# Samsung's new line of TVs



## AE35Unit (Apr 21, 2009)

There's been a few ads on TV of late telling us to 'Prepare for the next generation of TVs'.
They're LED screens and as far as I'm aware that means Light Emitting Diodes which are the little red lights on just about every appliances on off switch,flashing bike lights and remote controls(using infra red so you can't see it)
But on a TV screen? Be interesting to see how thats gonna work! Potential to be very bright with good contrast but higher power consumption than LCD tech?


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## Lenny (Apr 21, 2009)

SAMSUNG LED

I was going to ask if you meant OLED rather then LED, because LED TVs seems rather weird... but it _is _LED, which is somewhat confusing.

But when you make a search for the technology (which is brand new to this year!! Exciting in itself), it is actually a simple modification of existing technology.

Standard LCD screens make use of fluorescent lamps as light sources to brighten up pictures - your conventional LCD screen these days contains a TFT (thin film transistor) substrate, which I believe also helps in the lighting of displays. Without any form of backlight, the image on an LCD would be quite dark - how much did you need to tilt your calculator to catch the light so you could see what was displayed? And how often do you need to hit the light button on an LCD alarm clock so you can see the time? The backlight on TVs simply lights up the LCD screen (you might have seen some televisions which go dark after a few minutes of idleness - that's simply the backlight turning itself off).

Samsung's LED TVs, in contrast, use white LEDs as a backlight source, allowing for a much brighter picture, which is then shown on conventional LCD. Their newer LED TVs (the ones advertised on their site, for example), arrange the LEDs around the edges of the screen, allowing for much thinner displays. So rather than billions of tiny LEDs making up the TV screen (which I think is actually how the massive screens in the middle of cities work), it's an LCD with LED lighting. Quite clever, really.

LED TV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I doubt the market for LED TVs will be that big, and I expect that in a few years time you'll see it wither into nothing when OLED TVs become larger and less expensive, but until then an LED TV will give you a very good step up in quality... though I imagine it will come at quite a price. With it being Samsung, however, for that price you will get a fantastic set (I think I'm right in saying that their LCD technology is still used in the vast majority of LCD TVs from a whole host of other companies. Sony bought some form of LCD technology from Samsung for use in the Sony Bravia range of TV, for example). 

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Oh, and it's not to be mixed up with OLED displays (which I very nearly did!), which is a completely new form of technology altogether!


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## chrispenycate (Apr 21, 2009)

Very low power consumption; LEDs are replacing the fluorescent light sources behind Liquid crystal displays because they're more efficient, so without having to produce continuous photons they'll get even better.
The problem with LEDs is the narrow bandwidth of the light emitted, relative to phosphors; colour values can change a lot.


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## AE35Unit (Apr 22, 2009)

Ah,good stuff,and now I know what the backlight setting in the menu is for! Two things tho. I'm confused by the statement about the LEDs being at the edge allowing for a slimmer TV. The edge of what?
Oh and what are OLEDs?


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## Lenny (Apr 22, 2009)

If a flatscreen TV was simply the screen, then it'd be a few millimetres thick, but that's not the case - 99% of sets extend for a couple of inches at the back, which is to allow for the backlight. With Samsung's LED TV, this isn't the case. Rather than the LEDs being behind the LCD screen, they're around the four sides of it, projecting light inwards from the side.

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I think I made quite a long post about OLED a year or so ago. Let me see if I can find it.

Aye, there we go: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/43170-ces-08-sony-11-oled-tv.html

Sony and Samsung seem to be the two companies that have done the most in terms of bringing OLED products to the mass markets, but the technology itself has been around for fifty years.

Organic light-emitting diode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The wonderful thing about OLED displays is that they don't need a backlight (which allows you to create super-thin products), and the display itself is flexible - you can wrap it round your arm if you really want (which is actually what the American Military are doing - some kind of display for soldiers in the field). The quality of colour of OLED is also a million times better than conventional LCD (trust me, "a million times" is quite an accurate statement).


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