If you have read our previous article about the introduction to LED TV before, you will know that a LED TV is actually a LCD TV with LED backlights. What you might not know yet, is that a LED TV can be further categorized into 2 groups: the Edge-Lit LED TV and Local Dimming LED TV. The method being used to illuminate the television is what differentiate these 2 types of LED TVs apart.
Let’s start from the basics. Every LCD-based television depends on a backlight to illuminate the LCD panel itself. The traditional LCD TVs use the fluorescent backlights known as CCFL; while the newer LED TVs use LED. The advantages of using LEDs as the backlight source is that they are more energy efficient, and also provide better picture quality by delivering deep black levels that in some circumstances surpass those of the best plasma sets.
There are 2 methods being used by the LED backlights to illuminate the LCD TVs today. The first method is called edge-lit. Using this method, the LEDs are being arranged along the edge of the LCD screen, and this allows a television to exist in an extremely slim form factor. The Samsung B8000
The second method is called local dimming. In this version of LED TVs, the LEDs are located behind the screen where the individual LEDs can be dimmed or turned off as needed. This allows the local dimming LED TV sets to produce extremely deep black levels, which are the most important ingredient in HDTV picture quality. Some examples of television sets that make use of local dimming technology includes the Samsung 8500
So which backlighting method is better? The answer is the local dimming method. In fact, the local dimming LED TV produce the best picture quality among all LCD televisions. The edge-lid TVs produce better picture quality than the previous generation LCD TV, but when compared to local dimming TVs, it shows relatively poor uniformity and backlight fluctuations that can definitely be distracting–although a new firmware update by Samsung is aimed at correcting this issue.
Here’s a great interview video between AVforums.tv and a Toshiba folk, Bruce, who explains about LCD vs LED TV, Local Dimming vs Global dimming, and Edge lit vs Full Matrix LED TV.
