LED backlighting - the truth

PCM2

PCM2

PCM2

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I'm sorry to excite you all with such an epic title :D. 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.
 
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This whole LED debacle is surely one of the great marketing cons of the 21st century!! I have this argument with people on almost a daily basis, trying to explain that LED is basically LCD! So few get it!!
 
Legend said:
This whole LED debacle is surely one of the great marketing cons of the 21st century!! I have this argument with people on almost a daily basis, trying to explain that LED is basically LCD! So few get it!!
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Hear hear!
Though an LED screen usually is nicer than a CCFL lit screen it's not a good enough reason to replace your current CCFL LCD. (Like for like ofcourse).

What I really want for my pc is a 26" (ish) LED monitor. Can't find any though :(
 
Haha yes - of course. Thanks for providing an excellent article (I wouldn't have pimped it if it wasn't excellent :D). It really helps explain a misunderstood technology in a simple way that people can actually understand - which is more than the manufacturers have done.
 
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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.
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Could we have this bit in bold size 72 font please?
 
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.
 
Interesting.. I was under the impression until reading that, that each pixel had it's own light source (i.e. 1 LED per pixel). Pretty stunned (but I suppose not surprised) that it's mostly marketting crap.

The thing that stands out is that at least your key points make no suggestion that LED improves quality. Definately a good thing on efficiency however.
 
Scougar said:
Interesting.. I was under the impression until reading that, that each pixel had it's own light source (i.e. 1 LED per pixel). Pretty stunned (but I suppose not surprised) that it's mostly marketting crap.

The thing that stands out is that at least your key points make no suggestion that LED improves quality. Definately a good thing on efficiency however.
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that would be 2073600 individual LED's on a 1920 x 1080 display :) that would get hot! :)
 
Might make a nice heater. :D

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.
 
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PCM2 said:
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.
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Blatantly not size 72. No wonder the guy underneath couldn't understand.
 
Good article and good summary, very helpful as I have been looking to replace my 6 year old Viewsonic 17" monitor and was looking at a LG E2240T led backlit monitor. From this article I understand that LED backlit monitors sometimes arent any better than ccfls, but am i right in thinking that they are not any worse than ccfls as well?
 
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.
 
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i'd probably add also that nearly all mainstream LED backlit monitors are paired with TN Film panels and so do not offer the same level of performance as a VA/IPS matrix would. As we see more VA and IPS panels with LED, image quality should improve

as PCM2 says though, LED doesn't guarantee you a better or worse performance necessarily
 
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