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Control's Jesse
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Control is 90% off in the Steam Autumn Sale, meaning you can read some of the finest redacted documents in videogames for just $4

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Control is, for me, one of those games that can make playing everything else feel a little bit worse. Remedy simply nailed the paranormal bureaucratic atmosphere too hard. After playing Control back in 2019, I have to live with the faint wish that whatever game I spend time with would give me more opportunities to interact with unfathomable triangles. I now yearn to believe a postbox could imperil an entire town. Every collectible text document that doesn’t feature ominous redactions now feels like a wasted opportunity.

My time in the Oldest House left me with a mild yet incurable brain sickness. And it’s one that you can contract yourself for just $4 thanks to the Steam Autumn Sale. Control has only been 90% off one other time, during a weeklong sale in August. Otherwise, this is the lowest price it’s ever been on Steam.

(Image credit: Remedy Entertainment)

Now, there are some detractors in the world who might try to convince you that Control’s shooting isn’t terribly impressive, so it can’t be that great. You can safely ignore these misguided souls. No matter what they’ve convinced themselves, Control isn’t a game about shooting. It’s a game about throwing forklifts with your mind.


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More importantly, it’s a game where a federal bureau has an archive collecting all the nonsensical, conspiratorial mail deemed unfit for delivery by the Postal Service because it could contain paranatural insights. If you don’t get a thrill out of imagining why an organization like the FBC would redact the Pinstripe World letter, you’re beyond any help I could give you.

Plus, you’ll finally get to know why people talk about the Ashtray Maze so fondly. At $4, this is a great entry point into the growing Remedy Cinematic Universe. Or in my case, a great opportunity to buy it on Steam so I don’t have to open the Epic launcher whenever I feel like strolling the FBC corridors. Everybody wins.



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Werner Herzog on AI-Generated Movies: 'They Look Completely Dead'
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Werner Herzog on AI-Generated Movies: ‘They Look Completely Dead’

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Legendary filmmaker and ‘Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’ superfan Werner Herzog can see the beauty in just about everything, with two notable exceptions: Chickens and art created by artificial intelligence. During an appearance on the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend,” Herzog spoke of the incredible possibilities presented by technological advances, but lamented the sheer lifelessness of its application in areas that require humanity.

Much of the conversation between O’Brien and Herzog centered around the idea of truth (fitting for a guy who just wrote a book called The Future of Truth), which inevitably led them into a conversation about AI. Herzog, who is a fascinating mix of a man somewhat removed from technology but also filled with endless wonder about everything, didn’t dismiss the technology out of hand, but has some grave concerns about it.

“AI, I do not want to put it down completely because it has glorious, magnificent possibilities,” he said, citing its potential uses in scientific fields. “But at the same time, it is already en route to take over warfare. … It will be the overwhelming face of warfare of the future.”

He also simply can’t find much value in generative AI’s takes on works of art.

“I’ve seen movies, short films, completely created by artificial intelligence. Story, acting, everything. They look completely dead. They are stories, but they have no soul,” he told O’Brien. “They are empty and soulless. You know it is the most common, lowest denominator of what is filling billions and billions of informations on the internet. The common denominator and nothing beyond this common denominator can be found in these fabrications.”

Those fabrications of AI are a real point of fascination for Herzog. In his new book, according to an excerpt from The New Republic, he writes AI “sees its occasional errors, and arrives at strategies and decisions that were not programmed in it by humans,” and notes that its outputs arrive “with a little pinch of chaos and imprecision, as is also embedded in human nature.”

While talking to O’Brien, Herzog brought up how AI generates these falsehoods and how we have to navigate them. “And of course, cheating, pretending, propagandizing—all these things are like a nemesis. It is out there, and we have to be alert to it.” His advice? Simply do not take anything entirely at face value. “Again, I say, when you are curious and access different sources, very quickly you will find this is invented.”

