Controversy Continues in U.K. on ‘LED TV’ Name for LED-Backlit LCD Sets
LONDON -- It looks like the CE industry will have to live with the term “LED TV” to describe LCD TVs that use energy-efficient LEDs to illuminate the screen, instead of older cold-cathode fluorescent lighting. Samsung, the company that started the “LED TV” ball rolling, isn’t backing down despite official censure on its use in the U.K. (CED Aug 19 p1). And now, Toshiba’s latest TVs for Europe introduced here last week seem to add a new layer of confusion.
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Samsung was first to describe LED-backlit TVs as “LED TVs” in the U.K. and U.S., and was taken to task for it by the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority last year. Critics of the practice -- including TV competitors in Europe and the U.S. -- argue that consumers will be confused into thinking the sets have LED panels, although that kind of display technology has yet to emerge for the mass market. The possibility of such confusion was what prompted the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority to investigate Samsung’s ads there, and tell the company to make them clearer. No one disputes the claims that LED technology is more energy-efficient than CCFL, and also more environmentally-friendly because LEDs don’t contain mercury.
Now, the latest TVs from Toshiba in Europe have the potential to add confusion. At its recent news briefing here (CED Feb 17 p4), the company tossed about phrases like “LED models” and “LED panels,” usually accompanied with the term “LED backlighting.” But it drew no distinction between LCD TVs that use LEDs around the edge of the screen, and those that use LEDs behind the screen. There’s a meaningful difference in picture quality and TV price.
While LEDs on the LCD’s edges can be dimmed only en bloc to match the overall picture content, LEDs behind the panel can be dimmed locally to match specific areas in the picture content. But Toshiba was using the term “LED backlighting” to describe both options. Upon our questioning, the company confirmed that the LEDs for its REGZA SL and WL lines are at the edge of the picture, and enhance contrast by constantly adapting to the overall content of the images on screen. So, the term “LED backlit” for those LCD TVs means “LED edge-lit.”
True LED backlighting with local dimming is used only in the new Cell TV, Toshiba told us. That high-end set incorporates the company’s 55-inch Kira2 panel with 512 clusters of individually-controlled LEDs behind the screen, to give a claimed contrast ratio of 9 million:1. The first sets for Europe with local dimming will be shown at Berlin’s IFA Fair this summer. A Toshiba spokesman told us the company would “take on board” a suggestion that the simple, generic “LED-lit” would more accurately describe the use of LEDs for edge-lighting and backlighting.
In the meantime, Samsung in the U.K. will continue promoting “LED TV” -- and the ASA admits its hands are tied to some extent. Last August, the ASA upheld complaints against Samsung for using the phrase LED TV to describe LCD TVs with LED backlighting. In a statement then, Samsung said it “welcomes the clarification” and is “pleased that we can continue to use the term LED TV."
But so far in 2010, Samsung’s news releases and website refer to “LED monitors,” and to its C9000, C8000, C7000 and C6500 TVs as “LED TVs” to distinguish them from the C750 and C650 models that are described as “LCD TVs.” Samsung’s website and its in-store publicity for TVs use the term “LED TV” in stylized type. It’s much the same in the U.S., where Samsung hasn’t been challenged on the term and, last August, said it would keep using it.
In response to our query about its continued “LED TV” branding, a Samsung U.K. spokesperson said his company “will continue to use the term LED as we believe it will continue to be a commonly used industry term. Samsung is confident that it is not in breach of the ASA ruling. If you would like more clarification on the ruling, feel free to speak to the ASA for more information.”
The ASA conceded its authority is limited to advertising, and said it has no control over other forms of promotion. “Advertising is considered to be anything in paid-for space, so on the Internet that will include pop-ups, banner ads and sponsored link searches,” a spokeswoman told us. “While we do not cover displays in-store, we do cover direct-marketing leaflets. I'm afraid websites are currently outside of the ASA’s remit -- when the Internet was first created websites were originally thought of as online shops, and therefore come under the remit of Trading Standards,” the spokeswoman said, referring to another U.K. regulator. So, in the U.K., it seems companies can say whatever they like on their websites, in-store displays and in news releases.