A new invention in the world of high definition television is the LED TV. The uptake in this new breed of televisions has rocketed with Samsung selling over 1 million units in the first six month of them going on sale. So what is the technology behind this success?

It’s not such a radical design as the name might suggest. LED TVs are basically LED-lit LCD displays. Previous LCD TVs were lit using fluorescent lighting round the side of the screen (side-lit), but now the fluorescent lights have been replaced by light emitting diodes (LEDs).The LEDs can either be placed a long the sides or at the back of the LCD panel.

Manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, Philips, JVC and LG are incorporating LEDs into the designs of their latest TV sets. The benefits that LEDs have brought are detailed below.

Picture quality is said to be improved due the inherent properties of LEDs. They are said to produce a better quality of light than fluorescent lights do. This results in brighter and more natural colours. The LEDs can also be individually controlled, this improves the contrast levels allowing for the reproduction of darker blacks when compared to previous LCD displays.

Also LEDs allow for the design of much slimmer TVs that was possible with their bulkier fluorescent predecessors. Samsungs new displays measure in at 3cm thick and Sony’s are a tiny 1cm thick.

For the environmentally conscious consumers out there, LED TVs have made great advances in improving power-consumption. They are said to consume up to 40% less power than previous equivalent models. Coupled with the fact that LEDs have a longer life time than fluorescent lights, the energy savings made over the extended lifetime of an LED TV are not to be ignored.

On the surface it may just seem like another gimmick devised to sell more TVs, but in reality there are some very real benefits to be had when it comes to owning an LED TV.