lcd panel contrast ratio brands

2023-01-03 12:32:11

As a first step, try using the calibration settings we recommend (provided we have reviewed your monitor). This will get good, basic contrast - meaning no additional contrast-enhancing settings - and with no loss of detail in dark portions of the image. You can find this information in the "Post Calibration" section of the review.

Contrast:Adjusting this will let you affect how much contrast the monitor has. We list a recommended setting with all of our reviews, but it"s almost always fine to just set this to the maximum. On rare occasions, gamma might be affected, leading to a loss of detail in highlights.

Local Dimming: The local dimming feature dims the backlight behind darker portions of the screen. It can deepen contrast, and it"s worth using when implemented well. It can introduce issues like light blooming off of light objects within dark areas, and when done especially poorly, can dim the entire image. We discuss local dimming in more detail here.

Backlight settings have a very minor impact on contrast, and so you should set it to whatever looks best in your viewing space. With LED Monitors, both white and black will become about equally brighter or dimmer when the backlight is adjusted, preserving the ratio of light to dark. With OLED monitors, adjusting the OLED light only increases the peak brightness; blacks are still perfectly black.

One frequently asked question is which is more important, a panel"s native contrast or contrast with local dimming? It"s a good question. The answer is a bit complicated, but basically, it depends. Unlike TVs, most monitors don"t have a local dimming feature. The few that do, generally speaking, don"t work very well. They usually have very small zone counts, and the algorithms can"t keep up with fast-paced motion, so the leading edge of a bright object in a dark scene ends up looking darker than the rest, and there"s a trail of light behind it.

Because of these issues with local dimming, it"s almost always more important to look at the native capabilities of a monitor instead of the contrast ratio with local dimming. Because most monitors have poor local dimming features, there"s usually not that much of a difference between the native contrast of the panel and the contrast with local dimming when tested with a checkerboard pattern. In fact, of the 23 monitors with local dimming that we"ve tested on our latest test bench, only 4 of them can improve contrast by 10% or more with our test pattern through local dimming.

There are different ways to measure contrast. We measure contrast with a checkerboard pattern and take the average black level from four squares, but some other review sites measure it differently, which can lead to a difference in posted numbers. Some of the other methods we"ve seen websites use include:

Full On/Off: Some websites measure the contrast using a full white screen, and a full black screen. This is generally considered a less accurate way to measure contrast, and it isn"t very realistic. Contrast measurements with local dimming tend to appear much better with this measurement technique, as it"s easy for any monitor with local dimming to turn the entire screen off at once.

Small Samples: Similar to the full-screen method, but instead of large slides, contrast is measured using small slides that only cover part of the screen. This method isn"t ideal either, as imperfect uniformity can significantly skew the results.

ANSI Checkerboard: The most generally accepted way to measure contrast; a checkerboard pattern very similar to ours is used, but with an asymmetric test pattern. The ANSI method measures the output in all 16 squares and averages the values for the white and black squares. It usually produces very similar results to our own.

Because of differences in measurement techniques, equipment used, and even differences between units, it"s extremely common for different websites to report different contrast measurements.

Monitors use different display technologies, each with advantages and disadvantages. Knowing which type of panel is used in your monitor can already give you a good indication of what to expect in terms of contrast ratio:

OLED: Very few OLED monitors exist, but they essentially have perfect contrast, as each pixel is self-emissive, the black level of black pixels is essentially zero.

Even within the same panel types, it"s normal for the contrast to vary a bit between units, even of the same model, due to manufacturing tolerances. Manufacturers used to provide the typical contrast ratio for each monitor, but recently, some brands, including LG, have started listing the minimum contrast ratio you could get. For IPS and TN panels, this difference usually isn"t very significant, and most people shouldn"t worry about it, but for VA panels, the variance between individual units and measurement techniques can be significant. For example, the LG 32GN600-B is advertised to have a typical contrast ratio of 3000:1, but according to LG, it could be as low as 1800:1 for some units. We measured a contrast ratio of 3248:1, almost double the minimum contrast for that model.

