Interview with the engineer in charge of Hisense RGB MiniLED: a behind-the-scenes look at this technology

With its new RGB Mini LED TV ranges, Hisense offers a new approach to LCD backlighting, where color is generated directly at the light source. Mr. Jobs, the brand engineer in charge of developing the new Hisense RGB Mini LED ranges, explains the challenges, benefits, and limits of this technology.

Understanding RGB Mini LED technology

How does RGB Mini LED work, and what advantages does it offer over a conventional Mini LED?

The operation of a conventional Mini LED TV is based on an indirect logic: the backlight produces white light, generally from blue LEDs combined with a Quantum Dot conversion layer. This light then passes through the LCD panel, made up of sub-pixels (one red, one green and one blue for each pixel) responsible for filtering the light to recreate the colors displayed on screen.

This approach is still effective, but it involves a loss of efficiency, since part of the light is absorbed during filtering. The color displayed is therefore the result of light transformation rather than direct emission.

With RGB Mini LED, the approach has changed radically. Backlighting no longer uses uniform white light, but a set of red, green and blue Mini LEDs capable of producing the primary colors directly at the source. The LCD panel no longer creates color on its own: it modulates already colored light to form the final image.

This architecture offers several major advantages. By eliminating a large proportion of the losses associated with filtering, it improves the TV’s overall luminous efficiency. It also delivers purer, more precise colors, since each color component is controlled directly from the light emission stage. This paves the way for much wider color coverage, with a claimed potential of up to 100% BT.2020 on the most advanced models.

In practice, this technology makes LCDs function almost like emissive displays, where light and color are closely linked from the moment they are produced. While conventional Mini LED technology enhances an existing architecture, RGB Mini LED more profoundly redefines how images are generated, resulting in richer, more nuanced, and more precisely controlled colors.

What were the main technical challenges in developing this technology?

The main technical challenge of the RGB Mini LED lies in the complexity of backlighting control. Unlike a conventional Mini LED system, it’s no longer just a question of managing light intensity but of simultaneously controlling the three red, green and blue components for each zone of the screen, in real time.

This means processing a considerable amount of data with extreme precision, to guarantee color accuracy, gradation consistency and image stability. Synchronization between the video signal, the LCD panel and the backlight is therefore a central issue.

This type of approach had already been explored in the past, notably with certain technologies developed by Sony in the early 2000s. At the time, however, computing power limitations prevented this principle from being fully harnessed.

Today, advances in processors are changing the game. Hisense relies in particular on a latest-generation Hi-View Engine 7 chipset, capable of analyzing and adjusting the image in real time to precisely control the RGB Mini LED backlighting.

Image quality and tangible benefits

What measurable gains does RGB mini LED deliver in terms of color volume and accuracy?

The main benefit of RGB Mini LED lies in color volume. In other words, the TV’s ability to reproduce colors that are both highly saturated and very bright. By producing primary colors right from the backlight, this technology achieves a much broader spectrum than conventional approaches.

The differences between technologies can be summarized as follows:

RGB Mini LED is capable of exceeding DCI-P3* and achieving full BT.2020*, which remains exceptional today. Exceeding DCI-P3 means that the TV is able to display even more saturated colors than those provided by this space, approaching the limits of the visible spectrum.

As well as extending the gamut, this technology also improves color accuracy. Direct control of the red, green and blue components results in more accurate hues, with a Delta E of less than 1 on the most advanced models, guaranteeing very high color fidelity.

In practice, this results in richer images, with finer gradations and more vivid colors, particularly with HDR content where the brightness + saturation combination plays a key role.

*BT.2020 (Rec.2020) is the standard defining the color space for 4K and 8K UHD content, with a wider color gamut than the previous DCI-P3 and Rec.709 standards. DCI-P3 is the color space used for digital cinema, defining a wider color palette than Rec.709, particularly in reds and greens, for a richer, more saturated image. Rec.709 is the standard color space used for HDTV, suitable for SDR content, but defining a more limited color palette than HDR formats.

What benefits does this technology bring to HDR content?

