Display light source timing

A method comprising:

• receiving image data for a sequence of frames, the image data for the sequence of frames having first image data of a first frame and second image data of a second frame immediately following the first frame, the first image data of the first frame being rendered on the display panel starting at a first frame time, the second image data of the second frame being rendered on the display panel starting at a second frame time;
• deriving, based at least in part on the first image data of the first frame, a first light valve control value in a specific region of a target display panel;
• deriving, based at least in part on the second image data of the second frame, a second light valve control value in the specific region of the target display panel;
• determining whether a difference between the first light valve control value and the second light valve control value exceeds a light valve control threshold;
• in response to determining that the difference between the first light valve control value and the second light valve control value exceeds the light valve control threshold, performing:
• constructing a light source driving waveform that comprises a sequence of light source control pulses for controlling one or more light sources that are designated to illuminate the specific region of the target display panel, the sequence of light source control pulses being constrained to start at a start time plus a transition time interval, the start time being no earlier than the second frame starting time, the transition time interval allowing one or more light valves in the specific region of the target display panel to complete a transition from the first light valve control value for the first frame to the second light valve control value for the second frame, a temporal average position of the sequence of light source control pulses being constrained to be centered at a fixed time interval after the start time, wherein the temporal average position of the sequence of light source control pulses is derived based on averaging individual time points of individual light source control pulses in the sequence of light source control pulses with non-zero amplitudes using energies of the individual time points as weight factors;
• causing the one or more light sources to be driven with the sequence of light source control pulses in the light source driving waveform as a part of rendering the second image data of the second frame on the target display panel.