What’s the Difference Between Different Television Screen Types (and Why Should I Care)?

The different kinds of flatscreen panels used in televisions are a detail that most people don’t think too much about because, when shopping in an electronics store, it’s pretty hard to notice any real difference. Nonetheless, there are a few things worth considering with each type of panel. Let’s go over the most popular and the pros and cons of each.

Plasma Panels

Plasma panels are on their way out because they have a couple of serious downsides. Primarily, they generate a lot of heat because they burn phosphors to display images. More heat generation means more power consumption, so they’re not as eco-friendly as other panel types. Also, static images on plasma panels can cause a screen-burn effect if left for too long. Earlier plasma TVs used to have shorter lifespans than LCDs, but this has since changed and only something you need to worry about when buying used. Either way, you can expect a minimum of 30,000 hours of use.

On the plus side, because plasma panels are used less and less their prices are down. If you buy plasma, you’ll generally be able to get a larger television for less money—you just might make up that cost with your electric bill. Plasma panels are also known for their better contrast ratios, rendering of rich colors and deeper blacks, and little to no ghosting effects when displaying fast-moving images.

LCD Panels

LCD panels are the most commonly-used type of panel in flatscreen televisions today. They offer a lot of benefits, such as low heat generation, no static image burn (like you might encounter with a plasma-based display), and a greater brightness over plasma. LCD panels tend to be lighter in weight (than plasma), and you have a choice between active shutter and passive glasses when purchasing a 3D-capable model.

On the other hand, LCDs have never been great at rendering blacks or avoiding the ghosting problem with fast-moving images. Although the 120Hz and 240Hz refresh rate modes can help with this problem, this can make the motion in films look kind of like they were shot with a consumer video camera. If you’re okay with switching between these modes when you’re switching between sports and film, this isn’t much of a disadvantage. LCDs are also prone to dead pixels, and it’s fairly common to purchase a TV with at least one dead pixel. Generally many pixels have to die before a warranty claim can be filed, so if you have one or two dead pixels and it bothers you a lot you should exchange the TV before your exchange period runs out.

In-Plane Switching

LCD panels with In-Plane Switching (IPS) offer an advantage over standard LCDs and plasma panels. You may have noticed that when you walk to the sides of a flatscreen television the picture becomes lighter and, in some cases, begins to invert. This is because of the viewing angle is rather narrow on most TVs. LCD panels that offer IPS, however, generally have a viewing angle of 170 degrees. As a result, you can watch your TV from a greater angle and the picture will look about the same. If you’ve ever seen a recent Apple monitor, iMac, or iPad, you’ve seen a LCD panel with IPS.

LED Backlighting

A standard LCD display is backlit by CCFLs, which aren’t as efficient or effective as LEDs. Not all LED backlit displays are created equal, meaning the evenness of the backlighting can vary, but that’s easy to see by displaying a pure black image on the television. This will allow you to see the evenness of the backlighting. That aside, LED-backlit displays offer quite a few advantages. They make thinner displays possible, consume less power, provide added brightness, and—what’s probably most important to LCD buyers—offer better contrast levels. They’re better at dissipating heat, too. You will, of course, pay more for LED backlighting, but it’s generally worth it.

OLED Displays

OLEDs are organic LEDs are pretty great. They’re thin, light, and don’t require backlighting. As a result they’re capable of very deep blacks and can offer a superior contrast ratio. OLED displays tend to offer images that look closer to reality because of their contrast capabilities. Where an LCD panel may look a little washed out with white when displaying dark images, you won’t see that problem with an OLED panel. Overall, the only real disadvantage of OLED is its higher cost and scarcer availability.

But How Do I Choose?

When choosing a type of panel, you really have to choose which kind offers the biggest advantages. If many people are going to be watching in a wide room from various angles, you’ll probably want to pick up an LCD with IPS. If you’re primarily watching sports, a plasma display or LCD with a faster refresh rate (of 120Hz or 240Hz) will serve you well, but a plain old LCD might not be the best option. Of course, if you can afford an OLED panel and can find a suitable television with one, that’s probably your best bet. But in the end, you’re going to need to figure out which features matter most for you and choose based on that.

