Samsung has their LED based TVs on their website listed as a whole different category of TV (separate from DLP, Plasma, or LCD).

Isn't LED just a different lighting method for LCDs? I thought LEDs were just smaller brighter lights than what LCDs normally use...which by the way what do they normally use?

Samsung has their LED based TVs on their website listed as a whole different category of TV (separate from DLP, Plasma, or LCD).

Isn't LED just a different lighting method for LCDs? I thought LEDs were just smaller brighter lights than what LCDs normally use...which by the way what do they normally use?

yes it is very misleading. they are LCDs with LED backlighting, more specifically edge mounted LED backlighting. the more common is CCFL Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp backlighting (an array of fluorescent tubes that are more like neon in nature).

i started being pissed at samsung for their blatant misleading marketing. now i'm a bit in awe how easily they have created a whole new segment out of nothing, really. if you go into BestBuy now they have these two-way gray tabs on all their HDTV sets that say in block white letters LED and upside down LCD; they turn them so it reads LCD for all the sets except the LED samsungs. damn smart if again a bit deceitful. the appearance is that there are, as you say, two totally different technologies, while tags should read CCFL and LED.

to complicate matters there are 2 different types of LED backlit sets -- the more advanced array LED backlighting that puts a whole series of LEDs behind the LCD paney which among other things can be dimmed locally to further picture qualities. examples are the current sony XBR8 which actually uses 3 different colors of LED in groups of 4 of Red Green Green Blue, the three colors that comprise light. the other main current example is the samsun A950 which is similar but uses white LEDs.

then there is this whole nother animal of LED that samsung is now claiming. it uses the LED units on the edge with an apparently innovative diffuser to backlight the screen and are what help to make their sets so incredibly thin.

you can wander over to the LED forum on this sight and visit the samsung forums for the B6000 B7000 etc sets to read some current info opinion and conjecture on these sets. . also www.cnet.com has just released a review on the B7000 set...it's got some problems but i'll bet they sell a ton of them because of the thin form factor coupled with the marketing blitz that seperates these sets from all the rest.

TVbc