I'm looking to buy an LCD tv and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me what a contrast ratio is?

Question

I'm looking to buy an LCD tv and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me what a contrast ratio is?

Answer 1

I think it's a rating of how "black" the black is.  Higher contrast ratios mean dark pixels are "more dark".

Answer 2

it how vibration the color is. more bright colors. not just wight but brighter yellow blue green and reds. go to a store and look at a high contrast tv and a low contrast tv and you will see the difference. higher is better.

Answer 3

Contrast is the ratio of max white over darkest black.

If Max white is 500 nits and best black is .2 nits, then contrast is 2,500:1

In dynamic contrast, you use best black but at lowest possible backlight - This is an artificial, useless number, but it is quite common. Usually dynamic contrast is 5x of true contrast (12,500:1 for the example above).

Answer 4

Whatever you do, don't try to compare contrast ratio of one brand to another.  Not everyone measures them the same.  You might see 1500:1 vs 15000 to 1 and they could be the same quality tv.  Concentrate on the pixels (720 vs 1080), the number of HDMI inputs, and the resolution.  The contrast ration is just another number to confuse you with.