LED HDTV - Understanding the Different Types of LED Televisions

LED HDTV - Understanding the Different Types of LED Televisions

There are two main types of the LED HDTV, and they can be split into two different versions by the type of back lighting they use. One is called an edge-lit LED and the other is known as a back-lit LED television. In this article we will look at the back-lit LED HDTV and try to understand how it works.

What is a Back-lit LED HDTV all

All TVs of this type are lit by LED lights, which have been shown to give some advantages over other types of lighting. Back-lit LED televisions have the LED lights placed directly behind the screen, which is similar the the way an LCD TV has it's lighting arranged.

These LED lights are placed into blocks, and are grouped together so that they can be controlled at the same time. Therefore, each block has the ability to be switched off and on separately to the other blocks around it. The advantage of this is that in an image with some dark areas and some light areas, the dark parts can have their blocks switched of completely to enable an completely black signal.

This extra control isn't possible on an LCD television.

Local-dimming Technology

The name of this technique is local dimming, and this is the term you should be looking for if you want to buy an LED TV that is built in this way. The main advantage is an LED HDTV with this type of technology may have a better contrast ratio than other types of high-definition television. LCDs have always traditionally had a problem with a poor contrast ratio compared to that of a plasma TV, and so this method of backlighting is aimed at addressing this problem.

The Problems With Local-dimming
As ever with all of this technology, there is a downside to this idea. The problems occur when one block of lights is covered by a light and a dark part of the image. This will then have the same problems associated with an LCD TV where the block cannot be switched of completely, and so it is impossible to get the black part completely dark.

There is a way to resolve this issue, and that would be to have one LED light for every pixel on the TV screen - but the problem with this is that it would be far to expensive to build a TV in this way and so they would be too expensive for most people to buy. However, with all things taken into account, this method of building a back-lit LED HDTV does generally produce a TV with a better picture than that of most LCD TVs.

LED HDTV Summary

So as we can see, there is actually more than one type of LED HDTV that you can buy, and the way that it is built can have a big effect on the quality of the picture that you get. So if you are looking to buy an LED television then it is important to understand the differences in design because they can have a big impact on the performance of the TV.

Back-lit LED HDTVs also have a couple of other disadvantages when compared to edge-lit models - or LCD televisions for that matter.

Rating For This Article is : 4.5Description: LED HDTV - Understanding the Different Types of LED Televisions Rating: 4.0 Reviewer: Mahfudz ItemReviewed: LED HDTV - Understanding the Different Types of LED Televisions

Twitter Delicious Digg Facebook Stumbleupon RSS