Sony’s ‘True RGB’ TVs are coming – and they were 20 years in the making

Sony has announced that its new RGB Mini LED TVs are finally almost here, and they will go by the name ‘True RGB’.

A clear swipe at those brands that Sony deems to be doing this new technology in a less genuine way, ‘True RGB’ is designed to illustrate that this is the real deal.

As Sony not so subtly puts it: "Our goal isn't to be first – it's to be true."

Last month, I visited Sony's Tokyo HQ to get the low-down on the new True RGB TV tech.

During that trip, Neil King, Director of Sony Home Entertainment Europe, explained that, unlike some RGB Mini LED solutions, “we are going to have three independently controllable RGB diodes, and from a colour point of view, it will be true”.

He continued, “We are about accuracy, always about accuracy, so we are going to have precise reproduction to get both the colour and brightness across."

King also added that True RGB is designed to deliver this accuracy in all conditions: "It’s about true vision in any living room environment, so ensuring the consistency of the brightness, the contrast and the colour in whatever room and whatever angle.”

I have seen the brand’s first True RGB TVs in action, but I’m not currently permitted to publish model names, sizes, specs or design information.

But Sony has offered some information on what it feels makes its True RGB technology different to the RGB Mini LED tech of other brands.

First, some (but certainly not all) brands use two-diode LEDs for their RGB models. These actually feature green and blue diodes that shine light through a phosphor layer to generate desired colours.

Sony's True RGB TVs instead use true, independently controlled red, green and blue diodes, which it says deliver that aforementioned accuracy.

Sony also claims that RGB Mini LED TV performance is dictated by LED density and the algorithm controlling them, and not the size of the LEDs.

On the algorithm side, Sony has developed a new backlight drive, which I will be able to detail further at a later date.

And in terms of density, Sony has achieved a spacing of around 1cm between its three-diode RGB LEDs. Each diode is "several hundred micrometres" in size, which is so tiny that, Sony claims, shrinking them by even another 100 micrometres would have "no meaningful impact on picture quality".

In other words, Sony is saying that we shouldn't get carried away by rival brands that claim their TVs have the smallest, or 'micro', LEDs.

Sony is also keen to point out that its True RGB TVs have nothing to do with TV tech fashion, and are instead the culmination of a long-term project.

Indeed, not only did I see its RGB Mini LED tech in prototype form over a year ago, but Sony has been on this journey since 2004, when it launched the Qualia 005 – the first commercially available TV with an RGB LED backlight.

As Yoshihiro Ono, the Head of Sony’s Home Entertainment Business Unit, put it on this more recent visit to Tokyo, “[this] brings together our history, and also our latest innovation”.

In fact, Daisuke Nezu, who is now Senior General Manager of Sony’s Home Product Business Division, points out that his very first assignment at Sony was the Qualia TV.

It’s this experience that Sony feels is key to the superiority of its RGB Mini LED technology.

As JT Austin, Sony’s Technology Manager for Sony North America, puts it, “We’ve really been evolving not only colour but also LED technology for the last two decades, which has all led us to this moment.”

During my visit, which I will be able to write about in detail at a later date, Sony demonstrated its True RGB backlight against two rivals that I’m not allowed to name at this stage, but that have been leading the Mini LED RGB charge up to this point.

By revealing the backlights of all three TVs, Sony was able to demonstrate that one of these rivals was switching its Mini LEDs from colour to white in all but full-screen colour test windows, and that the other was way off with trickier colours such as cyan and pink.

The Sony True RGB TV, on the other hand, looked incredible, with its backlight reproducing the colours required by the image with exceptional accuracy.

Full-screen coloured test windows were vibrant and correct, but the degree to which multiple colours can coexist in complex images (a bunch of flowers, for example) is something else.

You can read more about that in my Sony True RGB first impressions piece, and I will be writing much more on this, including specific models and specs, once further embargoes have been lifted.

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