Edge LED or Direct LED? Direct LED or Edge LED: where the picture quality is better

To date, LED backlighting for many of the revolutionary advancements in the production of TVs has ultimately evolved into an additional feature, which often complicates the choice of a device, as you need to think about the advantages of each individual option in order to make a weighted decision.

Indeed, when buying a TV, you do not want to make a mistake in the end, buying something that actually is the technology of yesterday, which makes no sense to use in modern realities. Fortunately, there are no serious difficulties in this matter, and its importance is greatly exaggerated.

The advantages and disadvantages of LED as such

Each variant of LED technology has its advantages, namely:

• Higher degree of economy.
• The ability to create TVs with fairly thin screens.
• Complete absence of mercury in LEDs.

These advantages are considered in relation to other lighting implementation technologies that were previously used in other types of TVs.

It is worth noting a few cons that are typical for all types of LED backlighting:

• Initially, this type of lighting does not provide an improvement in the viewing angles of the LCD.
• Thinner models that have side illumination may suffer from uneven illumination of the screen.
• LED-backlight can eventually provoke unwanted local dimming of the picture on the screen.

Of course, such shortcomings in the majority of cases are eliminated in various models of monitors and TVs, as the technology is continuously being improved. At the same time, it is necessary to understand correctly that far not only one highlight influences the picture quality in the TV.

The high quality of the image, which allows watching modern TVs, was able to appear largely due to the fact that the developers began to use the technology of LED backlighting. At one time, the emergence of LED-TVs was able to make a real revolution in the market, because the new lighting provided a significant improvement in the quality of color reproduction, and significantly increased the brightness of the image. However, many people have a well-founded question about what it is better to choose - Edge LED or Direct LED. After all, each option has its advantages and disadvantages, which must be taken into account in the selection process.

What are their main differences?

To date, all existing major manufacturers of TVs use only two types of highlights - Edge LED or Direct LED. Between them, they differ in quantity, as well as in the geometric arrangement of the LEDs. Depending on how the latter are located, the characteristics of the matrix may vary, with each type of illumination having its own peculiarities and advantages. It is for this reason, when choosing a TV, in each individual case you need to weigh all these moments and think about what is still best to choose - Edge LED or Direct LED. Next, we consider the features of each option.

Edge

The use of this light provides for the distribution of LEDs on the sides of the screen. In this regard, this technology is often called the lateral illumination.

Advantages of Edge

This technology has several advantages:

• An extremely thin matrix, and in connection with this - and the TV itself.
• Relatively high brightness.
• Acceptable contrast level.

The main advantage of using this technology is that the TV eventually can become hyperfine, which often acts as a decisive factor in favor of choosing such devices. To date, there has been a clear trend towards the fact that when choosing between Edge LED or Direct LED, they often give their preference to the first option, because modern manufacturers produce ultra-thin screens with this technology.

Also worth noting is the fact that the lateral distribution of LEDs provides a high degree of energy efficiency.

Disadvantages of Edge

Also, the technology has certain drawbacks:

• Highlights at the edges of the screen.
• Problems associated with the uniformity of illumination in certain models.

If you choose Edge LED, you should immediately be prepared for the fact that the cost of such a TV will be somewhat larger, because they use a specialized reflective surface, which is necessary for an extremely uniform illumination distribution, and also to eliminate any noticeable brightness differences. If we talk about the shortcomings of this technology, we should also highlight the presence of certain light at the edges of the screen, and when playing, for example, a bright snowy landscape near the edges of the screen, the snow will be much brighter compared to the image in the center.

In dark scenes, you can often pay attention to the effect of a kind of light, and in particular, this is due to the fact that the LEDs are located around the perimeter of the screen, and the brightness in this area is quite logical. It is worth noting the fact that different TVs show different light, because there is always the possibility that you will be able to find a device that has the least possible differences in the picture. If there is such a function on the TV as a local blackout, then in that case you can completely forget about what the lights are, and that they can spoil the mood from viewing certain moments.

Direct

The Direct LED backlighting type provides for the distribution of LEDs across the entire area behind the matrix.

In this case, technology of local dimming can be used very effectively and conveniently enough, when the processor sets the brightness level of certain groups of LEDs, thereby increasing the contrast level, and thus providing an extremely uniform illumination.

Advantages Direct

Considering the advantages of Direct LED technology, it is worth highlighting the following:

• Uniform illumination.
• A sufficiently high level of contrast.
• Absence of light at the edges.
• Acceptable brightness level.

Disadvantages Direct

Also LED Direct lighting has some disadvantages compared to the analog:

• Higher power consumption.
• Not such a thin thickness of the matrix.
• Comparatively large Input Lag.

What to choose?

As mentioned above, there is no precise definition of which particular option is more relevant in a given situation. You can pay attention to a lot of factors, choosing between which option is more optimal - Direct LED or Edge LED: where the picture quality is better, where the energy is consumed, in the end, which TV has a more attractive design in itself.

Thus, if the thickness of the device for you does not matter, and yet you do not intend to use it as a monitor for various computer games, then the technology of Direct lighting will be quite appropriate, but if you are a fan of extremely thin devices, Then in this case Edge is the best choice. It is better to independently compare the work of each highlight in the store, so that you can decide for yourself which particular option is more acceptable. According to users of such TVs, in the final analysis, the choice of lighting is in many ways exclusively a matter of taste for every person.