Cheerio to Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Charlie as the latest Rolling Stones tour swings through Australia this week. I hope a warm CNET.com.au welcome gets me off the hook for pinching their song title, but there are many TV vendors out there who’d like to ‘paint it black’ as one of the biggest limitations to new TV technologies is their ability to display true black levels.
Most television product launches we go to tout that particular brand’s latest developments to produce better black vis-à-vis earlier models or competitor offerings. So far, plasma still has the edge over most LCD TVs we see as LCD uses a backlight to shine through the LCD layer, and the inevitable light leakage between pixels diminishes the intensity of the black colours and shadings on screen.
However, a few weeks back when I wrote asking for feedback on plasma vs. LCDs, I got the biggest response from readers correctly pointing out that they aren’t the only big screen technologies in town. Seems there are quite a few of you out there who would like it known that you’re happy with your choice of a rear projection DLP TV.
So here’s something for you rear-pro fans — technology’s a’ coming that claims it will produce deeper blacks for you too. Mitsubishi has announced a new rear-projection technology that replaces traditional DLP lamps with three lasers, one each for red, green, and blue. In contrast to current projection technologies that require a lamp to be permanently switched on which can cause internal reflections, the lasers switch off entirely, so they have the potential to create a pure black, according to the company.
Are you bugged by bad blacks? Or do you think most punters don’t really notice and the whole “my black is best” argument is a vendor marketing ploy? Tell us what you think below!