There are a lot of good deals on TVs during this boxing week. It’s surprising how TV prices have dropped compared to just last year. Speaking of flat-screen TVs lets talk about these new “LED TVs” on the market. In brief, every LCD screen has a light source behind it, (that’s why TVs, monitors, laptops, etc give off light.)
Traditionally in most large LCD panels like TVs and computer screens the light sources used are CCFLs, or fluorescent lamps, (usually vertical tubes.) But recently geeky scientists have discovered a way to replace these long lamps with smaller LEDs or “Light Emitting Diodes” which offer many advantages over bulky CCFLs such as being more energy efficient. So LEDs change the way the picture is lit but the screen itself is still 100% LCD technology, so you still have slow response times, ghosting, and other problems associated with all LCD displays (top of the line LCDs will mitigate some of these problems eg: 240Hz refresh rate, but you have to shell out more $$$)
So you can have an LED-LCD TV, but you can’t use LED interchangeably with LCD as if a TV can only be one but not the other. The reason LED lit LCDs are marketed sometimes as just “LED TVs” is because consumers who don’t know what a light emitting diode is falsely assume that LED means a new type of screen technology that’s “better than LCDs.” which makes them more willing to pay the extra premium to buy an “LED TV,” or are more likely to upgrade their current CCFL-LCD.
Aren't LED TV's more energy efficient too?
My boyfriend just bought a 55" LED TV for our house… for his "man cave" aka our living room 🙁
Yup, they're also brighter and have better contrast ratios than traditional sets. Congrats on your guy's new TV.