Why does my LCD TV look blurry?

How Important is Contrast Ratio for a LCD TV ? IS DVI useful in LCD TV? What else Should I look for in LCD TV?

• I am Planning to Buy a 32 Inch LCD TV. & I have a bevy of choices. I need answers to the Questions to decide which LCD TV to Buy? Is Contrast Ratio of 6000:1 really far superior to a ...show more

• Answer:

  Contrast ratio is an important spec, but it can be deceptive. However, since each manufacturer will make the contrast measurement so that the best numbers appear on the spec sheet, it is a useful spec for comparison between sets. The higher the number, the better it is. However, once you get to 10,000:1, any increase would be hard to notice. But very few TVs are in that range, and certainly LCD hasn't got that far. There is another issue, however, with the latest LCD (and DLP and LCos sets as well). They have dynamic brightness features which lower the overall illumination of the picture for dark scenes. LCD sets control the backlight, DLP and LCos have "dynamic iris" on the lens. The very high numbers you see specified for those sets include the action of the dynamic illumination. No single picture would have that contrast range. The spec should have two numbers: the "native" contrast ratio and "dynamic" contrast ratio. The first one (native) is the most important, since that will determine the appearance of any picture at any scene brightness. You definitely want that as high as possible. I suspect that 6000:1 number is a dynamic figure, while the 1300:1 is a native figure, in which case they cannot be compared. When comparing sets, compare native to native and dynamic to dynamic. Some of the newest 1080p LCD sets have 3000:1 native and 15000:1 dynamic contrast ratios. Those numbers are very good (about as good as LCD gets at the present time) and should establish a standard for comparison. All new sets have HDMI inputs (which is the same as DVI plus audio). It is the best connection to use for picture quality. Other than brightness, contrast ratios, and resolution, an important factor is screen uniformity. Look at scenes with large uniform color areas (such as sky or better yet, the background of menus) and see if you can see any variation in tone. Some sets are having a problem in that area.