LED or LCD television

[chef]

Seems to be all sort of fantastic claims about the differences & quality of LCD versus LED television but are these differences worth such a higher price tag?
Planning to upgrade from the current 37 inch to 46...$500 difference in price!
Maybe i was having a bad day when the sales guy gave me his pitch about LED having much lower power consumption therefore lower electricity bills
How much TV do i have to watch to save $500!!!
Maybe save the money & buy a Koso gauge as well

[FrugalNinja250]

LED refers to the backlighting, they're both LCD screens. Older screens use fluorescent backlighting. Difference in power consumption is fairly trivial, specially when compared to plasma and CRT. Since LED lighting is newer the LCD technology tends to be better. Also, many feel that LED lighting has somewhat better color characteristics. Best thing IMHO is to research reviews on Amazon and Newegg to determine what you want. Samsungs tend to have decent reviews.

[Alex]

[Jiggles]

Plasma! Best quality so long as your room isn't too bright and you don't have any glare, otherwise LED. As far as power consumption, plasma uses 2x LCD and LCD uses 2x LED but even very large plasmas end up costing around $100/yr to operate

[kyrider]

I have all three and I like my plasma best but it is in a dark room and if it was in a well lit room where glare could cause a problem I would go with LED/LCD. My LCD is thicker than my LED but the picture is close. On my LED 240hz I had to go in and turn off "auto motion" to get rid of the soap opera effect which can be annoying.

Do not buy any thing below 120hz.

Do not go by what you see in the showroom. Look at what the reviews say on av forums, amazon, and any other large retail stores.

There are some good reviews on youtube that show features as well.

What will you be watching comes into play as well.

[Jiggles]

Originally Posted by kyrider

Do not buy any thing below 120hz.

Do not go by what you see in the showroom. Look at what the reviews say on av forums, amazon, and any other large retail stores.

+1

I used to sell tvs and people would come in and be like wow that RCA (huge pile of ****) looks so good and its so cheap! RCA's trick is that they turn the brightness way up so it stands out, it doesn't look better, it's just brighter. If you can find a sales guy like me you'll get the best tv for the amount you're looking to spend. If you don't, then I hope you've done your research

[CZroe]

I always facepalm when a so-called "techie" friend of mine says "LED or LCD?". They aren't equivalents. The last time was in front of a store salesperson that the techie friend knew and I embarrassingly had to correct him to answer. Now, if you said "OLED or LCD?", then we'd have something to talk about!

[CynicalC]

Koso gauge is an enormous waste of money with similar options at a fraction of the cost.

Anyway, Samsung is making some of the best TVs right now IMO. I loved my LG but I've got a red line down the screen after only 3 years light use so I can't recommend them anymore.

Whatever tv you get, after some run time, go to CNET and apply their pro settings to your tv for the best picture possible.

[JohnnyBravo]

Vizio all day everyday, both mine work fine, an look great

[Alex]

Really enjoying our Samsung LED.

[GlassAnkles]

we bought an LED samsung and returned it the next day, the picture couldn't keep up with a NFL football game. Bought an expensive Panasonic Plasma and love it. gets used heavily by my retired dad.

[Boom King]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

Plasma! Best quality so long as your room isn't too bright and you don't have any glare, otherwise LED.

QFT

[Mauchner]

I have a 32 inch Samsung LED smart tv and I love it!

[alex.s]

they actually do make real LED tvs. they are extremely rare and even more extremely expensive. but they are phenomenal. the military uses advanced displays for certain uses that can even emit beyond human visibility ranges in order to be clearly visible to things like different types of cameras and even emit thermal readings to show images on flir. makes for a very belivable camoflague.

[mlj2093]

What are your room conditions going to be like? Lots of light, a little light, no light? And size?

If no light to very little light you can't go wrong with Plasma. By far the best picture quality with the deepest and truest colors (they are also cheapest). The downside is of course glare because their screens are glass. If you do go with Plasma choose Panasonic. They make the best and they are the only company that is stilling focused in Plasma tech.

If there is gonna be a moderate amount of light than either LED or LCD will work just fine. The biggest difference between the two is veiwing angle and brightness. You can see a clear picture on any LED TV to a 180 degree angle. So if the room is large and seating is spread you will get the best picture from any spot in the room with an LED. LCD have a good veiwing angle too but once you get to 135-240 degrees the image starts to darken and slightly distort. LEDs are IMHO the onlt TV where it is nearly impossible to have glare. So if there is a lot of light in the room I would go with LED

As for LCD/LED brand Samsung is the best and the only one I would recommend. They are one of the 3 main companies who make the screens for LCD/LED TVs and the only one actually producing high end TVs.

Also don't go for anything rated less then 1080p with 120Hz (240Hz is recommended). That will give you the crispest HD picture.

[Boom King]

Originally Posted by mlj2093

If you do go with Plasma choose Panasonic. They make the best and they are the only company that is stilling focused in Plasma tech.

Panasonic bought the industry leading tech from Pioneer back in 2009 when Pioneer exited. Unfortunately, if you're a plasma fan, Panasonic has been planning their exit strategy from Plasma technology for a while now. Everything is going LED and then OLED. Demand for flat screen TVs has been cooling off and plasmas just don't make money.