Display Standard - Veritas et Visus

Veritas et Visus Display Standard February 2009
Background Information for the LCD Shoot-Out
Comparison of Top-of-the-Line Flagship Models from Samsung, Sharp and Sony
and Mid-Line models from LG, Samsung and Sony
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by Raymond Soneira
Dr. Raymond Soneira is the founder, president and CEO of DisplayMate Technologies
Corporation. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University, where he spent five
years as a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study. He has authored more
than 35 research articles in scientific journals on physics and computer science.
Backgrounder Introduction: This Report includes background information and
summarizes the conclusions of the LCD Shoot-Out. The LCD Shoot-Out was jointly
produced by DisplayMate Technologies and Insight Media. The technical analysis was
performed by Dr. Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technologies.
http:www.displaymate.com, http://www.insightmedia.info
This report details the benchmark testing that was done on a number of top and middle-of-the line LCD HDTVs.
These TVs were arranged side-by-side in a shoot-out configuration and compared to each other and to reference
PDP and CRT monitors. The report summarizes the main shoot-out results and includes many photos, tables,
graphs and figures to aid in understanding how the tests were done, why they were done and the significance of the
results.
While on-axis performance is quite good in these LCD TVs, at off angles the color shifts are noticeable and
potentially a serious problem. Worse, TVs with native extended color gamuts produced significantly larger color
errors at off angles.
Many in the industry will find the off-axis results not unexpected, but the level of color inaccuracy and the
enhanced effect with wide color gamut displays, was a surprise to us and to everyone that came by to observe the
test results. Understanding these effects can help system integrators and OEMs select the best LCD for their
applications, and LCD manufacturers to do a better job with the next generation products.
The figure below shows a panoramic photograph of the shoot-out with the lights turned on. All of the
measurements and viewing tests were done in the dark for maximum picture quality and accuracy.
Panoramic photograph of the shoot-out with the lights on Photograph by Dieter Michel, PROSOUND and Medientechnik
& Systemintegration Magazines, Germany; http://www.displaymate.com/shootout_panorama_large_4000.jpg
HDTV displays in the shoot-out: From right to left in the above panoramic photograph:
1. Sharp – Flagship Top-of-the-Line LC-52D92U; 120 Hz Refresh Rate with Standard Color Gamut
2. Samsung – Flagship Top-of-the-Line LN-T5281F; 60 Hz Refresh Rate with Extended Color Gamut;
LED backlight is strobed to minimize motion blur
3. Reference Plasma Display – Panasonic Professional Plasma