Anti-glare and Anti-reflection Technology

The glass screen used in the construction of Plasma panels reduces the contract levels of set when there is ambient light present in the viewing area. To combat this problem many Plasma manufacturers are beginning to incorporate anti-glare and anti-reflection filters as part of the screen construction. The use of these techniques allows Plasma panels contrast levels to remain high in higher light level environments. If you prefer a Plasma HDTV and can’t achieve or don’t like to watch television with very low room light levels, this feature will be beneficial to you.

Anti-burn-in Technology

In a perfect world, Plasma sets, DVD players and gaming consoles would recognize that the input signal has been paused or that there is no user activity (in the case of a gaming console), and display a screensaver image, like their computer counterparts do. Until that happens, you should look for Plasma HDTV that employs some kind of Anti-burn-in technology, to eliminate the chances of burn-in shortening the life of your television. The most widely use technique continuously moves the display image in a way that is not picked up by the naked eye. This constant movement forces color changes in each pixel in the grid, to prevent burn-in from occurring.

The Contrast Ratio Game

My original intention was to never write about contrast ratio, since it has become more of a marketing game, (my contrast ratio is higher than yours), than a reliable indicator of a HDTV’s performance. But since so many people I have encountered are concerned about contrast ratio, I have decided to provide information on what you need to know.

Contrast ratio is the difference between the luminosity of the brightest white compared to the luminosity of the darkest black an HDTV can produce. The theory being that the higher the contrast ratio the more realistic the sets picture will look. The problem with the contrast ratio numbers provided by manufacturers is there are several different ways to measure the contrast ratio of an HDTV, the method used from manufacturer to manufacturer varies greatly, and the details about the test conditions are rarely if ever disclosed. For example, the amount of light present in the test environment affects the ratio; a completely dark room gets you a higher ratio in all but one test method (the full on/ full off method). Since we all like to use numbers to compare things, and the bigger the number the better (generally speaking), marketers play games with the numbers, and even the tier one manufacturers can’t resist the temptation when it come to contrast ratio. If you really want to understand contrast ratio in depth, here is a good article. Using the published contrast ratio as a basis of comparison is only useful if you are sure the two sets were tested in the same manner. For the most part, you can safely ignore contrast ratio info, and just use your eyes. Look for scenes where the colors black and white appear together; on superior HDTVs the black should look black and the white should look white and not shages of gray.

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