LED Technology
How do LED Televisions work?
LEDs (light-emitting diodes) have been around for decades, but their introduction into HDTV design and availability on the high street is a fairly recent development.
LED televisions are basically LCD TVs with one crucial difference, the traditional backfluorescent lamps that illuminate the screen have been replaced by hundreds of small LEDs.
To give an LED TV its full name is more of a mouthful: LED lit LCD. LED TVs still employ standard LCD TV technology; light from behind the screen is shone through the television screen's matrix of tiny coloured liquid crystal cells. Signals control each cell, letting varying amounts of colour through, and a picture is built up.
The downside at the moment is common to any new technology, a hefty price tag. The benefits on the other hand are apparently threefold. LED TVs are slimmer, more energy-efficient, and picture quality too is impressive.
There are basically two types of LED TVs, Edge lit LED TVs and back lit LED TVs. Edge lit models are simply those with the LED lighting placed around the the edge of the screen. Without the traditional bulky lamps at the back of the TV, Edge lit LED models can be designed to be incredibly slim. LED TV pictures are vibrant, sharp, detailed and oozing with depth, though the viewing angle is poor (a common problem on LCD TVs that the new back lighting doesn't appear to have resolved).
