LED Backlighting, The New High-End

Last year Samsung brought LED based LCD flat panels to the consumer world with the introduction of their 81 series HDTVs. The 81 series, which was offered in 40, 46, 52 and 57 inches for consumer use, made the outrageous claim of a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and offered every feature one would expect in a top-shelf LCD. By the end of the model year, most agreed that this series of LCDs, where the best LCD HDTV produced to date, but still placed them behind top-end plasmas in overall picture quality.

Samsung's LN55A950 LED Backlit LCD HDTV

This year, Samsung has followed up with their A950 series available in the 46 inch LN46A950 and the 55 inch LN55A950. One again there is boasting of a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio like the 81 series, as well as 4 HDMI version 1.3 connectors, 4ms response time, 120Hz refresh rate, and all of the other feature one would expect in a top-end set. Added to this year’s offering is DLNA capabilities and a Content library. The Content Library has 5 distinct built-in pre-programmed applications entitled “Gallery”, “Cooking”, “Game”, “Children” and “Fitness”; “Gallery” is background music and an HD slide show. The content library is hardwired into the HDTV, so it can’t be deleted or swapped out for other content more to your liking. The set does provide you with the ability to play your own content via the on board USB connection. My only gripe; the sets should have had an Ethernet port capable of handling Gigabit connections speeds, instead of just 10/100 traffic.

A few other LCD HDTV manufacturers have began to introduce LED based sets of the own for the consumer market. LG with the 47 inch 47LG90 can now also make claims of 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Philips has introduced the 42 inch 42PFL9703D/10 over in Europe, which also boast of LED technology. Not to be outdone, Sony who had a commercially available 70 inch HDTV base on LED backlighting technology, has upped the ante on LED technology. Sony introduced an 11 inch OLED (Organic LED) set, early in 2008. With a hefty $2499 sticker price, and a native resolution of only 960x540, (which doesn’t meet the minimum 720p HDTV standard), this pint size set is little more than a marketing ploy to lay claim to introducing the first OLED TV to consumers. Sony then followed-up by introducing 3 other LED LCD models; the 46 and 55 inch XBR8 models, and the super thin ZX1. Unlike their previous 70 inch offering, the XBR8 uses an RGB base LED backlighting system instead a white light based LED. Sony calls the technology Triluminos®RGB. The backlighting system is laid out in panels directly behind the LCD panel, with each panel being responsible for providing the backlighting for a small section of the screen. The panel layout allows for localized dimming, so that dark areas of the screen can better maintain deep black levels, when other areas of the screen have bright or white sections. The ZX1 uses a different setup than the XBR models; the LEDs are aligned alone the side of the LCD panel, which allows the set to be ultra thin, about 1cm in depth, at its thinnest point.

Sony's ultra sleek KDV-40ZX1, redefines the term flat panel

So now the stage is set for the next round of LCD innovation. Until someone figures out an affordable way to offer OLED LCD HDTV, in a practical size, expect LED backlit LCDs to dominate the high-end LCD market.