LCD vs LED
There’s not doubt about it, when it comes to TVs and Monitors the questions of LCD vs LED is the biggest of them all, and is something you should definitely know the answer to. I’ll show you what the biggest difference is and you can see our LCD vs LED homepage to see to see the other differences.
People say LED or LCD TV simply because it’s easier and quicker to say. But if you want to know the proper terms when discussing LCD vs LED you should get to used to saying LED-LCD TV, or LCD TV. That’s right. Both are LCD TVs. That’s because the two types of TVs use the same display to show the picture. LCD is short for liquid crystal display. Where LED is actually referring to a light emitting diode. A light source. And that’s the biggest difference between LCD vs LED TVs.
LCD vs LED – Getting Technical on what a LCD is.
The display of both the LED-LCD and LCD TV work something like this. There is one large piece of polarized plastic with grooves in it. There is another plastic panel on top that also has grooves in it. In between the two panels of polarized plastic is the Liquid Crystal. There are three states of matter known to man. Liquid, Solid, and Gas. But there are certain objects in the world that exist in different phases of matter, and that’s where liquid crystal comes in. As it is neither a liquid or a solid, but both. And that’s the key to how the display works.
The grooves inside of the panels are actually pixels, and the liquid crystal naturally sits in these groves. Going a little deeper, there are three sub pixels per pixels. Each sub-pixel is colored either red, blue or green (RGB). Behind each of these grooves is a transistor that will read the electrical output, sent through the polarized plastic sheets. The cool thing is the liquid crystals actually respond to electrical input and will actually twist and turn according to the voltage being applied. And it’s how much they turn and twist that will determine the color being displayed. That was the extremely simple way of explaining it, but in it’s simplest terms that’s how the display works and unless you’re an engineer there’s really no reason to go any deeper.
LCD vs LED – So what about the LED.
You see there is no such thing as a LED only TV. LED is the light source in a LED-LCD TV. The light source in a LCD only TV is called a CCFL. Which is short for Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp. Look above at work, those lights you see are big fluorescent lamps. Look at a Lite Brite or even better, look at the end of your TV remote control. That is a LED. You will notice that the LED light only lights up a certain area, it’s small and precise. Where that CCFL or fluorescent lamp at work is pretty, well, everywhere! It’s not controlled, much like the over head light in your room, or the sun, the light will light up everything. Where a LED light, compared to a CCFL, the light will go where you point it at. It’s more controlled, more accurate, less overbearing.
So what does the backlight of the TV have to do with LCD vs LED?
That’s the biggest difference between the two and why they have their names. The electrical current to the display will twist and turn the the liquid crystals, but that means nothing unless there’s a light source shining into the liquid crystal to show the colors. You can twist and turn a prism all you want, but unless there’s a light source it will not display rainbow like colors. The same principle applies to your TV.
LCD vs LED - CCFL backlighting
The LCD only TVs use the CCFL backlighting. The light shines everywhere, and it will show a decent picture on your display, but it has it’s disadvantages. Like I said above the CCFL can be compared to the sun. If you put a thick blanket over your window in your home and you shine a flashlight (LED) there’s not much of a chance that light will break the blanket barrier. But if the sun is directly shining into your window you can be pretty sure it will break the thick blanket barrier. The same thing happens in a TV.
LCD vs LED – LED backlighting
The LED light is direct, and points where it needs to point. Shining the exact amount of light into the liquid crystal display to show you true to life colors. However the CCFL backlighting not only shines into the correct pixel but it’s also bleeds light into the other pixels as well being it’s not concentrated direct beam of light. The end result can lead to dark solid blacks being more grayish blacks, and bright colors such a blue being a lighter blue, and reds more light towards pinkish at times. The CCFL lighting is just to overbearing.
LCD vs LED – Light Leakage in CCFL
Another disadvantage to CCFL lighting is light leakage. When you watch a movie and you turn the lights off you can see this effect take place in a LCD only TV. The Fluorescent lighting can be so overbearing that the light can escape the TV altogether, over the polarized plastic and LCD display and show through the seems of the TV. Much like when you look at a closed door in your house, and the light is on in that room. You can see the light is on because the light is leaking out the bottom of the door. That same thing applies to the LCD only TV, and it’s a big reason why LCD only TVs are losing the war in the LCD vs LED debate.
The backlighting is the main difference. However there are many more. Take the cost of running your TV. Running CCFL lighted TVs cost twice to three times as much as running a LED-LCD TV. The LED-LCD TV also runs cooler. Because of price the LCD only TV outsold the LED-LCD TVs. However since the technology has been around for a while now, the cost of LED-LCD TVs has come down dramatically. Sometimes even lower than a LCD only TV. And in 2011, for the first time, LED-LCD TVs and monitors out sold LCD only TVs and Monitors. It’s doing this for three reasons.
1) The picture and colors on a LED-LCD TV is much more true to life and enjoyable to watch.
2) It costs less to run a LED-LCD TV. Much less in fact. The energy saving alone makes up for any price difference between the two styles of Tv.
3) The future is in LED-LCD TVs. I’ll explain below.
LCD vs LED – The Future
It’s very apparent of the superiority of the LED-LCD TV over LCD only TVs, manufactures and customers think so as well. Because of this, the LED-LCD is the future in TV for the time being. It’s the TV Model that will receive all the newest innovations such as 3D technology, Gaming Enhancements, Internet capabilities, and apps. It’s also the TV model that is receiving all the attention has far as refresh rates and automatic light dimming. Those last two mentioned makes buying a LED-LCD TV worth it alone. You can read about it on our homepage –> LCD vs LED. Here’s we are just highlighting everything and making know the main difference, on our LCD vs LED home page you will see all the other amazing differences.
Final Comments
The end result, is if you are in the market to buy a new TV, LED-LCD is the way to go. Costs less to run, MUCH better picture and color quality, and all the new tech is being directed at it. When it comes to the biggest question asked, LCD vs LED, LED-LCD TVs most assuredly wins.
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