How deep should blacks be?

[skatalite]

For instance, take any Panasonic or Samsung plasma. They are typically black. Should the blacks on the screen be just as deep, or are they typically lighter and you can tell a difference between the two shades?

Another way of asking is: Are blacks supposed to be so deep that, if you pause on a black screen in a dark room, should you be able to tell the set is on or not?

[lojack1976]

Originally Posted by skatalite

For instance, take any Panasonic or Samsung plasma. They are typically black. Should the blacks on the screen be just as deep, or are they typically lighter and you can tell a difference between the two shades?

Another way of asking is: Are blacks supposed to be so deep that, if you pause on a black screen in a dark room, should you be able to tell the set is on or not?

Well that's what TV makers want to achieve. If you can see it in a dark room then its not truly black. You cannot differentiate the screen from the TV's bezel on my Pioneer set in a dark room when the screen goes black. A space scene for instance is truly remarkable to look at on one of these sets. All you can see are the stars. The actual space field is as black as black can be and it blends right into the shiny black bezel of the set.

Before Pioneer plasmas the only sets that could get you blacks this good were CRT's. Another thing that people forget is that you need true whites also. Some TV's are excellent in this category, but many are not. Samsung had failed to achieve pure whites for some time, and it wasn't until this year that they did so. Their previous gen plasmas were known to have a pinkish tinge in their whites. Panasonic plasmas have extremely good whites as well as Pioneer.

[ShockWave]

+1 on the whites. I remember my first HD CRT back in 2001. It was a Toshiba and the whites were pink. It was a anni gift from the wife so I couldn't complain, but a year later I had to upgrade to a Mits Diamond!

[Clark Kent]

Pure black is the complete absence of light. That is the standard. No display has gotten close except maybe the prototype Kuros with advanced processing that never made it to market.

[s_corroon]

How long is a rope?!

[Twitch9]

I would say Wesley Snipes would be a good reference point jk

[Deciazulado]

Black as midnight on a moonless night.

[MCT]

Originally Posted by twitch9

i would say wesley snipes would be a good reference point jk

lmao

[brett_day]

it is easy to crate black crush on lcd and plasma sets. Ideally you should be able to see shade variations in blacks....for example

if you had a dark scene where the background was black and you had a character who was wearing a black coat, you should still be able to see the outline of the coat and the variation in shades. If you cannot make out the outline of the character in the black coat then you have black crush!

[bhampton]

As black as possible without crush.

That said... I saw Avatar today in a state of the art Imax 3D presentation and the blacks were elevated a bit but it did nothing to distract from the presentation for the most part. There were a couple of fades to black and I could see whatever digital projector was in use wasn't capable of perfect blacks but still the image was fantastic none the less.

-Brian

[Crimson King]

Blacks (or any color for that matter) should be the intended color their supposed to be, I just watched the Tim Burton "Batman", and was floored. The last time I had owned this film on any format was that dinosaur called VHS, and the pumped up the blacks to more of a gray for more comfortable viewing, the blu, however retains the blacks in all their intended original dark glory!

[BluElite]

Use the Pioneer Kuro as your guide and standard to how deep black should be; you can't loose. Seems like the Panasonics (V10) are nearly comparable to the Kuro so that's definitely an option.

[genkifd]

the lx and m pioneer and a few others like the Sony XBR8 and the Samsung 8 series LED LCD have extremely close if not perfect blacks which most digital tv have trouble with....

some plasmas look washed out in a brightly lit room as they have poor light filters and opposite with LCD tvs in a dark room...

detail is very important as getting the blackest possible picture without detail is not ideal....