(Credit: Geoffrey Morrison)
This how-to guide has some obvious and some not-so-obvious tricks and tips to help you make sure that no matter what lighting you have in your room, you’re still getting the best picture quality.
The problem
Most flat-panel TVs these days have glossy screens, which act like a mirror for any light source in a room (from windows to lamps). If you have a glossy screen TV, and you’re reading this guide, chances are you know exactly what I’m talking about.
What’s interesting is that even though matte-screen LCDs don’t have the mirrorlike reflections, ambient light in a room still adversely affects them. This is because instead of bouncing the light right back at you, a matte-screen LCD spreads that light energy across the whole screen. Reflections are lessened, but black level goes up (lightens).
The easiest fix
Turn off the lights, right? Well, sort of. There’s a reason people like to leave the lights on when they’re watching TV: eye fatigue. Many people feel soreness in their eyes when watching TV in the dark. Whether you’re conscious of this or not, leaving the lights on can create a more relaxing viewing environment. Unless, of course, that light reflects off the TV.
It may seem like a roundabout way of solving anything, but you can change the TV to minimize eye fatigue. If this works, you won’t need to leave the lights on. No lights, no reflections. Problem solved.
If you have an LCD TV, this is easy. Most LCDs have a backlight control. Check your user menus: this control is likely set near or at maximum. This is really bright. Turn this down at night for a more relaxing image and better black levels. Your contrast ratio won’t change.
In theory you could turn down the contrast control on a plasma to reduce its brightness, but that’s not advisable. With plasmas, reducing the light output does reduce the contrast ratio. More