For a long time, improving HDR image quality meant continually increasing peak brightness. The aim was to achieve ever-higher peaks to enhance the impact of highlights, whether metallic reflections, intense light sources or high-contrast scenes.

Today’s Mini LED TVs already achieve very high levels of brightness, sufficient to fully benefit from the potential of HDR. The challenge is no longer simply to increase nits, but to combine this brightness with precise, saturated colors.

In this respect, RGB Mini LED technology represents a significant step forward. At a brightness equivalent to that of the best conventional Mini LEDs, it produces richer, more accurate colors, even in very bright areas of the image. This directly improves color volume in HDR, in other words, the ability to maintain vivid colors without loss of saturation as brightness increases.

In practice, this results in a more realistic and nuanced image, where highlights retain their detail and hue, rather than washing out to white. HDR therefore gains in precision and naturalness, without necessarily requiring an additional increase in maximum brightness.

Does RGB Mini LED also improve blooming and contrast management?

RGB Mini LED technology has no direct impact on blooming. The halo effect is primarily linked to the way the backlight is spatially controlled, and not to the nature of the light used.

In practical terms, blooming occurs when light from a bright area spills over into darker areas. Its reduction therefore depends mainly on the number of backlight zones and the precision with which they are controlled.

On this point, progress is based above all on two factors: the density of local dimming zones and the speed of the processing that adjusts backlighting in real time. The more efficient these elements are, the finer the light control, and the more limited the halo effect.

That said, the RGB Mini LED can indirectly contribute to better image control. By offering more precise control of color and luminous intensity, it helps refine overall backlight management, even if blooming remains above all dependent on local dimming architecture.

Positioning in relation to other technologies

How does the RGB Mini LED compare with conventional Mini LED, QLED and OLED TVs?

RGB Mini LED is now positioned as a major evolution in LCD technology, combining some of the advantages of conventional Mini LED TVs with a more advanced approach to color processing.

Compared with OLED panels, it offers higher maximum brightness, which means better legibility in bright environments and greater impact on HDR content. On the other hand, OLED has the edge when it comes to managing absolute black and perceived contrast.

Compared with QD-OLED, which already offers extensive color coverage, RGB Mini LED takes this approach a step further, generating colors directly at the light source. This gives it even greater potential for expanding its color gamut, particularly with full coverage of BT.2020.

In contrast to Quantum Dot QLED TVs, the RGB Mini LED stands out for its lack of white-light filtering, which improves both luminous efficiency and color purity.

Overall, this technology combines high brightness, wide color gamut and enhanced precision, making it a particularly promising solution for improving the picture quality of LCD TVs, even if certain characteristics, such as black depth, are still in OLED’s favor.

Is this technology a genuine long-term alternative to OLED?

RGB Mini LED is not simply an evolution of the classic Mini LED, but a redefinition of the way LCD TVs produce images. By integrating color generation directly into the backlight, this technology paves the way for concrete improvements in color accuracy, richness of nuance and HDR content management.

Compared with OLED, RGB Mini LED does not aim to reproduce the absolute black offered by self-emitting pixels. Even if advances in local backlight management have significantly improved perception, contrast remains an area where OLED still has an edge.

On the other hand, the RGB Mini LED is already a credible alternative in other key respects. It stands out in particular for its higher brightness, which improves image clarity in bright environments, as well as its ability to reproduce richer and more accurate colors across a wide range of brightness levels.

Rather than a replacement, the RGB Mini LED is a complementary approach to OLED, with specific advantages for different uses and environments.

Actual use / user experience

In which applications does this technology bring the most benefits: cinema, sports or gaming?

The RGB Mini LED is particularly effective in applications where high brightness, wide color gamut and excellent legibility are required. Films, sporting events and video games can all benefit from it, but not in exactly the same way.

For 4K HDR films and documentaries, this is probably where the contribution is most visible. The technology enables richer, more nuanced colors to be displayed while retaining high brightness in the highlights. The result is particularly interesting for HDR content, where the precision of hues and the realism of light scenes play an essential role.

