What's an LED TV?

When a product has become commoditized and its price is regularly dropping and its profit margins are getting ever-thinner, how can a company boost its sales and raise its prices?

One way is by changing the product's name.

Samsung 8000 Series LED TV

That's what Samsung has done with its new line of LCD TVs using LEDs to illuminate the screen. In its print advertising and on its Web site, Samsung calls the new range simply "LED TVs."

They are not LED TVs. Calling them such makes as much sense as calling its existing line of LCD televisions Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp TVs, or CCFL TVs, after the lighting technology that they use.

Whatever its validity, Samsung's decision to drop "LCD" was a smart marketing move. After all, "LED" is the acronym du jour, a technology that's all the rage as a new, perhaps revolutionary lighting source. It's as emotive a term as "HDTV" and "digital" were in their heydays.

But it's also confusing consumers. An industry colleague told me that in a recent trip to a big-box retailer, he overheard several friends asking what type of TV they were watching. One said it wasn't LCD or plasma, it was an LED set. 

More accurately, it was an expensive LCD set. LED-backlit LCD TVs can cost as much as twice their standard LCD or plasma counterparts. Is the extra money worth it, even if you can afford it?
Here are the answers to some questions you may have about LCD TVs using LED backlighting.

What's wrong with existing LCD TVs?
Up until now, LCDs used fluorescent tubes to light the screen. As a result, LCDs have trouble creating deep blacks. That's because fluorescent tubes are always on, and some light leaks through to the front of the display even when a part of the image is supposed to be black. A lack of deep blacks reduces the perceived sharpness of the set's image.

Also, fluorescents lack a wide range of colors; hence, color saturation is limited.

What's an LED TV?
It's an LCD TV that uses LEDs to illuminate the display. There are two ways to do this: either by placing LEDs across the entire back of the display, or by placing LEDs just around the perimeter, which is called an "edge lit" display. Both techniques use less power than plasma TVs and LCD TVs lit with fluorescent tubes.

Which technique is better?
They both have their pros and cons. LCD TVs using edge-lit LCDs can be ultra-thin, because the LED sources are on the side. Edge-lit LED-lit LCDs are also less expensive than LCD TVs using LED backlit technology.

On the other hand, LCD TVs that use LEDs across the rear of the display can create sharply deeper blacks, through a technique called "local dimming." When a scene calls for a dark image, the LEDs in that area can be shut off completely, so no light leaks through what should look black.

So if I want an LED-lit LCD, I should buy one using back-lit technology?
It's not so simple. An LED back-lit TV may contain only about 1,000 LEDs. And those LEDs can only be dimmed in large groups, because it is too expensive to control each LED individually. So when you shut off or dim a group of LEDs you may also be darkening part of an adjoining scene on the TV that really should be bright. If you cut back on the dimming, then the blacks will be less dark than blacks in another part of the image that are not surrounded by lighter images.

Theoretically, you could increase the number of LEDs so that each lit just one pixel on the 2 million pixel LCD screen. But then you could just throw away the LCD screen because you would have actually created an LED television - just like the Walgreens LED sign in Times Square.

O.K., but still, LCD TVs with LEDs have great contrast
Sometimes they do. It depends on what you're watching. As a Samsung engineer said to me last week, "the most dramatic effect of LED-lit TVs happens when the entire scene goes to black" - not necessarily when you're watching a scene with a mixture of light and dark images.

Do LED-lit LCD TVs produce better pictures than plasma TVs?
Interestingly, I've heard no one in the industry claim that they do. At best, they say that with LED-lit LCD TVs, plasma no longer has an edge when it comes to creating deep blacks and saturated colors. But plasma still has a big edge when it comes to price.

How much more do LED-lit LCD TVs actually cost?
Right now, a lot. But that should change as more companies enter the market. The list price for Samsung's 46-inch high-end LED-lit LCD TV, model UN46B8000, is $3,200. But its larger 50-inch plasma high-end model, the PN50B860, is $800 cheaper.

Later this year, LG will introduce two new series of LED LCD TVs, in 42-, 47-, and 55-inch screen sizes; all sets will use backlit LED technology. Prices have not been announced.

