Efficacy of global dimming backlight and high‐contrast liquid crystal panel for high‐dynamic‐range displays

Using an RGB organic light‐emitting diode display to emulate liquid crystal display systems, we examined the efficacy of different global dimming strategies for cinematic content. A global dimming solution with smoothed transitions was preferred over solutions using a static backlight level or the highly aggressive frame‐by‐frame backlight adjustment scheme. We compared two such smoothing approaches, one making use of causal data, and another using future information (which could be available via latency or dynamic metadata) and did observe some opportunities for an improved experience, but found the causal data to be a competitive approach. We also evaluated the importance of native panel contrast and how global dimming compares to local dimming approaches. For most content tested, a global dimming display with a high‐contrast liquid crystal panel was judged as being equivalent or more preferred to a full‐array local dimming display with a low‐contrast panel. These results build on the existing evidence that native panel contrast remains one of the strongest predictors of high‐dynamic‐range image quality even as backlight technologies continue to improve.