Super Noob Question: Are LED TVs better quality?

[JMapleton]

I'm interested in upgrading my television and I've heard by some that LED TVs are not better quality but in person they do seem to be better quality.

Opinion?

 

[s44]

Edge-lit, no. Local dimming, yes.

Unfortunately, Samsung isn't making a local dimming set this year. Last year's 55B8500 was amazing. I believe Sony will have a comparably nice (and expensive) new set, though.

 

[Tristicus]

In person from what I've seen, yes. They have a richer color.

 

[sivart]

Better quality that what? Plasma, LCD, DLP, OLED?

 

[Gibson486]

Even the edge lit has better blacks than a normal LCD, but it still does not match that of a plasma. Local Dimmed LEDs are closer to a plasma in terms of blacks, but they are not there yet, but the gap is getting smaller. Most manufactures do not have new Local Dimming LED sets out yet for the 2010 market. Sony's last local dimming set was the XBR8....the XBR9 was a normal cathode light and the new LED sets are edge lit. As mentioned above, Samsung is not producing one local dimmed set this year.

 

[0roo0roo]

its just a backlight
panel tech still matters

 

[vi edit]

FWIW...I was wasting time in Sam's Club last night and they had a row of the 19" to 25" LCD's lined up. From about 20' away I picked out the LED LCD from the bunch. It just had a much, more natural picture to it than the typical washed out look of the low end LCD's.

The one in question was jus a $200 19" LED from Visio. But I felt bad for the poor Magnavox sitting next to it for $190. It was a night and day difference.

I didn't really help answer the question...but from what my limited experience is...an LED does look to be better than typical LCD. I'm still a sucker for plasma though. Can't beat the blacks & smoothness.

 

[Fallen Kell]

To answer the question, simply having LED backlights does not make the TV better quality. There is a good chance that TV's with local dimming LED backlights will be better quality that non-LED backlit TV's. The technology is vastly superior to CCFL's and edge-lit LED's allowing the ability to better fine tune the color and brightness of the TV image. There have been lots of work with RGB LED backlights with dimming as well to vastly increase the accuracy and range of the panel, but I have not heard of any on the market (it requires a calibration once LCD panel and backlights are assembled as all LED's and LCD's can contain flaws which would affect the TV). And the electric engine that controls the panel and LED's needs to be a lot more powerful to process the additional relative brightness and color output from the RGB LED's combined with the LCD's filter on top of it.

 

[tk149]

FWIW...I was wasting time in Sam's Club last night and they had a row of the 19" to 25" LCD's lined up. From about 20' away I picked out the LED LCD from the bunch. It just had a much, more natural picture to it than the typical washed out look of the low end LCD's.

The one in question was jus a $200 19" LED from Visio. But I felt bad for the poor Magnavox sitting next to it for $190. It was a night and day difference.

I didn't really help answer the question...but from what my limited experience is...an LED does look to be better than typical LCD. I'm still a sucker for plasma though. Can't beat the blacks & smoothness.

Unfortunately, the trouble with comparing TV's inside a store is that there is no guarantee that any attempt has been made to calibrate them properly. It's even possible that a customer has messed with the controls which could make even a clearly superior TV look bad compared to an inferior TV. Nevermind "torch" mode.

 

[vi edit]

Unfortunately, the trouble with comparing TV's inside a store is that there is no guarantee that any attempt has been made to calibrate them properly. It's even possible that a customer has messed with the controls which could make even a clearly superior TV look bad compared to an inferior TV. Nevermind "torch" mode.

You know, lots of people like to say that but I just don't think it's as true as they would think. I've gone through enough small screen LCD TV's to know if something is able to be calibrated well or not. A huge majority of smaller screen LCD's just look like total washed out rubbish. I've had about 8 different models in my house before I finally found one that was reasonably sastisfactory (at the time) which was a Sony KDL-19. I can tell you right now that the Visio LED I saw would make that Sony look grainy and washed out. It just had a very crisp picture with great contrast.

 

[Slick5150]

You know, lots of people like to say that but I just don't think it's as true as they would think. I've gone through enough small screen LCD TV's to know if something is able to be calibrated well or not. A huge majority of smaller screen LCD's just look like total washed out rubbish. I've had about 8 different models in my house before I finally found one that was reasonably sastisfactory (at the time) which was a Sony KDL-19. I can tell you right now that the Visio LED I saw would make that Sony look grainy and washed out. It just had a very crisp picture with great contrast.

That may be true but I'd have a hard time believing the LED backlighting was the reason for that.

 

[s44]

Sony's last local dimming set was the XBR8....the XBR9 was a normal cathode light and the new LED sets are edge lit.

HX900 = backlit local dimming

Not out yet, though, and will max at 52". They also have the HX800 which is a supposed edge-lit local dimming set. LG also has new models with both real and edge-lit local dimming.

edit - useful (and short) AVS Forum thread

 

[blackangst1]

Why is the forum putting ** in place of "us" everywhere?


Anyway. Back to discussion lol

 

[Anubis]

Why is the forum putting ** in place of "us" everywhere?


Anyway. Back to discussion lol

huh?

 

[Atty]

I had a 40'' Samsung LCD from two years ago that I replaced with a 40'' LED Samsung, the LED is much better. Colors and clarity wise. There are better sets than what I have but it was a great deal and we were in the market for a new TV anyway.

In short, yes, its a better tech, but just like everything else it still depends on what model, brand, series, etc, that you get. Tech isn't everything.