Samsung's 82-incher: World's largest LCD TV... with LED Backlight

You know, we used to come to these things and see signs like "world's largest Plasma display." Short, to the point. But now the display size war -- especially between Samsung, LG, and now Panasonic -- is getting so out of hand that it currently takes 8 1/2 words to say you're king of the hill, even when you're not. Once again here at CeBIT, Samsung claims that their 82-incher is the world's largest LCD..."with LED Backlight" now tacked onto the end. Samsung, you're not fooling anyone, we all know that LG's got ya beat. Not that we'd kick it out of bed our livingroom or anything.

[the collector @ Mar 10th 2006 12:18AM]

Keep the LED backlight, just hand me the TV!

[DanMan @ Mar 10th 2006 12:32AM]

im sorry, but are you kidding me? incorporating led technology in large lcd's is a revolution in lcd technology with less power consumption, not to mention no more broken backlights in the long run. I hope to see more lcds using led's as blacklights, my 2 cents.

[Kyran @ Mar 10th 2006 12:35AM]

Oh man. You guys have no idea how big of a difference an LED backlight makes in an LCD's color reproduction quality... unless this is rear projection, but even then it is NOT a trivial feature.

This thing probably costs a veritable fortune.

[Freddy @ Mar 10th 2006 1:35AM]

They (Samsung) are correct, as LG.Phillips largest LCD do not use LED backlight. So Samsung do have the largest LCD with LED backlight.

[Richard Gazzo @ Mar 10th 2006 2:11AM]

I hate to break the news but Philips has introduced an even larger LCD TV, it's a 100 inch LCD screen!! It was announced 2 days ago, (http://www.betanews.com/article/LG_Philips_Builds_Worlds_Largest_LCD/1141848847). But... It's not available to consumers yet, wonder if it will fit in my bedroom, hehe.

[Felkster @ Mar 10th 2006 2:24AM]

Um, I saw that exact TV at CES (82" Samsung LED-based). So I guess they still hold the record after 3 months, if the sign is still to be believed (same sign as CES too).

Now I'd like to see Samsung actually start selling LED-lit LCDs.

[Alex @ Mar 10th 2006 4:34AM]

This race to build a bigger and bigger screen is so utterly pointless. Why can't they just focus on improving the quality and colour correctness of a smaller screen. The source media we are using isn't high enough for such a huge screen to be worthwhile anyway. LCD colour still doesn't come close to, for example, the Trinitron colour, in my opinion. They should be trying to close the gap.

[albert peia @ Mar 10th 2006 5:05AM]

A bigger screen for bigger news [ http://www.albertpeia.com/breakinews.htm ]is always welcome!

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[Glifford @ Mar 10th 2006 6:04AM]

We all know LG Philips beat them by a BIG margin :)

[Blogging HQ @ Mar 10th 2006 6:24AM]

I agree with the last comment most of us will never be able to have a huge screen TV in our house, they should find ways of bringing the costs down on a normal size HD TV and not waste all their time and money on a who can make the biggest TV fight

[NYCmilkman @ Mar 10th 2006 7:59AM]

A bunch of you guys are missing the point here. Yes, there are bigger LCD screens like the LG, but this is the biggest with LED backlighting. LED is a step forward in picture quality and power consumption over current LCDs, so it's not just a pointless space race either. Samsung's 'world's largest' claim is valid, and they are also pushing quality improvements. Sweet.

[SoopahMan @ Mar 10th 2006 9:58AM]

Don't diss LED, the difference in the color quality and energy savings is a big step.

Dissing taglines that are too long is the kind of ignorant attitude that let Intel outsell AMD for the 5 years that AMD had them beat hands-down: The explanation was too long. If you want crappy products, stick to that motto and you'll get what you ask for.

[LordJezo @ Mar 10th 2006 10:49AM]

Man, these things are getting huge.

