LED-backlit LCDs battle for 'best' title
LED backlights can dim or turn off individually as needed.
(Credit: CNET)Now that we've published our review of the LED-backlit Samsung LN46A950, we're already receiving e-mails from readers, apparently with money to burn, who're anxious to find out whether it's better than the Sony XBR8 series, another LED-backlit contender that will hit store shelves in October.
Sony and Samsung will also be joined by LG in the backlit-LCD race, despite apparent lack of reader interest in that company's LG 47LG90. Since we haven't reviewed either of those two models yet we don't know how they compare with one another or with the Samsung, but that won't stop us from "spec"ulating with the only information we do have: spec sheets, rumors, and brief eye-time.
First off, it's worth noting that each of the three sets use a technology colloquially called "local dimming," where the individual LEDs behind the screen can be dimmed or turned off as needed. It's this technology that adds some weight to each company's claim of a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio (a nice round number, no?) When part of the screen goes dark and another is bright, standard fluorescent LCD backlights must rely on the LCD panel itself to block out the light and create dark areas. The result is the less-than-stellar black-level performance for which many LCDs have been noted.
Local dimming allows LED-backlit sets to produce extremely deep black levels, which are the most important ingredient in HDTV picture quality. The downside, at least in the case of the Samsung we reviewed, was "blooming," where a bright object on a dark background would evince a dim halo of light instead of pure blackness.
That's because the dimming isn't local enough; there aren't enough LEDs themselves to correspond with all 1920x1080 pixels of the TVs' 1080p native resolution, so there's some spillover along the edges. Samsung did not divulge exactly how many LEDs were used in its 46-inch model, and neither will Sony for its displays, but LG did. The 47LG90 has "1,536 individual light emitting-diodes arranged into 128 sectors," according to the company. How much that number affects blooming is still an open question.
Sony's "Triluminos" backlights use red, green and blue LEDs instead of white.
(Credit: Nikkei Electronics)The biggest difference between the three companies' displays is price. The Sony 46-incher costs $5,000, about $1,500 more than the 46-inch Samsung ($3,500) and the 47-inch LG ($3,600). That's mainly due to a big spec-sheet difference: while the other two use white LED backlights, the Sony uses what the company calls "Triluminous" LED technology.
Sony's LEDs are arranged in groups of four, with two green and one each red and blue. The advantage, according to the company, is "significantly elevated color purity." A demo I saw of Sony's new LED-based models last summer looked impressive indeed, and CNET contributor Kevin Miller, for his part, said "the blacks on the new XBR8 series look to be the best of any LCD that I have seen to date by a good margin."
So we're back to the standard question, as one reader put it: "Is it even possible that the RGB LEDs could make the ($5,000) Sony almost 50 percent better than the Samsung ($3,500)?" The answer will have to wait. I'm receiving my review sample of the KDL-55XBR8 in early October, according to Sony, and LG for its part has promised to deliver its 47LG90 to CNET's lab as soon as possible. Naturally, we'll keep our Samsung sample around for as long as we can to perform our standard side-by-side comparison. Until then, all we can do is speculate.
What do you think? Will Sony's Triluminous technology beat the blooming and provide superior color and off-axis viewing compared with the Samsung? Even if it does, will it be worth the extra dough? What about dark horse LG? Let us know in the comments section.
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David Katzmaier reviews HDTVs for CNET. E-mail David.
Strange Sony is using the argument of being more expensive because it uses RGB LED's, yet actually they're cheaper than white LED's.
I asked Philips about that model, and they finally got back to me. There is no LED-based LCD from Philips or Funai (which manufactures Philips-branded TVs sold in the U.S.) "on the roadmap" this year.
Regardless, contrast numbers are baked, so making numerical comparisons between same backlight technologies at this point in the game is irrelevant. The fact that they're still the main component of this article is unfortunate and somewhat deceiving. The main differentiator between white LED backlights and RGB LED backlights (other than price) is the color level. The only company that has publicly announced their color gamut at this point is Sharp on their AQUOS XS1 at "over 150% NTSC". That model was recently announced at the CEDIA show in Denver. Unofficially Sony has stated the NTSC of their XBR8 at around 120%.
But seeing is believing, so let your own eyes be the final word.
LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASERRRRRRRRRRRRRRS!
And you may want to be sure the pricing is low enough to really compete with the latest LED-LCD's already on the market. After all, your not really in the flat panel business with the LaserVue tech.
Alas I am still a SD CRT person and will be until the LED Dynamic Backlit (not just brightness but color reinforcement) are affordable.
But LED Backlighting is very nice.
It burns at 350 watts. WOWEEE!
More costly than plasma to operate .
Quick check of Pioneer PDP-6020FD and 5020FD list power at 534W and 436W
(page 135 of operating instruction manual)
Puts the 55" LCD between the 50" and 60" Plasma.
It's not good to use the numbers listed in manuals anyway.
They list the max power. Usually the power needed for the first second or two at power on.
EPA is putting out a new energy star spec that will provide good numbers to compare TVs against each other.
Hey You Guys- Cut and Paste this address to see the
TRUTH IN PRINT from S O N Y
SONY 55"= 480 watts.
is that too much juice just to watch TV ?
And then you say buying a 720p TV will be easier on the wallet? What do you say when you want to buy a 1080p TV later on then once you have a Bluray player? The difference is perceivable and there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a better picture, especially at larger TV sizes. You may not see the difference on the 32 inch TV of yours, but trust me, as the sizes get higher, it takes more pixels to keep the picture looking at its sharpest.
We aren't here to brag about the amount of money we spent or didn't spend, if we could get a Samsung or Sony LED tv for 500 dollars, you bet in a heartbeat that any single one of us would jump at the opportunity.
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by lbeberdick
June 9, 2009 12:49 PM PDT
- Black level is nice, but for most viewers without a darkened media room, need to deal with lots of ambient light. So reflection, brightness and washout are key issues to the majority of real life users. The LED back light interests me because it is said to use 80% less power than Florescent. and i wouldn't count Mitsubishi out just yet. Their Diamond 246 series last year was quite impressive. It would also be great if you compared the various companies internet content since most of the higher end TVs come with a LAN connector. Another issue is the 240 HZ mode, are they really necessary, are they on by default? what are the drawback to using it all the time? if 240 HZ is so great, why does it have an off or mode switch?
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