A century after the invention of the television, new research shows nearly half of us are still baffled by screen technology. Experts say buzzwords like QLED and OLED are confusing customers — and leading to the wrong purchases.
00:00TV sets have come a long way in 100 years, but they've also become more confusing.
00:04I spoke to Jason Bradbury from The Gadget Show to cut through the noise and make sense of all the tech jargon.
00:10I started by asking him how the television has shaped British culture.
00:14It's incredible, isn't it?
00:16When you think we're sat here using, you know, whatever we're using to connect to each other with our cameras and all the rest of the cool kit.
00:22But there's been a massive democratisation of technology.
00:26But effectively, we're all trying to do what institutions like the BBC were doing during World War Two, during the crowning of Queen Elizabeth.
00:36That was a major event for television purchase.
00:39Even though the means of distribution has changed dramatically, the television still is the centre of the community, the small community that is most households.
00:49Research shows that in terms of actually understanding our TVs, a lot of people don't really know what they're buying.
00:54Nearly half of Brits don't know what they're buying.
00:5746%.
00:57Yeah.
00:58Yeah.
00:58Why do you think that is?
00:59So there's a kind of, I would argue it's a kind of tech TV fatigue.
01:03QLED is the one that people struggle with.
01:07Quantum dot light emitting diode.
01:09Yeah.
01:09And OLED organic light emitting diode.
01:12Main difference is QLED works really well in an overly well lit environment, right?
01:17Um, cause it's got a backlight, um, OLED doesn't have a backlight, but therefore is capable of much darker, sooty blacks, you know, really good contrast.
01:26And so that's maybe the choice OLED for the movie buffs.
01:29Yeah.
01:30Um, what else did I mention?
01:32Uh, HDR.
01:33Um, so HDR makes, uh, bright areas, brighter, dark areas, darker.
01:39Most people's understanding of it is it's a feature they can put on, on their smartphone.
01:42And it makes the images look a bit more like a professional photographer took them, um, uh, and, uh, high dynamic range.
01:49That's what it stands for.
01:50And then of course, 4K, that's the amount of pixels that you get on the screen.
01:53The more pixels, the better.
01:55Although beyond 4K, I don't know if there's much of a gain, really.
01:58Beyond the sort of jargon, what would you say are the top three things in a new TV that somebody should really be going for?
02:04Color, uh, clarity and contrast to make it really simple, right?
02:10What's your most unforgettable moment on TV, either as a viewer or presenter?
02:14Probably on the jet-powered skateboard.
02:16We put two jet engines on a skateboard and went for a land speed record, feet first, with no brakes.
02:21Just my feet for brakes.
02:23Well, Jason, thank you very much for your time.