In general, Herzog is not much for technology. He didn’t own a cellphone until, according to his telling, he had to get one after he was unable to retrieve his car (an 18-year-old Ford Explorer) from a parking garage in Dublin without downloading an app. But it’s not that he fears it. He just doesn’t trust it. “Everything that comes in via your cellphone or your laptop, emails, whatever—you have to distrust, you have to doubt,” he told O’Brien. In response, O’Brien offered up that he gets updates on his phone when his cats use the litter box because it is internet-connected, and proposed that it should be illegal for anything to require an app to function.

Herzog spoke of how natural navigating technology is for younger people, how effortlessly they spot a phishing email that he wouldn’t be able to identify. He compared the instincts of humans using technology to those of prehistoric men foraging for food and learning to avoid poisonous berries. “They had a natural acquired suspicion about things, and it was so natural that we can certainly assume that they didn’t hate nature,” he said. “They just knew how to navigate. And it’s the same thing—you don’t have to hate the internet and the cell phone and whatever is coming at you in this new media, you just have to maintain a complete level of suspicion.”

All of this comes from Herzog’s greater search for truth, which is central to his new book. On the podcast, he assessed, “Nobody knows what truth is.” And in some ways, it doesn’t matter. O’Brien and Herzog share that in art, sheer truth sometimes matters less than telling a good story. But in the rest of the world, the concept of truth is just as elusive, and the cause of conflict and strife. Whose truth are we operating from?

“Truth is not a point somewhere far out in the distance,” Herzog says. “It’s more a process of searching for it, approximating, having doubts.” O’Brien at one point added, “Emotions get us to a truth sometimes that facts cannot deliver.” That is perhaps why AI art falls so flat. The truth lies in the emotion the work conveys and provokes. AI has nothing to offer.



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Best Record Players for 2025: Top Turntables Tested by CNET Experts
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Best Record Players for 2025: Top Turntables Tested by CNET Experts

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The Audio-Technica offers a carbon-fiber tonearm.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Design

There are four main elements to a turntable: the plinth (or base), the platter on which the vinyl record sits, the motor and the arm. The best designs offer extended bracing and isolation between each of these elements to reduce the noise, which can affect the sound quality of the vinyl.

Motor

Generally, modern record players are powered in one of two different ways: belt drive and direct drive. Direct drive has a dedicated motor that spins the platter directly, and this design is almost exclusively used by DJs — in turntables such as the Technics SL1200. Belt drive models are more consumer-focused and use a motor-driven rubber belt to spin the platter. Belt drive is designed to reduce the noise over direct-drive designs by absorbing motor vibrations which could otherwise be picked up by the stylus. All of the record players in this list offer a belt drive.

Cartridge

A cartridge is the small “box” mounted to the end of the tonearm on your record player. It includes the stylus (or needle) that lowers onto the vinyl itself. The best turntables feature a user-replaceable cartridge, which allows you to experiment with a higher-quality cartridge (such as an Ortofon 2M Red) to produce a better sound.

Speed switch

Another convenience feature to look for include an electronic speed switch which means no more removing the platter to change speeds. If you play a lot of singles, or own audiophile pressings. then you will likely want a hardware switch to choose between 33 1/3 and 45.

Preamp

A switchable, onboard preamp that enables you to use a better phono stage. Unlike most types of players, a turntable needs a preamp to bring music up to “line level.” Otherwise it will sound like pixies singing in a cave. External preamps are generally required for some vintage models as well as intermediate and high-end turntables that sell at a higher price. If you’re looking to keep costs low and convenience high, you may want to consider a turntable with a built-in preamp that then connects to any speaker or receiver. CNET contributor Steve Guttenberg recommends the $100 Schiit Mani phono preamp as a quality budget option.

Additional features

Many modern record players come equipped with features including Bluetooth pairing and USB connectivity.

Price

Turntables start at around $50 and can cost as much as a mortgage payment, but the good ones start at around $300. Audiophile-quality models start from $1,000. This list contains plenty of options, including budget models, to help you stay within your budget.



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Everything You Need to Know About USB Ports and Speeds (2025)
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Everything You Need to Know About USB Ports and Speeds (2025)

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Things get extremely complicated when it comes to the many iterations of USB 3.0. Because all the branding has become inconsistent and unhelpful, we recommend ignoring these labels altogether and just searching for the actual speed ratings. The good news is that many USB hub and docking station manufacturers have started to give up on names, labels, and symbols too. These days, you’ll often see the maximum speed next to ports directly to sidestep the names, which is the quickest way to ensure you know what you’re getting.

