However, there are still plenty of pitfalls that the novice consumer needs to avoid before making the commitment to drop a serious amount of cash on a new HDTV. The list summary is as follows:

•Fake HD and Cable Satellite Channels: Did you know that a number of HD channels broadcast a lot of "fake HD?" Anyone who has ever watched some of TNT's HD broadcasts can attest to that.

•Dynamic Contrast Ratio Measurement Specification: The contrast ratio number is basically meaningless.

•Line Conditioners: They do nothing to improve the HDTV image.

•Deep Color: No deep color sources makes this a worthless feature.

•x.v.Color: Until Laser TVs and xv Color HD discs appear on the scene, this feature is not truly useful.

•1080p HDTVs below 42" (diagonal): If you own a HDTV under 42", chances are you won't recognize the quality difference over 720p—unless you are standing really close to the TV.

•Flat LCD HDTVs 26" and Smaller: The image quality of LCD HDTVs in the 26" inch range or lower is generally poor.

•120Hz HDMI Cables: As mentioned before, expensive HDMI cables are a huge ripoff. Case in point, decent HDMI cable for less than $2. I bought a few myself and they work fine.

•Off Brand Model HDTVs: No-name brands may cost you more down the line.

•HDMI: Horrible connector design can prove problematic. Always pretest your connections.

So there you have it. If you do your homework, you can save yourself a lot of problems (and money) down the line. For a full explanation on the items in this list, check out the HD Guru link. [HD Guru]

And since a higher contrast ratio means blacks are much blacker (though, sometimes losing out on gray detail), and whites are much brighter, this 10000 to 1 means there's a big difference between the black and white parts of your screen. makes it so that you can easily tell the difference between dark gray, gray, coal, charcoal and dust, it's perfect for picking out the right shade of carpet as well. Not that we would have charcoal carpet. What are we, animals? No price or release date yet. [T3 via Crunchgear]

Consumer electronics companies love spec wars. Whether it's processor speeds, throughput or megapixels, gadget makers like throw around big numbers that separate money from wallet. And contrast ratios are the spec war du jour. But despite claims ranging from 5,000:1 (Panasonic) all the way to 1,000,000:1 (Sony's upcoming OLED) there is no agreed upon industry standard used for measuring contrast ratios. As a result, there are a number of tricky ways to influence the outcome of a contrast ratio test—and none of them have anything to do with the real world contrast ratio that you will experience while sitting at home...

What is contrast ratio? Simply put, it's the difference between the darkest and brightest spot on a display. This is expressed as a ratio measuring luminosity. A good way to think of contrast is like the volume on a stereo. You might have a stereo that goes all the way to 11, but that doesn't mean it sounds good. The environment has an effect too—the advertised contrast ratio has no bearing on how well the screen will perform in your house while reflecting light from a bank of windows on the other side of the room. Props to Sony for admitting as much, even if it is only in the fine print:

VESA test and measurement methods are applied yielding a contrast ratio of used 7000:1. This number represents the widest possible ratio between black and white contrast levels. Sony also measures their BRAVIA televisions with a more stringent method that measures the amount of black and white levels that can appear on the screen at the same time. This method yields a more real world measurement of 1300:1

What contrast ratio is not: Contrast has little to do with color range or accuracy. Color is all in the gray-scale capabilities of a screen. But with better and deeper blacks some TVs are also better able to show the gradations of color as they fall away.

How is contrast ratio measured? In a very dark room, first of all. The big number on the front end (i.e. 20,000) is the light side, and the 1 is the dark side. The dark side, therefore, has a much greater effect on the ratio than the light. Cutting the darkest dark on a screen by .5 effectively doubles the contrast ratio. Which is why you hear a lot about "true black" and never about screens as bright as arc welding torches that you need shaded lenses to view.

How is contrast calculated? Contrast ratio is calculated in many different ways. The basic idea is to make one part of the screen dark and one part really bright and measure the difference using a light meter. Among the best known is the "full on/full off" method. There is also ANSI, which was developed as a way of measuring the contrast in projectors. Another commonly used method is the VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) Flat Panel Display Measurement (FPDM) standard. And in Japan, the JEITIA (Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association) rules the roost.

I was going to detail each one of these methods, but what's the point: they are all flawed and equally meaningless because no one runs the tests in exactly the same way. There is no ideal setting, for one thing, no room that is perfectly black. And just what black is being measured? You could turn the TV off entirely, which results in a screen that is darker than when the display is powered up. Some companies measure contrast without the filter on the front of the screen, which yields much brighter whites. Another option is to measure the black in a dark room, but then move the display to a well-lit room and turn it on to measure the light side. All of these examples are taken from interviews with people who work in the display industry and asked to remain anonymous.

Isn't someone developing a standard method for measurement? The Consumer Electronics Association is discussing the possibility, but nothing is moving forward. And it probably won't until there is enough hue and cry for a change to occur.

If there were a standard, what would it be? Instead of using one big number, the better way to talk about contrast ratio would be based on real world settings. TVs should specify contrast in terms of watching a broadcast football game during the day versus a high-def movie at night with all the lights off. More confusing, but also more accurate.

So what should I make of all this contrast ratio bragging going on? The best bet is to ignore it entirely. It is marketing hype. Contrast ratio is the least important number to look at when making a purchase. Judge with your own eyes—it's worth noting that your eyes recognize contrast far more clearly than resolution, which is why a 1080p screen with low contrast may not look as good as a 720p screen with high contrast. Enthusiast magazines such as Perfect Vision and Home Theater do their own contrast ratio tests on screens they review, which is a good option. But ultimately, those publications agree with me.

This topic always generates some hot commenting action. Fire away and I'll answer questions the best I can. But I've got a question for the readers as well: Is contrast ratio a useful, albeit flawed, way of comparing TVs and announcing new TV technologies, or should Gizmodo ignore that number from now on? –Noah Robischon

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. – Sean Captain

This is the next step toward the era where instrument displays in cars will resemble those of aircraft. It's high time, too. Imagine having a backup camera/rear-view monitor, GPS navigation, speedometer and other gauges, all displayed on configurable high-contrast video panels across the dashboard. Then spread a few across the seatbacks so those back seat drivers will stfu and enjoy total multimedia and carputing.

What took so long? These objects may be closer than they appear. – Charlie White

Press Release [Sharp Corporation, via BornRich]

Blacker blacks are important, and there is a difference. Alas, you, dear Gizmodo reader—you with the golden eyes—may be the only one in the room who notices. Nevertheless, we want to see it all: video from zero black to 100-white, color from infrared to ultraviolet, and resolution only a microscope could discern. Even if the difference is academic, it's still there. Four more revealing (or not) examples of this contrast ratio comparison, after the jump. – Charlie White

Pioneer unveiled the next generation of PDP HDTV [AVing]