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I am looking to buy a modern 30" tv in the next few weeks, as my ancient Tv has give up the ghost and i`m now without anything to watch! But i`m confused about LED & LCD. Can anyone please explain in layman's terms what the pro`s and con`s are of these type. All i know is liquid crystal display & light emitting diode. Any clear advice would be appreciated before i commit to buying one. Hoping to spend about £300 or less if possible! Thanks all.

You might find the following link helpful. It's pretty easy to follow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED-backlit_LCD_display

That link pretty well sums it up, we were struggling a couple of months back for the same reasons.Confusion over LED,LCD and in the end decided we would not notice the difference anyway so got a nice Sharp 32 inch from Tesco Direct for £227.50 and collected it from Bidston Moss no dely. charge.Very pleased with it indeed

In a nutshell, if you just want a decent tv to watch at a cost effective price go for an LCD one. Anything else is just marketing guff to con you to pay more or its for people who are well into their home cinema equipment and want all the bells and whistles and will pay mega bucks to have it.

Thanks Geekus, but after trying to understand that,it went in my eyes & out my ears as pure gobble-de-gook! Basically need to know the best for a Technophobe like me, to use with my Dvd recorder. I don`t really need one that comes with lots of whistles and bells. A channel button & on/off switch is about all i can get my noggin to fathom out!

Lol! You'll be lucky to find one like that! TV's seem to change every couple of months, what with 3D TV and Internet Television.

Even DVD recorders are becoming a bit obsolete now.

If you've got an Argos catalogue they have an easy to understand guide on the page at the front of the TV/Home Entertainment section. You could have a read of that even if you don't intend buying one from there.

Just make sure the telly you get has enough scart sockets for you to connect your DVD recorder as well as anything else you might need to connect.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Looks like a LCD is the way to go for me. Technology is going way to fast for me Geekus. Where i come from we`re still amazed by the wheel and quite often i find myself stareing in puzzlement at those silver flying things in the clouds!

In a nutshell: LCD and LED TVs, currently, both have the same type of panel (i.e. an LCD screen). The difference is in the "backlight".

On an LCD TV the backlight is 2 or 4 cold cathode fluorescent lamps placed around the outside of the screen (or at 2 opposite sides if only 2 used). On an LED TV the backlight is made of LEDs around the whole of the edge of the screen.

Because they take up less room, LED backlit TVs are generally thinner than CCFL backlit TVs, even if using the same panel. LEDs use less power than CCFLs. Also LED TVs are supposed to have "black levels" closer to those of a plasma screen.

In the future true LED screens will become available. These will use OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes), and won't need any sort of back light.

Thanks lil pob. I think that description made things a little easier for my brain cell to bounce around off. Now it just depends on what is the best deal for each type and judging by the prices i`ve just looked at, i`m not gonna get much for around £3oo, so i`ll save for 6 months and should get a fairly good one for £600. Plenty of time to catch up on all my unread books now!

At the end of the day, SED failed to make it to market, so the best technology is still Plasma, period (and yes I admit that despite this, I have an ECCFL LCD lol).

Lol plasmas are crap one of the worst inventions. Led is the way to go

Sorry, but don't chat shit mate, you find me a flat screen TV (that actually made it to mass-market) with a better picture than a Pioneer Kuro... nope, not going to happen.

And for the uneducated, the current line Panasonic Neo PDP's incorporate all the Kuro IP since Matsushita purchased Pioneer's PDP division.

LCD has never been the best at anything, it's come one leaps and bounds over the past few years, but inherent technological limitations prevent the best LCD's from be able to compete with the best Plasma's.

Btw, LED isn't a screen technology in the current world mate as such, it's LED LCD - which is nothing more than a type of backlight - in a bid to "try" and compete with Plasma's black levels. OLED technology are still unsuitable for production large-screen devices. I still have faith SED will make it eventually - SED simply blows away the current crop of technologies, and is more akin to Plasma than LCD.

If you're just after something basic, you can get a Toshiba Full HD 32" LED TV for under £350 from outlets like Dixons, but shop around. I dare say there will be offers on, particularly nearer Easter.

Plasma is great for bigger screens but as woofie was only interested in something around 30 inches, he's probably best sticking with LED. He could get something cheaper than the Toshiba one (maybe even with built in DVD player) but some brands are worth paying a bit extra for.

Richer Sounds is a must, for both price matching (they will match online retailers) and their Supercare 5 year warranties (just 10% of the value of the TV). Visit the Chester branch, they tend to be very helpful in finding you the right television, and generally know their stuff. They are usually quite willing to try different sources on their display TV's, so you can compare different options.

Full HD on a 32" is nigh on pointless, so don't worry too much about that, 720p will be fine; anything extra is a bonus. You should be able to pick up a goodun for around the £300 mark; spending £600 won't give you £300 worth of better TV.

Totally agree with Mattlfc, I bought a 42" Panasonic plasma just after xmas & it's great quality. I was a bit wary after reading that plasmas tend to show reflections on the screen as mine faces the window and my old CRT used to suffer with this problem but the picture is sound.