What to look for when purchasing a new TV – TV Contrast Ratio, Part 2

Specifications to look for;

When looking at specifications, you’ll see numbers like 800:1 or 4,000:1 or 10,000:1, what this means is for example with the first ratio, the white section of the screen is 800 time brighter than the darkest black, so for projector you’ll see figure from 10,000:1 to 600,000:1 or even more, the bigger the number the larger the range is, and the better the image will be, a projector in a dark room is a very good example, but as soon as you turn the lights on, the picture gets washed out, so then to your eyes the contrast ratio will dramatically decrease as there is too much light in the room.

The controversy about contrast ratio;

You’ll see some websites stating that contrast ratio is not very important. We believe there wrong because a low contrast ratio TV will display a poor quality image (in gray scale) compared to a high contrast ratio screen. Why does this matter? It matters because in a dark seen you could very well likely see differences between one shade of gray/black to the next and this could become very annoying as compared to a high contrast ratio screen where all the black levels will blend in much better. You’ll notice when walking around a retail store that the TVs all are play bright scenes or cartoon movies, doing that is a lot easier to hide poor contrast ratio TV. Also taking the TV out of “shop mode” and into “home mode” will also make a difference to the picture quality.

Conclusion;Screen Contract

So to sum up, when looking at the contrast ratio between different manufactures, don’t just take note of the number numbers, find out how the that ratio was achieved as each manufacture will measure it differently.

TV Contrast Ratio Buying Advice;

Use the following as a general guide to comparing contrast ratios between HDTVs:

  1. Use contrast ratio only when comparing HDTVs made by the same manufacturer. For example, Sony to Sony, not Sony to Samsung.
  2. Compare either static to static or dynamic to dynamic but don‘t compare static to dynamic.
  3. Remember that contrast ratio as just one of many factors to consider when buying a HDTV. As measurements aren’t consistent from manufacturer to manufacturer, only then use your eyes to determine if the contrast meets your visual needs between different manufactures.

Sources;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrast_ratio

http://www.cnet.com/au/news/contrast-ratio-or-how-every-tv-manufacturer-lies-to-you/

http://www.rtings.com/info/contrast-ratio-tvs (you’ll notice the higher the model, the higher the contrast ratio will be)

http://tv.about.com/od/hdtv/a/contrastratio.htm

Contrast Ratio Part 1

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