Display Week Demo Reveals Color Crosstalk Problems in RGB LED TVs

At the Los Angeles Convention Center, two massive 85-inch TVs were showcased side by side in the Nanosys meeting room during Display Week, an annual event dedicated to display technology. One of the TVs featured a mini-LED panel enhanced with super quantum dots, while the other was an RGB LED, which has become a hot topic this year. Both screens displayed the same content simultaneously to illustrate the differences between the two technologies, particularly highlighting the shortcomings of RGB LED backlights compared to super quantum dot (SQD) technology, which utilizes blue LEDs for backlighting.

The TV on the right, equipped with Nanosys super quantum dots, was identified as the TCL X11L, confirmed by its distinctive striped lower grille, while the other was likely the TCL RM9L. Although Nanosys didn’t officially confirm this, I’ve seen RGB LED models from various brands, and it didn’t match any of those. Jeff Yurek, Nanosys’s VP of marketing, mentioned that both TVs were set to Filmmaker Mode with color set to native, maximizing their color gamut.

To recap, RGB LED TVs use clusters of red, green, and blue LEDs to create a colored backlight that adapts to the on-screen image. This design theoretically allows for more vibrant colors compared to mini-LED TVs like the X11L, which rely on blue backlights and quantum dots. However, a significant drawback is the potential for color crosstalk, where the colored light from the backlight can bleed into adjacent pixels, leading to issues like a bright red shirt casting a reddish hue on the wearer’s skin. This was clearly demonstrated during the side-by-side comparison.

Throughout the demo, both TVs received the same video feed. One slide displayed three rows: two rows of colored boxes (blue, green, red, cyan, magenta, and yellow) and a third row featuring a thin white cross on a black background beneath each colored box. As the top row alternated between solid boxes and those with a white cross, the RGB LED TV showed noticeable lightening and desaturation around the cross. This color bleed extended beyond the top row, affecting the middle row and diminishing the overall BT.2020 color gamut coverage, particularly for blue and green.

For those who don’t typically analyze color blocks for fun, the impact is also evident in skin tones, which are easily recognizable. As the background color changed, it influenced the skin tone of a woman’s face displayed on the screen. To ensure the color bleed wasn’t a trick of perception, I focused on a specific area of her face using a scope, blocking out the rest, and could still identify the background color by the hue shift in her skin.

The SQD TV, in contrast, showed no signs of color crosstalk and boasted superior contrast due to its higher number of dimming zones. The X11L is advertised to have up to 20,000 dimming zones, though the 85-inch model has around 14,400, which is still impressive. The RGB LED TV in this comparison had about 8,000 dimming zones, limited by the requirement for three LEDs (red, green, and blue) per zone, which takes up more space. In contrast, a blue LED backlight can function as a single dimming zone, allowing for finer control.

These differences were noticeable in actual content. During fast-paced action scenes, I could see how bright colors influenced surrounding areas, especially skin tones. In darker scenes, the contrast was striking. If the RGB LED TV were viewed alone, the color crosstalk might not seem as pronounced, as our eyes can quickly adapt to visual inconsistencies. However, removing the comparison doesn’t eliminate the underlying issue.

This isn’t entirely new information; industry experts have raised concerns about color crosstalk in RGB LED TVs since their introduction at CES 2025. As more RGB LED models hit the market this year, these concerns have intensified. Notably, LG Display, a manufacturer of OLED panels that compete with RGB LED technology, released videos prior to this year’s CES highlighting these problems.

Both Nanosys and LG Display have reasons to downplay RGB TV technology. The performance of one RGB LED TV doesn’t represent the entire category. I didn’t notice crosstalk issues with the Hisense UR9, but I suspect it may be circumventing the problem by reverting to white backlighting when displaying many colors. Additionally, the processing capabilities of upcoming Sony RGB LED TVs might address color crosstalk effectively. As RGB LED technology continues to evolve, these issues are likely to be resolved. However, for 2026, SQD appears to have the advantage.