When it comes to evaluating a USB-A port, just remember that 20 Gbps is the top speed you’ll ever get. Whether it’s called USB 3.2 Gen 2 or USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, it’s all the same speed: 20 Gbps. Meanwhile, 10-Gbps speeds will be labeled USB 3.1 Gen 2 or SuperSpeed Plus, and 5-Gbps speeds will be USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 1, or SuperSpeed.

So, if you’re using older storage devices or accessories, you may want to look up the specific generation of USB if speed matters to you. A device marketed as “USB 3.0” several years ago and a device marketed as “USB 3.2” today could potentially have identical transfer speeds if the manufacturer is less than forthcoming with generation names or transfer speed ratings. You may even run into the 25-year-old USB 2.0 standard on older accessories, which had a maximum data transfer speed of 480 Mbps (megabits per second).

What Is USB Power Delivery (or USB-PD)?

Power Delivery, often written as USB-PD, is a fast-charging technology used to power or charge peripherals over USB, which is something we all use every day to charge our phones and other devices. But these days, USB-PD has greatly expanded its capabilities. Instead of carrying a charger for every single device you own, you might opt for a charging adapter that can juice up multiple devices via several USB-C Power Delivery (USB-C PD) ports. With USB-PD 3.1, as seen in Thunderbolt 5, it can even support up to 240 watts of power. You’ll find these kinds of ports on USB hubs as well, sometimes referred to as “pass-through charging,” though that’s not an official term.

Make sure the wattage of a USB-C port on a charging adapter or hub can handle what your device needs. A MacBook Pro typically needs 96 watts during intense workloads (though you can still charge it at lower wattage), so you’d probably need a 100-watt USB-C port on the charging adapter or USB hub for the best charging experience, which is supported in USB4.

How USB DisplayPort Alternate Mode Works

Similar to power delivery, USB-C has also brought in another important feature: DisplayPort Alternate Mode, often labeled as DP Alt Mode or with a “D” DisplayPort logo. Most commonly, this is used to connect a laptop to a monitor over a single USB-C cable rather than HDMI or DisplayPort. Importantly, DP Alt Mode delivers both audio and video over that single connection.

DP Alt Mode has been around since the introduction of USB-C, but the amount of data that can be sent over this one cable depends on the generation of DisplayPort being employed. USB 3.2, for example, uses DisplayPort 1.4 for its DP Alt Mode, whereas USB4 makes DP Alt Mode a requirement and uses DisplayPort 2.0 for higher resolutions and refresh rates. For example, DisplayPort 2.0 supports three 4K HDR displays at 144 Hz, while DisplayPort 1.4a could only support two 4K HDR displays at 60 Hz.

Thunderbolt vs. USB

Not only are USB standards notoriously confusing, but guaranteeing those speeds and features in actual products is even messier. USB standards are always in ranges; just because you see a USB4 port on something doesn’t guarantee it’ll hit those max speeds. Not by a long shot.

That’s where Thunderbolt comes in. It’s an Intel-owned standard made in collaboration with Apple that uses the same USB-C connector as typical USB devices. It usually appears in higher-end devices featuring Intel chips or MacBooks. Due to some recent licensing changes, even some premium AMD laptops now feature Thunderbolt 4 ports.



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FCC accidentally leaked iPhone schematics, potentially giving rivals a peek at company secrets
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FCC accidentally leaked iPhone schematics, potentially giving rivals a peek at company secrets

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently published a 163-page PDF showing the electrical schematics for the iPhone 16e, despite Apple specifically requesting them to be confidential. This was most likely a mistake on the part of the FCC, according to a report by AppleInsider.

The agency also distributed a cover letter from Apple alongside the schematics, which is dated September 16, 2024. This letter verifies the company’s request for privacy, indicating that the documents contain “confidential and proprietary trade secrets.” The cover letter asks for the documents to be withheld from public view “indefinitely.” Apple even suggested that a release of the files could give competitors an “unfair advantage.”

