LCD TV Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—1,286:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—1,098:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446:
480: 470 (per picture height)
720p: 720(pph)
1080i: Out to the Limits of the 1,366 by 768

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

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

Measured Color Points:
Red Color Point: x=0.625, y=0.323
Green Color Point: x=0.277, y=0.591
Blue Color Point: x=0.146, y=0.057

The top chart shows the LN-S3251D'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 Warm2 color-temperature mode and the Movie Picture mode, measures very cool with the darkest images and pretty accurate across the rest of the gray scale. Calibration is possible with the LN-S3251D, but it isn't going to make it any better. The bump at the low end is there, no matter what you do.

The bottom 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 those specified by SMPTE. Red is undersaturated and rather purplish-red. Blue is very slightly oversaturated. Green is slightly undersaturated and somewhat bluish-green.

After calibration, and using a full-field 100-IRE white (41.15 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.032 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 1,286:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 1,098:1. The best contrast ratio was achieved in the Power Saving High mode. The brightest image was achieved with the Power Saving off and produced 138.2 ft-L with a 100-IRE field and 0.120 ft-L on a 0-IRE field (1152:1).—GM