LED TV - The Benefits and Drawbacks of Buying an LED TV

Most new TVs sold today are designed based on traditional LCD television technology. This is because, for the most part, consumers still desire the image clarity and crisp colors of a plasma-screen television. These sets also offer better picture quality for the money spent since they are generally more cost-effective when compared to plasma televisions. When looking at LED television sets though, consumers may be surprised to find out that the newer generation of LED TV's do not use liquid crystals as the main light source in the television's screen. Instead, these modern televisions utilize an entirely different technology known as Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology.

Liquid crystal backlighting is the standard in traditional LCD flat-panel TVs. In these TVs, a current is provided to the liquid crystals which are in turn charged emitters that emit light. When the lights are emitted by the LEDs, a phosphor powder mixture produces a visible light which then travels to the screen's surface where it causes blacks and shades to appear. Because these sets generally use an analog signal and not digital, the picture quality produced by these televisions are of lower quality than those offered by today's high-definition television offerings. However, the improved picture quality of LED TV's makes up for this somewhat in increased cost.

LED (light emitting diode) television sets utilize several components such as backlight, front light, and the base unit. The backlight serves two purposes in an LED television set. The backlight is the LCD television's source of light so when an image is being displayed, the backlight brightens up allowing the user to view the images crisply. Furthermore, the backlight acts as an output to provide the video signal to the television. As we've discussed before, the increased number of pixels in the screens of these television sets provides clearer color and less light emission, resulting in clearer images and a better viewing experience.