4k TV, should I stay away from RGBW?

[tikker]

Seeing the discounts because of Black Friday, I was thinking about picking up a new 4k TV (currently considering the LG 49SJ800V), except I read that LG is using RGBW panels in all except two of their models in 2017.

Does anyone have experience comparing the two side by side perhaps? I'm reading that it's inferior to RGB, but I can't help but wonder is it really that bad?

 

[Edit] Ok the main critisism seems to be on the use of the RGBW pixels in the LCD models, since they are implemented differently from the OLED models (my question still stands though, as OLED is out of my budget for now ).

[vanished]

I wasn't aware of that... reminds me of when Sharp (was it?) tried that RGBY thing afaik those aren't around anymore so that should be some indication of how well that did.  I talked to a guy who's job it was to calibrate TVs about them and he hated them, which was good to hear because I always thought it was stupid too.  Since this is including white and not another colour, perhaps it's not so bad, but I still feel like there's no reason.  R, G, and B are used because they can make up every other colour you need, and the content you watch is only encoded with information for R, G, and B*.   Anything else is just being interpolated by the TV anyway so...

 

*Well, depending where it comes from.  I suppose some may still use YUV but that's for another day

[tikker]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I wasn't aware of that... reminds me of when Sharp (was it?) tried that RGBY thing afaik those aren't around anymore so that should be some indication of how well that did.  I talked to a guy who's job it was to calibrate TVs about them and he hated them, which was good to hear because I always thought it was stupid too.  Since this is including white and not another colour, perhaps it's not so bad, but I still feel like there's no reason.  R, G, and B are used because they can make up every other colour you need, and the content you watch is only encoded with information for R, G, and B*.   Anything else is just being interpolated by the TV anyway so...

 

*Well, depending where it comes from.  I suppose some may still use YUV but that's for another day

Yeah from what I've read it is so they can increase the brightness in a more power efficient way, but because of the rearrangement of the pixels needed you are not getting the true 4k experience in either color reproduction or sharpness which is kind of the reason I'm going for 4k 

I had high hopes for LG since I've heard good things about their TVs, but this makes me wonder if I should go Samsung or something.

[Glenwing]

It can help preserve OLED lifespan but I don't see the point of it on LCDs. The people who say it's not real 4K or whatever don't really know what they are talking about (EDIT: nvm, I didn't do my research); LG uses alternating rows which messes with subpixel rendering, so it's a pretty facepalming solution, but if it were implemented properly (i.e. without interfering with the position of the RGB elements too much) then it would be good to see in OLED panels (though again still no point for LCDs).

[tikker]

6 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

It can help preserve OLED lifespan but I don't see the point of it on LCDs. The people who say it's not real 4K or whatever don't really know what they are talking about; LG uses alternating rows which messes with subpixel rendering, so it's a pretty facepalming solution, but if it were implemented properly (i.e. without interfering with the position of the RGB elements too much) then it would be good to see in OLED panels (though again still no point for LCDs).

So are the claims of reducing sharpness false you think? I mean there are still 3840x2160 pixels right? Do you think the difference would be noticable in that regard if I'd compare the SJ800V with another true RGB panel?

[Glenwing]

13 minutes ago, tikker said:

So are the claims of reducing sharpness false you think? I mean there are still 3840x2160 pixels right? Do you think the difference would be noticable in that regard if I'd compare the SJ800V with another true RGB panel?

On further reading their LCD implementation actually does remove some of the RGB subpixels and replaces them with white, unlike their RGBW OLED panels which just add white subpixels in addition to the RGB elements on each pixel (proper implementation). So I would agree their RGBW LCDs won't be able to display UHD images properly.

 

https://www.techhive.com/article/3104880/smart-tv/how-lg-uses-fuzzy-math-to-label-some-of-its-lcd-tvs-as-4k.html

 

Quote

• 4K RGB LCD: 11,520 subpixels in groups of red, green, and blue, forming 3840 RGB pixels per row.
• LG’s 4K RGBW OLED: 15,360 subpixels in groups of red, green, blue, and white, forming 3840 RGBW pixels per row
• LG’s RGBW LCD: 11,520 subpixels where only some groups have all three color elements. Every fourth red, green, or blue subpixel is replaced by a white subpixel to increase luminance. That still comes out to 3840 pixels per row, but there are only 2880 RGB groups staggered over those 3840 pixels.

 

[tikker]

2 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

On further reading their LCD implementation actually does remove some of the RGB subpixels and replaces them with white, unlike their RGBW OLED panels which just add white subpixels in addition to the RGB elements on each pixel (proper implementation). So I would agree their RGBW LCDs won't be able to display UHD images properly.

 

https://www.techhive.com/article/3104880/smart-tv/how-lg-uses-fuzzy-math-to-label-some-of-its-lcd-tvs-as-4k.html

 

 

Well RIP non-OLED LG TVs for me then.  Thanks for the input.