- A 3-year test of OLED TVs showed they are very unlikely to burn in with mixed viewing
- Edge-lit LCD screens seem to fail sooner than other types of TVs in the test
- However, there is no clear correlation between price and longevity.
As a teenager I used to devour horror stories, but nothing I read was as terrifying as the recorded OLED story. You’re probably familiar with it, too: it’s the story of someone who buys one of the best OLED TVs only to see the logo of their favorite channel, or the HUD of their favorite game, burned into the screen forever. But like many cautionary tales, the likelihood of this happening may be lower today than the stories suggest.
At least that’s what the results of an ongoing study by Rtings say. People there have been using more than 100 televisions at maximum brightness for three years, racking up 18,000 hours of viewing for each. And while some OLEDs suffered problems, LCDs suffered much more serious problems.
Look
How do OLED and LCD TVs handle almost 20,000 hours of viewing?
Ongoing testing has shown several things, notably that low-end edge-lit LCD TVs seem to fail sooner than LCDs with better types of backlighting: the models tested suffered from warped reflector sheets, cracked light guide plates, and burned-out LEDs due to the heat they generate, although it’s important to note that these tests run the TVs at maximum brightness, which isn’t necessarily how you’d run them at home. That makes this a television torture test.
As of November 2025, 20 of the 100 TVs that began testing in 2022 had completely failed and another 24 had experienced partial failures. The site has posted full details of those crashes and partial crashes here.
What about OLEDs? Rtings found that both the WOLED and QD-OLED TVs performed “extremely well” and, although burn-in occurred during the torture test that displays a single logo on the screen for the all the time, that “is not really a problem in case of mixed use.” All of the OLEDs tested developed wear and tear, but previous tests found that unless you constantly watch content with static logos, you’re unlikely to encounter problems with 2022 or later models.
It’s also worth noting that 18,000 hours of runtime is a lot more than most people will watch before upgrading their TVs – if you watched TV for three hours every day, it would take you more than 16 years to reach that figure.
So what does this mean for potential TV buyers? While many entry-level TVs failed over time, Rtings found no direct correlation between price and longevity. But it did find that OLEDs tended to be the most reliable LCDs and the least edge-lit, so if you’re looking for a new TV, then OLEDs or LCDs with local dimming zones may be the best buys.
Good news! In our guide to the best TVs, we only recommend options that fit these requirements.
The best televisions for all budgets
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