One of the most interesting functionalities that the smart tvs in recent years it has been the famous High Dynamic Range or HDR, a feature that allows you to display on screen brighter images simultaneously with very dark areas, thus opening the dynamic range or amount of luminance information that can be represented.
The result of applying these techniques, either with a dynamic metadata format like Dolby Vision and HDR10+ or with a static one like HDR10, is that we have shocking images that are more like what we see in the real world, not being so dull and monotonous as in classic television.
More light implies more electricity consumption
However, not all are advantages with HDR, since its use can involve higher power consumption point of televisions that comes from two sources: the need for a more powerful hardware to process the algorithms, something that is evident especially in the 8K models, but above all because showing brighter images on the screen means that the light generating systems need more power to produce more and more nits.
Manufacturers know that the greater the number of nits or light delivery capacity by the panel, the greater sensation of spectacularity and greater sales of their televisions, hence the incessant struggle to reach increasingly higher figures that have been increased watt consumption of teles. And this is when the regulator of the European Union (EU) has come to put order.
As we saw a few weeks ago, the EU wants smart TVs consume less and lessand since the models with HDR are the ones that use the most electricity, according to their criteria it is necessary set maximum limits that they must comply with so that we do not waste energy.
And they are partially right, since although televisions are not one of the devices that consume the most electricity at home, for example if we compare them with stovetops, ovens, air conditioners, etc., when being on many hours each day As we saw some time ago, total consumption can skyrocket.
So, after the changes in energy labeling last year, they now want to apply changes to televisions as well, so that from 2023, HDR mode will have to decrease in its consumption.
In fact, the European Union already has a set of parameters ready that (they appear in this document) and that should meet any television to be sold on community land. It is the so-called Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) and it will be mandatory from March 1, 2023.
EEIMAX (HD) |
EEIMAX (HD-8K) |
EEIMAX (>8K AND MICROLED) |
|
---|---|---|---|
FROM MARCH 1, 2021 |
0.90 |
1.10 |
Not applicable |
FROM MARCH 1, 2023 |
0.75 |
0.90 |
0.90 |
The objective with these measures is that manufacturers implement improvements in their devicesin such a way that they optimize the operation of HDR, prioritizing lower energy consumption, although this entailed a image quality decline by lowering the brightness level on the screen.
And all this would make some sense in a world in which most of the content we saw them in HDR and they were brand demonstrations with the consumption of the screen at its maximum, but today this is not the case.
For starters, HDR content is limited to optical discs and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney, etc., services that in general do not account for most of the viewing hours of common users. Or at least they are not the cause of the television’s electrical consumption soaring. If you like to watch a couple of Netflix series a day, a movie at night, play an hour or two and little more, then have a TV with a powerful HDR it will not mean a notable increase in electricity consumption.
And if at home you like to have the TV on all day to “keep it company”, then it is most likely that you have tuned in most of the time at some point. DTT channelwhich precisely do not shine for their image quality and of course do not have HDR, at least in Spain.
The importance of configuring the TV well
But there is also the matter of having HDR with many nits on TV does not mean that they have to be used. As cinema is currently recorded, most movies and series with HDR use this technology only in very specific points of the image, to highlight lights, spotlights, sunrise, certain brightness, etc. This means that consumption is not as excessive as it is, for example, in the classic brand demonstrations that we see in stores or on the Internet.
Furthermore, even You can spend more on a TV when you watch it in SDR than in HDR. For example, if we watch DTT many hours a day and we have the brightness set to the highest values that the panel is capable of providing (“vivid” or “dynamic” mode for example) we will probably spend more electricity than if we only watch a series or HDR movie per day. Let’s give some examples.
In our case we have tested a series of videos on a 2019 LG C9 65-inch OLED TV, where we can select different levels for panel light between zero and one hundred and also choose different configuration modes such as “cinema”, “filmmaker” or “vivid”, and measured the electrical consumption.
With the panel set to the minimum light delivery, the consumption of the TV was at between 75-85 watts on average when watching DTT. From there if, for example, we raised the OLED light at value 25 (which roughly corresponds to a brightness value of 100 nits, the SDR standard), consumption amounted to between 108 and 125 watts.
With the OLED light at 50 consumption goes up to between 140 and 160 wattsand so on progressively until reaching the maximum value with the OLED light at 100% and “vivid” mode with a 232 watt consumption, all this with DTT in SDR. However, when viewing content in HDR, these consumptions are moderated.
For example, this LG demo originally recorded in HDR but has a converted version in SDR accessible from here, the consumption in “vivid” mode in SDR reached a peak of 342 watts in front of the 280 watts of HDR also in “vivid” mode.
In the famous Samsung chasing the light demo we have a similar answer, reaching the 445 Watts Peak SDR in front of the 430 Watts Peak HDR, both in “vivid” mode. And the same thing happens when watching movies.
So does it make sense to limit the brightness delivery capabilities of TVs that will be sold in the next two or three years? Well, probably not much, at least in countries like Spain where DTT in 4K HDR is not yet nor is it expected in the short term. In fact, it makes no sense to blame power consumption on HDR alone, when many TVs come factory set with eye-catching picture modes to attract our interest but that consume too much energy if we do not adjust them correctly.
Additionally, limiting the brightness delivery capability of panels in HDR can cause let’s lose specular details in the brightest areas of the image, leaving us without one of the great advantages of high dynamic range and wasting the effort that manufacturers are making to achieve ever brighter panel technologies, such as QD-OLED, which can get closer and closer more to the capabilities of professional mastering monitors.
Perhaps if the intention is to reduce consumption, it would be more convenient to force include a well-visible button on the remote with some letters like “ECO” or something similar that would lower the brightness of the TV and allow us to reduce spending without having to go into the internal settings from the different menus.
But in the meantime, the most effective way to lower the power consumption of our screens is configure correctly the light from the panels, both in the LCD as OLEDlowering the lighting level when it is not necessary to have it at its maximum, as in DTT, but leaving it at 100% in HDR content so that the TV can extract the full potential of the panel.
Finally, it is highly recommended to select a suitable viewing mode that adapts to the content that we are playing (cinema, filmmaker mode, etc.) and above all to avoid those that are usually activated by default to attract the user’s attention, such as “vivid”, “dynamic”etc.