LCD TV Buying Guide Announces the Best 2012 LED Televisions 55” to 60” and Under $2000

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) February 14, 2012

Editors from LCDTVBuyingGuide.com Jack Burden and Robert Wiley choose from LED-LCD TVs introduced early in 2012 by manufacturers such as Sony, Sharp, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Vizio and Toshiba. “There is no secret to us where the best value plays will be in the under 60 category,” states Robert Wiley. “We review so many TVs and know the manufactures so well that we know where the best deals will be. But for simplicity sake we have limited this selection to only LED-LCD TVs and excluded plasma technology from the comparison.”

One of the top models selected for the list is the Samsung UN55ES6500 LED TV about which editors state, “Samsung is very proud of the vast array of Apps they are now providing and the Samsung UN55ES6500 has access to them all. There are over 1500 Apps – most of them small and priced between .99 and $2.99. Aside from that the usual premium channels options are also incuded. There is a new Search All feature to allow you to find videos via Apps or other connected devices as well. Social media hookups like Facebook and Twitter are of course present.” Editors note the price should also be very good as this model sheds a few of the more expensive ones.

Another model from the authors selection in the 55” size range is the LG 55LMG860 55” LED TV which includes Google TV.. “The G in LG new LMG860 series stands for Google, more specifically it indicates that alongside the Smart TV feature found in other LG televisions the new LMG models also add the functionality of Google TV and it’s search, web browsing and other features.”

LG had another entry into the list with the LG 55LM6700 for which the authors comment, “The LG 55LM6700 also has the modernistic avante-garde design that leaves nothing but the picture image in front of you. That’s due to the .2″ (5mm) depth and virtually no frame. You will not have to worry about reflection from the TV bezel – something that has annoyed us especially from black gloss bezels of the past. We hate to mention another manufacturer, but it’s similar though less deep to the D8000 series LED Televisions by Samsung last year.”

The Sharp LC-60LE745U Review series was the only 60” size TV to make the list while a second Samsung UN55ES6100 LED TV Review also made this list. According to the reviewer, “The incumbent clear coat screen technology that the UN55ES6100 contains is one of our favorites for 2012. We enjoy the depth perception it creates and black levels and contrast while allowing whites to really peak out. Brightness and peak whites are also exceptional traits.”

TV tech in 2012: voice control, OLED and 4K

This year, 3D is taking a backseat. Upcoming developments in television are more varied, and offer a lot more mainstream appeal.

In 2011, 3D technology sparked the most HDTV buzz at the International CES trade show. At this year’s industry gathering, however, 3D definitely took a backseat. Upcoming developments in high-definition TV are more varied and more interesting, and they offer a lot more mainstream appeal.

Big, beautiful HDTVs earned the most accolades at CES this year. Most notable were superslim OLED displays, voice- and gesture-control interfaces, and ultrahigh-resolution sets.

Sure, 3D is still around: Many of the new sets unveiled at this year’s show will have passive, active, or glasses-free 3D viewing when they come to market. However, 3D has moved significantly down the list of marquee features, even though we’ll see more 3DTVs in 2012 than ever before.

Some of the most interesting TV technologies we saw at CES are too content- or price-prohibitive to make a splash in 2012. That said, they offer an intriguing look at the near future of HDTVs. Here’s a quick roundup of some of the best of the show.

OLED stunners

Judging by the initialisms alone, LED and OLED may seem similar–but when it comes to TV tech, they’re entirely different animals.

A traditional LED (light-emitting diode) set is actually an LED-backlit liquid crystal display television–in such a set, LEDs illuminate an LCD screen from behind or from the edges. But in an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV, the source of illumination and of the resulting image are one and the same; with no backlighting needed, OLED allows for superthin, energy-efficient sets that produce deep blacks, sharp contrast from pixel to pixel, vivid colors, and a stunning picture overall.

At this year’s CES, companies showcased the promise of OLED beautifully. Gorgeous, 55-inch OLED TVs from LG and Samsung–as well as a Crystal LED prototype from Sony that uses similar technology–stole the show. What’s more, these sets are as razor-thin as they are razor-sharp: The thinnest, LG’s OLED model, measures less than 0.16 inch thick and weighs just 16.5 pounds.

Alas, while the LG and Samsung OLED sets are both slated to be available by the end of the year (Sony’s is strictly in prototype form at this stage), they’ll cost a pretty penny. Although neither company has announced pricing or release-date specifics just yet, the OLED HDTVs are expected to cost anywhere between $8000 and $10,000 when they arrive.

Voice- and gesture-controlled TVs

In 2012, even couch potatoes might get a workout, and quiet nights in front of the tube may involve a lot more talking. If CES was any indication of what’s to come, hand gestures and voice input may soon replace the standard remote control.

At CES, LG demoed sets that users can control with a Wii-like, movement-sensitive device, as well as remotes holding built-in microphones for voice control. Samsung, meanwhile, moved its gesture- and voice-control functions inside the HDTV, showing off a set that lets users change channels, control the volume, and perform other tasks with gestures and spoken commands. An embedded camera drives a face-recognition system that can log you in for customized features, parental controls, and access to social networking sites.

Numerous other tech companies are developing voice and gesture products that sit outside of the television itself. For instance, voice-recognition company Nuance announced Dragon TV, an app that adds speech controls to HDTVs, set-top boxes, and remote controls.

Will any of these alternative inputs supplant the tried-and-true analog clicker? That remains to be seen, but 2012 should be a testing ground for voice and gesture input, especially given the number of Web-connected sets that would otherwise require a keyboard to control them.

Super-high resolution

Want to see every pore, blemish, and cosmetic surgery scar on actors’ faces? Finding 1080p to be insufficiently detailed? Good news is on the horizon.

At CES, LG demoed a so-called 4K TV that displays more than 8 million pixels at a resolution of 3840 by 2160–four times the pixel count of a 1080p HDTV. Samsung, Sharp, and Toshiba also showed 4K TV sets. And Sharp upped the ante by showing an 85-inch display with 8K, 7680-by-4320-pixel resolution (16 times that of a 1080p set).

In demos, these very high-resolution sets had notably better image quality, sharper lines, and finer detail than a 1080p set, even when upconverting 1080p footage from a Blu-ray player.

However, this is a TV technology best enjoyed up close, which seriously limits its potential for in-home viewing. From a distance, the 4K and 8K sets appear only slightly sharper than a 1080p set; but once you draw nearer, the extra detail and resolution are remarkable. For example, in a huge crowd scene on an 8K TV, you can see the facial features of people far in the back–about 80 or so yards from the camera–but spotting such detail requires getting very close to the screen.

Beyond that issue, not a whole lot of 4K or 8K content is available for these behemoths–there’s even less than the paltry selection of 3D content available right now. In the short term, this TV tech will be limited to sports bars and digital signage, as its most logical current application would be to display four separate 1080p signals at full resolution on a single screen.

Sony BRAVIA KDL-55HX925 3D LED TV

The Sony BRAVIA KDL-55HX925 is, surprisingly, the smallest model in the company’s top range of LED-backlit LCD televisions. Despite being a 55in panel it’s dwarfed by the gargantuan 65in KDL-65HX925, which hasn’t been released yet but will command a price tag even higher than the 55in’s $4499.

The BRAVIA KDL-55HX925 has every feature Sony has built into its 2011 range of LED TVs, so gadget geeks will be spoilt, but the HX925’s glossy design — attractive and stylish though it is — means it is not appropriate for watching in a bright room. Read more »

Toshiba 46SL417U LED HDTV Review: An All-Around Average TV

Toshiba Consumer Electronics Toshiba 46″ SL417U LED HDTV, 120Hz 46SL417U Review, by Yardena Arar July 26, 2011

Samsung Smart TVs to make life smarter

Samsung Series 8 LED TV review

If we had one gripe with the Samsung Series 8, it would be that its price is too high and the screen sizes on offer are limited. The Series 8 plasma looks almost as good, is a bit cheaper and offers larger screen sizes. Considered on its own, the Samsung Series 8 is one of the best LED TVs we’ve seen.

The Series 8 is Samsung’s top-tier LED TV, with all the features of lesser TVs like the Series 7 and Series 6 as well as boosts to picture quality and video processing. If you can afford to pay for it it’s an excellent TV with no crippling flaws — the few problems are mainly restricted to the TV’s Web features. However, its Series 8 plasma rival has almost equal picture quality and offers larger screen sizes.

