Blooming

The Blooming test is a high-stress diagnostic for displays using Local Dimming technology, such as Mini-LED and Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) LCDs. It reveals how well the display can maintain deep blacks while showing bright, moving objects.

🎛️ Test Controls & Options

🏎️ Speed (0–20): Adjust how fast the white circle moves. Motion is critical because it tests the response time of the dimming zones.

📏 Thickness (1–50px): Change the width of the ring. Thinner lines are much harder for local dimming algorithms to illuminate accurately without “bleeding” into adjacent black zones.

⭕ Diameter (10–800px): Larger objects may bridge multiple dimming zones, helping you identify the physical size and shape of your panel’s dimming grid.

🔍 What to Look For

✴️ Haloing (Blooming): Look for a gray, blue, or white “cloud” of light surrounding the moving white circle. This is Blooming: light from the backlight zones leaking into pixels that should be pure black.

🐢 Zone Lag: Does a “shadow” of light follow the circle? This indicates your monitor’s local dimming controller is slow to update, causing trailing artifacts in dark scenes.

⚡ Dimming Artifacts: Watch for flickering as the circle passes between zones. Some displays may “pulsate” or change in brightness as the object moves.

🧠 Expert Interpretation

While OLED displays have per-pixel lighting and should show zero blooming, all LED-backlit screens will have some degree of haloing.

1. ✅ Pass: The halo is small and confined tightly to the object.
2. ❌ Fail: The halo is large, fuzzy, or distractingly bright (common on older FALD TVs or monitors with very few dimming zones).
3. 💡 Tip: If the blooming is excessive, try lowering the “Local Dimming” setting in your monitor’s menu from ‘High’ to ‘Medium’ or ‘Low’ to find a better balance between black levels and halo control.

Professional Mini-LED blooming test. Evaluate FALD haloing, OLED near-black performance, and local dimming zone response time online.