When positioned side-by-side, it turns into instantly apparent why an OLED laptop display can value tons of to hundreds of {dollars} greater than a standard LCD show: the OLED’s distinction and black ranges far outperform it. However is there a means for LCDs to catch up? There’s, for those who’ve obtained the {hardware} hacking abilities to stack two of them collectively.
You’ve most likely observed that the elements of your LCD TV or monitor which might be alleged to look black really find yourself wanting much more grey. The difficulty comes from how the show know-how works. LCD panels don’t produce any mild of their very own, and as a substitute depend on a glowing panel behind them to provide a visual full-color picture. To recreate blacks, LCDs try to fully block the sunshine coming from behind them from shining via, however they’re not nice at it, which is why the darker areas of their photographs are likely to look grey.
There have been some enhancements made to LCD display know-how to assist improve their capability to correctly show the black halfs of a picture, together with breaking apart their backlights into smaller zones that may be selectively turned on and off as wanted, however the outcomes have by no means come near the efficiency of OLED shows, which enable particular person pixels to be fully turned on and off.
However what if an LCD panel might be nearly pretty much as good at distinction as an OLED? Matt Perks, from the YouTube channel DIY Perks, puzzled if two LCD panels stacked atop one another can be higher at blocking the sunshine from an illuminated panel from getting via. The precept is just like throwing on an additional blanket on a chilly night time to assist forestall physique warmth from escaping.
G/O Media might get a fee
The reply, surprisingly, was sure, nevertheless it took rather a lot to make it occur, and there have been nonetheless some efficiency compromises. The primary drawback that Perks needed to take care of when making a dual-layer LCD show was neutralizing the results of polarized filters, which assist enhance the picture high quality of LCD screens however get in the best way for those who’re placing one panel over one other. Eradicating them wasn’t an possibility, however a easy layer of tracing paper sandwiched between the 2 was sufficient to unravel the issue… whereas creating others.
The entire level of layering two LCD panels was to dam mild, however the added layer of tracing paper additionally diminished the depth of the sunshine a lot that it was troublesome to provide an precise picture. The answer was to construct an upgraded mild panel behind the dual-layer LCD display, which then required much more layers to diffuse the LED lights, which meant extra energy and even cooling, courtesy of 4 massive followers on the again. On prime of all of that, every LCD panel nonetheless wanted its personal controller, leading to a customized display measuring a number of inches deep.
The outcomes of this construct are spectacular, with the customized display providing a a lot improved distinction ratio, and blacks that actually look as darkish as if the show had been turned off. Brighter areas had extra saturation and depth, too, however general, even with the upgraded mild panel sucking extra energy, the customized display nonetheless wasn’t as brilliant as both of the LCD screens used to construct it initially had been. It additionally exhibited some undesirable artifacts round positive particulars, together with some noticeable blooming round white textual content, and nearly a drop shadow impact on black textual content. It’s removed from excellent, however the construct really value significantly lower than a similarly-sized OLED display would, so perhaps it was value all the trouble?
