# This whole thing about contrast ratio is driving me nuts please help.



## jacag04 (Jul 12, 2006)

First I hear you need to have a high CR for optimum PQ then I read reviews saying that developers want you to think you must have a high CR thereby raising the prices on tv's with them (also stating lower CR tv's can do the job). Then I read that I should just go by whatever tv looks good to me. I am so lost at this point I don't know who to believe. Of course I will go by what tv looks good to me but I gotta go on the facts considering the majority of my viewing wont be in standing in front of a tv in a well lit Best Buy. Sooooo.... whats the bottom line on contrast ratio when buying a hdtv?


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

It ultimately comes down to two factors:

1) What can you afford to spend on a new HD TV?

2) Within the price range you determine, what looks best to you?

Yes, looking at TVs in Best Buy, Circuit City, etc., is not perfect, because store lighting is not the same as your home environment. But you can play with the picture controls on the TVs and see what those changes do ... make the TV look better, worse, etc.

You do have 30 days to return TVs at BB and CC, and if you are a Costco member, you have 90 days. Either of those time frames should be sufficient for you to try out a TV in our home. 

I have bought and returned many different Tvs (Samsung, Sharp, Sony) until I decided I liked LG the best. If you are spending thousands of dollars, you have the right to be satisfied!


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## chris0 (Jun 25, 2007)

There is no standard that companies use for measuring CR so take their number with a grain of salt. Here's a pretty quick and interesting read on contrast ratio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrast_ratio

One of the most interesting statements..."A clean print at a typical movie theater may have a contrast ratio of 500:1."


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## jacag04 (Jul 12, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> It ultimately comes down to two factors:
> 
> 1) What can you afford to spend on a new HD TV?
> 
> ...


What was it about the LG that you liked over the others? I was planning on buying a Sony or Samsung but if you have taken both of them back that makes me want to reconsider.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

As many have noted here in the past, it all boils down to what pleases you. Drew chose the LG over the Sony, I personally thought the opposite. I bought a Samsung for the bedroom although it was more expensive than I wanted it fit the physical size I needed perfectly. Go into the stores, push buttons, change channels and also see who has the longest price guarantee as the prices are dropping fast.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

DO NOT buy a TV just because somebody else likes it.

This is not a knock on either Drew or LG, just a statement.

Millions of satisfied Sony and Samsung buyers think they make a perfectly fine TV.

Buying a TV on specs alone is a very hard thing. Contrast ratio, on the other hand, is easy enough to check out, although you might not be able to in a store. You might have to do it at home. Look at the black areas in a darkened night scene. Do the blacks continue to get blacker or do they wash out into a solid grey? You may need to make picture and brightness adjustments to get the fine black detail you are looking for. If you can get good blacks, then how to the whites look in a brilliant day time scene? Are they equally distinguishable, with subtle levels of brightness? Or does the TV seem to glare at you? Again, you might need to tweak the picture and brightness controls but there should be a setting that works well for both scenes. The glare and the greys are signs of a limited contrast ratio. 

A television is one of those things you can pick by its picture. A lot of it gets down to if you like the way the picture looks. I've always liked the picture on Panasonic's plasma TVs. I bought one. I like the picture better on Pioneer's plasmas. I couldn't afford them and so I didn't buy one. Sometimes it gets down to that simple.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Personally I think contrast ratio is a bit of a crock, as once you get past the point where these old eyes can tell the difference, there is no difference as far as I'm concerned. For me, in an average room I can't tell the difference in anything over 5000:1. 

Mr. Spock, I agree with your unassailable logic, but if you are going to buy a TV on looks alone, make sure it's at a decent store or home where it's been calibrated. And for pity's sake don't compare TV pictures at a warehouse store where they make no attempt to calibrate and everything is under those big mercury lights.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

Absolutely. You may have to get it home to see these differences. Drew was very right to return TVs that he didn't like the looks of.

Be wary of buying a TV you might return around the time of the Super Bowl. People have been known to buy a TV just before the game and return it right after. Some stores limit returns on sets bought right about now.

As for calibration, I'm more of a seat of the pants calibrator. I assume the OP will be, too. Just know most TVs are shipped with the brightness set too high. Sometimes the color level is, too. You should adjust them all to get a pleasing picture for you. Turn down the lights in your room and you'll often turn these adjustments down, too. That's normally where they should be.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

jacag04 said:


> What was it about the LG that you liked over the others? I was planning on buying a Sony or Samsung but if you have taken both of them back that makes me want to reconsider.


I returned the Sony because I couldn't stand the new crossbar menu system - it made it difficult to use macros on a universal remote.

I returned the Samsung because when the HR20 was connected via HDMI, the TV did NOT pass audio over it's optical out port. In addition, I didn't care for the way video inputs were switched. (This was in 2005, so I can't remember how it was at the time, but I didn't like it.)

The Sony and Samsung had outstanding pictures, but the LG had multiple PIP/POP modes and it had more Ratio modes than the other two Sony and Samsung models I tried. In addition, I found discrete IR commands for the LG for switching video inputs, so I could easily program my universal remote. All around, I liked the various features on the LG better.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

Carl Spock said:


> DO NOT buy a TV just because somebody else likes it.
> 
> This is not a knock on either Drew or LG, just a statement.
> 
> Millions of satisfied Sony and Samsung buyers think they make a perfectly fine TV.


No problem, Carl. I agree that no one person's opinion is more important than any other person's, and that's all I'm doing. I'm just offering my opinion, based on my own experience, and I thought it was pretty clear from my earlier post that the Sony, Samsung (and Sharp) just did not worked for me. I didn't say they were not fine TVs, I just said I found something I liked better.

If you look back further, I do advocate trying all of the TVs in the store and testing out all of the features, with the the final test being to buy one and take it home with the option to return it if you didn't like it.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

chris0 said:


> There is no standard that companies use for measuring CR so take their number with a grain of salt. Here's a pretty quick and interesting read on contrast ratio.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrast_ratio
> 
> One of the most interesting statements..."A clean print at a typical movie theater may have a contrast ratio of 500:1."


This is in fact true. Keep in mind that most commercial theaters have no ambient light and special screens with image gain.

Many homes, however, do have light coming from all sorts of locations and directions - so the imagery can be impacted without higher levels of contrast depending on the HDTV set location and direction.


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