Markus Wagenseil, technical marketing manager for Panasonic, predicts that Direct LED TVs will soon be pushed out of living rooms by cheaper Edge LED and plasma screens.

Wagenseil, speaking to TechRadar in Berlin, said that Direct LED technology will be obsolete within two years because it is not viable.

"For direct LED LCD we don't feel there is a market any more because the price pressure on TVs is incredibly high... (There are so many more) LEDs that you need to mount in comparison to Edge LED, and anyway there are big shortages in LED production, so I don't think there is a market for direct LED," Wagenseil said.

In response to the abundance of Direct LED TVs being launched by companies such as LG and Philips, Wagenseil said, "I would put it more the other way around... more and more companies are dropping the concept. Edge LED is the way forward for the LCD market."

He also voiced his doubts over LCD's ability to overhaul plasma in terms of picture quality. "Comparing CCFL with Edge LED I think most people would agree that in terms of picture quality Edge LED is not a big gain. It was a gain in slimness and it was a gain in power consumption, but in terms of picture quality this technology has some serious disadvantages."

Other TV manufacturers do not share Wagenseil's opinion on the future of Direct LED technology.

Danny Tack, who has worked on Philips' LCD innovations over the last few years, says that Direct LED remains viable and that the technology will continue to be developed until the production of TVs as slim as those using Edge LED can be a reality.

"It is expensive, that's true. But it also makes a difference, so if you position yourself and develop it right you can find a compromise between cost and performance. And I strongly believe as Philips, where we have lots of direct LED products with quite a substantial amount of segments because that makes sense for the performance, that there is a market for it and we will continue so... For me the challenge is to get the Direct LED as thin as the edge-lit. We see that people are willing to pay for this kind of performance, so what we need to do now is combine that with the thin form-factor of edge-lit - keep the performance and make it thinner. And then direct LED will remain to exist," Tack said.