For years, the question of which type of HDTV to get was one of the most important to consider. You could get a plasma HDTV, a CCFL-backlit LCD, or if you had the money, you could buy an LED-backlit HDTV. Well, now both plasma and CCFL LCDs are virtually extinct, and LED is the only remaining realistic choice. LEDs are available in any size and price range, and approach the performance once only seen with plasmas. There is a new technology on the horizon that might give LED a run for its money, though: OLED has the potential to overwhelmingly exceed even plasma in terms of picture quality. It's just going to take a few more years for OLED to become readily available, if it ever will.

The History and Technology

In the early days of HDTVs, plasma, with its inky blacks and top-notch picture quality, was the prevalent flat-panel technology among videophiles. Gradually, thinner, more energy-efficient LCDs with CCFL backlighting, and later LED backlighting, became less expensive and more capable, and started gaining ground. The difference between plasma and LCD wavered for some time, with each offering different economic and visual benefits depending on the model, price, and time in the life cycle of HDTVs. LED screens have steadily produced improved pictures, with some high-end models comparable with high-end plasmas. They've also become steadily more affordable and accessible, with LED backlighting now standard in all high-end, midrange, and even most budget screens.

These technologies are vastly different, particularly with respect to how each display is lit. Non-LED screens, often just called LCDs, use cold-cathode fluorescent, or CCFL lights to illuminate the panel. LED uses arrays of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged either along the edges of the panel or along the back to light it up. Edge-lit LEDs can be thinner and lighter than backlit LEDs, but backlit arrays can sometimes individually control different sections of the screen and how they're lit to make darks look darker.

CCFL-lit LCDs were common as budget and midrange screens, but many companies have moved almost completely to LED backlighting. Now you can get even budget screens that are LED-backlit, thinner, lighter, and more energy efficient than they would have been a few years ago.

In plasma HDTVs, the phosphors that create the image on the screen light up themselves, and don't require backlighting. This doesn't mean it's more efficient than backlit LCD screens, though. On the contrary, plasma panels are much heavier than both CCFL- and LED-backlit LCDs, and consume much more power.

Then there's organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, technology. This new display type has barely hit HDTVs yet, but the few screens using it, like the LG 65EC9700 , have been very impressive]. OLEDs are, electronically, light-emitting diodes like the backlights of LED HDTVs (though in the case of OLEDs, it's a thin film of electroluminescent organic material instead of an inorganic, often gallium-based chemical), but function more like plasma cells. Each OLED generates its own color and light, meaning it can completely shut off to produce black. They can potentially produce a superior picture to plasma HDTVs while staying energy efficient like LED HDTVs. They're just extremely rare and expensive, and will likely remain so for a few years.

The Present: LED

I have some sad news: Plasma is dead. Right now, if you want a new plasma HDTV, your best bet is a Samsung screen manufactured in the last two years, but even Samsung is phasing out plasma production fast. It's a bit of a shame. Historically, plasma HDTVs have produced the best black levels, specifically the discontinued Pioneer Kuro HDTV brand. The Kuro's screen got so satisfyingly dark that it remained a popular HDTV for enthusiasts long after Pioneer stopped making the sets.

The domination of plasma in this field, however, is over. The last high-end plasmas we've seen were from 2013, and there aren't any new models in the pipeline. Ultra high-definition (UHD, or 4K) televisions haven't seen a single plasma panel, and 4K is the next major step in HDTV technology.

LCD HDTVs used to literally pale in comparison with plasmas, but that's just not necessarily the case anymore. Generally, a black level of 0.02 cd/m2 is considered excellent, and until a few years ago LCD HDTVs couldn't come close. Now there are LED-backlit LCD screens that can get that dark (and OLED panels that can become even darker), all while consuming less power than comparable plasma screens.

The Future: OLED

For the deepest of blacks, OLED will almost certainly become the new standard for high-end HDTVs once they stop being astronomically expensive. LG's curved OLED HDTVs have produced something we've never seen before in testing: perfect black. Even with other parts of the screen illuminated, black produced no light. This is sometimes referred to as an infinite contrast ratio, though it's more of a mathematically impossible contrast ratio. To calculate it, you divide the peak brightness by the black level; a black level of zero would require dividing by zero. However, after three generations, LG's OLED displays are still extremely expensive, often costing three times as much as the equivalent size 4K LED HDTV. More importantly, other manufacturers have yet to latch on to OLED technology for big screens.

The Verdict

At this point, you have two choices: buy an LED-lit LCD or OLED HDTV. Of those, only LED is realistic. If you can spend closer to $10,000, you can get an OLED HDTV with a potentially even better picture, but that's not a realistic option for most users. That leaves us with LED HDTVs, the now overwhelmingly prevalent HDTV type, and one that can still produce a great picture.

For more HDTV shopping advice, and a look at the top-rated HDTVs we've tested, check out The 10 Best HDTVs.

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