Brief Followup on OLED TVs and Accessibility
Last night, I started rewatching another of my favorite shows in For All Mankind. The series, available on Apple TV+, is set within an alternate universe in which the Soviet Union won the space race and landed on the moon before the Americans. A Russian cosmonaut, Alexi Leonov, was the first human to set foot on the moon instead of the American astronaut Neil Armstrong. For All Mankind has run for four seasons thus far, with a fifth being green-lit alongside a spinoff series. I’m eagerly awaiting Season 5.
If you’re into space stuff—and good drama—you should check out For All Mankind.
As much as I adore For All Mankind for its entertainment value, I admittedly had an ulterior motive for wanting to rewatch it. As I recently wrote, I’ve had two LG OLED televisions come my way since the beginning of the year as replacements for two TCL QLED sets (one being mini-LED). The new TVs represent my first foray into OLED on massive screens, as I’ve long had experience with OLED on devices like my iPhone, Apple Watch, and in recent times, my iPad Pro. I’ve appreciated the black levels and contrast on those smaller displays, but there’s nothing like experiencing OLED on a expansive display like on a television’s. With no hyperbole, it’s been revelatory for me.
I have a 77-inch LG C3 in the living room and a 48-inch LG B4 in my office. The former is a 2023 model, while the latter is from 2024. Both work with aplomb, and I’m so happy.
As I said last month, OLED is to TVs what Retina was to iPhone 4 back in 2010. Once you see them, you can’t go back—the picture quality is just too pristine, too captivating.
It turns out, For All Mankind is the perfect type of show, what with dealing with blasting off into outer space, to help OLED flex its considerable visual muscle. Chief among it is contrast and black levels; both are astounding on OLEDs, due largely to the fact OLEDs are capable of pixel-level control. There is not one whit of blooming or a “halo effect” during scenes where the NASA astronauts are in space—it’s just pitch black. Likewise, OLEDs have the ability for infinite contrast because of the corresponding perfect blacks. What this means is, everything on screen is set off beautifully, and in incredible fidelity, because of the rich colors and, once again, the OLED’s ability to control its output at the pixel level. All told, what this means in an accessibility context—in my experience, anyway—is the picture quality is so good that it makes watching TV shows and movies more accessible—and, arguably more importantly, more enjoyable. I’ve noticed myself feeling far less eye strain and fatigue when watching something. It isn’t often that I gush about a piece of technology—OLED isn’t without its warts, mind you—but I am lovestruck right now with my TVs. They make watching content so much fun.
In the name of OLEDs not being perfect, it’s worth mentioning my biggest beef with using my TVs these last few months is they aren’t nearly as bright as my previous sets. They aren’t dim by any stretch, but the ABL, or auto-brightness limiter, on the B4 is particularly aggressive at tamping down brightness levels to save from burn-in. The eagerness of the ABL is a prime reason why I remain deeply intrigued in a mini-LED TV like Sony’s Bravia 9. The TV is the company’s flagship, not one of its OLEDs, and is renowned by reviewers for its extreme brightness and, most notably, its OLED-like blacks. What’s more, the Bravia 9 comes in an 85-inch size; if I had one wish, I’d want it to be an upgrade to the 83-inch version of the C3. I definitely want bigger in the future.
But yeah, OLED TVs are spectacular—as is For All Mankind. Go watch it tonight.
