Much like the DSLR guide earlier, Gizmodo published an article stating the best point and shoot cameras. Given that I love Canon’s new S90 and the thin Sony, I tend to agree with their recommendations:

• Best for lowlight: Canon S90
• Best value: Samsung HZ15W
• Best video: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7
• Best small size: Sony TX1
• Best weatherproof: Pentax Optio W80

There’s no such thing as an LED TV, at least not a mainstream TV you and I would buy at the store. However, Samsung has been advertising their new line of TV’s as “LED TV” and confusing many customers. Flat panel displays are either plasma and LCD. There are more fringe technologies like OLED but in reality at your local electronics store only those two are offered. The reason “LED” is used is because LCD TV’s can be backlit with either CCFL or LED technology.

CCFL, cold cathode fluorescent lamps, are your basic fluorescent lightbulb. They have been used as a LCD backlight for decades. Arriving on the scene two years ago, LED’s are used instead of a CCFL to light up an LCD TV. These LED-backlit TV’s have many advantages, including a bright, consistent backlight, low power consumption and the ability to make LCD’s even thinner than they are.

Causing more confusion are the two LED backlight configurations. Traditionally the LED backlight is behind the screen, lighting the screen from behind also allows a new technique called local dimming. This shuts of LED’s that are behind the black areas of the image, leading to “blacker blacks” which have always been a weak spot for all LCD TV’s. However, a cheaper version of LED backlights have been introduced called “edge lit”. Picture quality is not as good as backlit LED, but edgelit LED TV’s can be made remarkably thin.

Be on the lookout for these types of technologies when buying your new TV. The best LCD picture quality will be from an LED backlit LCD with local dimming.

When buying a new television, be careful about picking TV’s with LED backlighting – not all of them are what they appear. LED backlighting is one of the newest technologies used to improve picture quality and power efficiencies in flat screens. They’re used in LCD TV’s to produce the light that shines through the screen. Until the last year or so, all LCD’s were backlit using cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL), which are similar to flourescent lights.

Samsung was one of the first television manufacturers to offer LED’s to replace CCFL’s as the main backlighting source. The main advantage was a much brighter and smoother backlighting – no more “bands” or “waves” of brightness when the LCD is showing a dark picture. Moreover, the first LED backlit televisions had “local dimming” or the ability to turn off portions of the backlight to produce very dark blacks – always a weakness with LCD’s compared to plasma TV’s.

Originally, Samsung’s  950 and Sony’s XBR8 models both included LED backlighting with local dimming. However, things changed this year – Samsung introduced new televisions that had LED backlighting, but introduced in a cheaper, less featured package.

These are called “edge lit” LED backlit televisions and make up their 7000 and 8000 series televisions. The LED backlighting has moved from behind the TV to the edges. This has two detrimental effects on picture quality – the backlighting is not as uniform throughout the screen, and the backlight is incapable of local dimming. However, this type of backlight does produce VERY thin televisions, and are cheaper that full LED-backlit TV’s.

Be aware of this change, and make sure you know what you are getting. Samsung is rumored to launch a 9000 series television which features a full local-dimming LED backlight.

I love focused blogs. My favorites are on the right hand column but they include Autoblog, Engadget, Gizmodo and Boy Genius Reports (mobile phones). My lastest favorite is DisplayBlog who have just moved over to their dedicated URL www.displayblog.com. If you’re interested in a new TV or new monitor, definitely check it out.