What They Say
LG Display put out a press release saying that it had received a ‘Discomfort Glare Free’ marketing claim verification for its OLED TV panels. The certification is said to show a Unified Glare Rating (UGR) of 22 or less in lighting of 70 lux (said to be about the brightness of a bedroom floor lamp) and 300 lux (equivalent to the light from a bright window).
What We Think
This is an interesting follow-on story to Pete’s article about display brightness the other day (Can a Display Be Too Bright?). Samsung attacks LG over OLED lifetimes and lack of colour volume and peak brightness, so LGD tries to retaliate by suggesting that we don’t want too much peak brightness.
I’m not entirely convinced by LG Display trying to exploit this metric for a TV application. The UGR rating is a lighting specification that helps architects and lighting designers to develop an environment that is comfortable for working or for task performance that is very neutral. However, watching content on a TV is not about ‘being neutral’, it’s about evoking response and emotion which may include some element of discomfort (in violent or scary stories, for example). I wouldn’t want my experience of watching TV to be as bland and neutral as I would want my office!
Second, although UL is a testing organisation, my experience of this kind of labelling is that unless there is some kind of mandatory, legal or financial issue involved (like the Display Screen Directive or the employer’s insurance issues of a TÜV/GS mark), there is little real value. Of course, labelling such as TCO or EPEAT can be really helpful when product purchasing is dependent on tender processes, where shrewd suppliers can get this kind of requirement mandated. However, getting acceptance of this kind of mark requires a lot of marketing and promotion and usually the support of multiple vendors. (BR)
