Unfortunately, they don’t have the advantage of local dimming. So, the picture won’t have the improved contrast ratios that a dimming TV has.

Paul started the Home Cinema Guide to help less-experienced users get the most out of today's audio-visual technology. He has been a sound, lighting and audio-visual engineer for around 20 years. At home, he has spent more time than is probably healthy installing, configuring, testing, de-rigging, fixing, tweaking, re-installing again (and sometimes using) various pieces of hi-fi and home cinema equipment. You can find out more here.

While edge-lit televisions are cheaper but can produce a lower-quality image in some circumstances. But there’s more to it than that.

LightBarforCargrill

You don’t have light blocks behind the screen, so you can only alter the light from the sides, limiting the effect because there is less control across the screen.

The lights in edge-lit LED televisions are placed around the perimeter of the LCD screen – and the light they emit spreads across the back of the panel using a series of ‘light guides.’

BarLight price

With this type of TV, the LED lights are grouped into blocks. Each block can be switched on or off independently of the other blocks.

The advantage over an edge-lit TV is that the lighting will usually be more uniform across the screen – eliminating the light-pooling of edge-lit screens.

Another advantage of an edge-lit version is the power consumption is less than a standard LCD TV or a back-lit LED screen.

LEDBarLight for home

A back-lit LED screen has a better picture quality but at the expense of thickness and power consumption compared to an edge-lit model.

If you see a model that almost disappears when you look at it from the side, then you can be sure it is an edge-lit screen.

WhiteBarLight forCar

You can see why it is crucial to understand the two different types of LED TVs. Each design has its advantages and disadvantages.

The only way to completely get around this problem is to have one LED per pixel on the screen, but this would be far too expensive to manufacture.

Kitchen Automatic Light bars

These are often referred to as direct-lit televisions and are used for budget models – striking a compromise between edge-lit and full-array designs.

Back-lit LED televisions have the lights arranged behind the screen – similar to a traditional LCD with a fluorescent lamp.

This type of lamp has managed to produce high-quality televisions. But, there have always been disadvantages to this technology, such as poor contrast ratios and color reproduction.

An edge-lit LED TV can be skinny, sexy and easy to install – but at the expense of picture quality. However, they are more economical to run than other types of television.

Therefore, televisions are now being built using the same LCD screens – but with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to create the backlight.

But, if you are watching in a darkened room, you may see light pooling, whereas dark scenes may show brighter areas around the edge of the screen.

Therefore, a back-lit LED TV with local dimming produces a better picture, which helps it to create an image comparable with other TV technologies like OLED.

In this instance, you will need the block switched on to reproduce the bright area, so the dark part will also be affected.

Different parts of the screen can have the blocks of lights switched on or off at any time, which gives the TV a much better contrast ratio than a traditional LCD TV.

LEDCar Bar Lights

There are several advantages to lighting the screen from behind – and the most important is more control over where the light occurs on the screen.

So, it is definitely worth considering this type of television if you want something close to an OLED TV’s picture quality.

LED TVs come in two main varieties: back-lit and edge-lit. Generally, back-lit TVs produce the best picture but use more power and are more expensive.

A downside is that the power consumption of these TVs can be greater than standard LCD or edge-lit televisions – especially those models which use RGB LEDs.