If you haven’t noticed, there’s a new term creeping into the television industry lexicon: Direct LED TVs. And as is so often the case, the new term has created all sorts of new confusion. Here’s a quick overview of what this means. First and foremost, this does not refer to a TV where the image [...]
By the description it appears that Direct LED is nothing else than "local dimming zones of LEDs" behind the LCD panel to have better control of whites and blacks in small areas of the image, which design has been already used by some of the most expensive LCDs.
In theory, OLED would have such control at the pixel level, but rather using organic LEDs.
Not only does OLED provide "local dimming" at the pixel level (and probably better than plasma can), but LG is apparently claiming an "infinite" contrast ratio for their new 55-inch OLED sets. Of course, this is complete hogwash; there is no way that light from an "on" pixel does not leak into an adjacent "off" pixel under normal use. The industry practice of measuring contrast with full-white and full-black screens is useless. At least this latest claim by LG may render the specifications pointless and we can stop having to deal with that charade.
