What is contrast ratio and how important is it when shopping for a high definition home theatre projector? Simply put, contrast ratio measures between the brightest and darkest colors that the projector is capable of producing. This means how wide the range is between “white” and “black.”
A home theatre projector capable of producing the widest range between these darkest and lightest colors would produce the best picture, in theory. Another way of describing contrast ratio would be a numeric measurement in the range of the “brightest” white color and the “darkest” black color.
Understanding all of the specs of a projector is important and “contrast ratio” is just one of the many you must consider. Also important are the type of projector display (DLP, LCD, etc), ANSI Lumens (brightness), aspect ratio and what types of inputs a projector will accept (composite, HDMI, etc).
So just how important is contrast ratio in comparison to these other specs? Before you can determine how important it is in your home theatre, other factors must also be considered. The type of projector screen and the room’s ambient light should also be considered along with all of a projector’s technical specifications.
It’s typical when reading the technical specifications of projectors to see numbers such as 1000:1 or 5000:1. To understand what these numbers mean, think of the first number as how many times brighter the “whitest” white will be in comparision to the “darkest” black. Since a wider range of colors would produce a higher quality picture, one could assume the higher the contrast ratio, the better. And in most cases this is true. Except when you consider that it is difficult for any projector manufacturer to actually measure contrast ratio.
In the growing competition between home theatre projector manufacturers, the contrast ratio number is something a company’s marketing department may push to become higher and higher. Since contrast ratio is the measurement of the difference between the brightest and darkest areas of a picture, then it’s possible for manufacturers to make the number higher not only by making the brightest capability of the system, but also a higher contrast ratio may be achieved by making the darkest parts even darker.
Don’t look at all contrast ratios from all manufacturers the same. Some numbers on the high end such as 8000:1 or 10000:1 could mean the brightest parts of the screen are truly twice as bright as an earlier model from the same manufacturer with a 4000:1 or 5000:1 contrast ratio. Of course, it could also mean that the brightest parts of the screen aren’t twice as bright. The design engineers could have also just made the darkest parts of the screen twice as dark, or some combination of making the screen both brighter and darker.
Since contrast ratio is determined by moving (measuring) one of the numbers or both and considering all manufacturers have a difficult time measures this number, you should not make your entire purchasing decision on just the contrast ratio. The appears to be no exact industry standard that all manufacturers such as Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, InFocus and others use. Simply put, all these different companies have their own way of measuring contrast ratio and they may be different from company to company.
Taken in consideration with ANSI lumens, contrast ratio is just one of the many specifications to look for when shopping for your next home theatre projector.
