Blogs & Little Things

How to Get Good Black Levels with an LED Flat Panel Display

With all the OLED and QLED flat panel displays becoming available, there is an obvious black level difference between these new displays and the old standard LED displays.

LED displays are still around for purchase because they are really inexpensive, i.e., $600 and less depending on the size. I have one (51”) in my kitchen.

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I noticed that the black levels are poor, with blacks looking more like a dark gray.

So, instead of blacks looking like this

. . . . they look like this

The problem is that the poor black levels desaturate the colors so the entire picture looks washed out.

It is an issue with LED displays, but it can be fixed (partially) by going into the Picture menu and turning down the brightness and turning up the contrast.

You will have to experiment with these two picture adjustments to get the effect that makes you happy.

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Although you will then have good black levels, and the accompanying much better color saturation, the overall brightness will be lower. In the evening, when the lighting is low in the room where the TV is located, it is not a serious problem. But, during the day, when outdoor lighting comes in through the window, you will need to close the blinds on the window(s).

Overall, the image will look much better, with good black levels, but it will not have the increased bright highlight levels that OLED and QLED displays have. This is not an issue for me because I don’t like watching TV with extremely bright highlights.

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.