Michael Kratz

I’ve been wanting to invest in a large LCD TV for a while now. However what has stopped me from purchasing one, is the looming release of LED backlit models.

Right now, much to my disappointment, all LCD TVs currently available in Australia are powered by CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluroescent) backlights. The issue with these is that they’re 100% on, 100% of the time. So when something black is displayed on the TV, the pixels need to ‘cover’ the backlight and try not to allow light to shine through. Invariably, some light always does end up shining through. This is why the contrast ratio on typical LCD TV’s sucks. Enter LED backlighting…

… or rather an extra added benefit that comes along with LED backlighting, that being the ability to selectively dim or switch off banks or clusters of LED’s when they’re not needed. Samsung call this “LED Smart Lighting”, Sony call it “Advanced Contrast Enhancer PRO”, it’s usually generically called “localised dimming”, it’s all the same thing. A technology originally developed (AFAIK) by a company called Brightside, and subsequently licensed to other manufacturers.

As previously mentioned, LED localised dimming allows portions of the backlight to be selectively dimmed or switched off; This allows finer control of the backlight than was previously available with CCFL. For example where the content being displayed is pure black, the backlight in that section can be switched off, in which case it will show as being pure black. If it’s meant to be ‘dark’ then the backlight can be dimmed. The end result of this is that LED backlit LCD TV’s with localised dimming, are now coming up to the contrast levels of Plasma TV’s. Yes, really, it’s hard to believe, but it is happening.

They’re not available yet in Australia, but there have been some demonstrations at various tech expos, and Samsung have already had an LED backlit model available in the U.S. and some parts of Europe for some time now (Samsung F9 series). For some unknown reason, they never decided to release it here in Australia. Well, actually, they did, but only in the 70 inch model. Samsung were ahead of the rest of the industry with their F9 series, to my best knowledge none of the other big brands have yet released an LED backlit model. But, it’s not going to stay that way for long, thankfully.

Samsung have announced their new ‘A’ range overseas, which includes, at the very top of the model and feature list, the A950 series. The A950 is Samsung’s new LED backlit LCD TV series, which according to what I’ve read so far, will be available in 46 and 55 inch size screens. Sony, have also announced, overseas, that they are shortly releasing an LED backlit model too. Sony’s will be the XBR8 series, in the same sizes as Samsung’s and with, for the most part, the same features. Funny that!

So, these have both been announced overseas, along with approximate release timeframes. As yet though, there has been no word on when or if they’ll be available in Australia. Samsung skipped Australia with the F9 series (well okay they did have the 70 inch, but that retails for around $40,000, so lets just ignore that), I sure hope that Australia doesn’t get skipped with these new LED backlit models; I’ve been hanging out to buy a big LCD TV and I’m waiting for the LED backlit models. I’m hoping they’ll be out here before Christmas, if they aren’t, I’ll be mighty disappointed.

So, Samsung, Sony and others: Hurry up and release the LED backlit models here in Australia, I’m getting sick of waiting. :) Whoever releases first, with the features I’m after, at a decent price, will get my money.