A new locally dimmable backlight system has been developed for the latest range of Hitachi LED TV models that Hitachi has named Slim Block LED Panel. Like other LED backlighting systems it works by locating the LED lights directly to the rear of the LCD panel (rather than around the perimeter of the LCD panel as with edge lit LED TV). The Hitachi LED TV backlighting system is divided in to over a hundred blocks (hence the name) which can be individually controlled to produce blocks of varying light intensity and consequently improve the overall picture quality.
Previous generations of standard LCD panels that employed CCFLs (fluorescent lights) to illuminate the LCD panel were unable to control the backlight which remained lit at all times. As a result of the backlighting being constantly illuminated and the fact that LCD panels cannot block 100% of the light emitted, the TV is unable to produce truly black images because of the light that seeps through the LCD panel.
The Hitachi LED TV Slim Block LED panel not only makes it possible to turn off individual blocks of LED lights to produce dark blacks, but it is also possible to control every LED block separately and vary the light intensity in any area of the picture. This gives tremendous control over the contrast levels of the display so that black, whites and all levels of brightness in between can be displayed on the screen simultaneously. The result is a sharpness of images that has not been seen before in Hitachi LED TVs. Fine details that were previously lost with standard LCD and edge-lit LED TVs are brought to life using in Hitachi LED TV block lighting.
Also, as each ‘LED block’ is self contained, it prevents the light from one LED block spreading to adjacent blocks. With other LED TV backlighting systems, bright areas of the picture can bleed in to adjacent dark areas. When this occurs a bright on-screen object can seem to ‘glow’ when surrounded by a darker area, the Hitachi LED TV backlighting ‘block design’ is said to reduce this.
When combined with an intelligent ambient light sensor which adjusts the brightness of the display dependant on rooms conditions plus 120 frames per second processing technology, the Hitachi LED TV produces image quality that far exceeds Hitachi 2010 models.
