How important is contrast ratio?

[nouou]

There's a sony kdl-40s4100 for sale at a local store and I notice the contrast ratio is 2500:1. Should I look at a different model?

[bkbluray]

Originally Posted by nouou

There's a sony kdl-40s4100 for sale at a local store and I notice the contrast ratio is 2500:1. Should I look at a different model?

Contrast ratio makes a difference, but it's not as important as asking yourself, "am I satisfied with the image quality?"

[KJH6926]

Originally Posted by bkbluray

Contrast ratio makes a difference, but it's not as important as asking yourself, "am I satisfied with the image quality?"

yup +1 on that. i have a sony xbr5 and the samsung tat was sitting next to it had a muchhhhhh higher contrast ratio and i still chose the sony over it. It looked better in my opinion but thats just me.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

Originally Posted by nouou

There's a sony kdl-40s4100 for sale at a local store and I notice the contrast ratio is 2500:1. Should I look at a different model?

From my own understanding, our pupils can't really tell the difference. Sometimes you can by comparing 2500:1 to 25000:1 (For example). Cheaper models (Vizio, Insignia, Dynex, etc.) use less contrast and the picture isn't as sharp as it should be. Popular brands (Samsung, Sony, Sharp, etc.) use the same or higher contrasts because they're just bigger companies and can afford anything to make anything look good.

We have many MacGyvers in these forums, so wait for them and they'll break it down for you.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by nouou

There's a sony kdl-40s4100 for sale at a local store and I notice the contrast ratio is 2500:1. Should I look at a different model?

Yes!

Contrast ratio is very important as far as PQ is concerned, which is one reason why plasma TVs tend to be better than their LCD counterparts. Whatever your budget is, I strongly recommend that you get a plasma TV. With a Pioneer or Panasonic TV, you really can't go wrong.

[olds403]

Contrast or better yet Black level is what gives an image depth. The "blacker"(as opposed to dark gray) that black appears the more contrast and depth an image has. Picture quality is very dependant on contrast ratio. Why do you think magazines go to the trouble of measuring it when they review a TV if it doesn't matter.

[U4K61]

The Contrast Post

Polar Opposites
The Yin and Yang, two fish or tadpoles, describe the shady and sunny sides of a hill. They symbolise the two primal forces of qi 氣, life's breath or energy flow. Wuji 無極, the boundless void, is the source of creation and knowledge is drawn as a circle. The Yin and Yang fit inside the Wuji to form the Taiji 太極, the Supreme Ultimate. It is interesting that the empty or null set, Ø = { } = null, Ø ≠ {Ø}, which is a lot like the Wuji from one point of view because there is nothing in it, can build up countably infinate and uncountably infinite sets. The eyes of Yin and Yang symbolize change. Black gives way to white just as night becomes day. Change is continuous and everlasting, one extreme giving way to its opposite. Life is the close relationship or unity of opposites, and for us movie enthusiasts, a good picture on your TV.

One union of opposites, NOTAN, is how black and white are balanced in a composition of moving images created by a film director. Without Yin and Yang, there would be no contrast, just a blank screen. Just these two polar oppisites can be combined in an infinite number of ways to tell a story. See Greyscale.net.

An abstract example of the notion is found in the the move 2001. From the beginning, man learns to develop tools to gain control of his environment only to loose control of them later on, as with the HAL 9000 computer.

Yin: dark, female, destructive, rest, broken, 0
Yang: light, male, creative, movement, unbroken, 1

Surrounding the Taiji are the bā guà 八卦. These are the eight divinations that are composed of broken(female) and unbroken(male) lines, the binary form of yin and yang. Each Gua represents three bit positions from 000 to 111, 2^3=8. In the Xian Tian(Before Heaven) sequence, they are: Qián, Kūn, Kǎn, Gèn, Xùn, Zhèn, Lí, Duì. As when we use a computer, we start counting from 0-7.

Kūn 地 (Earth), Mother, 000
Gèn 山 (Mountain), Youngest Son, 001
Kǎn 水 (Water), Middle Son, 010
Xùn 風 (Wind), Oldest Daughter, 011
Zhèn 雷 (Thunder), Oldest Son, 100
Lí 火 (Fire), Middle Daughter, 101
Duì 澤 (Lake/Marsh), Youngest Daughter, 110
Qián 天 (Heaven), Father, 111

The I Ching (Wade-Giles), Yì Jīng (Pinyin), is one of six Confucion Classics. It begins with sixty-four hexagrams. Like the bā guà, they are made up of broken or un-broken lines, with 64 being all possible combinations - patterns representing the Tao in nature. The set 64 hexagrams are analogous to 6 bit binary numerals going from 000000 to 111111, which is 2^6 or 64.

Binary of course, have been given the task, it seems, to keep all the data in our lives in order and used in numerous mathamatical proofs such as Uncontable Sets: Cantor's Binary Diagonal Argument and Cantor's Diagonal Proof.

Black and white can be likened to on and off as in binary. 24 bit color provides 8 bits each R,G,B. This is going from 00000000 to 11111111 or 2^8 for 256 shades for each color or sub-pixel. 256x256x256 gives a total of 16.7 million color combinations. Equal values for RGB produces 256 shades of grey. Binary is combersome to read so they are grouped in fours (nibbles) and converted to a single base 16 hexadecimal character: 0-9, A-F. Two nibbles or 8 bits forms a byte.

While eastern thought developed groups of three and six, there are other names and groupings in the western world. Java primitive types.
boolean logical, true or false
byte - 8
short, char - 16
int, float - 32
long, double - 64

Black = RGB(0,0,0) or #000000, NTSC 7.5 IRE (sub-black 0 IRE)
White = RGB(255,255,255) or #FFFFFF, NTSC 100 IRE

In video, contrast is an opposition to show differences - a ratio between the whitest white(max) and the blackest black(min). Brightness is candela per square meter or cd/m^2.

• Weber Contrast (max - min)/min. Weber's Law. The difference between the two luminances divided by the lower luminance.
• Simple Contrast (max/min). In photography, the difference between light and dark areas of a picture.
• Michelson Contrast or Peak-to-Peak. (max-min)/(max+min). Determines quality of signal relative to noise level.

Contrast can be measured in two ways:
Dynamic Contrast: is full on (100-IRE)/full off(0-IRE), the best the system gives over time.
Static Contrast: uses a 16 alternating B&W ANSI checker board pattern to provide average light outputs for both the B&W rectangles simultaneously. It is a lower, but more accurate number. When you watch a movie, there will be dark and light areas in the image at the same time.
Contrast: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrast_(vision))

Contrast can be fudged by pumping up the whites.

Since I notice a loss of detail in dark areas in movies on even the best sets, we are not there yet as far as contrast is concerned. My advice is to get as much as you can afford, but understand the above so you are not taken by inflated numbers.

Back to The HD POST

[Kryptron]

One thing to look for is Static contrast. A lot of manufacturer's list Dynamic contrast and not Static. That sony tv your looking at has 2500 Static contrast and 25000 Dynamic. Static contrast ratio is more important then dynamic. Even so, let your eyes tell you what looks best. Manufacturer's use different methods to test contrast ratios, so one brands 3000:1 might look better then another's 10000:1.