When it comes to watching sports, the focus is on brightness and picture clarity. A very bright image is easier to view in a well-lit room, while effective motion handling improves the sharpness of fast-moving action. In this regard, it’s not just the RGB Mini LED technology alone that makes the difference, but the combination of this technology with the advanced video processing found in premium TVs.

For gaming, the benefit lies in the ability to deliver a highly legible, high-contrast and colorful image, even in highly dynamic scenes. Again, performance in terms of display frequency or responsiveness depends above all on the TV itself, but the RGB Mini LED brings real visual benefit by boosting image intensity and precision.

In short, RGB Mini LED is at its best with high-end HDR content, in bright rooms and for applications where image legibility counts as much as visual richness.

Does this architecture have an impact on reactivity or input lag for video games?

RGB Mini LED technology actually involves more complex backlight processing, since it’s no longer just a question of managing light intensity, but also the red, green and blue components for each zone. This increases the computing load required for image processing.

However, this aspect has no significant impact on input lag in gaming. Recent televisions are designed to optimize the signal processing chain, notably via dedicated gaming modes that reduce or bypass certain processes in order to limit display delays.

In practice, input lag performance depends more on the TV itself (processor, game mode, display frequency) than on the type of backlight used. The RGB Mini LED therefore introduces no particular restrictions on this point.

For the gamer, this results in a smooth, responsive experience comparable to that offered by today’s best conventional Mini LED or OLED TVs.

Have video processing and artificial intelligence been specifically adapted to RGB Mini LED?

Yes, the video processing has been specifically optimized to harness the full potential of RGB Mini LED. This technology requires much more complex backlight control, as it involves simultaneously managing the brightness and the three color components for each area of the screen.

To meet this requirement, these TVs use Hisense’s Hi-View Engine 7 chip, designed to optimize image quality using artificial intelligence. Its role is to ensure precise synchronization between the video signal, the LCD panel and the RGB Mini LED backlight.

In concrete terms, this processing constantly adjusts the intensity and composition of colors in each zone, to achieve an accurate, consistent result. It also helps improve detail accuracy, texture management and overall image rendering.

The use of advanced analysis algorithms, based on artificial intelligence, enables these settings to be adapted to the content displayed, optimizing both readability and image realism.

Restrictions / future of this technology

Does this architecture influence the TV’s energy consumption or durability?

RGB Mini LED architecture can have a positive impact on energy consumption, thanks to improved luminous efficiency. By producing colors directly in the backlight, without filtering white light, this technology limits losses and makes more efficient use of the light emitted.

In certain situations, this can mean lower power consumption than conventional OLED or Mini LED TVs at equivalent brightness levels. However, the difference is highly dependent on conditions of use, content displayed and TV settings.

In terms of service life, the Mini RGB LEDs used in this type of backlighting have a long service life, generally estimated at several tens of thousands of hours. This is equivalent to many years of use under normal conditions.

In practice, the backlighting lasts far longer than the usual TV replacement cycle, making it a sustainable technology for the long term.

What are the main limitations of RGB Mini LEDs today?

RGB Mini LED technology still has certain limitations, particularly in terms of contrast management. Despite advances in local dimming, it still doesn’t deliver the absolute black levels of self-emitting technologies such as OLED.

The phenomenon of blooming is also still present, even if it is becoming better controlled thanks to the increased number of backlight zones and their improved control.

What’s more, the complexity of this technology, particularly when it comes to simultaneous control of brightness and RGB components, is still a challenge, both technically and industrially.

We’re also working to further extend the color space covered and improve rendering accuracy, particularly in gradations and bright areas.

Can we imagine a rapid democratization of this technology on more accessible ranges?

At this stage, RGB Mini LED technology remains mainly integrated into our most premium ranges. This is due to the complexity of its implementation, particularly in terms of RGB backlight control and the processing power required to exploit its full potential.

As is often the case in the TV world, innovations first appear on top-of-the-range models before being gradually rolled out to more affordable ranges, as production costs fall and technology matures.

Our goal is to gradually widen access to RGB Mini LEDs. This should take place in stages, with the arrival of more affordable models over the next few years, as industrial and technological optimization progresses.