Home Theater Myths: Part Two

This is a continuation of the Home theater myths article done 2 weeks ago, where we covered some basic facts - upscaling, speaker cables, cable TV resolution - about Home Theater systems. Here are a few more. These aren't as straight up as the previous myths but are relevant enough for consumers looking to set up their first home theaters.

Myth: Manufacturer specs are to be believed
Definitely not. Especially LCD TVs and the like, where the number of sales matters more than the number of satisfied customers. Now I'm not saying that stalwarts like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic are out there scamming us - everyone is playing a game, a highly competitive one at that. Thus sometimes you will hear stuff like 100,000:1 dynamic contrast, response time of 6 ms, or 2 ms or whatever. The thing is we do not know how and where they are measured, and the main problem is that these are not for the public to see or know. The process is not yet standardized thus manufacturers get away with whatever they want. The definition of dynamic contrast itself allows the manufacturer a certain level of ambiguity in measurement. Normal Contrast Ratio is a measurement of the difference between the blackest black and the whitest white that the display can actually display. Dynamic Contrast is when the back lighting is adjusted dynamically for darker scenes to give you better black levels. Who knows what and how they adjust? Technically speaking, in our regular LCDs (not LED backlit ones), fluorescent backlighting is used, and one complete 'slab' lights the whole pixel matrix, thus it is impossible to have such high ratios of light to dark, as light will bleed through the individual pixels. Read reviews and do a bit of A/B comparison yourself in the stores.

Myth: Plasmas and LCDs have a short life
They actually do not. Let me wrap up LCDs first. The lamp used to backlight the display is a sturdy fluorescent lamp, a tried and tested sturdy technology that can last quite long. The circuitry and LCD screen itself should not be toyed around with and there will be no need to buy a new TV every 18 months. Of course you can replace your LCD for a newer technology like LED technology, but those are so expensive in India that we might as well wait. Plasmas too have been touted as delicate due to something called 'burn in'. But new models of Plasma TVs too can last long, and burn in should not be a problem as long as the contrast is not set too high. Maximum healthy contrast should be at 85%. Even then if the CNBC or CNN logo seems stuck to your plasma after repeated watching, you can use a simple full white screen and keep playing it for a day or two. These will affect the phosphors and possibly burn them back to normal. A full white screen is available on calibration DVDs like DVE or Displaymate software.