Is 20,000 1 a high contrast ratio?

What else does contrast ratio do?

• Does contrast ratio do anything but make blacks look blacker and colors richer? For example, I have a TV with a contrast ratio of 900:1 and the blacks look exactly the same as the TV with the same brand downstairs at 1200:1. Does contrast ratio eliminate black wash outs in dark scenes? I use adaptive luma on my TV to make the blacks blacker, but if a TV with a low contrast ratio is set at the same black level as another more powerful TV, will things colored black be less detailed (like a character's Tuxedo)?

• Answer:

  Contrast has nothing to do with color. It is simply the ratio of brightest white vs black. So, say, both TVs have the same brightness: 500 nits. Then at 900:1 , TV1 has a black of .56 nits and at 1,200:1 TV2 has a black of .42 nits (the smaller the better). In a bright room, you can probably see no difference, but in a dark room and with a properly calibrated TV, TV2 should show better blacks.