Hold out for LED?

[zappa 100]

Having our Virgin service upgraded to a V+ box next month .Although quite happy with the picture from our JVC CRT set, i have been considering buying a new LCD tv to view the Virgin HD content.
But with the Home Cinema press claimimg that LED sets are the next big breakthrough in picture quality,should i hold out for six months or so for an LED set?
I would be looking to spend around £500.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Couple of things: LED TVs are in fact LCDs with LED backlighting, and they can offer a very good picture, though the mere fact of having LED backlighting isn't any guarantee of superiority over conventionally-lit LCDs.

And of course there are various LED technologies, from sets using arrays of white LEDs along the edges of the panels to those using many more LEDs behind the panel, some with the ability to dim clusters of lamps to suit the picture being shown (this is called local dimming). And there are even some with arrays of coloured LEDs, so they can change the colour as well as the intensity in concert with the picture.

Then there are OLED TVs, which use a different self-illuminating technology, and can be both ultraslim and capable of excellent picture quality. But they're expensive to make, and proving tricky to scale up to bigger screen sizes without costing a fortune, not least due to low yields in production - the proportion of sets passing quality control.

So I don't think they'll be coming down to the kind of prices we're used to for LCDs any time soon. Certainly not in six months.

Around the £500 mark I think you'll be pushed to find even a high-quality LED-lit LCD in the next six months - they're being marketed as premium products.

 

[zappa 100]

OK, thanks. Will see what the January sales can offer........