To that end, the documents feature full schematics of the iPhone 16e. These include block diagrams, electrical schematic diagrams, antenna locations and more. Competitors could simply buy a handset and open it up to get to this information, as the iPhone 16e came out back in February, but this leak would eliminate any guesswork. However, Apple is an extremely litigious company when it comes to stuff like patent infringement.

The FCC hasn’t addressed how this leak happened or what it intends to do about it. AppleInsider’s reporting suggested that this probably happened due to an incorrect setting in a database. This was likely not an intentional act against Apple, which tracks given that the company has been especially supportive of the Trump administration. CEO Tim Cook even brought the president a gold trophy for being such a good and important boy.



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Borderlands 4 has a throwing knife-shaped problem, and a nerf isn't going to cut it
Gaming Gear

Borderlands 4 has a throwing knife-shaped problem, and a nerf isn’t going to cut it

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Rory Norris, Guides Writer

(Image credit: Future)

Last week I was: playing way too much Borderlands 4.

This week I’ve been: continuing to play way too much Borderlands 4 while getting to grips with the endgame.

By now, it’s beating a dead horse saying that Penetrator Augment ‘crit’ throwing knives are overpowered in Borderlands 4. Creative director Graeme Timmins has already agreed as much, noting the infamous knives “will get addressed”, alongside some unintentional interactions and broken builds, very soon.

For those living under a rock, the Penetrator Augment that can drop on throwing knives causes all damage dealt to the target to become guaranteed critical hits for a short duration. With almost any build, especially those specced into bonuses with critical hits or status effects like the bleed Vex build, this short window is more than long enough to burst down any boss in the blink of an eye. Plus, you can also get the Damage Amp Payload effect, which—in the same vein as Penetrator—causes the target to simply take increased damage for a duration. In fact, you can even get these two bonuses together if you’re lucky for guaranteed critical hits and a flat increase in damage from all sources.

Whether the effects are reduced in duration or potency, you can’t change the fact that these throwables offer unmatched, absolute power with no downsides.

That’s not to mention that throwing knives are already a strong option in the ordnance slot, dealing high damage, having multiple charges and a quick cooldown, and even ricocheting on critical hits with a Jakobs manufacturer perk.


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Unless you’re running with a dedicated ordnance build, like a Vengeance Amon build, there’s quite literally no reason not to use a throwing knife. Its mere existence completely invalidates entire skills. Why would I need Harlowe’s Glow Up perk to increase gun critical hit chance specifically against irradiated enemies when I could save multiple skill points and just throw a knife? Creator EpicNNG has a video covering all the skills that are invalidated, and it’s a lot:

Just How BROKEN Is The Crit Knife In Borderlands 4? (VERY) – YouTube

Watch On

The thing is, I don’t think there’s a satisfying nerf. Sure, you could reduce the duration of these buffs down to only a handful of seconds, but again, you can already kill bosses in a second or two with the right setup. It would still be a source of guaranteed critical hits, which inherently breaks a number of builds anyway.

If Gearbox plans to simply knock these items down a peg in the hopes of stopping them from being must-have picks, it won’t work either. Whether the effects are reduced in duration or potency, you can’t change the fact that these throwables offer unmatched, absolute power with no downsides, especially if you’re not fussed about the ordnance slot to begin with, which most builds otherwise aren’t.

As much as removing the Penetrator Augment and Damage Amp Payload effects on throwing knives and pretending it never happened would resolve the crit knife conundrum, it’s far from a perfect solution. This leads to yet another issue: like all previous Borderlands games, there would be little incentive to use grenades in standard builds, and they would become obsolete. Ironically, that’s why Borderlands 4 introduced the ordnance system and more interesting throwables like the knives.

While they’ll likely still remain best-in-slot for your typical gun builds, I think the only real solution is to change the Penetrator effect to be either chance-based, active on a certain number of shots, or even just your next shot. No matter which one, critical hits would no longer be guaranteed. It would still provide an incredibly powerful on-demand buff all for just lobbing a knife, but you’d at least be more incentivised to invest a point or two in the skills these ordnance currently overshadow.

