TV buying guide: Why TV SOC is so important?

Felia

Member
Buying a smart TV just like buying a smartphone. Some people only pay attention to the appearance or the image, but they know nothing about the TV SOC, which is the most important thing in a TV. So keep reading and you will find out.

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1. What is the TV SOC chip?​


Now, TVs on the market are almost smart TVs that can connect to the Internet, install apps, and even make phone calls. In essence, it is a large-screen mobile phone controlled by remote control. The core of the mobile phone is the SOC processor, and the core of the TV is also the SOC, which is the brain of the TV.

2. The role and importance of TV SOC chips​


A TV's SOC will be responsible for the following tasks:

(1). Keep systems and applications running​

The operation of the system and application depends on the built-in CPU of the SOC, and the performance of the SOC will directly determine the smoothness of the TV's operation. If you feel that your TV is stuttering, it is likely that the SOC performance is poor (another reason is that the running memory is small).

The current mainstream TV SOC chips all use ARM-based CPUs. Compared with mobile phones, the architecture and process are older, and the performance is much worse than that of mobile phone SOCs.

At present, the most advanced mobile phone CPU is the A78/X1 architecture, while the TV still stays in the relatively backward architecture of A73/A55/A53. The mobile phone is already using the 5nm process technology, and most TV CPUs are still using the 12nm or even 28nm process.

(2). Video decoding​


Playing high-resolution video actually consumes a lot of TV performance. The weak computing power of the TV SOC is actually not enough to decode those high-resolution and high-bit-rate videos, and it will be very laggy if forced to decode.

But in actual use, the video playback on the machine rarely feels stuck. Why is this?

Video decoding.jpg


The reason is that the TV SOC chip has a built-in hardware decoder, which is a dedicated circuit that does nothing but video decoding. When you use "system decoding", you are calling the hardware decoder.

The format and resolution supported by low-end SOC are lower, and the format and resolution supported by high-end SOC will be higher. Of course, this is not absolute. There are also cases where low-end SOCs are equipped with relatively high-standard decoders, which are generally useless.

(3). Screen processing​


The biggest difference between a TV and a monitor is that the TV will process the displayed picture. Even low-end TVs will be equipped with basic picture processing technologies such as local contrast enhancement and edge sharpening. Some powerful manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung will specially allocate a picture processing chip for picture processing.

But the SOC of the TV can also perform picture processing, and it comes with a bunch of picture processing algorithms.

Screen processing.jpg


Due to the lack of technical strength, some TV manufacturers will directly apply the public version algorithm that comes with the SOC. As a result, TVs of different brands may have very similar picture performance because they are used for the same SOC and screen film group.

The high-end TV SOC will be equipped with a better picture algorithm, and the picture will be better than those of the TVs of the same module.

(4). Ports and device supportiveness​


The number of USB ports and HDMI2.1 ports, the bandwidth of the network cable interface, the support of the next-generation audio track, the support of ALLM and VRR, the fast boot and voice wake-up functions, and the recognition rate of far-field voice are also closely related to the SOC.

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Summary​

Now you should understand how important SOC is in TV. SOC is the brain of a TV and the soul of a TV. A high-end TV is not necessarily a high-end TV, but a high-end TV must use a high-end SOC. Therefore, when purchasing a TV, you must pay attention to the SOC of the TV. For more factors you cannot ignore when buying TV, refer to TV Buying Guide: 7 most important parameters for choosing TV.
 
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