For so long placed firmly in the shade by the superior black levels enjoyed by Plasma, LCD technology is now fighting back and challenging the best that its rival can offer.
LCD has traditionally surmounted different technological challenges than Plasma to achieve deep contrast levels. Requiring a 'backlight' to illuminate the screen has made it virtually impossible to achieve true blacks. Light leakage from pixels that cannot be completely switched off have produced panels with lackluster black level ability.
Aimed at countering LCD's intrinsic weakness, backlighting technology replaces the conventional bar-style fluorescent backlight with hundreds of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). With LED backlighting it is possible to dim or switch off the illumination in areas of the screen that are supposed to be black.
Philips, Samsung, Sharp and Sony are at the forefront of LED backlighting technology with each currently offering their own implementation.
Samsung has introduced the second generation of its SmartLighting technology (found on their 7, 8 and 9 series LCD TV's) which helps produce a claimed 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio along with a more natural color representation. The system analyses the incoming video signal adjusting individual LED's to create deeper blacks.
The Philips 42PFL9803H's introduces 1,152 LEDs split into 128 segments, producing a claimed 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio for plasma rivaling black levels along with a more natural color representation. Featuring "LED LUX" local dimming backlight technology, the 42PFL9803H requires the distribution of LEDs across the backplane of the LCD. Unlike a conventional CCFL backlight that must be either on or off, each LED pixel can be individually dimmed to match the brightness of the image.
A refinement of LED backlighting technology, RGB LED backlighting, is under development by a number of manufacturers. RGB backlighting uses controllable LED lights which offer full-colour RGB LED dimming rather than 'black & white' only dimming.
Sharp's new X series LCD TV's are the first to offer full-colour RGB LED dimming rather than 'black & white' only dimming. The 52in and 65in will become available in limited numbers worldwide in the next few months with Sharp claiming 'Kuro' (Pioneer's plasma range) beating black levels.
- Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions
- © 2007-2010 HDTVorg.co.uk inc