Either way, I don’t envy Gearbox. I can only imagine how much the developers must regret having ever introduced such an item, as once you’ve experienced such a power, it’s very hard to take it away.



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China Finds Ingenious Solution for Its Decommissioned Wind Turbine Blades
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China Finds Ingenious Solution for Its Decommissioned Wind Turbine Blades

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Many wind turbine blades in China are approaching retirement, and researchers have come up with a creative way to reuse the giant components.

In a study published earlier this summer in the journal International Soil and Water Conservation Research, scientists suggest repurposing decommissioned wind turbine blades in sand control measures. Namely, in sand barriers. The approach could be the solution to two problems: dealing with old blades and finding optimal sand control measures.

“Wind turbine blades with high strength and durability can be directly cut and drilled into sand barriers,” the researchers wrote in the paper. “This approach not only addresses the recycling challenges of decommissioned wind turbine blades but also mitigates the shortage of windbreak and sand stabilization materials in the desert and the Gobi areas.”

Two birds with one stone

In arid and semiarid regions, wind can wreak havoc on both human and natural landscapes, and sand control measures such as sand barriers aim to decrease the resulting economic losses and protect habitats. While sand barriers such as those made out of reeds and branches are inexpensive, easy to construct, and environmentally friendly, they’re short-lived and don’t hold up well to extreme environments.

More effective artificial sand control materials don’t offer perfect solutions, because they also face challenges in extremely windy areas along railways. As such, people sometimes turn to stronger barriers made of materials such as cement, metal, and rocky sand. Ultimately, the materials should be strong, long-lasting, wind-abrasion-resistant, thermally stable, available, reasonably priced, and with optimal porosity.

As for the wind power industry, the question of what to do with old wind turbine blades faces high costs and complex traditional recycling processes, in addition to the risk of pollution in the case of improper management.

As such, the researchers investigated the efficacy of sand barriers made from decommissioned or damaged wind turbine blades. “First, we tested the mechanical properties of this material, including ultraviolet (UV) aging resistance, thermal stability, bending strength, and erosion resistance,” the researchers explained in the paper. “Second, through wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations, we analyzed the shelter and sand stabilization effects of the new sand barriers with different porosities compared with traditional nylon net sand barriers.”

Real-life application

The approach revealed that the new barrier’s erosion rate can be 56% lower than that of wood composite materials, and its bending strength was 14 times greater. The researchers also found that a porosity of 20% was the best for the reduction of sediment transport.

“Therefore, the new porous sand barriers made from decommissioned or damaged wind turbine blades possess excellent UV and erosion resistance, high strength and thermal stability, recyclability, and long service life,” the researchers concluded. “It combines the porous structure of flexible sand barriers with the strength of rigid sand barriers, making it well-suited for regions with strong winds, large temperature variations, and intense UV radiation, which has significant potential for application in sand control practices.”

The study is the ultimate reminder of an age-old saying—one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Or, in this case, one industry’s trash is another’s solution.



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LCD vs. OLED: Which Is the Best TV Tech?

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While there are lots of associated marketing terms, nearly every TV today is either LCD or OLED. LCD TVs are also called LEDs, QLED TVs or even mini-LED, but the core technology is LCD — which stands for Liquid Crystal Display. Behind that LCD layer are LEDs; the number and arrangement of the LEDs are the main differences. The best ones use quantum dots and local dimming to create a vibrant, 4K HDR image.

OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, is newer to the mainstream market, although it’s been available for more than a decade. OLED panels are made by LG and Samsung and are also called QD-OLED and WOLED, depending on the specific version of the technology used.

How they work (the oversimplified edition)

The biggest difference between the two technologies is in how they work. Every TV’s picture is composed of millions of tiny “pixels,” or picture elements, that combine to create the image.

With OLED, each pixel provides its own illumination, so there’s no separate backlight. With an LCD TV, all of the pixels are illuminated by a separate LED backlight. This can have a handful of LEDs in the case of smaller, inexpensive TVs, or hundreds and thousands of LEDs for larger, more expensive TVs. This difference in how they create light directly impacts their overall picture quality, some of which favor LCD, but most of which benefit OLED.

