LCD TV Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—536:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—505:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446:
480: 470 (per picture height)
20p: 720 (pph)
1080i: 560 (pph)

DC Restoration (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

Color Decoder (poor, average, good, excellent): Average

Measured Color Points:
Red Color Point: x=0.630, y=0.336
Green Color Point: x=0.265, y=0.606
Blue Color Point: x=0.146, y=0.065

The left chart shows the 32PF9996's gray scale relative to its color temperature at various levels of intensity, or brightness (20 IRE is dark gray; 100 IRE is bright white). The gray scale as set by the factory, in the warm color-temperature mode, measures slightly cool with dark images and slightly warm with brighter images. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale measures within 157 Kelvin of D6500, the accurate color temperature, across the entire range except for the darkest images, which are much warmer.

The right chart shows the gray scale (or color temperature) relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue color filters. These are somewhat off from those specified by SMPTE. Red is slightly undersaturated and slightly reddish-orange. Blue is slightly oversaturated. Green is fairly bluish-green.

Using a full-field 100-IRE white (99.08 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.185 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 536:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 505:1. Using our Da-Lite Da-Mat screen as a back surface, I measured the color temperature of the different Ambilight modes. Warm white was too red to measure (x=0.420, y=0.350), cool white was 5196 K (0.338, 0.321), red and blue were, well, I think you can guess. After more time than I care to admit, I was able to get 6,536 K (0.312,0.327) by semi-randomly adjusting the Personal setting. Eureka! A bias light. Due to the distance between the Ambilight lamps and the distance to the wall, color uniformity is poor. If you own your own calibration equipment (or your own ISF calibrator), you may, depending on the color of your walls, be able to get 6500K off walls (but don't count on it). Given the price of bias lights, I doubt the time investment is worth it.—GM