Contrast ratio is nothing more than the difference between measured brightest non-blooming white peak and dimmest non-crushing black. I have never anyone using a flat-panel display in a light-controlled environment and expect critical viewing at low light levels (e.g. to see shadow detail).
Of course, you could have a rather high-measuring black level and a ridiculously high white peak value and get a large ratio as well. Flat-panels, like rear-project televisions and direct-view (boob-tube) televisions were designed for ambient lighting and not critical viewing of shadow-detail.
In either event, who owns equipment that can actually measure the lowest insinuated light level to prove or disprove marketing claims by the manufacturers? I'm betting that 99.99% of the shoppers don't have it, let alone understand contrast ratios.
Then again, maybe some of you are not looking for the shadow detail because the viewing environment already sets the 'black level'. Then we need to start talking perceived blacks and not real blacks.
Ideally, how you describe it is the way it should be measured. I really don't trust manufacturer specs because most marketing departments are at least somewhat weasel-ish. They want the biggest number they think they can get away with and I wouldn't put it past them to ask that the testing methodology be adjusted to get the numbers they want. You'd know they are being at least somewhat serious if they give out a spec for the ANSI contrast ratio test, because that's a figure that generally reflects what you'll likely get in actual practice.
The sites and magazine reviews that do measure it often report lower CR figures. Lumen figures with projectors are usually off as well. The same kind of shenanigans go on when makers report response times, different makers using the same panels in the same mode often show different response times, it's just based on how they chose to measure it.
The same goes for watts on amplifiers, they might measure one channel at a time maxed out to get the watt rating and multiply that by the channels, "500W", when the system might puke at 120W output to the speakers when used in multi-channel mode. Not that that really matters that much, I measured my use and found that typical power needed was less than 1 watt per channel.
Getting back to contrast ratio, for most people, I think anything beyond 1k:1 in real contrast ratio is fine.
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Contrast ratio is nothing more than the difference between measured brightest non-blooming white peak and dimmest non-crushing black. I have never anyone using a flat-panel display in a light-controlled environment and expect critical viewing at low light levels (e.g. to see shadow detail).
Of course, you could have a rather high-measuring black level and a ridiculously high white peak value and get a large ratio as well. Flat-panels, like rear-project televisions and direct-view (boob-tube) televisions were designed for ambient lighting and not critical viewing of shadow-detail.
In either event, who owns equipment that can actually measure the lowest insinuated light level to prove or disprove marketing claims by the manufacturers? I'm betting that 99.99% of the shoppers don't have it, let alone understand contrast ratios.
Then again, maybe some of you are not looking for the shadow detail because the viewing environment already sets the 'black level'. Then we need to start talking perceived blacks and not real blacks.
Ideally, how you describe it is the way it should be measured. I really don't trust manufacturer specs because most marketing departments are at least somewhat weasel-ish. They want the biggest number they think they can get away with and I wouldn't put it past them to ask that the testing methodology be adjusted to get the numbers they want. You'd know they are being at least somewhat serious if they give out a spec for the ANSI contrast ratio test, because that's a figure that generally reflects what you'll likely get in actual practice.
The sites and magazine reviews that do measure it often report lower CR figures. Lumen figures with projectors are usually off as well. The same kind of shenanigans go on when makers report response times, different makers using the same panels in the same mode often show different response times, it's just based on how they chose to measure it.
The same goes for watts on amplifiers, they might measure one channel at a time maxed out to get the watt rating and multiply that by the channels, "500W", when the system might puke at 120W output to the speakers when used in multi-channel mode. Not that that really matters that much, I measured my use and found that typical power needed was less than 1 watt per channel.
Getting back to contrast ratio, for most people, I think anything beyond 1k:1 in real contrast ratio is fine.