThaVillaMan that 65" was a ridiculous size for flagship level picture and we both agreed it was their way of getting people in the upgrade hamster wheel because next year a bigger size would come out and so on.

on the Mini-LED side they are doing the same upgrade hamster wheel thing - except they have been up to good sizes and resolutions for a while now, so they are working on blacks now by increasing dimming zone count.

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now i have no doubt that OLED will be able to reach 100 inches and beyond panel size, or that they will be able to get 8K resolution mainstream when the time comes …

their ability to keep increasing brightness though is more suspect …

on other hand Mini-LED already has 100+ inch screens and affordable 8K options - and by doing nothing more than simply increasing the number of dimming zones they can both increase brightness ( almost without limit when it comes to small highlights ) and improve blacks ( also almost without limit )

it’s just personally i don’t even consider OLEDs. i would only consider them if i was a COMPETITIVE gamer and every millisecond of response time counted. the additional processing for Mini-LED backlight adds a few milliseconds of delay which is absolutely irrelevant for movies, almost completely irrelevant for normal PC use, somewhat of an issue with gaming and pretty much a deal breaker for any kind of competitive gaming.

for me, instead, using all my TVs purely as PC monitors it is the Burn-In that is the deal breaker - i don’t need my Chrome Bookmarks bar burning into the screen.

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here is an image from

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and observe how much denser the Mini-LEDs can still be packed.

the pictured min-LED iPad was rated 1,600 nits. you could easily increase linear density of same LEDs 3X that would result in 9X areal density and well over 10,000 nits WITHOUT ANY NEW DEVELOPMENTS TO TECHNOLOGY.

you could also control each Mini-LED individually instead of in groups of 4. each dimming zone on iPad was only 1/4 inch already, but could thus be reduced to about a millimeter.

with one millimeter wide dimming zones - would anybody be able to see any haloing at all ? NO. with a good dimming algorithm even 2 inch wide dimming zones on my Sony Z9J are almost never visible, except in scenes like a single candle at night where the flame of the candle is on the edge of four dimming zones.

now put a Vapor Chamber cooling solution across the back of the Mini-LED backlight ( new Samsung Phones have a vapor chamber covering almost the entire phone surface, so why not have a vapor chamber cover the entire TV Surface ) and you could focus LED power right under where the setting sun is on the screen and spread he heat of those LEDs across the entire TV Chassis producing brightness levels well beyond anything Dolby Vision ( let alone OLED ) can handle.

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as i mentioned before between the big 3 ( in US ) - Samsung, LG and Sony - both Samsung and LG make their own OLED panels now and only Sony does not.

until about 2 years ago only LG made their own OLED panels and Samsung was the leader in Mini-LED because they had to be. this is why i originally got Samsung but due to defects later exchanged it for Sony.

now that Samsung has their own OLED panels ( QD-OLED ) it is Sony’s time to be Mini-LED leader, because they have to be.

so it isn’t so much that OLED is super dead, but i just see a clearer path forward for Mini-LED than OLED, with OLED perhaps becoming a budget option, as it already has in Sony 2024 Line-Up.

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We could have 8K 10,000 nit mini LED TV’s with 10,000+ dimming zones today if the market were ready for it. Sony and Hisense have already brought TV’s like this to CES. You’re right that they are holding this technology back so that that have something to release in the future and people keep buying their TV’s today.

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