For those unaware, LED stands for light emitting diode. LED TV is technically a variation of LCD television but there are notable improvements in LED TVs that make them a class of their own. The weaknesses in LCD TV have been corrected in LED TV. This explains marked difference in their prices.

Generally, LED TVs exhibit better picture quality than LCD TVs. You also get to conserve on electricity bills with LED TVs because they use less energy. A LED TV is definitely one of the biggest investments for the entertainment area. It’s not something you should buy when you’re in an impulse shopping mode, though.

LED TV is competing with Plasma TV in terms of picture quality, particularly with the contrast levels. Contrast or measure of the ratio of black and white is very important in television. The LED backlighting of the LED TV has surpassed the contrast level quality of LCD TV, and is up to par with Plasma TV. See, the liquid crystals in LCD displays twist and untwist, hindering the superior performance of contrast levels. This problem is given a solution in LED TVs, with its local dimming that pronounce the deep black levels.

LED TV also delivers when it comes to color accuracy. LED TVs have better color saturation and accuracy than LCD TVs. Sometimes, experts say that LED TVs are better than Plasma TVs in rendering colors. LED TV is able to give off excellent color accuracy because of its mode of lighting. LCD TVs use fluorescent lighting and as a result, it cannot render realistic and vivid colors. LED TV lighting has been calibrated for an almost flawless pixel-perfect resolution. Vibrant colors come out best in LED TV displays.

There are different sizes of LED TVs but generally, LED TVs are lighter and thinner than LCD TVs. Again, this is because of the lighting. LED TV lighting doesn’t require as much space as fluorescent. It’s easy to make larger LED TVs then LCD because of its lightness.

Finally, a very attractive feature of the LED TV is its energy-saving ability. It could be one of the most expensive television sets but the investment pays off because it saves on the electricity bills. Again, the lighting technology gets the credit for this feature. LEDs are also known to be more efficient in producing light than the fluorescent.

Now that the makers of these TV’s have combined the computer with the TV. LED TVs are all that and more.

Motion interpolation is the technical term for the technology that takes the keeps your movie from jumping while you are watching it. Films and video are recorded at a certain frame-rate and your HDTV has a fixed frame-rate that it can display the movie. If you are watching a video that has a lower frame-rate than the HDTV then you will get a jumpiness (technically called a judder) or blur in the pictured until the video has time to catch up.

Motion interpolation technology fixes this problem by putting in frames as placeholders until lower frame-rate video source catches up to the display. The reason this is important to you as the consumer is because not all television have this technology yet. So to ensure you get the best viewing experience from your  television, you should look for this technology when purchasing your new TV. Of course this technology has different brand names for each of the TV manufacturers. Toshiba calls it “ClearScan” but most of the other manufacturers will have the word “motion” in their descriptions. If your not sure that your television has this feature, ask the salesman before you buy it.

 Here are a few of the brand names given to motion interpolation technology and the refresh rates offered by the manufactor:

• Samsung – Auto Motion Plus 120 Hz, 240 Hz
• Sharp – Fine Motion Enhanced, AquoMotion 240Hz
• Sony – MotionFlow 100 Hz, , 120 Hz, 200 Hz, 240 Hz, 400 Hz.
• Toshiba – ClearScan 120 Hz, 240 Hz
• LG – TruMotion 120 Hz, 240 Hz, 480 Hz
• Vizio – MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation)

Faster is not always better. You should go to the store and acutally view the television that you are going to buy. Some people may not prefer the pictures that you see when looking at a TV with a high refresh rate.

3D Glasses

Any 3D TV you purchase will require glasses to view it in 3D. There are two types of glasses that produces the 3D effect called passive and active glasses. Active glasses are the most expensive type and they use a shutter to match the speed of the images being displayed. The cheaper glasses are the colored lenses that you normally find at your neighborhood cinema. The thing to  remember is that the glasses are not interchangeable, you will need to know which glasses match the television that you’ve purchased.

3D Source and Content
The 3D television that you is purchased is the display device, but you will also need a source that transmits the 3D signal. The most popular source right now is a 3D blue disc player. You can also receive 3D channels such as the discovery channels 3net, or a 3D gaming system.  As the 3D TV becomes more of the standard, the 3D channels available will probably grow to keep up the demand.

The content coming from the 3D channels is already suited to display on your TV. Just be sure when you purchase movies that you want to watch on 3D, that they are compatible. If you have a TV that can convert 2D content to 3D display then you content choices are pretty much unlimited.

Here are my predictions of what we have to look forward to in the 2012 LED TV’s.

OLED  (Organic Light Emitting Diodes)

OLED TV’s give you a faster refresh rate and a better contrast.  Even though this technology was introduce into the market a few years ago, is not widely used today.   OLEDs are made by taking two conductors and putting them on the outside of  organic material, and applying an electric current.   However, the drawback is that this display was very expensive and therefore cost prohibit for wide distribution. Sony and LG have (very expensive) models on the market but I predict that the TV big wigs at Samsung and Sharp will join the party in 2012 with more affordable versions.

 Quad HD/4k

The next evolution of resolution: 4K panel TV’s. This technology was introduced last year but did not make in mainstream in the 2011 models.  Just imange viewing your tv at four times the resolutin of 1080p HD. Yes, a sight for sore eyes, indeed! I predict that will see more of this technology in 2012, but be prepared for the price tag!

Design and Appearance

Samsung came out with a great looking TV last year and I think the other big TV makers will follow this lead.  Yes, the TV’s will continue to have a sleek , slim design, but I bet that they will remove the bezel look at place close attention to where they place the HDMI ports. For some people having the ports in the back  instead of the side will be a deal breaker.

3D, and Smart TV

We will continue to see the marriage of the TV and computer and  the Smart TV will emerge with even more apps as TV makers court the various internet biggies. We may even some storage devices being added to the TV’s as well. I can’t wait to see what will be offered int he next generation of Smart TV’s.

 3D TVs  is here to stay and many of the 2012 models are likely to be 3D ready. This will probably become a standard feature for HD TV’s,as well as the 2D to 3D feature. I predict that some of the name brands will focus on the glasses (both active and passive) instead of the TV.

While keeping all the great features of the HD LED TV’s such as LED backlighting,  motion interploation and meeting ENERGY STAR guideline, smart TV’s allow instant access through the internet through a built in wireless network. All ouf the big TV manugfacturers  got on board early so you havecan choose from quite a few brands and models. Also Samsung and Vizio have quite a few apps made that you can choose from to give you direct access to media sites like Yahoo TV, Amazon Instant Video, and Rhapsody.

Below are some of the models that are available: