How much of a difference is LED Backlight?

[Chrisjag92]

I'm interested in purchasing two new monitors for gaming purposes. I know a lot of newer monitors are veering toward LED backlighting, but are just a little bit more expensive. Supposedly, brighter displays and better contrasts.

Has anyone tested LCD with and without LED Backlight side by side and compared the difference?

 

[PhilFrisbie]

I would only buy LED lit LCDs for the following reasons:

The LEDs have a longer life than a florescent tube.
They do not need warm-up time to produce true colors.
They do not contain mercury, so the screen can be more easily recycled.
They are more energy efficient.

 

[jaguarskx]

I have a laptop with an LED backlight screen. At maximum brightness it is not any brighter than my CCFL backlit monitors.

In terms of contrast, many manufacturers list dynamic contrast ratio rather than static contrast ratio which is the true measure of a monitor's contrast ability.

There are two problems:

1. The LCD screen on my laptop is glossy, therefore it is very reflective.

2. My monitors and the laptop uses different LCD panel technologies. My monitors are H-IPS panels and 99% of laptops use TN panels.

TN panel monitors have issues displaying contrast because they use 6-bit color technology which means a TN panel monitor can only truly create 256k color as opposed to 16.7m colors for other LCD panel tech. Therefore, that means colors can become "crushed" together and create color banding issues.

I prefer monitors with traditional CCFL backlight.

 

[ssddx]

if the monitors were uniformly backlit by leds like some of the newer televisions then there would be a difference. what i am referring to is how they are arranged in a grid behind the television and certain zones turn off/on/dim depending on what is displayed. this would improve contrast.

however, led backlit monitors are edgelit which does not give them that advantage; they arent completely uniform so are equal to ccfl in this regard. also cheap leds are often used which can give the picture a slight blue tinge; you can adjust this out but perhaps this will affect color accuracy.

 

[blackhawk1928]

^ssddx, from what I read, there are edge lite LED TV's and Backlit...the backlit ones are a bit thicker but have an entire array of LED's behind the crystals which provide an even better picture. Not sure if there is any truth to this.

 

[ssddx]

@blackhawk

i am aware that there are both types of backlighting available on televisions. this is why i said "some newer televisions"

from what i've personally seen this isn't a huge mass of leds side-by-side-by-side behind the lcd display itself but a more spaced out grid of leds that turn off by zone. this doesnt give the contrast that plasma tech has but it is definitely an improvement over edge lit designs.

backlighting will not improve picture clarity/definition at all. it will affect how bright everything looks (perhaps will help vibrancy too but not sure) and will affect contrast.

in general all the lcd panels today are quite thin. my television from just a few years ago is 4 to 4.5 inches thick (and dont ask what it weighs!).

 

[blackhawk1928]

I was actually checking out some plasma's TV's recently...one of my TV's at home was a pretty good samsung 50'' 1080i plasma from like 5 years ago and its probably like 4-5 inches thick and get REALLY hot.

So I saw some newer plasma's and the new ones are actually a lot thinner, I saw some plasma TV's at only 1-2 inches thick and were a lot cooler tot he touch than the older ones, I'm guessing they are more efficient w/ better heatsinks.

 

[ssddx]

apparently you've had good luck with yours. what i've heard from someone who used to repair electronics keeps me away. they used to be a money pit, perhaps they worked out the issues.

 

[Chrisjag92]

Best answer selected by Chrisjag92.