HDTV display quality

[Gregg Lengling]

 
HDTV Display Quality
10 Critical Characteristics

By Greg Rogers

 
Video Quality Insights

In this article, I'll discuss ten important characteristics of display quality—including ways to evaluate performance and calibration tips to optimize your picture. I'm going to focus on HDTVs, but as you will see the issues are nearly the same for standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) displays. I'll point out the few key differences as we go.

How To Use This Article

This article can help you in several ways. It should give you a better idea of what to look for when evaluating or purchasing HDTVs. Even if you don't have the equipment to generate high-definition test patterns, you will see these same picture characteristics in everyday source material. You might also want to shop at home theatre specialists that do have HD test equipment to let you fully evaluate their products before you buy.

If you have no desire to calibrate your own HDTV display, you should still be aware of how calibration can improve the quality of your picture. I believe it is well worth the price to have a professional calibrator set up your display at least once. This is particularly true for rear-projection TVs. I'll describe many of things that a calibrator will do to improve the accuracy of your display, and an expert technician may be able to make additional improvements that are beyond the scope of this article.

If like many Widescreen Review readers, you do some or all of your own display calibration, you should find a few tips or insights in this article that you may not have known before.

User Controls

Many important display quality adjustments can be made with the usual TV user controls—Brightness, Contrast, Color, Hue, and Sharpness. Some rear-projection TVs include additional user controls to adjust convergence and to disable "features" such as scan velocity modulation. Many front projectors, particularly CRT projectors, provide extensive user control over picture geometry, convergence, and color temperature.

But in most products geometry, convergence, and grayscale tracking (color temperature) can only be adjusted using service menus. Although most manufacturers will sell you a service manual to access those menus from your remote control, many warn that non-authorized adjustment of service menu items may void the warranty.

 
 


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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
glengling@ameritech.net