It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that television became the must-have for your home. Nothing much happened until 2007, when LCD televisions became the most popular choice of set next to the outdated CRT’s. Fast forward a few years. See that LCD TV you just bought? Well. It’s out of date.
The latest buzz in the land of television is not the biggest screen anymore, its LED TV technology. But is it really time to toss your old set and trade it up for the latest model? Before making that judgement, we need to figure out exactly what an LED TV is and why it’s different from an LCD set. LCD’s produce their image when the LCD’s pixels are “backlit”. The method to which these pixels are “backlit” determines the difference between an LCD and an LED television. Up until recently, the method to backlight these pixels was by fluorescent lighting. LED’s (you guessed it) use LED lighting to backlight these pixels. Since the chips and pixels don’t create their own light source, all LED televisions are LCD’s.
There are two types of backlighting applied to this new technology. Edge and Full-Array. Edge lighting describes the position of the LED bulbs placed around the edge of the screen. The advantage is that by doing this, the set’s depth can be trimmed down to seemingly impossible dimensions, making it super-thin. Unfortunately, this lighting method results in lower black levels, and a visible light “halo” around the edge of the screen.Full-Array lighting is the better choice. The lights are placed in a series of rows behind the entire surface of the screen. What this means is that a little chip determines the darkness and brightness in specific spots on the screen. Referred to as “local dimming” the main advantage is that the black levels on Full-Array sets are much greater than Edge lighting sets, but at the same time, are not as thin.
So should we all go out and buy an LED? Here’s a brief breakdown on the advantages of a shiny new LED set:
-Better colour saturation (this means colours are vivid and don’t grain out)
-Lower power consumption due to the more efficient lighting system
-Far less light leakage in darker scenes compared to florescent sets (especially using the Full-Array method)
-If you want to go super-thin, like the Edge-lighting method.
But what about cost? Is there a difference? Whenever new technology comes out, the price point is going to be much higher than the predecessor. This is no exception. For instance a Samsung 40 inch 1080p LCD television is priced currently at around $850. The same brand, same size, same resolution LED television is priced at $1800.
Brad Globe
It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that television became the must-have for your home. Nothing much happened until 2007, when LCD televisions became the most popular choice of set next to the outdated CRT’s. Fast forward a few years. See that LCD TV you just bought? Well. It’s out of date.
The latest buzz in the land of television is not the biggest screen anymore, its LED TV technology. But is it really time to toss your old set and trade it up for the latest model? Before making that judgement, we need to figure out exactly what an LED TV is and why it’s different from an LCD set. LCD’s produce their image when the LCD’s pixels are “backlit”. The method to which these pixels are “backlit” determines the difference between an LCD and an LED television. Up until recently, the method to backlight these pixels was by fluorescent lighting. LED’s (you guessed it) use LED lighting to backlight these pixels. Since the chips and pixels don’t create their own light source, all LED televisions are LCD’s.
There are two types of backlighting applied to this new technology. Edge and Full-Array. Edge lighting describes the position of the LED bulbs placed around the edge of the screen. The advantage is that by doing this, the set’s depth can be trimmed down to seemingly impossible dimensions, making it super-thin. Unfortunately, this lighting method results in lower black levels, and a visible light “halo” around the edge of the screen.Full-Array lighting is the better choice. The lights are placed in a series of rows behind the entire surface of the screen. What this means is that a little chip determines the darkness and brightness in specific spots on the screen. Referred to as “local dimming” the main advantage is that the black levels on Full-Array sets are much greater than Edge lighting sets, but at the same time, are not as thin.
So should we all go out and buy an LED? Here’s a brief breakdown on the advantages of a shiny new LED set:
-Better colour saturation (this means colours are vivid and don’t grain out)
-Lower power consumption due to the more efficient lighting system
-Far less light leakage in darker scenes compared to florescent sets (especially using the Full-Array method)
-If you want to go super-thin, like the Edge-lighting method.
But what about cost? Is there a difference? Whenever new technology comes out, the price point is going to be much higher than the predecessor. This is no exception. For instance a Samsung 40 inch 1080p LCD television is priced currently at around $850. The same brand, same size, same resolution LED television is priced at $1800.