A monitor’s contrast ratio indicates the depth of blacks – a higher contrast ratio means deeper blacks – and, by extension, better picture quality. It’s a very important part of picture quality, so if you want something that looks good (particularly in a dark room), be sure to get a monitor that has good contrast.

There are a few things that can be done to improve contrast, but there are limits. As a good first step, look to our recommended picture settings (listed with every review), as those can help you get a good baseline. From there, you can enable or disable a few different settings that might help deepen blacks. Just remember that some of those settings will have other consequences on picture quality.

lcd panel contrast ratio brands

OLED and LED TVs use different technologies to display an image. While LEDs use backlights behind an LCD panel, pixels on OLEDs emit their own light and don"t need a backlight. OLEDs can turn individual pixels on and off, meaning that they display perfect blacks because the screen is completely off when there"s a black scene. Since the luminance level of blacks on an OLED is 0, and you can"t divide anything by 0, then the contrast ratio of OLEDs is considered infinity to one.

Between LED TVs, there are different panel types which each have their own effect on the contrast. Many TVs use Vertical Alignment (VA) panels, while others use In-Plane Switching (IPS) panels. VA panels provide a much higher contrast ratio than IPS, and this is because of the way pixels interact with each other. On either panel type, the pixels rotate to allow light through, which produces the image. However, when there"s a black image, the pixels return to their regular position in an attempt to block off the light from the LED backlights. The vertical positioning of pixels in VA panels is more efficient at blocking off light, while IPS panels still let some light through, making blacks look gray.

There are a couple of settings that can improve the contrast ratio, with the most important being local dimming. However, changing each of these settings can also affect picture quality, so there"s a trade-off between improving the contrast and having the best picture quality available. Also, contrast may vary between units of LED TVs a bit; this means that the unit you buy may have a slightly higher or lower contrast ratio than the one we tested, even if the model is the same.

Local Dimming: Dims the backlight behind darker portions of the screen. It improves the contrast most of the time, and it"s worth using if it performs well. However, it can introduce issues like blooming around bright objects in dark scenes, and when it"s done poorly, it can dim the entire image.

Contrast:The contrast setting on most TVs increases the luminosity of the brightest whites. This could improve the contrast, but most of the time, it negatively affects image quality.

Brightness:Similar to the contrast setting, the brightness setting makes blacks darker when you decrease it. Once again, it can affect image quality, and we don"t recommend using it, but it"s up to you. However, some TVs may call their backlight setting "Brightness", and this doesn"t affect the contrast ratio, it just makes the entire screen brighter. If that"s the case, the brightness setting to change the black level may be called "Black Level".

Dynamic Contrast: Uses software to process the blacks and make them darker. Unfortunately, this removes detail from the image and may not be worth using.

Highlight Brightening: Makes highlights in images extra bright, which affects how contrast looks. It may be worth using with HDR media, but not really useful for most videos.

The contrast ratio of a TV defines how well it displays blacks. The higher the contrast, the better, as it improves picture quality in dark scenes. If your TV has a low contrast ratio, blacks look gray. A high contrast ratio is most noticeable when viewing content in dark rooms, but there"s less of a noticeable difference in well-lit rooms. Although there are multiple ways to test for contrast, we test for it using a checkerboard pattern, and we measure the difference in luminance between the white and black squares. Also, the TV"s panel technology affects the contrast as there are panel types that produce deeper blacks than others. Overall, if you tend to watch movies in dark rooms, then the contrast ratio is important for you.

lcd panel contrast ratio brands

OLED is short for “Organic Light Emitting Diode“. This type of monitor is made of organic material (such as plastic, wood, carbon and polymers), that is used to convert electric current into light. It can be thinner or lighter with a higher contrast ratio than LCDs. Tests have shown that these monitors are the best for watching movies.

