Joining the likes of Philips, Samsung, Sharp and Sony, Toshiba will introduce their first LCD TV's in the UK to feature LED backlighting this month.

LED TVs use a technology which replaces the traditional always-on single bar-style fluorescent backlight present on the majority of LCD's with hundreds of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). It is useful to remember that LED technology still relies on LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) to produce the picture - LEDs are being used to replace the traditional CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps) backlight.

The Regza SV range use the more sophisticated implementation of LED technology, 'Local Dimming'. LED TV's using  'Local Dimming' or 'LED Arrays' light the entire rear of the screen, not just the perimeter, which allows various sections of the panel to be more precisely controlled.

The Toshiba SV range will be available in 46in and 50in sizes, featuring the new Deep Lagoon design concept, which lays the screen flush with the frame. Toshiba are claiming that the method improves contrast which is a not inconsiderable claimed 2,000,000:1.

Toshiba's 'MetaBrain' technology groups together Active Vision M200HD (to create smooth 200Hz motion flow), with Resolution+ for enhanced edge detail on standard definition images.

Elsewhere there are 4 HDMI's, DNLA (for streaming audio/video from your PC over a home network) while 'Dolby Volume' will be a welcome feature for most of us in that it normalises volumes between channels, and commercials (preventing that annoying rise in volume when the ads appear).

The two new Toshiba LED TV's will be available in the UK towards the end of this month.

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