Gizmodo
Big TVs, schmig TVs. We saw lots of sets that are bigger than we can (currently) imagine ever having. And we saw some crummy image quality on them, as well.
But the mind-blower was the advance in contrast ratio on LCD TVs—which were traditionally a poor cousin to plasma in that respect.
Sharp, for example, has TVs that dim their backlights as needed to get blacks deeper on things like night scenes. And its superfast 4-millisecond response time allows the set to actually close the pixels down all the way and block out light when needed in any of the 120 video frames it spits out per second. That and other secrets sharp wouldn't reveal to us push the dynamic contrast rate up to 15,000 to 1, claims Sharp.
More TV tech and photos after the jump...
LG raises the bar by ditching the fluorescent backlights from most LCDs and using a matrix of light-emitting diodes. In addition to way deeper color, the LEDs give Samsung that ability to selectively darken or brighten the backlight in different parts of the screen. This yields a contrast ratio of 100,000 to 1, they say.
Can Sharp rise to Samsung's challenge? Well, for the second year in a row they demonstrated a prototype TV with super-secret technology that gets a one million to one (they say while holding pinker fingers up to the corners of their mouths). This is wicked cool—digital photos on Web pages barely begin to do it justice.
Comments
thank god for a post that has nothing to do with the iPhone.
100,000:1. damn.
mrhammerstein
did you forget the 3 extra 0's or were you talking about the LG?
What are the units of measurement for this 100,000:1 ratio?
So when can I get any of these TV or will they be out about the same time as SED?
"The contrast ratio is a metric of a display system, defined as the ratio of the luminosity of the brightest and the darkest color the system is capable of producing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrast_ratio
this post is from the future.. creepy
i didn't catch the 1,000,000:1 bragging quote. 10x damn for that one.
the future of say, the EST? :P
anyhow, my god is that an awesome comparison shot between 1200:1 and 3000:1. i hope they haven't fiddled with the contrast on one of the two
*grin*
Contrast ratio comparisons only matter after ANSI calibration of the picture. Otherwise, CR figures are just specsmanship used to confuse people.
Justsayyes is correct. I could pull 10million:1 out of my ass and slap it on a television, and people would say 'Sweet Jesus that's my next TV!'
It's all marketing, they have no standards or regulations to adhere to.
100 million:1 that I would still be in the room half way through Joe getting anything outta his ass.
Ditto to the Thanks for not another iPhone post.
Hey, what aren't you talking about the iPhone display?
CR is a valuable tool when comparing TVs from the same manufacturer. The older 32" Samsung in my rec room is a 1500:1, but the 40" in my living room is 4000:1. This difference is so noticeable that I try to only use it while playing the xbox360 (unless the Wife wants to watch some Lifetime show - then I'll deal with the older one ;)
We will be installing one of thr sharp's new displays on Monday for a exec at sharp. I'll check it out then because we couldn't make it to CES this year.
You know i would pay a alot for a tv that had really nice speakers built in. I have still avoided buying a reciever and speaker. I mean surround sound is cool and all. But for most applications a tv with nice stereo speakers built into the LCD/Plasma would make me a happy boy.
The best I can tell from the giz post is that LG is using an array of LED's as the backlight for uniformity, while Samsung goes one step further and does some image pre-processing to selectively dim/brighten individual LED's in an array to enhance the picture...thus, the 100,000:1 accounts for pixel and LED performance combined.
For more info on this, check out Brightside Technology. For a further explanation, check out the review at Bit-tech.
I think Samsung must be starting to license Brightside's technology. This stuff is waaaay better than a simple "dynamic" backlight with a single bulb. The single bulb only helps for uniformly bright/dim scenes...with the array of LED's that can individually dim, you can have super-bright whites and super dark darks all one one screen. The LED's are placed close enough together that they are within the region that the "bloom" of your eye would alter anyway.
Also, that "100,000:1" is probably the difference between the "dimmest ON setting" of the LED's and the brightest setting. At least in the Brightside prototypes, the LED's can be turned all the way off, yielding what is technically an infinite contrast ratio...they just use the dimmest ON setting so they can provide a logical number.
How does this stack up to the Sony OLED's contrast ratio claims?
'bout darned time.
contrast ratio is a myth. After 4000:1, it doesn't matter. your eyes can't preceive it.
(How can you use a digital camera to image this anyway? the colour is off and resolution as well)
However, LEDs and LASER tech is better than than fluorescent backlighting...it has a wider colour gamut.
So where is the SED grail?
(gimmick after gimmick and still we buy it)
The other thing is that there's no standard in measuring contrast. Some panels "cheat" by detecting a mostly-dark image, then dimming the backlight, then turning up the backlight on a mostly-white image. So you can take two identical LCD panelsk, one with this 'feature' and one without, and end up with a huge contrast ratio...
(This can be annoying since you may wish to turn up the brightness during dark scenes to well, see them...)
"contrast ratio is a myth. After 4000:1...your eyes can't perceive it"
Umm...I believe that's wrong. Your eyes can detect shades of bright up to about 4000cd/m^2, and dark shades far below 1cd/m^2. For two very close things, there is some "bloom" in your eye such that very bright things make nearby less bright things look as dark as can be....but on opposite edges of a big-screen TV, you can definitely distinguish between a larger range than just 4000:1.
Start a discussion:
Login with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?