LED backlit LCD screens (help with a purchase)

[nstgc]

So the back light on my Samsung 206BW is finally dying (starting less than 1 month after the warranty expired). I'm looking to replace it with another monitor since the repair cost would be about $150.

I would like an LED back-lit LCD monitor with a full array of LEDs as oppose to just side lighting. This would turn the bullshit dynamic contrast ratio into something useful (or so I would assume). However, there are some problems and questions I have.

• Is this just a marketing gimmick? It seems reasonable in theory, but what about in practice?
• What monitors have this feature? Many places simply say that a monitor has LED back-lighting, but fail to say what kind. Could someone provide a list (I already tried Googling it).
• What about the problems with colors? I heard that some LED back-lighting does a bad job at producing a range of colors. Can anyone give some insight?

Any other suggestions (including questions I haven't asked yet) are also welcome, include other places to ask this question. As for the resolution and size, I don't care too much about the size, and while I would prefer a 1080p display, another 1680x1050 would be good too.

[edit] I have been looking at two in particular, but neither meet, with certainty, any of the criterion I'm looking for

• http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001390: I doubt this one has an array. Its too cheap, and is advertised as being thin.
• http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009203: This one says it has white LEDs. The LEDs that are suppose to produce decent color, I believe are the RGB LEDs. It is thicker than the other two in this list.
• http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001380: Another one advertised as thin.

In any case, none of those give helpful specifications. The manufactures page isn't helpful nor are customer reviews.

[edit2] There is a price cap of ~$300.

[Proin Drakenzol]

from what I've read and seen LED backlighting gives a wider range of colors with better color saturation levels than side-lit led tvs.


you might as well get one of the 3-D capable ones while you're at it, I don't think they're that much more expensive than "normal" LED TVs.

[nstgc]

I priced the TVs and they are well out of my price range. $300 is more than I should spend, but chances are thats how much I will be spending.

[Proin Drakenzol]

I priced the TVs and they are well out of my price range. $300 is more than I should spend, but chances are thats how much I will be spending.

$300? Methinks you are missing a "0."


As for the monitors: the backlit ones are still very thin. Samsung makes a good product, Acer does not.

[halfelite]

Do they even make full array back lit LED small monitors? I have never seen one. Only full back lit array LED I know of are the 55" Samsung lcd which is about $4500. 

[CappinHoff]

I priced the TVs and they are well out of my price range. $300 is more than I should spend, but chances are thats how much I will be spending.

$300? Methinks you are missing a "0."


As for the monitors: the backlit ones are still very thin. Samsung makes a good product, Acer does not.

I 2nd this. ASUS is another brand that makes good products.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236083

[fohfoh]

LED backlit make it slightly sharper, but it's not a breathtaking difference. Might be nicer for movie watching or something, but for normal use, I'll be damned if you can see a difference.

Agreed. Asus has good stuff. However, the only times I ever see them have issues is when they have more power then their housing can handle (overheating usually). But even this is rare with mainly idiots hotboxing their laptop without even knowing. 

[nstgc]

LED backlit make it slightly sharper, but it's not a breathtaking difference. Might be nicer for movie watching or something, but for normal use, I'll be damned if you can see a difference.

Agreed. Asus has good stuff. However, the only times I ever see them have issues is when they have more power then their housing can handle (overheating usually). But even this is rare with mainly idiots hotboxing their laptop without even knowing. 

I only care about video playback in respects to this question. When using my computer for games or work I've never cared about black being a shade of grey. I'm thinking about scenes where its dark in most places, but light in a few others. Will it help with that or will I, as I did with this monitor, just turn off the dynamic contrast feature?

[fohfoh]

If you're sitting in the dark, I'd say so. But in a brightly lit room, the difference is there, but not huge. AFAIK, it keeps the light from shining past the edges of the monitor like traditional monitors or something.

[GoGeTa006]

From a "tv" stand point I went to this meeting for the "sears blue electronics crew"
and yes. . .the dynamic contrast is just bullshit for marketing
so is the hertz on a plasma
backlit vs edgelit. . .well as you said, backlit does give a more uniform lighting and altho its hard to notice the light does dim out on the center for edgelit TV's

The only downside to LED's I've seen so far, at least with the sony guys competing against the samsung first generation LED's is the following:

you have a DARK DARK DARK scene, on a sony xbr: you see a dark dark dark scene. . .on a samsung LED you see a black black black detail-less screen.
Even tho LED's are brighter and more energy efficient, the contrast ratio jumps off so high that it looses detail on dark scenes, which so far Sony has been able to reduce as far as I've seen.
I took some high definition pictures onto the sony LED's and the Samsung LED's and yes the sony looks pretty damm much better (NX8 vs Samsung 9000) (on this new 2010 generation) still the sony XBR '09 beats them both

Thats from a TV standpoint. . .I cant really say much about monitors

[nstgc]

At this point I suppose I should be asking if there is significant reason to prefer an LED lit versus a CCFL lit monitor. It seems as if the only ones worth mentioning are too expensive. Also, people have been saying that LEDs are brighter, but all of the ones I've seen have been dimmer. The CCFL are rated at 300 where as the LEDs are rated at 250.

[fohfoh]

Why do you care if others can see it? Can YOU see it? You'd be like a crazy audiophile who gets hard ons with .flac yet in reality, you can't tell the difference between 128kbps and 256kbps.

But yes, I know what Gogeta is trying to say with the Samsung LED vs the Sony LED//240Hz LCD. The colors are indeed somewhat wonky, but I assumed it was "fixable" via the use of modifying options. Samsung LEDs are not visually exceptional vs certain other tvs, but price wise, they're not bad for entry in to the LED scene.

[nstgc]

Why do I care? Simply because I want to make sure that what I'm buying is worth the money I open the box. I made this topic because I can tell that my monitor's contrast ratio isn't good enough, and that the dynamic contrast ratio is worthless, and want something that doesn't have this problem. I don't know the answers to the questions I've asked and I can't find it else where.

[sdedalus83]

Why do I care? Simply because I want to make sure that what I'm buying is worth the money I open the box. I made this topic because I can tell that my monitor's contrast ratio isn't good enough, and that the dynamic contrast ratio is worthless, and want something that doesn't have this problem. I don't know the answers to the questions I've asked and I can't find it else where.

That's as much a problem with the TN panel as it is with the backlight.

The 23" Dell UltraSharp is $300, and it certainly won't have a problem with contrast ratio.  You'll have to spend a lot more to get something appreciably better, especially if you want a grid based LED backlight with an IPS, FFS, or PVA panel.

[bloody000]

Only high-end studio displays have RGB LED array, with a radioactive colour gamut(also true for wide gamut CCFL displays).

99% of the LED backlighted display you see are using white LEDs, aka blue LEDs with yellow phosphor. The best they could do is sRGB, more likely than not they don't even cover 90% of the sRGB gamut.