In many ways, LED TV's and LCD TV's are different: picture quality, weight, and energy efficiency are some of the things that set LED TV's apart from LCD TV's. But those things are what the electronics industry leaders want you to believe are important and that one should pay attention to when buying a new TV. You see, much of consumer demand is the result of marketing. That is, advertisements. They sway the masses with their "fancy" words and "new" technologies when in reality, the vast majority of them are merely "gimmicks". For instance, the whole 3D craze that was going on in the early to mid 2000's? That basically just allows viewers to watch 3D movies and films without the hassle of buying a separate peripheral: 3D glasses and the subsequent setting up of the device to work with one's TV. It was all the rage. Another example was the refresh rate. You may have heard that 120Hz is better than 60Hz so far as refresh rates are concerned since it's "faster" and this is especially true in the computer gaming industry. But the interesting thing to note here is that the human eye can only process 60 frames per second (FPS for short ) at its peak level. Well, how is frames per second related to refresh rates? That, unfortunately, would require a much deeper explanation and for the purposes of this entry, we won't be getting into that. Just know that most "media" are captured between frame rates of as low as 24 frames per second to as high as 60 frames per second, which incidentally, matches the same speed the average human eye can process. And the refresh rates merely concerns how many times a TV refreshes the screen per second. What does this all mean? It means that even if a film was captured at 60 FPS and your TV is capable of 120Hz refresh rate, buying a TV with even higher refresh rates (240Hz, let's just say) would make virtually no difference to the human eye. However, film media is different from video game media, which operates on an entirely different plane of existence. Again, we won't get into that but just know that in the world of computer gaming, refresh rates matter, but in the TV world? Not so much.

Now, when we get down to the parts level (as in whole circuit boards), that's a different story. Common sense would have you believe that if the parts are getting smaller and thinner, then it would take less energy to power a unit, which is true to that extent. But that's as far as it goes. And if it took less energy to power a unit, then that means less heat is generated, hence, a "longer shelf life" or so one would think. But this isn't the case. Smaller and thinner circuit boards also mean smaller and thinner heatsinks as well as "surface area" to disperse and dissipate heat. And since the surface area of the circuit board itself is smaller, it also means more components are crammed together in closer proximity, which also doesn't bode well to heat dissipation. Put together then, the heat generated from the close proximity of components and little surface area to dissipate heat over a period of time would eventually amount to about the same amount of heat generated from an LCD TV. Given that, it wouldn't be surprising if components break faster, which is what we've been seeing. 

Two days ago, one of the local shops paid us a visit to purchase a Samsung Main Board (part number: BN94-06175B) for a TV that was made just two years ago. It was for a Samsung UN40F5500AF. Now, while the TV itself was manufactured two years ago, it was our understanding the customer had bought this TV just a year ago and literally a month after the 1 year manufacturer warranty expired, the TV went out. This shop who came to us for this part had also bought the Power Supply for this unit (part number: BN44-00645A) about two weeks prior. It's interesting to note here how one board failed only to be followed by another board failing shortly after. This shop had remarked how poorly made these TV's are these days and this was a major brand, not some no-name brand either. Granted, it may just be a case that this TV was a DUD or a bad batch but if it was a DUD, it would have broken down sooner rather than later. Or it may be the case that the components used are of cheaper quality but if that's true, we would think it'd be hard to predict when components would fail since manufacturer's provide a 1 year guarantee on the workmanship of the units. After all, all components must be made to meet a certain level of performance standard.

And this is important to know because for the most part roughly 1-5% of their batches will be DUD's. That's a given. And very few of them will be returned by retailers and resellers to manufacturers for credit, namely, in cases where the TV doesn't sell on the sales floor, for instance. Very rarely do retailers discover that there is a series of TV's with problems and they pose a liability to keep it on hand.

Thus, the manufacturers are banking on the remaining 1-5% of customers who do receive DUD's don't actually complain about the quality or lack thereof. And, realistically, in this day and age, who has the time to call the manufacturers to complain and have the TV's returned for a prorated refund and/or replacement? Exactly. Almost no one has the time. So effectively, from the manufacturer's perspective, they're getting a near 100% profit margin with very minimal loss due to the remaining very small percentage of folks (something like 1-2%) who do call in to complain and get a prorated refund and/or replacement. Pretty sneaky, if you ask us, but whatever the case, we'll let you be the judge.