LED, LCD and plasma TV: Which television LCD TV
What is LCD TV?
Liquid crystal display (LCD) TV screens come to life when light from behind the screen is shone through a succession of polarizing filters, electrodes and the television screen's matrix of tiny coloured liquid crystal cells. Signals control each cell, letting varying amounts of colour through, and a picture is built up.
To find the best LCD TV check our rigorous and independent television review guide. We test more than 100 televisions every year - plasma, LED and LCD.
Who makes LCD TVs?
All television manufacturers make LCD TVs. LCD is the most common type of HD TV and offers the widest array of screen-sizes - from small sub 20-inch televisions to huge big screen TVs.
For many years 42- and 50-inch plasma TVs were the only choice for fans of big-screen TV, with technology restricting LCD TVs to mainly the 32-inch market.
Today, it's a different story. Massive manufacturer investment in research and production has led to LCD TV screens becoming increasingly bigger and LCD screens now dominate the 40-inch plus category.
How good is the picture quality on an LCD TV?
There are a couple of general observations to be made. Many LCD TVs don't do blacks well, so darker pictures can look washed out. Wide viewing angles have never been a strong point of many LCD TVs either. Watched head-on the picture looks fine but from an acute angle images can fade.
However, on many of the latest LCD TVs deep colours and rich blacks are the norm, and problems with viewing angles can be more down to the brand of television than technology.
Television size matters
LCD TVs have a definite edge over plasmas in the rigorous Which? testing regime, and find most favour with our exacting viewing panel. However, if you take screen size into account, this is hardly surprising.
A 26 to 32-inch screen is the optimal size for watching standard-definition material. Bigger screens tend to make digital processing side-effects more obvious.
Conversely, bigger screens are more suited to high definition. A 42-inch screen is more capable than a 26-inch set, for instance, of showing off the extra detail and sharpness of a HD picture.
Considering most of us watch standard-definition TV, LCD is more often than not the technology of choice.
See detailed brand overviews for the lowdown on all the leading TV manufacturers.
Are LCD TVs the best energy saving option?
Based on our test results, a 42-inch plasma TV typically uses 277 watts when switched on, compared to an 180 watt average for the 40-46-inch LCD TV category. That's 50% less energy than plasma televisions.
However, some TV manufacturers point out that the power use of a plasma television is directly dependent on picture brightness, while an LCD TV picture requires a constant source of illumination. The theory goes that a plasma TV should use less power over time.
But, in reality, plasma TVs require significantly more power to achieve the same brightness level as an LCD TV, putting something of a 42-inch widescreen hole in the theory.
