The truth about LED and LCD TVs

Buying a TV has never been a simple task. Sure bigger was always considered to be better, but in this day and age, there are a lot more features to take into account. You need to make sure you’re getting the best value for your money and that’s where we come in. I’ve had a lot of people ask me, which is better – an LCD or LED TV, size be damned? Even the lay TV viewer knows there’s a difference, but most might not be too sure of what that is and what to spend their money on. Allow me to shed some light on the subject.

What are LED and LCD TVs exactly?
Let us start off by understanding what an LED-backlit TV is. Prior to LEDs, LCD televisions used to use fluorescent tubes to light up the display. These tubes are known as CCFL - Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps. LCD televisions using CCFL have a number of lights that run along the back of the screen. This makes the TVs using CCFLs a lot thicker, as compared to LED backlit TVs. Most LCD televisions still use this technology for the panels, which distributes the light evenly across the display. LED-backlit TVs are by no means replacing LCD TVs with CCFLs, as of now. They are merely offering the consumer a choice of having the better technology both in the form of quality, as well as aesthetics. However, LEDs do this job way better and are more efficient, as compared to CCFLs. To get into it further, an LED TV is basically an LCD television with LED backlighting. Manufacturers call them LED TVs to set them apart from conventional LCDs. This can actually confuse a consumer in the way it is advertised.

Edge-LED backlit technology (Image credit: Sony)

On a side note - a certain company had been pulled up in the UK, because of the term LED TV being used in their advertising campaigns. Henceforth, the company has been disallowed from using the name ‘LED TV’, while advertising their range of LED-backlit TVs in the UK.

The performance is not just gauged by the quality of the images viewable on the screen, but by the fact that these LEDs have a longer lifespan than fluorescent tubes and consume around 30 percent less energy.

RGB Dynamic LED technology