LCD TV Reviews

Black: 0.002
White: 31

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: 15,500:1

These readings were taken in the Expert1 picture mode with the Backlight on 35, the Contrast on 70, and the Brightness at 54. The Vivid mode produced a peak white level of 120 foot-lamberts—a level that was uncomfortable to watch for more than a few minutes in typical evening room lighting.

The Color Tracking charts below show how well a display adheres to the D65 standard white point. The tighter the overlap of the three primary colors, the nearer the result is to D65. The Before Calibration chart shows the result in the fixed THX Cinema mode. The After Calibration chart shows the full final calibration taken in Expert1, in the Warm color temperature setting, fine-tuned with the 10-step white-balance red, blue, and green controls. The After Calibration result is outstanding, with a Delta E of under 1.0 from 40 IRE (low to mid brightness) to 90 IRE (just short of peak white) and no higher than 2.5 elsewhere. Delta E is a figure of merit that indicates how close the result is to the standard D65 white point. Most experts recommend a value of 4 or less, suggesting that the eye cannot distinguish any improvement below this level. Others recommend no more than 3 for a visually ideal result.

The BT.709 setting of the Color Gamut control put the color points as close as you ever need to come to the Rec. 709 HD color standard (BT.709 is another name for Rec. 709). The individual colors’ measured brightness was off a bit—about 4 percent hot for red and 3 percent down for green from the standard values. Still, this didn’t appear to have any negative effect on the set’s outstanding color. Nor did the green color decoding detract in any way. It was similarly off as judged by the green Color Filter setting. Red and blue were both good.—TJN