I can see the future. Eventually TVs will get to be so massive that people will start building special buildings just to house them. Then they will figure out that they can 100s of seats in the rooms and start charging other people to come and watch the movies on them. It will be amazing, everyone getting together to watch movies. I can even envision the name.. LCD Houses. I bet they will even sell concessions.

[Jeff @ Mar 10th 2006 12:07PM]

LED backlighting is more than a "step forward". It is the cure for all LCD ills, and I'm not just saying that. An LED-backlit LCD is, bar none, the best TV you can buy. Of any technology. For any purpose.

What are the biggest failings of LCD technology? Black level and color accuracy. More minor issues, but ones that get mentioned a lot by LCD owners, are light bleed and backlight unevenness. LED backlighting cures ALL of these problems.

With LED backlighting, each individual pixel can be lit or unlit. There is no backlight lamp that lights the entire screen whether it's supposed to be black or not. So, with LED backlighting, black is literally BLACK. There is no light. It doesn't get any better than that, even with a CRT (since CRT's bleed light from bright areas to dark ones, which LED-lit LCD's don't).

And because of the way LED's are by nature, there can be more precise control over the color of the backlighting, meaning better color accuracy throughout the screen. It also means no lamp replacements, and no dimming of the screen as the backlight bulb gets old.

LED-backlit LCD's will render plasma sets completely obsolete within the next 3-5 years. They will be expensive at first and so probably won't totally replace cheaper projection sets for a while longer, but eventually, the only fight left is going to be between SED and LED-LCD. And SED technology is not quite there yet, so it's thoroughly possible that it will eventually be judged a "what's the point?" technology and lose out to LCD.

LED-backlit LCD's are basically perfect sets. There's just not a lot about the technology that you can criticize or say "this technology does this well but not these other things, and this other technology does those other things well but not these things." There's just nothing you're left wanting from an LED LCD.

[Ken @ Mar 10th 2006 1:30PM]

Jeff,

OLED

kthanxbye

[Kyran @ Mar 10th 2006 3:29PM]

The problem with OLED, Ken, is they are *still* having lifespan issues. The saturated Blues still have a significantly shorter lifespan than the other two colors. On top of that, Red lasts notably longer than Green within the full color displays. That means OLED screens which get a lot of use will start with a pristine display, only to turn yellow, then turn red.

Until they fix that, you are better off with plasma for any display that will stay on longer than a cell phone screen.

An LED-backlit LCD is the best display you'll be able to get until SED rolls around. And even then I'd imagine SED to have a greater potential of burn-in considering it's use of phosphors.

[Tobbe @ Mar 15th 2006 7:41AM]

I agree with you Kyran except for the response time. The LCD TV's still have a rather big problem with motion blur and motion artifacts. The SED technology is much faster and OLED will be even faster. Maybe LED backlights will fix this problem too?? What do you guys think??

[gonzoman @ Nov 10th 2006 9:06PM]

If I remember correctly from a popsci article i read not too long ago. The use of leds in lcd monitors increases the response rates to a point where blur is not an issue. leds are much much faster than floros.

[robbie @ Oct 17th 2007 5:25PM]

sorry guys even the lg phillips isnt the biggest anymore. sharp cam out with a 108" back in january. http://www.sharpusa.com/products/FunctionPressReleaseSingle/0,1080,634-34,00.html

[michael @ Jan 7th 2008 3:54PM]

Jeff, what do you think of the comment about blurring issues on motion? I need to buyy an LCD or Plazma in the 65-80" size for a madia room, but plan on watching a lot of Football and Baketball games there.

[Syko-Suresh @ Apr 24th 2008 12:25PM]

Need more info on the LCD vs LED tv as i am confused with this tech actually so which is better as a consumer to choose.........

[rob @ May 30th 2008 5:02AM]

Here's an idea, forget about the tv wars, and go try to get laid! This race will go on forever! and ever!!! forget about it! Some one will claim title, then someone will re-claim it and so on and so forth. Although I have a life, I want to say big tv's are nice for two reasons, porno, and football games!


E!A!G!L!E!S!!!!!!