Every TV Screen Explained As Easily As Possible For Beginners

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]CRT TVs were basically the kings of the world before flat screen TVs existed. If you grew up in the early 2000s or before that, there is a very high chance you had one of these giant box TVs sitting somewhere in your house. They were huge, heavy, and honestly looked more like furniture than actual electronics. CRT stands for cathode ray tube. Inside the TV, electron beams would shoot at the screen thousands of times every second to create the image. That is also why these TVs were so thick and curved. CRT TVs also had almost zero input lag and amazing motion clarity. Fast-moving scenes looked really smooth compared to many early flat screen TVs, but of course, CRT TVs had massive downsides, too. They were gigantic, heavy, used a lot of electricity, and generated heat.

[00:00:54]Eventually, people wanted thinner and more modern TVs, which led to plasma TVs. Plasma TVs were one of the first TVs that made people go, "Wow." Compared to CRTs, they looked futuristic. They were thinner, larger, and could even be mounted on walls. Instead of electron beams, plasma TVs used tiny gas-filled cells to create the image. This gave them really deep blacks, rich colors, and smooth motion. Movie lovers especially loved plasma TVs because dark scenes looked much better compared to early LCD TVs. Sports and action movies also looked super smooth. At one point, many people considered plasma TVs the best TVs for watching movies at home.

[00:01:37]But, plasma TVs had problems, too. They used a lot of electricity, got hot, and could suffer from burn-in if the same image stayed on screen too long.

[00:01:45]Eventually, LCD TVs became cheaper, brighter, and more practical, so plasma TVs slowly disappeared. LCD completely changed the TV market forever. LCD stands for liquid crystal display and these TVs became insanely popular because they were thinner, lighter, and cheaper than plasma TVs. LCD used a backlight behind the screen while liquid crystals controlled the image you saw.

[00:02:11]Think of it like tiny shutters opening and closing. These TVs became super popular when HD started becoming mainstream. Watching sports or movies in HD on a flat screen TV felt revolutionary back then. For many people switching from a CRT to an LCD felt like jumping into the future. Stores everywhere started showing giant HD demo videos to convince people to upgrade.

[00:02:35]LCD TV also helped make wall-mounted TVs become normal in homes. LCD TVs were also much brighter than plasma TVs making them better for daytime viewing, but early LCD TVs had weaker blacks, worse viewing angles, and motion blur during fast scenes. As still they improved quickly and basically took over the TV market. Now, this part confuses a lot of people. LED TVs are actually still LCD. The main difference is that they use LED backlights instead of older fluorescent lights. This simple change made TVs thinner, brighter, and more energy efficient. LED also improved colors and contrast while using less electricity. That is why they became insanely popular and are still one of the most common TV types today. A huge reason LED TVs became so successful is because companies could make them in many different price ranges. Cheap LED TVs became affordable for almost everyone. At the same time, expensive premium LED TVs started adding features like smart TV apps and high refresh rates. Some LED TVs used edge lighting to stay ultra-thin while more premium ones used full array lighting for better picture quality. Gaming also became much better on LED over time thanks to lower input lag and higher refresh rates, but LED TVs still had one weakness, black levels. Since the backlight stayed behind the screen, dark scenes could still look slightly gray instead of fully black. Mini LED TVs are basically upgraded LED TVs that use way smaller LEDs behind the screen. Because the LEDs are smaller, the TV can fit a lot more of them. This allows much better brightness control and way better contrast. Blacks look deeper, highlights look brighter, and HDR content looks much more impressive. Watching nature documentaries or space scenes on Mini LED can look absolutely insane because of the brightness. Some Mini LED can get bright enough to almost hurt your eyes in dark rooms. This technology became really popular because it improved picture quality without the risks of OLED burn-in. Mini LED are also amazing for bright rooms because they can get extremely bright without losing image quality. They are also fantastic for gaming thanks to features like 120 hertz refresh rates and HDMI 2.1 support. Mini LED still is not perfect though. Since it still uses a backlight, some slight glowing around bright objects can still happen. QLED are another thing that confuses people. QLED stands for quantum dot LED, but once again, these are still LED underneath. The big upgrade is something called quantum dots, which help produce brighter and more vibrant colors. This is why QLED usually look super colorful and bright in stores.

[00:05:31]Many electronic stores actually love showing these TVs because they instantly grab attention. Bright games and animated movies especially look amazing on these displays. QLED are especially great in bright rooms because they can get insanely bright without losing color quality. They are also usually safer from burn-in compared to OLED TV, which makes some gamers and sports fans prefer them. However, a QLED TV still use a backlight, meaning it still cannot achieve perfect blacks like an OLED TV can. OLED TVs are considered by many people to be the best-looking TVs ever made. Unlike LED or QLED, OLED displays do not use a backlight at all. Every single pixel creates its own light. This means each pixel can completely turn off, creating perfect blacks. That is why OLED TVs look so insane in dark rooms. Movies look super cinematic, contrast looks amazing, and colors look incredibly rich. Space scenes on OLED TVs look unbelievable because stars appear to float in complete darkness.

[00:06:34]OLED are also amazing for gaming because response times are extremely fast and motion looks super smooth. Another huge advantage is viewing angles. The picture still looks great even if you are sitting off to the side, but OLED TVs are not perfect. Burn-in can still happen over very long periods, and they are usually more expensive than regular LED TVs. Still, for many movie lovers and gamers, OLED is basically the dream TV. And finally, we reach microLED TVs, which are basically the future of TV technology. MicroLED combines some of the best parts of LED and OLED together. Just like OLED, every pixel creates its own light, meaning you get perfect blacks and amazing contrast, but unlike OLED, microLED can get even brighter and is much less likely to suffer from burn-in. In theory, microLED is almost the perfect TV technology.

[00:07:31]Some microLED TVs are so large they look more like giant cinema screens than normal TVs. The image quality in person looks almost unreal because everything appears extremely sharp and bright. The problem is price. These TVs are insanely expensive right now. Some cost as much as luxury cars, but the picture quality looks unbelievable. Brightness, colors, contrast, everything looks incredible.

[00:07:58]Many experts believe micro LED could eventually become the future of TVs once prices finally come down. Thank you for watching. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe. Also, don't forget to watch some of my other videos.