Back in the day when looking for a big screen television you would simply walk into a store, find the size you were looking for and make a purchase. Those days have now changed.
Not only are there various sizes to choose from and brands to choose from, there are now formats to choose from. Five or ten years ago, when flat screen televisions first surfaced, there were Plasmas and LCDs. Now as technology has advanced so have televisions. Today both online and off, if you are looking for a new home theater for any room in your house, you are most likely looking at either a 4k television or a 1080 LED.
What exactly do these types of televisions entail and what are its benefits? Here is a deeper dive:
LED televisions are a type of LCD television that use light-emitting diodes to backlight the displays instead of fluorescent lights which are used in standard LCD TVs. LEDs have significantly lower power requirements and convert power to light more efficiently which essentially means less light leakage, which can cause fuzziness. In addition, LED backlighting can produce deeper blacks than conventional LCD TVs.
While there are various LED technologies out there, the most commonly used is the edge-lit LED version. With this type of screen, white LEDs are situated around the edge of the screen and a diffusion panel is employed to illuminate the display evenly. Edge-lit LED displays can be very thin.
4K Televisions in contrast refer to TVs that utilize Ultra High Definition Technology or UHD. Televisions with this referral associated with it feature at minimum 8 million active pixels, with the lower resolution boundary of at minimum 3,840 pixels x 2,160 pixels. By having all these pixels, means more information. More information means sharper, more engaging pictures.
While 4k generally provides four times the resolution of standard 1080p HD LEDs your eyes may not immediately see a huge difference. You may though if you are watching content created in 4k and if you’re sitting close enough.
So which version should you get? If you want the absolute best TV you can get right now and don’t mind paying a premium for it, it’s a 4K set. If though you are price sensitive, a 1080 LED TV will still provide you a great picture at a much better value.
Happy shopping!
Bio: Matt Thames is Blogger and Brand Manager for Selby. He enjoys sharing tips on home theater accessories and systems.
