LED backlighting - the truth

PCM2 · 16 Nov 2010 at 17:19

I'm sorry to excite you all with such an epic title

. TFT Central has recently published an excellent article exploring the different types of LED backlighting and the merits and drawbacks of such technology. I thought it was so good that I summarised the key points for your (lazy) reading pleasure here. I see an alarming number of people who are drawn in by the marketing hype and those huge 'dynamic contrast' numbers as well as thinking that LED-backlighting ('LED') creates a distinct category of monitor from 'LCD'. This should help sort out the confusion.

PCM2 · 17 Nov 2010 at 17:24

Haha yes - of course. Thanks for providing an excellent article (I wouldn't have pimped it if it wasn't excellent

). It really helps explain a misunderstood technology in a simple way that people can actually understand - which is more than the manufacturers have done.

PCM2 · 18 Nov 2010 at 15:58

Colour Accuracy - aspects of colour reproduction do not depend on the type of backlight at all. They are determined by how accurately the monitor is set up in the factory, the characteristics of the panel technology and the internal electronics to a degree.

PCM2 · 18 Nov 2010 at 17:25

Might make a nice heater.

One alternative implementation of OLED technology is actually to use white OLED backlights (WOLED) on a per-pixel basis combined with an LCD matrix. Because they are organic they don't create anywhere near as much heat but are prohibitively expensive at the moment.

PCM2 · 19 Nov 2010 at 10:00

It depends more on the individual monitors. A lot of LED backlit monitors have been poorly calibrated and/or poorly put together so that issues such as bad default colour balance, excessive gamma and excess backlight bleedthrough are more prevalent. Some LED backlit monitors, such as the Samsung XL2370, BX2450 and PX2370 offer some of the 'best in class' image quality and do offer visible improvements in image quality. It would be very unscientific and presumptious to say this was down to the backlighting - Samsung don't have any similarly priced CCFL-backlit monitors in that price range or quality class at the moment to compare with.