Contrast ratio is the measurable difference between the blackest black and the whitest white on the screen.  Contrast ratio measurements are the same for both the LCD contrast ratio and the plasma contrast ratio.  That’s not to say the contrast ratio of a plasma vs LCD TV are the same quite the contrary they are of course different from each other as no two televisions are exactly alike.  They are the same in that there are no standards of measurement in which to measure the actual contrast ratio on an LCD TV or plasma TV. 

What does “No contrast ratio standards” mean exactly?  The television industry like most industries set standard or parameters by which to measure and build their televisions.  For example: The size of all televisions is measured on the diagonal of the screen.  (This is a standard) The contrast ratio however is a whole other story.  The television industry has yet to set a standard on how to measure the contrast ratio of a television.  This leaves the scale by which the contrast ratio is measured and the rules by which the measurement is taken up for grabs.

Because there is no standard for this contrast ratio measurement the manufactures can test this in any way they see fit.  Including adjusting contrast controls such as brightness, lightness, etc. to levels that would not be used in normal viewing parameters on your plasma or LCD TV.

When a manufacture of a plasma or LCD TV boasts that they have a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 what does that truly mean?  Would that mean if you put two different plasma TV’s from two different manufactures with the same 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio next to each other that they will have the same brightness or crispness to the picture.  Not necessarily.

Most manufactures contrast ratio settings are defaulted to a setting that would normally be used in an electronics store show room under bright fluorescent lights and not to the lighting in your living room.  I highly doubt you will have your LCD or plasma TV set at it’s very highest or very lowest settings or that you will be changing the setting thousands of times throughout the time in which you are viewing a program in order to see the difference of the contrast ratio to the extreme of 1,000,000:1.  You just want to relax and watch your TV.

The bottom line is that when you get your new plasma or LCD TV you will adjust the setting to your liking.  Once you have your settings in place the contrast ratio will never be set at the same settings as when they were tested and thus the 1,000,000:1 means absolutely nothing.  As for “Dynamic Contrast” ratio … it means even less!

Forget the words LCD contrast ratio and plasma contrast ratio because you don’t even need to factor them into your decision.  They are just marketing hype.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Plasma vs LCD TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.