Brad Globe
It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that television became the must-have for your home. Nothing much happened until 2007, when LCD televisions became the most popular choice of set next to the outdated CRT’s. Fast forward a few years. See that LCD TV you just bought? Well. It’s out of date.
The latest buzz in the land of television is not the biggest screen anymore, its LED TV technology. But is it really time to toss your old set and trade it up for the latest model? Before making that judgement, we need to figure out exactly what an LED TV is and why it’s different from an LCD set. LCD’s produce their image when the LCD’s pixels are “backlit”. The method to which these pixels are “backlit” determines the difference between an LCD and an LED television. Up until recently, the method to backlight these pixels was by fluorescent lighting. LED’s (you guessed it) use LED lighting to backlight these pixels. Since the chips and pixels don’t create their own light source, all LED televisions are LCD’s.
There are two types of backlighting applied to this new technology. Edge and Full-Array. Edge lighting describes the position of the LED bulbs placed around the edge of the screen. The advantage is that by doing this, the set’s depth can be trimmed down to seemingly impossible dimensions, making it super-thin. Unfortunately, this lighting method results in lower black levels, and a visible light “halo” around the edge of the screen.Full-Array lighting is the better choice. The lights are placed in a series of rows behind the entire surface of the screen. What this means is that a little chip determines the darkness and brightness in specific spots on the screen. Referred to as “local dimming” the main advantage is that the black levels on Full-Array sets are much greater than Edge lighting sets, but at the same time, are not as thin.
So should we all go out and buy an LED? Here’s a brief breakdown on the advantages of a shiny new LED set:
-Better colour saturation (this means colours are vivid and don’t grain out)
-Lower power consumption due to the more efficient lighting system
-Far less light leakage in darker scenes compared to florescent sets (especially using the Full-Array method)
-If you want to go super-thin, like the Edge-lighting method.
But what about cost? Is there a difference? Whenever new technology comes out, the price point is going to be much higher than the predecessor. This is no exception. For instance a Samsung 40 inch 1080p LCD television is priced currently at around $850. The same brand, same size, same resolution LED television is priced at $1800.
Brad Globe
It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that television became the must-have for your home. Nothing much happened until 2007, when LCD televisions became the most popular choice of set next to the outdated CRT’s. Fast forward a few years. See that LCD TV you just bought? Well. It’s out of date.
The latest buzz in the land of television is not the biggest screen anymore, its LED TV technology. But is it really time to toss your old set and trade it up for the latest model? Before making that judgement, we need to figure out exactly what an LED TV is and why it’s different from an LCD set. LCD’s produce their image when the LCD’s pixels are “backlit”. The method to which these pixels are “backlit” determines the difference between an LCD and an LED television. Up until recently, the method to backlight these pixels was by fluorescent lighting. LED’s (you guessed it) use LED lighting to backlight these pixels. Since the chips and pixels don’t create their own light source, all LED televisions are LCD’s.
There are two types of backlighting applied to this new technology. Edge and Full-Array. Edge lighting describes the position of the LED bulbs placed around the edge of the screen. The advantage is that by doing this, the set’s depth can be trimmed down to seemingly impossible dimensions, making it super-thin. Unfortunately, this lighting method results in lower black levels, and a visible light “halo” around the edge of the screen.Full-Array lighting is the better choice. The lights are placed in a series of rows behind the entire surface of the screen. What this means is that a little chip determines the darkness and brightness in specific spots on the screen. Referred to as “local dimming” the main advantage is that the black levels on Full-Array sets are much greater than Edge lighting sets, but at the same time, are not as thin.
So should we all go out and buy an LED? Here’s a brief breakdown on the advantages of a shiny new LED set:
-Better colour saturation (this means colours are vivid and don’t grain out)
-Lower power consumption due to the more efficient lighting system
-Far less light leakage in darker scenes compared to florescent sets (especially using the Full-Array method)
-If you want to go super-thin, like the Edge-lighting method.
But what about cost? Is there a difference? Whenever new technology comes out, the price point is going to be much higher than the predecessor. This is no exception. For instance a Samsung 40 inch 1080p LCD television is priced currently at around $850. The same brand, same size, same resolution LED television is priced at $1800.