How Important is Contrast Ratio??

[Hoos]

Looking at taking the plunge and buying a 1080p LCD HDTV. I've seen a very wide range of contrast ratio ratings for various sets that I've looked at. From my limited knowledge thus far, I believe that the higher the contrast ratio, the sharper the image. Is that right???

Where I'm getting confused is that some higher priced sets have contrast ratios like 1000:1 and 2500:1 while some lower priced sets are 10,000:1 or higher (up to 30,000:1). To make things even more confusing, the higher contrast ratios are all over the place, scattered amongst lower and higher priced sets.

Color me cornfused

Any thoughts or help??

[p_rushing]

Re: How Important is Contrast Ratio??

you can't compare them directly as other companies use different scales to measure them

[SqueakyD]

Re: How Important is Contrast Ratio??

Contrast ratio is supposed to be the difference between the (blackest) black and (whitest) white possible on that TV. Older sets were pretty bad (had lower ratios) because blacks would seem like a washed out grey color, or whites weren't at their brightest. So the higher the ratio, the better.

But p_rushing is right, there's really no standard to compare tv sets from different companies... it's really marketing speak now.

As for sharper images... I would focus on resolution... so that's the 1080p, 720p stuff.

And if you're gaming/watching sports, pay attention to pixel response times (in ms). This has to do with the ghosting effect that happens with fast moving images. Lower is better.

[Hoos]

Re: How Important is Contrast Ratio??

Thanks guys, some good helpful information here

[CS10029]

Re: How Important is Contrast Ratio??

This was pretty helpful, good info guys.