9/15/2012

LCD vs LED. Is the LED really worth the extra money?

By Andrew Perez


Have you at some point found yourself walking throughout the aisles of an electronics store feeling utterly bewildered because you don't know what the differences are between all the televisions? Have you then attempted asking a salesman regarding the differences, only to wind up receiving a non informative, non descriptive reply? If you've scratched your head repeatedly because you simply don't understand, then you've come to the right place. I am going to go into full detail as to what are the exact differences between an LCD and an LED HDTV. Once you are done absorbing the facts in this article, you'll become a complete expert on the matter. Then you could return to the electronics store you were previously at and show the sales reps a thing or two.

Don't be fooled; an LCD is actually an LED:

Before I dig into the details, let me clear something up on this whole TV discussion. An LED is the same as an LCD because both TVs use what's called liquid crystal display. This means that both HDTVs operate utilizing liquid crystal display flat panels to project their picture. The actual difference when comparing both TVs is the type of back lighting that each one uses. Besides that, there really is no such thing as a television that is LED only. So now that we've made things a little clearer, you can now start classifying both TVs as an LCD and an LED-LCD TV.

What are the different types of back lighting?

As I said earlier, the important difference between both HDTVs is the kind of back lighting they use. An LCD utilizes what's called a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (ccfl) for background lighting. The fluorescent lamps use a plastic shield in front of the censors to efficiently distribute its light. LED stands for light emitting diode, which are very similar to the lights on a Christmas tree, only much smaller. This is where the comparison between LCD vs LED starts to unravel when comparing the picture quality. The LEDs are situated in rows and unlike the LCD; it does not utilize a plastic shield to display its light. The newer LED models function using cleverly placed censors in the LED and the crystal display to control the picture being transmitted. These sensors are used to detect the 1's and 0's data that is being emitted and modifies the color being shown pixel by pixel, so it's capable of using its lighting more adequately. An easier way to understand this concept is to think of flip sunglasses. These sensors operate in the equivalent way that flip glasses work, only utilizing various shading variations. By utilizing this kind of technology on an LED HDTV, you are capable of experiencing much deeper blacks, sharper image color and a more realistic picture. This is the main reason an LED can offer you a much more vibrant image. So from now on when you refer to the LCD vs LED debate, what you are actually talking about is LED back lighting vs fluorescent back lighting.

What does full backlit and edgelit mean?

There are generally two ways an LED television utilizes back lighting. Backlit and edgelit. The key benefit on the full backlit television is that it is used to increase the contrast levels by turning off and on the chosen LEDs and utilizing a function referred to as local-dimming. This boosts the total amount of blacks in particular areas of the image.

The edgelit's prime advantage is that it gives the HDTV the ability to be excessively slim, which makes them significantly lighter and simple to hang or maneuver. Unlike the full backlit, the edgelit uses LEDs placed on the edges instead of behind the panel. A lot of the most current edgelit LED models now offer local dimming as well. Though, you should bear in mind that the edgelit offers fewer dimmable sections in comparison to the full backlit LED. The difference is quite noticeable, kind of like comparing hundreds to thousands. Overall, the full backlit LED can produce more detail in color and improved local dimming.

A little more on local dimming:

Television sets have certainly come a long way since the old tube and analog times. All LED TVs that have the local dimming feature are effective in analyzing really dark parts of the picture. This allows more detail to be displayed on the darker scenes. Local dimming responds by turning off certain pixels, allowing you to obtain a significantly better contrast ratio and deeper levels of black. The pixels turn off and on suddenly as a result of what the ambient lighting is like. Think of it like when you are enjoying a good flick on your television with the sun rays beaming through your window, or the room light glaring right on your TV screen. The LED TV consciously modifies the attributes of your picture quality appropriately, so you are then able to keep seeing the picture on your LED screen uninterrupted. It is indeed a really nice feature to have I must say. LCD only televisions don't carry this option.

Is the LED really worth it?

To be frank, I actually don't think this argument is still current, since soon all TVs will be LEDs (LCD-LED). As technology progresses, LEDs keep getting significantly more high tech. LCD only TVs are yesterday's news and will pretty soon be obsolete. To sum it up for you, these are the key points to consider when buying and LED as opposed to an LCD. LEDs use less power, offer a much faster response time than fluorescent lighting, offer local dimming, are lighter, and offer overall better quality picture.




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