What is contrast ratio?

Contrast ratio is the ratio of intensity between the brightest white and the darkest black of a particular device or a particular environment. Projected cinema film - or a photographic reflection print - has a contrast ratio of about 80:1. Television assumes a contrast ratio - in your living room - of about 30:1. Typical office viewing conditions restrict the contrast ratio of a CRT display to about 5:1. ... more

Contrast ratio: This is the difference between the whitest whites and the darkest grays a display can show or re-produce on screen. A higher contrast ratio makes it possible to display deeper blacks and more subtle color detail. Good contrast is critical for home theater projectors. In fact, many models include multiple lamp settings that let you reduce brightness and boost contrast ratio for optimum viewing in a darkened room. ... more

Contrast ratio is a ratio which demonstrates the range between the brightest point a display can produce, and the darkest point the display can produce. For example, if the contrast ratio is 500:1, it means that the brightest white is 500 times brighter than the blackest black. Contrast ratio is often used in marketing language for both playback and recording devices, and like many “number wars” in the consumer electronics industry, it is very complicated, and consumers should handle it with care. Ideally, contrast ratios would be tested in the exact same conditions, using the exact same procedures, with carefully calibrated equipment and neutral professionals administering the test. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which means that contrast ratio measurements can be extremely variable, and not always very reliable. Companies may test their contrast under various conditions, and using various methods, and the claims they make may be difficult to reproduce. The most popular method i ... more

Contrast ratio is the ratio of luminance between the brightest white and the darkest black of a particular device or a particular environment. Projected cinema film, or a photographic reflection print, has a contrast ratio of about 80:1. Television assumes a contrast ratio, in your living room, of about 30:1. Typical office viewing conditions restrict the contrast ratio of a CRT display to about 5:1. ... more

For any avid TV watcher, one of the things that make a picture more attractive is its contrast ratio. The contrast ration is a simple concept, but it can greatly benefit the display of a picture on a TV set. The contrast ration is generally defined as the difference between the brightest color (which is white) and the darkest color (which is black). ... more

Simply put, it's the difference between the darkest and brightest spot on a display. This is expressed as a ratio measuring luminosity. A good way to think of contrast is like the volume on a stereo. You might have a stereo that goes all the way to 11, but that doesn't mean it sounds good. The environment has an effect too—the advertised contrast ratio has no bearing on how well the screen will perform in your house while reflecting light from a bank of windows on the other side of the room. Props to Sony for admitting as much, even if it is only in the fine print: VESA test and measurement methods are applied yielding a contrast ratio of used 7000:1. This number represents the widest possible ratio between black and white contrast levels. Sony also measures their BRAVIA televisions with a more stringent method that measures the amount of black and white levels that can appear on the screen at the same time. This method yields a more real world measurement of 1300:1 LCD shoot-out: the ... more

Contrast ratio, most often talked about with LCD monitors, is the measure of the difference of brightness levels between the brightest white and the darkest black. A good contrast ratio of 120:1 easily displays vivid colors, while ratios as high as 300:1 support superior grayscaling. In order to ensure a proper measurement of contrast ratios, it is recommended that any specification provided adhere to the VESA Flat Panel Display Measurement Standard for contrast ratio measurements. Additionally, as a more clear indication of overall monitor performance, contrast ratio should also be evaluated in conjunction with brightness, viewing angles and response time since all specifications are inter-related. ... more

The contrast ratio is a measure of a display system, defined as the ratio of the luminosity of the brightest color (White) to that of the darkest color (black) that the system is capable of producing. These measures are both expressed in candelas. For example, a monitor with a white at 250 cd/m, and a black at 0.50 cd/m has a contrast ratio of 250 / 0.50 = 500 : 1. A high contrast ratio is a desired aspect of any display, but with the various methods of measurement for a system or its part, remarkably different measured values can sometimes produce similar results. Their are two methods for measuring contrast ratios: Full On/Off and ANSI contrast. • Full On/Off contrast measures the ratio of the light output of an all white image (full on) and the light output of an all black (full off) image. Most manufacturers favor the use of the full on/full off method of measurement because it yields a much higher contrast ratio than ANSI contrast measurements. • ANSI contrast is measured with a p ... more

The technical definition of contrast ratio is the ratio of the luminance of the brightest color (white) to that of the darkest color (black) that a system is capable of producing. In more simple terms, the contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest pixel and the darkest pixel that a television can produce. Darker blacks make bright colors seem brighter, so enhancing the dark values of a television can have just as much influence on contrast as enhancing bright values. Theoretically, a television with a contrast ratio of 1000:1 would mean that a bright white pixel is 1000 times brighter than the darkest black pixel. Types of contrast ratios Contrast ratio is tricky to measure, as the measurement may be based on either the static contract ratio or the dynamic contrast ratio. Static contrast ratio is the contrast ratio at a specific instant, or how it would look if you could freeze a frame of the image. Dynamic contrast ratio is measured over a period of time and usually invol ... more