LED stands for ‘Light Emitting Diode’. This type is the latest innovation on the market. These types of monitors are panel displays that use light-emitting diodes for backlighting on the screen.

LCD is short for ‘Liquid Crystal Display’. This monitor is made of liquid crystals. It is the most used monitor worldwide. It requires less space, consumes less electricity, and in expert opinion produces less heat than an old CRT monitor.

PDP stands for Plasma monitor panel. These monitors are made of Plasma technology. This technology is one of the latest types of computer monitor technology. According to expert opinions and various tests, compared to LCDs this type of display offers superior performance time, a much wider viewing angle and a good response.

Monitors are very important compliments to computer units, regardless of whether they are used for work, leisure in general or gaming in particular. In either situation, it is important to take into consideration a few important criteria before making a final purchase. In this section, we leave you with one last set of criteria to evaluate in any product you choose.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a screen to help you immerse in the world of gaming, various tests have shown that there will be other parameters you must consider. For instance, the monitor you choose should have a good dynamic contrast ratio and a high refresh rate. For film and series lovers, a monitor with good resolution will be important.

This may seem trivial, but keep in mind that the monitor you choose will be featured prominently wherever you choose to set it up. For this reason, it would be good for it to have an appealing design that fits in harmoniously in the environment it exists in. Colour and shape will be part of this consideration, however, thickness will likely play a more important role.

The aspect ratio of a monitor is the ratio between the height and width of a monitor. This parameter is closely linked to the resolution component we mentioned above. With the wide selection of products available, you’ll find that there are also many different aspect ratios, however, the most common one is 16:9.

To explain a little more, a Full HD screen, i.e. 1920 x 1080 pixels, would have this aspect ratio. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of proportions. In other words, for every 9 vertical pixels, there are 16 horizontal pixels. Another aspect ratio, increasingly used, is 21:9; this is a more panoramic ratio.

It is important to note that the aspect ratio does not affect image quality. For instance, let’s consider a screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and another with 7680 x 4320. Both have a 16:9 aspect ratio. However, the second would have a higher image quality. Keep in mind that a 4:3 aspect ratio was popular years ago, but is now in decline.

The contrast ratio of a monitor is the difference between the brightest pixel and the darkest pixel. For example, a 1000:1 monitor contrast ratio means that the whitest pixel is a thousand times brighter than the darkest pixel. A higher proportion of these numbers will result in more contrasting and sharper images. It should be noted that there are two types of contrast ratio: static and dynamic.

In the first one, all the brightness of the screen changes at the same time. It is most ideal for working with still images. With dynamic contrast ratio (DCR) on the other hand, the brightness automatically adjusts as the video plays, to make the dark areas darker and the light spots brighter. This aspect heavily influences image detail and quality.

IPS stands for in-plane switching, a type of LED display panel technology. IPS panels are characterized as having the best color and viewing angles among the other main types of display panels. IPS displays incorporate a series of liquid crystals which work to prevent light leaking.

Simply put, an IPS monitor is an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) with a back layer of LED bulbs. IPS-type panels are particularly suitable for images showing rapid movement. This technology prevents distortions, whether in a video game or a movie. However, keep in mind that IPS panels are also the most expensive ones on the market today.

lcd panel contrast ratio brands

While OLED may be seen by many as the future of mobile and large panel displays, LCD manufacturers have recently come along with a number of innovations breathing new life into the panel type, including Quantum Dot and fast refresh rate technology. Today, Panasonic has unveiled its latest LCD IPS display that boasts a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. That’s up to 600 times more contrast than some of the company’s conventional LCD panels, which offer around 1800:1 ratios, and rivals OLED specifications.

Panasonic has accomplished this through the use of its new light modulating cell technology, which allows the company to switch off individual pixels in the display using a secondary control layer. Typically, LCD backlights mean that either the entire or only large parts of the display can be dimmed at any one time. OLED panels switch of lights entirely for a black pixel to offer very high contrast ratios, and this new LCD technology works on a very similar principle. This is particularly important for reproducing HDR video content, which is becoming increasingly popular.

