LCD LED TVs coming on strong

Chief Editor Ted Como brings you the latest tech advice on Tech Bytes

Published Tuesday, November 10 2009 - (0) Comments

If you've been shopping for a television of late or plan on doing so for Christmas, be aware of the new kid on the block. LCD LED TVs appeared last year and now occupy a larger share of area retailer displays.
There are three basic types of digital televisions currently available: plasma, LCD, and LCD LED. Plasma uses small containers of neon or xenon gas to light each pixel on the screen - hundreds of thousands of them. Each tube glows when stimulated by an electrical current. LCD, or liquid crystal display receivers, filter light provided by a series of fluorescent lamps at the back of the receiver; each liquid crystal twists, or untwists depending on voltage, to determine color and intensity.
LCD LED receivers are simply LCD receivers with a different light source. Rather than fluorescent lamps, they use LEDs, or light-emitting diodes in either of two setups: dynamic RGB LEDs positioned behind the panel of liquid crystals, or Edge-LEDs positioned around the rim of the screen using a diffusion panel to spread the light evenly behind the panel.
Plasma sets produce deep blacks and bright colors, work well in dimly lit rooms, are great for sports and video games and allow for wide viewing angles. But they have a shorter shelf life since the gas can leak or become less reactive. And if you damage the screen you'll have to replace it - if a hard object hits a plasma screen it destroys hundreds of individual gas-filled tubes.
LCDs are more energy efficient than Plasma and work in well-lit rooms with only slight image fading when viewed from an angle. LCD LED receivers have plasma-like deep blacks and bright colors with greater contrast, and consume about 40 percent less power than LCDs.
Because they provide a crisper image with better contrast, LCD LED sets cost a lot more - around $400 more than the comparable LCD set. But they have a longer life and again, use a lot less power.
By way of comparison, I checked local retailers last week for 1080p receivers and found: 42-inch plasma; a Panasonic for $900; 42-inch LCD, a Dynes for $600; and 40-inch LCD LED, a Samsung for $1,500. In the 46-inch range: a Panasonic plasma for $1,300; an Aquos LCD for $1,000; and a Samsung LCD LED for $1,850. And in the 50- to 52-inch range, a Samsung plasma for $1,200; a Sony LCD for $1,600; and an Aquos LCD LED, $2,300.
Prices vary widely; check Web sites for features before you buy.
As to the two different types of LCD LED, the RGB units using direct lighting offer the ability to adjust contrast by turning some of the LEDs off, while edge-lighting allows units that are incredibly thin because the LEDs are off to the side, rather than directly in back of the screen - picture quality could suffer if the diffuser isn't working well to spread the light across the back of the screen.
I'd go with RGB.
* Tin Ear? I didn't know for many years that I was red-deficient colorblind; likewise, some folks may not realize they are tone deaf. You can find out by visiting a test page offered by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/- tunetest/DefaultPage.htm.
The test requires the Windows Media Player add-on, which you simply click to install.
You'll see 26 audio clips of tones for popular tunes with which you should be familiar. Play them and click whether you think the tune was played correctly. The test checks your sense of pitch.
According to the site, "Our ability to distinguish pitch is not fully understood, but we do know that it involves some processing by the brain after a sound is perceived. This means tone deafness is not necessarily linked to any hearing disorder. An individual with perfect hearing may still have trouble distinguishing pitch because of how the brain interprets the sounds.
"Research shows that several percent of the U.S. population has problems with pitch perception. Studies in twins also indicates that the role of inheritance in deficits in pitch recognition is extremely high, with little effect of environmental experience."
As to color blindness, check that out at http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishi hara.asp .
And while we're on things visual, visit tineye.com to search for images. TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You submit an image to TinEye and it will search to find where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions.
TinEye says it's the first image search engine on the Web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks.
And, if looking up is more to your liking because you've heard a bird you can't identify, http://xeno-canto.org can help. It's a database of bird sounds from North and South America - tens of thousands of bird sounds from thousands of species.
* Off Beat: AP reported recently that a team of Bigfoot enthusiasts is hoping to find the legendary creature in the bogs and barrens around Elkins, W.Va. The disillusioned members of Sasquatch Watch of Virginia are camping out with cameras, recorders and a large supply of plaster of Paris.
If I was a gambling man, I'd make an offer: Send me $100 and I'll send you a notorized statement that I will pay you $10,000 if, in my lifetime, anyone, anywhere, discovers a scientifically verified live or dead Bigfoot, space alien, flying saucer part, etc., or causes a ghost to manifest in my presence.
But, I'm not a gambling man.

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