LED, LCD, & Plasma TVs; What Does It All Mean?

This article was written by Parts2PCs Owner Fred Varano and originally appeared in the Wakefield Daily Item on December 16th, 2011.

Are you shopping for or hoping Santa brings you that new TV you have been wishing for this holiday season?  Have you tried to research what may be the best TV for your viewing experience and found terms like LED, LCD and Plasma and don’t quite know what to make of all the different available TV technologies?  Hopefully, after reading this column, you will have a better understanding of them and be able to make a better decision if purchasing one. 

All three technologies are High Definition, so that is one thing you will not have to worry about.  The big difference between the three choices is how the TV screens are illuminated.  In plasma TVs, there are phosphors or fluorescent materials that make up the image and brightness of the screen.  In LCD, or Liquid Crystal Display sets, there is a fluorescent light behind the screen that lights up the image.  In LED, or Light Emitting Diode sets, there are little lights, usually in the back or along the edge of the TV that illuminate the picture.

LED TV (also known as LED-LCD) sets are based on LCD technology, but it is an updated or more efficient version of it.  Because LEDs are physically smaller than the light sources that LCDs use, the LED TVs are much slimmer and lighter than the other two sets.  LED sets also require the least amount of power when they are being used. 

There are many pros and cons to each type, below are just a few:

Plasma; Pros: price, wider viewing angle (you can be off to the side and still see a clear picture), dark colors do not looked washed out, good handling of fast paced motion like sports or video games

Cons: weight and bulkiness of the set, poor power consumption

LCD; Pros: price, light weight, good power consumption

Cons: colors, especially black, can look washed out, sets with a lower hertz rating may show blur during fast paced programming, poor viewing angle

LED; Pros: very thin and light weight, good color reproduction including black, energy efficient, good motion handling

Cons: high price

Out of the three technologies, LED is the best and seems to be the way the industry is heading.  Plasma and LCD TVs are still good, but if you can afford it, LED is the way to go, and the higher price may balance out over time with your savings from the lower power consumption.

Some additional TV purchasing tips:  If considering a TV larger than 32”, look for 1080p instead of 720p.  1080p is currently the highest resolution of high definition and will provided the clearest picture for larger TVs.  720p is satisfactory for sets 32” and below as the naked eye can usually not tell the difference between the lower higher resolutions on the smaller screens. 

Hertz or Hz is important for LED and LCD TVs.  The higher this number is, the better it can handle fast motion programming such as sports or video games.  If you watch sports, action movies or use it for video gaming, you will probably want to find a set that is no lower than 120Hz. Many lower priced sets are rated at 60Hz and these are suitable for the casual TV viewer.

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