Furthermore, this new light modulating cell technology allows Panasonic to increase the peak brightness and stability of the display, which can reach 1,000 cd/m2 while also providing HDR colors. Many other HDR TV panels top out in the range of 700 to 800 cd/m2, so colors, highlights, and shadows should appear vivid and realistic.

Unfortunately, Panasonic’s new technology is quite expensive and won’t be heading to small form factor mobile panels, at least not yet. Although it can be built on existing LCD manufacturing lines, so prices should come down. The company states that it will be targeting the technology at panels in the high-end broadcasting, video production, medical, and automotive fields first, with sizes ranging from 55 to 12 inches. Sample shipments are scheduled to begin in January 2017, so we won’t see it in products for a little while yet.

lcd panel contrast ratio brands

In order to choose the best monitor for your needs, it is very important to distinguish what kind of LCD panel interface type is in the monitor you’re looking at. The most common panels used nowadays are;

One of the types of panels that you will find in a computer monitor is a TN Panel. This stands for Twisted Nematic, and this particular type of LCD panel is generally the cheapest. They are the cheapest to manufacture among all LCD technologies, so they are the most commonly used in budget monitors.

If you are looking to game online, you will need a monitor with a higher refresh rate like that offered by a TN panel. Refresh rates are measured in Hertz (Hz), which defines how many times per second your screen can display new images.

The typical response time for a TN panel is less than 5 ms which is much faster than the 6 or 8 ms response time that other LCD displays have, such as vertical alignment or VA.

The biggest downside with these panels is often their viewing angles. On a TN panel, the viewing angles aren"t very good, and depending on how far off-center you are, the picture can begin to lose color and contrast.

TN panels also don"t support as wide a range of resolutions as IPS. This LCD monitor panel type has a poor contrast ratio when compared with other technologies such as IPS and VA. This results in an inability to display deep blacks and bright whites at the same time.

TN panels are manufactured by Samsung, LG, AUO, Chi-Mei, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Hannstar Display Corporation, Sharp Corporation, CMI, Innolux, J-Tech Digital Imaging Co. Ltd, AU Optronics Corporation, etc.

A TN panel is a type of liquid crystal display (LCD) used in most LCD monitors and laptops. TN panels were the workhorse of the 1990s and early 2000s, but they were eventually replaced by their more-expensive cousins, the in-plane switching (IPS) and vertical alignment (VA) panels.

TN computer panels work by using two polarized filters, vertical and horizontal, to control the light that passes through them. The filters are arranged so that when the electrical current is off, light cannot pass through. When it"s on, it hits the twisted crystals to produce colors. The active layer is twisted to allow the light to pass through it, and this twist is controlled by electrical fields applied to the liquid crystal material.

It is worth noting that A TN panel is made up of millions of pixels, each pixel being red, green, or blue in color. The light from each pixel can be either on or off, so black is created when all the pixels are off and white when all are on. When all three colors are combined, any color can be produced. This arrangement is called RGB (red-green-blue).

A TN panel uses twisted nematic liquid crystals to form images. While not as desirable as other technologies, it does have several benefits worth considering when making a purchasing decision.They are mostly found in budget LCDs, as they are cheaper to manufacture and therefore sell for less.

TN panels have excellent response rates and refresh rates, typically 1 - 2 milliseconds and 50 – 75 Hz, respectively. This makes them ideal for high-end gaming

TN is the oldest and most common type of LCD panel, and it"s also the cheapest to produce. TN panels were the first panels to be introduced to the market, but they"re no longer as popular as they used to be. This is because TN panels have several downsides:The main disadvantage of TN panels is limited viewing angles, which can be extremely limiting in some cases. If you"re sitting straight in front of the monitor, everything is fine, but if you move to the side, then all colors shift and get distorted. That can be extremely annoying for graphic designers or architectswho work with color palettes, photographers who need exact color matching, etc. (see also

TN panels typically have lower contrast ratios than IPS displays do, so they don"t look as rich in color or dark black. So TN panels are usually not suitable for professional applications such as color-critical photo editingand graphic design.