Not surprisingly, Vizio has just broken the LED price barrier. On Monday, the company announced that beginning this September it would ship the VF551XVT, a 55-inch LCD model using LED backlighting. The price: $2,200, or $1,000 less than Samsung's smaller 46-inch LED-lit television. It looks like Samsung's strategy to make its LED-based LCD TVs a premium product may have a short life

NYtime.com  ERIC A. TAUB

Abolade Ishola  twitter: @aboladeishola

Abolade Ishola: I Want to Marry Her but She Drinks Too Much

Abolade Ishola: I Want to Marry Her but She Drinks Too Much: Generic image (Thinkstock) "I'm in a relationship of almost two years with a woman I love. Recently she has b...

I Want to Marry Her but She Drinks Too Much

Generic image (Thinkstock)

"I'm in a relationship of almost two years with a woman I love. Recently she has become a heavy drinker. Her job is demanding and comes with high stress levels. Lately she's been unusually stressed and has been drinking more often. It makes her aggressive and rude until she sobers up, and then she claims she has no recollection of our arguments. I've addressed this issue with her before, and each time she's dismissed my concerns. I've been planning to marry her and have bought the ring, but I want her to stop drinking before I propose. How do I get her to stop?" --S.F.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you realize you need to address the issue before you propose.

Now for the bad: You can't "get" your girlfriend to stop drinking. That's on her. And unfortunately, despite the blackouts (e.g., her having no recollection of the arguments she has when she's drunk), she's not going to address this issue anytime soon. How do I know? She won't even acknowledge that there's a problem, despite your repeated complaints. Denial is a textbook response for heavy drinkers and a symptom of alcohol abuse.  

You've made a keen observation about the correlation between your girlfriend's stress level and the amount that she drinks. Alcohol abuse -- that's you’re your girlfriend is dealing with if she's blacking out -- is typically a symptom of a larger problem. Your girlfriend likely lacks proper coping skills for her stressors and uses alcohol to relieve them. The tricky and most unfortunate part is that the alcohol is adding an additional stressor: problems in her relationship with you, which, in turn, may cause her to drink even more. It's an ugly, vicious circle.

There are two ways you may be able to get your girlfriend to stop drinking heavily -- and just to be completely forthright, because of the nature of alcohol abuse, they may not work. But you can try to help her find more productive ways to deal with her stress than drinking. Working out, listening to music and writing in a journal are all documented stress relievers. And of course there's the obvious, like seeking the counsel of a therapist who is way more qualified to help her cope with stressors than you.

You should also change your approach when talking to your girlfriend about her drinking. She doesn't think her drinking is a problem because she doesn't remember the problems she causes when she drinks. Instead of talking to her about the drinking, talk to her in a nonjudgmental, nonconfrontational way about the impact it's having on the relationship. That means making it clear that you are concerned about her and your relationship, but don't chastise her for her behavior; it will only make her defensive. "Simply" explain how her behavior makes you feel, and avoid making accusations about her behavior.

Make it plain that how she behaves when she drinks -- whether she remembers or not -- is giving you second thoughts about advancing the relationship or potentially remaining in one with her.

If she continues to deny the problem, record her outbursts on your phone and replay them for her in the morning so that she can see how she behaves. Being presented with the effects of her drinking may give her the motivation she needs to admit that she has a problem, which is literally the first step in addressing it. 

I must be frank: Helping your girlfriend address her alcohol abuse is not likely to be a quick or easy process. Once a person develops a dependency on alcohol, for whatever reason, it is a challenging cycle to break. Too often, people don't seek help for their drinking problems until their lives have spiraled out of control. Unfortunately, that spiral affects those closest to them -- like you -- in a negative way, too.

To limit the negative impact on yourself, set a comfortable time frame in which you are willing to work with your girlfriend as she acknowledges this issue and, further, seeks help. If she's unable to meet that deadline, you will have to make a hard choice about whether you are willing to accept her reaction to heavy drinking, which I assure you will get worse the longer she refuses to address it.

anecdotes culled from theroot.com

Demetria L. Lucas is a contributing editor at The Root, a life coach and the author of A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life. She answers your dating and relationship questions on The Root each week. Feel free to ask anything at askdemetria@theroot.com.