One of the highlights of NAB and IBC was the appearance of monitors using dual modulation LCDs for HDR from Panasonic. In these panels, one monochrome LCD is used for modulating the light coming out of the backlight, with the other, standard LCD cell, is in front. If each LCD has 1,000:1 contrast, the overall contrast can be 1,000,000:1, without the ‘haloing’ that is seen when direct backlit LEDs are simply modulated.
At Touch Taiwan, both AUO and Innolux showed this kind of panel, with Innolux showing a 50″ version.
Analyst Comment
Our friends at IHS estimate that the BOM cost could go up by $30 to $50 for this kind of technology, but we suspect this is just for the cell. The Eizo monitor uses a lot of power and we suspect that there could be a lot of extra cost in the backlight and there are also possibly regulatory issues over power consumption for consumer TVs. IHS also pointed out that the technology is unlikely to be feasible for curved LCDs. (BR)