Many gamers prefer TN panels because they provide a very fast response time and higher refresh rates. You can also find some with a refresh rate of 240Hz, which is even better.The Asus VG248QE is a 24-inch LCD display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and a 1ms response time. It uses a TN panel, so don"t expect much in terms of viewing angle or color reproduction accuracy compared to an IPS display. But if you"re looking for a good 144Hz monitor, choose this one.

ViewSonic VX2458-MHD. It has a TN panel. The refresh rate of this monitor is 72Hz, which is standard. The response time of this monitor is 1ms. It also comes with 4 USB 3.0 ports, which is great if you plan on hooking up multiple devices, which is frequently used when trading. If you have a setup like that, you will also want to look at bezel less monitors, or frameless monitors, for your needs.

Another common type of panel is a VA panel. This stands for Vertical Alignment and is a step above a TN panel in terms of quality. Its name comes from the fact that light emitted from the screen"s backlight (see also LED monitors) is aligned vertically rather than being scattered horizontally and vertically as it is with a TN display.

VA panels provide high-quality images, wide viewing angles along with excellent contrast ratio and high refresh rates. These factors make VA panel monitors preferred for graphic design, photographers, video editors, and others who often work on their PCs.

VA panels are also better when displaying fast-moving images because they offer high refresh rates hence have less motion blur. Additionally, some panels have support for even 120 Hz refresh rates for ultra-smooth movement in games and movies.

Unlike a TN display, a VA display has excellent viewing angles. You can view them from any direction, and you won"t see any distortion in the display. They make them a good choice for home theater systems as it allows users to be seated off-center without affecting the image quality or contrast ratio.

Traditional LCD displays use two polarizing filters and liquid crystals (LCs) to create all the colors and patterns that we see on computer monitors and flat-panel televisions.

What are the Benefits of VA Panels?Image quality of VA technology is considered better than TN technology; text appears crisper, and images appear sharper and richer in contrast and color.

One of the other key benefits of VA technology is its high contrast ratio; VA displays can deliver a true black when displaying dark images or video content

The big downside of TN panels is their response time. Most TN panels have a response time of 5-8 MS, which is fine for most people. However, if you"re mostly into competitive gaming or fast-paced action games like me that require quick reflexes, then this could be a problem.

We did some research and came up with a list of the best monitors with VA panels, and they are;ViewSonic VX2457-MHD. It is a24-inch monitor with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and covers 100% of the sRGB spectrum. It also has plenty of picture-enhancing features, including adjustable color settings and support for AMD"s FreeSync technology (see also affordable G Sync monitors).

This is the best LCD panel type. IPS stands for In-Plane Switching, and the biggest advantage over the other panels listed above is its wide viewing angles.

These screens are more expensive than TN panels but offer a greater contrast ratio, higher resolutions than their TN counterparts. They also support higher refresh rates, lower response time which makes them ideal for monitors larger than 24 inches.

These panels offer much more consistent colors, which makes them ideal for graphic designers or anyone who does any kind of color-critical work on their monitor.

IPS panels offer wider viewing angles than VA panels do, making them better suited for use in public spaces such as retail stores or airports where you can expect people will be walking by your TV from both sides.

The contrast ratio of an IPS panel is higher than that of TN panels. The contrast ratio of a display refers to the difference between the darkest black and the brightest white that the display is capable of producing. This can be an important factor in overall display quality, depending on how you use your laptop or desktop monitor.

A high contrast ratio is important for good reasons. A good contrast ratio makes details easier to see, so you can enjoy your movies more and your games more challenging. It can also make it easier to work outside in bright sunlight.

