The 3 hottest TV technologies on display at CES 2022

Yahoo Finance tech editor Dan Howley breaks down the latest tech for TVs unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Video transcript

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- Welcome back. If you're in search of a new TV you're in luck because we're checking out the hottest TV tech at CES this year, as part of our tech support segment presented by Verizon. Yahoo Finance's tech editor Dan Howley is here to report on all of that. Howie.

DAN HOWLEY: That's right, Zach. CES 2022 gave us a slew of new TVs and new TV technologies. And I just want to run them down for you because it's pretty confusing, at times. So let's just get a level set, the basic TV that you probably have in your apartment or house right now is an LED TV.

And I'm just going to give you a quick rundown of what that means. It basically means that you have a layer of different films, including a LCD film, liquid crystal film. And in the back, you have LEDs.

The kind that you would find that use the flashlight on your iPhone for instance, that's an LED. It goes through those films and you get your pixels on the screen. That's a basic LED TV.

Now, what companies have done have improved on that because LCD TVs, or LED TVs, they're not that great. They have light bleed. You're not going to get perfect blacks, or super good contrast, or more vibrant colors.

So this is what companies have given us this year. There's three technologies that I want to talk about. It's Mini LED, Micro LED and OLED

And let's start with mini LEDs. Now, basically what they do is, with LEDs you get maybe like a dozen or so lights in the back of the TV, on the top, or bottom, or sides. And that kind of gives you that weird light bleed where, say you're watching a scene where someone's walking through a darkened cave with a torch, parts of the screen are going to light up that really shouldn't be. They should stay dark.

So what they do with mini LED here, is they add a bunch, maybe hundreds, of LEDs to provide better lighting capabilities. And that means you're going to get better contrast and better color. So it's a big improvement over regular LCDs, and/or LEDs.

And the big deal here is they don't cost a heck of a lot more money. So that's something that some companies are rolling out with. Then they have OLED. Now, this has been a technology that's been around for a while.

The iPhone has an OLED screen. Your Apple Watch has an OLED screen. And LG makes a lot of OLED TVs.

They're basically the go to for this but they're also very expensive. And the difference here is that instead of having a backlight, OLED TVs basically just light up the pixels themselves. The good thing about that is they can also turn them off all the way so you can have perfect pitch black, beautiful colors, just incredibly vibrant images.

The downside though, is they don't get very bright. So if you're watching in a room with a large window, it's going to be kind of hard to see at times. So those are the two main technologies that we've seen.

And now this is the bigum, the newest technology that came out last year. And now we're seeing even more companies adopting it and that's Micro LED TVs. Now buckle up because these are basically the best of both worlds.

They're individual LED lights that are able to go on and off on their own, without a backlighting. And it just is incredible to see. The colors are dynamic.

You're going to get those inky blacks, very bright images. So you're not going to have to worry about whether or not you're in a room with too much lighting. The problem here, though, is you're going to need to take out a second mortgage to buy one because prices are in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for these TVs.

And you're also going to have to have a wall that's 100 inches large for one of these. So chances are you're not going to get one anytime soon. Those are the three major categories of new TV technology that we've seen.

So just to give you an idea of the companies that are doing this, and where you can get them, and when. Many LEDs are available now through Samsung, LG, and Sony. They all showed off Mini LED technology this year and really they're not going to be that expensive.

And like I said they're going to be better than your average LCD TV or LED TV that you will see. OLED, we saw some from LG and Sony. They always tend to show them off.

If I'm going to get a TV right now, and I have the money to spend, I'm getting an OLED because they look amazing. If I had $100,000, I'd get a Micro LED TV. But I don't have $100,000 so I'm getting an OLED.

And then that Micro LED TV, as I said, 100 plus inches. But Samsung came out with a nice one this year that's only, only 98 inches. So you're able to get one of those.

It's going to be in the tens of thousands of dollars if you have a larger place though, LG has one at 136 inches. So if you have a barn that you would like to put a TV on, you can slam that on the side of it. So those are all the cool new TV technologies that you have to look out for in the coming year, all from CES 2022.

- Dan you got my hopes up on the Micro LED, until you pointed out the price tag. I always wonder how much the average viewer could actually be able to tell the difference if you didn't lay out all the specs for them. And I'm wondering how people should be thinking about the upgrade. Is it worth looking into some of these TV'S that you just highlighted, once they're on the market? One, does it make sense to upgrade given the price tag?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah I mean, right now, Mini LED are. They're basically the same as a regular LED TV, as far as pricing goes. I think the whole 4K upgrade, that was kind of just marketing, really.

'Cause 4K, if you're an average person sitting at a regular distance from your TV, you're not going to really tell the difference between 4K and 1080p. You would have to be sitting pretty close to be able to tell that difference. I think the biggest upgrade is here, where you're looking at the actual backlighting of the TV. That influences color, it influences contrast, and brightness.

Those are the big upgrades. And that's actually what you want to look for, not higher resolution 8K, don't even get me started. It's pointless.

We hardly have enough 4K content, now they're trying to push 8K on us because they want us to buy more TVs. Don't buy 8K, that is a bad idea. 4K, eh, if you can get away with it.

Most of them are now selling 4K at a regular price of 1080p. So go for it, If you can. But I really do think that these are the most important.

I think OLED, still more than $1,000, for a set that's between 50 and 60 inches. We're starting to see lower size models in the 48 to 42 inch range. Those are going to be less expensive.

So I might go for one of those. But I really do think OLED is still the best, as far as quality goes. A 55 inch OLED, you can get for around $1,200, probably.

If you're looking for something less expensive that's where you're going to get those mini LEDs. And those are going to be much better than you would get out of a regular LED TV. So, happy shopping.

And around the Super Bowl is the best time to get them. Yeah, Howley I'm actually taking notes over here because I'm still looking to furnish the apartment. So I was writing everything you said down. I appreciate that. Dan Howley bringing us the latest.