Read more: QLED vs. OLED: What’s the difference between these types of TV?
Read more: QLED vs. LED: Which Is Better?

LCD panels are made by several companies across Asia. All current OLED panels are built by either LG Display or Samsung Display, the display panel manufacturing divisions of those companies. Other companies will buy panels from those manufacturers, sometimes even from each other, but if you’re buying an OLED TV, the image-producing panel is made by one of those companies.

OLED is consistently, year over year and test after test, the picture quality king, but LCD TVs usually cost less and can still provide excellent picture quality. A variety of new technologies, which we’ll discuss, help keep LCD from getting too far behind its newer tech competition.

So which one is better? Read on for their strengths and weaknesses. In general, we’ll be comparing OLED to the best (read: most expensive) LCD has to offer, mainly because there’s no such thing as a cheap OLED TV (yet).

Light output (brightness)

Winner: LCD
Loser: OLED

Take this category with a grain of salt. Both TV types are very bright and can look good in even a sunny room, let alone more moderate indoor lighting situations or the dark rooms that make TV images look their best. When it comes down to it, no modern TV could ever be considered “dim.”

LCD gets the nod here specifically because the whole screen can be brighter, which is a function of its backlight. Generally, it’s mini-LED that offers the highest brightness. Both QD-OLED and LG’s new 4-stack OLED still offer impressive brightness though, so the difference here isn’t as big as it once was.

Raúl Vázquez/EyeEm/GettyImages

Black level

Winner: OLED
Loser: LCD

At the other side of light output is black level, or how dark the TV can get. OLED wins here because of its ability to turn off individual pixels completely. It can produce truly perfect black.

The better LCDs have local dimming, where parts of the screen can dim independently of others. This isn’t quite as good as per-pixel control because the black areas still aren’t absolutely black but it’s better than nothing. The best LCDs have full-array local dimming, which provides even finer control over the contrast of what’s onscreen — but even they can suffer from “blooming,” where a bright area spoils the black of an adjacent dark area. Most notably, mini-LED has significantly more LEDs than traditional LED LCDs, so they can look almost as good as OLED in some situations.

Check out this LED LCD backlights explainer and LED local dimming explained for more info.

Contrast ratio

Winner: OLED
Loser: LCD

Here’s where it comes together. Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest and the darkest a TV can be. OLED is the winner here because it can get extremely bright, plus it can produce absolute black with no blooming. It has the best contrast ratio of any modern display.

Contrast ratio is the most important aspect of picture quality. A high contrast-ratio display will look more realistic than one with a lower contrast ratio. There’s a far greater difference between the best LCD and the worst, with mini-LED once again offering the best performance overall for that tech. The “worst” OLED will still look better than almost all LCDs, however.

For more info, check out the basics of contrast ratio and why it’s important to understand contrast ratio.

ShaoChen Yang/Getty Images

Resolution

Winner: Tie

This one’s easy. Both OLED and LCD are widely available in UltraHD, aka 4K, form, and there are 8K versions of both if you’re particularly well-heeled.

There are also small, inexpensive 1080p and even 720p resolution LCDs. There are no 1080p or lower resolution OLEDs currently on the market.

Refresh rate and motion blur

Winner: Tie

Refresh rate is important in reducing motion blur, or the blurring of anything on screen that moves (including the whole image if the camera pans). Sadly, the current version of OLED has motion blur, just like LCD. OLEDs, and mid- and high-end LCDs, have a 120Hz refresh rate. Cheaper LCDs are 60Hz. Keep in mind, most companies use numbers that are higher than their “true” refresh rate. 

OLEDs and many LCD use black-frame insertion, which is a way to improve motion resolution without resorting to the (usually) dreaded Soap Opera Effect.

Don’t stand this close when checking out a TV.

Peter Cade/Getty Images

Viewing angle

Winner: OLED
Loser: LCD

One of the main downsides of LCD TVs is a change in picture quality if you sit away from dead center (as in, off to the sides). How much this matters to you certainly depends on your seating arrangement but also on how much you love your loved ones.