Some manufacturers that specialize in IPS panel interphases include Samsung, LG, and even Mac Apple. Also, almost all Dell monitors use IPS panels. However, there are plenty of other high-quality manufacturers that also offer IPS panels for you to choose from.

In a liquid crystal display (LCD), light passes through a pair of polarizers. Each polarizer is made of a long chain of molecules, each oriented in a different direction; one vertical, the other horizontal.

In an IPS LCD panel, liquid crystals are aligned so that both polarizers face the same way—horizontal. Light from behind the panel passes through one polarizer and then bounces off onto a second polarizer before reaching your eyes. This design makes IPS LCDs nearly as bright as VA panels and much brighter than TN panels without sacrificing contrast ratio or color accuracy.

If you"re looking for a new monitor, IPS panels may be the right ones for you. Here are some of their most important benefits:It allows for wider viewing angles. This is very useful for monitors used at work that involve customer service, where the monitor may be viewed from many different angles.

The IPS LCD displays are also characterized by their high degree of brightness and contrast, which makes them ideal for outdoor use, among many other features.

The typical lifespan of an IPS panel is around 100,000 hours, which is more than enough for even heavy users to get their money"s worth from their monitor.

They have great color reproduction. Many people who are serious about a photo or video editing are drawn to IPS panels because they offer superior color reproduction possibilities when compared with TN panels.

The main disadvantage of IPS panels is that they are more expensive than TN panels. The cost of an IPS panel will typically be $10-$20 higher than a comparable TN panel.

Today, the majority of flat-panel monitors use in-plane switching (IPS) technology. Best monitors that have IPS panels include;Samsung U28E590D 28-Inch 4K UHD Monitor. If you love gaming, then this is the product for you; it comes with AMD FreeSync, which proved successful in eliminating screen tearing since being introduced as VSync, as this post explained.

The Acer H236HL bmijpphzx is one the best IPS monitors on the market today. This monitor has an extremely high 2560×1440 resolution along with a 1,000:1 contrast ratio and a 160-degree viewing angle.

Also, bear in mind that if it is a flat panel display with a 1080p resolution or higher, you can refurbish it and resell it after using it. Older monitors with lower resolutions may not be worth much.

It offers a much higher resolution than conventional LCD and can be used to manufacture large panels. It"s an innovative display technology that has the potential to change the face of consumer electronics.

There are 3 main types of LCDs; VA (Vertical Alignment), TN (Twisted Nematic), and IPS (In-Plane Switching). All these technologies have been used for over 10 years and have their own pros and cons. However, they have reached their upper limits in terms of resolution and other features, and it"s nearly impossible to increase them any further. That"s where Super PLS-Plane to Line Switching comes in.

Super PLS-Plane to Line Switching offers resolutions as high as 8K, has wider viewing angles, and is brighter. The image quality presented by this technology is said to be much better than traditional LCDs, and it could potentially disrupt the current.

The Nano IPS panel technology adds a layer of nano-particles to the backlight in order to transmit the screen"s picture more efficiently and reduce the chances of image retention.

Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle (AHVA) computer display was developed by AU Optronics Corp. It is a type of LCD that can be seen clearly even from the most acute angles. Through the process of strengthening the polarizing plate, it can help minimize the reflection ratio to less than 1%. The viewing angle is about 178 degrees.

Most LCDs (liquid crystal display) monitors are now manufactured with an anti-glare coating to reduce the effect of ambient light reflecting off the screen. Anti-glare coatings can reduce reflections by 25 to 70%.

VA panel is better thank IPS. Although IPS panels have a contrast ratio of 700:1 to 1500:1, they are still inferior to VA panels. The majority of VA monitor panels have contrast ratios above 2500:1, and some even reach 5000:1 or 6000:1. Even local dimming is used by more recent monitors to obtain even greater contrast ratios.

