"Much like the audio industry's compression-driven loudness war, which reached its distortion-fueled apex (and not the good kind) with Metallica's Death Magnetic in 2008, the television industry has been having its own battle the past couple of years: the brightness war. Sparked by the introduction of HDR and its higher brightness mastering levels, brands began to push display technology to achieve the necessary light output for HDR movies."
"As we hit the 10th anniversary of HDR's introduction (to the consumer space, at least), 2025 felt like a new crescendo in the "who can be brighter" back-and-forth between brands. Not only did we get our first 5,000-nit TVs (albeit under very specific settings) from TCL and Hisense, we also got a big step forward in OLED technology with Primary RGB Tandem technology from LG Display."
Improvements in display technology have driven a rapid increase in peak brightness for consumer TVs to meet HDR mastering standards. HDR's higher brightness levels motivated manufacturers to pursue greater light output, resulting in models claiming up to 5,000 nits under specific settings. OLED technology also advanced with Primary RGB Tandem panels from LG Display, enabling higher sustained luminance. Peak brightness capabilities have risen from around 2,000 nits to more than double that in recent years. The escalation raises questions about perceptible benefits, potential trade-offs in picture quality, and whether further increases in brightness remain necessary.
Read at The Verge
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