Patent ID: 8872756

Claim:
A backlight unit including: a plurality of light-emitting elements; and a driver device to which at least one of the plurality of light-emitting elements is connected and which turns on the at least one of the plurality of light-emitting elements according to lighting control information, wherein the backlight unit is configured to turn on the at least one of the plurality of light-emitting elements to supply backlight to a panel configured to display an image, the backlight unit further comprising: a plurality of the driver devices; a lighting control portion configured to perform a selection operation to select any of the driver devices, and generate a control information group where the lighting control information on the selected driver devices is arranged; and a cascade line over which the driver devices are connected in cascade to the lighting control portion, wherein the lighting control portion is configured to enable each of the selected driver devices and then feeds, to the cascade line, the control information group and correspondence information indicating which portion of the control information group corresponds to the lighting control information on each of the driver devices, each of the enabled driver devices performs an acquisition operation to acquire, according to the correspondence information, the lighting control information on the enabled driver device from the control information group whereas each of the driver devices that are not enabled does not perform the acquisition operation, and the driver devices are configured to be independently selectable such that any number of the driver devices are selected or unselected in the selection operation.