What is a LED television?
Say you’re shopping for a new flat screen television. You’ve probably heard of Plasma and LCD televisions, but now you’ve run across something else: LED. What is this, and what’s the difference with the current flat screens, LCD and Plasma?
LED
You’ve probably heard the term LED before – it stands for Light Emitting Diode. With the climate change becoming important as it is right now, LED is often used as an energy-efficient solution to the more energy inefficient lighting that is currently being used. However, the LED has found its way to your tube too.
TeLEDvision
Every LCD screen needs backlight to display the image. Most HD TVs use a limited numbers of lamps, which is referred to as CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp). However, a LED TV uses backlighting provided by a large amount of small Light-Emitting-Diodes. So in fact, a LED television is an LCD TV with LED backlight.
LED TV systems
Currently, there are two different systems for LED backlight available. The first system uses hundreds of LED lights (white or colored) behind the whole LCD screen. This system is called Array LED backlight. It offers the most opportunities and the best quality, as the LEDs are arranged in groups regarding intensity. This is called local dimming, although there are just a few true local dimming screens available yet at this moment.
The second system has LED lights on the edges of the LCD screen. This system is more common and is indicated by ‘Edge Lit’. Local dimming is not possible with this system.
Disadvantages vs Advantages
At the moment, LED televisions are prices pretty expensive because of their introduction period. Also, production numbers are slightly lower than conventional techniques. However, there are also some advantages: LED screens have a lower energy profile, a higher contrast ratio and faster response times. Screens of LED televisions can be even more flat because of the different technique used.
Current situation
Although some manufacturers place LED televisions in a separate category next to Plasma and LCD, LED TVs available nowadays in fact remain just LCD TVs with LED backlighting. Some examples for October 2009 can be found in the list below.
Array LED TVs with local dimming
- Sony 46X4500 & 55×4500 LED TV
- Sony KDL-70X3500
- Samsung 9 series
- Philips 42PFL9803 and Philips 9700 series
- Sharp Aquos XS1E series
- Toshiba 46SV685D and 55SV685D
LED TVs with Edge Lit
- Samsung 6000, 7000 en 8000 LED TV serie
- Sony 40ZX1
- LG SL9000
- Philips 40PFL9904H Aurea 3
About this Category
LCD TV
- Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens are often used for computer screens, but also make up the flat-screen television market together with Plasma TVs. The fact that a television uses Plasma or LCD technique doesn’t say much about the image quality of the television, neither does it say something about resolution or viewing angle. LCD TVs often come in a smaller size than their Plasma counterparts, but tend to have slightly lower power consumption.More about this