Yes, IPS is better than OLED. The main benefit of IPS panels is their increased brightness, particularly when combined with a tiny LED backlight. OLED displays are often limited to brightness levels of roughly 1,000 nits, while mini LED displays can reach peak brightness levels of around 2,000 nits.

lcd panel contrast ratio brands

Contrast ratio is the most important aspect of a TV"s performance. More than any other single metric, a set"s contrast ratio will be the most noticeable difference between two TVs.

In its simplest form, contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest image a TV can create and the darkest. In another way: white/black=contrast ratio. If a TV can output 45 foot-lamberts with a white screen and 0.010 ft-L with a black screen, it"s said to have a contrast ratio of 4,500:1.

There is no standard as to how to measure contrast ratio. In other words, a TV manufacturer could measure the maximum light output of 1 pixel driven at some normally unobtainable maximum, then measure that same pixel with no signal going to it at all. This hardly represents what you"d see at home, but without a standard, such trivialities don"t matter to TV manufacturers.

Worse, contrast ratio numbers have gotten so extreme, there is literally no way to measure some of them. What happens more often than not is the marketing department will come up with the number it needs to sell the product. The engineers will shuffle their feet, and stare at the wall, and magically the TV has that contrast ratio.

Because you"re reading this article on a device that has its own contrast ratio, I can"t give you real examples of what good and bad contrast ratios look like, so I"ll have to fake it. If you can, make sure your computer monitor is set decently; you can use

There are two more aspects of contrast ratio. Most often these are referred to as "native" and "dynamic." Native contrast ratio is what the display technology itself can do. With an LCD, this is what the liquid crystal panel itself is capable of. With DLP, it"s what the DMD chip/chips can do.

Imagine putting the image above on your TV"s screen. Native contrast ratio is how dark the darkest parts of the image are, compared with the brightest parts of the same image. I like to call this "intra-scene contrast ratio" though I"m certainly open to something better if anyone has an idea.

When an adjustable backlight, or a projector"s iris, is used in conjunction with circuitry to monitor the video signal, it is able to adjust the overall light output in real time depending on what"s onscreen. This dynamic contrast ratio looks like this:

A bright image is bright, a dark image is dark. Done well, this does increase the apparent contrast ratio of a display, but not nearly as much as the numbers would suggest. A TV with 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio would be unbelievable to look it. Too bad one doesn"t exist. A TV with a high dynamic contrast ratio may look better than a TV that has no such circuitry, but it won"t look as good as a display with a high native contrast ratio.

Yes, the LED"s of an LED LCD can turn off, creating a true black, but it will never do this when there is any amount of video on the screen. Picture the end credits of a movie. A display with a high native contrast will show this as a dark black background, and punchy white text. A display with a high dynamic contrast ratio may have a similarly dark background, but the text won"t be bright.

As you can see, a display with a high native contrast is the way to go, if that"s what you"re going for. The night sky is black, but the streetlights pop out. The day sky is bright, but the dark jacket is dark. This is more like CRT, more like film, more like life.

The technology with the highest native contrast ratio is... LCOS. At the moment, JVC front projectors using their version of the technology (D-ILA) have the highest native contrast ratios I"ve measured. Sony"s version (SXRD) comes in a rather distant second. Third is plasma, though some DLP projectors are close.

LCD has come a long way in the past decade, but still lags behind the other technologies. Thankfully, the better LCD manufactures know this and have come up with a few ways to mimic the high native contrast ratio of the other technologies.

The best way to get a high intra-scene contrast ratio with LCDs is with local dimming. This is when the backlight of the LCD is an array of LEDs, all of which can dim depending on what"s on screen. It"s not done on a per-pixel level, but LED zones are generally small enough that the overall effect is quite good. It"s far better than what the LCD panel can do itself. The downside is an artifact known as "halos" where the LEDs are lit behind small bright areas of the screen, but these areas are visible because the other parts of the screen are dark. This is very noticeable on specific types of content (like movie credits or star fields) but generally local dimming works really well. I was going to Photoshop some halos onto a screenshot of the one movie where I actually had a screen credit, but it came across more douchey

Most LED LCDs these days are "edge lit," as in their LEDs are along the sides (or the top and bottom, or both). Several companies have developed methods to dim areas of the screen with LED edge lighting, though the effect isn"t as good as full array LEDs. Again, every bit helps though, and many edge lit LED LCDs look amazing.