A few LCDs use in-plane switching panels, which have better off-axis picture quality than other kinds of LCDs but don’t look as good as other LCDs straight on (primarily because of a lower contrast ratio). 

OLED doesn’t have the off-axis issue LCDs have; its image looks basically the same, even from extreme angles. So if you have a wide seating area, OLED is the better option.

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

Winner: OLED (with caveats)

Watching High Dynamic Range content lets your TV really expand its potential. Sort of like driving on the highway vs a two-lane dirt road. It lets your TV produce more colorful bright highlights and typically a wider color gamut.

Nearly all current TVs are HDR compatible, but that’s not the entire story. Just because a TV claims HDR compatibility doesn’t mean it can accurately display HDR content. All OLED TVs have the dynamic range to take advantage of HDR, but lower-priced LCDs, especially those without local-dimming backlights, do not. So if you want to see HDR content in all its dynamic, vibrant beauty, go for OLED or an LCD with local dimming, for example mini-LED. 

In our tests comparing the best new OLED and LCD TVs with HDR games and movies, OLED usually looks better. Its superior contrast and lack of blooming win the day despite LCD’s brightness advantage. In other words, LCD TVs can get brighter, especially in full-screen bright scenes and HDR highlights, but none of them can control that illumination as precisely as an OLED TV.

It’s also worth learning about the differences between HDR for photography and HDR for TVs.

The smallest triangle (circles at corners) is what your current HDTV can do. The next largest (squares) is P3 color. The largest (triangle edges) is Rec 2020.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET (triangles); Sakurambo (base chart)

Expanded Color Gamut

Winner: Tie

Wide Color Gamut, or WCG, is related to HDR, although you can technically have one without the other. It’s an expansion of the colors possible on “standard” TVs. Think richer, deeper and more vibrant colors.

Most mid- and high-end LCDs and all new OLED models are capable of WCG. In some models of both that capability is caused by the use of quantum dots.

Read more about how TVs make color, how they will make color and how Wide Color Gamut works.

Uniformity

Winner: OLED
Loser: LCD

Uniformity refers to the consistency of brightness across the screen. Many inexpensive LCDs are pretty terrible with this, “leaking” light from their edges. This can be distracting, especially during darker movies. On mid- and higher-end models this is usually less of an issue. 

Energy consumption

Winner: Basically a tie

OLED’s energy consumption is directly related to screen brightness. The brighter the screen, the more power it draws. It even varies with content. A dark movie will require less power than a hockey game or ski competition.

The energy consumption of LCD varies depending on the backlight setting. The lower the backlight, the lower the power consumption. A basic LED LCD with its backlight set low will draw less power than OLED.

Overall, though, all new TVs are fairly energy efficient, and even the least energy efficient modern TV would only cost you a few dollars more per year to use. That said, larger, brighter TVs will use a lot more energy than smaller, dimmer ones.

shaunl/Getty Images

Lifespan

Winner: Tie (sort of)

LG has said their OLED TVs have a lifespan of 100,000 hours to half brightness, a figure that’s similar to LED LCDs. Generally speaking, all modern TVs are quite reliable and should last many years. 

Does that mean your new LCD or OLED will last for several decades like your parent’s last CRT (like the one pictured). Probably not, but then, why would you want it to? A 42-inch flat panel cost $14,000 in the late 90’s, and now a 55-inch TV with more than 16x the resolution and a million times better contrast ratio costs $250. Which is to say, by the time you’ll want/need to replace it, there will be something even better than what’s available now, for less money. 

Because they are quite reliable on the whole, you won’t have to replace them anytime soon.

Burn-in

Winner: LCD
Loser: OLED

All TVs can “burn in” or develop what’s called “image persistence,” where the ghost of an image remains onscreen. It’s really hard to do this with most LCDs. It’s easier with OLED, so LCD wins this category. 

