Sharp TV Issue

[Rustpot]

This is a prime example of why the store credit card sucks. This one is through GE Consumer Financing, and it's not a Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, etc. Most of those will have clauses that extended manufacturer's warranties and give you the ability to make a claim against defective merchandise.

 

[kronin323]

Im not sure how the LED screens work

[Sorry, a little Font of Useless Knowledge spout, for those who are curious...]

The description "LED screen" is more of a marketing term. They are also LCD screens. The only difference between what they call LCD vs. LED is the backlighting technology - traditional LCDs use florescent lights for backlighting while so-called "LED" screens use LEDs for backlighting.

By backlighting, what is meant is that LCDs themselves have no light output; a separate light source is needed to make them glow.

There are a few advantages to LED backlighting:
- They use less energy
- They last longer (if you don't have a defective panel like in this case)
- They can provide truer black color. The ratio of backlight bulbs and LCD pixels is typically not 1:1; with traditional florescent backlighting, the entire screen is constantly backlit, so black colors on the LCD still have a little light glow to them. Since LED backlighting has a higher number of smaller individual bulbs, the LEDs behind a black color can be selectively turned off, providing a truer black. But again, without a 1:1 ratio between LED bulbs and LCD pixels, you can still get a little "bleed" from surrounding activated LEDs. Premium AMOLED displays in cellphones for the past few years (starting around when the Galaxy SII came out) have an actual 1:1 ratio LED backlight to LCD pixel.

LED displays really are no thinner than a florescent backlight LCD. The really thin LED TVs use "edgelit" technology. This is where, instead of the light source being behind the LCD, the LCD panel is surrounded by an array of LEDs around the edges and the light is piped behind the LCD via some sort of fiber optics or something like that. Though the technology has been improving, edgelit performance has been a bit behind backlit LED LCDs due to uneven light levels the farther the light is piped away from the edge LED sources. Of course, this is only practically noticable with black colors in lab-grade evaluations...