Pros and Cons of LCD-Led TV Technology

By Ronald Fegan

For the longest time in history, the regular consumer market has thought of screens that are as flat as wall paintings were just the stuff of popular science fiction. As we entered the 21st century however, technology did eventually prove that "wall-painting" screens were possible, with the development of LCD technology.

Today, LCD technology is what defines the mainstream HDTV market today. It is in fact the modern screen technology that is in primary use, despite the presence of other types of digital display technologies. In this article, we shall discuss the basics of this technology, and briefly discuss every firsthand bit of knowledge that you may need to know about these kinds of HDTV's.

How LCD Technology Works

LCD stands for liquid crystal display. It is basically an electronic visual display technology that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals. Each pixel inside an LCD is subject to the differing electric signal fed by two transparent electrodes. When light passes through the modified liquid crystal screen, it displays a specific image according the electronic signal that was fed to it.

While it is able to produce images by altering the light that passes through or strikes on it, it is incapable of producing light itself, requiring a backlight for the images to be seen in proper detail. The most commonly used backlighting are fluorescent lamps, although production of these types of LCD screens are limited due to the toxicity of mercury, a key ingredient of fluorescent lighting. The development of LCD backlighting today is currently heading towards the use of LED lighting, allowing the screens to be a lot thinner and more energy efficient while having no direct hazard to the environment.

Several developments have been made to LCD screens over the years. The most prominent would perhaps be the introduction of the IPS (in-plane switching) panel technology by Hitachi, which addressed the problems of low-quality color reproduction and very short viewing angles. Another example is the TFT (thin-film-transistor) technology, which solves the issue of color and contrast problems of early color LCD screens.

Advantages of LCD HDTV's

Most of the advantages of LCD HDTV are centered on its overall efficiency, and not its peak display performance. What it offers in the entire package, whether it is economic or technical is what makes it an attractive buy for a few consumers, although specifically speaking these can be enumerated into several points:

• It is basically the cheapest kind of HDTV that you will ever find. As mentioned earlier, LCD is the standard mainstream screen technology today. Even with the slightly more expensive LED-backlit LCD screens, you can still save a lot of money than buying, let's say, an energy hungry plasma screen.


• Has a higher native resolution due to having more pixels per unit area. This greatly helps if you want to preserve the sharp quality of images and videos while viewing them.


• Has a very low power consumption rate. LCD's, especially the LED-backlit ones are usually considered as the most eco-friendly HDTV's when it comes to energy cost.


• Quite lighter compared to other mainstream types of HDTV's. LCD technology doesn't need that much hardware, and again being LED-backlit helps a lot. The only screen technology that beats it in this category is the new OLED display technology.

Disadvantages of LCD HDTV's

Of course, like any other piece of technology, LCD HDTV's also suffer from a number of disadvantages, just like:

• It is not very efficient at producing black and gray color. Well, they can, but other screen technologies are far better than LCD. This is because of the backlighting still leaking out a certain degree of illumination at the dark parts.


• It comparatively still has limited viewing angles. LCD screens have improved A WHOLE LOT over the years when it comes to viewing angles. However they are still a bit inferior to other screen technologies, which could still provide clear images at a viewing angle almost 90 degrees from the front.


• Picture quality is good, but never great. This is another comparative disadvantage, and this time it centers on its lower contrast compared to other screen technologies.

If you are looking for a new TV set, visit LED TV deals and best hd televisions for an updated list of top rated televisions.

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