You may be asking yourself: How can you, as a consumer, find out what display has the best contrast ratio? Good question. You can"t tell in a store, as the store lighting will throw off any comparison (biasing towards LCDs or TVs with antireflective and/or antiglare screens that have better ambient light rejection). As mentioned, all manufacturers manufacture their numbers with little basis on reality, so spec sheets are out.

So that leaves reviews. Sadly, few review sites measure contrast ratio, and those that do don"t have consistency between them. There is no set standard for reviewers on how to measure contrast ratio either, so numbers are going to be extremely different. I may measure 20,000:1, while Joe Numbnutz over at TVAwesomeReviews.com measures 1,000:1 with his Datacolor Spyder (a decent product, but not a valid measurement tool for contrast ratio).

ANSI contrast ratio is a good addition. This is where eight-each white and black boxes in a checkerboard pattern are measured and averaged. This gives a good idea of what a display is doing, and is far more relevant to compare to actual video. Even this, though, is problematic, as the brightness of the white boxes can affect the measurement of the black boxes. Done right, it is also exceedingly time consuming. When I started measuring ANSI contrast ratio when I was at Home Theater, it nearly doubled the total amount of time spent measuring a television. Spending that much time on one measurement that most people will overlook is not an effective use of time.

Like nearly all TV buying guides say: It"s all in what you want to do with the TV. If you"re a movie buff and you watch TV in a dark room or at night, the added contrast of plasma will be very cinematic.

Somewhere in between is an LED LCD with some kind of local or zone dimming, offering better intra-scene contrast ratio than a "normal" LCD, but still offering that technology"s extreme light output.

lcd panel contrast ratio brands

When shopping for a computer monitor, you"re bombarded with specifications like native resolution and response time, but one of the more misunderstood monitor features is contrast ratio. As with many things, bigger is generally better when it comes to contrast ratio, although it is only one factor to consider when purchasing a monitor -- and manufacturers sometimes use confusing terms like "dynamic contrast ratio" to make things more confusing. Still, if having a huge contrast range is tops on your priority list, there are some numbers to look for.

What Contrast Ratio Means Simply put, the contrast ratio of a monitor is the the measured difference between the darkest blacks and the brightest whites a display is capable of producing. This is expressed in ratio form, such as "4000:1" and is read as "four thousand to one." The larger the first number, the higher the contrast ratio of the monitor and the more difference there is between pure black and pure white.

Why Contrast Ratio Is Important With a wider range between black and white, a monitor is capable of deeper, richer colors with more visible details in shadows and highlights. This is particularly important if the monitor is being used for photo or video editing, graphic design, watching movies or even playing video games. Essentially, any application where being able to detect small differences in color and brightness will benefit from a higher contrast ratio.

Manufacturer Claims and Measurement Irregularities Unfortunately, there is no industry standard for measuring contrast ratio, so it"s entirely possible for two different monitors to have identical published specifications while actually appearing rather different from each other. Still, while the measurements cannot be considered scientific or consistent from monitor to monitor, they provide a basic baseline for comparison while visually inspecting the picture on two different displays.

Highest Available With the advent of local-dimming LED backlit monitors, manufacturers list both the dynamic contrast ratio as well as the static contrast ratio. LED monitors can actually shut off the backlight in the portions of the monitor that have a pure black area, leading to contrast ratio measurements that can top 50,000,000:1. The static contrast ratio, which is a more realistic measurement of monitor contrast performance, is the measurement of the difference between blacks and whites with the backlight at its lowest possible setting while remaining powered on. Higher-end monitors can have a static contrast ratio up to 3000:1, giving a large dynamic range.

lcd panel contrast ratio brands