Samsung Series 8 3D LED TV: Design

The Series 8 looks just like its Series 8 plasma sibling, apart from a much thinner bezel around its 55in screen. The 5mm thick chromed bezel blends into the space behind the television, so in a dimly-lit room the Series 8’s screen stands out. It’s a very modern-looking TV — times have changed since chunky piano black LCD TVs dominated the market two years ago. The Loewe-esque four-legged stand is a feature we have liked on Samsung’s TVs since 2010, so we’re happy to see the trend continuing here.

At 29.7mm thick the Series 8 is a reasonably slim TV. It’s not as stunning as the Series 9 LED TV from 2010, which was thinner than a pencil, but we think the Series 8 would look great mounted against a wall with Samsung’s thin picture-frame wall mount.

The Samsung Series 8 is bundled with a novel remote control, which has a standard remote control layout on one side and a QWERTY tactile keyboard on the other. The QWERTY keyboard makes entering Web addresses or router passwords much easier than the traditional remote control keypad, and we like its inclusion even though we think it’ll get minimal day-to-day use. We did have some trouble getting used to flipping it over when a text-friendly prompt came up, and we found we had to be within a few metres of the TV to use it. Read more »

Building on its success in LED-backlight TVs

Vizio, a leading supplier of LED-backlit LCD HDTVs, announced it will enter the LED lighting market with a series of replacement lamps using LEDs supplied by Epistar and Seoul Semiconductor.

Vizio’s LED lamps are recyclable, and feature a glass-free design to prohibit shattering. The LED lamps are designed to give off a warm hue of light, reminiscent of a natural source. The LEDs product line (see table) will feature triple the lifespan of compact fluorescent bulbs, with up to 25,000 hours of usage. Vizio plans to enter the market in late Q4 of this year.

Vizio high-efficiency LED lighting product collection

Vizio’s partners in the LED lighting space include Epistar and Seoul Semiconductor, two of the world’s top-ten suppliers of LED lighting. “This is a natural progression for Vizio beyond consumer electronics. We look forward to Vizio applying its innovation, marketing and distribution channels to save American consumers even more with its new line of LED lighting,” said Donald Leo, Vice President of Seoul Semiconductor.

“Vizio’s expansion into the LED lighting market stands to challenge the convention in the same way that it has had in the flat-panel television market,” said B.J. Lee, Chairman of Epistar.

As North America’s largest shipper of LED-backlit HDTVs, Vizio realized a 2000% growth in total shipments year over year, with over 2 million units shipped in 2010. From 2009 – 2010, the company’s contribution to energy savings (based on power consumption of 2009 vs. 2010 Vizio HDTV models at an estimated savings of 280,000 MWh/yr) could be viewed as equivalent to the energy needed to power the city of Las Vegas for more than a year.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, the residential sector general service light (A19 type) bulb purchase rate of LEDs will increase approximately 300% between 2010 and 2015 to 100 million units.

LED driver IC sales in future

LED driver IC sales will reach nearly $3.5 billion in 2015 from nearly $2 billion in 2010, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12%, according to Mountain View, CA-based market research firm Strategies Unlimited.

These are among the findings in Strategies Unlimited’s new report “LED Driver ICs – 2011.” Sales for LCD backlights will dominate through the period, with growth from edge-lit TVs and monitors. LED lighting applications will be the “next big thing” for LED drivers and driver ICs, beginning with LED replacement bulbs, as a response to improvements in technology and the phase-out of incandescent bulbs. Read more »

A cheap 24in Full HD LED TV with good picture quality

Grundig’s Vanto GLED2407HDC LED TV is reasonably priced for a small-screen TV, and has good picture quality as well as a slim design and good energy efficiency. Unless you have a pressing need for the Internet features offered by new TVs from big brands like Samsung and Sony, we can’t see any reason not to buy this TV if you’re looking for a small screen in the bedroom or office.

Grundig Vanto GLED2407HDC LED TV: Design, features and power

The materials the Grundig Vanto GLED2407HDC are constructed of feel slightly cheap — the plastic bezel around the screen is a bit tacky and easily picks up fingerprints, for example, and the base of the TV’s stand is a simple square of glass — but the TV is solid and doesn’t feel flimsy when standing. The stand swivels over a small range. Read more »