Contrast Ratio and Brightness

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

What is a good Brightness? I've seen 500 cd/m2, 400cd/m2, 450 cd/m2. What is a good Contrast? 700:1, 1000:1. I'm talking about budget HDTVs, like Westinghouse, Insignia, Element, Vizio and maybe Samsung (I know Samsung isn't a budget HDTV).

 

[nboy22]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
What is a good Brightness? I've seen 500 cd/m2, 400cd/m2, 450 cd/m2. What is a good Contrast? 700:1, 1000:1. I'm talking about budget HDTVs, like Westinghouse, Insignia, Element, Vizio and maybe Samsung (I know Samsung isn't a budget HDTV).

To answer this I will use my TV in comparison, its brightness is 500 cd/m2, which seems nice to me, much like that you would get in a samsung (my tv is philips). A westinghouse's has around 550 cd/m2, which is good I would think, but it doesn't matter unless your tv has a good contrast ratio.

for instance, my philips tv has 6000:1 contrast ratio, which is far superior to that of the westinghouse's 1000:1 contrast ratio. The difference is that the westinghouse will look washed out, the blacks will look gray.. etc.. My tv with the 6000:1 would have nice blacks, in fact my tv has blacks that are almost as black as the trim.

So higher contrast ratio is good and the higher the cd/m2 will allow you to watch tv in a brighter room, so the higher the better. I would not go under 450 cd/m2

 

[sciencewhiz]

make sure you compare static contrast ratios to other static contrast ratios and not dynamic. I bet the Westinghouse 1000:1 is static and the Phillips 6000:1 is dynamic.

My Aquos has a 10000:1 dynamic and 2000:1 static. It definitely is on the high end side of LCD TVs.

 

[nboy22]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
make sure you compare static contrast ratios to other static contrast ratios and not dynamic. I bet the Westinghouse 1000:1 is static and the Phillips 6000:1 is dynamic.

My Aquos has a 10000:1 dynamic and 2000:1 static. It definitely is on the high end side of LCD TVs.

Yeah.. My answers are just from my existing knowledge.. they could be wrong at any point.

You are correct, my tv has the 6000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, I can't find a listing for the static contrast ratio for the 37PF9631D/37 model.