Even with OLED TVs, however, most people don’t have to worry about burn-in. Some edge-lit LED LCD, typically cheaper models, can have their own version of burn in where the LEDs age poorly and the plastic layers that help create the image warp and discolor. Which is to say, both technologies have issues but how those issues manifest is different.

If you want a REALLY big TV, neither OLED nor LCD will do.

LG

Screen size

Winner: LCD
Loser: OLED

OLED TVs are available in sizes from 48 to 97 inches but LCD TVs come in smaller and even larger sizes than that — with many more choices in between — so LCD wins. At the high end of the size scale, however, the biggest “TVs” don’t use either technology. 

The easiest, and cheapest, way to get a truly massive image in your home is with a projector. For about $1,000 you can get an excellent 100-inch-plus image. 

If you want something even brighter, and don’t mind spending a literal fortune to get it, Samsung, Sony, LG and some other companies sell direct-view LED displays. In most cases these are microLED. 

Price

Winner: LCD
Loser: OLED

You can get 4K resolution, 50-inch LCDs for less than $200. It’s going to be a long time before OLEDs are that price, but they have come down considerably. 

So if your goal is to get the cheapest TV possible, that’s LCD. If you want something with great picture quality, the prices are fairly comparable. The most expensive OLED TVs are more expensive than the best similarly sized LCD TVs, but that difference shrinks every year. 

And the picture-quality winner is … OLED

LCD dominates the market because it’s cheap to manufacture and delivers good enough picture quality for just about everybody. But according to reviews at CNET and elsewhere, OLED wins for overall picture quality, largely because of the incredible contrast ratio. The price difference isn’t as severe as it used to be, and in the mid- to high-end of the market, there are a lot of options.

LCDs continue to improve, though, and many models offer excellent picture quality for far less money than OLED, especially in larger sizes.

Which is to say, there are a lot of great TVs out there.

In addition to covering cameras and display tech, Geoff does photo essays about cool museums and other stuff, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers and 10,000-mile road trips.

Also, check out Budget Travel for Dummies, his travel book and his bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines. You can follow him on Instagram and YouTube. 





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Keep Your Old Laptop Alive by Installing ChromeOS Flex
Gaming Gear

Keep Your Old Laptop Alive by Installing ChromeOS Flex

by admin


You’ll then be prompted to insert your USB drive and choose it from the drop-down list onscreen. Do make sure you select the correct USB drive and not an external disk that has information on it that you need. Eventually, you’ll be told your USB installer drive is ready: The necessary downloading and installing took 30 minutes or so for me but will depend on the computer you’re using and your internet connection.

Use ChromeOS Flex on an Older Laptop

You can try ChromeOS Flex before installing it.Courtesy of David Nield

You then need to boot your aging PC or Mac—the one we’re giving a second life—from the USB drive you just created. This will usually involve pressing a specific key as your laptop starts up: If you’re not sure what it is, run a web search, check in your laptop’s documentation, or see Google’s list here. For Macs, start up the system either by pressing the power key and then the Option key (Intel chips) or by holding down the power key (Apple chips) until the boot options appear.

You’ll see the ChromeOS Flex welcome screen appear, so click Get started to do just that. You’re then faced with two choices: Install ChromeOS Flex, which will overwrite Windows or macOS, and Try it first, which lets you run Google’s operating system from the USB drive without affecting anything on your laptop.

If you’re looking to revitalize an old laptop, you’ll want to choose the first option, but Try it first lets you see what ChromeOS Flex is all about before you commit. Either way, click Next and you’ll be taken through the usual set-up process for ChromeOS, which will ask you to log in with a Google user account and start syncing your data.

If you’re never used a Chromebook, it’s essentially a Chrome web browser with some extras, such as a taskbar along the bottom. Use the launcher button down in the bottom left corner to show all the installed apps, which will include links to web apps as well as the Files app for local files and Settings for configuring ChromeOS Flex.

Open up the Settings and you get the usual personalization options you find in Google Chrome for Windows or macOS, plus some extras to cover input devices, Bluetooth connectivity, and network options. You should find ChromeOS Flex automatically picks up your Wi-Fi connection, trackpad, and mouse, especially if your computer is listed as certified for ChromeOS Flex.



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