LED TV Guide - Technology

All LED TV's are not the same

It is useful to remember that LED technology in this case is being applied to LCD screens which still rely on LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) to produce the picture - LEDs are simply being used to replace the traditional CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps) backlight.

You may have come across the term OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) which is a more revolutionary TV technology which self illuminates, applying a thin internal layer of LED for the actual display.

Nevertheless, LED backlighting offers real performance improvements over traditional LCD TV's. Various manufacturers offer subtle variations of LED technology which are already generating a fair amount of debate as to which is the superior implementation.

Edge based LED lighting uses white LEDs arranged around the inside frame of the TV along with a special light diffusion panel designed to spread the light evenly behind the LCD screen. The edge based system allows for much slimmer panels.

LED TV's using LED Arrays or Local Dimming light the entire rear of the screen, not just the perimeter, which allows various sections of the panel to be more precisely controlled.

A variation on locally dimmed LED TV's with white LEDs introduced RGB arrays. RGB LED's use red green and blue to produce an expanded colour gamut. The combined light output from red, green and blue LEDs also produces a more pure white light than is possible with a single white light LED setup.

Are LED TV's really that good?

Early indications are that LED TV's in all of their various implementations produce a superior viewing experience over traditional LCD TV's while maintaining all of the advantages of HDTV.

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